A Process

Just a reminder that Josh will be filling in for me next Tuesday and Thursday while I'm at Sundance. Here's something that screened at the festival a few years ago--Jack White in It Might Get Loud (2009) engaging in a process of human labor. And it's awesome.

Jack White make guitar from GorWo4ek on Vimeo.

Tiny Stories

Here is the assignment description for the Tiny Stories from the syllabus:

Each student will write and illustrate a series of five ‘tiny stories.’ By tiny story, I mean a narrative, (with something that might resemble a begin- ning, a middle and an end) usually less than 30 words, accompanied by an illustration (usually just one, maybe two or three if you’re pushing it). By series, I mean an assemblage of stories that have some underlying, unifying principle (by theme, style, approach, subject-matter, etc.). Students are encouraged to consider how form and content, narrative and theme, individual story and series correlate and compliment each other.

In class today, we looked at a number of different series of tiny(ish) stories and discussed the unifying principle underlying these stories. For example, we imagined what our friend Tim Burton might create in response to this assignment.

You might consider theme, character, style...

We also listened to the following song from They Might Be Giants.

You might consider tone, intent, duration...

Most importantly, this is an exercise in exploring new sources of inspiration for storytelling and creative expression. This is an opportunity for us to develop our abilities to...

• closely read the world around us
• document our observations/experiences/interpretations
• conceptualize our stories
• realize our expressions
• contextualize our creations

So, consider these points during your creative process, and reflect on these points when writing the artist's statements.

Alternative Assignment?

Instead of the Music Mosaic--in which students translate a favorite piece of instrumental music into a series of images--should I ask that students begin the semester by translating their favorite meal into interpretive dance? We could call it the Dinner Dance?

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Beat

Did you notice that there was more than one reference to hip hop music in our discussion today? That's not entirely coincidental--hip hop is cool, and my use of it in class works to remind us of the broad range of creative expression that we can be engaged in here in the Media Arts department. I don't think we currently allow you to pitch a hip hop album as a TMA capstone project (shame), but what might we benefit from exploring such territory? Well, it (often, but not always) provides an example of skillfully produced, technologically innovative, culturally significant and conceptually grounded expressions that challenge conventional approaches to art. Additionally, these new(er) art forms invite experimentation that (perhaps) more traditional approaches don't (often) allow. Like this guy who creates hip hop beats from rock, paper and scissors.

So, keep this in mind as you read, write and make things this semester. Your dreams of producing Transformers 4 are not in vain. But your Transformers 4 might be even awesomer than you imagined if informed by your efforts to explore unconventional, non-linear, non-commercial, non-representational, conceptually- or aesthetically-oriented media arts.

The Power of Story

"Stories are the secret reservoir of our values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves and you change the individuals and nations. Nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the future consequences of those lives. If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings."

- Ben Okri

Music Mosaic

Here's the assignment description for the Music Mosaic (20 pts.):

Each student will create a series of 8 - 12 images that visually complement a piece of instrumental (w/o lyrics) music. Images may be drawn, painted, photographed or created digitally, but must be the creation of the student (not thieved from Google Images). Students are encouraged to consider both form (line, color, composition, etc.) and content (representation, narrative, etc.) in their creations.

Now, let's discuss some potential approaches to this introductory assignment. The dynamic between image and sound can be navigated in a number of ways. We're probably most familiar with the approach that starts with images (or more appropriately, moving images) and then composes music to accompany these images--film scores. Or on the other end of the spectrum, we're familiar with the approach that starts with music and then creates moving images to accompany the music--music videos. I find the approaches in-between most interesting.

For example, the following video started as a fan creation, and then became a collaboration between the composer and visual effects artist. And the composer attributes his relative success largely to the success of the video.

Or, you're probably familiar with the music/design/performance art project that is the Gorillaz. Here, an artist and some musicians have collaborated to simultaneously create these characters that navigate this cool transmedia narrative (oftentimes, in a cool, camouflage dune buggy). Here, neither image nor music has primacy--they're simultaneously produced and thoroughly interdependent.

One is more abstract; the other is more narrative- and character-driven. One attempts to visually represent tone, pitch, rhythm, instrumentation, etc.; the other is interested in using the combination of image and music to build a world. I invite you to do what you think most authentically expresses your reading of the music.

I know that that's kind of vague, and the examples we've used so far are moving (not static) images arranged in time (not space). So I'll attempt to be a little more concrete (as concrete as abstract expressionism can be, I suppose). I recently found a cool Swiss artist named Karina Wisniewska. Here are a few works of hers that I especially like.

Flowering Season, 2011

Field Lights, 2012

She also creates paintings inspired by, and often named for, her favorite pieces of classical music. For  example, here are two works inspired by a composition by Isang Yun.

Colloides Sonores I, 2010

Colloides Sonores II, 2010

And here's another piece inspired by a composition by Debussy.

 Cloches a Travers les Feuilles, 2010

Imagine if Karina was in 112, working on her own Music Mosaic. She might pick a piece from John Cage or Bach (both of whom she especially likes), and create a series of 8-12 images, translating her experience listening to the piece to a visual medium. Remember though, that you will need to justify your particular approach to this assignment in your artist's statement--whatever the medium, form, content, etc. of your mosaic, you'll need to be able to explain their significance.

So, refer to the description of the assignment in the syllabus, our discussions in class, the feedback you got during the workshop. Then get to work. Remember that your completed assignment will include a 300-500 word 'artist's statement' that contextualizes your mosaic within the week's topic--in this case, this delicate process of creative inspiration and execution.

Welcome to 112!

Here's a video to help introduce myself, and our discussion of stories.

Damon from Benjamin Thevenin on Vimeo.