VISA 0120 Foundations Media: Computation + Art

My final piece was on display from Wednesday May 6 to Monday May 11 outside of List Art Center. I chose this site because it is a more quiet and more private space that would allow for a better appreciation of the bottles’ music.

Despite the bad weather people got to interact with it.

I included a sign that would invite everyone to play.

I wrote clear instruction with two sample songs to encourage people to play with confidence. I also invited the public to write instructions for songs of their choice.

The bottles were numbered to facilitate people’s interaction.

I was able to receive responses from three people.

Here is the firs song someone wrote. It is titled “Stairway to Heaven” :

A second person wrote a song called “A Vous Dirais Je Maman”:

A third person found one of my bottles to be off-tune. The note says: “The 5 doesn’t sound quite right in the Ave Maria but perhaps it’s just me.”

Here is a video of how my second sample song, “Cielito Lindo” is supposed to sound:

Here is another video of people interacting with the bottles:

The structure was able to withstand three rainy days. Unfortunately it could not withstand the windstorm from Sunday May 10.

Sadly, the structure had to be disassembled and recycled

It was a great pleasure to see people enjoying the musical qualities of my piece. Although I was not present to see all the people who played with the bottles, it was exciting to read the comments and collaborations that people made despite the unfavorable weather.

I also noticed that people struggled to read the numbers for the sample songs. Perhaps bigger numbers and an indication of meter would make the songs easier to play. Additionally, I noticed that the bottles are loud enough and could possibly be installed in a more public space in order to receive more responses.

pdf_final-project_abstract

Wind Test

Bottles and Wind

I was not able to get the sound that I expected with this experiment. The wind was not flowing fast as usual and the bottles could not pick up any sound. I will keep testing to see if this will work at all.

As a plan B, I intend to continue using bottles but instead of using the wind I will install them and use them as percussion instruments.

Green space outside of List

I would like to install my piece here because many people visit List Building throughout they would easily notice my installation.

I intend to have an interactive installation using bottles to create sound.
Site Exploration

Alley Between List Art Building and Hay Library

Site view, looking from College St

I plan to use this site because I am trying to explore the wind as a tool to make sound or music. I am using bottles filled up with watter at different levels to create different frequencies of sound. I plan to hang the bottles high so that people can walk under them.

Close up

Looking up

North view, looking from Waterman St

This is a sketch of how the bottles would look hanging from both walls.

This is a sketch of how the installation would look from underneath.

Man Aging

Man Aging
This is a portrait of a man between the age of one and thirty. The sequence of photos is displayed in a fast moving manner to represent how sometimes we feel the years passing by so quickly that we do not notice when we are getting older. The idea is to have the audience interact with the piece by stopping the sequence with a mouse click. Every click shows a different still picture of the person and allows the viewer to see how the effects of age transform the man’s traits.

I have chosen to translate my project of age and decay. With this assignment I would like to focus on only one person (perhaps myself) to be able to show the effects of age more effectively. I plan to have pictures or drawings of the person displaying how his appearance changes from childhood to adulthood. In order to make this piece interactive the images will be displayed every time there is a mouse click. Another option is to have the images displayed continuously for as long as the mouse is pressed and stop at any time when the mouse is released.

Quiet Personality
I chose to hide my self-portrait behind random squares and bars to represent my shyness and my reserved personality. Being quiet is not always a good thing. Sometimes I wish I could have the confidence to speak out and have my voice heard. In a way, I feel trapped behind these squares that don’t allow the viewer to see all the virtues and traits that I actually have.

Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar, image from: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/jaar/index.html

Alfredo Jaar is an architect, artist and filmmaker. Jaar explores the public’s desensitization to images and the limitations of art to represent events such as genocides, epidemics, and famines. Most of his works are based on his research on real life events such as tragedies that he tries to reflect on. Some of his subjects include the holocaust in Rwanda, gold mining in Brazil, toxic pollution in Nigeria, and issues related to the border between Mexico and the United States. He is passionate about beauty in life and he utilizes this concept in his works to attract his audience. He believes audiences need to be seduced in order to direct their attention to certain issues. (http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/jaar/index.html)

As an architect, Jaar considers space as a major component of his installations. Coincidentally, architecture is one of my passions and it is something I am considering as a career. Although I do not yet have a defined artistic style, I do notice that space in one way or another influences most of my visual works. Something else I have in common with Alfredo Jaar is his approach to art. Like Jaar, I have to be driven by real life events and by valuable visual elements in order to make artistic statements.

In my new video I take the concept of space and try to portray the inside of a church from various angles, utilizing mirror and high contrast effects to create a dramatic mood. The video is meant to show my perception of space as a child. Having the architectural elements of a church gives this video a more personal value based on my Catholic background.

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I am not a fan of shopping at the mall. Whenever I go to a mall I try to buy whatever I need and get out as soon as possible. The bit crowds and all the stores with flashy signs end up giving me headaches. This video displays fast and interrupted scenes, aiming to show the things that make me feel uneasy inside a mall.

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This video deals with my perception of a church as a child. I try to portray how I felt and how I saw things when I was taken to church. I remember feeling surrounded and overwhelmed by all the statues of saints and the old architecture. Those visual components and the echoing voice of the priest and the people praying in the background made time feel slow and distressing.