Video Art |
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During my Fall 2016 semester in college, I took an elective class called Video Art. Within that class, I produced five video art projects, each one meant to expand on a type of art. Additionally, I created a documentary style video in my Studio Foundations: 4D class from Spring 2015 and numorous other video projects through my Animation Associates. The videos on this page are from Fall 2016 and Spring 2015. Other videos can be located on my Youtube page.
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Video Art
Fall 2016
A WishThe first video created in Video Art was dealing with appropriated footage. We were creating something new with what footage we used. All footage and music used in this video are not my own and are linked in the video description on YouTube.
Beyond the following artist statement, the reason this video is compiled as it is is due to my personal enjoyment of flight and the wish for wings, even if it's just a fanciful wish. Whether I fly under my own strength like an eagle or dragon, or with the aid of pixie dust or machinery, I want to fly with as little between me and the sky as I can possibly manage. |
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Digital AdventureThe second video created in Video Art was a narrative focusing around a thematic part of our life where edits - color shifts or some sort of effect - were done while filming. The only editing we were allowed to do post-production was trimming the footage to 10 seconds or less increments and rearranging them.
This particular one held a peculiar challenge for me. I do not see much of my life as entertaining and what I did was limited to three things. My first idea had been to do one focused around a rehearsal in theatre. However, at the time, I was assistant director and it felt improper to draw focus away from the actors' work during a rehearsal. |
Instead, I went with the second thing that I thought was interesting in my life: photography and digital illustrations. I pulled an old thumbnail out from one of my Associate classes to use as the project to be videotaped seeing as it allowed me to have several different locations rather than stuck in one place like my normal art projects would have. The amount of footage I had was staggering and it was a challenge to condense it and create a video under 3 minutes. Looking back now, there are areas I would change and add to, but that is with hindsight being 20/20 and after critique.
Artist Statement:
Each person on their own has something they wish to achieve or a dream they plan to complete. "A Wish" is a representation of both the idea of the flight of a dream as well as true flight. A dream takes off but the path it takes is never quite a straight line. Sometimes the journey to a wish or a dream isn't easy with twists and turns that can be nerve wracking or enjoyable. But it is a journey, one with wings we are not aware we had till we land.
Artist Statement:
Each person on their own has something they wish to achieve or a dream they plan to complete. "A Wish" is a representation of both the idea of the flight of a dream as well as true flight. A dream takes off but the path it takes is never quite a straight line. Sometimes the journey to a wish or a dream isn't easy with twists and turns that can be nerve wracking or enjoyable. But it is a journey, one with wings we are not aware we had till we land.
TouchThis piece holds a special place in my heart and part of that is due to the two people filmed.
This piece was meant to be a performance piece, focusing on the body as the material. The project goal was to explore body, gender, and sexual landscapes with an encouraged LGBTQIA theme. The encouraged theme was in part to an opportunity to have our videos shown - if we wished - at the Auraria LGBTQIA Daytime Screening. Our videos would be shown in an actual art gallery with other types of arts on display. |
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I chose touch and my two best friends were more than happy to be the subjects of the film. I did choose to have my film shown in the gallery.
Rachel and Mikaela have been happily married for a year at the time of this video. I did not have to encourage them to touch, I did no directing in this. All the actions in these clips are natural. That is why I asked them to be the subjects of my video. They showed my statement without me having to do anything.
Artist's Statement:
Touch; a way that humans communicate and interact with the world around them. For many, touch is used to communicate love, support, and even hate. Sometimes, what gets focused on the most is the touch created out of hate, or the brief instances of support provided by the touch offered. But many times touch occurs without many realizing it. Touch is shared between friends with playful pokes and punches to holding hands and hugs. Touch is shared between partners with a brief touch to maneuver around one another in the morning as both are preparing for work or as one passes a cup or plate to be washed. Moments of touch get left behind in memories of moments and for this video, the instances shared here are cherished, soothing, and beloved by those that shared it between them. Life is not complete if there is not touch.
Rachel and Mikaela have been happily married for a year at the time of this video. I did not have to encourage them to touch, I did no directing in this. All the actions in these clips are natural. That is why I asked them to be the subjects of my video. They showed my statement without me having to do anything.
Artist's Statement:
Touch; a way that humans communicate and interact with the world around them. For many, touch is used to communicate love, support, and even hate. Sometimes, what gets focused on the most is the touch created out of hate, or the brief instances of support provided by the touch offered. But many times touch occurs without many realizing it. Touch is shared between friends with playful pokes and punches to holding hands and hugs. Touch is shared between partners with a brief touch to maneuver around one another in the morning as both are preparing for work or as one passes a cup or plate to be washed. Moments of touch get left behind in memories of moments and for this video, the instances shared here are cherished, soothing, and beloved by those that shared it between them. Life is not complete if there is not touch.
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PerspectiveThis was a site specific installation video projected within a small gallery space. This looping video was purposefully placed over the only access in and out of the gallery. The video filled the wall from floor to ceiling and the following artist statement was placed at the base of the projection so that someone would be forced to be a unit of scale for the video.
Artist Statement: Day in and day out we fall into routine. Day in and day out we forget – even as artists – there are other perspectives than our own. |
Sometimes taking a step back to view the world from a different angle allows us to not only calm down from whatever heightened emotion we are in, it allows us to see a larger (or smaller) picture.
“Perspective” is a looping film meant to engage the viewer in two ways.
The viewer becomes part of the piece as they step into the space, placing themselves between the projector and the wall not on purpose but out of necessity. This gives them first a view of a projector pointed at them, and then the blurred something that is being projected. Up close, it is hard to decipher what is being projected and yet there is this sense of intimacy and separation that occurs all at once.
The viewer then steps away from the piece to allow others to take their place, moving away from the wall in order to see the larger image. With other viewers near the projection, the larger image and the impact of what is being projected are realized. Video of items that are small or forgotten about are displayed on the wall, flittering between the movement of people and the stillness of inanimate objects. The images projected seem so much larger as the other viewers stand so close to the wall that, not only do they obscure parts and become part of the projection, they provide an involuntary scale to what is being projected.
The viewers become part of the perspective.
“Perspective” is a looping film meant to engage the viewer in two ways.
The viewer becomes part of the piece as they step into the space, placing themselves between the projector and the wall not on purpose but out of necessity. This gives them first a view of a projector pointed at them, and then the blurred something that is being projected. Up close, it is hard to decipher what is being projected and yet there is this sense of intimacy and separation that occurs all at once.
The viewer then steps away from the piece to allow others to take their place, moving away from the wall in order to see the larger image. With other viewers near the projection, the larger image and the impact of what is being projected are realized. Video of items that are small or forgotten about are displayed on the wall, flittering between the movement of people and the stillness of inanimate objects. The images projected seem so much larger as the other viewers stand so close to the wall that, not only do they obscure parts and become part of the projection, they provide an involuntary scale to what is being projected.
The viewers become part of the perspective.
A Moment of Joy
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As the final project of the semester, we were tasked with creating a self-driven project focusing in animation. We were allowed to choose any sort of animation we wished to do: 2D, 3D, stopmotion, claymation, inserted animation, so on and so forth.
My choice came from a previously sketched out thumbnail storyboard around an animation project I had wanted to do months prior but had never gotten around to. My original intent was to do frame by frame animation but, due to time limit and my lack of speed when it comes to drawing, I settled for a keyframe animatic instead. All that is in the animatic was created by my hands. Only one of the two characters belongs to me. |
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Artist Statement:
From day to day, moment to moment, we are bombarded with information that isn't always positive. In moments of hardship and frustration, it helps to remember to take a moment for joy and to share it with another that cares. For me, stories are how I create moments of joy or work through the hardship of the day. Sometimes the story is my own, sometimes it is expanding off of what others have previously created. This snippet of a tale much larger than this scene is a brief moment of joy at a time when hardships start to become overwhelming.
From day to day, moment to moment, we are bombarded with information that isn't always positive. In moments of hardship and frustration, it helps to remember to take a moment for joy and to share it with another that cares. For me, stories are how I create moments of joy or work through the hardship of the day. Sometimes the story is my own, sometimes it is expanding off of what others have previously created. This snippet of a tale much larger than this scene is a brief moment of joy at a time when hardships start to become overwhelming.
Studio Foundations: 4D
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Old
Studio Foundations: 4D was a fundamental art class focusing on time within art. This meant that a number of the topics we touched were video art, however we also went into the concepts of mobiles and similar sculptures as well as interactive art installations.
One of the major projects we had to do was create a video based off of a word we drew from a hat. The word I pulled was "old". Now, when I had first pulled this word, I had no idea what I was going to do. "Old" was not something I could contextualize to create video art for. To come up with something to do, I was going to ask people what was the first thing that came to mind when I said "old". |
That was when I got my idea:
A documentary around people's first impression to the word "old".
Now, prior in this class, we had watched a number of documentaries based around artists. One of my favorite 4D artists is Andy Goldsworthy. I own Rivers and Tides, a documentary around his work. I love how the documentary is set up and the way it flows and I used it as inspiration when setting up my own documentary.
Now, things happen. I originally had scheduled 12 some odd interviews but a large number of those interviews fell through for whatever reason. In the end, I was left with five interviewees and barely made the time requirements for the assignment. I greatly enjoyed the process and discovered during this particular shoot that directing was something I greatly enjoyed doing and would be completely content doing for the rest of my life. Part of that was encouraged by my crew of two - my camera operator who is a dear friend of mine and my audio personnel who was a classmate of said dear friend - telling me between interviews that they would happily work for me again any time. This led me into the assistant directing positions I held the following calendar year.
A documentary around people's first impression to the word "old".
Now, prior in this class, we had watched a number of documentaries based around artists. One of my favorite 4D artists is Andy Goldsworthy. I own Rivers and Tides, a documentary around his work. I love how the documentary is set up and the way it flows and I used it as inspiration when setting up my own documentary.
Now, things happen. I originally had scheduled 12 some odd interviews but a large number of those interviews fell through for whatever reason. In the end, I was left with five interviewees and barely made the time requirements for the assignment. I greatly enjoyed the process and discovered during this particular shoot that directing was something I greatly enjoyed doing and would be completely content doing for the rest of my life. Part of that was encouraged by my crew of two - my camera operator who is a dear friend of mine and my audio personnel who was a classmate of said dear friend - telling me between interviews that they would happily work for me again any time. This led me into the assistant directing positions I held the following calendar year.