Compositing Video

The Drive from Morgan Hayward on Vimeo.

Public Art (Billboards)

I believe public art is a great thing, and it is really important to have art displayed so others can enjoy it. Although, there are many other factors to consider when creating something for so many others to see. Every person brings their own life experiences into what they are looking at, and I found my billboard project specifically difficult to create something that everyone can understand and also think about for more than the two seconds that they are seeing it on the side of the road. I also loved having the discussion in class about the woman who didn't understand April's piece. I thought she had brought up some good questions about why a monkey, which I don't think was really considered when doing the project, and how was the environment played into the gestures of the monkey. I also was very intrigued that she was so concerned that it was on UT property and how the association with UT is so evident, which goes back to our discussion about putting UT's logo on the images. Honestly, this is what I thought would happen when we branded our work with UT's image. Although I am glad to have my name also displayed, I figured that is all people would be able to see was an image in relation to UT. I also, in a way, feel like putting the UT logo on my image is in some ways discrediting the work because people can just dismiss it as some assignment that a bunch of kids had to do. Unlike the Art's Commission where people take it seriously as a piece of art that a professional artist worked hard on, whether they like the work or not. Just my opinion.
Aside from that discussion, some other billboard projects and opinions about public art I came across really took into consideration who would be viewing the images. This specific artist knew what information he wanted to share and the people he wanted to share it with. Here. From what I have read and how I view the image, he is trying to reach the latino population living in Pittsburgh. I see this work as a really good balance between content and image. He uses the life lines of the palm to suggest a journey and then by writting in Spanish he is addressing that group of people along with the "no translation available" line that furthers that intention of relating to certain people in that community. I also read this article that explains the importance and impact of billboards. Here. I think the best quote from this article discussing billboard (as art and advertising) is "It’s a massive example of humanity’s need for attention and to be heard. We all want to be noticed, and regarded, as individuals and for what we do." I thought this was really interesting because it is becoming more common for artists to use advertising spaces to display their artwork and to relay a message, and also how it is a chance to be recognized and have the large general public interpret what you have to say.

Response to Stop Motion Critique

I like my project but there are a couple of things that I would probably change after hearing the critique. It was brought up in class that focusing more on the repetition of the foot steps could have made it even more interesting. I hadn't considered this, but I think it really could have made it better. It was also discussed that the video made some people dizzy, and I really didn't think of it that way. But in some ways it is a really interesting response because it IS a response to the piece. I really liked this comment especially because everyone's reaction to it seemed to be different, and it is exciting to see how something I created is viewed.

Stop Motion Video

Response to Agnes Varda and Chris Marke

I was confused on whether Varda believes that cinema and photography do work off of each other and work together in a way. I believe that they do. In history it is obvious that cinema came to be after photography, but aside from that I feel that early films had influence from photography. The first works that come to my mind are Warhol's screen tests. In a way kind of like a camera obscura he used moving film to capture a live still portrait of a person. There is also the use of films made solely from photographic images using visual effects (dissolves and zooms) along with a narration. This is something Marke discusses in his first experimentation with moving images. I think it is interesting how he explains his pure excitement with what he had created and how he "couldn't even imagine having anything in common with the process of filmmaking." This is an interesting thought and I really like the idea of just jumping into it and trying something new.

Test of Stop Motion

pins from Morgan Hayward on Vimeo.

Hopefully my project goes better than this