The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Even though I’ve only recently started this blog, I always find these sorts of statistics really interesting. I hope they are to you as well.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 220 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
Jeremy Blake and Takeshi Murata are both artists that use computers to create digital works. The computers being a metamedium, a medium in which contains “already existing and non-yet-invented media.” They create works that have a very unique aesthetic by utilizing and exploiting specific digital techniques.
Jeremy Blake’s work incites a surreal nostalgia. Looking at the work reminds me of a sequence of memories, each stitched together in a narrative. His style was created when culture underwent a continuity turn. This was a time when “both the temporal visual form of graphic cinema and the spatial form of architecture started to explore the new universe of continuous change and transformation”. Architects started to create works in which spaces weren’t necessarily divided and filmmakers understood film as a continuously changing visual form. Winchester Redux has no cuts or flash transitions between scenes. Instead, images are slowly fading in and out of view. This creates a very dream-like aesthetic.
Takeshi Murata uses a technique that is now called datamoshing. This technique takes advantage of how videos are compressed and exploits this to manipulate and break the video in a way that a computer might if something went wrong. Pink Dot is a work with a variable form, a form in which all constants are instead variable. The variables are being tweaked and changed as a function of time. This creates a unique aesthetic that can be appreciated and observed indefinitely.
Manovich, Lev. “Understanding Hybrid Media.” in: Lev Manovich Official Website. 2007.
Exploring the theme of identity and creating Nested Red was a form of self reflection for me. I had to evaluate my sense of self to create a work that encompassed a part of my identity.
It is a digital work presented in a light box with a red window that can be manipulated to hide the portrait, revealing a wire frame of a face. The red window takes advantage of the light to successfully create a seamless hidden message as seen above.
The use of the red reveal technique represents a duality in identity. The wire frame suggests a base or fundamental form but also suggests something inhuman. The viewer simultaneously views both perspectives of identity as one, but continues to constantly shift between perspectives.
To My Little Sister is an image that looks at the space between the self identity and the identity of another. Here, Yasumasa Morimura is in female dress on the floor paying homage to Cindy Sherman.
Morimura culturally appropriates American culture and cinematography to create a similar feeling, and to successfully recreate Cindy Sherman’s work. The appropriated clothes, makeup and even the flooring all contribute to the feeling of western nostalgia.
Taking on another identity is something I feel we do a lot. Whether you wanted a fresh start at a new place, or trying to fit into a social circle, it is manipulation of self identity and the identity imposed on you by others. I can relate to this because there are times where I put on a different face for each kind of environment I am in. I behave differently with my family, friends, at work, or in school. All these identities that I present are all part of my ultimate identity.
The motive to create these identities comes from one’s sense of self. Your understanding of self identity is what will push you to make changes to your identity. Sense of self improves with self reflection and time. Subjectivity is a measure of how much identity can influence a judgement. In a way, subjectivity can also change as your identity changes. If you think that you are a quiet person and you feel you need to speak up at the workplace, then you are going to manipulate your identity. I can definitely say that comparing myself now and myself from five years ago I have changed because of my sense of self and the subjectivity I approach decisions with.
My intention when creating this work was to take advantage of the looping nature of the Gif. I borrowed elements from Sci-Fi films and created a being of questionable origin. Coupled with a familiar, warm and inviting setting, I wanted to ease the viewer and have them build a relationship with the unknown entity. After each iteration, fear and anxiety slowly turns to wonder and curiosity as the viewer gets to know their new friend.
Sin2 