I think the earliest character I can recall you playing was in Willard as the young man creepily connected with rats to carry out his own sociopathic agenda. Also, the weird, bullied school boy in Back to the Future. What draws you to such strange/twisted material?
I see that you have collaborated with David Lynch. Who else would you like to work with on a project?
Your first film in the "It" Trilogy took nearly a decade to complete? What slowed production? What evolved/changed? What made you persevere on this project? What made you so passionate about it?
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Artist Entry: David Black 11.15.10
David Black
David Black's is very versatile; He works with Photography, Motion and Cinematography. He inspires me to experiment with HD movie-making with my new 5D Mark II.
BIOGRAPHY
Print Magazine named David as a top New Visual Artist under 30, he was included in the Art Directors Club of New York "Young Guns" Show and Bookand in 2008 David was nominated for best individual portrait by The New York Photo Festival. His work has also appeared in American Photography. David studied at The Cooper Union and San Francisco Art Institute. He is currently visiting faculty at Pratt Institute and San Francisco Art Institute.
David Black
David Black's is very versatile; He works with Photography, Motion and Cinematography. He inspires me to experiment with HD movie-making with my new 5D Mark II.
BIOGRAPHY
Print Magazine named David as a top New Visual Artist under 30, he was included in the Art Directors Club of New York "Young Guns" Show and Bookand in 2008 David was nominated for best individual portrait by The New York Photo Festival. His work has also appeared in American Photography. David studied at The Cooper Union and San Francisco Art Institute. He is currently visiting faculty at Pratt Institute and San Francisco Art Institute.
Au Revoir Simone "All or Nothing" (English Version) from DAVID BLACK on Vimeo.
David Black
Alexandre Singh Pre-Lecture Questions/Lecture Response
Pre-Lecture Questions:
In an interview you said "I'd say that there is no limit to the tools that I would use to enchant the listeners. They may feel that colored gels and dim lights are puny weapons compared to the slick acting and climactic musical montages of standard Hollywood fare, but the lilting voice of the old man, his scarred face illuminated by the flickering flames of the fireside, is a meme already etched deep into their collective unconscious." What is the most enchanting tools you can imagine in either a past or future storytelling lectures?
Your work spans across a very wide group of mediums. What were your beginnings in the your earlier artmaking processes? Specifically how has that evolved into something so diverse?
In an interview you said "I'd say that there is no limit to the tools that I would use to enchant the listeners. They may feel that colored gels and dim lights are puny weapons compared to the slick acting and climactic musical montages of standard Hollywood fare, but the lilting voice of the old man, his scarred face illuminated by the flickering flames of the fireside, is a meme already etched deep into their collective unconscious." What is the most enchanting tools you can imagine in either a past or future storytelling lectures?
Your work spans across a very wide group of mediums. What were your beginnings in the your earlier artmaking processes? Specifically how has that evolved into something so diverse?
Three words
Intellectual, Imaginative, Immersive, Performative
Most interesting thing I learned about Alexandre Singh:
I really had no idea what to expect from the lecture because I didn't fully understand the performative aspect of his work and how that would play out. I have a much greater understanding of his work and vision...I am also interested in how his performative work has manifested itself into a desire to create a film. I am really interested right now in exploring film-making. It is the most influential and inspiring part of creating my still images.
Most compelling work
I found Singh’s "The Hello Meth Lab in the Sun" to be the most compelling. This work was a collaborative effort. Hearing him talk about his high interest and affinity toward collaborative work reminded me a lot of past lecture with Hank Willis Thomas and how they both end up just forming friendships and networking to create these brilliant works facilitated by an amalgamation of intellectual talent. This installation was described as "exhaustive, ambitious and utterly immense," allowing the viewer to become so closely involved and connected to the work.
New Question
Can you talk more about your vision for your upcoming film?
Contest Entry Proof Post
PDN STUDENT PHOTO CONTEST ENTRY PROOF:
PHOTOGRAPHER'S FORUM CONTEST ENTRY PROOF:
PHOTOGRAPHER'S FORUM CONTEST ENTRY PROOF:
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Idea Post: The Power of the Moving Image 11.11.10
THE POWER OF THE MOVING IMAGE
My films are an extension of my poetry, using the white screen like the white page to be filled with images. -James Broughton
I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians. -Francis Ford Coppola
I've been talking to Paul a lot more about how rhythm is so integral to a series of work. There needs to be a distinct narrative and a build up within the imagery to suggest the storyline for you, whereas in film the pacing, sound, lighting, etc. are all elements and devices that the director uses to evoke certain emotions within the viewer. It's much harder to suggest these things when you are working with still imagery. I'm learning that more and more everyday...
I have been returning to places from my youth that were significant in the beginning of my life. I about to embark on a cross country move and want to document these things before I leave for the West Coast...
This is an interactive film by Chris Milk- replace your childhood address with mine to make this experience specifically for you. Mine can be viewed HERE. This film literally brought tears to my eyes. Reminds me of a time when things were so much simpler.
My films are an extension of my poetry, using the white screen like the white page to be filled with images. -James Broughton
I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians. -Francis Ford Coppola
I've been talking to Paul a lot more about how rhythm is so integral to a series of work. There needs to be a distinct narrative and a build up within the imagery to suggest the storyline for you, whereas in film the pacing, sound, lighting, etc. are all elements and devices that the director uses to evoke certain emotions within the viewer. It's much harder to suggest these things when you are working with still imagery. I'm learning that more and more everyday...
I have been returning to places from my youth that were significant in the beginning of my life. I about to embark on a cross country move and want to document these things before I leave for the West Coast...
This is an interactive film by Chris Milk- replace your childhood address with mine to make this experience specifically for you. Mine can be viewed HERE. This film literally brought tears to my eyes. Reminds me of a time when things were so much simpler.
Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Time of the Assassins" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
Artist Entry: Jacqueline Di Milia 10.08.10
Jacqueline Di Milia
I am interested in the work of Jacqueline Di Milia because she really captures the intimacy of the moment in her photographs. She has also collaborated on a music video...allowing her still imagery to manifest into the moving image.
BIOGRAPHY:
Jacqueline Di Milia is a photographer splitting her time between Brooklyn, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
Jacqueline Di Milia grew up in America’s first mass produced suburbia, Levittown, New York. In Spring of 2005 she received a BFA in Photography from the School Of Visual Arts. After a few years of photo assisting with wide range of photographers, including Danielle Levitt and Cass Bird, she began shooting editorially in 2006. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and obsessively watches French New Wave films. We interviewed her recently.
"New Photography/Jacqueline Di Milia." Lost At E Minor (2008): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov 2010..
QUOTES:
"I mostly pull away with inspiration from film makers like Godard, Polanski, and Ozon, to start with."
"My favourite shoots are ones where I can meet the subject where they live and simply follow them around for a day. I love it when I can shoot someone and it doesn’t feel like someone is just standing there for the sake of the photo, it makes everything very intimate."
"New Photography/Jacqueline Di Milia." Lost At E Minor (2008): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov 2010.
Interview with Jacqueline Di Milia @ Lost At E Minor
Di Milia @ BOOOOOOOOOM!
Jacqueline Di Milia
I am interested in the work of Jacqueline Di Milia because she really captures the intimacy of the moment in her photographs. She has also collaborated on a music video...allowing her still imagery to manifest into the moving image.
Samantha Pleet - Spring 2010 from Samantha Pleet on Vimeo.
BIOGRAPHY:
Jacqueline Di Milia is a photographer splitting her time between Brooklyn, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
Jacqueline Di Milia grew up in America’s first mass produced suburbia, Levittown, New York. In Spring of 2005 she received a BFA in Photography from the School Of Visual Arts. After a few years of photo assisting with wide range of photographers, including Danielle Levitt and Cass Bird, she began shooting editorially in 2006. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and obsessively watches French New Wave films. We interviewed her recently.
"New Photography/Jacqueline Di Milia." Lost At E Minor (2008): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov 2010.
QUOTES:
"I mostly pull away with inspiration from film makers like Godard, Polanski, and Ozon, to start with."
"My favourite shoots are ones where I can meet the subject where they live and simply follow them around for a day. I love it when I can shoot someone and it doesn’t feel like someone is just standing there for the sake of the photo, it makes everything very intimate."
"New Photography/Jacqueline Di Milia." Lost At E Minor (2008): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov 2010.
Interview with Jacqueline Di Milia @ Lost At E Minor
Di Milia @ BOOOOOOOOOM!
Jacqueline Di Milia
Simon Tarr Lecture 10.09.10
SIMON TARR
BIOGRAPHY:
Simon Tarr made his first movie at the age of eight. The strip of film was fashioned from sandwich bags taped together, with spaceships drawn on it. The projector was a shoebox with a lamp in it, the lens was a magnifying glass on the end of a toilet paper tube. The film premiered on the wall of his bedroom, where the film melted after a few seconds.
Since then, Simon Tarr's films have been screened on every continent (yes, even Antarctica) in hundreds of film festivals.
WORK:
Simon Tarr's Lecture was short and sweet. He showed us a series of 3 short films followed by a longer film and then ended with the longer of them all. I really wish I knew more about film-making so that I could ask him a few more technical questions, but he spoke a lot his process at the end when questions were welcomed. His work reminded me a lot of Paul Pfeiffer's (another guest lecturer to visit VCU)- they both incorporated appropriated footage.
What was the most interesting quote of the lecture and why?
"This may or may not be hardcore porn." - as he showed us what was assumed to be scrambled unidentifiable hardcore porn footage set to the tune of a 1920's sounding jazz singer.
"I try to make a practice to shoot everyday...even when you're not feeling it...It's important not to wait for inspiration or a muse..."
Hearing him talk about making it a habit to shoot really hit home for me. I need to be more on top of shooting on a regular basis...Even when I'm not "feeling it."
"...You are my academic grandchildren. I've always wanted to say that!"
Using three words, define the core of the artist's practice and artwork.
Hunter-gatherer. VJ/Video Artist. Making it a practice to shoot daily- often using footage that would ordinarily be scrapped.
What is the most interesting thing you learned about the artist that you did not know before?
Prior to this lecture, the only thing I ever really new about VJs was seen on MTV in the days of Total Request Live. I was interested to hear what VJing meant to Tarr and how remixing these videos each time to make them unique made it a performative experience for him and the audience.
I also really liked the film "Interruptus." When I got home I looked up "interruptus" and this came up. Coitus interruptus. I am assuming that is related to the reference he made: "this film may or may not be hardcore porn."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coitus_interruptus
Do you know the answer to your two original questions? If so, what are the answers?
What is your experience with 3D filmmaking? How do you feel about the 3D phenomena?
He talked a little bit about "FUD" and how it was made by incorporating footage from 2 different security cameras. Sundog Verga Matrix was intended to be viewed with 3D glasses, but "it became old carrying around a huge box of disposable 3D glasses (that had to be tossed after use to avoid passing on pink eye!)" I can see that his experience with supplying 3D glasses was problematic, but does that mean that he won't release a 3D film through Netflix? I'm not sure.
What does being a VJ mean to you? (I know I'm really showing my age here, but my only prior knowledge of a "VJ" is from MTV's Total Request Live days...
Originally hired to represent a wide array of musical tastes and personal ethnicities, VJs eventually became famous in their own right. Initially, they were nothing more than on-air personalities, but as the popularity of MTV grew, they began to branch out past just introducing music clips. Soon, they were considered by many to be full fledged music journalists, interviewing major music celebrities and hosting their own television shows on the channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTV_VJs) (see above)
What image or artwork do you find the most compelling and powerful after hearing the artist describe it?
I really enjoyed hearing Tarr talk about his very first video "Extremely Bright Lights and the Sound of Explosions" which also happened to be my favorite film of the evening. I enjoyed its graphic quality, text and simplicity. It was the very FINAL film of the 21st Century, released at 11:59.59pm December 31st, 2000. This film specifically reminded me of Paul Pfeiffer's piece "The Long Count (The Rumble in the Jungle) (2001): a video of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fighting, from which the fighters have been digitally removed.
Do you have any new questions in regards to the artist?
Can you talk more about "glitch" video? What does the pornographic reference really have to do with "interruptus"?
BIOGRAPHY:
Simon Tarr made his first movie at the age of eight. The strip of film was fashioned from sandwich bags taped together, with spaceships drawn on it. The projector was a shoebox with a lamp in it, the lens was a magnifying glass on the end of a toilet paper tube. The film premiered on the wall of his bedroom, where the film melted after a few seconds.
Since then, Simon Tarr's films have been screened on every continent (yes, even Antarctica) in hundreds of film festivals.
WORK:
Extremely Bright Lights and the Sound of Explosions from Simon Tarr on Vimeo.
FUD from Simon Tarr on Vimeo.
Sundog Verga Matrix from Simon Tarr on Vimeo.
Giri Chit trailer from Simon Tarr on Vimeo.
Simon Tarr's Lecture was short and sweet. He showed us a series of 3 short films followed by a longer film and then ended with the longer of them all. I really wish I knew more about film-making so that I could ask him a few more technical questions, but he spoke a lot his process at the end when questions were welcomed. His work reminded me a lot of Paul Pfeiffer's (another guest lecturer to visit VCU)- they both incorporated appropriated footage.
What was the most interesting quote of the lecture and why?
"This may or may not be hardcore porn." - as he showed us what was assumed to be scrambled unidentifiable hardcore porn footage set to the tune of a 1920's sounding jazz singer.
"I try to make a practice to shoot everyday...even when you're not feeling it...It's important not to wait for inspiration or a muse..."
Hearing him talk about making it a habit to shoot really hit home for me. I need to be more on top of shooting on a regular basis...Even when I'm not "feeling it."
"...You are my academic grandchildren. I've always wanted to say that!"
Using three words, define the core of the artist's practice and artwork.
Hunter-gatherer. VJ/Video Artist. Making it a practice to shoot daily- often using footage that would ordinarily be scrapped.
What is the most interesting thing you learned about the artist that you did not know before?
Prior to this lecture, the only thing I ever really new about VJs was seen on MTV in the days of Total Request Live. I was interested to hear what VJing meant to Tarr and how remixing these videos each time to make them unique made it a performative experience for him and the audience.
I also really liked the film "Interruptus." When I got home I looked up "interruptus" and this came up. Coitus interruptus. I am assuming that is related to the reference he made: "this film may or may not be hardcore porn."
Coitus interruptus, also known as withdrawal or the pull-out method, is a birth-control technique in which a man withdraws his penis from a woman prior to ejaculation during intercourse, with the semen being ejaculated away from the vagina.
It has been widely used for at least two millennia as a method of contraception, and is still in use today. This method was used by an estimated thirty-eight million couples worldwide in 1991.[1] Withdrawal does not protect against STDs or STIs. Medical professionals view withdrawal as an ineffective method of birth control for adolescents. [2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coitus_interruptus
Do you know the answer to your two original questions? If so, what are the answers? What is your experience with 3D filmmaking? How do you feel about the 3D phenomena?
He talked a little bit about "FUD" and how it was made by incorporating footage from 2 different security cameras. Sundog Verga Matrix was intended to be viewed with 3D glasses, but "it became old carrying around a huge box of disposable 3D glasses (that had to be tossed after use to avoid passing on pink eye!)" I can see that his experience with supplying 3D glasses was problematic, but does that mean that he won't release a 3D film through Netflix? I'm not sure.
What does being a VJ mean to you? (I know I'm really showing my age here, but my only prior knowledge of a "VJ" is from MTV's Total Request Live days...
Originally hired to represent a wide array of musical tastes and personal ethnicities, VJs eventually became famous in their own right. Initially, they were nothing more than on-air personalities, but as the popularity of MTV grew, they began to branch out past just introducing music clips. Soon, they were considered by many to be full fledged music journalists, interviewing major music celebrities and hosting their own television shows on the channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTV_VJs) (see above)
What image or artwork do you find the most compelling and powerful after hearing the artist describe it?
I really enjoyed hearing Tarr talk about his very first video "Extremely Bright Lights and the Sound of Explosions" which also happened to be my favorite film of the evening. I enjoyed its graphic quality, text and simplicity. It was the very FINAL film of the 21st Century, released at 11:59.59pm December 31st, 2000. This film specifically reminded me of Paul Pfeiffer's piece "The Long Count (The Rumble in the Jungle) (2001): a video of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fighting, from which the fighters have been digitally removed.
Do you have any new questions in regards to the artist?
Can you talk more about "glitch" video? What does the pornographic reference really have to do with "interruptus"?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Simon Tarr Pre-Lecture Questions
What is your experience with 3D filmmaking? How do you feel about the 3D phenomena?
What does being a VJ mean to you? (I know I'm really showing my age here, but my only prior knowledge of a "VJ" is from MTV's Total Request Live days...
Originally hired to represent a wide array of musical tastes and personal ethnicities, VJs eventually became famous in their own right. Initially, they were nothing more than on-air personalities, but as the popularity of MTV grew, they began to branch out past just introducing music clips. Soon, they were considered by many to be full fledged music journalists, interviewing major music celebrities and hosting their own television shows on the channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTV_VJs)
What does being a VJ mean to you? (I know I'm really showing my age here, but my only prior knowledge of a "VJ" is from MTV's Total Request Live days...
Originally hired to represent a wide array of musical tastes and personal ethnicities, VJs eventually became famous in their own right. Initially, they were nothing more than on-air personalities, but as the popularity of MTV grew, they began to branch out past just introducing music clips. Soon, they were considered by many to be full fledged music journalists, interviewing major music celebrities and hosting their own television shows on the channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTV_VJs)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Zoe Beloff Artist Lecture @ Grace Street Theater 11.02.10
I have to say that I was really shocked when I saw her at the lecture. I thought for sure she was young due to multiple interviews that I read about her: she seemed so young at heart! I really enjoyed her lecture and her approaches to her work. I am fascinated by her obsession, if you will, of the emotionally and psychologically disturbed and how it has manifested itself into these incredible video projections of "small figures that conform to even tinier places." I am impressed by her ambition to experiment with a plethora of media in order to find what many different avenues for her work to function. Most of all I really loved Zoe Beloff's adorable Scottish accent.
WORK
She showed us the short film "My Dream of Dental Irritation"
Year : 1964
Filmmaker: Robert Troutman "Bobby Beaujolais"
Transfer note: copied at 18 frames per second from an 8mm Kodachrome camera original with magnetic stripped sound.
Music: "The Man that Got Away" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland on the album, "Judy at Carnegie Hall"
Running time: 5 minutes 10 seconds
The Embrace composite of two video frames, N.F.S., 2005
History of a Fixed Idea [set], from "The Somnambulists" by Zoe Beloff
BIOGRAPHY
Zoe Beloff grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1980 she moved to New York to study at Columbia University where she received an MFA in Film. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings; venues include the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. In 2009 she participated in the Athens Biennale, and has an upcoming project with MuHKA Museum in Antwerp. Her most recently completed work is the exhibition “The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and their Circle. She has been working with the Christine Burgin Gallery on a number of artist projects that include books and prints.
-What was the most interesting quote of the lecture and why?
I really enjoyed hearing Beloff describe the Amateur Psychoanalytic Society's "Dream Films." I have always been fascinated and at times obsessed about the meaning of my dreams. I try to record them, but often they wake me from my slumber and leave me too groggy to reach for a pen and notepad to record the events that played out in the ether of my imagination. The Society sought to "shoot what it is that they dreamed, reenact these dreams of film and analyze them and then have an awards dinner" to commemorate the winning dream film. The dreamers captured on film "the perfect reproduction of our minds...and wandering souls."
- Using three words, define the core of the artist's practice and artwork.
Psychoanalytic. The unconscious. Manifestations of her "selves."
- What is the most interesting thing you learned about the artist that you did not know before?
I was really unaware that a lot of these characters were manifestations of her own imagination. It was interesting to hear her speak about these other sections of her "self" that are all a part of Zoe Beloff and all play integral roles in her work. She said that by creating these characters she "allowed her shy nature to be hidden."
- Do you know the answer to your two original questions? If so, what are the answers?
I really enjoyed hearing Beloff speak about Magdelaine G and how she performed solely while she was under a hypnotic spell. Beloff said Magdelaine "demonstrated the entire range of human emotion" while under hypnosis and this dance that she performed was considered "the dance of the future."
- Do you have any new questions in regards to the artist?
What's next? Would you now consider really building a model of Albert Grass' Dreamland?
WORK
She showed us the short film "My Dream of Dental Irritation"
Year : 1964
Filmmaker: Robert Troutman "Bobby Beaujolais"
Transfer note: copied at 18 frames per second from an 8mm Kodachrome camera original with magnetic stripped sound.
Music: "The Man that Got Away" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland on the album, "Judy at Carnegie Hall"
Running time: 5 minutes 10 seconds
The Embrace composite of two video frames, N.F.S., 2005 
History of a Fixed Idea [set], from "The Somnambulists" by Zoe BeloffBIOGRAPHY
Zoe Beloff grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1980 she moved to New York to study at Columbia University where she received an MFA in Film. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings; venues include the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. In 2009 she participated in the Athens Biennale, and has an upcoming project with MuHKA Museum in Antwerp. Her most recently completed work is the exhibition “The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and their Circle. She has been working with the Christine Burgin Gallery on a number of artist projects that include books and prints.
Zoe works with a wide range of media including film, stereoscopic projection performance, interactive media, installation and drawing.Her artistic interest lies in finding ways to graphically manifest the unconscious processes of the mind. She considers herself a medium, an interface between the living and the dead, the real and the imaginary. Sometimes she uses archaic apparatuses, sometimes, new analog/digital hybrids. Each project aims to connect the present with the past, to create new visual languages where modern media will once again be invested with the uncanny. She has collaborated with artists from other disciplines including composer John Cale, the Wooster Group Theater Company and composer, singer and performance artist Shelley Hirsch.
Zoe has been awarded fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation (2003), The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts (1997) and NYFA (1997, 2001). She has received individual artist grants from foundations that include NYSCA, The Jerome Foundation and Experimental Television Center Finishing Funds Award. She has had residences at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts, Hallwalls in Buffalo and Tesla in Berlin.
-What was the most interesting quote of the lecture and why?
I really enjoyed hearing Beloff describe the Amateur Psychoanalytic Society's "Dream Films." I have always been fascinated and at times obsessed about the meaning of my dreams. I try to record them, but often they wake me from my slumber and leave me too groggy to reach for a pen and notepad to record the events that played out in the ether of my imagination. The Society sought to "shoot what it is that they dreamed, reenact these dreams of film and analyze them and then have an awards dinner" to commemorate the winning dream film. The dreamers captured on film "the perfect reproduction of our minds...and wandering souls."
- Using three words, define the core of the artist's practice and artwork.
Psychoanalytic. The unconscious. Manifestations of her "selves."
- What is the most interesting thing you learned about the artist that you did not know before?
I was really unaware that a lot of these characters were manifestations of her own imagination. It was interesting to hear her speak about these other sections of her "self" that are all a part of Zoe Beloff and all play integral roles in her work. She said that by creating these characters she "allowed her shy nature to be hidden."
- Do you know the answer to your two original questions? If so, what are the answers?
- Just curious about your fascination with mental illness (mythomania, hallucination, scientific case studies of psychoses, etc.) as seen in your work in The Somnambulists. What drew you to this subject matter?
Her interest began when she looked into "the birth of mechanical reproduction in relation to the imagination and the relationship between form and content." She also became familiar with the work of Pierre Janet that all helped catapult her imagination. - At first glance your subject matter seems silly as you see footage of case studies where people are seen in various stages of hysterics, then you come to realize that the subject matter is much darker. Do you feel your work is exploitative? Beloff didn't touch on this question.
- What inspired your decision to create 3D wooden theaters? Do you think the use of miniatures makes the work seem more objective? She wanted to create these tiny people that conformed to an even smaller place. She wanted to blur the lines between the real and the imaginary. You begin to question the true or false nature of the theatrical.
I really enjoyed hearing Beloff speak about Magdelaine G and how she performed solely while she was under a hypnotic spell. Beloff said Magdelaine "demonstrated the entire range of human emotion" while under hypnosis and this dance that she performed was considered "the dance of the future."
- Do you have any new questions in regards to the artist?
What's next? Would you now consider really building a model of Albert Grass' Dreamland?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Graduate School Application Post 11.08.10
I am planning my trek Westward in May of 2011. I am packing my car with a few things and driving cross country to California. I've decided that California is where I want to be, therefore, I am looking at SFAI and CalArts.
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE (SFAI)
Nestled within the streets of Russian Hill, SFAI's campus overlooks the Bay area and is really quite breathtaking. I visited San Francisco this past May and had the opportunity to meet with Admissions Counselor, Jana Rumberger. SFAI encourages its students, both undergraduate and graduate, to explore many different avenues and allows individual development within an interdisciplinary context. In addition to its lovely location, SFAI boasts working one-on-one with their accomplished professors, an impressive list of visiting artists lectures at their graduate lectures symposia, and allows direct exposure with professional artists.
GRADUATE STUDENT CARLING MCMANUS
WORK:
When I visited in May I had the opportunity to visit the Diego Rivera Gallery with a collection of graduate student work. McManus constructed light boxes for each of her seven "One Minute Studies" of 8mm film cut and arranged onto plexiglass. Unfortunately, I cannot find any other information on her, but here are a few more close up images of that I took of her work as seen in the gallery:
http://www.carlingmcmanus.com/
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
* CalArts is ranked 6th for Graduate Photography Programs as stated in US News & World Report.
I am interested in CalArts for a number of reasons. There students are called "Calartians!" How cool is that? It is located in Valencia, CA and also boasts one-on-one mentoring by its faculty and encourages interdisciplinary experimentation. As an MFA seeking student I will have my own SPACIOUS studio. CalArts has extensive Artmaking facilities for photography as well as a "Super Shop" that is used for processes such as woodworking, metalworking, machining, moldmaking, spraying and sandblasting. I also have a great interest in metals and jewelry. With their facilities and "Super Shop," it will allow me to experiment with both photography and metalworking. Oh, did I mention they have an outdoor pool??
PROFESSOR JO ANN CALLIS BIOGRAPHY:
Since she emerged in the late 1970s as one of the first important practitioners of the "fabricated photographs" movement, Jo Ann Callis (American, born 1940) has made adventurous contributions in the areas of color photography, sculpture, painting, and digital imagery. For her, photography is another studio tool to be used, along with the sets she creates and the models she directs, to render the sensual tones and textures of fabric and food, or to animate clay figures of her own making. The persistent inventiveness of Callis's work has made her a force in Southern California art and in recent photographic practice.
Callis began her art studies in Ohio in the 1950s. After marriage and child rearing, she returned to photography in the 1970s to finish her undergraduate degree, and continued on to a graduate degree in the arts at UCLA. Her avant-garde style of fabricating photographs was soon publicly recognized, and her work was exhibited and published internationally. At the same time, she developed her own role as teacher at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Throughout her career, Callis has created complex sets for her photographs. She often makes her own props, hires and directs models, and designs the lighting.
"Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling at the Getty Center." Getty (2009): n. pag. Web. 5 Nov 2010..
WORK:
From "Early Black and White"
From "Early Color"
http://joanncallis.com/index.php
ALUMNUS JAMES CASEBERE
BIOGRAPHY:
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE (SFAI)
Nestled within the streets of Russian Hill, SFAI's campus overlooks the Bay area and is really quite breathtaking. I visited San Francisco this past May and had the opportunity to meet with Admissions Counselor, Jana Rumberger. SFAI encourages its students, both undergraduate and graduate, to explore many different avenues and allows individual development within an interdisciplinary context. In addition to its lovely location, SFAI boasts working one-on-one with their accomplished professors, an impressive list of visiting artists lectures at their graduate lectures symposia, and allows direct exposure with professional artists.
*This Institute was also founded by Ansel Adams in 1945, the Photography Department was the first program of its kind dedicated to exploring photography as a fine art medium.
*Also SFAI is ranked 7th for Graduate Photography Programs as stated in US News & World Report.
*Annie Leibovitz earned her BFA at SFAI in 1971.
Photographs from my trip:
PROFESSOR HENRY WESSEL
BIOGRAPHY:
Henry Wessel was born in 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey. He is an American photographer noted for his descriptive, yet poetic photographs of the human environment.
Wessel earned a B.A. degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1966 and an M.F.A. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1972. Before graduating with his M.F.A., in 1971, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded Wessel a fellowship and, one year later, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited his photographs. In short order, Wessel's work was included in exhibits at the International Museum of Photography and collected by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Visiting California in 1970, Wessel was taken by the West Coast light and moved to San Francisco. Today, Wessel is on faculty in the photography department of San Francisco Art Institute. Much of Wessel's work is still produced in California. To date, Wessel has produced five books of photography. In 2007, Henry Wessel will be exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
QUOTES:
"Wessel's remarkable work, witty, evocative and inventive, is distinctive and at the same time a component part of the great development of photography which flourished in the 1970s. The pictures continue to grow and evolve and the work is now regarded as an individual and important contribution to twentieth-century American photography." - Sandra Phillips, Introduction at the SFMOMA, 2007
"Chances are, if you believe the light, you are going to believe that the things photographed physically existed in the world. It's this belief that gives the still photograph its power." ( from an Interview with Henry Wessel by Stephan Janáček published by Min Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1986)
Wikipedia, Initials. (2010 , September 17). Henry wessel. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wessel,_Jr.
WORK:
Fascinated by his mother’s real-estate photos as a teenager in New Jersey, Wessel shot this series of bungalows in Southern California from the armrest of his truck more than thirty years later. Playfully candy-colored, these houses suggest a human presence only in details, such as a modest cooler left curbside or a garden hose coiled against the side of a house. Although different in color, the structural similarities of the bungalows, as well as the similar compositions of the photographs themselves, imply both the futility of originality and the manufactured quality of the American dream of home ownership.
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Initials. (Photographer). (2010). House pictures, 1990. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/wessel_jr_henry.php
WORK:
When I visited in May I had the opportunity to visit the Diego Rivera Gallery with a collection of graduate student work. McManus constructed light boxes for each of her seven "One Minute Studies" of 8mm film cut and arranged onto plexiglass. Unfortunately, I cannot find any other information on her, but here are a few more close up images of that I took of her work as seen in the gallery:
http://www.carlingmcmanus.com/
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
* CalArts is ranked 6th for Graduate Photography Programs as stated in US News & World Report.
I am interested in CalArts for a number of reasons. There students are called "Calartians!" How cool is that? It is located in Valencia, CA and also boasts one-on-one mentoring by its faculty and encourages interdisciplinary experimentation. As an MFA seeking student I will have my own SPACIOUS studio. CalArts has extensive Artmaking facilities for photography as well as a "Super Shop" that is used for processes such as woodworking, metalworking, machining, moldmaking, spraying and sandblasting. I also have a great interest in metals and jewelry. With their facilities and "Super Shop," it will allow me to experiment with both photography and metalworking. Oh, did I mention they have an outdoor pool??
PROFESSOR JO ANN CALLIS BIOGRAPHY:Since she emerged in the late 1970s as one of the first important practitioners of the "fabricated photographs" movement, Jo Ann Callis (American, born 1940) has made adventurous contributions in the areas of color photography, sculpture, painting, and digital imagery. For her, photography is another studio tool to be used, along with the sets she creates and the models she directs, to render the sensual tones and textures of fabric and food, or to animate clay figures of her own making. The persistent inventiveness of Callis's work has made her a force in Southern California art and in recent photographic practice.
Callis began her art studies in Ohio in the 1950s. After marriage and child rearing, she returned to photography in the 1970s to finish her undergraduate degree, and continued on to a graduate degree in the arts at UCLA. Her avant-garde style of fabricating photographs was soon publicly recognized, and her work was exhibited and published internationally. At the same time, she developed her own role as teacher at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Throughout her career, Callis has created complex sets for her photographs. She often makes her own props, hires and directs models, and designs the lighting.
"Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling at the Getty Center." Getty (2009): n. pag. Web. 5 Nov 2010.
WORK:
From "Early Color"
ALUMNUS JAMES CASEBERE
BIOGRAPHY:
JAMES CASEBERE was born in 1953, in Lansing, Michigan. He grew up outside Detroit, attended Michigan State University, and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a BFA in 1976 where he studied with the sculptor Siah Armajani. In the fall of 1977, he attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, and then moved to Los Angeles where he studied with John Baldessari and Doug Huebler. He was John Baldessari’s teaching assistant. Classmates included Mike Kelly, and Tony Oursler. He received an M.F.A from Cal Arts in 1979.
Casebere's pioneering work has established him at the forefront of artists working with constructed photography. His first exhibitions in New York were at Artists Space, Franklin Furnace and then Sonnebend Gallery. His work was associated with the “Pictures Generation” of “post-modern” artists who emerged in the 1980’s, which included Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Laurie Simmons, Richard Prince, Matt Mullican, James Welling, Barbara Kruger, and others. For the last thirty years Casebere has consistently devised increasingly complex models and photographed them in his studio. Based solidly on an understanding of architecture as well as art historical and cinematic sources, Casebere's abandoned spaces are hauntingly evocative. His table-sized constructions are made of simple materials, pared down to essential forms. Starting with Sonsbeek ’86, in Arnhem, Holland and ending around 1991 Casebere also made large scale sculpture installations.
Early bodies of work focused on images of the suburban home. He followed this with both photographs and sculptural installations dealing with the myth of the American West. In the early 1990s, Casebere turned his attention to the development of different cultural institutions during the enlightenment, and their representation as architectural types. With his photographs of prisons in particular, he critically addressed contemporary attitudes and approaches to incarceration, as well as metaphorically pointing to relationships of social control, and social structure in the broader society.
Since the late 1990’s he has made images whose sources span the globe starting with the bunker under the Reichstag (Flooded Hallway), and the sewers in Berlin (Two Tunnels). He created an expansive and beautiful body of work referencing the Atlantic slave trade. This includes a slave factory in West Africa, (Four Flooded Arches), plantations in the West Indies (Nevision Underground), Thomas Jefferson’s plantation home in Virginia (Monticello), and other 18th Century American colonial architecture.
The modern architects Victor Horta (Spiral Staircase, and Turning Hallway) and Richard Neutra (Garage, and Dorm Room) inspired him to create another small, austere group of works that seem to cast a critical eye on the homogenizing effects of globalization.
After 9/11 Casebere turned his attention toward Spain and the Eastern Mediterranean. Several works examine 10th century Andalusia and the flowering of culture and co-operation between Islamic, Jewish and Christian cultures before the Inquisition. (La Alberca, Abadia, Spanish Bath, Mahgreb.) Other images depict Tripoli, Lebanon, Nineveh and Samara in Iraq, and Luxor, Egypt. Several photographs of elaborate soaring models of mosques were inspired by the 16th century Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.
Casebere was included in the 1985 Whitney Bienniel. In 2002-3 Casebere had a solo exhibition at SECCA Gallery in Winston Salem, NC which traveled to the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, OH., the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Quebec and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis. In 2000 –2001 he was in an exhibition called The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seator, initiated by the Addison Gallery at Phillips Academy in Andover Mass. which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in Philadelphia, PA. In 1999 Asylum, another solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, traveled to Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, in Norwich, England. In 1996 he was in Campo, at the Venice Bienale, Italy, curated by Francesco Bonami, which travelled to the Sangretto Foundation in Torino, Italy and the Konstmuseum, in Malmö, Sweden.
Casebere is the recipient of numerous fellowships including three from the National Endowment for the Arts, three from the New York Foundation for the Arts and one from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His work has been collected by museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among many others.
Since the late 1990’s Casebere has lived in Fort Greene Brooklyn, with his wife Lorna Simpson and their daughter Zora.
James casebere biography. (2009). Retrieved from http://jamescasebere.net/bio.html
WORK:
From Landscape with Houses, (Dutchess County, NY) #2, 2009, digital chromogenic print, size variable
Zoe Beloff Questions Due 10.31.10
Questions for Zoe Beloff:
- Just curious about your fascination with mental illness (mythomania, hallucination, scientific case studies of psychoses, etc.) as seen in your work in The Somnambulists. What drew you to this subject matter?
- At first glance your subject matter seems silly as you see footage of case studies where people are seen in various stages of hysterics, then you come to realize that the subject matter is much darker. Do you feel your work is exploitative?
- What inspired your decision to create 3D wooden theaters? Do you think the use of miniatures makes the work seem more objective?
Idea Post: Loneliness 11.04.10
THE LONELY AMERICAN: CHOOSING TO RECONNECT IN THE 21st CENTURY
My new series is all about going back to sites that were once significant in my life. These sites are now new sites of loss, loneliness, and emptiness of what once was but will never be again.
Loneliness is a feeling in which people experience a strong sense of emptiness and solitude. Loneliness is often compared to feeling empty, unwanted, and unimportant. Someone who is lonely may find it hard to form strong interpersonal relationships.
QUOTES:
"Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, cars, sidewalks, stores. Everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."
-Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
"Life is very long when you're lonely."
-Morrissey, in "The Queen Is Dead", from the album of the same name by The Smiths (1986)
"We suffer a lot in our society from loneliness. So much of our life is an attempt to not be lonely: 'Let's talk to each other; let's do things together so we won't be lonely.' And yet inevitably, we are really alone in these human forms. We can pretend; we can entertain each other; but that's about the best we can do. When it comes to the actual experience of life, we're very much alone; and to expect anyone else to take away our loneliness is asking too much."
-American Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho: The Way it is
"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty."
-Mother Teresa
Epistemic loneliness is the fundamental and unsolvable paradox between the desire of mans consciousness to have meaning met with the universe seen as existing without God Mans consciousness can be thought of as a hole in Being, or nothingness. Just as nature abhors a vacuum consciousness abhors its own vacuous vortex and is constrained to seek in futility the plenitude of being in order to fill up the lack, or non-being, that it is. One attempts to unite the emptiness and nothing that comprise his consciousness (Being-for-itself) with the fullness of Being, as objectively instantiated by the non-conscious Being-in-itself. However, according to some philosophers, this unity is impossible, and thus humans are nothing but a futile frustration to be something they cannot.lt;/ref>
"Epistemic Loneliness." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 October 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .
Photograph
Martin Usborne
MUTE: The Silence of Dogs in Cars
2010
My new series is all about going back to sites that were once significant in my life. These sites are now new sites of loss, loneliness, and emptiness of what once was but will never be again.
Loneliness is a feeling in which people experience a strong sense of emptiness and solitude. Loneliness is often compared to feeling empty, unwanted, and unimportant. Someone who is lonely may find it hard to form strong interpersonal relationships.
Common symptoms
Loneliness can evoke feelings of social inadequacy. A lonely person may become convinced there is something wrong with him/herself, and that no one understands their situation. Such a person will lose confidence and will become reluctant to attempt to change or too scared to try new things for fear of further social rejection. In extreme cases, a person may feel a sense of emptiness, which may become a state of clinical depression.
In modern society
Loneliness frequently occurs in heavily populated cities; in these cities many people feel utterly alone and cut off, even when surrounded by millions of other people. They experience a loss of identifiable community in an anonymous crowd. It is unclear whether loneliness is a condition aggravated by high population density itself, or simply part of the human condition brought on by this social setting. Certainly, loneliness occurs even in societies with much smaller populations, but the sheer number of people that one comes into contact with daily in a city, even if only briefly, may raise barriers to actually interacting more deeply with them and increase the feeling of being cut off and alone. Quantity of contact does not translate into quality of contact.[4]
Loneliness appears to have become particularly prevalent in modern times. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century families were typically larger and more stable, divorce was rarer, and relatively few people lived alone. In the United States, only 5% of households were single-person households in 1900; by 1995, 24 million Americans lived alone; and by 2010, it is estimated that number will have increased to around 31 million.[5]
A 2006 study in the American Sociological Review found that Americans on average had only two close friends to confide in, down from an average of three in 1985. The percentage of people who noted having no such confidant rose from 10% to almost 25%; and an additional 19% said they had only a single confidant (often their spouse), raising the risk of serious loneliness if the relationship ended.[6]
Loneliness has also shown a strong connection to internet usage,[7] and many people suffering from loneliness tend to flock to internet sites in attempt to find help or mend their pain, as seen in phenomena such as the "I am lonely will anyone speak to me" thread.
"Loneliness." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 October 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .QUOTES:
"Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, cars, sidewalks, stores. Everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."
-Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
"Life is very long when you're lonely."-Morrissey, in "The Queen Is Dead", from the album of the same name by The Smiths (1986)
"We suffer a lot in our society from loneliness. So much of our life is an attempt to not be lonely: 'Let's talk to each other; let's do things together so we won't be lonely.' And yet inevitably, we are really alone in these human forms. We can pretend; we can entertain each other; but that's about the best we can do. When it comes to the actual experience of life, we're very much alone; and to expect anyone else to take away our loneliness is asking too much."
-American Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho: The Way it is
"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty."
-Mother Teresa
Epistemic loneliness is the fundamental and unsolvable paradox between the desire of mans consciousness to have meaning met with the universe seen as existing without God Mans consciousness can be thought of as a hole in Being, or nothingness. Just as nature abhors a vacuum consciousness abhors its own vacuous vortex and is constrained to seek in futility the plenitude of being in order to fill up the lack, or non-being, that it is. One attempts to unite the emptiness and nothing that comprise his consciousness (Being-for-itself) with the fullness of Being, as objectively instantiated by the non-conscious Being-in-itself. However, according to some philosophers, this unity is impossible, and thus humans are nothing but a futile frustration to be something they cannot.lt;/ref>
Loneliness as a universal principle
Epistemic loneliness is seen as innate. In the view of Ben Mijuskovic all acts of consciousness and conduct are inevitably motivated by the wish to escape or evade loneliness.lt;/ref> However, to do so is impossible because consciousness is so constituted that loneliness serves as its sovereign a priori In other words, loneliness is an absolutely universal and necessary principle. Because of this, loneliness is the prism through which man views reality, without being aware that it is a prism. Mijuskovic believes that there can exist no theory through which one can rescue himself or others from this loneliness, as any action he takes is simply a result of the "master motivator;" loneliness itself.Sartre's view: man as an isolated entity
Jean-Paul Sartre saw the essential struggle of epistemic loneliness - to unite the emptiness of nothingness with the fullness of Being - as only unifiable in the concept of God Indeed, mankinds frustrated attempt to create this harmony within itself is yearning for divine-like repletion. Thus, Sartre viewed God as the projection of human epistemic loneliness, while man himself is nothing else but loneliness forever frustrated by its fruitless endeavors at self-completion.lt;/ref> Sartre believed that love is mankinds most radical attempt of consciousness to transcend its own loneliness. Through love, he argued, man endeavors to annihilate its contingency and satisfy its esurience for the abundance of being. Sartre believes that lovers are attempting to preserve their "internal negation" (freedom) while eliminating their "external negation" (epistemic loneliness). However, since these two freedoms cannot be reconciled into perpetual unity, love is doomed. Any apparent unity between the two is self-deception; an "illusion of fusion" which will serve to propel the lovers into more devastating epistemic loneliness than had they not tried to escape it."Epistemic Loneliness." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 October 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .
PhotographMartin Usborne
MUTE: The Silence of Dogs in Cars
2010
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