Manovich 2

Manovich begins with the search through history of the "invisible effects"...from the effect of movement itself to better and better ways to display those effects of movement. Music videos were the experimentation ground floor while video games seem to have perfected reality. And loops begin and end with substance through the force of circumstance and necessity.
I love best, of course, that the photographic and the graphic met again on the computer screen and now the "avant-garde" are again "ironically resurrecting dead media". Well put.
Media translation is where the old becomes new and the new becomes old and something cool or beautiful or relevant is born "again" in between. Ha! Warhol was right.

Manovich pt 2 - Lacey Biernacki

 

If you look back on humanity's technological progress over the past 20 someot years it is absolutely insane how far we have come. In video games we've gone from simple picture based point-and-click adventures like Myst to highly detailed and extremely realistic romps on alien planets ala Halo and Mass Effect, not to mention terrifyingly realistic war simulators like Call of Duty. In regards to movies try watching early 90s films with heavy special effects compared to anything that has come out this year (Transformers, Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow). The CGI in those early 90s movies is almost laughable now (Jurassic Park still seems to hold up though). The dawn of the Internet has radically changed humanity for the better I'd like to think (though sometimes internet trolls and 4chan would beg to differ). To quote Manovich, "To use a metaphor from computer culture, new media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an 'open source.'" He couldn't be more correct. With how everyone can be connected all over the globe at anytime with our technology is mind boggling and how new media has developed and evolved is nothing short of inspiring.

Manovich Part 2 - Whitney Ratliff

One of my most earliest memories from when I was a kid was the last time I played this game. In the late 90’s, I thought of this game as state of the art and considering how far video games have come from then, this was simply a prelude to far more expansive set of “interactive videos”. The puzzles were what really drew me with this game which was fun and of course made me feel like a genius, especially when my older brother couldn’t even figure out the simplest tasks. 

This history of Moving Image from as early as the Kinotoscope to the introduction of QuickTime in 1991 and so on, moving image is a technological development that replays the emergence of cinema. We think of moving image as video and movies, but really it is literally much broader than that. It is not just video work but can extend further into interactive games or even earlier, the Zoetrope can be labeled as an early form of GIF art that loops an image. Even if it is still images within a spinning device, it is still giving the illusion of moving as it loops continuously until forced to stop. 

my thoughts in bullets

• Manovich part 2
• 
  
• the music video (emergence)
• cd rom and the cinegratographic
• the point and click (just wasted 20 minutes looking up nancy drew pc games) there were cookies and now all my ads are for nancy drew.
• I should start gaming more (oculus rift- spatial experience, stanley parable- game theory, portal-multiplayer)
• strategy>> amnesia as learning through narrative. implied narrative through problem solving/puzzles.
• loop as a narrative engine
• porn peepshow loops (noted) gifs
• mobius house: space as a narrative, days as a loop
• tango: https://vimeo.com/90339479
• now you can get a tamagotchi on your phone>> the app is free what is the desire to control anothers life when you have your own to manipulate?
• Why is this an obsession? do we even really need to control ourselves.
• loops as co-existing temporalities
• the micro and macro narrative of spatial montage
• temporal vs spatial structure

• Olga Lialina very interested in her work since I saw it in  my intro class. it is very interesting and useful to imagine the web as a location for work but also as a medium itself to be used in term of expanded cinema. that is how ingestion of medium now exists.
• Interested in how this space can be expanded within experience: newhive.com >>> Internet as medium!

• Youngblood part 2
• 
  
• piratebay.se >>how is the internet being free
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial >> see how it isn't being free.
• should we expect freedom in virtual reality when it doesn't explicitly exist in physical reality?
• the monetization and of this realm reflects the control in the other.
• think: Orwellian thought crime } you can be as double unplussed as you want about it, but it's totes legit rare, lolz ((my phone knows to capitalize Beyonce. Beyonce is capitalized))
• Internet crime = real crime. Caught on tape is caught in the act.
• How can the internet be utopian when we don't live in a utopia?
• To quote Alejandro Borsani "The internet is about 95% porn, 4% stupidity, and 1% something that may be remotely interesting."
• It exists on a utopian platform covered in the truth that our collective consciousness is full of bullshit.
• What are we as artists going to do about that?

google: challenge

Youngblood and internet

 Basic tv channels  have always been a free service. If a person bu ys the equipment to receive the information, then the information was sent for free. When the broadcasting switched to digital, you could even get a free voucher for a converter box to pick up the digital tv channels. Why is tv free? Because everyone should have access to the news and current events? Could internet also be seen as a necessary means of sending information ?should anyone who buys the equipment get internet for free? We should consider who in America right now lives with no internet access. Also why aren't newspapers free? Sale off internet services pulls in a lot of money, which some of us used to improve our infrastructure. I imagine free government internet would be slow as Shit, encouraging people with the money to do so to upgrade to a service they p ayed for

Youngblood Response

I find this ironic that with the internet came these two videos which are completely contradicting:

One of Obama supporting free internet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuYGF6Tixvc

The other stating that he wants to take control of the internet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsKV3Uy9AzE 

Revolution, Youngblood Style

Well this idea is already known to us. We are slaves to "the man". The corporate, state, media driven man that "manufactures our consent to be oppressed" to quote Youngblood. His solution is using the same tools to fight back. Language--blunt, "we all get it" language globally expressed . ( visual language is of course "our language" in common )
"Self expression becomes common sense" he says when you believe everything that is being "sold" to you in sound bites from whoever...even history class teaches us the approved versions or "speak with one voice" rather than the many views needed to think for oneself .
This Thursday,  Scotland votes Yes to be their own country, to be free and break from the "United" Kingdom. The U.K.'s -"Better Together" campaign needs a No vote.  I will through the internet- join the fight and vote Aye!  That revolution started with music not guns.  ( of course it will still end up being all about who controls the money ).

wow, now Youngblood and Manevich seem to both be talking about 'aesthetic strategy'  :o !

Youngblood's Secession - Whitney Ratliff

"I offer language because new words and new meanings for old words are essential for the new understandings and agreements that crisis of this magnitude demands. Words don't express what we think, they tell us what we think. Thought is made in the mouth. We need to think differently so I try to speak differently."- Gene Youngblood

To create a digital utopia that is free and open on the Internet cannot be possible without first demanding that it be possible. However, this can create some problems involving tyranny. Who will take charge if the Internet is free? And what would a free and open Internet be like? How can an Internet that holds its little individual sections of images, media, information, and personal archives be even more free and open? Aren't they already free and open? (aside from private websites or error pages where websites won't allow you to download something)

Youngblood redefines language, individually defining points he makes throughout his texts and understanding how an artist can express meaning and understanding through media and presenting it to basically pass it along. Although Youngblood presents a good means for how one can use this new language and its understanding to good use by connecting the dots, to consider a more open and free expansion of the Internet with the usage of a new language can sometimes be filtered differently by the viewer. While everyone probably already knows what a jpeg is, a terminology we now use to describe an image format, not everyone will consider a jpeg better than a png or understand what he it does to an image without those underlying factors of meaning. While jpeg is the language within he digital realm of the internet, not everyone associates its meaning in the same context. And as Youngblood boldly states, "Control of context is controlling reality. Context is everything." Without that context of knowing what is what in the language of the internet, miscommunication can arise and provide and even more confusing translation. What may look like duck to some can be a rabbit for others.

The Internet, the almost savior.

Again, Youngblood shows his dated idealized writing when he talks about the internet as some grand equalizer that will connect all human beings so that we will all know understanding, as many other foreseers of the internet did. Sad to say that wasn't really the case, but he's not completely wrong. Granted everyone being connected seems to lead to more disagreements than communions, but there are still moments of collaboration where something of actual positive progress is made, either it be some social justice rally or simple art project.

Manovich, What is Cinema

I think the term aesthetic strategy sums up Manovich's many definitions of " what is cinema?" To start with an idea, accomplish the desired effects, whether in a music video or a full-length film  is a process. Then to critique the effect of the "effects" is where strategy takes it to another level. Did one either on purpose or through accidental experimentation achieve a narration quality that serves the subject? Or are you the one trying to "sell" an idea, piece of music, or product? That would take much creative control or strategy out of it as you tried to please your audience/sponsors and make a "hit". Does your aesthetic strategy please you? New media has given us many choices to experiment for aesthetics without it costing as much in time or extra dollars. This of course has led to fast track slick marketing designed to promote rather than "feel" the aesthetic.
I have mentioned a videographer I know (commercial) who explained to me how she charges people---She says " Do you want the film fast, cheap, or good? Pick two. "
Obviously Fast and Good will not be cheap. Cheap and Good will not be Fast.
Seems to apply to many things.

Early Computer Video Art in Chicago

Hey guys, I haven't had the chance to watch these yet, but here are a couple of videos that focus on early video art that used computers. Check it out!

Dan Sandin and Jon Cates

The Emergence of Video Processing Tools

Handmade Film/Processing resources

Hey guys, just wanted to throw this out there. If you need/want a little extra info on hand processing film, whether it be 16mm black and white, color, or reversal, check these websites out.

http://www.oocities.org/gselinsky/

http://www.handmadefilm.org/

An interactive narrative

Early on the writer says how, with help of computers, people could enter the movie and actually interact with the narrative, how this could be a potential thing. I'm sorry, but when I first read this I went, "oh,you mean a video game?". Contrary to maybe mainstream thought, but thats what a video game is , an interactive narrative where the story can be affected by the audience's participation via technology like that of a computer.  It makes me think if movies would ever even need to become interactive when video games exist.

Clement Greenberg - 'Avant-Garde and Kitsch'

Greenberg's 1939 'Avant-Garde and Kitch' makes a case for the avant-garde and the power of it's historical agency that functions to keep culture alive in the face of capitalism ( 6 pages long).

To add on, Lawrence Alloway's 'The Arts and the Mass Media' (2 pages) pokes a bit at Greenberg, pointing out a bit of elitism. He expands on the roles of academia and fine arts. Short and sweet.


I guess this is mostly for Mike for future reference, but you guys should all read about the dangers of CAPITALISM (I don't know how to make text look like it's bleeding, that's the best I can do.)

What is Cinema - Whitney Ratliff

With the emerging technologies, anything can be possible with a computer. Computers have the ability to mimic reality with its own language and perspective of the world using pixels as its basis for imagery. While the usage of technology grows, so does the understanding for how to use it and what can be done with it. One focus is that of visual narratives, providing a story through the usage of technology such as with films. These narratives mimic everyday life scenarios and although completely fiction in most aspects, provide a reality of its own with the help of computers and technology.

Cinema's history from its early days of the turn of the twentieth century to its more digital emergence of today, allows us to look deeper into what was needed to be done then verses what can be done now. Old school animators did everything by hand, frame by frame like creating a flip book, managing everything individually with the help of some technology. Nowadays, everything can be done digitally on a computer, even animating can be done with the usage of programs doing everything an entire studio can do within a room. It has even become possible to create 3D animations, drawn by hand but modeled and stylized three-dimensionally. Even using real-life camerawork to help mimic reality with the usage of motion capture can become a possibility including the world of games where players can even create their own 3D characters. Cinema has come a long way from its early childhood and is now aging within the next generation of virtual reality.

VIDEO ARTIST TYPES: CHECK THIS OUT

On Sunday the 14th of this month, The Texas Theater in Oak Cliff will be playing a recent classic of the essay genre: Los Angeles Plays Itself. Those of you interested in video art or experimental film, especially non-fiction, essay, or appropriation, should definitely check this out:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1542426879309683/1554000378152333/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

What is anything?

Ultimately, Manovich uses this writing to focus on cinema as the basis for new media and the effect that  these new (digital) mediums have on the moving image today.

Topical Highlights:

(google: tropical highlighters)

-The way that we interact with images within our culture in a new media context is considerably different than how we have before.

-On the net, images are icons. Images now have implied depth. They have links and they extend into a virtual reality. 

-I enjoyed Manovich's mention of the 2 levels of the computer based image: the surface~ or how we perceive the image and the source~ the code and functions of the computer that create the image we perceive. What are the possible uses of revealing/understanding that background information? Should the image be strictly accepted as how we perceive it, or should we perceive it while accepting the fact that constantly our knowledge is limited, and thats ok.

(google: alan watts)

-Virtual space exists and can be created. This is not a piece of paper that I'm writing on. But the process equates so long as we all agree that the experience feels true. We interact (tele act) in this virtual space and experience real time and real life results. Underlining Manovich's mention of physical reality being only one possibility. 

-I've been trying to figure out how film can fit into my work as a symbolic medium. It helped to read Manovich's description of fictional films as recordings of real events. Whether an event/visual experience is artificially created or not, it's capture in virtual or physical space means that in a way it has truth. How could the creation of a fictitious event (a suggested reality) effect an individual's perception of space, of self, of time? The answer is greatly, and the following question is: what kind of reality will I create and why?

(google: second life)

"Pixels, regardless of their origin, can be easily altered…"

Manovich, what is cinema

I enjoy Manovich's dedication to putting everything into the spectrum of new media. he brings up some good points about why and when to allow the computer to enter the playing field. I think a lot about whether or not we have lost something that the old film makers had, because we are leaning so heavily on new technology. I was underwhelmed when I saw Avatar, the story was kind of bland, the acting was for a large part mechanical. I think that film making has become too transfixed on all the fancy effects they can make and have forgotten to work their actors and writers as hard as their render engines. Sure, 10 years ago, it didn't matter if the story was stupid and the acting was terrible, people were obsessed with CG effects, and the films were successful. but now, I think the more traditional standards of what makes a good film are returning. As far as the non- everyone sit in the dark and watch this narrative for 90 minutes-film, I don't know if the same applies. here is a silly article I read a while back about it. http://www.siliconatelier.com/intelligentstage/publications/cit/cit.html

The Naive Artist.

Carolee's quick talk on her old piece Interior Scroll, and how back in the moment she had a naive thought of how she thought that piece wasn't provocative, was something a thought both hilarious and curious. It made me think on how man other artist back in the day thought that their pieces wouldn't cause some kind of controversy simply cause of naivety, and maybe one day we'll find ourselves in the same spot because we had the same naive notion. This kind of lends to the idea that its the audience that finishes the piece, because sometimes they're the ones who put attention, whether negative or positive, to the piece even when originally the artist didn't mean for it to be controversial.

Gene Youngblood Preface, Response

I thought it was funny that so many thought Youngblood was being critical when he is speaking from a point in history that was Paleocybernetic compared to today which is currently Cybernetic. The method of making holograms in his and Kubrick's day was long and complicated to get a few frames of animation but it was "manifesting consciousness outside the mind and in front of our eyes" just the same. He sounded 'tongue in cheek' when he made the statement that art and technology of expanded cinema would mean the beginning of creative living for all mankind and an answer to the leisure problem. lol  But, isn't that exactly what the world wide web has brought us? An answer to what to do with your leisure time...namely Facebook- the latest enslavement marketer of our time...while we all quietly feed the entertainment, advertisers, religions, politicians and NSA all our precious "likes".
I accept reality...we are all enslaved to the system and I am not sure there is a way out ...with or without art.

check this out

http://www.exploratorium.edu/pie/downloads/Scratch_Film.pdf     

this article mentions something called Automata, which can make a soundtrack from visual input. looks really cool

Project your completed scratch film on sound automata, hand made noise-making

machines that respond to the light from the film to create a live soundtrack.

Try the Sound Automata activity

(Contact us at pie@exploratorium.edu for a link to the Sound Automata PDF)

Reading response 1

I remember reading this about a year ago not being into it. However, as I look back over what Gene Youngblood is attempting to accomplish I find it much more worthy of respect. I'll start by prefacing that today I heard a lot of talk about "mass production" of work, which I'm not totally sure that this was what he was attempting to get at with this writing and I would disagree with him if that was his aim. In fact, he actually talks about the decentralization of aimed work around globe and basically says that any sort of mass audience appeal is inherently problematic. What he seems to be getting at rather is that art has a purpose. In the case of this writing, he says "Life becomes art when there's no difference between what we are and what we do." I couldn't agree more, but what I beyond that, what I satisfies me about his writing is at least attempting to answer the questions of what art should be. I think that it is a question that we aren't asking ourselves enough. Whether it be expanded consciousness or inspiring revolts in the streets, we are at a crossroads where we need to really start answering these questions. Art has been co-opted by mass media companies and we have to be critical of what we are making. Everything is inherently political and we can't be neutral on this moving train that we call Planet Earth.

New Young Blood response

I remember reading this article last year, and I still remember making the case of how Young Blood's ideas reminded me of Trans-humanisim. How Benny made an excellent point on how his vision of the future, one where we'll all be in a utopia if devote ourselves to our art and be free, is bit of a conflicting idea due to how dictatorial it sounds. Achieve freedom by the way I say you should live, suppose we all think that way at point though. I think what would be better is that we'll have a future where we'll have the freedom to make art for art itself without the worry of having to commercialize for the sake if income, and if you don't feel like doing that then thats ok too.

500X EXPO 2014 - Call for Entry

500X EXPO 2014 - Call for Entry 

Submissions Due 9/15/14

The 500X EXPO is a juried exhibition open to any artist within Texas.

This year’s juror is Alison Hearst, the Assistant Curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She was the assistant curator of the exhibition México Inside Out: Themes in Art Since 1990 and conducted an interview with Melanie Smith for the catalogue. Hearst also contributed an essay about abstraction in the 1980s to the catalogue for the upcoming exhibition at the Modern, Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s. She recently organized a solo project at the Modern with artist Fred Tomaselli and is working on upcoming projects with Jules de Balincourt and Mario García Torres. Hearst has a bachelor of fine arts degree in art history from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree in art history from Texas Christian University.

 All work must be ready to hang. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, September 27th or Sunday, September 28th  between 2 PM and 5 PM. Special arrangements can be made. 

The show will run from October 4 - October 26. 

The opening reception will be on October 4, 7 - 10 PM.

To submit to 500X EXPO 2014 please visit 500x.slideroom.com.

(http://www.500x.org/opportunities-1/)

Reading Response #1: Gene Youngblood Preface

Gene Youngblood's got a lot of lofty ideals and he spends a lot of talking about "what ought to be" but he doesn't ever really explain how he's working to get there. He doesn't really explain how we're suppose to get this unified conscience of metaphysics-- as far as I know, he hasn't changed the world drastically.

I'm tired of talking about art. I'm tired of talking about what "ought to be." I think when we just sit around and talk about concepts ALL THE TIME we are becoming a part of the system of creative enslavement. We are repeating ourselves and imitating one another, and I agree with Youngblood that art and life should be the same thing, but it's really hard when you need money, food, tuition, textbooks, and clothes. And there's bills, so many bills. Maybe Pippins and I just don't get it. Maybe Pippins and I need to take some mescaline?

I think if Youngblood had spent less time taking mescaline and philosophizing about a lofty future of metaphysical unity and paleocybernetic society, than he could have gained more recognition so that I would have heard about him before Mike Morris. Let's face it, he ain't no Walt Disney-- who was a terrible person-- but he marketed himself and worked hard, but he's one of the first people that comes to mind when thinking about America cinema and animation. Being a consumer whore makes you successful, and possibly rich and famous. Is that wrong, Gene Youngblood?

Gene Youngblood - Preface

There are a few things that I want to touch on in response to this reading. While I can most certainly get behind a concept that suggests progression in communication, it is hard for me to align myself with his suggestions of a better means of living.

Mr. Youngblood brings up a very good point in that we are moving towards a point where self expression is no longer an individual activity, but one that has transformed into a communal activity. It is about communication and what we lack now, we are surely finding new ways to progress in leaps and bounds. He discusses a "point in the evolution of intelligence when the concept of reality no longer will exist... cinema will be one with the life of the mind, and humanity's communications will become increasingly metaphysical." This is something I find very interesting as I believe that all art is simply a means of expressing ourselves in ways that cannot be done in verbal or written ways. A piece of art simply invites viewers outside of the artist's perspective into a collective, observational experience as to further the level of communication that we are able to achieve. I feel that someday that gap will no longer exist, a day when we will be able to transfer an experience, in its entirety, to another individual. So the existence of art in that moment in time will be a source of much curiosity.

As to Mr. Youngblood's opinions on society's "irresponsible attitude" I feel very confused. It seems as though he feels that because he is doing something different from the masses, he is granted the privilege of condemning those who lead "entertaining" lives void of creativity. The level of disgust that he seems to exude towards commercial and mainstream media is on the verge of being scary. He speaks as though individuals who do not participate in "the beginning of creative living for all mankind" might as well not exist. For some, life is already art, but saying that we won't reach that point until every last one of us is participating in this grandiose art scheme is almost the same as existing in any other overly oppressed system.

I might be wrong in interpreting his writing with that tone, but his talk of art versus entertainment seemed more like pretentious gab in an attempt to create heightened value and exclusivity of art and his expanded consciousness. I believe that a true progression will arise when it is no longer up to others to dictate and/or define the value and worth of others. I believe expanded consciousness will be the ability to realize advantages and advancements in all materials and forms of existence. That there will be a time when we transcend petty descriptions and criticisms concerning concepts and ideas that will one day be as anomalous as our existence itself.

Reading Response #1 - Gene Youngblood Preface

I found Youngblood’s optimism for our cybernetic society to be quite flattering. There was one part, however, where he sounded a bit pessimistic, and, in my opinion, defined commercial art perfectly. He states “When we’re enslaved to any system the creative impulse is dulled and the tendency to imitate increases. Thus arises the phenomenon of commercial entertainment distinct from art, a system of temporarily gratifying, without really fulfilling, the experiential needs of an aesthetically impoverished culture.”

When I read this I thought about systems such as Hollywood, or PIXAR, or Marvel, or japanese anime, etc., where all the “style” is generally accepted as the norm and hundreds of people work on a single project so similarly that an unique “artistic style” is lost. But… why are these not considered collaborative artworks? 

I was surprised when Alex said, “But, art school is a system!” She brought up an interesting point by saying that. Are we all being taught the same way to the point to where all of our art becomes part of a system. Why is it that our art is considered fulfilling? Is it only fulfilling to us as artists, or can it be fulfilling to our audience as well?

I don’t really have the answers to these questions yet. They’re just wondering thoughts.

Gene Youngblood - Whitney Ratliff

In his Preface, Gene Youngblood explains his various outlooks on what is expanded cinema which he concludes is better identified as "expanded consciousness" where an artist steps outside their own skin to look beyond that which is art in any medium of their choosing and analyze the state of one's own being, their human condition, and question the socioeconomic structures of life within what he calls the Paleocybernetic Age. This concept is relatively similar to a Buddhist's standpoint with the mind, body, and soul interacting and conceptually perceiving life through astral-projection. While his book looks at the many different viewpoints from other various artists, he himself discusses in his chapters the different outlooks on life as an artist and in what way constitutes art from the artist's perspective and underlying meaning within their work. 

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” 

― C.G. Jung