The Affective Topology of New Media Art... Again!

• Following Derrick de Kerckhove. we can conceptualize this tactile modal-ity of the haptic as a "seeing with the entire body." According to de Kerckhove, contemporary media involves a bodily miming that is entirely separate from vision, narrowly constructed: "We understand moving spectacular experiences through submuscular integration and not, as for example is the case in dance, because we directly take part in them.

• ... television offers a stress like form of cognition. We understand what we see because we imitate or mine the events with out neuromuscular responses... [C]oordinated and simultaneous al- terations in our pulse [and] blood pressure... demonstrate that we see that which we observe with our whole body, and not just our eyes."

So I've officially finished reading the reading. And to be honest I didn't really enjoy the reading but it did spark some ideas that connect with my own work. Throughout this course we've been given multiple readings and I've come to realize that not all of them are going to be something I consider useful. I have an extremely short attention span when it comes to reading, within the first chapter of a book I can tell you if I'm interested or not. But with this reading I just had to find things that connect with my own work. 

I think movement and space are two things I've been thinking about with my own fourth year work. I think it's important to realize that when viewing work people are going to move around a piece even if it is not sculptural and I think you really need to take into consideration all aspects of a piece. 

So that's all I have to say. I'm officially done with this whole blog thing. Like I said before I feel like writing a blog is just a way to rant on the internet and if you know me ranting online is not necessary, I do it enough as it is!

Final Project

Well I've finally finished my BFA! And by that I mean I finished my last digital project and I now have no more work to do. Thank god.

The digital project became a lot of fun I think because I got the opportunity to relax and play with the camera more so than I normally do. I stopped looking at the photographs on the screen of the camera and simply began taking numerous pictures and then looking through them afterwards on the computer. So I never knew exactly what I had until I finally sat down to edit the pictures.

I ended up printing 12 of my favourite photographs and posting 42 images on my Flickr page. This was the best way I thought to present the work because initially I wanted to print these photographs on fine art paper, which I did but because of cost issues I only printed a small number of them. I wanted to post them online to show the ones I considered the most successful and got the chance to compare the difference between the printed images and how they looked on the screen. I enjoy seeing them on the fine art paper because I think they are so rich and dense but you get to see the subtleties of the image when you look at it on the screen. So below is the link to my Flickr page with the finished works!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneedanielle/sets/72157629796424883/ 

The Affective Topology of New Media Art

I've started reading The Affective Topology of New Media Art and of course I'm hating every minute of it. Over 30 pages is a lot and if I'm not interested it's going to take me a long time to read them. So I decided for now I'm just going to write my notes in a blog post and then hopefully respond once I finish it. It's probably going to make no sense to anyone else but I figure it's better to write it here instead of on a scrap piece of paper that I keep in my purse.

• Robert Lazzarini's "Skulls"
• Sculptures of human skulls, "apparently cast from different points of view." 
• Moving around the sculptures. "You find this experience alternately intolerable and amusing, as you once again move in to focus on still another skull, until finally, having grown impatient or unable to endure the weird sensation produced by this work, you abruptly pass through the door-sized opening cut into one of the room's four walls and seek solace in some less unsettling portal to the digital world."
• Sculptures are created by laser scanned human skull to create a 3D CAD file and then distorted it. They then become the models which are cast in solid bone.
• Anamorphic Distortion- "Lazzarini's skulls cannot be considered anamorphic in any conventional sense of the term, since they do not resolve into a normal image when viewed from an oblique angle, but confront the viewer with the projection of a warped space that refuses to map onto her habitual spatial schematizing, no matter how much effort she"
• "Skulls confronts us, in short, with a spatial problematic we cannot resolve: ..." 
• Analogy: a similarity between like features or two things. Similarity and comparability, 

These are simply notes and quotes from the reading that I thought were significant. So now I have to continue reading and somehow manage to keep my eyes open. 

End of the semester...

So it's getting to that point in the semester, you know that point where you don't want to do anything but you have no time to waste. I've realized that keeping up on the blog has just gone to the back burner and fourth year is stressing me out so thankfully print has been going okay.

Fourth year work is coming along slowly. I've got the wooden panels cut but unfortunately I still need to sand them with the belt sander, which of course is something I need help with. I've got some thinking to do when it comes to installing them in the gallery. Dave asked me during our auxiliary meeting if they were going to be presented in a grid or randomly and why? Of course he asks the question I don't have an answer to. I always thought that they would be arranged in a grid 3 x 3 and close together so that they appear like titles but the why is the problem. I hate that I'm constantly asked why, can't I just do it because I want to? I think this is what happens when you spend four years in art school. You eventually get sick of being asked these questions over and over again.

Remixing

So this whole remixing project isn't really my idea of a fun project. I think thats mainly because I'm constantly confused when working with video and sound.

I basically just worked with the movie Finding Nemo in hopes of creating my own version of a Disney remix. I was looking at videos such as the one below in hopes of getting some inspiration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVxe5NIABsI&feature=relmfu

I simply edited the movie to narrow it down to approximately 7 mintues and then focused on playing with sound from the soundtrack. It was fun to just play with something that isn't your own but at the same time it's not a project I really enjoyed doing. I find I'm never truely happy when I'm working with time based media.

Boats, Memory, Fear, Loss

I've begun really digging deep into what exactly my fourth year artwork is about because for the longest time I've simply been satisfied with the fact that I take pretty pictures. To be honest I think I've just been in denial for the last few years, or maybe not in denial but being unwilling to admit to others exactly what is going on in my head.

This semester I'm more so addressing the idea of memory and realizing that I have this fear of loosing my memory of significant events. I think this really just comes from my fear of loosing the people closest to me and my fear of death. At a young age I really realized that people don't live forever and eventually all you have is yourself.

I've been using my photographs as a way to document the landscape around me in hopes that I can hold onto the way things are right now. But through this I've started questioning whether or not I'm happy with the way things are. Lately I've been questioning myself and the things I think I want.

So I've been doing some reading regarding memory as part of my research for fourth year and there has been a lot of things I've read that really stuck out to me such as, the mind being like wax and experiences leave an imprint that are always there but over time they get more and more buried. And also the idea that objects have memories embedded in them. And I think that these photographs that I'm taking will remain a source for my memories.

An artist I was introduced to whose name is Jaclyn Shoub, takes photographs and then uses painting as a reductive process. Eventually all that is left is a small part of the image. She says that this "works as a metaphor for change and results in a broader feeling of anxiety and uncertainty." This has sparked my interest in having my images but also having parts of them removed with the idea that memories don't last forever and eventually you have to have the willingness to let go.

Along with this I've been looking into boats and there symbolic meaning because that's never something I've actually addressed. I always connect it to the fact that I live near the ocean, etc. But since I started doing some reading I've realized that I they mean more than being a symbol of home. Some things that have stood out include the idea that a boat represents moving from one phase to another which is something that has been happening to me over the last four years. I've been struggling with trying to figure out what exactly it is I want, learning how to make decisions for myself but also realizing just how attached I am to my family and my need to have them close. Also something that boats represent is the idea of missing an opportunity which is something that I've been thinking about.

Clearly I've been doing a lot of thinking lately... But it's been helpful to look deeper into what I'm doing in my art and why.

Lack of Motivation

My current lack of motivation is becoming a problem. I'm trying to get back into being excited about the semester but to be honest I think I'm worried about the fact that this is my last semester. But I'm starting to realize time is still moving whether I want it or not.

On another note I'm working on the fourth year catalogue ! As if I needed another thing to do. But what can I say. ..

Glow Sticks, Sparklers, Steel Wool, Metal Whisk, and a Dog Collar

So I've started looking into some fun things to do with long exposure photo's and I decided to just have some fun with it so that I can see what results I can get from different materials.

This particular image was something that really caught my attention. I had seen numerous images that were similar when I was looking into long exposure photography. I was interested in finding out exactly how this was done and it's actually not that hard! I started looking at youtube and all you need is steel wool. Once you light the wool it begins to spark, so to create this effect you simply need something, such as a metal whisk, to insert the steel wool in and then attach it to something to that you can spin the wool around with, such as a dog collar.

So needless to say I'm excited !

Long Exposure Photography

So I've decided to go a little outside my comfort zone for this term long digital project because well I figure if I don't I'll get bored... And by getting outside my comfort zone I mean long exposure photographs as opposed to my normal landscape photographs.

Intermediate printmaking is also a term long project and I've been working with my typical photographs so I figure two out of three courses are enough of that! I'm finding it hard enough to get back into the swing of things as it is. I'm thinking though that I have to start getting into the routine of taking pictures at least once a week. I've realized that I am continuously editing my photo's and playing with them but I need to dedicate more time to the taking of the pictures, so I figure if I force myself to go out once a week then somehow my memory card will end up being full.

Beginning of the End...

It's official I'm starting my last semester of my BFA and to be honest I don't think it's hit me yet. I'm kind of finding it hard to get back into the swing of things at this point. I'm looking forward to getting back into fourth year work and most importantly I just need to get out there and start shooting again.