Reading #3 - Dispersion

For this reading, we were assigned to peruse the syllabus for a course at RISD on experimental publishing. In the syllabus there were five categories: substrate, versions, dispersion, transduction, and balconism. At first looking through these categories on the syllabus I was very confused because it is general in describing what each category meant. Im assuming that each one was a different project the student's had to create and do based on the category and below were examples of some of the projects. The one that caught my eye the most was the third category, which was dispersion. This one caught my attention because the first thing under that category was a quote that stated, "In what sense is posting - to Facebook, for example - publishing or making public?" It then goes on to say that students must distribute a series to a network/channel that could include any message, image, data, or anything the students wanted. They were told that it must be exposed for the first time and it also must interrupt, complicate, or somehow alter the conventions/expectations/algorithms of the network by circulating the project.

I looked through some of the links provided with this prompt and honestly did not understand most of them but one of the projects really stuck out to me. In 2014 a girl named Amelia Ulman decided she wanted to become an Instagram celebrity and researched the cosmetic gaze and the beauty myth and then went on to prepare a script and timeline that she felt followed the rhythm of social media. This was her narrative:

"The provincial girl moves to the big city, wants to be a model, wants money, splits up with her high-school boyfriend, wants to change her lifestyle, enjoys singledom, runs out of money because she doesn’t have a job, because she is too self-absorbed in her narcissism, she starts going on seeking-arrangement dates, gets a sugar daddy, gets depressed, starts doing more drugs, gets a boob job because her sugar daddy makes her feel insecure about her body, and also he pays for it, she goes through a breakdown, redemption takes place, the crazy bitch apologizes, the dumb blonde turns brunette and goes back home. Probably goes to rehab, then she is grounded at her family house."

She was interested in pop culture's obsession with Instagram celebrities that she wanted to see if she could get people to believe her made up story. She even stated in an interview that she told some of her friends that this was fake and was just a type of social experiment but even they started to believe the made up story. This story reminded me of another girl who set up pictures all taken in New York City to make it look like she took a trip to China. She did this by going to China Town in New York and by checking herself into a hotel and taking pictures of exotic food and other stuff like that. Everyone actually believed she was on this trip, which proved her point that people will believe almost anything that they see on the internet. I thought Amelia's experiment was well thought out and very clever and I am very interested in looking into this project more.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/how-amalia-ulman-became-an-instagram-celebrity.html

Research

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson, born in 1941, is an American experimental theatre stage director and playwright. He also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and light designer. Robert Wilson seems to be most concerned with theatre and is known for his unique use of light on the stage. He likes to study simple movements and also is interested in furniture design and prides himself on the originality of his work. Robert Wilson has some very close ties with famous musicians, actors, and writers, which apparently fascinates a lot of people.

The reason I liked Robert Wilson is because he is basically why I chose the project I chose. He is the artist who took Lady GaGa and had her standing still for ten minutes while she posed portrait style to make a video portrait. I had never seen someone do this before and I had never even thought of anything like this but I found it very interesting. I have always worked with photography so working with video will definitely be something new for me but I am excited to try it.

Robert Wilson has done many video portraits with famous actors. He uses many creative elements for the videos like lighting, costume, makeup, choreography, gesture, text, voice, set design, and narrative. It states on his bio that "The video portraits act as a complete synthesis of all the media in the realm of Wilson's art making." It also states that the video portrait form blurs time-based cinematography with the frozen moment of still photography. The video portrait was a way for Wilson to use a multitude of creative processes found in painting, sculpture, design, architecture, dance, theatre, photography, television, film, and contemporary culture.

I really enjoy Wilson's pieces because at first glance you think you are looking at a photograph but then in closer inspection you realize that it is actually a high definition video. I really enjoy how much thought and effort he puts into setting up and staging each video. I also enjoy all of the creative lighting and staging. It is also very interesting how many famous actors and musicians who he got to pose for his videos, some of the people I could never imagine doing something like that. When I first saw that Lady Gaga did it I was not surprised but then looking through his other videos I was very shocked to see faces like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.

http://www.dissidentusa.com/robert-wilson/subjects/

Adam Magyar

Another artist I really enjoy that uses the video portraits is Adam Magyar. He is a Hungarian artist that likes to travel a lot to do his artwork. He spent a good amount of time in cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kolkata, and New York. Adam is very interested in made-made structures and finds human's scientific achievements an important part of human evolution. In his artist statement he mentions "...to me the city is not less of a natural environment than the rainforest." He thinks that as humans we are constantly trying to move further while leaving a trace behind in the fraction of time we are given.

Adam Magyar uses photography and also video to show time and flow of life. It said in his artist statement that he is really interesting in time, which is very interesting to me because I feel that photography shows the death of a certain time but by adding the video element he is giving life to that certain moment. His art works with my idea because I am focusing on a moment in time and I do not want to show something already gone but something constantly in motion. He is similar but different from Robert Wilson because he did not take a video of just one person standing still, he used the Subway as his setting and used very slow motion camera so that it would look like still image but really everything is moving.

This subway image is from his project called STAINLESS where he scanned rushing subway trains arriving in stations. This is a large image but when you zoom in you can see a number of tiny details from the moment. You can also see the looks on people's faces in the train, which he thought they were "scrutinizing the uncertain future." He also states that every person in the train has something in common because all of their main motivation is the arrival. He also talks about how the darkness surrounding the trains in the tunnels deep below the city turns these images into fossils of our time.

Most of the work done for his project STAINLESS are photographs but what I was most interested in was the three videos that go along with the photos. Similar to Robert Wilson, I really enjoy how he has staged these people in such a way that is so theatrical with the lighting and everything that goes into staging. He creates this feeling of time but also a feeling that time is stopped. Once again, at first glance you might assume it is just a photograph but then you realize people are slowly moving. I love this idea and it is evident he put a lot of thought and time into this project. I also really enjoy the still images because at first it looks like nothing but being able to zoom in on specific faces gives it a more personal story.

Link to Adam's website and videos:
http://www.magyaradam.com/

Project 1 Proposal

My idea for project 1 is to use photography and more specifically portrait photography. I have always been interested in portrait photography so I feel this would be a good way to continue working with what I enjoy. I have taken hundreds of portraits in the past but I have never created a moving or looped portrait. I had a hard time coming up with what I could possibly do and still am not 100% sure about my idea. At first I wanted to do something with the dolly zoom, where I would keep the person in one spot but make the background zoom in or out. I then came across cinema graphs where one part of an image is moving on a loop but the rest is still but this has been done so many times. My last and final idea is to create something similar to a cinema graph but not exactly the same. I would like to shoot a video of a person as if I am taking their portrait but have them stay completely still for an entire minute. I will have them hold a lit cigarette or have their hair blowing in the wind or something to show that it is a video and not an image. I think it will be interesting to see if this works out and if people will be able to tell what I was going for.

This is an image I took a while ago which I think would be perfect because of the smoke from the cigarette and also the wind blowing her hair. 

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Walter Benjamin

Section 7:

     I had a hard time understanding the entirety of the section but what I think the section discussed was the argument of the value of painting versus photography. It then goes on to discuss the value of film versus photography. I have always struggled with this controversy myself because photography has always been my favorite medium to work with. I constantly asked myself whether I thought painting or drawing was more artistic than photography because with photography you are merely looking into a viewfinder and pressing a button.  I like what this section said when it was talking about how people only wondered whether or not photography was an art and not whether the invention of photography had transformed the nature of art. I thought this was interesting because I never considered this a possibility, that photography has just changed what art can be, and shouldn't be pushed away as an art form.

     Film on the other hand is different. This section states that the question of whether photography is an art or not were nothing compared to the concerns raised about film. It's hard to think of a time when photography and film didn't exist as an art form but I can imagine the confusion people must have had when they were invented. Drawing, painting, sculpting and other forms of art have always been around and are undoubtably art forms but photography and film are much different. I think it is interesting to think about how new forms of art were developed and how scary/exciting that must have been for people. After much thought, I still am not entirely sure about my views on whether painting is "better" than photography or film or not. The one thing I am positive about is that photography and film are definitely art forms, just a different kind of art form.