Ways of Seeing- The Panza Collection

Minimalism- how to explain these types of works within art is difficult, even though it preaches to contain the most simple and basic designs. The most simple works that look as though I could have constructed it within my lunch break are those works that take the most time to figure out. The art work derived from minimalism is some of the most complicated things I had to figure out in art thus far. 

The Panza collection contained a lot of odd art, from things such as a fold-up bed with a paper mache sculpture placed next to it. When I first looked at this, to be honest I did not know what to think, I was very confused. Then I walked through the entire exhibit without paying too much attention to any specific piece of work to grasp the concept of what minimalism really is, without the definition provided to us from our teacher. Slowly I noticed similar features within all the different works, they all were composed in a way that makes you think outside the box. They all tell different stories but through the same sense of direction, making your mind work to put the pieces together.

I really enjoyed the artist Joseph Kosuth who made the piece Box, Cube, Empty, Clear, Glass-a Description in 1965. This was five giant cubes that each contained a different word describing the cube. All of these words are appropriate to describe all of these boxes. There is no word that cannot be applied to each cube, they all are exactly the same. The concept of having so many descriptions for the same thing in our everyday lives can be applied to the ways we chose to describe thing. There is a different descriptions we can place on the same object without even noticing. Kosuth plays with this idea and allows his audience to see how irrelevant objects can describe our irrelevant ways of describing different things. 

Another artist I really enjoyed was Jan Dibbets who created the work called Flood Tide in 1969. This was a collection of photos demonstrating a flood tide that dissolves the pathway to the water at a beach. As the photos get closer to the beach, the more clear they are and the less sand we see. It is very simple with little action going on, but to me it conveys a deep message. As we go down our path in life, just like the walkway developed in the photos, we can see things in our life more clearly. The things that seemed blurry or complicated to understand become more understandable through the years. By the time we reach the shore, there is no pathway visible anymore, that is the end of our life. We can only see the calmness of the waters that lead us to serenity. 

At first, this Panza exhibit was really complicated for me to understand making me feel weird about it. But when I stopped and really took a good amount of time to pay attention to every detail of the picture and let the picture capture me, rather than me capture the picture, I began to understand its meaning. It is a process that causes the audience to really meditate with the artwork. Minimalism maybe the most difficult concept I had to grasp so far within art, but it is definitely worth the time to understand it. Art can be weird, but minimalism gives weirdness a whole new meaning. 

Part 1- Linear Photo Narrative

Part 2- Linear Photo Narrative

These photos are to represent the idea of love. Many people misinterpret the reason why they seek love. Many people believe love is what will buy them happiness and freedom in life. The first three pictures show how loneliness can overtake a person, even take away the color from their life because they are so depressed that they don't have it. Then the next picture shows the person drinking to try to forget their loneliness. Within the fifth photo, the person turns to the only friend he has, a stuffed animal. Since the toy still does not find the person joy, he turns to looking on the internet for love. All these things make him go crazy so he decides to throw away his heart necklace which essentially reminds him of love, especially the love he does not have. This action allows him to feel free and adds color into his life. The reason the heart is the only thing in color within the first seven photos is because the guy views his life in black and white, depressed and lonely, when the heart literally weighs down his life. As soon as he stops worrying about not finding love, life becomes colorful and lively, as does the picture. I chose to do this story of a liberated person because many worry about love and when you stop worrying about it, it comes to you.

Video Group Project

Shooting the group videos was extremely interesting and difficult at the same time. Through working with my group, I realized a lot of new things not only about cameras, but about actual complications that can occur on sets.

When the assignment was given out to individually write your own script and shoot it with a group, my group consisted of four people. So we each wrote our own scripts and incorporated four characters in most of them. The day filming is supposed to occur, one of our members drops the class causing every one to have to alter their scripts. 

Doing run-throughs, coming to class on time, and calm directing helped my group stay focused and successfully accomplish filming our projects on time without any serious concerns. It was difficult for each of us to direct because when you direct everyone depends on you, but working with easy-going people made things a lot less stressful.

My group did run into complications when doing run-throughs and timing out our scenes in order to emphasize some details and not make our scenes appear boring by using different environments and angles. It was really fun to shoot because we all incorporated our own ideas into each others scripts, not only adding a piece of ourselves to the work but helping out our fellow group members.

Framing shots became tricky because each different scene had a different story meaning that had a different angle and frame around it. When we figured out where each scene was going to be filmed, we did run-throughs, which allowed us to see how we are framing the scene.

My perception changed when I thought I was going to be shooting in one area and when we actually arrived to shot there. I quickly realized the location I chose to shot at was not going to compliment my scene so I had to switch. After we shot my scene and got the opportunity to review it, I saw how it came out to appear more comical than I anticipated. I thought that the shot was going to be wider, but after reviewing the tape, it consisted of medium close-ups. What I thought I was shooting wasn't necessarily what I had actually shot, just like in the Cortazar text.

Design Through Photo pt. 3

This picture below of multiple Buddhas put together in what almost looks like a collage, is a picture made to show asymmetry with a complimentary color scheme. No where in the picture can you fold it and two equal halfs of the same thing. I did so by resizing the buddhas, flipping around the image, and tilting it. Using reds and greens, I made the background fuzzy and combined it with red hues since the Buddha contained a lot of reds in it. Then I adjusted every Buddha on its own with a red or green hue. Therefore, my design describes asymmetrical principles with complimentary colors.

Pt. 2- The Object

Paying attention to small details in small objects is what I tend to enjoy doing. So this close-up shot using natural lighting from my open window shows great detail in this golden Buddha's face. I really like how you cannot see the rest of his body and only can see his face and part of his hand. The natural light gave a nice color to the figure and a nice shot from my camera without using flash.

This was an interesting shot because it was using night light. The colors are rich and dark and yet you can still see enough details to understand what is going on. This long-shot allows us to see the entire Buddha and is framed to have objects in the background. It's as if no matter where you go, whether it is to drink a cup of coffee, Buddha can be there. The colors blend well and the glares from the Buddha, coffee cup, and small moisturizer make the picture look sleek.

I thought a semi-worms eye view shot would provide an interesting shot with a strange angle of the Buddha. I titled my camera and tried to grab a piece of my poster in the top left corner. This long-shot while using a two light source of natural light and my lamp made the details noticable in this shot. The Buddha looks superior, as if he is looking down at someone.

The fourth photo was one of my favorite shots I took due to the natural light combined with a direct light, from my lamp. Also I added this strange angle to emphasize the peace the Buddha gives to empty space. The Buddha gives off a shadow and the colors are very plain to represent the feeling of serenity the Buddha gives off. I Framed this angle to demonstrate the long-shot to be a powerful way to describe something small to have a huge meaning.

Regardless of the shots, lighting, and framing...this object means a lot to me. It is something I found randomly at a store last year when I was learning about Buddhism. At the moment I was kind of sad and I saw it, remembered the things I had learned, and it made me happy. I knew I had to purchase it and it still serves as a constant reminder of finding serenity through all the obstacles life throws your way.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nb8126a/DesignThroughPhotoPt2TheObject#

Design Through Photo pt.1- A Background Library

http://picasaweb.google.com/nb8126a/NatalieBarg?authkey=X4Nhdqa5Z8U#

Multiple surfaces, clothing patterns, textures, and gripping colors are all over the place. The key to noticing these backgrounds is to stop and simply look around. When I was taking my pictures to define patterns, textures and colors I thought there would be no better place to start than the place I visit all the time, my apartment. I started looking around in every corner and I found endless canvases with different forms of the art principles. I found colors that stood out and balanced off of others. Patterns in the arrangement of objects prevailed in the most random places that I never noticed before. This assignment allowed me to explore the place most people would think is easiest to understand, but in reality most of us do not even notice the art that surrounds us. The colors, shapes, and textures we place within our homes are our own choice and is a mirror representation of our personalities. Through this assignment I not only learned about art principles, but I learned my own artistic personality through the art surrounding me. The reason I choose to use the objects within my own apartment was to prove to my audience that there is so many designs within everyday objects and we do not have to look further than our own homes to notice the simplicity of art.

Candice Breitz- Mother + Father, 2005

The intentional empty space of this movie spread in two different rooms over eight meduim size monitors makes it very enjoyable due to its diverse way of showing a film. There are cropped out images that Hollywood chose to use in order to portray mothers and fathers and Breitz made their famous lines into a story of its own. The design of these images fading in and out on separate monitors made the movie powerful. Repitition also helped emphasize key points from the film and helped give the audience a new meaning.

Isaac Julien- Fantome Creole, 2005

This was my favorite movie of the exhibit due to its narrative and cinematic effects. Displayed on four large screens, the movie uses thematic energy in each of its scenes to make the color pop out at you, whether it is in the cold locations or hot ones. Shapes are thrown out everywhere along with lines and curves to form symmetrical and asymmetirical shots of nature. Extreme cropping of shots is used throughout to movie to emphasize movement and sound. The scenes move quickly and so do the actions within them. Different angles create different moods.

Corinna Schnitt- Living a Beautiful Life, 2003

The narrative of this movie was overall interesting because it was made in the form of an interview in which a rich family describes how great their life is, but in their stories the hidden truth of an imperfect life comes out without them even saying it. But the way it was filmed makes it very unappealing because it used boring colors, basic framed shots inside an empty looking house, and had a lot of intentional empty space. The interviews seemed very boring and slow making the film not too interesting.

Kerry Tribe- Double, 2001

This was my least favorite movie in the musuem due to it had the least amount of cinematic effects. It simply went from a meduim shot of just one person talking with a plain background to a quick black shot and then occasionally showed a shot of someone doing something very ordinary in a real life situation for a mere second. The colors were very boring and made the movie unappealing to me. The narrative was not interesting either so it did not help the boring scenes.

Julian Rosefeldt- Lonely Planet, 2006

This movie had a lot of asymmetrical shots that caused me not to really enjoy it because it seemed it set the tone of it to be very hectic most of the time. Repetition was used throughout the movie, especially during scenes such as the metro shot where people of the same color are just walking through the metro. Intentional obstruction was used along with horizon shots, for example the boat scene where the backpacker is standing up and the camera is behind him. I did not like this film either because the narrative was strange to follow.

Mungo Thomson- New York, New York, New York, New York, 2004

Unfortunetly, I did not really enjoy this film because the narrative was too boring for me. It had four large screens that switched different images filmed of empty New York City resturaunts, buildings, stores, or objects found on the street. The visual texture was harmonisously organized with the brick from the buildings and fruit from the store being right there in front of you almost ready to be touched. From this a depth perception and framing were visible. The unification of shapes and calm colors throughout the empty streets was another thing clearly defined.