A studio art course taught by Amber Frid-Jimenez on the use of computational methods and techniques to produce critical art projects about society and culture.
Public spaces are crucial for the fomation of community and the interaction of different social groups. Green area is a place of refuge in urban environments. This installation made people think about their daily interaction with public space. People placed balloons as symbols of their appreciation of public green space. As the day continued, more and more people came to celebrate what is often taken for granted.
The cycle: Mouse clicks, a tree grows. The leaves continue to fall — products of the trees they have fertilized. This processing piece shows the cyclical transformation occurring in nature. Interact.
Forest will be a processing translation of my previous stop motion piece “Cyclical Transformation in Motion.” It will convey the same ideas of time, cycles and transformation. The bars act as trees whose growth is controlled by the location of the mouse. Once the mouse passes a certain height, the bar will freeze and the mouse will begin to trail leaf-like objects. Once the mouse is clicked, the leaves will stop trailing and will fall to the ground. As if the fallen leaf objects are fertilizing the bars, the click will return the mouse to controlling the height of a bar, new growth. This cycle will continue, each time adding a bar, until their is a “forest” of bars. I will execute this concept using if/then statements and nested loops.
This Self portrait has two components: unchanging, strong features and an interactive background. Those who interact with the piece shape the portrait and have the power to influence it, but the features remain steady and independent of the interaction.
Chantal Ackerman was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1950, but now lives in Paris. Ackerman’s first film, “Saute Ma Ville” (1968), pictured a domestic scene and was her debut as a feminist film maker. Ackerman is aware of the viewpoint of the spectator and the passage of time. She uses time to create a sense of monotony and routine. She uses the camera angle to manipulate the way in which a viewer sees a scene.
Ackerman’s film “Hotel Monterey” (1972) particularly intrigues me. “Hôtel Monterey – is the idea that something is about to happen, or is happening just out of sight…Back and forth the camera goes, a silent walker, a leading character in a movie without a plot.” Ackerman uses the camera to create the motion of the viewer. She moves one through the space of her film — through doorways, hallways, and into rooms to observe. The film is silent. There is no plot, but rather a focus on observation of both people and the architecture and arrangement of objects in a space. Also, an acknowledgement of what cannot be observed–that which is behind the closed doors.
Hotel Monterey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2F9T7IdfiM
Ackerman’s filming techniques are relevant to my own work. Her use of the camera as the main character is reminiscent of my use of the camera. Motion is key in both of our films. I also admire her composition and hope to emulate it more in future films. “Wake Up Swing” is an expansion of my film “Swing”. In this film, my concept is similar to that of Ackerman’s Hotel Monterey: I want to lead the spectator through the park as if the camera is their person, physically moving through the scene. However, my film has more plot than Ackerman’s. I seek to show the life given to inanimate objects by motion–the life of motion. My film also uses many short cuts in opposition to Ackerman’s use of a fewer, longer cuts.
In this video, I want the viewer to feel the motion of a swing. I want to highlight the way ones perspective is altered as they move in the rhythmic, swinging motion through the air.
