MY VIDEO ART PROJECT

For my Video Art Project I put Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech(video) on a 40" flat screen HD -TV. I then video taped it with an Iphone. Then video taped the I phone video taping the TV. Then finally I video taped the I phone video taping an Iphone video taping the TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIUzd5wvjrA

Marcel Duchamp and William Burroughs

Marcel Duchamp was a painter and mixed media artist. It is said that he changed the course of art history.  He was mainly associated with Cubism and Futurism in his earlier paintings.  Although he avoided alliances, he is said to have spearheaded the American Dada movement.  He incessantly pushed the boundaries of art and had an ongoing preoccupation with desire and human sexuality.  He is best known as the father of Conceptual art.  He believed that art could be about ideas instead of worldly things. 

 William Burroughs was an American novelist, painter, short storyist.  His works are said to have been important in the development of many subcultures of the twentieth century such as Hippies and Punks and for this reason, he was best known as having been culturally influential.  It is also said that he was a homosexual who murdered his second wife.  His misogyny and drug addiction are said to be what made his literary works so interesting. 

 The comparison between these two artists is quite interesting.  The similarity appears to be related to their desires in pushing the limits and boundaries of art.  They also both based some of their works on sexuality, but most importantly, they were both influential and changed the course of art history.

Butoh

Butoh is a type of Japanese contemporary dance.  It consists of a wide range of performance or movement practices which first emerged in 1959.  It is often defined as resisting definition or explanation but can have great impact on it’s audience. It is often called the ‘dance of darkness’. 

It is said that it came about because of the social devastation and sadness left by World War II.  Other opinions state that is was designed as a contrast to the contemporary dance in Japan at the time.  However, the founder of Butoh (Tatsumi Hijikata) has said that it was based on an imitation of the West or as an imitation of Noh (classical Japanese musicals).

Today, Butoh is known for its’ darkness which can include sex, death, grotesque imagery and eroticism.  It is usually performed in white body makeup with very slow movements. Often the dancers will have upward rolled eyes and contorted faces, inward rotated legs and feet and can be performed with or without an audience.

It is a very popular dance form today and is performed all over the world.

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

Steve Jobs delivered a commencement speech at Stanford University on June 12, 2005.  He was the CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios.   In his speech, he tells the audience that he did not graduate from college and goes on to tell three stories. 

 The first story is about something he calls “connecting the dots”.  In this story, he tells of his college years and how he dropped out of college, taking only courses that truly interesting him, including calligraphy.  At the time, he did not think this course would have any practical application.  However, ten years later, when he was designing the MAC computer, this knowledge was in fact helpful and he states that it is not until much later in life that he connected the dots.  He stated that you can only connect the dots when you look backwards and that you have to trust that dots will somehow connect your future.

The second story he tells is about love and loss.  He tells the story of getting fired from Apple, starting all over again, starting Pixar and NeXt and returning to Apple.  He tells the graduates that they should never lose faith when life hits you in the head with a brick.  He suggests that the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and to keep looking until you find that work. 

 The third story he tells is about death. He tells of his cancer diagnosis and how he has always lived each day as if it was his last.  He states that all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure all fall away in the face of death and that remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  He wraps up his speech by saying that no one wants to die and yet we cannot escape it.  He reminds the graduates that their time is limited.  He closes his speech by quoting from one of the bibles of his generation.  “Stay Hungry, Stay foolish”.   Steve jobs died in 2011. 

Baroque Era

The Baroque era was representative of an artistic style which began in Rome in approximately 1600 (1592 – 1720).  Painting, architecture and sculpture embraced this style and eventually, this style of art became popular throughout the rest of Europe. This style is described as dramatic, colorful, massive and theatrical.  It also greatly influenced dance and music.   The music of this period was ornate and heavily ornamented while the dance was mainly a simple step (English country dance or The French Noble style)

The style grew out of the religious tensions of the 1600’s.  The Catholic Counter-Reformation Art of this period were greatly influenced by the Baroque era.  Catholic emperors and the Vatican in general used this style to show their power, grandeur and to reassert themselves.  Baroque art in more protestant countries had less religious focus and attracted the middle classes of the country.  During this period, palatial structures were built consisting of extravagant staircases and elegant reception rooms.Undoubtedly, the baroque era was one of the richest and most diverse periods in history

Performance Piece

For this performance, my anonymous associate, laid down on a bench with a pillow and an umbrella for nearly an hour. It was during the morning hours of a beautiful day. The theme is the decontextualization of the umbrella, park bench, but questions the behavior of college students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aL_yGvr28g&feature=youtu.be

For this assignment, I used a Xerox machine to copy images of both my left and right hands. I then decided to honor my home country of Canada and recreate the Canadian Maple Leaf.

Sheryl Oring

Sheryl Oring is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is widely considered as a prominent artist throughout not only the United States, but also internationally. What separates Sheryl Oring from other artists? Well more than anything, her work is meaningful to the public as it examines important social issues. She takes into account the opinions of the public and in 2004 conducted her most impressive public performance; "I Wish To Say." For this project, Sheryl has typed and sent over 2000 postcards to the President of The United States. For this performance piece, Sheryl received many accolades including; “Person of the Week” award on ABC’s World News Tonight; a Creative Capital grant; and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. 

Grid Art Project

This a picture of my father and I from 2012. I used confetti in the shape of stars to recreate the image. It took a about 7 hours total but it turned out pretty well.

William Burroughs

William Burroughs (1914-1997) was a key figure of the Beat generation.  He was a novelist, and spoken work performer.   He wrote 18 novels, six collections of short stories and many essays.  It is said that he is still looked up to by today’s writers and that he greatly influenced popular culture. Mr. Burroughs was born to a wealthy family in Missouri and became interested in writing at a very early age. He went to Harvard University where he studied English and Anthropology.  Mr. Burroughs became addicted to drugs (heroin specifically) and this affected him throughout his life and career.  Burroughs wrote and published his first book in 1953, Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.  His third novel, Naked Lunch (1959) was his most popular.  

He shot and killed his second wife in 1951 and his parents took custody of his son.  Mr. Burroughs died of a heart attack in 1997 and was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1984 by France.  He also received an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983.

 

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) had a huge impact on 20^th century art through his painting and mixed media art.   He was a French-American painter, sculptor, and writer whose work is associated with Dadaism, Cubism and Surrealism.  He had a conceptual approach to art.  Mr. Duchamp is quoted as saying that he wanted to “put art back in the service of the mind”.  He has been described as many things, including “a one-man movement”.   He believed that art could be about ideas instead of worldly things and this idea has influenced many generations of artists.   He challenged other artists of his time and refused to accept their standards as his own.  He also did not like to show his work often and refused to have a style of art that would be easily recognized as his work.  

 

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs grew up in Silicon Valley in the early 1950’s.  Because of this, he grew up (after being adopted as a baby) in a neighborhood of engineers.   As a result, Mr. Jobs had a great interest in the electronics field as he grew up. I found it interesting that Steve jobs dropped out of college after one semester, because he was more interested in drugs (LSD specifically), philosophy (he became a Buddhist and also joined a hippie commune) and fruitarian diets.

In 1970, he met Steve Wozniak who also loved electronics.  They created the Apple I and Apple II computers.  Steve Jobs was focussed on the design of the computer and Steve Wozniak was responsible for the electronics.  The Apple II delivered color graphics (the first of it’s kind).  Steve jobs was instrumental in the creation of The e Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, MacBook, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad.

Sadly, he died on Oct. 5, 2011, of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Alan Turing

According to biographer Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing (born born 23 June 1912) was a “Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher, code breaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time”.  Mr. Turing studied mathematics at Cambridge University where he concluded that automatic computation could solve all mathematical problems. Turing believed that "a single machine that can be used to compute any computable sequence". This finding is the basis for the modern theory of computation and clearly depicts why he was so important in the development of the first computer.    When war broke out, he worked at deciphering messages encrypted by a German Enigma machine which provided valuable information for the allies.  He also worked on a team which developed a machine which could decode these German wartime messages.  Unfortunately, Turing's was not involved in building the world's first working electronic stored-program digital computer.  Sadly, in March 1952 he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and eventually committed suicide.

 

Markjstock.com

Upon researching this artist, I learned that this artist states that his work involves “still, video, real-time, and interactive installations with seamless interfaces featuring highly dynamic, detail-rich imagery”.  I found it interesting that many of his influences are artists and scientists whom are from the pre-computer ages (i.e., Da Vinci).   Upon reviewing his works, I have chosen Magma 19 as my favourite.  I have read his description of this piece of art and he states that it depicts a “virtual flow of red-hot molten magma and nearby cooler rock”.  I prefer this work over some of his others because it does depict something familiar to me and is based on something real.  I enjoy the energy in the piece and the colours used in the patterns were pleasurable to my eye. 

Stop Motion 1

Stop motion is also known as stop action in the film industry.  It is a method used by animators to make an object appear to move.  The object is moved in small increments. The end result is the illusion of the object moving.  Sometimes it is used to show objects moving magically.  In 1898, stop motion techniques were first used in the production of The Humpty Dumpty Circus. It was a film in which a toy circus and animals were brought to life and appear to be moving.   Initially, stop motion animation was used with “non-drawn” objects or inanimate items.  This was followed by an era of clay animation.  In 1912, the first clay animation film was completed and released and was considered hugely successful.  I found it very interesting to read that one of the earliest stop motion films, which was only 1 minute in duration took over 50 hours to complete.  Sadly, this technique is not used very often anymore.

Abelardo Morrell

Abelardo Morrell is a Cuban-born artist whose art delivers visual surprise and wonder.  He arrived in the United States in 1962 with his family and received a scholarship at Bowdoin College in Maine, and later attended Yale University.  . He began his career with still life works, focusing on simple, basic items, like childen’s toys or a glass bottle. As a teacher, he wanted to teach his students the basic concepts behind photography.  He demonstrated, in a class setting, how light could transform any space or room into a camera.  This was a career turning point for him and as a result of this lesson to his students, Morrell has produced, using his camera obsura, an original and interesting collection of contemporary photography.  He has perfected this technique and uses this primitive method of making images as the basis for his more recent collections, which include New York City panoramas and warm Italian vistas. "I want to refresh how people see the world," says Morell and after having viewed his works through this assignment, I think he certainly has done that. 

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, born on 6 May 1856.  He studied at the University of Vienna and was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century.  Sigmund Freud was the first to use the term psychoanalysis in 1896 and he eventually came to be known as the father of psychoanalysis.  He spent much of his career working on understanding human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions.  He believed that mental illness, in many cases, did not have a physiological cause.  He is most famous for his approach to curing mental illness and various mental conditions through psychological analysis.  It was interesting to learn that Freud was an atheist who fought against religion, and yet, was of Jewish origin.  He thought that religion was an obstacle to human intelligence and its development.  .  It is often said that many fundamental aspects of psychology today can be traced to Freud’s original work.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

The Great Train Robbery was the first narrative film and was filmed in November of 1903. It is said that the Great Train Robbery kicked off the motion picture industry.  It was a one-reel film what lasted approximately 10 minutes in duration.  In total, it had 14 scenes.  The film told a story related to a train robbery and was actually based on a true story which occurred in August 1900. 

Many new techniques were used for the first time in this film.  Some of these techniques included minor camera movements, location shooting and parallel editing.  Pan shots were also used the film which were new to the industry.  Jump-cuts showed two separate storylines or events happening at the same time and were used throughout the movie as well.  The story was narrated throughout the fourteen scenes of the movie.  This film was considered a milestone and is significant in the history of film.

Madama Butterfly: My Thoughts

Like many opera's, "Madama Butterfly" is one of love and ultimately, sadness. After all, what would an opera be without a broken heart and drama. The Audience cannot help but sympathize with Butterfly after an american sailor uses her for sex and a child. He never loved her, he never cared for her, he only wanted to marry her because it was convenient for him. Being with Butterfly was easy for him because he knew he would eventually leave her and find someone new. He did exactly that, leaving butterfly alone as a pregnant mother for several years, only to return with a new wife to claim his daughter as his own. However, Butterly remained hopeful and waited patiently for her loves return. Today's generation can relate to this story because in today's society, some men leave their pregnant spouses when they are needed most. Only in this story, the husband returns with his new family, takes his daughter, and leaves her never to return. I believe the husband returning with his family is very symbolic, assuring the audiences thought that he never planned on staying with Butterfly, he was simply waiting for something better.

A Bit About Me

      My name is Mike Morris, and I am currently a 3rd year student at the University of Tampa. I am a Sports Management Major and a member of the Men's Lacrosse team. I was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where I still live with my family.

         I am very optimistic about doing new things and going outside my comfort zone. I believe Art 211 "Art and Technology" will be a new fun challenge and I look forward to learning things I can take with me in the real world.