Reading 2 Response Questions

1. Kate Horsfield discusses how early video manipulation was difficult and highly unpredictable. Is this unpredictability an obstacle in art or does it contribute to the allure of it?

2. Horsfield states that programs like Final Cut Pro have allowed the tools for making digital art to reach the masses. Is the world becoming over-saturated with video art? Will great video artists be appreciated when anyone with a computer can produce it?

Project 2 Animation

This is a short animation I made in flash. I'm not sure as to how it changes the meaning of the original image, but I think it has added the element of illusion, giving further meaning to "perception". I think the strobe effects contribute most to the new found sense of illusion. The orbiting planet was something I wanted to imply in the original image so I actually animated it in this project. Also I think animating it made it more "metal" in a sense, I was inspired by lyric videos from some bands I like.


                                   

Reading 1 Response Questions

1. In section 9, Walter Benjamin discusses the effects than can be achieved through manipulating film. He gives the example that "A jump from the window can be shot in the studio as a jump from a scaffold, and the ensuing flight, if need be, can be shot weeks later when outdoor scenes are taken." 
Is some of the performance and nuance lost when an actor can no longer act in the moment or has to spread that moment over days or weeks? Has the performance of the actor been diluted in today's films that rely almost entirely on manipulating the film and are shot on green screens?

2. In section 12, Benjamin, on progressivism, states that "The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion." He adds "Individual reactions are predetermined by the mass audience response they are about to produce." Do people need artists to tell them what to like, or do they inherently like what they want to? 

Project 1: Triptych Montage

                  

This is a triptych that I created in Photoshop cc. I obtained all of the images from Google. The idea for this project came when I noticed the similarities between the album cover for Deftones' Koi No Yokan and a scene from the game Mass Effect 2. I got several of the images from prog-metal album covers or sci-fi artwork. As for what these images mean, I didn't initially create them with any meaning, but I think that the halo-like objects behind the figures, as well as their massive scale give them a godlike appearance. To accentuate this I applied a stone texture to them to make them look like statues.

Regardless of what exists, we only can contemplate what we physically experience. I think of music as a way to push the limits of reality and expand perception of the universe and of the mind. It is a way to escape outside of normal convention and everyday life. All in all, I think that's what this image represents.