Behind the Video Art Project

Inspiration

I've always been fascinated by the countless amount of videos I've viewed over the years on YouTube of people creating entirely new songs out of nothing, or the more common use of older songs and midis in association with different available source material to mix and match. Below are some of the videos in particular that I have always found great and helped me to figure out the direction that I wanted to take my video art project.

The Video Art Itself

One of the main things that seems to be in every one of the videos that I had seen above seemed to have its own beat in the background at one point or another that was not from the original source (however, I may be wrong with Big Beat Mario). Based on this, I decided to go my own route, using only clips from the original source and songs that were actually part of the show's soundtrack. I also chose to use these simply as jumping-off points for what I could do myself rather than having to focus my work around already established songs. The source that I decided to use was the original Japanese version of the series Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which I happened to have the most access to. Having watched the series a couple of times and owning it on DVD, I felt that it would allow me to leave my comfort zone of creating this piece while still allowing me to be familiar enough with the source material to find good parts that I could splice together.

To begin, I decided to use this song for the credits, as it happens to be the song that plays during the credits of every episode. I have a soft spot for playing songs backwards. It's a weird fascination I've had for a while where I used to run songs through Audacity and reverse them just to see how they sounded. This was one of those songs that just seemed so much better that way, so I decided to add the "end" of the song (the beginning in reverse) because I really enjoyed the way it sounded.

A main staple song of the series, I decided to use a portion of this in reverse as the base of much of the second half of the song in order to have something in the background of the clips I was putting together. Without a steady beat, the clips by themselves just occasionally felt off-putting and did not seem to stand up as strong by themselves. Parts of this song were also evident in the clip near the beginning I had, however the audio in question at that point was actually part of the clip.

Final Project: Video Art

Well, 150+ layers in After Effects and a month of off-and-on work later, I've finished up my video art project for the class. It started out pretty fun, but then I got to the point where I would just get so frustrated with getting it just right that I kept debating trashing the entire work. I'm glad the nitpicking didn't get the best of me, since I think it came out okay. I'll provide a bit more information on the background of this video in my next post to give a good idea of what went into this and the inspiration behind it.

The Future Is Now

Josh Walton

Walton and his lab are coming together to combine the power of our current digital technology and combine it with our physical reality. In this way, we can take what we already have or could create in the physical environment and tell a story digitally. His examples included attaching sensors to physical items and having the digital medium react based on the interactions people gave as they passed. In this way, Walton is bringing virtual reality into physical reality, and I cannot wait to see what else he may have in store.

Golan Levin

Levin is taking "cybernetic systems" to a new level. Experimenting with computing and creating works with the help of technology, Levin is slowly becoming a pioneer in his own way, finding new ways to combine our digital systems to create performances and virtual environments. I suspect that we will see more pieces such as his as the norm in our art museums and events as the digital age progresses.

Klaus Obermeier & Gideon Obarzaneks

While they may not be working together, Obermeier and Obarzaneks are both experimenting in the use of digital systems and technologies in order to create and enhance performance pieces. The pieces themselves are visually stunning and seem to be one-of-a-kind, really combining the power of art and our current technology. Perhaps this may begin a trend towards extending our performances into the digital era. However, I feel that even without the use of technology, performance pieces can stand on their own and still create a sense of meaning and wonder.

Kevin Warwick

An expert in cybernetics, Warwick is paving the way of the future and the experimentation with cyborgs not only through his research, but through his own experiments on himself. Why just study the technology when you could see the effects of our growing technology on yourself? Warwick believes that in the future we will develop machine intelligence that will surpass our own. Honestly, if they seem to end up working out the kinks, I wouldn't mind being one of the first in line to try out some cybernetics. It may be a pipe dream, but at the rate that our technology seems to be evolving, we're either going to hit a wall or smash straight through it. I truly am excited to see what the future holds for our technology and how society is shaped around it. We're already seeing the changes in our art and personal lives, and soon we will see how our technology will begin to shape the world.

Latin Music and More

While it may be great to look back on the songs of the past for the United States, I've always found it more interesting to see the evolution of music in other parts of the world. Looking through the videos provided on the evolution of Latin music, I must say that I really am a fan. It seems to keep its own style that reflects the more classical music of the countries while still matching that of the evolution of music seen in the United States and Europe. The above video was one of my favorites, and I liked the message that it was getting across. It reminded me of another band that I was introduced to by my Uncle a couple of years ago. A lesser known folk band from Canada called Moxy Fruvous has been a group that I have held dear since I first heard one of their albums. Many of their songs poke fun at political turmoil in Canada and America, including songs such as The Gulf War Song and The Greatest Man in America, which was a jab at Rush Limbaugh. Simple and elegant, Moxy Fruvous can range from catchy little songs that can provide a laugh or two with its satire, to the more serious songs, such as The Drinking Song, shown below.

As for dubstep, I have never been a big fan. Sure, this may just be because I haven't heard very good dubstep, but I wouldn't say that I hate it. However, I have mostly disliked the songs that I have heard so far. I'm definitely open to hearing more if I ever get the chance, and this class has really opened up my taste for music as a whole. Who knows, I may eventually fall in love with it. I will admit, when I was younger I went through a bit of a "happy hardcore" rave song phase, but even that seemed to eventually get on my nerves. I am still very much a fan of electronic music though, and there's even a chance some of the songs I enjoy are actually considered dubstep (that is, because much of what I have considered to be dubstep involves a bass drop followed by sounds that just seem grating to me).

Ghost Town by TeddyLoid

VideoArtes

The video depicts an animation of the inside of a woman's restroom. Close-ups are used to show different things that are happening during the course of the animation. A turtle can be found in one of the toilets during a portion of the video, and a woman lets a moth free from her hands. I feel what makes this art is the fact that it is experimental animation. The way the projector is set up to portray the scene makes it seem as if the room may actually exist. When not being used as a room, the walls act as different cameras for the animation.

In this video, old photos of the city are taken and transformed into the similar areas that can now be found in that part of the city. This is paired with the sounds of the city and music to accompany it. The transition effects give the pictures a morph-like quality, as if it is truly transforming into its new state. This is art because it takes the use of photographs and gives them a larger meaning, bringing a story to the two pictures of before and after. The change between the past and present can clearly be seen, and begs the question to the viewer of just how much time has passed and what has changed to get to this point.

This was one of my favorite videos. The artist takes pre-recorded footage of a parking lot and positions his hands in such a way that it seems as if he is the one moving everything around, from pushing people aside to parking the cars himself. It is truly a work of art, as it challenges the view of the original video, making  the scene seem as if it is just some sandbox for this mighty being to toy with. In reality, this is real footage of a parking lot, but when deontextualized it looks as if it is the artist's own little play-set.

History of Magnetic Tape

Magnetic tape has had an interesting run throughout the history of recording, starting with experimentation in the late 1800s. While it may not have been as powerful or cost effective as the recording processes at the time, it would eventually become one of our most used technologies for recording. After World War II, the magnetic tape began to be used more commercially and produced more efficiently. It was used to record and master audio better than phonographs at the time, and was found to be able to create stereo recordings through multiple channel recording. This eventually led to the development of 8-tracks and cassettes. However, magnetic tape was not limited to sound. The development of VHS tapes and early computer systems used the power that magnetic recording had in store. While it seems that as we progress into the digital era and develop more efficient ways of storing more and more data that the use of magnetic recording is phasing out, it is important to look back at what helped us get to the point we are now. Even in this digital age, I know people who still hold their VHS collections dear, and for good reason: preserving the history of our technological evolution.

Flipbook Project

In case the video above has issues, I've uploaded the project to YouTube here.

Anyway, here's the project I did for class for the flip book animation. At the time we were assigned the project, I honestly did not know what I wanted to do. However, it seems that inspiration works in mysterious ways, and after about a week of being pretty depressed over some personal things, I created this animation. I really like the way it turned out.