Final Project: Video Art

Here it is! And early. My goodness.

This is the Final project for Santiago Echeverry's Art and Technology class. The theme: decontextualization. The medium: video art. So, here we are. Four people reading in four different languages, all from the same rhythms but with different words. The words were chosen by the quality of their sound, not for their meaning. If it sounds pretty, we used it. Then, to further decontextualize, the sound of the words do not match what (or who) is seen in the video.

So, without further ado, here is the Decontextualization Quartet.

In order of voicing:
Grigorios Zamparas - Greek Reading
Francesca Erni - English Reading
Hein Jung - Korean Reading
Elisabet Fandino - Spanish Reading

Performance Art in Washington Square

This is my performance art project, Binary Symphony. We are singing binary in octaves. In this piece "Yes" and "No" represent 1 and 0 or 'on' and 'off'. I am singing the words "crotchet" and "quaver" while Rick Jermain is singing "quarter note" and "eighth note". The word 'crotchet' is the term used in the UK for 'quarter note', and the 'quaver' for 'eighth note'.

Notes for watching: Pay attention to the people in the background, as they move in and out of our screens. (You will lose focus due to the monotony of the song, so watch instead.) The most obvious person is the man on the phone with the dogs who walks from Rick's screen to mine. There are a few people who blatantly stare at us, a fact of which I'm proud. New Yorkers are notoriously jaded to the point of apathy.

This performance took place in the afternoon on Saturday, November 19, 2011 in Washington Square, New York City.

Flip Book Project

Now we can all have grades. Sorry for the delay!
All of the flip books really surprised me. Great job guys!

Retinal Persistence, or is it?

Coming to you live from the only person left in my dorm at ten o'clock on a Saturday night. (I love it. I can work on my flip book in peace once the drunks go clubbing.)

On a Canadian health website I found an article that said "The Brain from Top to Bottom". In the article the writer explains retinal persistence to us. She also reveals why it is not realistically the 'magic' behind motion pictures. Retinal persistence is not responsible for any remnant after a few hundred milliseconds. However, our eyes sense movement when exposed to five frames per second. The writer introduces a new theory that is prevalent in the scientific community. The 'beta effect' occurs when a person is shown images that are slightly different in rapid succession. So, essentially, the image is not residual, but we piece together the separate events as a whole.

And one of the examples on the sight is... a flip book!
I have decided to make mine into a video. I think that a huge GIF would take too long to load on our computers here at school.

Lastly, here is a flip book that absolutely amazes me. Lo adoro.

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything

Ciao for now.

Abe Morell: Photography

When I went to Abelardo Morell's website, I was looking for a few examples of his work that had to do with the camera obscura. Instead I found not only a massive body of work dealing with that one technique, but also a whole website of brilliant photography. Morell plays with light and perspective in his photos. He starts with a theme and builds on it with each work. Each individual photo tells a different part of the story.

In his camera obscura work, one collection I have to rave about is titled "Tent Camera". It appears that he has made the camera obscura technique work in a tent. He has traveled to rooftops, city streets, etc., getting incredible shots!

Tent-Camera Image on Ground: View of Rome from the Spanish Academy, 2010 (Abe Morell)

In the section called Light & Time, Morell has showed photography's ability to manipulate light and time. He makes us feel the movement that once happened in this artwork, and even feel that it is still happening/about to happen.

Motion Study of Hammer Impressions on Lead , 2004 (Abe Morell)

I was touched so deeply by the images in "Childhood" that I really believe he is one of the most inventive photographers (and artists) of the post-modern era.

Laura and Brady in the Shadow of Our House, 1994 (Abe Morell)

Here's one last image, though I could choose so many, from "Money" and "Theater" particularly. This one is from the "Alice in Wonderland" set.

Curiouser and Curiouser, 1998 (Abe Morell)

In this collection and others he becomes a sculptor, collage maker and a photographer. He uses various media to create the most "realistic" fantasy possible.

All of Abelardo Morell's photography is multidimensional. As you can tell, he not simply 'taking pictures', he is making them with his bare hands. He is connected to each one in a way that is palpable to the viewer. It is nice to see that there are still some cerebral pieces out there by truly smart artists.

Pictures from Der Rosenkavalier

Leave it to Open Office to not know how to insert pictures to a doc file. Anyway, here are the stills for my Der Rosenkavalier paper.

Brief summary: A princess named Marschallin has an affair with a younger man. The princess feels old and thinks the young man will leave her. The princess' cousin, the Baron, almost discovers the affair when he visits to announce his own wedding. The young man disguises himself as a maid, and proceeds to be goosed and harassed by the Baron. Their secret affair is safe, and the princess wants Octavian (the young man) to be master of ceremonies at the Baron's wedding. The Baron is a terrible person who wants to sleep with everyone. His young bride, Sophie, is virtuous and kind. When Octavian and the young bride (Sophie) meet, they fall in love. A plot develops to free Sophie of her horrible marriage to the lecherous Baron.

Watch it! It's gorgeous.

Marschallin and Octavian are having an affair.
(Kiri Te Kanawa and Anne Howells)
(Yes, the boy is a woman.)

Marschallin laughs as the Baron seduces her "maid".
(Kiri Te Kanawa, Aage Haughland, and Anne Howells.)

Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian) gives the silver rose to the Baron's new bride.

The Baron, on a date with the "maid" (Octavian). A scary spectre in the wall!
(Yes, the woman who's playing a boy is now disguised as a woman.)

The ghosts are haunting the Baron!

Marschallin gives Octavian and Sophie her blessing.
(Barbara Bonney, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Anne Howells.)

Inventive Technology and Broadway

Galinda's Magic Flying Bubble

So for this assignment we are required to look at the Stage Door blog and find seven examples of technology used in creative ways. I found quite a few myself, some questionable and some obvious.

I cannot view the individual Wicked link because my Internet connection is too slow for HD video. However, I saw Wicked when it was at the Straz Center (before it was the Straz Center). Wicked is one of the most mechanized musicals I have ever seen! The facade framing the stage was a huge glowing dragon that started to move during the overture. The backdrop was, at the opening, a projected map of Oz. Glinda has a huge industrial-themed magic bubble that she rides down from the sky! People fly, monkeys fly, everything flies!

I could go on, but there are more shows to cover. 

Elphaba "Defying Gravity"

Dragon and Map of Oz

In the West Side Story revival at the Tony Awards, the crew used red lighting for Mambo and Blue for the slow dance between Maria and Tony. Lighting is an easily overlooked form of technology. (The color change can be seen at 2:20.)

Now let's look at the La Cage Aux Folles revivals from 2004. I don't know if this is considered technology, but the giant cage skirt that the drag queen is wearing contained all the other women (0:25). Very cool! This was definitely reminiscent of The Nutcracker.

For the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof, film is the interesting technology. The director uses the media to show us the entire town in new depth, to have real locations instead of just the changing of sets (0:20). We also get "smaller" acting. This does not mean that the actors are less talented, but that their facial gestures can be seen clearly on film (0:49 – 1:00). The camera has always been a special medium that brings us in closer, to a more personal level than theater, where everything must be huge in order to be seen.


In Mary Poppins there is of course the fact that Mary flies throughout the show, even over the audience (0:45, 0:55, 2:22, and so on). There are magical things that Mary does to make objects “move by themselves”, so a lot of the sets are fully mechanized. In the clips you see a giant moving umbrella (2:55). Also, the skyline is most likely projected upon or backlit (3:26).


Admittedly I watched the How to Succeed in Business clip because I wanted to see Daniel Radcliffe sing and dance. (Singing, pretty decent – dancing, great.) In the background of this swanky sixties set we have glowing oval light panels that change color throughout the dance scene. (No specific time.)

In A Chorus Line, the mirrors in the back rotate to reveal a decorated mirror on the opposite side (0:30, 1:25).

Adios. Time to review my notes on Der Rosenkavalier and finish this paper already.