Video Art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYDWctmK8XM

For my video art project, I deconstructed a few of my recent concert videos. The concept is based on the idea of someone passing out at a concert: the sensory overload, the feeling that the world is moving in slow motion, blurring lines and colors, leading to an eventual white-out. My goal was to represent this while still editing and deconstructing the footage itself. The main deconstruction focussed on the audio. When you film a video at a concert, at least in my case, you do so to capture the audio to enjoy at a later time. By slowing and editing this audio, it becomes a pale imprint of the song it once was, and seems almost more like heavy breathing than an actual song. I enjoyed exploring this concept, and hope it is conveyed appropriately.

Performance Art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kfHNoCzvIE

For my performance art piece, I walked around downtown blindfolded with headphones on. This visually demonstrates the way many people withdrawal from the world with technology, whether they are always connected to music in inappropriate situations, or always looking down at their phones, etc. I had friends giving me commands how and where to walk, and tried to move as naturally as possible.
Let it be known that walking around a city without being able to see anything is actually terrifying.
It was nice not knowing how people were reacting, and interesting to find out when I watched the video later. I received many weird and confused looks, but no one approached me. I almost made a biker crash once, but other than that people were able to keep a relative distance. If someone had approached me, I would have ignored them completely as if I could not hear them.
Overall, it was an interesting project and I felt that I conveyed my point. I also value my eyesight more than ever.

What is the difference between advertisements and propaganda?

The goal of advertisement is to sell a product. The goal of propaganda is to sell an idea. Marketing and advertising are closely related business concepts, while propaganda is a more general communication term referring to falsehoods, untruths or exaggerated messages that individuals or groups convey in support of a given purpose or cause. In essence, propaganda is a broad umbrella of persuasive communication, and marketing and advertising are specific business applications. Truth-in-advertising and consumer-protection regulations try to deter businesses from including deceptive or misleading statements common to propaganda.

Flash Mobs/Eva & Adele

Vallès Symphony Orchestra Flashmob

This flashmob is particularly interesting because it involves instruments. I love the way there is one visible musician, and then all the others make their way out of the woodwork. Also, the camera work greatly adds to the overall visual effect of the flashmob. Seeing this in person must have been amazing, but this video itself is part of the art. I love looking at how people situate themselves to watch, like the little girl climbing the streetlight. Also, it's entertaining how people choose to interact with the performance, like various children pretending to conduct or people dancing to it. At the end, every single person has a smile on their face. This flashmob is unique and memorable.

Eva and Adele

Eva and Adele are an artistic couple, whose shtick is looking alike. They refuse to reveal their real names and ages. They have been in a relationship for 22 years, but are not married because they would prefer to marry as two women. They claim to be from the future. They are both sex performers and works of art.

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was a Fluxus performance artist. He was born in 1921 in Krefeld, a city in northwestern Germany near the Dutch border. During his youth he pursued dual interests in the natural sciences and art, and he chose a career in medicine. In 1940 he joined the military, volunteering in order to avoid the draft. He was trained as an aircraft radio operator and combat pilot, and during his years of active duty he was seriously wounded numerous times. During the early 1960s, Düsseldorf developed into an important center for contemporary art and Beuys became acquainted with the experimental work of artists such as Nam June Paik and the Fluxus group, whose public "concerts" brought a new fluidity to the boundaries between literature, music, visual art, performance, and everyday life. Their ideas were a catalyst for Beuys' own performances, which he called "actions," and his evolving ideas about how art could play a wider role in society. He began to publicly exhibit his large-scale sculptures, small objects, drawings, and room installations. He also created numerous actions and began making editioned objects and prints called multiples. His reputation in the international art world solidified after a 1979 retrospective at New York's Guggenheim Museum, and he lived the last years of his life at a hectic pace, participating in dozens of exhibitions and traveling widely on behalf of his organizations. Beuys died in 1986 in Düsseldorf. In the subsequent decade his students have carried on his campaign for change, and his ideas and artwork have continued to spark lively debate. 

Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin was a British writer, painter, and performance artist. He created the cut-up poetry technique, used by William Burroughs. Burroughs described him as "the only man I ever respected". He may have been the man to invent weed brownies. Also, he was credited with inventing the dream machine with Ian Somerville. A contributor of the beat generation, he was an influence in music, literature, and art. He died at the age of 70 from lung cancer.

Bauhaus and McCarthyism

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined crafts and fine arts. It was open from 1919 to 1933. The school was heavily influenced by modernism and an artistic mindset. Many artists were exiled under the early Nazi regime, spreading their art style to many different countries.

McCarthyism was the name for the fear-induced control of public media and propaganda in the 1950's. Thanks to the Cold War and extremely high tensions with Russia, Communism and everything associated with it became taboo. Senator Joseph McCarthy took it upon himself to blacklist many artists in art, music, and film that he suspected to be Communist without any legitimate evidence.