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No Vision of Conquest

There was a line here in the article that really caught my eye, and it was cunning's line of, "and these artist have no vision of conquest", when speaking about the new avant garde. This line struck me in a special way, mostly because the idea of avant garde depends upon it. This just might be me, but whenever a new art movement comes along thats on the breaking edge of whatever medium its apart of, or avant garde, I always feel like its originated by artist who didn't intend to start some new wave or movement and were just trying to make something just a little more fresh that still fitted their style,  artist with no visions of conquest.

Towards a Minor Cinema

Tom Gunning uses a quote in the beginning of this article that I love. Based on a study of Kafka, from Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari called Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature.

"There is nothing that is major or revolutionary except the minor. To hate all languages of masters."

By "Minor" in either literature or cinema, it is meant to be aware and celebrate it's marginal identity and fashion from it a revolutionary consciousness. Minor cinema reshapes our image of the avant-garde as Gunning lists examples of 6 filmmakers who practice and perfect their own language of images. He calls it a return to Brakhage, with submerged narratives by creating a complex rhythm of motion and not hitting you in the face with either "shock troop Battalions" or infuriating minimalist techniques that smack of documentary-style "art films".

The best part in the first half of the article is the use and embrace of the word "ghetto".  Gunning writes that many alternative filmmakers intend to break down the ghetto of avant-garde film. yet he finds it most exciting when films proudly wear the badge of ghetto. " The tremors of history are felt with re-doubled intensity within the ghetto".  Nice.

By not trying to become a "break-through" in competition with major motion pictures or in the mold of "art films", avant-garde is freed to become its best self. Always experimenting and perfecting the personal part of self and narrative into your own language, your own "masterwork" is where the art is.

mark response

I think the question here, is not what art is, but why art is made. If you plan to make a living as an artist, you have to give the people what they want, but if you are creating art only because you want to create it, then who cares what it is? If it was never intended for any purpose other than the artist's enjoyment, then the art can be anything you want. But if you want to be a marketable artist, you better make work about political issues and other shit everyone else cares about. I wonder which is more selfish.

part of the problem

After reading Mark's article on how experimental video art has lost its touch, I almost feel like I'm apart of the "problem". Marks was writing about how experimental media was really no longer experimental, and seemed to dumb it self to "single-channel" level, either for the sake of an institution or a pay check. Granted I'm a new media major, but I wouldn't call myself a media experimenter, really I want to make the things Marks seem to be ragging on. Now am I going to change that? No. I'm going to make what I like and be paid while doing it, but at the same I kind of feel like I'm apart of the group thats "killing" experimental media.

Tom Gunning: Cinema of Attraction Response

I think that Tom Gunning was correct when he concluded that "Every change in film history implies a change in its address to the spectator, and each period constructs its spectator in a new way." This was one of the more interesting develops in the use of film in my opinion. I feel that the way a film is presented has to do more with how it addresses the audience then its actual content. It actually opened up my mind to the appreciation of a narrative filmmaking-- there is much more to it than linearity and "story"telling. I also feel that Gunning is correct in that we do need to understand the origins of the cinema and how it has evolved so that we can better understand how to either make a narrative, or, rather, not make a narrative.

On a side note I was very surprised that early audiences went to exhibitions to see the machines rather than the films or photographs or what have you. Because, well, what good is a machine if you do not understand the possibilities of what it is producing? It would be rather silly for me to go look at all the latest and greatest microwaves, ooo and ahhh over them and then just make macaroni. Probably a silly example but thats the way I see it

cinema of attraction

The moving image is great entertainment for sure. 'magic' is a term I often find to be associated with it, which is really interesting. Remember the feelies in Brave New World? There is an emotional connection to film that is not as widely prevalent in other forms of art, almost everyone has cried watching a movie, but I don't think a lot of people have cried during an encounter with a painting or sculpture. ( I have, but I'm probably weird.) 

Cinema of Attractions, Tom Gunning

In Tom Gunning's article, he seems to enjoy the anticipation of the spectacle using words for early cinema (pre 1906) like, carnival and vaudeville. Also noting that Leger "celebrated" cinema's ability to "show something". And then compares it to current spectacles in films like car chases...even calling effects--"tamed attractions".  The "attractions" in films remaining a reason audiences go to the movies every bit as compelling as to get into the story, like literature, or to follow the plot of theater.
With new audiences he holds out hope for the avant-garde, since the possibilities for spectacle are limitless in "realistic illusion" and "magical illusion" with postmodern technology.

Tom gunning

I wonder what Gunning would think of cinema now if he could see it. Early in his article he talked about hoe film was slave to the narrative driven mold and not much of the avante-garde, and that was back in 1906, we did't really break that mold since, not that I think thats a bad thing though. Maybe he would take comfort in the fact that there is now a generation of artist who still are doing the avant grarde but by different mediums, not just film.

interesting...3d printed film

http://www.booooooom.com/2014/10/23/artist-uses-3d-printer-create-film-without-film/

Hey guys. I want you to have first dibs on these, but they're open to the public.

In January, the Dallas Medianale (an extension of videofest i'm working on) will host DIY video synth building workshops led by the members of Cracked Ray Tube. Check it out: http://oilandcotton.bigcartel.com/product/jan-10-hardware-hacking-and-diy-audio-video-synthesis-workshop

If you want to see a bit more of what this stuff does, see here:

Eisenstien - i swear i read that paragraph six times

Loved that Goethe quote at the beginning, and I highly recommend this if you haven't watched it before

dialectic- the art of investigating the truth of opinions.

I was interested in Eisenstien's presentation of the notion of being as an evolution form the interaction of two opposites ((contrast as evidence of existence // or as he relates it to film~ motion))
This is extremely relevant in the moments where things may seem too dark >> anything else seems brighter, and you can fully appreciate it then.

He goes on to propose that human expression is the conflict between conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, and refuses to accept art as a static result of living, but the dynamic process of it.
This also holds relevance for me as I am currently studying anxiety as it relates to the creative process.
This reading is definitely underlines the necessity for the artist to illuminate conflict (external/internal) through expression.
This feels like a "true opinion" to me, because I understand that my work stems from the things that I have difficulty with. The things that grate on me or make me feel most heavy give me a reason to create so that I can understand that emotion. Or why I am feeling that emotion. Sometimes this is only obvious in hindsight, but nonetheless, evidence of process rather than result.

I felt his mention of perfectionism being the killer of art to be very poignant.
I used to be very focused on perfection. I wanted to be a hyperrealist. Now I'm so glad that my mind didn't allow me to do that, because it's incredibly boring.
Occasionally, (especially now that I live with a musician who focuses so intensely on technique and practice), I feel that my work has perhaps taken too drastic of a turn in the other direction. I feel that I am in this major which completely forgoes technique in favor of artistic voice for a reason.
If a maker is overly focused on the result, instead of the process, then does the work truly have a relevant goal?

((I reach a fork in the road when I know that I am going to destroy a work, I have to make a decision whether I am going to choose to fix my mistakes. Results vary = Life))

Where's the line between seeking quality and seeking perfection? and what defines quality?

I got lost somewhere around page 55, where he started to provide specific examples, but I think I gathered something valuable out of the reading. It made me think and feel like I was on a similar train of thought~~ which only means the tracks will change!
It was nice to be validated for a moment though, and I had a spark of an idea, SO

reading = good

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.