Project 2: Scroll Down

This project is focusing on time and space in the digital and physical worlds. I am specifically focusing on Marshall McLuhan’s idea of “allatonceness” and that “Information pours upon us, instantaneously and continuously. As soon as information is acquired, it is very rapidly replaced by still newer information.” In his book The Medium is the Massage, written in the 1960’s, he discusses a new city of the future that he terms “an information megalopolis,” which I represent via the Internet and social media. Generally, I think McLuhan views this continuous stream of information as a positive thing and a way to connect people, but I aim to show through this video that it also makes us less aware of where we are in physical space. Thinking about time, it also takes us out of the present and places us in a vacuum of “internet time”, which seems to go faster and consumes our awareness of the present.  

How much time do you spend each day scrolling down? 

Click here to see the video on Vimeo.

Reflection on Jason Yi's Work

I really enjoyed Jason Yi's perspective on space and the different forms it can take. He discussed space both physically with his 3D work and culturally (nationally? domestically?) with his 2D photographs of him and his parents in different settings as well as the video of his parents telling their life stories superimposed over each other. What interested me most about his presentation of space was an idea of precariousness that he incorporates into his work and the idea that if one piece were removed from a sculpture, the whole thing might collapse.

"Terraform" Wriston Art Center, Lawrence University

I also feel that there is a lot of movement in his work. "Terraform," for example, almost seems to be wiggling, and again it has that feeling of precariousness, like it might just topple over at any second. I noticed some similarities between his art and those of kinetic artists like Gego and Jesús Rafael Soto.

"Reticularea" Gego

"Penetrable" Soto

"A Fragile Permanence" Jason Yi

They share the use of line to define space and creating a 3D structure that kind of looms around the viewer. I wonder if Jason would consider himself a kinetic artist at all, even more so because of his forays into videomaking. Either way, his exploration of space through many different media is intriguing.

Project No. 1 - My World

My primary medium for artistic expression in the past has mostly been drawing, everything from simple ballpoint pen doodles to detailed charcoal portraits. At the end of high school I embarked on a new interest in video and communication through video via Youtube and the Internet. When I began making my own videos, I quickly realized that it was the editing process and post-production that fascinated me more than the actual recording of the film itself. So when I started college I began a series of vlogs intended to a) capture some of my experiences throughout the year and b) allow me to improve my editing skills. At the end of my freshman and sophomore years I created a montage of the footage I shot throughout the school year.

Freshman Year:

Sophomore Year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHgLe9_Vy6E

Now that I have some experience with the process, I’m interested in a more creative style of video making/editing: using video to tell a story or convey a theme rather than document events. These are some of the creators that inspire me to do that.

William Kentridge is a South African artist that combines two of my artistic interests, drawing and film, to a somewhat haunting effect; he draws something, then films the drawing, then changes the drawing, films it again and so on, leaving the erasure marks of the previous drawing visible. 

This is Filmography 2010, one of the videos that pushed me into editing. Gen Ip takes hundreds of clips from films released throughout the year and edits them together to wondrous effect. I’m anxiously awaiting the 2014 version.

This is PJ, a Youtube filmmaker that tends toward the fantastical and the weird. Many of the props in his videos and short films are either things he already owns or things he makes himself.