3/31/08

I found Benning's lecture on mathematics (less on art than I expected) very interesting. I already have learned some of the proofs that he was trying to show us, such as:

.3333333... = 1/3
.6666666... = 2/3
.9999999... = 3/3
          1 = 3/3, so
.9999999... = 1

But I found it engaging nonetheless. The one thing I didn't quite get was how exactly it related to film and why he was so eager to talk to film students. I can see art in general - especially music.

Sound can be directly expressed by mathematical sine/cosine waves. They have a distinct waveform, a peak and number of vibrations per second - 440 vibrations per section is a concert A. Doubling or halfing the vibrations per section raises or lowers the pitch, respectively, by an exact octave.

Time signatures, key signatures, rhythm, etc - all can be expressed in an extremely mathematical way.

Claude Debussy, a french impressionist composer, created many works of tonal and textural beauty - works which wore less melodically-centered than his romantic predecessors - Beethoven, Berloiz, Liszt, etc. It's surprising to discover that a lot of his works were structured mathematically.

The third movement from his Symphonic Sketch La Mer, Dialogue du vent et la mer, begins with a 55 bar-long introduction. The introduction can be subdivided into sections whose bar lengths are the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence: 21, 8, 8, 5 and 13, respectively.

Not being totally certain on what Benning meant by 'structuring' our work, perhaps it's in a direct relation to this. Maybe shot length is film's connection to this rhythm.

3/25/08

From the center of the Spiral Jetty

North - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
North by East - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
Northeast by North - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
Northeast by East - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
East by North - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
East - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water
East by South - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

Southeast by East - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

South by East - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

South - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

South by West - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

Southwest by South - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

Southwest by West - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

West by South - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

West - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

West by North - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

Northwest by West - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

Northwest by North - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

North by West - Mud, salt crystals, rocks, water

I feel that Smithson believes that one of the most important characteristics of his piece is scale. The shape of the immobile spiral alone is disorienting; the size of the structure only adds to the viewer's confusion. He stated this point himself:

"I was slipping out of myself again, dissolving into a

unicellular beginning, trying to locate the nucleus at

the end of the spiral"

-Robert Smithson

The poem above helps to explain how daunting the inside of the spiral really is. From any possible direction you see the same material: mud, salt, rocks, water. The nucleus of the spiral is isolated enough to block off outside landscape - within the spiral, all that exists is the spiral.

Between the viewing and the reading, I developed the idea that the purpose of the film was to allude to how big the earthwork actually was. The difficulty with earthwork is its immobility. There is no gallery to accommodate a sculpture of this scale; the gallery is the sculpture itself. Much like the works of Matta-Clark, the surrounding environment is part of the art. If the purpose of the film was to solely give evidence of the structure, to bring the structure to those who are unable to travel to it, it would have been a much different film.

After thinking about it, I realize that every shot of the film in some way helps to magnify the scale of the work. The helicopter tracking shot went on for well over a minute - showing how long, if untwisted, the spiral would become. Entire dump-trucks were used for small segments of the jetty. High-angle and low-angle shots alike display the magnitude of the art (it's quite big, if you haven't guessed by now).

Tabletop Artist Statement

Conceptual art is just as much the process as the final product - something I believe true for the restrictions given in this assignment. The impact of everyone's tabletop project will rely on fact that it was created (yet not conceived) in one take of fixed space and duration. What truly differs is the ideas behind the artist, not the actions in front of the camera.

Play is "a rite and a quality of mind in engaging with one's worldview". That being established, each video, while demonstrating play, is not plainly fun, impressive, or engaging. It also speaks from the perspective of the artist. This is a dialog between restriction and play, which some may find demanding. I've come to think of it as giving a child a box. They have no problem turning it into a race car or spacecraft, so why should I have trouble performing something (literally anything) under a camera?

I immediately wanted to do something impressive that would fit the temporal and spatial constraints of the project. I soon realized I had the ability to complete a 3in x 3in x 3in rubik's cube in under a minute. I realized that would not be enough activity to fill the 2 minutes and 30 seconds, although it effectively demonstrated what I wanted in terms of 'play'.

There are a lot of cliché metaphors I could have fun with in this statement, but I wish to stay away from unoriginal ideas. I soon adapted the idea to also fit the spatial aspects of the project. My (almost) final ideas involved aspects of boredom (and what to do to nullify that state of mind). I realized that, within a classroom, given a set time and place to do an activity is just a scaled-down version of a single class. Go to a particular room for about 50 minutes and discuss lecture topics. How do (most) students feel about class? It can become tedious at times, to be truthful (not Film 201, in particular, but this is true of classes in general). What do students try to do to break this tediousness? Find another activity. Most common are: playing with paper or a pen, reading something they brought from another class or not a class at all, fidget. I must confess that I even played a video game last semester when a lecture ran a little long for my taste.

The final touch is a common response to a youth's boredom. This resolved itself in the form of a cryptic message on a single face of a Rubik's cube (which happens to be the last one solved, just for cinematic effect). I've heard this a considerable amount of times from my own parents when I have nothing to do over the summer of after school, as I'm sure a lot of my fellow students have: Get A Job. I thought that presenting this through a puzzle would bring it closer to the world of deadpan, at least in its delivery. Having someone briefly walk into the shot and reciting the message wouldn't have as strong of an impact, in my opinion.

As for its success, I will have to wait until (a) it is done being produced, and (b) it is viewed by someone other than myself. I don't believe than an artist can fully know the success of their work in their lifetime. There are far too many people in the world to gain a consensus, and in the realm of the experimental arts, it is hard enough to get a consensus at all.

Edit: I hope at some level that the audience will be bored with me, as it is what I am trying to communicate. I don't know how well that will go - that's the most uncertain aspect of the project right now, in my opinion. Also, I realize other aspects (lighting, sound) have not been discussed yet. I believe it would be best to leave them as they are. Whatever lighting in the building should not be tampered with, and sound is best to be as quiet as possible except or the sounds of my movements.

Edit: I just completed filming. I was only able to salvage two aspects: The Rubik's cube (which, for some reason, presumably nerves), I performed a deep-cut just before finishing the solve, setting me back :30-1:00. I was able to quickly play a video game in the remaining time, keeping what I originally wanted to include. The video seems to be, now, much less about boredom and more about defiance. The video game seemed to be an act of rebellion against the request for a job. But in order to solidify these thoughts, I will have to share them with the discussion group.

3/3/08

Ryan Trecartin, a filmmaker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been presented to us in both Film 115 ("Family Finds Entertainment") and as a visiting artist ("I-Be Area"). Both works are of similar scope and influence - an extreme amount of collaboration between Trecartin and his players - ranging from performance to make-up to costuming to set-design (and the destruction of the sets)....



This is part one of five from Trecartin's 2004 product "A Family Finds Entertainment". I found that it resembles "Untitled Fall '95" in terms of style (though not many may see the same resemblance). Bag's influence seems more deadpan, although the screeming, murderous bunnies have to make you admit that she is capable fo some sort of slapstick. Trecartin, in the midst of his clusterfuck works, seems to prevail with this type of humor. I personally find 4:30-7:00 increasingly hilarious the more I watch it (like most of these works, i was uneasy on the first viewing).

Most of Trecartin's works also feature some kind of commentary. I searched for a particular clip from "I-Be Area" where he critiqued the voice of the internet as a creative collaboration. This is, however, shadowed thorughout all of his works. Extreme digital zooms on post-production create a grainy image; un-natural camera movements created by moving visible portions of the frame; overlaying clip-part or other videos are all critiques of what I can only discribe as the "YouTube Collaborative Effort". I have no idea how Trecartin feels of this personally - but our two options are pastiche or satire. Bag's works mimmicked the teenage-girl archetype, as described prior to the viewing. Incessant 'likes' and 'ums' fill the silence in her monologues and skits.