3/4 - Colleen - social activism vs. vandalism - good topic, you'll have to be open-minded toward those who think it's "lawless" - make a convincing arguement about the neccessity of chaos
Your comments on projection grafitti reminded me of a DIY guide I saw a while ago; http://www.hactivist.com/flashpoint/ the Digg article that linked to it has some useful comments too http://digg.com/mods/Make_Light_Graffiti_With_a_Disposable_Camera your images will end up being pretty stencily so the ideas you meantioned with lots of detail might not work, but it might be a good place to start and it's cheap enough that you can experiment without worrying about messing up (I think they also talk about making them autonymous so you could leave them on site if you wanted. If you do try it out let me know, I want to try using layered transparencies instead of laser cutting the image I think it might work much better. - Ian 3/4/08
3/4/08
I have been interested in grafitti for a long time. It is one of the most inspiring artforms because it is rebellious, oftentimes illegal, beautiful, and everyone can experience it. Artwork should be accessible to everyone. My only problem with grafitti is that too often people just 'tag' buildings with their names. Why not make something creative, make a message? Digital grafitti is fairly new, but very exciting. It seemed to have started out with LED throwies. These are small LED lights with batteries that can be used to decorate the banal urban cityscape. A further development that has been used is projection. Instead of defacing a building permanantly, one can project an image instead. This could even be a moving image. I would love to be able to project video of sweatshop workers on the front of Wal-Mart, or a black Jesus on the white cross outside of Effingham. So these interests have lead me into a working thesis for my paper:
Digital grafitti can and has been used to positively affect social consciousness.
Here are some links to interesting Digital Grafitti. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isfrCIhQ5HE
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=71#video
Project 1:
1/23/08
Crescendo: Brings back memories of first learning to play piano. Most music, and most forms of time-based media, use this. It is a way to draw the viewer into the piece and wow them with a finale. Usually after the crescendo in the case of the climax, there is a denouement.
Decrescendo: This often happens in music, but does it happen in film as well? Decrescendo's usually appear after the music or film has already been underway. A decrescendo at the beginning would startle the one observing.
This build up and release makes me think of sex, violence, music, fire-works displays, alarm clocks, theremins.
I have been interested in what I would like to call maximalism. With the exposure of so much information, technology, and blatant advertising everywhere you go... does minimalism even exist anymore?? Most of us are products of the media in which we grew up. The art collective PaperRad explores this idea to the extreme.
I want to use found video to create a composition for this project. I want people to really feel the crescendo. In order to do so, I find it important to include imagery that may be shocking to some.
My idea is to have the bottom of the crescendo innocent cartoons. As the video progresses, the clips get more violent (looney tunes). And for the climax, I want to have raw, uncensored violence. For the music/noise I am still thinking. Perhaps the track to some cheesy porno, a constant beeping that only gets worse, or perhaps just electronic noise of my own creation.
I need to find video that I can cut up and splice together. I have some VHS tapes that I want to convert to digital video if anyone knows how? Or if they know where to access cartoons online to be downloaded.