Final

Creation of a Narrative

My thought process for this project began with what can be seen in the previous post. Initially I was just brainstorming ideas for concepts I could develop a narrative around. Most centered on photos/photoshop since I am stronger in that area than others. In the end I decided that I would try to create a narrative, composed of a series of photos that are somewhat realistic looking in nature, but that are blatantly impossible/not realistic.  

I started the final compositions by just brainstorming images that I thought would fit the above guidelines, that I also thought would be cool/fun to try and portray, and that I also thought I had the technical skills to at least put an amateur representation of the concept together. There were no connections among the images when I made them, I just made the 3 images and then decided to come up with a short narrative connecting them afterwards (located below).

Artist statement 

Before the project, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't have much of an idea of what I wanted to do, or some standout concept that I knew would be perfect for the project. It had to develop kind of organically over time. While I was making the project, I liked where I was headed, although at times it was a little hard since I had such a lack of direction. Usually I know what I want to create when I start something, so to just kind put things together one step at a time and see where it took me was a little different for me, although I did enjoy the fact that the project kind of forced me out of my comfort zone. After completion, I think that my project is ok. I wanted to do more with it, and make more images to base the narrative off of, but the 3 concepts I worked on each took me more time than I had thought they would so for that reason I decided just to make the 3 and make sure they looked presentable.

It was a perfectly sunny afternoon, perhaps the finest Columbus has even seen. Young Craig Sonnenberg decided to venture out from his slum of a house to get some fresh air and embrace the beautiful day. "Where else is an Ohio State student to go on the most glorious of days, if not the Oval?" he thought to himself. And to the Oval he went. It was a marvelous stroll, that is, for all of about 30 seconds. Not halfway down the Long Walk, he came across a diabolical butterfly (likely birthed in the labs of the University of Michigan) who was laying waste to the the sacred OSU grounds. Fearing for his life, Craig fled as fast as he could, without looking back. He quickly found himself in front of McCracken Power Plant and, worried that the butterfly from hell may still be lingering about, he hastily made his way inside the building. It was not long until Craig was lost among the maze of metalwork and structures within the building. He soon found himself descending into the very depths of the building, and what he saw was as comical as it was disturbing; the entire power plant was being powered by a mass of hamsters. He tried his best to count the vermin, but they were so, so many. Were there other power plants like this? Was this something he could harness? Craig now had more questions rattling around inside his head than he could handle. What was meant to be a peaceful and enjoyable stroll had inevitably set the stage for a life long series of night terrors. Wanting to get it all out of his head and forget about everything for a while, he cautiously wandered back to his abode. Upon reaching it, he ventured inside and sat down upon his trusty couch. As he reached for the remote, a ghastly sight greeted him. A most human looking arm extended from the black nether of his television set, and with one click, the world around Craig faded to blackness. He had seen too much this day.

Ideas/Brainstorming for Final Project

Ideas for possible narratives:

• Series of images from an ant's perspective
• Series of images of a journey I go on as the size of an ant

• Journey across somewhere as I get continually bigger
• Start really small while walking down a road or something and by the end of it be obnoxiously large, like I grew 1000% in size during the trip

• Disappearing gradually over 24 hours
• Pictures of me in the places I'd want to go, gradually becoming more and more faded

• Android transformation
• Taking on parts of things you come in contact with continually/randomly

• Narrative developing out in the style of Erik Johansson, i.e me talking a walk around campus while witnessing a bunch of totally random and bizarre scenes for seemingly* no reason 
• http://alltelleringet.com/

Take 1

Blog 9

Carver "Cathedral"

I think what I found the most compelling about this piece was the voice and the way the author described the situation. I really felt like I got a good sense of what it was like to be in the husband-narrator's shoes. It is an all too familiar scene, a chatty wife/ladyfriend bringing over someone who they wan to sit and gossip with and a male counterpart who has little to no interest in the situation but has to feign something in order to keep her happy. This is a scene which I feel is represented much easier via video/visual means, but I thought the author did a nice job detailing in in writing.

What I liked least about the work was probably the end. There was such a buildup throughout the piece, with the author going into plenty of detail on so many trivial aspects of the story, and then there was this sudden change of heart by the husband at the very end and then it was all over. In like 3 lines. I did think this created a little dissonance which actually kind of made the work more intriguing, but regardless it still just left me with a slight uneasy feeling.

Micro-Assignment 6

The object I chose to work with for this assignment was my toothbrush. Initially, I was considering several other mundane objects I use every day without thinking much about, such as my house keys, but  in the end the toothbrush seemed to make the most sense in regard to the project and the specific task at hand. The words that I got were Spread and Remove. I chose to work primarily with "remove" as I could not think of much to do within the parameters of this assignment for "spread." I was initially going to videotape myself performing another action, such as opening my door with my keys, and have them disappear much like the toothbrush in the video does, but in the end I ran into problems with any other idea I came up with that I wasn't sure how I would work around. Although the video is hopefully pretty self explanatory, the idea behind it is that while brushing my teeth one routine morning, my toothbrush was "removed" from my hand, but that do to the fact that it is early in the morning, and that toothbrushing is such a routine and monotonous task that I don't really even think about any more, I did not even notice that it was missing and continued to carry on with my task. I took several videos of myself brushing my teeth and had a slightly different video in mind, i.e. having the brush disappear and reappear throughout the clip, but in the end the version I landed with seemed to make the most sense and best fit the requirements of the assignment.

Micro-Assignment 5

Videogames were very frustrating for me as a child. I loved them, don't get me wrong, but I can't even count how many games I eventually gave up on because I couldn't beat them (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy VIII......) As frustrating as it was at times, Megaman 1 was definitely one of my favorite games as a kid. I chose the super pixelated Megaman 1 characters because A) they were from my favorite version of the game, but also because B) I thought the super pixelated, digital look of the characters helped to exaggerate the situation even more. I chose the specific Megaman pose that I did because it is the first image that pops into my mind every time I think of the game. I think it has something to do with me always thinking it is such a strange looking "jump" animation. I picked Iceman as my opponent because he was the first of the Megaman bosses that came to my mind.

Originally, I wasn't sure what I was going to do, I just thought it would be neat to turn myself into Megaman because he's one of my favorite old-school game characters and I have fond memories of this game. I was just going to turn myself into the Megaman character originally, but that seemed too easy and didn't really fit the requirements of the project. Once I picked the Megaman jumping pose that I did and started messing around with it, dodgeball came to mind since all of the Megaman bosses are always throwing things at you. So, I went down to the JO North, snapped a picture of the basketball court there, and superimposed a realistic, more politically correct Megaman boss fight (since shooting spears of ice and plasma cannons at each other would probably be frowned up by the JO staff).

I would have liked to have done something a little flashier and more creative with this project. I'm happy with the way my final turned out, but when brainstorming I was hoping to come up with something a little more creative since this was a pretty neat assignment. If I had the time, I probably would have tried to make a larger scene (i.e. all of the Megaman 1 bosses in a match against a group of people, with myself and Iceman maybe up front or something). In general though I think it's an ok image.

Blog 8

Wallace, This is Water

If I met and conversed with the author of this article in real life, I really can't tell if I would like them or not. I believe the author's intentions are good, and in many respects I like the end point that he is making about being generally more aware and conscious of the world around us. Yet, throughout the article, I found myself going back and forth many times, sometimes agreeing and thinking he was making an important argument, while other times thinking that the tone of the article and some of the sections were a little too pompous for my tastes.

In general, what bothered me most about the article were some of the more specific claims the author was making. I think in some parts, he over-generalized a bit and made some statements and assumptions that are actually a little more open-ended than he made them out to be.

What I liked most was the main point that the author was trying to make. I've several times in my life taken to trying to be more observant of and understanding of the world around me, and to avoiding looking at things through my own personal lens all the time. I've found it both very difficult and very beneficial, much like the author suggests. It was interesting for me to hear the arguments and validations the author made regarding why individuals need to do this. I'm not sure if I would associate the real value of college education with simple awareness, but I think it was a noble and well thought out commencement address.

Blog 7

Kaprow, Art Which Can't Be Art

What I found most engaging about the Art Which Can't be Art article was definitely the section regarding the author's personal reflections on tooth brushing. The author commented on how their right-handedness caused them to always enter their mouth from that side, which is very similar to a thought I had just the other day. I wondered whether the fact that I always do the exact same thing had any measurable effect on my teeth and their state of being, since this would mean the same side of my teeth always get hit with more toothpaste. It was interesting to me to think about how the author of this article, who was attempting to look at things from a more artistic perspective, came to this same realization.

What I found most difficult in this article was the author's attempt to define art, or to talk about art like it is so easily defined. No matter how many people try to put it into a specified box, I have never thought of art as something that can really be so concretely defined. As I understand it, art is relative. One person can choose to declare something art, and others may or may not accept it as such. It was a little confusing to me why a person who claims to be an artist is so concerned with what mainstream society identifies as art.