The End of the World

Intro: Text Messages from God.

Inna receives text messages from someone declares himself as God. Though she doesn't believe at first, she is convinced. God warns her about the end of the world. He suggests her to call her friends when she still has time. So she calls them...however, not all respond....so we see what they are doing at that moment when they receive the call.

Menu (Now)

1. Those Damn Lovers (a couple, who are busy when they receive the call.)

2.Andre riding his bike (listening to his Ipod when his phone starts ringing.)

3.Andrew sitting (sub-story on a person who has issues with answering calls and who hates the world.)

4.The Apocalypse Moment 

a. Those Damn Lovers (dying together at an Opera House)

b. Andrew declining the call (he's waiting to the moment that he'll die and he wakes up only to find his phone still ringing. He wouldn't die)

c. The escape under full moon for Inna and Andre (the good ending. Inna and Andre get zapped away from the apocalyptic world to the moon.)

Farewell to Moving On Project

I'm very sorry to announce that I made some changes to the main idea but I'll still be using the same footage for my new idea. I feel like this one is more appropriate for the main theme of World in flux and for branch-out narrative.

What if you know the end of world was coming?

Inna & Andre: At the cross-roads

Andre and Inna met at a book club meeting down-town.

Inna falls in love with Andre who loves to live in his fictionary world as a fiction writer of short stories. Inna, a realist about her life, feels like she has never been inspired by someone other than Andre in her life very much...because for the first time in her life, she is not seeing material things like social class, wealth and etc. as part of the relationship sustainability. However, knowing that she's falling head over heels, part of her tries to push Andre away from her whereas one part of her is madly in love with him. For the first time in her life, Inna faces conflicting ideas about her vision for her life. Should she let Andre be her savior in providing his powerful love? Or should she move on with her life by moving away from Andre? 

The cross-roads phase of a relationship: Letting Go. 

The story that I designed so far represents Inna choosing to push Andre aside. However, she cannot find any way of legitimizing such a decision. So in her mind, she envisions Andre, having an affair with someone else...(vignette 2: Past-Present). Being this uncertain, the fights she's been having with Andre pushes Andre into desperation of losing his love.Thinking that Inna has already made up her mind about breaking up, we see him  move away from Inna. [hence moving on note he leaves on the table] (vignette 4)

The breakdown of communication between these individuals on their personal visions about each other, leads us to vignette 3 which is basically going to show how two forces affect each other in a action=reaction relation. This may be the concluding vignette in which we can see Inna deciding on "moving on" without Andre.

This story on the relationship may be altered throughout the editing process.

-The relationship between the individuals may or may not be explained to the viewers. 

The Vignette Themes and Titles

1)Future (intro)

The break-up. Inna and Andre displayed next to each other in separate frames/ in same frame to show how they are having difficult time moving on from each other. We see visions superimposed on Inna's mind about Andre. This leads us to Main Menu as Andre writes "Moving On."

2) Past & Present

The Affair. What's going on in Inna's mind are alternate scenarios of Andre being unfaithful. She receives calls from Andre which she does not respond.

3) Passive

Breaking objects, diffusion, push and pulls from the surroundings as Andre moves around. (I don't know how I will make this possible...)

4) Turbulence / Tense -In- Between

The maze scene cut-ups from videos shot on the University Ave according to the music. Superimposed images of fast moving cars in Tenleytown.

5) Cut-outs (Outro?)

The mistakes and funny moments during the process.

The Moving On Experience. Scenes to be shot

1) Moving: On...

Scene at Starbucks Tenley. Andre with lots of frozen scenes whereas people in the background move about. I am hoping to put camera in such a way that people walking down the street will be visible. This will be during daylight. A second portion will be shot on the same spot, later on with Andre and Kaydee. Pace will be the same. I am hoping to shoot the cars passing fast in the background as Andre and Kaydee fight over something and as the argument slows down, the pace of the couple adjusts to the pace on the background

Camera:on tripod w/ paning to the sides. 

Light: Daylight / Indoors

2)On Moving...

Scene in dorm, me writing on paper, trying to write something and having writer's bloc.Or defining "Moving On." I am hoping to show the difficulty, procastination over the task. This will be a slow scene which will start around 4 with the darkening sky and having the clock on my table to show the how slow pace of the definition takes place. 

Camera: on my bookshelf overlooking me and my desk. 

Light: dark, scene ends with me turning the light on, light hits the notebook to words "Moving On."

3)Moving on...

Pending.

4)Moving on to...

Formal event. Andre getting dressed up. Hitting the lights off, clinging of keys...he leaves.Darkness, silence...Kaydee wakes up from bed hits the lights on. She may be waking up in her room/ Another room /same room. 

Camera: immobile standing on the corner

Light: indoors

World In Flux: "Moving On"

"Do you ever get the feeling that as world moves on, you are stuck in a moment?"

At very core level, the idea is still the same: "Moving On." 

There will be 6 vignettes

1)Future

2) Past

3) Passive

4) Present

5) Turbulence / Tense -In- Between

6) Cut-outs

"Future" vignette: I am planning about using this as the introduction video to the movie. This will be a remarkable incident, which will tie into the main menu where we will see a set of superimposed flashbacks before we get to the  menu. The menu will have choice of 5 vignettes:

Past, Present, Passive, Turbulence/Tense-in-between, Cut-outs.

All these are actually separate versions of flashbacks that we will be seeing while we are getting connected to the main menu. I am not sure whether or not having independent vignettes or inter-dependent ones topic-wise. The flashback vignettes will show how our past impacts our present and our future. I also want to show how our vision gets altered with regard to our thoughts. This is the "passive" vignette.  

I am planning to have voice-overs, silent portions and musical pieces through-out my project.

The mind bogus: Turbulence / Tense -in- Between. This vignette will focus on the transition phase of moving on. I am hoping to show the never-ending path to an unknown destination,  going around in circles until we somehow ease our mind out of the maze effect. I am still thinking about how to achieve this. Perhaps adding random odd images on to some parts of the video and de-coloration may be helpful. I might be using a very rhythmic song on the background like:

White Stripes: "7 nation army", some portions of David Guetta's tomorrow can wait or perhaps I can use my soundscape project...I don't know yet. 

As For cut-outs, I want to show how we blank-out some good times while we focus on some parts of a story. In other words, these are the details that I found unfit to other vignettes but still wanted to make part of a collage of moments that I captured during the process. 

Throughout the project, I will be repeating some portions of the videos in all videos with a certain variation, meeting the purpose of repetition and variation of our thoughts. 

But is Deep Contact an art work or a video game?

Deep Contact provided alternative choices to audience to follow. Each body part took the viewer to another story. However since audiences make choices and observe consequences (cause-effect) it makes me think about whether or not we should be considering the movie as an art work. Providing alternate scenarios to the audience and leaving it to their free will to design an action can sometimes challenge the "movie" definition. This is the same difficulty I find with Guitar Hero. It allows you to design your character, design a musical piece, perform it without any need of musical knowledge... to me the line between the definitions are getting very thin. And Guitar Hero is considered as a video game whereas I see it as a piece of art.

What is Magnetic Movie Exhibiting?

I am still having difficulties categorizing the Magnetic Movie into an appropriate category...is this an animation or a documentary of an experiment? Perhaps it is none...

Magnetic Fields surround all the energy sources and the energy transporting wires and etc. The waves in the movie were therefore accurately placed by possible energy sources. However, they have no actual photographs and are not visible to eye. Moving on with this idea, Magnetic Movie is making some natural phenomenon become real. Thus we can make more sense out of what the scientists are talking about. I like the part when one of the scientists use word "hair-ball" and the currents and waves suddenly expand to verify what's being said. Same thing happens when another scientist says "they are all around" and all waves just multiply as if responding to what's being described. In a way waves (thinking they are visible to eye and are real) were responding to the scientists. I believe this movie was a good demonstration on how we use technology and our imagination when the calculations don't provide us a clear picture of what is being discussed. I think using such animation techniques and help us better understand the world around us.

Change For Unity: Political Ad. Project

 

Freedom of Expression : Expression of Freedom

What will art become?

"What will art become?" was what John Cage questioned. As we are learning from this class, a good question is what makes a difference,not necessarily a good answer. A good question starts off the creative process. With his vision, he conducted his art in an inclusive, interactive way which summed into "art" as a result of the overall experience. A total spiritual,sensational experience. He made this possible by simply "getting out of the way of viewer." He has set his audience free, instead of making them stick to their traditional observer status. It's been many years he performed 4'33' : a silent musical piece. It became a subject for attack at the time. A future he visioned, is already here and is inspiring many contemporary artists from around the world in conducting their musical pieces. Uniting with the audience is breaking the class barrier between the audience and the performer. However, a traditional view on art would question who the artist is if you give audience more credit than traditionally.

William Burough's using the cut-up technique and his vision

about literature is driving him in that direction. His work is arising other questions like "wouldn't cut up technique plagiarising other peoples' work?" "who is the artist?" These are the questions that are threatening the contemporary art. These are questions that can hinder someone in breaking free from the shackles. However, artists like Jason Freeman see this as an opportunity to shape the future of what we consider as an art work. Jason Freeman, he combines both ideas on the technological platform by letting his audience / viewers to participate into and be part of the art work. Freeman has been making use of technology in his creative process (symbiosis).He is sort of introducing do-it-yourself vision into the visual arts. Flou for instance, which is designed so delicately that allows the viewer to hear what s/he choses to while exploring an artificial space.My favorite work of his was the iTunes Signature maker which made a mix of all music on my library.

These artist are aware of the fact that crativity requires less structure. And less structure can only be achieved by trial and error and vision. That's why when Apple computers were introduced in 1984, it became big. Macintosh computers were basically providing Graphical User Interface which didn't require DOS Commands or Programming. Eliminating the role Commands played, made computers more than a big calculator or a word processing device but something that we can use to draw pictures, conncect to internet and organize our lives (with programs like Microsoft Outlook etc.) The "augmentation" argument of Douglas Engelbart on machines making us smarter has thus been justified and utilized.

What do these three men have in common in answering that question? Is the role of audience in danger?
Their works are radical, improvised, most of the time spontenous and are considered chaotic. Sounds familliar? Yes. I would say that the artists are trying to take us out of our own constructed chaos and put us into another self-constructed chaos, during the process in which we find meaning in the piece. The participation of the audience is crucial in their works because a chaos on its own, is not a chaos unless there are people who'd perceive and define it that way. Flock for instance, reminded me of this. Watching the video where all participants are encouraged to move collectively reminded me of how our daily lives are. And then, when individuals started to move on their own the rhythm changed. It's just like the system that we are living in. You get out of the line, laws will get you. Whereas, by participating into Jason Freeman's work, you are able to experience what it may feel to be an individual without any dangers ahead of you and act with your free will. I had observed the same ideas over Merlijn Twaalfhoven's collaborative work with La Vie Sur Terre. A similar work he had performed was called Entrèe Unextracted and it was a musical piece controlled by the audience which made concept of "time" part of the performance. Since it was performed in an experimental way, there are no recordings or photos available of this performance. Just like John Cage's 4'33'' performance.However, here are some examples of their other work which utilized the audience in taking part in the piece that was being performed...

Symphony for all:

La vie n'est pas un chocolat

Are they rebels, then? Are they re-defining Art?
Yes and No. They are simply breaking the traditions that seem too structured to express self and contemporary world. Their works should be seen in another framwork. Their work should be seen as a fusion of different parts to create links between two unrelated parts to bring about different meanings. So I would say, Jason Freeman is not re-defining what art is. He is basically allowing the space for his audience to derive another meaning from his work. This is like a separate school of thought on art. The language we spoke has evolved over the time, the houses that we live in changed, the problems that we worry about has changed over the years and it is time that we get brave enough to let more pioneers to express themselves and us, the souls willing to experience something new and taking part in it.

Propaganda & Disinformation Project: A Call For Hope

Candidate: Barack Obama & Biden

Issue: Uniting the American People with the hope for re-united nation regardless of their differences

Slogan/Quote: "Change is what's happening in America"

Soundscape Project

Non Est Factum.

Can hypertexts be successful in breaking writers free from conventional writing structure?

What a bizarre idea. I can understand having hyperlinks on a virtual essay, but on a hard copy? Jumping around the story? I do not know if I would have appreciated the motion. It surely would have made me feel dizzy and lost in meaning. Not knowing the chronological order of the story would no wonder make me have my own version of the story and other readers to have their own. It's just like having a more personal tie with the narrative. This technique is used in various other modes in different locations: altering the transitions, giving hints about the next song is basically what a DJ does. My final studio art project was a collage of my previous and final projects presented all together in a different composition . A hypertext in form of a collage then, can definitely work. William Burrough's technique hasn't been tried by many writers that we generally know of. Thus it makes me think that writers today are still under influence of traditional writers and they seem to be chained by the structure of "free writing." Burrough's idea, however unconventional, does add more to the narrative as well as challenging the old traditions. In order to shape narrative as a form of art, it is important we search for different means to break free from its structure.

Why Getting Out of The Way of Viewer Is Necessary?

Do artist like audience? Yes. Audience is vital to the artist, for s/he needs to release what's inside to show others. Perhaps, keeping them to him or herself would not make them an artist. As our daily-lives become more and more low-context and we become more straightforward with our feelings we tend to disregard what can be the subconscious motives of other people.We also have very limited time to reflect back into ourselves because we are taught that we as individuals can be unimportant in order to get system going. However, when we are given the opportunity to face a piece of art and realize that there is room to engage with it, the work becomes a gateway into another's mind. For a minute we think about what the artist was thinking about. We reflect back and have an empathy between us and the other simultaneously. The experience becomes very personal,and gains an authentic importance which bonds the audience with the artist.

"Transition Space" : Is Construction Spoiling The Surprise?

Leo Villareal's work on creating a transitional space that links East and the West parts of the National Gallery of Art will definitely add more meaning to the whole travel between the East building which has grand masterpieces and the West building where contemporary artists' works are being displayed. The transition will change the state of mind of the visitors as they make their way between contemporary and classical art-works. During the time that I was at the National Gallery Art, the moving walkway was closed and I was told that the walkway's pace is being altered. My guess would be that they are altering the pace to have harmony with the LED motions.  

I personally wasn't disturbed from the construction since the workers were not being loud. The only point that I want to comment on though is the fact that the artist is already showing the end-product to the visitors before the construction is finished. The brief description of the Leo's exhibition, along with a video demonstration of the whole project is just spoiling the mystery and the full experience one might go through once the set-up is finished. 

Situational Tour: Columbia Heights

New walls are built between us.

We build walls for a brand new life, they say.
To have a piece of world that belongs to us.

Disoriented lives,spread out into a world that does not belong to either one of us.

Some walls stand to remind us of a past...

...that we rather not think about.

There are walls that we walk past...

...and never notice they may save us one day.

We also have other walls.
That are less obvious.

Walls that are inside our heads.

Some say they are very hard to tear down.

Some say our walls protect us.
Even though we are already paying someone for the exact same reason.

Even though we are surrounded by walls, we still let some L I G H T come in.
At least for a moment.

The walls are built by...us.Both.

Peace.

Piece.

Inside every walled structure,I learned that there is a different flavor.

A mixed blend of freedom and loneliness...

...separated from the rest which formed the whole.

Why is there a need to fictionalise the reality?

The literature shows significance of a work to real life by categorizing works into two types : Fiction and Non-fiction. (However, if you are a hard-core sci-fi geek like someone I once knew, you'd have a separate category for science-fiction) The virtual element to Randall Packer's work was in fact was the unifying element of couple of points under one heading. Like in his situational tour portrayals.

The crisis times are strong inspiration resources for artists because they see the crisis within the crisis most of the time. They are the ones who can read between the lines and make striking connections that invite people to think about real-life situations from another perspective.
The visit that we made into the hell resembled the striking connections between what we see as happening and what could be happening. We were taken back in time to those days when we were bombarded with news about what was going on and we had the confusion on what to believe in. Yet to have a grave and name it after the United States, was one of the clear indicators how far an artist can take his vision despite the rate of criticisms s/he can receive thereafter.

Columbia Heights

View Larger Map

During this years orientation, I took a group of incoming freshmen to discover Columbia Heights. The change in the neighborhood has been dramatic. City which once was home to desegregation movement has lost that attitude. With entry of big businesses into the neighborhood has helped decrease the crime levels in the town
and created new jobs for the inhabitants. The cultural heritage has inspired me to carry out my situational tour here. Having a small latino neighborhood within a black neighborhood was interesting to discover. I am planning to conclude my project in this neighborhood.

What stood out most in the manipulated conversation between the Mothers and the Fathers

Mothers and Fathers : A manipulated Conversation

It was amazing to see five mothers in conversation with each other. The out-of-context statements of these mothers created a very out-of-touch impression at first.However, as they proceeded with their conversation I started to get better idea on where the conversation was going. During the 10 minute stay of mine with the "Mothers" I heard about divorce, unwanted role of being a mother, separation and various self-reflection. Throughout the conversation repetition of certain words like "mother" and sobs allowed me as a viewer to re-call my own memories of and with my mother. They all sounded helpless and disillusioned. 

The Fathers also had a strong topics covered with in their conversation. They seemed very remorseful for some reason. They were very much going through the same stages as the Mothers however, their reactions somehow seemed a lot milder and the way they handled their problems was also made obvious. One of the topics covered in the "Fathers" was divorce. I was struck when one of the father's was explaining that the mother was gone and in the next scene we see him as the groom at a wedding. For a split second I got the impression that he was re-marrying. However, thinking of it now, it could have been a scene from his first marriage. This much manipulation in the storyline surely created a fresh plot for the audience to figure out. It showed me my personal assumptions about males in general as capable of moving on with their lives whereas females face difficulties. The experience reflected my opinions and I perceived what I saw with my individual perspective. 

The Fathers and Mothers had a very significant effect on me as a viewer since it used various repetition techniques as means of re-calling memories in viewer's mind. It also allowed the freedom to viewer to perceive what they saw in the way they wanted.

Is multimedia extending human intellectual capability?

"Licklider proposed that the computer be developed as a creative collaborator, a tool that could extend human intellectual capability and improve a person's ability to work efficiently"

The statement above was made some thirty-forty years ago and shows how Licklider was going ahead of his time. Despite the fact that many people were (and are) against space research since it is very expensive, it is accepted by everyone that we owe such high standards of living to technological advancements provided. Our interaction with technological devices have provided the freedom of access to information regardless of time and place. The devices we are given access are allowing us to practice our creative capabilities through trial and error. The opportunities seem never ending in the world that we are living in. The abstract visions we have subconsciously in our mind are finding their way without our notice, thanks to multimedia. 

So; Yes, computer has provided the grounds on which we can practice our intellectual capability. However, I'm not quite sure about efficiency side of the story in the sense that you are capable of losing track of time like an artist who is painting on canvas. 

Digital Experience of Art: Art Must Swim

Syllabus

We don't have big Art Galleries in Cyprus. What we usually have is small scale exhibitions. That's why National Gallery of Art is one of my favorite places in DC. That's not the point though. The paintings in the museum, to my observation, had a different sense into them. It felt distant. I was close enough to appreciate Pablo Picasso's Still Life painting but yet distant enough to be forced to compare other cubist paintings to Pablo Picasso's. I noticed that the value I attached on to the painting was simply relative to the other paintings. I was forced to follow the hallway of impressionist and abstract paintings and find myself as a tiny human being in front of the masterpieces. Besides the "please don't touch" writing next to a sculpture was very striking. 

The fact that technology is providing a portable medium for the art is allowing people to perceive what they personally would see in the abstract mind of the artist. It is not forcing art to sit there to be displayed. Digital arena is providing access to shape and observe their subjective ideas by providing necessary tools and it is saying "Art must swim*" it should not just sit there. It should wash you away and make you drown in emotion. This is what technology is allowing us to experience. And this is why art should be taken a step further with aid of multimedia.

*From Merlijn Twaalfhoven's statement for La vie Sur Terre Foundation in Netherlands

 ~Günperi