WEEK 10 HOMEWORK

This week I would like you to research some innovative ways of presenting digital artwork... whether it's on mobile phones or projected on to the side of a building. Find an example and post it to your blog.

CALL OUT TO ARTISTS... that's you guys!

Stop Motion Animations

Check out some of these cool stop motion animations...

Roaming Sweets by Anita Bacic & Natalie Woodlock

19:09 by Alicja Kwade

Ahhh... by Alette Simmons-Jimenez

Davidson by Luis Bezeta

Heaven came from Hell by Oscar Seco

In Meiner Strasse by Heinz Schmöller


Check out the video art world animation page for more!

STOP MOTION ANIMATION: the how to for those on placement weeks 9 & 10

The stop motion animation should be pretty straight forward for you guys now, as it is putting the skills you have already learned over the semester into use. Just follow the steps below:

Taking your photos
You have a couple of options here, depending on your subject matter.

i. Most digital cameras have a "shutter burst" or multi-shot function, where by holding down the shutter button it takes a burst of photos in rapid succession. This is a good option if you are using an animated object (for example a person).

ii. Your other option is to set your camera up on a tripod in front of your inanimate object. Take a photo, move your object slightly, take another photo, move your object slightly... repeat.

Remember, that a moving image is generally 25 frames per second. That's 100 pictures for 4 seconds. Or 1500 for 1 minute! For stop motion, we don't have to adhere to this too closely, as it is the stop part which gives it its character. So you might like to opt for half that, so 12 frames per second, for example.

Editing your images
You can edit your photos in photoshop if you want to, but remember you will need to be consistent, it may look odd if you only edit a couple and not the rest. Save as jpgs.

Putting it altogether
Open Final Cut Pro. First things first, click on Final Cut Pro in the menu bar > User preferences > Editing tab > Still/freeze duration. Change the time for how long you want your individual photos to play for. It is in the format of hh:mm:ss:ff so you will change the frames. If you are working to 12 frames per second for example, it would be 00:00:00:02 or if you want your images to run for half a second each 00:00:00:12




Import all of your photos. File > import > Files. You can select more than one by holding down the shift key. It is a good idea to have them in order already, so that when you start putting them together in your timeline you won't have to search, and you can just simply select them all and drag and drop into your timeline.

Remember you can add effects etc just like you did for your video art.

You may also like to have music, if it is an mp3 or wav you can simply drag and drop the music file into your timeline.

When you have finished you can export as a quicktime. Then you can publish it to DVD using iDVD.

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!

WEEK 7

Please also bring with your a DVD-R to burn your video to.

WEDNESDAY 1-4 class, we will be back in our usual room this week.

WEEK 7

Next week we will be continuing with the video editing, so please bring in your work, including any new video you may have shot.

WEEK 5 HOMEWORK

Jump on to Video Art World and search via the categories for works/artists akin to your topic. Link it on your blog.

AND film your video art piece in preparation for editing next week. Please bring your mini DV and external harddrive to class next week.

HAPPY FILMING!!

Video art and the cinematic experience

Contemporary video art, whilst still including single channel or multi channel works (video works played on the one or multiple screens), has extended into another newish art form; installation. This is where the videos are shown, either projected or on a monitor, amongst an environment incorporating sculptural elements, objects, or intervened space. The video may be projected onto everyday objects, such as in Pipilotti Rist's Himalaya Sisters Living Room, or onto effigies, such as Tony Oursler's many contemporary works.

Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle is a pivotal contemporary work, in that it has the aura of a big budget Hollywood feature film/s, yet at it's centre it is conceptual and experimental.

Early Video Art

I thought you guys might like to check out some early video artists who's work is YouTube...
Nam June Paik
Vito Acconci
Bruce Nauman
Dennis Oppenheim
VALIE EXPORT

A documentary on early experimentations in video art, titled The New Wave.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6


You might notice that early video art was used a lot for documenting performance art and body art and to comment critically on the media and television culture. Early video artists, such as Nam June Paik in Magnet TV 1965, and Peter Campus, also explored the technical boundaries of the medium.

Fluxus, an avant garde art group in the early to mid 1960s, included early video artists, performance artists and experimental film artists such as Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell.

The library has some fantastic resources including 'Video Art' (Michael Rush, 2003) and 'Video Art, a guided tour' (Catherine Elwes, 2005), as well as some actually video art recordings.

Copyright article

Interesting article on the complications of copyright and art:

"Copyrights and copy wrongs"

And here's another article on a current copyright lawsuit.

Collage through the times

Pablo Picasso 'Glass and Bottle of Suze' 1912

Collage
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈläzh, kȯ-, kō-\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, gluing, from coller to glue, from colle glue, from Vulgar Latin *colla,kolla from Greek
Date: 1919

1 a : an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface b : a creative work that resembles such a composition in incorporating various materials or elements
2 : the art of making collages
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collage)


Raoul Hausman 'The Art Critic' 1919-1920

A thoroughly modern medium, collage expressed the characteristics of the 20th Century - immediacy, the mass media and capitalism - through creative process and concept. Collage, coming from the French term coller, meaning glue, paste or stick, is the construction of pictures through the pasting of torn images.


John Heartfield 'Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Sprouts Junk' 1932

According to the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, collage as an artform is much more than just simply making pictures. "It's a mode of perception, a multi-dimensional language with aesthetic implications that spans the histories of art, architecture, literature and music."



Kurt Schwitters 'The Proposal' 1942

Collage first emerged as a fine art medium in the form of papier colles, or pasted papers, from Cubists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Since, it has been an important medium throughout Modern art, showing up in Italian Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art and Fluxus. Artists who worked in the collage medium included Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell; who asserted that art could be made from anything. Abtract Expressionsist artists, such as Robert Motherwell, were attracted to the medium to expand their practice in abstract painting (IMCSC 2005).


David Hockney 'Pearblossom Hwy, 11th-18th April, 1986, #2' 1986

Contemporary artists use collage, and the closely related assemblage and mixed media, to construct a visual representation of their world and experiences, by using found objects and objects closely bound to the everyday; which viewers make an immediate identification to.



Peter Lewis 'The Birth of the Information Age' no date


Peter Lewis 'Tiki Touring' no date

As a medium, collage blurs the boundaries or bridges the dichotomy between high and low art or pop art; text and image; figuration and abstraction; past and present; and two and three dimensions (ibid). According to media theorist Marshall McLuhan. collage effectively breaks down perspectivalism, while at the same time emphasises the disparity of images or objects it juxtaposes.



Martin Smith 'Teevee #13' 1999

A collage is not just a bunch of random things pasted together. It is important to consider conventional design elements and principles such as composition, line, shape, colour, form, texture, etc; and what the images and objects in the collage represent and the meaning they add to the work. So before cutting and pasting, have a clear understanding of the message you want to send to your audience and the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the work.

Traditional collage and practice and digital collage practice share the same characteristics, both immediate and seemingly simple, yet potentially tedious and complex.


Natsuki Kimura 'Gone' 2000

Further Reading:
Greenberg, Clement. "Collage (The Pasted Paper Revolution)." Art News 57.5 (September 1958): 46-49, ff.

Rosenberg, Harold. "Collage: Philosophy of Put-Togethers." Art on the Edge. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
Barthes, Roland. "The Rhetoric of the Image." Image-Music-Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.
Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage and the Found Object. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Wescher, Herta. Collage. Trans Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1968.
Online resources for digital collage artists:
Ear Studio
Jonathon Baker
Natsuki Kimura

For next week's class

Don't forget to collect images (your own and others, eg from the net) and scanned in objects and materials related to your topic for next weeks class on digital collage.

WEEK 3 HOMEWORK

Find a photographer that interests you. Write 50-100 words on what it is about them or their work that appeals to you. For example it may be the aesthetic of their work, the subject matter, theme or technique. Include a link to their work. Remember to reference correctly if you include an image.

Attn Monday's class

Monday 14th March is Labour Day, but as it is a state public holiday, not a national one, class will be running.

Week 2 Homework

So now that you know how to get the most out of your digital camera and how to take great and interesting photographs, you will now apply those skills in a dedicated photoshoot for your project in response to your chosen topic.

Please take at least 50 photos. Out of those 50 photos, hopefully you'll end up with around 20 'good' ones. These are the photos we will be editing in Adobe Raw and Photoshop next week.

Please bring all of your photos (even the 'bad' ones) to next weeks class. If they are on your camera please bring the usb cable to get them off the camera and on to the computer. Otherwise, please bring the CD, USB stick or external hard drive which contain your unedited images.

ASSESSMENT 1: PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

You are required to submit a digital art proposal for the work you intend on creating over the semester (you will eventually hand in 5 finished artworks from those created during class time). Your proposal is to be up to 1 typed A4 page (approximately 500 words). The proposal is to address the following points:

ISSUE/TOPIC
What
What issue/topic are you addressing with your artwork?

Why
Why are you addressing this issue/topic?

How
How do you feel about this issue/topic?
How does this issue/topic affect society or the individual?


ARTWORK
What
What will your artwork be?
What will your artwork look like?
What will your artwork be of?

Why
Why is digital art the best way of exploring your issue/topic?

How
How are you going to make your artwork?

PRESENTATION
How
How will you be presenting your artwork?

Why
Why are you presenting your work in this way?

What
What special requirements do you need to present your work in this way?

INFLUENCE
What
What is an artwork and artist that will influence your artwork?

Why
Why does this influence your work?

How
How will you use this influence in your artwork?




Assessment Criteria:
A satisfactory completion of assignment requires:
• A typed proposal addressing the above points, of approximately 500 words, submitted on the due date.
• Your proposal to be comprehensive and well written.
• Your proposal to be descriptive, imaginative and ambitious yet achievable.
Relevant resources (including images) correctly referenced using the Harvard referencing system, including a bibliography.

Due: Week 5
500 words (or equivalent with images)
Presented on your blog.

Genres and Contemporary Artists of Art Photography

List compiled from Bright, S. 2005, Art Photography Now, Thames and Hudson, UK.

Portraiture - Gillian Wearing, Hellen van Meene, Cindy Sherman, Tina Barney, Sam Taylor-Wood, Katy Grannan, Rineke Dijkstra.

Landscape - Elina Brotherus, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Misrach, Doug Aitken, Andreas Gursky, Dan Holdsworth.

Narrative - Gregory Crewdson, AES&F, Sarah Jones, Tracey Moffatt, Hannah Starkey, Bill Henson, Wang Quingsong, Jeff Wall.

Object - Laura Letinksky, Gabriel Orozco, Wolfgang Tillmans, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas Demand, Vik Muniz, Zoe Leonard, Jean-Luc Moulene.

Fashion - Jonathan de Villiers, Craig McDean, Mert and Marcus, Camille Vivier, Corinne Day.

Document - Larry Sultan, Erwin Wurm, Martin Parr, Tacita Dean, Nan Goldin, Sophie Calle.

City - Melanie Manchot, Naoya Hatakeyama, Olivio Barbieri, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Thomas Struth.

Week 2

Photography is constantly changing and hard to define. Its discursive and somewhat promiscuous nature has tended to confuse many people as to its status and value as an art form. The trouble is that it lends itself to many varied uses. We see photography in newspapers, surveillance, advertising campaigns and art galleries, and as fashion shots or family snaps. Meaning can slip and slide depending on context, and the fact that photography lacks any kind of unity and seems to have no intrinsic character makes the insistent cry of 'but is it art?' a constant refrain throughout its relatively short but complex history. Susan Bright 2005 'Art Photography Now', p. 7.

It is popular belief that the photograph was something to be believed, it was a moment frozen in time, an unquestionable product of authenticity. Photographs have never been evidence of absolute visual truth; double exposure and splicing, amongst other techniques, have been photographic processes since used to manipulate perception as early as the 19th Century.

Bright follows on by saying that the early reservations about photography has been exacerbated by the invention of digital technology, and now the question is not 'is it art?', but 'is it photography?' "One reason why digitization makes many observers uncomfortable is that it takes us away from reality and into the realm of fantasy, an area which at first seems at odds with a seemingly objective and descriptive medium. However, the photograph's role as a conveyer of 'truth' or as a trace of reality has long been contested; and photographs have always been manipulated" (ibid, p. 9).

Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) discusses the affect of modernity on the art making process, in particular the invention of photography, and how that has changed perception. He talks about the loss of the aura in art work that is reproducible, where authenticity and originality of a work of art cannot be reproduced with the image.

The Work of Art had an immense influence on artists working in the 1960s and 70s, such as Andy Warhol, Dan Graham and Robert Rauschenberg, who questioned photography's supposed evidence of reality; and as a result challenged aesthetic conventions.

Postmodernism "exposed how photography was used and understood as a medium, as a material and as a message; ... a work was no longer seen as the creation of a single 'author' who retained the monopoly on its meaning but as the product of a certain context with a multiplicity of meanings" (ibid p. 13).

Further Reading:
Bright, S. 2005, Art Photography Now, Thames and Hudson, UK.
la Grange, A. 2005 Basic Critical Theory for Photographers, Elsevier, Burlington. (electronic resource available from VU library)
Masters of Photography
Australian Photography and Photographers: Contemporary Australian Photography By Anne Marsh
Photography Reborn: Image Making in the Digital Era by Jonathan

Week 1

Welcome Welcome Welcome!!

This weeks homework requires you to simply brainstorm some ideas for your folio. What topics interest you? How could you comment on them in the context of contemporary digital art? What are some artists that you have found that may be of inspirations?

Preparation for next week: Please bring in a digital camera and your brain full of wonderful ideas!