paper dolls

paper dolls from Sonora Bravo on Vimeo.

stop motion

my several cents from Sonora Bravo on Vimeo.

final project proposal

- What is your overall idea?

I would like to retool and re-edit the MONEY found footage video. I will combine it with the sound object project, adding and playing with the sounds I recorded. I want to feature women more, especially commenting on women’s roles during the found footage time period (~50s), and their relationship with money. Key words: retail, addiction, drugs/alcohol, appearances, pretty, dangerous.

- What will it look/sound like? 

I would like to maintain the sound landscape of “glamorous yet ominous” in the MONEY video, but add sounds from the real world. I would also add more female faces and bodies, especially pertaining to objects, consuming, and "looking pretty".

- Timeline:

Editing sound objects and folding those sounds into the music of the video. Next, finding new videos in the Prelinger Archive (related to female, shopping). Editing video.

- Materials you need:

iMovie, Audacity. Possibly Ableton Live.

Thoughts on The Garden of Forking Paths

Why is a multiverse theory relevant to new media studies? In The Garden of Forking Paths, Borges presents a story of a book (or perhaps a work of art) that is also a labyrinth. Playing with concepts of time, choices, a maze, interactivity, material intended to confuse or challenge - these ideas arise in modern art with regularity. These notions, along with the goal of creating a work that is infinite, brings me to the label “new media”. New media implies stepping outside of the normal boundaries of thought and approach. Is a game art? If so, the game is not the same for every player, and some games are so complex that possibilities are near infinite. Is time linear? If not, how does this approach change storytelling and memory?

This also leads me to think about randomness and its part in life and story. Is randomness beneficial to creating art and narrative? Can randomness be beautiful or interesting? Considering every possible outcome is an awe-inspiring, chaotic venture. What can we learn from chaos?

Dr. Yu Tsun mentions a “swarming sensation of which I have spoken. It seemed to me that the humid garden that surrounded the house was infinitely saturated with invisible persons.” I would love to play with this idea, the sensing of the multiverse and the sensing of other times/dimensions. How could I lead an audience to feel such a swarming?

money video

MONEY from Sonora Bravo on Vimeo.

Sound objects

thoughts on I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

Memories, much like videos, are full of triggers like landmines. Our “massive subliminal insecurities” pick up on and amplify these triggers. Whenever we are “feeding” our minds with sensory information, we take this risk. I would love to explore this idea more, the risk of sensing. The choice (or being forced against our will) to sense can lead us to bliss, anxiety, or outright turmoil. As artists we are asking our audience to sense our work - how best to direct their senses? How much can we challenge their senses and push them towards (good?) anxiety without alienating them? Or perhaps the question is how we balance bliss with anxiety, to create something beautiful yet compelling and thought provoking. I think Philip K. Dick has achieved this delicate balance. He spins a yarn, and it makes me think about how I can spin a yarn with my future work.

“There is too much fear in him and too much guilt… I must come up with ten years of memories, or his mind will be lost.” This tension keeps the story together, keeps us reading. It’s because we’re thinking about if we scoured our own minds, would we find 10 years of comfort? Really captures the horror of anxiety - left to our own devices, we could poison all memories with bad thoughts. But the problem is that we must sense, or we’re not alive.

“Aching memories; memories that hurt.”

Listening Protocol (Ultra-Red)

The question “What did you hear?” seems to exist to establish terms - it has me thinking about how a community and its taxonomy is built on terms (or even just words). Words, to me, are such powerful and magical tools. Tools that can be used to lift up a community and solve problems, or used to cause conflict. The narrowed focus of the sound object, the “slowing down” combined with vocalizing what was heard is a unique reflective exercise, and this exercise can be used to establish terms that are most relevant and beneficial to a group.

1. Gather a group of peers to discuss daily problems and issues in the current context. 

2. Take time to examine various terms that arise, picking 1-5 terms that resonate with every member of the group. Alternatively, pick an umbrella term that encompasses the more prevalent issues (i.e. “money”).

3. Send groups of two to record sounds pertaining to one term. Must record sounds in places that are close by or within the group's community.

4. Let the two person groups shape their sound, editing out irrelevant noise or focusing on more relevant sounds.

5. Let all the groups meet and play their sound objects in a safe environment conducive to focused listening, and ask “What did you hear?” Take time to write down all responses. Use responses to develop terms and words that represent the essence of current problems (or even unexpected ones). Use these words as a jumping off point to brainstorm solutions or demands.

thoughts on "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

This article about reproduction of art makes me think of sampling. The article is concerned about experiencing an artwork’s authenticity, or its “aura”. But the practice of sampling is concerned with finding something (old or taken out of context) and turning it into something new and different (and perhaps improving upon it). It can also pay homage to an original, which can in turn let a new generation learn about something they may not have been aware of. I think there is merit in the reproduction of sampling - if we’re going to reproduce art or music anyway, why not make it our own and alter it? There is no way to reproduce the aura of a live performance of a song, just like there no way to reproduce the aura of looking at a mountain.

Walter Benjamin seems to imply that things were better when we didn’t reproduce artwork for the masses, when we didn’t “destroy the aura” of great works by taking them out of context and ritual. What makes art so precious, especially over time? Can’t we create new, relevant auras? There might be some nostalgia at play here. His perspective seems to separate the “masses” from the artists. I think access to art and access to making art (even through reproduction) is freeing and a cornerstone of modern education. It’s messy, maybe. However, I believe authenticity and aura are still present whenever there is perspective and intention. Believe it or not, there is artistic perspective and intention on the internet!

Turning popular vines into SPICY BEATS

TED Talk: How sampling transformed music | Mark Ronson

zine gif

zine