I have not put up a new post for a while and that is because I have changed my plan several times and struggled a lot over break trying to make my video using only GIMP and iMovie. Because I have deviated so much from my original plan, I do not currently have an accurate storyboard to put up so I think I’m going to end up modifying it somewhat retroactively to keep myself organized. I still have much more work left than I intended on having at this point, but hopefully what I come up with will still be cool even though it won’t reflect what I initially imagined. Gotta keep pushing through but when I get to a good landmark phase I’ll post something more substantial.
With some more time to think about it and more time to research, I have a much clearer idea of where I want to go with my video. I have started making some sketches and experimenting on the computer, but most of what I have is still conceptual. I still want to go with the Divine Comedy theme, but I want it to be more referential and less literal than I had originally thought. Reflecting on the technique of animation, specifically stop motion, and just reflecting in general, I keep coming back to the idea of trains. Part of what I found particularly interesting about the Divine Comedy is how Dante’s questionable good luck grants him an inside look at the afterlife conveniently as he approaches the end of his rope and considers giving up completely. The rest of us aren’t offered this free trial period and are pretty much stuck with whatever train we’re on, possessing only a vague and conditional sense of where we’ll end up. As of now, the story-line I’m considering for my video begins with a man (Dante) asleep on a train; he is clearly a mess without hope as indicated by his attire, expression, etc. The scene will then zoom in on the man’s closed eyes and fade to black and then a rapid sequence of images including mini-flashbacks, the figure of Beatrice, religious symbols, etc. From the montage the frame will rapidly cut again to a somewhat slow-motion shot of the man running desperately down the cars of the train, switching back and forth between shots from different perspectives from both inside and outside the train, which I think I want to have winding up a mountain. I will use a variety of methods to convey the division of the train cars into sets for Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso and within each of those to convey the division between different circles. Prior to the dream sequence I want to use exaggerated sound effects in a way that sounds somewhat musical, but isn’t actually music (sounds from the train, snoring, outside, etc.). As the montage quickly shows I want the music to begin and then get into the real beat as Dante starts running. I still have no idea what music I want to use so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! As Dante approaches the end of the train his movement becomes even more slowed and he ends up running right off the end of the train, which is turning sharply to stay on track. Dante falls and falls and the fast montage repeats but in reverse order and suddenly the Dante from the first scene wakes up with a start as the music cuts off and we hear the train crashing. The last shot will be a long shot where we see as the entire train comes to ruins and the voices silence. Then it will cut to black, slightly before the sound of the crash seems to have wrapped up, and the black screen will remain for just more than a comfortable amount of time before it glows to white and the clip is over. I’m not sure where this extremely vivid image in my head of what I want my video to be came from, but I am sure that my final product will not look exactly like it so I need to stay flexible and not get too caught up with sticking to my original plan that get overly frustrated or don’t finish at all. Again, help with music for the running part, which will probably be the main body of the video, is welcome! Other comments/suggestions are appreciated as well of course..
I am still very unclear at this point as to how I’m going to flesh out my animation project, but my first instinct is to somehow incorporate the concepts of Dante’s Inferno. Last spring I saw an incredibly stimulating performance of a modern interpretation of Dante’s Inferno which incorporated dance, theater, music, and symbolic set design and the production, although flawed, has remained present in my awareness. I want to take a mixed media approach, most likely using Photoshop Animation because I am most comfortable with the program and I have very little animation experience. Combining photographs and digital graphics, I hope to create something that evokes the fall into the depths of the Inferno as well as a complementary ascent into Paradiso. I clearly have much much more work to do…
So I am even more behind than usual for this project and have just begun messing around with the cans I collected and seeing what works and what won’t. I am still a bit confused about the degree to which our final product must be abstract, but when I first learned we would be making sculptures out of soda cans the idea of a birdcage came to my mind immediately. I’m not sure why exactly, but I in all of my brainstorming I keep coming back to this first idea, so I think I’m just gonna go with it and see if it will work. If necessary, I can modify what I have to make it less literal and more abstract. The bright colors typically seen on beverage cans easily lend themselves to various types of birds, especially parrots. I figured that some combination of wire and cut-up cans will make up the cage and I will try to stick to one simple color like black or gray so that it doesn’t detract from the bright bird inside. Because of the constraints of the materials and what I hope to be the visual impact, my model will not reflect a true to life scale. Spending some time on Google Images and Photoshop, I came up with the rough image below to serve as inspiration for my sculpture.
I also worry that hanging my piece from the ceiling will be ultimately too difficult, so I am also considering creating some sort of stand for the cage. Because our model on Maya is supposed to consist of only full cans, I think I’m going to stick to just the bird minus the cage for the digital counterpart. Obviously I still have a lot of work to do… Some other ideas I have been toying with are a large scale abstract peacock with the back feathers radiating outward or something resembling a flamingo standing in a bed of crushed cans in blues and greens.. Still going on the bird theme although I might change my mind radically later on.
“Painting Through the Wall”
Rachel Diamond
Through my research on the Berlin Wall, I kept finding myself drawn to images of the artwork along the wall and the memorialized art of the “East Side Gallery.” It was fascinating to me how such an era of oppression and restriction could yield such impressive and moving artwork. Further researching public art and graffiti, I came across the work of famous “guerilla artist” Banksy, whose self-conscious wall art I reference in my piece. I also used the well-known mural of the Trabant car bursting through the wall by Birgit Kinder as a model for the hole in my wall. I intended to subtly pay homage to a painting that embodies the powerful role of art in relation to Germany and the Berlin Wall. Kinder’s depiction of the defiant Trabi is just one example of how the genre of Trompe L’Oeil can be used to convey social commentary by paralleling reality. In my collage I integrated a variety of materials such as paint, tissue paper, posterboard, etc. to provide texture and depth.
I am finally done with my project.. I went through about five major changes in my basic concept, had to restart twice due to bugs in my saved drafts, and overcame multiple technical difficulties with my materials. I think it came together alright, however, and although my final product does not exactly reflect what I had originally intended, I think I came up with something differently appealing. The picture below is not exactly what I will be putting up tomorrow, but it is the last saved draft I have on my computer.
I have added some things to the final product and the barbed wire at the top looks very different and may not even be included in the end depending on what I decide in the morning. I also integrated some texture and depth with various mediums and other effects. I hope to convey a subtle cheekiness in my piece, especially with the allusion to Banksy in the lower right hand corner featuring the child painting on the wall. The more optimistic and lighthearted images on the wall represent the incredible significance of art to the Berlin Wall as well as the surprisingly complex role of public art and graffiti in society. Nevertheless, I still wanted to maintain the seriousness of the period of time during which the Berlin Wall was in place. The barbed wire and the soldiers looking over the wall remind the viewer that artistic expressions of freedom alone could not overcome the harsh restrictions between East and West Germany before 1989.
So after spending hours and hours on Photoshop creating a “mock-up” of my project, I’ve decided that I want to change directions almost completely. I have been experiencing great difficulty getting my project to reflect what I have been envisioning in my head. Somehow my ideas just aren’t really translating well to the computer and what I have now does not accurately represent my concept or my aesthetic in general. If you click on the image below it will send you to the full size image.
I still want to maintain some of the same elements such as the allusion to Trompe l’Oeil as it relates to the artwork on the Berlin Wall, but I think I need to dramatically simplify my design and composition. Even with this version I had planned on including some different mediums, but with my next incarnation I hope to find better and more interesting ways of integrating them.
I looked through some of the collections of the five different artists and was immediately taken with Hannah Höch’s work. Unlike many collage pieces, most of her work featured some central focus or several main points of attention. Rather than consisting of a pretty even texture of mixed and layered images, the emblematic pieces of her collection tend to integrate a smaller number of mediums to create one or more distinct entities. In this example, although Höch combines several photographs, fabrics, and papers, they all come together to portray one figure, “The Bride.” With greater emphasis on form and shape, I generally found Höch’s pieces to be more visually arresting and interesting. Integrating both the beautiful and the grotesque, her artwork stays with you and forces you to engage in its complex internal contradictions. I was also drawn to her work because I felt that each piece had a definite, but not immediately evident message. Much of Barbara Kruger’s artwork, for example, although frequently accomplishes similar dramatic impact, illustrates concepts or statements that felt clichéd and obvious. Upon closer inspection and with greater analysis, we may deduce that this piece, “The Bride,” is intended to reference race relations and stereotypes, due to the montage of skin types, as well as significant implications of marriage and gender roles, due to the figure’s facial expression and disposition considering her circumstances. However, Höch’s collages stand alone as art, rich with aesthetic value thanks to her use of color, texture, and composition. Nevertheless, they succeed at earning deeper value and permanence with their striking, yet sometimes ambiguous points of view.
I started out with a pretty clear idea of what I was going to do for this project. However, over the course of my research looking for images to make up parts of my collage, I was particularly taken with some of the artwork on the actual wall itself. I had originally planned to center my project around the famous quote from Reagan, “Tear down this wall!” and combine a posterized mixed media image of Reagan with an artistic representation of the falling wall. Perusing more photographs of the Berlin Wall, I came across the classic image of the Trabi car bursting through the wall. This image along with several others portraying clear blue skies or people walking through the wall reminded me of the importance of not only breaking down barriers, but going through them. These brought to mind a Trompe L’Oeil exhibit my parents took me to when I was younger. Art has the unique ability to bridge the worlds of illusion and reality, and in the case of the illustrations on the Berlin Wall, art can improve reality. The powerful image of the German car heroically breaking the bricks of the Berlin Wall became a common symbol of the East Germans’ struggle for freedom. Now I am beginning to rethink my concept and although I still want to include the image of Reagan and his quote, I would also like to integrate the contrast between tearing down the wall and breaking through it using different artistic techniques such as trompe l’oeil. Here are some of the images I found online that relate to my project:
This is the portrait of Reagan I have started working with, but it will look completely different when I’m done with it.
This is the classic image of the Trabi painted by Birgit Kinder. The date on the license plate reflects the day the Berlin Wall fell.
A funny play on the original, this artists incorporates the famous kiss between Leonid Breschnew and Erich Honecker.
This is actually an example of wall graffiti found on the barrier wall in the West Bank, which is often compared to the Berlin Wall. This work was done by the famous graffiti artist known as Banksy who has created similar trompe l’oeil type paintings like in public places across the globe.
