10/22 Idea blog: Taking Notes.

I have come to the conclusion that I have been shooting the wrong thing. Spencer Finch had the right idea.By turning the monitors around he was about to use the white wall as a canvas for the colors of his sunset. I am not going to get the colors I want by shooting directly at the screen. I should be taking the blurred footage and directing it at a wall to try and get the colors I want. Shooting the wall.

But here are the questions I need to ask.
1. Do I need to show the TV to let people understand the work better?
2. Does this need to be video in order to allow the pacing and color interact?
3. If question two is a yes, is also question 1 a yes or can the dancing of the colors, the flashing, can they speak for themselves.
4. Can this work function as stills?

I'm starting to this that I am beginning to answer these questions on my own. If my ultimate goal is to somehow illustrate the idea or transmission and its effects, I do not think this work is able to function without movement, or light. I'm starting to get the feeling like this work is going to work as projections in order to manipulate emotions.

10/19 Artist blog: Yves Klein

Using the monochrome colors, particularly the blue in which he created specifically for his work, and what he viewed as the “empty field”. His visual analogue was seen as the void itself. He through himself into the creation of a "monotone-silence symphony". He was on a quest for perfection and the absolute, the monotone and the monochrome. He refused to conform his monochrome paintings to havng at least one more color, this he quoted "I refuse to compare and bring together one element that is strong and other weaker ones in order to highlight them.... As soon as there are two colors involved, a battle is given; from permanent spectacle produced by the battle of the two colors in the psychological and emotional domain" 76, Long Live the Immaterial, Yves Klein.
Yves work is sensible, formless and in that way limitless.


http://www.yveskleinarchives.org/

Idea Blog: 10/14- COLOR

sitcom:comedy

mystery

crime scene

late night:talk

romance

These are images that I have been working on. I took away the focus to bring out the overall color hue. Shooting the screen is hard because if you shoot too long the color is taken away and all you get is white, shoot to short and even if your lens is blurred, your shot is in perfect focus. Right now its about the balance. I need to find a way to shoot so that the colors blend into one color.

I have been talking and thinking a lot about color and its involvement in my work, and well not doing a very good job at working it all out. This is the point where I continue to talk about the work that I'm trying to make. But that's just it. The word. Trying. Making and trying to make are two different things and to tell the the truth, I'm tired.
The number one thing on my mind has been artificial light and color and how through transmission meaning can be interpreted. I feel that the pacing and color within TV sets to the tones feel and ultimately manipulate your mood.

Artist blog:10/12 Spencer Finch

Spencer Finch:
West (Sunset in My Motel Room, Monument Valley, January 26, 2007, 5:36-6:06 PM) 2007

Uses the light from stills from John Ford's 1956 Western The Searchers on nine video monitors. The gallery bathed in this reflected light is transformed from day to night exactly mimicking the color and intensity of the sunset.

...more to come when i get the book.

Rethinking blog.10/12

Paul told me to reorganize my blog. So this is me, restarting.

Artist Review: Ea Vasko 10/7

Ea Vasko.
City / Disorder VII, 2008

City / Order IV, 2007

City / Disorder VI, 2007

City / Disorder VIII, 2008

An artists that uses abstraction as one of her main criterias for making imagery, Ea Vasko considers the viewing process an act of sorts. In one of her statements she says "... a picture taken in a clear light is like a fact. It does not leave any room for imagination. When the object is clearly recognizable, it is also easily ignorable.".In her series Defining Darkness, Vasko's use of abstraction in light and color to change the perception o the images makes the viewer really look and think about what the photograph is.

Coming from working with darkness, and artificial light myself I interpret this work in many different ways. I think this work does a beautiful job of displaying chaos. Just the act of trying to pinpoint something tageble from this work is so task oriented it makes you tired. The city, especially when night falls, becomes erupted with artificial light. The process that a person must go through to acclimate to such things is hard and at least for me a bit overwhelming.

Vasko's imagery also makes me uneasy. It makes me think she herself is unsure. It's just oriented in such a way that you can almost make the colors or spacing out, yet you never come to a full/definite conclusion as to what is producing this light. And in that way, the obscurity is the can frustrate you, as well as be the only thing that keeps you looking.

I think her work is smart, and simply beautiful. It is not only the abstracted qualities of this work that keeps my interest but the quality of her photographs. They are beautiful, and colorful. Her composition of each one is perfect. Vasko has a keen eye for shape and form.

http://www.eavasko.com/#reflections

Visiting Artist: Penelope Umbrico 10/8

I enjoyed the artist lecture on Monday. I found it inspirational and found myself writing down idea after idea during and after the lecture.I think her work is smart and in some ways playful. The progression from one idea and project to the next within different series in her work is particularly motivational. She talked about doing work because it works for the work that you are making, and not, working in a particular way because other people have done something similar. Umbrico talked about the idea of ownership and appropriation and how none of that should deter a person from creating work.

Umbrico's work deals with the subject of consumerism. Using Home Improvement magazines she creates multiple works that questions consumeristic ideals and practices. I found it very interesting when she spoke of the them as viruses or germs. They come into your home whether you let them in or not. Houndreds, thousands, everyday. Umbrico played with the focus of the camera, to create those bacterial, organic intrusive organisms.

Umbrico's work is connected by a fascination with the idea of voyeurism. Whether it be through home inprovement magazines or honeymoon brochures or online cites like Flickr, Ebay and Craig's List these things are a view into the lives of other people, real or not. The magazines and brochures are an unattainable idealized alternative lifestyle. The websites are a the view into peoples houses, clutter, and vacations.

I've already taken so much away from the lecture, that I am excited to work. I could relate a lot of thoughts and feelings I had about my work now to the work she was doing with the home improvement magazines. Although I was visually liked the work she did with the TV screens, conceptually it was very different from my own work.

"Cops" 10/5

So in light of recent events I've decided to Blog about things that are kinda going on in my life.

Last night while I was home alone, someone busted in my back door and tried to get into the house. In my panic. I called all 3 of my roommates, and my best guy friend all multiple times in a row with no answer. I also called 911, although I did reach them eventually it took me 2 calls before I got through.

I feel like this situation has a lot to do with my current topic in general. Pretty much everyone has a camera, computer, and phone. Yet how connected are we. It all kinda came to a head for me last night.

It was strange to me that in the process of taking names, numbers and arresting the doorbuster, the cops took out there phones and were taking photos. Laughing. This was obviously the highlight of their night. I decided to help them out. I took, out my camera and took pictures to for them. When I thought things couldn't get any weirder, one of the cops asked me to put it on Facebook and add him. I'm glad they caught the guy, but I'm concerned about how light they were taking it. These aren't the cops I'm used to watching on TV. Really how as all these social networks changed us?This event only strengthened my need to explore the elements of transmission, surveillance why it is that we need all these things to feel informed...

It was a relief that we caught the guy that broke in, i mean, he was dumb enough to pass out on our back porch after he tired himself out kicking in our door. He was also dumb enough to try and run away, and mouth off. He'll be in jail for the week, and I'll see him in court later this year.

Let's try this again. 9/14

When I first tired to post this it got and error and it was deleted so here it goes again.

When reading my feedback a question was posed as to "what" I was trying to say with the work I've shot lately. Or even just in general. And to tell you the truth right now I am done with thinking about that. I feel as though it is crippling. I can't produce work, or even produce blogs when I think that way. I feel so behind in just gathering my thoughts for this body of work. Where am I going, what am I doing. Why is it that I can sit and read, and when its time for me to write about what it is I've been thinking about I freeze. Total blank.

Paul said something to me that was really inpirational, or at the very least it help to lift some of the anxiety that I have been feeling. The truth is i don't need to know what it is that I'm trying to say, I don't need to focus so acutely on a subject. Part of the reason I feel i was so stuck is that I was so anxious about producing intelligent work that I have officially psyched myself out. So in order to remedy the cycle that I have put myself in I've decided to stop thinking. Well only figuratively. But I think part of my problem is that I was thinking in circles. Coming up with ideas and instantly shooting them down. Doing research then disregarding it.

So in tern I am determined this weekend/week to pick up the pace and well, redeem myself.

So Ideas:
Part of why I started this whole project in the being was to explore my person fixation with the Television and computers. I find that when I am watching TV I tend to get tunnel vision and selective hearing. This zombie like instinct seems so strange to me since I really don't like TV a whole lot and did not even grow up with cable. I've noticed similar behaviors in my roommates too. In particular Tyler, he can sit and play video games for hours. and the only times he gets up is for the bathroom ro to have a cigarette. So I want to shoot him. See how is posture changes (if it does) and his movements and interaction with the work.