"The Rough Theatre" (brook)

I believe there is a beauty in the improv, in the dirt and grit of a performance, a theatre with old seats and stale popcorn, a theatre with shower curtain projected images. While Brook was talking about theater in the traditional stage-theater sense, we could apply the same principles to filmmaking as well as film viewing. I believe film and digital cinema have a plan in cinema, but there is a beauty to the improving and processing in the bucket because it holds more of a significance to yourself and others. The shower curtain used for projection provides an installation and do-it-yourself creativeness that bring the viewer into touch with possibility of moving images.

Video Letter Film Idea

For my video letter, I intend on creating a video letter to my uncle who took his life on August 31, 2018. This was one of the most excruciating days of my life because my uncle was like my second father. For the longest time since his death, I have had a reoccurring dream with him and the things I would say to him. Most of the intertitles I will use will derive from my dreams and the found footage I accumulated from NYCB archives. The audio I will use is one of my favorite songs called "Uneven Odds." In the introduction I will apply a sound bite from my uncle's memorial of my sister who is crying during her eulogy. I believe it will add a tonal quality and truly introduce the amount of pain I have been enduring.

Bolex Long Take Experience

Two things I learned from shooting on film: to hold myself accountable to more self-confidence and to think more. With digital technology, I have found myself comforted by the immediacy of feedback. Having to wait for the images to develop was a challenge because I was worried I did not accurately read the lighting or the tones within my shooting locations. Now when I shoot on digital camera, I am going to challenge myself to look at my LCD once. This will build a confidence within myself to trust in my own abilities and decisions, as a filmmaker and photographer. Another thing I learned was to think more. It challenged me to think more about my compositions and the amount of images I take when I am taking shooting on digital because when you’re shooting on film you look at your subjects or scene and consider it with a careful eye. You evaluate if it is worthy taking— something I am not good at because of my explorative compulsivity. 

Ranking Assignments

1. Bolex Long Take
This was my favorite assignment because I loved my group and I loved the improve, but success we had shooting. Also, developing the film ourselves was an experience we have not had the opportunity to do in other classes so 10/10 LOVED this assignment.
2.  Film Manipulation
This project helped me understand the film medium SO much. I apply my knowledge from this class to History of Avante-Garde on a weekly basis. I also wish we would've been able to see our final product. I put so much time/attention in this to only see it blink past my eyes.
3. Video Letter
I liked the video letter because it gave me an introduction into the essay film. I tried using intertitles which is something I have never done before as well as using found footage from NYCB's archives. The audio carried a heavy tonal quality for me because I utilized a sound bite of my sister crying at my uncle's funeral. Every time I hear it, I break down a little bit inside. 
4. Rhythmic Edit
I really loved the rhythmic edit project, especially because I adore the way sound is highlighted in a manner to give a new appreciation to the sound. I really enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to gather more of an understanding on editing a film frame by frame.
5. Creative Crowdsourcing
Overall, I genuinely liked this project except for the color restrictions. I was kind of procrastinating on this project because my perfectionism really kicked in when I was drawing my shapes, but once I got started coloring it became a really therapeutic project.
6. Earth Art Animation
This was probably my least favorite because it was limited to an earth theme. This was the only assignment I was not a fan of. I think I would have enjoyed this infinitely more if I could've made a stop-motion of something that was broader in content. I also felt like everyone's final product merged together because they were all just so similar.

Visualizing Ourselves... with Crowd-Sourced Data with Aaron Koblin (TED Talk)

by Lily Frame

In this TED talk,  Aaron Koblin presents the cultural trends and changing relationship between humans and technology from generated data and digital technologies which derive from results of the real-world and communities around us. Koblin specializes in data and digital technologies such as interfaces. An interface is a device or program enabling a user to communicate with a computer. He believes data can make us more human-- a statement I initially disagreed with because how could modern technology possibly make us more human? In fact, I thought it made us less human because we have become in tuned with the world of social media and shut out the world around us. I now believe every human is intertwined with the rest of society without even realizing it. I was wrong to doubt great visual stories could be told through data.

I have a theory Aaron Koblin is an anthropologist filmmaker because he transforms the data and different contributions he collects into a product of human behavior. Visually, I was transfixed by the results of Flight Pattern, The Sheep Market, and his SMS examples. This world of data and interfaces can be intimidating for those like myself whose kryptonite are scientific areas of study. Koblin has physically taken me out of my comfort zone and has placed my educational anxieties into an art form to tell a beautiful story about the world around him. He has has artistically freed me from my fears and has allowed me to explore data as a means for storytelling. I feel obligated to tell captivating stories whether it be narratively or experimentally. From Koblin, I learned that these interfaces can be a powerful narrative tool that encourages me to collaborate within my community. By removing the stress of data and interpreting it as an art form, I am compelled to create a story which encompasses  the world and humanity that is all around me. A random thought to close on: I wish an interface was created for people to share their wishes for the future; to express how they’d like the future to unfold.

Different Ways of Knowing with Daniel Tammet (TED TALK)

Perception is a cognitive awareness that is unique to each human life. It is distinguished through the five senses: taste, sight, touch, smell, and sound. It allows us to interpret and understand the world around us, determines our character and attitude, takes flight to our life’s purpose, influences mankind, and gives meaning to our interpretation of happiness. But what happens when these senses cross-talk and form different cognitive awareness’?

Daniel Tammet is a rare, real-world example of this phenomenon because of a cognitive disorder called synesthesia, as well as a high functioning autistic savant. In this TED Talk, he elaborates on how words, numbers, and colors are woven together to create a new way of perceiving the world. This rare condition appropriates itself when he stated, “My worlds of words and numbers blur with color, emotion, and personality.” By exploring three individual instances of synesthesia, the audience is allowed to interpret this unique vision of human life as well as explore the nature of perception and how different kinds of perceiving create different kinds of knowing and understanding.

Unlike most, Daniel Tammet solves mathematical problems visually because he interprets number as shapes and character; the number six, in Tammet's eyes, is a "tiny and very sad black hole." I can't help but ask myself is, if the number six is written as a word rather than in numerical form, does he still have this visual experience? Is six still  a tiny and very sad black hole? Through his own emotions, Tammet can interpret the meaning of a word because “Words like numbers,” he states, “express fundamental relationships between objects and events and forces that constitute our world.” He argues that language evolves in a way that creates sound and thus merges with one’s own personal intuitive experience. Tammet interprets words visually. He describes that words together are colors and emotions and textures. As I type this, I can’t help but imagine how much more stimulating the world must be from his eyes.

Daniel Tammet is a prime example of how our personal perceptions are at the heart of how we acquire knowledge. In fact, this blog assignment is a prime example of how perception is a central concern of all art forms. Why else would artists obsessively study the structure of the eye and depth perception, optical illusions, and visual dysfunctions? In this blog, I have included my own perception of his perception of the world. I am learning how to see the world with new eyes.

Week 1: Len Lye, "Rhythms" Observations

Notes/Observations on Len Lye's Rhythms

by Lily Frame

• The introduction is disorienting because of the movement of the lines. Perhaps this could be a reflection of  Len Lye's attempt to briefly convert his audience to Synesthesians.  
• On particular occasions, some frames are exhibited as  close-ups on one line. This is significant because it indicated when when a solo was performed. As the instrument played varying notes the close-up of the singular line moved fractionally. This minuscule movement of this singular line communicates that either the melody, rhythm, or tempo have been adjusted by the artist. 

• SYNESTHESIA- seeing the sound through visual elements! Len Lye created Rhythms, as if he had Synesthesia, by accenting colors as the visual elements of the music for the audience. Synesthesia can be an advantage in this case because they can visually identify notes, keys, and pitches through movement and colors.
• Len Lye's dense framing indicates that multiple instruments were being played. From the standpoint of Synesthesia this idea is comprehensible because they can visually identify the sounds of notes-- even if it is more than one instrument. 
• As the song's melody changed the colors became more vibrant. There were more instruments involved when the melody changed, thus the framing grew dense and more colorful. It was as if the sounds that were created to change the melody triggered different colors.
• Len Lye strategically created Rhythms in 2D to further convey Synesthesia. For example, Synesthesia effects all five of our senses, therefore, it impacts one's spatiotemporal relations. For those with severe Synesthesia, it is possible to lose depth perception thus seeing the world in the two dimensional.