Progress

We did not film any new footage this week, instead we did the intense editing for the whole week. Obviously using Final Cut Express to do green screen editing is a pain. It takes forever to rander! Kanesha finished the poster for the video and post it on zazzle.com.

Next week we are going to speed up the camera to capture some cool effects.



Production Blog

"The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Borges, "Will there be Condominiums in Data Space?" by Bill Viola, and "The World-Wide Web" by Tim Berners all have a fundamental theme, which is the amorphous network. I especially like Bill Viola's point of view that life is supposed to be one big moment from birth to death, it is the days and nights that make us feel there are separations within life. That made me think that the whole data world is one big moment, maybe it did not change from the beginning at all, and what has changed is only our perception and mind. Just like the different online agency websites out there today that help us to promote ourselves,  the network existed from the beginning, however, we keep changing the way it works.

I found this absurd video on YouTube about social network. Enjoy!


We finished about 1/4 shooting for the music video. Here are our production pictures. I have been working on the green screen editing, and I have to say that it is a tedious job!

Mary Jane Jacob, Ray Johnson, and I

I find the idea of merging Buddhism into art quite interesting because I think art is about making statement and expressing thoughts or ideas. The medium of art is like a poet’s pen, and the content of art is the content of the poem. Poets express themselves by writing. Artists express themselves by making different types of art. But Mary Jane Jacob is going for the emptiness of art. After I read the article I somehow agree with lots of things in it. Mary Jane Jacob thinks art should be transient not permanent. Her idea is that the existence of art should only be there when it’s presented in front of the audiences thus the viewing experience of the audiences is a part of art. I have another theory, I think if art is an expression of some sort of emotion and no emotion lasts forever, thus art does not last forever and it should only be a temporary thing. The idea of having audiences’ viewing experience as a part of show reminds me of Allan Kaprow’s happening series. Even though Mary Jane Jacob is not a performing artist like Allan Kaprow, they both make audiences as a part of the show thus people would understand the concept and the essence of the show as an insider.

About Ray Johnson, judging from the depiction from How To Draw A Bunny, I think he made his style into an icon without copyright.

Ray Johnson

I've been writing screen play for the music video. The recording of the song and the poem are done. Too bad I can't upload the audio here because I don't know how.

This is one of the music videos I got inspired from in making our own music video.

Happening

Allan Kaprow's philosophy of art is unique and bold. Using event that is happening as a form of art is somewhat similar to performing art in my mind. However, he's different from lots of performing artist like Marina Abramavic. His way of presenting the art piece is to get the audiences involved and to let them be the part of the piece thus people would understand the essence of the piece while they are in the it. Nam June Paik's TV sculpture is also really avant-garde. The idea of creating an art form that is cybernetic seems obscure yet he successfully present it in front of the audiences. By combining videos with live performances, Nam June Paik managed to articulate his style.

Nam June Paik's TV sculpture

Last Friday, me and Kanesha did the green screen testing. It went pretty amazing actually. We figured out that all we have to do left is to get rid of the green edge in the video and to build a dolley. This project is happening and we might document the processes.

Here's a video of Allan Kaprow's style piece in NYC.