— Emily Nicolaides

I want my final project to be an animation. I am planning on having several square boxes in a grid format. The grid of squares will make up a larger rectangle. Each one will have flashing colors. The piece will read from left to right. On the far left will be very bright, high saturation colors. As the piece moves right the colors will become more dull and bland. I will use either Pencil or Photoshop. Each individual animation will be simple, possibly only two colors each. But the piece will be complicated as a whole. This will be displayed on my blog. But I also want it to be shown on the large projection screen.

I want the piece to be something that one only needs to look at for a minute or so. I want it to be overwhelming for the viewer. I liked how the colors from my birthday gif were striking and I want to explore this more. This time, I will use only color to connect with my audience. Color can convey so many emotions. I want this piece to be striking through quickly changing colors, but also organized and easy on the eye. I want this displayed on the large projector because on a large scale, it will be easier to examine and understand the gradient.

This projection will cost nothing. The only sketch so far is shown in the post of my first hour of work.

Hour 1

Born in: 1966
From: Hawaii
Medium: video
Alma Maters: San Francisco Art Institute (BFA in Print making),  Hunter College (MFA)

In 2001, Paul Pfeiffer displayed Orpheus Descending in the World Trade Centers. This was a video installation piece that showed the 75 days that a group of chickens were alive. It was a video recording of the chickens 24 hours a day during the lives. It was displayed for the same amount of time. I like the idea of having living things like chickens exist in a place where chickens don’t belong (even if it is only a video). The people who worked in the World Trade Centers would not have seen chickens as part of a daily routine, but Paul Pfeiffer changed that.

Something that I found about Paul that I haven’t found with other artists’ work is I found a website that is selling his work. Long Count (Thrilla in Manilla) from 2001 is being sold on www.artnet.com. There is no price listed. The website asks that you contact them. The last piece sold is called John 3:16 from 2000. It was sold May 11, 2006. The selling price is not listed (the website wants you to subscribe). I would be interested in how much Paul sells his pieces for.

Born: 1951
Raised in: New York City
Alma Mater: BA from Syracuse U. 1973,
Medium: video art
Theme: human experience

Bill Viola created “The Reflecting Pool” between 1977-79. This piece was an installation piece. It shows a man walk you to a reflecting pool in  a green and leafy place. The video is over six minutes long. The man stands by the pool for awhile, but then jumps. His image is frozen in the air. Every once in a while, a ripple will start underneath him. The frozen image fades towards the end of the video. Reflections of people are shown walking up and down the side of the pool. The light changes throughout the video. Sometimes it is brighter and sometimes the pool turns black. Finally at the end of the video the naked man gets out and walks away.

I would have responded to this better if I could have seen it in person. From my perspective, its a blurry youtube video. Human experience is a part of this video for any reasons. One is simply the time length of the video. It takes a person to actually sit and watch. Its not a short clip that anyone will watch, but its also not a long movie. In order to experience the video it takes an effort.  More evidence of this theme is the people in the video. They are experiencing things, but the viewer does not get the full effect because we only see parts of people: a few moments, reflections, ripples. There are things going on in the video, but the viewer only gets to see a small part of it.

Click me for \”The Reflecting Pool\”

Born: 1978 in Brooklyn
Media: video
Degree: Oberlin  Conservatory or Music for a BM

Arcangel started out as a musician but moved into video art. One of his more famous works is ”Super Mario Clouds” which he did in 2002. In this piece he took most of the graphics from a Super Mario game and left only the clouds and blue sky. There is no ground.  These things scroll slowly from left to right as they would in a video game. There is no sound. The video is just over five minutes long. The video is very repetitive. Its like you are staring at clouds, but if you were a Mario brother.

Another piece I thought was really interesting was “Punk Rock 101.” This was a piece where Arcangel incorporated the internet. This was a wbpage with Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter. Incorporated around it were Google ads. The ads were for things like “Spiritual Growth” and “Dawn Simulation SAD Light.” Google ended up removing the ads. But Arcangel later got a paid by Google. I read Arcangel’s artist statement and below it was a link to “Digg Commentary.” The comments were focused on the letter, as opposed to the “art.” I only read one comment were someone seemed to notice the purpose of the ads. Below is a screenshot that Arcangel took before Google took the ads down.