Video Art - Motion and Dance

Hessa: loved the vortex and the spinning body because it really channeled the spirit of decontextualization. I loved the use of color and saturation and the ending was very cool where it seemed like everything blended together.

Luis: The super imposing of two polar natural opposites and perspective was amazing. I liked the lack of color and the darkness and the switching capacities. The sound was a bit over powering but it was appropriate due to the lack of color.

Sebastian: I didn't get the Leigh Bowery reference but I enjoyed the higher message you had by super imposing Steve Jobs and Barack Obama. The opposition of the old and new in the beginning is amazing with the old Mac OS and the iPad. 

Stefanie: The multiple personalities in the room seem to lend itself to the nature of art where separate entities seem to explore the art piece and it overwhelms the viewer. I was a bit creeped out at the laughing but it added to the emotions that art itself can invoke. 

Emily: I like the whimsical nature of the video even though I thought it should have been better received. I do agree the colors and filter were shocking but I didnt really think it was over powering.

Francesca: I really thought that you were decontextualizing the nature of harmony and music but it was cool how you managed to melt culture and language and make it into music.

Jon: I was impressed with the camera perspective especially the one where it emulates the popcorn popping in the microwave.

Roy: Extremely visually entertaining and trippy, the mirror effect almost made it seem like you had projection art. David Hall was your main inspiration and it was seemingly clear.

Hannah: Loved the music. The concept of the Asian fear of Godzilla was pretty funny.The shadows made it extremely cool and it looked like a video game.

Sarah: the strobe light almost made me reminded of the Born this Way video with the way the strobe pulsated and made a womb with the hands like a lotus flower.

Abby: I liked the concept, it should have some cool editing in terms of slowing down and colors and stuff.

Grace: The puppy was absolutely precious. I loved that you created your own hybrid person/dog and dance. Super reminiscent of Nam June Paik.

Amanda: Loved the rubics cube effect and the different perspectives. It gave the art a story.

Beatniks

The Beatniks were the 50s/60s equivalent to what a "hipster" is in the new millennium. The Beatniks were an underground coalition of artists and non conformist young people in the New York area which is ironic to me because I am from New York and most people from my high school which I hung out with I would consider hipsters.  The above is a negatively connotated hipster. I mean hipsters do love American apparel and vans and are usually financially well off but are not all drug users and weirdos. The Beantiks had the same wrap that Hipsters have now.... they were young people in NYC who dressed differently, cared about art and did spoken words on the street corners of NY. The Beaniks were called Beatniks because they were always creating a beat of spoken word on the street. That premise makes me think about the hip hop movement and the beginnings of rap and I respect the Beatniks for paving a medium for inner city kids to be on.

Nam June Paik

So after reading the Nam June Paik obituary, I was a bit depressed. Paik is a universally accredited artist as the father of video art where he was a firm straight edge artist who did not drink, smoke or do any drugs. Paik died at age 73 and was a classical pianist. Fluxus, the loose collaboration of Paik and other artists was amazing and is considered the first time that video and tv were seen as separate entities. By using the visual aesthetic of white screens, snowed screens and video projections of different things, Paik decontextualized the use of what a monitior was for, exhibits could be now made of related video sequences and together form their own messages.

The Dream Machine

This device seemed a total derivative of acid meets Ecstasy meets LSD. Spinning lights that change colors? Yep sounds like a trippy time. Personally I didn't really believe it held artistic merit until Santiago had us in a room with a pulsating strobe light.... extremely weird but this class in general is probably going to be my most memorable one of my college career between photocopying my ass on a xerox machine in the library. I digress. Well the cool thing about the strobe light is I actually saw my own mental art thanks to the strobe light where I saw red ovals overlapping in the medium of what those static lightning orbs are. I would dare to imagine that the Dream machine is relatively the same concept but more intense due to the oscillating base and the color change. Many have said the machine was an utter failure but I think it maybe relative to the fact that there is no baseline as to the visions people see, people see what their subconscious wants to see and the Dream Machine does not dictate the dream you see but just makes you get into a hypnagogic state.     

Joseph Beuys

If you want to express yourself you must present something tangible. But after a while this has only the function of a historic document. Objects aren’t very important any more. I want to get to the origin of matter, to the thought behind it.

This quote by Joseph Beuys resonated with me a lot in terms of summing up his whole career. As a performance artist he strove to bring art to people in its primal stages and have them explore it for themselves .

 I particularly liked his decontextualization of this where we can sort of lend interpretation to a couple different things. First we can say that a bad source can contaminate an idea. Second we can say that lemon is a lemon... so if your idea is a lemon its not going to be a good idea.
 Beuys seemed to be a pretty deep guy, saying that being a teacher was one of the best things he had done as an individual. Beuys also seemed to have an Andy Warhol esque likeness but to me I think Beuys was a little deeper than Warhol. That took a lot for me to admit because I am a HUGE fan of Warhol's pop art, owning 3 bags about Warhol's art.

Touching.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011
Most powerful photos of 2011.... My favorite is 41.