Video Works and Collaborative Environments

I really enjoyed the VDMX session with David Fodel. I have spent hours since last Thursday playing with it and tweaking settings, editing video and then taking it to VDMX and even tried rotoscope animation, then mixing it. At this point, there are so many options it seems overwhelming. Similar to my new love of experimental sound, I think I would like to further experiment with AV mixing.

In particular, I was drawn to the Light Surgeon's 'True Fiction' trailer. In True Fiction, there seemed to be a nice balance of space between audio, visual and language. I found myself loving the spaces between words and how the tones and rhythm fit into the overall work. Video work leaves a vast space for collaborative opportunities as well. It always seemed awkward for me to collaborate with others in painting, but video work allows for others to have major parts of contribution. Fore example, I could see how writers, visual artists and musicians could really push boundaries of conventional collaboration. Even in the group for the final project in Remix, it is interesting to identify and profess potential strengths of each individual and how those strengths could contribute to the final piece.

Another video I found and thought was interesting is a video work titled, 'Terrestre: Movement in Still Life" by Maria Celeste Taliani. It's far from the VJ performances that we have viewed recently, but I am fascinated nonetheless. The near silence and awkward movements and camera views make me a bit uncomfortable, which is equally enjoyable.

Terrestre: Movement in Still Life by Maria Celeste Taliani

Videoart.net has some interesting videos to explore. I also found a video artist/writer named Sylvia Toy who mentions plagiarism in her artist statement on videoart.net. She writes;

"like all devoutly active artists, i am a scavenger. in the case of artists, scavengery is a matter of plagiarizing whatever reality or truth or beauty to which you subscribe. i scavenge archetypal imagery. as a filmmaker, i steal everytime i use my cameras in a public place. as a writer, i am my favorite junkyard. that is chilling, horrible and depressing, and it has opened me up to a whole new way of looking at the world."

Here is her video on videoart.net: The Story of the Book: Part Two

I see my own work heading in new directions as I expand the technical means of delivery. Below is one of my first experimentations with rotoscope animation and found image. It's really short, but definitely sparked interest in animation and expands on my fascination of combining technology with traditional techniques of drawing and painting.

Copyrightness

Interesting article about copyrights and technology on arstechnica.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/100-years-of-big-content-fearing-technologyin-its-own-words.ars

Open to Interpretation

I love the idea of open content and think of it as an equalizing tool. I think it would benefit the majority of people to have access to content, but to be clear, in a digital sense, access is still quite limited anyway. To own a computer is a privilege, so the 'playing field' is already askew. In many ways, allowing anyone to access files, creative work, software and the like is challenging the necessity of capitalism. For hundreds of years, people have been protecting their work with ownership claims. It was written into the constitution;

"the Congress shall have power … to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

This concept about two hundred years ago was a novel and cutting edge idea of fairness and a catalyst for the environment in which we can now ask such questions about the idea itself. Though it was historically beneficial, I feel the idea needs to revisited in contemporary context.

I am not sure that it is 'necessary' to have open content, but it seems natural. In contrast with an era where every person was fighting for survival and worried about getting through the winter, the collective American quality of life has improved drastically. Maslow's hierarchy of need comes to mind. In this way, it seems natural that because of our progression in science, technology and accessibility, we might have some spare time on our hands to challenge a capitalist system that seems to be functioning too smoothly without organized critical thinking. By giving equal access to content, I believe it will, over time, allow for the most innovative thinkers to surface from an overcrowded room of apathy.

The idea of copyright is becoming more obsolete in a digital environment. The advantages of open communication and collaboration in enhancing the flow of ideas and breaking of conventional boundaries far outweigh the need to restrict access to digital content. In addition, realizing the increasing difficulty in creating durable protection for their creations, copyright holders are moving towards open availability of media on the internet. Those most concerned now with copyright law mostly include corporations, record label companies and those who are seeing monetary losses.

The balance in protecting one's creative products is currently protected or can be protected in a digital environment by taking measures to be sure the content is secure. Using watermarks, low res images on websites, flash, and copyright disclosures are common. I particularly resonate with the idea of 'Copyleft'. The idea of re-appropriating material that is openly used and then in turn agreeing to post the outcome for open use seems like a great concept. My work is often riddled with found images in combination with my own photography to compose altered time, often mixing contemporary and classic imagery. I hadn't previously thought of posting my work, but it seems like a good way to keep the system open. I am considering putting my images online as a download with layered psd files to complete the cycle of giving and taking. I suppose this is a really idealistic situation that everyone would responsibly participate in such activities.

Land of Milk and Honey, A. Thielke 2009

As an artist, I feel that allowing remixes to consist of previously composed material or found sounds and images is not unlike creating found object sculpture. Many components were already in existence with a separate use and context, but together in relation to each other, they are making a very different statement or evoking new association. Using found material questions the idea of ownership and chips away at entitlement and ego.

Culture Vulture 8, Deborah Rockman

I am easily drawn to the work of Deborah Rockman, a Professor of Drawing at Kendall College of Art + Design who I had the privilege to work with for a short time. Her series of work titled, Culture Vulture serves as a criticism of contemporary American cultural norms. The way she juxtaposed imagery by means of mixing her own work with found images and images that are very well known historically seems to be a successful example of remixing. In her artists statement she writes:

"Juxtaposed and woven together is the slaughter of innocent civilians with the season’s newest fashion trends; the exploitation of laborers in underdeveloped countries with the stock market’s gains and losses; the lack of accessible drugs for treating the Aids epidemic with testimonials for Viagra; the starvation of displaced refugees with fast food endorsements."

REMIX // sounds

My sound sample collection.

www.stellarjae.com/remix

A'

check check bamf

kinesis // kinaesthetic // kinedramatic

sound through space // infinite morpho-possibilities

collective filter

movement with dimension

bamf

check one // check one

hypertext // hypersexed // hyperspan

textual time // automatic inertia

selective synasthesia

textured sound extension

bamf

check two // check two

hip hop how form not to deny

cooperative model above almost any

human history

by delight between voice

presence not be your own true today

copy culture

quote previous migration

uncanny system in sound narrative

skin bytes

in the remix signature

that blip in anechoic chamber lane

absolute dweller

gray dawn summer scale

emblem piper of your playing game

prostitute behavior

cynical crowd gaze deal

dead hand rock triangulation takes

flow spectacle

trouble mom honey punk

electric you ride shareable movements

control source

code mad end century

shit going frequencies just open living

determine thinking

make timeless might

check three // check three

parallel don't absolute

myth combine nano-space

generate night process countries born

balance next

blown turbulence armor moving

fixed extension twist notion tumble of

burdened force

landscape deficit just large

contagion storm vehicle to control more

language years

quick scanner inhabit plays into

cloud process simultaneous digital content

jungle cues

data kit trouble how

remains whole father original to mix

storage scene

as a series interface lives

archive more exciting control you grow

anything open

extract machinery dinner took

first loop action for syntax ruptured through

new people

plastic focus outside decaying

virtual agent evoked vector axis filter

page network

bamf

check four // check four

Blood & Guts in High School

Kathy Acker's style of collage in Blood and Guts in High School is perfect for the story she is relating. The broken scenes, intertwined drawings and segmented reality lead the reader to feel as if the whole story is not quite unfolded before them. I think Acker utilized a cut-up technique similar to that of Billy Borroughs in such a way that it also contributed to the intensely twisted narrative at the heart of a girl named, Janey. From a ten year old's perspective, everything would not be in complete, adult thought. In other words, the fact that Janey had normed a completely unhealthy relationship with her father and again fell into an abusive sexual relationship with another man is more than a linear, traditional narrative could represent. What would change if Acker spelled everything out in a linear style? There are many things that happen when people experience trauma. Selective memory, rationalization, irrational thoughts and emotional outbursts may be part of a traumatic experience. In this way, the cut-up method is a most appropriate way to tell this story. What happens is that even without a beginning to end type of story, a story - and a picture unfold. It is the visual association and the disorientation of the reader that make Janey very real. Reading Blood and Guts is like mixing subconscious with reality and even then, mere fragments of each.

During the course of a day, we all have thoughts that come and go. If we think about how many of those we actually consciously process, it is few. On a normal day, it is the thoughts that are attached to emotions that come to the surface of our realities. In this case, I believe Acker was brilliant in her literary assemblage. In this way, Acker has created a 'systematic derangement of senses' which was mentioned in the Borroughs article. Colors, smells, sounds, touches are mixed up furthering the idea of disorientation.

I find it rather easy to draw lines to Max Ernst in terms of literary collage. Particularly, Une Semaine de Bonté or other of his graphic novel remixes.

Also, a video where Acker interviews Burroughs.

Thielke & I

It is to that other one, to Thielke, that things happen. Many good things. Sometimes I am amazed. Granted at times she is a hard-working devil. It is not uncommon to find her researching for hours about the history of typography, reading this feminist article or that or brushing up on her Hindi. There are a great many things that we agree upon and there are those that we simply never will. That is what keeps our relationship alive. We seem to have a nice system of checks and balances. After all, Thielke is the one who is so creatively immersed, she sometimes fails to see logic. I help her out with that. It's the least I could do, considering we are so close.

Thielke is not one without room for improvement by any means. Even I could tell you that. Distanced, I often see her thoughts floating to daydreams and try to drop subtle reminders of the task at hand. It's really not her fault, you know. She is also one who simply loves to argue. Not in the, "I'm going to fight you" sense, but the, "I disagree" sense. Nothing more bothersome really, just as soon as we begin to agree on an issue, she sees things differently. Last week she thought she saw a sparkly smidgeon of goodness in conservative politics. What a hoax. This week she is back on the "Obama, I love you bandwagon." Always a battle, it is.

All in all I really don't feel myself without her.

Exercise In Style - 80's Vernacular

It was 'bout chow time on a sunny day in June. I just finished dubbing a bangin' Max Headroom episode on my last bootleg tape, but was runnin' late. I booked it solo just in time to hang a ride on the S-Bus. The bus was jam-packed with mall-maggots, posers and tinkerbillies. The kind that would make most dudes ralph. One in particular. Some morph-necked, hoser-hairdog had a bad day and was shoving his way around the bus. I don't know what his problem was, he was wiggin' out trying to get a seat. When he pushed past me I shoulda' snuffed 'em one for bein' such a wastoid, but I didn't feel like dealin' wid an eye jammy problem.

Few hours later, BAM! There he was again. This time with his spangler talking about buttons or some shit. What a loser. I totally needed a freddy.

Gertrude Stein Remix - v.2

version 2//

On the inside there is warming, on the outside there is icing, in the morning there is waking. In the morning there is waking. In awakening there is nothing, in nothing there is everything, in nothing there is a found beginning, in nothing there is singing. All the factories have reasoning and all the reasons are wearing and all the numbers have re-numbering. This makes matter.

Gertrude Stein Remix - v.1

As read in class//

In the outside there is wiring, in the inside there is melting, in the open there is hardening, in the chair there is fleeting. In the chair there is fleeting. In fleeting rests nothing, in fleeting eyes are remaining, in eyes lies reality vague and alluding. All the eyes have attachments and all the birds have sickness and all the paintings have parents. This makes cold days longer.