this is not a statement

        One of the most important topics of human existence is the concept of death.  What happens to us when we die? Is there some omnipotent creator waiting to remind me of every wrong I’ve made through my life?  Is death simply the antithesis of life?  Does our conscience live on or does it enter an everlasting sleep devoid of dreams?  These type of questions fascinate me because there is no way to know for certain and when you do die, there is no way to share your findings.  Death is such a finite concept, yet it leads to so many unanswerable questions.  My personal understanding is that death is the final octave at the end of your life’s sonnet.
        I am, at heart, a storyteller.  The majority of my work involves the stop motion medium to tell my story.  I enjoy the rich detail and the ability to create faux realism though the use of miniature sets and puppets.  This level of realism is difficult if not impossible to achieve with other animation techniques.  This is due to the fact that every frame of a stop motion animation existed on a stage utilizing real objects, real lighting conditions, and real textures.  This interest in stop motion comes from my early fascination with Sci Fi and monster movies such as the Star Wars films.  These films heavily used stop motion animation in a time when computer animation was unheard of.  The medium of stop motion has a unique connection to creationism in the fact that the animator physically creates life on screen out of inanimate objects frame by frame.
        Much of my early life was spent internally questioning religious ideology and belief.  As I grew older, my skepticism grew to where I currently reject the notion of an afterlife or second life.  The followers of organized religion believe that they are preparing themselves for a second life that will come after they die.  They study scripture, attend church, curtail their lifestyle, speak to deceased loved ones, and spread the message in faith that they will be accepted in a second life after they die.  I feel these ideas and rituals come from a fear of the finality of death.   My most firmly held belief today is that we have to enjoy/appreciate the brief time we have on this earth.  I fear that these people may miss out on the beautiful opportunity that is this life and all it has to offer.
        A major influence on this theme was a ritual I go through every time I fly on an airplane. Before the plane lands or takes off, I ask myself a series of existential questions. "Would I ready to die if the plane crashed?" "Do I still have work left to do?" "Would I be ready to complete this existence?" "Do people I care about still need me around?" I already know the answer to these questions, but it's a nice process that helps reassess my life goals and reaffirms the importance of this life. Someday I may be ready to die, I just have too much to accomplish still and I will not get a second chance.
        I want to create an experience using stop motion animation that shows the viewer what it means to be comfortable with death and accepting one's end without a second beginning. The animated film will explore this topic in a linear/non linear story format and be 2-3 minutes in length.  I hope to make a piece that is honest yet not condescending about my views, while also being wholly unique and engaging for the viewer.

Barthes Death of the Author interpretation

-The author should be removed from writings.

-We should not  take author's personal views/ attributes into consideration while critiquing/interpreting authors work.

-The story is already there, the author just has to organize it.

-author's beliefs/background should not be part of conversation of writings.

-language, not author, that speaks.

Some writing works as its own monument, unable to be associated with its creator.  Other works stand as an expression of the ego of the author.  Saying that the writings already exist in the ether is like saying the poetry is already written in the magnets on the fridge.  I don't see the necessity of removing my personal views/background from my work and it's interpretation.  I enjoy knowing the background of Hunter S. Thompson and how his personality influences his writings and how closely it mirrored his real life.  I believe my work can stand on it's own without the viewer's knowledge of my background.  This knowledge does not hurt my work though.  In fact, I think it helps the viewer get a grander perspective of which circumstances the work was created under.

Would Barthes consider Warhol's work successful without taking his persona into consideration of his work?  What about Koons or other "personality" artists?

How would you let a viewer know that you do not want them to consider your personal views in their interpretation of your work?

Why Do I Do Art? (Sorry its late)

1. The Big View:

I am an artist because at a young age, I discovered the desire to create and it has become one of my basic necessities for survival along with food, water, shelter, etc.  As my skills improved, I experimented with creating simple flip book animations even though I had no concept of animation at the time.  Eventually I discovered stop motion animation and fell in love with the ability to make my action figures and legos come to life on film. My mom, art teachers, and friends encouraged me to develop and pursue the arts through grade school.  My talents in drawing, painting, and sculpture improved to the point in high school where I realized I would not be happy pursuing any other career field.  I was also an avid star wars fan in my teen years and learned that computer animation was a major part of the films.  Ringling became the standout school in the field of animation.  I applied for and was accepted into the computer animation department.  I soon realized the computer animation industry was a much different beast than I had anticipated.  I had to search for a period for what truly made me happy in creating art.  I remembered back to my early interest in stop motion and realized what was missing from my current experience at Ringling.  The Fine Art's department was a breath of fresh air for my creativity.  I was given to opportunity to create whatever interested me rather than create for someone else's vision of what is acceptable.   Creating art stopped feeling like work and became all you can think of day in day out.  I knew then, that this was where I needed to be.  I have been experimenting over the past two years with animation and pushing the medium in new directions such as with holograms and projections.  I'm excited where these new paths will take me.

2. The Immediate View:

My current direction is to create a 2-3 min stop motion that deals with the topic of life after death.  This idea begun at grade school when I began to question religion and the beliefs I was taught in church.  I have done satirical pieces in the past that dealt with religion.  These past works were more about the absurdity of organized religion, where my current idea is to deal with the more serious question of life after death.  A major influence on this theme was a ritual I go through every time I fly on an airplane.  Before the plane lands or takes off, I ask myself a series of existential questions.  "Would I ready to die if the plane crashed?"  "Do I still have work left to do?" "Would I be ready to complete this existence?"  "Do people I care about still need me around?"  I already know the answer to these questions, but it's a nice process that helps reassess my life goals and reaffirms the importance of this life.  Someday I may be ready to die, I just have to much to accomplish still and I will not get a second chance.  I fear that other's do not put enough importance on how precious and short our lives on earth are.  I want viewers of my thesis to understand the beautiful opportunity that is this life and all it has to offer.  I want the viewer to experience what it means to be comfortable with the idea of death and accepting one's end without a second beginning. This topic will be explored in a linear/non linear story format.  I hope to make a piece that is honest yet not condescending about my views.

Response To Chaos, Territory, Art by Elizabeth Grosz

Elizabeth Grosz draws an interesting evolution from the biological sexual selection to the creation of art.  She argues that since we have moved beyond the primeval means of living, we have a void that "enables the production of the frivolous, the unnecessary, the pleasing, the sensory for their own sake."  I really enjoyed this part because it connected our biological origins to our intrinsic need to create and appreciate art.  She then goes on to talk about the first gesture of art, the creation of the frame, which "establishes territory from out of the chaos that is the earth."  This device separates and marks one's territory, to let one know where these sensations may be found.

1.  Where would Grosz determine the frame to be in public art, performance art, or digital art?

2.  Is there any way for art to move beyond the confines of the frame?

Expectations for Thesis 9/6/10

For my senior thesis project, I wish to create a 2-3 min long stop motion animation of a personified character of myself dealing with the concept of life after death.

This will be expressed realistically with dream-like/surreal elements added for dramatic effect. There may be satire and irony included as much of my work tends to be satirical. The medium of stop motion creates a level of realism that is difficult if not impossible to achieve with other animation techniques. This is due to the fact that every frame of a stop motion animation existed on a stage utilizing real objects, real lighting conditions, and real textures. This medium will let me play with the viewer’s perception of reality. The medium of animation has a unique connection to monotheism in the fact that the animator creates life on screen out of inanimate objects.

Much of my early life was spent questioning religious ideology and belief. As I grew older, my skepticism of a second or everlasting life grew to where I currently reject the notion. I still appreciate the mythology and culture of modern day religion, but I am disappointed how on the judgements made on others, and My most firmly held belief today is that we have to enjoy/appreciate the brief time we have on this earth. Many followers of organized religion believe that they are preparing themselves for a second life that will come after they die. The followers study scripture, attend church, curtail their lifestyle, speak to deceased loved ones, and spread the message in faith that they will be accepted into another life after they die. I fear that these people may miss out on the beautiful opportunity that is this life and all it has to offer. I want the viewer to experience what it means to be comfortable with death and accepting one's end without a second beginning. This topic will be explored in a linear/non linear story format. I hope to make a piece that is honest yet not condescending about my views.

2. What kind of research do you need to do? Where and how will you do it?

Over the summer, I began researching many different theories and beliefs about what happens when we die. I tried to stay as unbiased as possible in my research and hope to expand my exposure to more differentiated view points on life after death to pull story ideas from. I discovered that there were some interesting superficial connections made between some religious beliefs and scientific theories. I need to do more research into these topics to better understand where these beliefs come from and understand their relevancy to modern thinking.

3. What materials and/or processes will you use?

The animation I create will utilize the stop motion animation medium and include realistic props and sets that are lit and photographed with a DSLR to create a high definition final animation. Film and photo shooting techniques, such as “soft boxes,” depth of field, and green screen compositing will be utilized for the creation of the project.

4. What is the scope of your project? How many works will you make? Approximately what will the size be?

There will be one 2-3 minute long animation created for this project. If I use this animation in a show, props and sets can be used for additional works to let the viewer understand the creation of the project and learn the process of stop motion animation.



Timeline

Preproduction
End of October- finalized story
indiv crit
group crit
End of November - finalized story boards and concept art
indiv crit

Production
End of December -begin creation of props, sets, and puppets
End of January- begin filming
indiv crit

Postproduction
End of March-wrap up filming and begin editing
End of April -edit/composit/and add effects
group crit
indiv crit
Early May- Deliver final film

Agnes Martin Interview review

Agnes Martin Interview (20:00 version, 1997) from Chuck Smith on Vimeo.

I'm not sure if I agree with Martin's view on inspiration vs experiment.  In my own work, its almost a chicken or egg scenario its hard to tell which came first.  It was interesting to hear her describe music as the best art form, coming from a painter.  I do agree that music is special in its ability for the viewer to respond emotionally without being intellectual.  It was really humbling to be reminded that there is so much that really don't know; that we are still learning and need to act like it.   As a video artist/animator, it was hard to relate to some of the painting topics she was discussing.  It is amazing how far we have come since women were treated as second class artists.

Review of Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation

In the race to create the new and interesting, we tend to get bogged down by the apparent need to wrap our messages under layers in our work.  Susan Sontag's paper outlines how art started as an  "imitation of reality."  Fast forward to modern day, and art has transformed into a means of translating the content into a cryptic foreign language that must be loosely translated by the viewer.  Only the artist has the original rosetta stone to decipher it. We as artists, continue to  play this game by finding new ways to hide true meaning behind layers and layers of interpretation hoping that the viewer will comprehend the original message or meaning.  This can often backfire by creating work that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways that are out of the artist's control.  Sontag paper observes that modern art work is less about the sensual perception more about the symbology and representation of abstract concepts.  She wishes to return to the period before interpretation became central to art.

I really enjoyed Sontag's paper as it mirrors my own struggle with content and my work being considered too literal.  With film and animation being both linear and story driven for the most part, it is hard to create something  that is both easy to follow and an enjoyable challenge for the viewer to interpret the content.  Much like how pop art and abstract art abstain from interpretation, Sontag states that film is interesting as an art form where cryptic messages are not as ingrained in the medium as the visual language and story are. I am going to try to keep this paper in mind as I develop my own story for my animation for Thesis.

"I Am / Am Not An Artist" aka "As Seen On TV" video performance

"I Am / Am Not An Artist" aka "As Seen On TV" video performance from Jeremy Fisher on Vimeo.

Mapped projection onto my face of contestants from Bravo’s “Work of Art: the next great artist” I recited my favorite quotes from the show while images of the artists/contestants transformed my appearance. The work asked the viewer whether these people should be considered actors, artists, personalities, or game show contestants. It also forced the viewer to laugh at some of the inherent humor of the art world.

Expectations for sculpture class

As someone who coexists in both the world of sculpture and the world of video, I feel I have a great opportunity here to create a series of works that are wholly unique.  I wish to push my video/projections sculptures into new directions and experiment with video living in the 3D space.  I have recently begun experimenting with video that escapes the confines of the screen or monitor and lives on it own, i.e. holograms and mapped projections onto 3D objects.  This work could also expand on my thesis as far as my concept or could stand on its own.  I think there are many directions I can take this work over the semester and I am excited to get to work.

Review of Semiotics: The Basics-Challenging the Literal

Before picking up this book ("cough" .pdf), I had never considered myself particularly skilled in linguistics or thought much about semiotics and tropes.  It seems like ages since I had even stepped into an English classroom.  For me, trying to sit and read about the nature of language was like trying to have an engaging read the instuction manual.  But here I am, observing the semiotics of my previous statements.  Not unlike watching the movie "Halvetica" (which I highly recommend) and then noticing the pervasive font everywhere you turn.  So as much as I want to trash the reading as a bore and textbook worthy, I actually learned quite a deal from it.

Smells Like Art School Has Moved to Tumblr

Go check it out.

This blog is now serious business.

Fantastic Flipbook-Style Stop Motion Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIOmubk5sA&feature=player_embedded

I think Sesame Street Was An Early Influence On My Love of Stop Motion

Teeny Little Super Guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjvt6xqKwV8&feature=player_embedded

The King of Eight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4munc-VzFU&feature=player_embedded

New Stop Motion Armature and Animation

The story of my first professional grade "helping hands" puppet and latest animation.

Decided to start my own ball and socket armature rig around the end of last school year. Bought about 8 "helping hands" kits usually used for soldering, but have great ball-jointed parts that work perfectly for a stop motion armature. I was able to find a place online where they were only 3 bucks a kit. Had to replace the wing nuts with bolts and regular nuts, so the armature would be less bulky. Used a very thick wire for the arms and legs to connect between the joints. Completed the bottom half of the rig before realizing that I needed more of one specific piece to make the top half. Finally finished constructing the "helping hands" rig around the end of summer vacation. With a suggestion from a friend, I used seat cushion foam to make up his bulk and shape.
He's still super flexible even with all the foam padding on him.School starts up again and my new Digital Storytelling teacher has us all do a stop motion for our first assignment. Excitement! I quickly finish the robot puppet and construct a miniature shooting stage underneath my bed. The enclosure allows me to hang lights from above with no sweat and not worry about bumping my set as I stumble around in the dark at night. Went to Home Depot and found the perfect parts to construct the factory setting I wanted for the set. Still frame from the stop motion shoot. Realized that my heavy duty light box made the perfect fill light for the scene. Hung the light box upside down from the underside of my bed. Used a desk lamp on the left side for a simple key light. The assignment for my class was to focus on ritual and repetition, so I had the robot assembling other robots in an assembly line. There is no story to speak of yet, but I intend to give him human characteristics later on (checking his watch, clocking in for work, etc) I used Dragon Stop Motion to shoot the scene with a Canon Rebel XS connected to my computer. It allowed me to see what I was shooting on my monitor instead of having to check the camera's viewfinder every shot. Here's the final animation I submitted for class today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lemFr97WvOk
My teacher gave us another two weeks to add sound to the video and add additional scenes if we want. I will post an update soon.

The Bonnaroo Awards! 2009 edition

PS: Sorry it took so long :P

Best Theatrical Performance and Ziggy Stardust Impersonation
Of Montreal with the strange/amazing post-appocolyptic piggy play

Youngest Average Age of Crowd (estimated)
MGMT. (Average age had to be 16 or 17)

Worst Execution of a Great Idea.
Fuse's cell phone charging station. With only 30 slots for 30 different phones, somebody dropped the ball here.

Most Creative Corporate Sponsorship
Three way tie- State Farm's DJ Scratch Academy, Garnia Fructis's Hair Salon and Karaoke, and Butterfinger's Comedy Tent.

Biggest Let Down for Sound Quality
Tie- Yeah Yeah Yeah's at Which Stage and Animal Collective at Which Stage. (Coincidence?)

Worst Scheduling Conflict
Tie Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs Santigold, Animal Collective vs St. Vincent, Of Montreal vs Jenny Lewis vs Wilco vs Mars Volta vs Decemberists vs Elvis Costelo :*(

Most Awkward Crowd Moment
Tie- getting wedged against the guy in the Borat swimsuit costume at Girl Talk or getting stuck next to the drunk couple making bad sex jokes and talking about getting it on when MGMT starts.

Most Humbled Band
Phoenix, they played what had to be their biggest crowd yet. Granted, many of the people there were trying to get good spots for Crystal Castles and/or Girl Talk, but the band were in awe of the crowd nonetheless.

Best Planning Idea Ever
Getting in line before the gates open on Thursday. (ended up with a camping spot 10 minutes away from Centeroo)

Worst Planning Idea Ever
Tie- bringing a 20 year old leaky tent and packing dry food items in a cooler
(both were soaked for the rest of the trip after it rained for 30 minutes right after we got there and the cooler was invaded by ants)

Best Shows Overall

Janelle Monae, White Rabbits, Murs, The Knux, Santigold,

TV on the Radio, Pho enix, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, Wilco, Yeasayer, Andrew Bird, Band of Horses

See you next year Bonnarooo! :D

Bonnaroo 2009!

WE"RE GOIN BACK!

OH man oh man oh man.

I'm loving this life-sized stop motion

Sorry I'm late by Tomas Mankovsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpRz3RHJMw

End of Year Update

You might have already seen some of these before:

For Painting 2-


For Conceptual Practices-

"Dust Bunny Priest Warns the Congregation of the Coming of Hoover."
Mixed Media
"Environmental Monster"
Collaboration with/photographed by Athena Torri
Mixed Media
"Self Portrait in Tape"
Packing tape and seran wrap

Personal Projects-"Yarn Monster"
Still from a stop motion in production"Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer bust"
Clay, wire, and aluminum foil
Christmas gift for Lindsey Gilbert

Steel ball and socket armature for new stop motion character

New Demo reel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGF-EI7rAM

That should be everything

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Since it was Zombie Jesus Day (Easter) earlier, here's a neat little illustration I found comparing the "New Testament" Jesus to the often referenced "Modern Day" Jesus. Enjoy.
Image Credit: Tim Kreider -- http://www.thepaincomics.com

Amazing sculpture/installation by Jake and Dinos Chapman

As a sculptor, this work blows my mind. The first version of the work entitled "Hell" was lost in a fire back in 2000. As they rebuilt it, they renamed it "Fucking Hell." It is gorgeous in its execution. Must see to believe. Their website features a great walk through of the piece: http://www.jakeanddinoschapman.com/


Original article on BoingBoing