Final Video Assignment

Here is my final video assignment for DIVA. I’ve decided to call it “Boy Rides Bike With Poetry” as a reference to the many number of other video pieces with explicit titles.

I wanted to play with the idea of moving through spaces and the specific rules that govern those spaces. I tried to set up the movie time line in such a way that it would resemble a pattern, or a digital rule governed space. This way the video would create tension, between the flow of the images and the cutting of the scenes. The quick and shaky cuts also serve this idea of creating tension between spaces and elaborating on the differences of rules governing specific spaces.

I chose to shoot at night to further exaggerate the difference of spaces. The night-time alleys become almost private in a sense and so further juxtapose space with a sense of private and public. I also wanted to give the viewer a sense that they were part of this unfolding of spatial transitions which is why I decided to shoot with one hand. Also, it made me able to reveal the bicycle as the superior medium for transitioning through rule governed spaces.

http://www.ecuad.ca/~ngoebel/boyandpoetry.m4v

Video Assignment

For my video assignment I would really like to utilize my bicycle somehow. I definitely ride my bike everyday and it definitely is something that affects other people. Whether it’s the people who I almost crash into on the seawall, the vehicles I occasionally run into, or even just the smaller ecological foot print of a bicycle. Cycling is definitely something affects people in general.

I’ve found some cool local videos of a cyclist who rides in Vancouver.

I’m not sure exactly what I will be doing yet, but I definitely know that it will involve my bicycle.

Finished Urban Intervention

My urban intervention assignment was installed without problem in two new locations. I am very pleased with how the vinyl adhesive turned out. I was a bit worried that my image would have been too intricate.

In the future I would like to do many of these images, but keep them small. I would like to do thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of hundreds of thousands.

These are the final images installed on site.

New Intervention Site

The previous space I chose for my urban intervention site has been fixed, and so, it no longer fits with my concept. Had I been able to put my image up before construction on the beam had started it would have worked perfectly. However, I have been forced to choose a new site. Here are some images, of ideas I have. I haven’t made any final decisions yet.

Urban Intervention Site

I have chosen a site for my vinyl sticker. The focal point being an old and decaying cross beam right next to my locker. This beam seems like a very important piece of the schools architecture and I find it a little but disconcerting that I can easily break chunks off of it. For my urban intervention assignment I would simply like to draw attention to this decaying piece of the schools structure. I would like people to notice, consider, and wonder what may or may not occur if this old cross beam were to fall apart. To do this, I have created an image that will grab peoples attention. An old and decrepid face to match the beam. Upon closer inspection I would like people to notice that the eyes within the old face are looking at the wooden beam ( I havent filled in the eyes in my image yet, and thus shifting their attention to it.

I’m also playing with the idea of having two layers of vinyl. One, a simple grey shape, and the second consisting of all the black linework. By layering the black over the grey I would be creating a more interesting image. However, I’m also considering whether or not its better to have the wall be visible and act as the skin for the face. Furthermore, having two layers would be twice as much work, and I would have to add some kind of registration marks to make the two images line up with more ease.

Additionally, I will have to check the exact size the vinyl cutter can do. If it’s not very large I may have to cut my image in half to make it work.

Urban Intervention

I have recently been considering my urban intervention assignment and in my research I stumbled upon an artist called Roadsworth. His works utilize pre-existing elements in an urban landscape and modify them to change ones perception of those spaces.

http://roadsworth.com/main/index.php?x=browse&pagenum=1&category=2

Also, last semester I took a silkscreen course. I can see utilizing aspects of silkscreen in the composition of my piece by using multiple layers of shapes and color to create more a more interesting image.

Also, I think I would like to work on a large-scale. I’m not sure the exact parameters of the assignment yet, but I feel compelled to undertake a larger piece.

CODE Live 2 – The Paradise Institute – Review

Over the Olympic break, an installation called The Paradise Institute was exhibited in the Emily Carr University Concourse Gallery. The piece was created by Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller and organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The piece ran from February 8 to 21, 2010.

Upon entering the Concourse Gallery you will see the Paradise Institute as a large oddly shaped wooden structure or enclosure. You will notice that there are doors in the sides of this enclosure as well as stairs leading up to them, which will prompt you to enter. Upon entering this structure you recognize it as a movie theatre. However, it’s built in such a way that the perspective of the space makes it seem much larger, if not like a full size theatre. You sit in a movie theatre style chair of which there are two rows, and you look out at the screen. Below you are many tiny chairs and an illuminated screen. Before the piece begins you put on a pair of headphones, the room darkens and a movie begins to play.

This piece is very much an interactive one and very experiential. You must sit down inside the enclosure to experience it. The attendants close the doors and you must stay for the duration of the piece, which is about thirteen minutes. You must listen to the audio via headphones that are hooked to the bottom of your seat. There are about sixteen seats and you will most likely be watching the piece with other people.

I feel the piece is meant to explore the relationship between our senses of sight and sound and reality. The video playing on the movie theatre was about a man trapped inside a hospital just as you the viewer are trapped inside the structure. The audio sounds playing in your headphones come from the movie as well as the imaginary theatre around you. These sounds really play with your senses of what is real and what is not, based on audio and visual stimuli. I think this piece utilizes core notions of whether or not seeing is believing or more in this case, is hearing believing.

I think that this piece does a good job in creating a general sense of anxiety in the viewers. The inability to be positive of what’s real and what is not while being in a dark room with strangers is very effective. However, I feel some of the sounds were not as believable as others. If the goal is to blur the line of reality and illusion, than the audio sound effects such as cellular phones, jackets rustling, and people scuffling where very successful. It’s the people whispering and talking that I feel detracts from the piece as I can clearly distinguish their voices out to be fake, or illusory. I feel that if the whispers were more silent, or inaudible they may have been more helpful to the piece.

Overall, I feel this work was very well done. I definitely had some difficulty distinguishing what was real and what wasn’t and found myself looking over my shoulder for people getting up and moving around a few occasions.

Finished Sound Project

Here is the link to my finished sound project.

http://www.ecuad.ca/~ngoebel/divatrack.mp3

I wanted to play with the idea of the washroom being a super private space. And furthermore, the types of things that go on inside a washroom that are considered socially taboo. I see a typical suburban home illustrating this notion clearly. The street outside such a home is public. As one moves up to the driveway and front door, they are already in a semi private space. Once you enter a home, you are in what would be considered a completely private space. And even within this already private space, there is the super private space of the washroom.

I’m curious about the nature of this super private space, and the reasons it is necessary to hide our socially taboo bodily functions.

DIVA Projects and Illustration

My sound project is currently underway. I plan on having something close to a final cut prepared by next class.

I’ve taken some of the comments about my panorama proof to mind and have spent some time reworking it in photoshop. I plan on printing the final panorama by next class.

I also wanted to add some of my illustration homework. This is a vector drawing based on the Russian fairy tale “The Fisherman and His Wife”.

Panorama and Sound Update

I’m just putting some final photoshop finishes on my panorama which I plan on proofing tomorrow.

I’m also underway recording sounds for a project which involves the taboo nature of activities that go on in the washroom. I hope to draw attention to social aspect of common noises made by the body and also address the differences in privacy levels between washroom spaces.