Sunday, November 15, 2009
LIPS OF A PTERO
another NEW BLOG? This one having nothing to do with intelligent thinking what-so-ever only foolish spending.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
ATTRACTION/REPULSION: THE SWARM
I have been m.i.a. for a while now, working on a lot of projects. Here are some documentation images from my thesis project for the semester.
THE SWARM:
another investigation into sexuality and violence in cinema. Two sites, over a network, a room for data collection and a surveillance room where a literal representation of attraction and repulsion exposed the participants obvious lust for primitive subject matter in film.
(full documentation coming)
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Final Project Planning- Entry 2
This week we are putting together the physical apparatus for our project. We were conflicted with whether or not the panel was going to split in the center and clear on two sides or whether or not the entire panel would slide to the left or the right. As time constraints always seen to get in the way, we decided to have the panel slide to the left side and clear in that manner. We always seem to get so caught up in aesthetics, but realistically as an artist, I would rather represent myself through what I know and what I can excel at, rather than try to fit into the parameters of a type of artist that i just can't mimic or feel comfortable mimicking. So the commentary around our piece, we feel, will support it and the lack of intricate physical computing surrounding the project will not effect us as artists. We are attempting to comment on the ever persistent limitations behind the digital image. The idea of an image always eventually pixilating into something undecipherable and therefore the amount of control a user has over the imagery is always limited. Evidently technology always maintains some sense of control.
So, we need to make our frame, and the most important aspect of our project, our pixels. When we initially discussed the project we thought about using plastic. But for us, the sound that the piece made, when the pixels cleared was very important. We were more attractive to the sound that wood made compared to plastic or beads or some other type of material. Also we wanted to maintain the cube motif that we seem to always come back to. 200 cubes will, hang from our panel, each stained with a different shade of brown on the four sides that flip. The difficult part about this is that to have a cube sit still, allowing a user to flip to each side and having it sit without returning to one side only, is that the hole we drill, has to be directly in the center. This will be a very sensative process.
Now, another concern we had was in relation to exactly how we were going to suspend the panel, without havnig to attatch it to the gallery wall. We decided to inset the motor into a white box, that would incase any physical parts included in the peice as well as a number of sand bags in the bottom to secure the entire panel into the ground. Two arms would support the panel on the left and right side and rotate from the centr of the piece.
So, we need to make our frame, and the most important aspect of our project, our pixels. When we initially discussed the project we thought about using plastic. But for us, the sound that the piece made, when the pixels cleared was very important. We were more attractive to the sound that wood made compared to plastic or beads or some other type of material. Also we wanted to maintain the cube motif that we seem to always come back to. 200 cubes will, hang from our panel, each stained with a different shade of brown on the four sides that flip. The difficult part about this is that to have a cube sit still, allowing a user to flip to each side and having it sit without returning to one side only, is that the hole we drill, has to be directly in the center. This will be a very sensative process.
Now, another concern we had was in relation to exactly how we were going to suspend the panel, without havnig to attatch it to the gallery wall. We decided to inset the motor into a white box, that would incase any physical parts included in the peice as well as a number of sand bags in the bottom to secure the entire panel into the ground. Two arms would support the panel on the left and right side and rotate from the centr of the piece.
"Primitive" - artist's statment
“Primitive”
Investigating data visualization
Taylor Zorzi
The compulsion to separate yourself from everyday life seems to be a pursuit that most humans share. As an escapist society, we seem to turn towards cinema with a thirst for sexuality and violence. Thus distilling ourselves, if only for a moment, to our most primitive desires. The question isn't “how do I show violence?” but rather “how do I show the spectator his position vis-à-vis violence and its representation?”(Michael Haneke). Inspired by such artist’s work as Haneke’s Funny Games and Nicholas Di Genova’s Children of Poseidon I created a piece with intentions of directly reveling the demand in place for excessive sexuality and violence in cinema created by the viewers lust for these particular themes. Hanke’s Funny Games, an important film in cinematic history because it shows that as an audience we have been accustomed to cinema with very dark undertones and in doing this we have been desensitized to the nature of the acts. Haneke writes with the intent to place feelings of guilt onto the viewer for being attracted to this type of movie. He believes that we foolishly fail to recall the fact that these acts are not only taking place within the limitations of the cinema screen. Nicholas Di Genova’s Children of Poseidon are a group of creatures generated in post apocalyptic time. His creatures have changed roles and taken on new identities and in turn new body parts to survive in a new world. I needed to find the best way to organize and visualize data in such a way that the quantity and intensity of the particular themes in cinema I was intending to investigate are clear, and Genova’s detailed intricate hybridizations, assisted in directing the aesthetics in visualization for this assignment. I created a visual representation of eight actor’s careers. A legend along the side of each print allows the viewer to decipher the tone and direction of each actor’s career based on hybrid visualization. There are specific categories and a scale system to visualize the frequency and intensity of each string of data that I am representing. To emphasis the primal enthusiasm that manifests itself in the viewer when watching violent and sexual cinema I created a hybrid similar to the centaur, as a representation of a human with animalistic characteristics.
As a site for data collection I chose to compile facts from IMDB, or the Internet Movie Database. As IMDB allows for specific keyword searches applicable to acting careers rather than information only specific to a single movie it was possible to search for keywords related specifically to violence and sexuality over the duration of that specific actor’s portfolio. After accumulating a large amount of data proceeding sifting through the plethora of information that IMDB provides for the avid film viewer, I narrowed down the data. I chose eight actors, four females; Holly Hunter, Jodi Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis and four males; Viggo Mortensen, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sylvester Stallone, that according to IMDB acted in the greatest number of films that had the greatest number of violent and sexual keywords in their description. Those keywords, being eight out of the thousands of possible keywords on IMDB that I chose based on the fact that they were the most predominant in those eight actors’ careers; gore, murder, blood, death, female nudity, violence, vulgarity and sex. To visualize these actors’ careers as ones that contained a large amount of sexual and violent content I attributed the descriptive keywords to an animal, demonstrating the savage, unrefined characteristics of an actor invoking such behavior.
As an artist who typically works with installations, performance or video as platforms for creation, I initially wanted to investigate something quite new and create digital imagery generated using the programming language, processing. Processing would have been able to filter data from IMDB, do all of the data collection and fabricate the hybrid all on it’s own with a few clicks of a mouse from the viewer. Yet to do the program using processing, writing the code to analyze the data from IMDB did not only prove to be difficult, but realistically it allowed for far too much of a chance aspect. I wanted control of the visualization and putting this control into the hands of the viewer didn’t allow for the specific aesthetic or even commentary that I wanted to surround the piece take place. Allowing the viewer to have some sense of control once again let the viewer integrate themselves into this world of sexuality and violence instead of segregating the work from the viewer and really introducing the piece to them from an outside point of view. With this said, the medium changed. I decided to create eight individual prints, using stencils and spray paint, giving me, as the artist freedom to arrange the hybrid, as I truly wanted it to appear to the viewer.
Investigating data visualization
Taylor Zorzi
The compulsion to separate yourself from everyday life seems to be a pursuit that most humans share. As an escapist society, we seem to turn towards cinema with a thirst for sexuality and violence. Thus distilling ourselves, if only for a moment, to our most primitive desires. The question isn't “how do I show violence?” but rather “how do I show the spectator his position vis-à-vis violence and its representation?”(Michael Haneke). Inspired by such artist’s work as Haneke’s Funny Games and Nicholas Di Genova’s Children of Poseidon I created a piece with intentions of directly reveling the demand in place for excessive sexuality and violence in cinema created by the viewers lust for these particular themes. Hanke’s Funny Games, an important film in cinematic history because it shows that as an audience we have been accustomed to cinema with very dark undertones and in doing this we have been desensitized to the nature of the acts. Haneke writes with the intent to place feelings of guilt onto the viewer for being attracted to this type of movie. He believes that we foolishly fail to recall the fact that these acts are not only taking place within the limitations of the cinema screen. Nicholas Di Genova’s Children of Poseidon are a group of creatures generated in post apocalyptic time. His creatures have changed roles and taken on new identities and in turn new body parts to survive in a new world. I needed to find the best way to organize and visualize data in such a way that the quantity and intensity of the particular themes in cinema I was intending to investigate are clear, and Genova’s detailed intricate hybridizations, assisted in directing the aesthetics in visualization for this assignment. I created a visual representation of eight actor’s careers. A legend along the side of each print allows the viewer to decipher the tone and direction of each actor’s career based on hybrid visualization. There are specific categories and a scale system to visualize the frequency and intensity of each string of data that I am representing. To emphasis the primal enthusiasm that manifests itself in the viewer when watching violent and sexual cinema I created a hybrid similar to the centaur, as a representation of a human with animalistic characteristics.
As a site for data collection I chose to compile facts from IMDB, or the Internet Movie Database. As IMDB allows for specific keyword searches applicable to acting careers rather than information only specific to a single movie it was possible to search for keywords related specifically to violence and sexuality over the duration of that specific actor’s portfolio. After accumulating a large amount of data proceeding sifting through the plethora of information that IMDB provides for the avid film viewer, I narrowed down the data. I chose eight actors, four females; Holly Hunter, Jodi Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis and four males; Viggo Mortensen, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sylvester Stallone, that according to IMDB acted in the greatest number of films that had the greatest number of violent and sexual keywords in their description. Those keywords, being eight out of the thousands of possible keywords on IMDB that I chose based on the fact that they were the most predominant in those eight actors’ careers; gore, murder, blood, death, female nudity, violence, vulgarity and sex. To visualize these actors’ careers as ones that contained a large amount of sexual and violent content I attributed the descriptive keywords to an animal, demonstrating the savage, unrefined characteristics of an actor invoking such behavior.
As an artist who typically works with installations, performance or video as platforms for creation, I initially wanted to investigate something quite new and create digital imagery generated using the programming language, processing. Processing would have been able to filter data from IMDB, do all of the data collection and fabricate the hybrid all on it’s own with a few clicks of a mouse from the viewer. Yet to do the program using processing, writing the code to analyze the data from IMDB did not only prove to be difficult, but realistically it allowed for far too much of a chance aspect. I wanted control of the visualization and putting this control into the hands of the viewer didn’t allow for the specific aesthetic or even commentary that I wanted to surround the piece take place. Allowing the viewer to have some sense of control once again let the viewer integrate themselves into this world of sexuality and violence instead of segregating the work from the viewer and really introducing the piece to them from an outside point of view. With this said, the medium changed. I decided to create eight individual prints, using stencils and spray paint, giving me, as the artist freedom to arrange the hybrid, as I truly wanted it to appear to the viewer.
Monday, November 10, 2008
PROTOTYPE- Data Visualizations
Since the proposal, things have changed. Not with the data set or the direction of the piece but in regards to the visualization, quite a few changes have been made.
To do the program using processing analyzing the data from imdb was proving not only to be difficult, but realistically was allowing far too much of a chance aspect. The visualization was starting to become more and more appealing to me and I really like the direction of the project and with the limited knowledge I have in processing, it would have been hard to create a piece in the time that is left that I was truly happy with. Really, I wanted to have control of the data set and the visualization rather than let processing do the work for me. With this said I have decided to make eight individual prints. The layout of each print would be identical in the center a visual hybrid of animal and man, the actor and whatever animals would be representative of violent of sexual keywords that were attributed to their acting career. For example the keyword murder would be visually represented with a part of an octopus's body. The color of that body part would be determined by the number of movies in that actors career that contained murder as a descriptive keyword. I will now visualize the piece as a stenciled print. I will be able to control body parts, colors and layout this way. A long the right side of each print would be a legend.
Statement-A visual representation of each actors career, with a legend that allows you to decipher the tone and direction of their career based on a hybrid visualization. With a specific categorization and scale system for the frequency or intensity of each sting of data.
Violent and Sexual Searchable Keywords
GORE
MURDER
BLOOD
DEATH
FEMALE-NUDITY
VIOLENCE
VULGARITY
SEX
Animals to show Primal Characteristics
OCTOPUS
SHARK
TIGER
EAGLE
CROCODILE
SCORPION
CENTIPEDE
SNAKE
The only problem being, how do I make direct connections between the keyword and the assigned animal? Why does an octopus represent murder and so on?
Actors predominately in Sexual/Violent Cinema
Viggo Mortensen
Dennis Hopper
Samuel L Jackson
Sylvester Stallone
Holly Hunter
Jodi Foster
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jamie Lee Curtis
Intensity Based on color scale
EXAMPLE-->
Jamie Lee Curtis- Keywords
Murder-13
1.Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) [Actress]
2.Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) (TV) [Actress]
3.Escape from New York (1981) [Actress]
4.Roadgames (1981) [Actress]
5.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
6.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
7.The Fog (1980) [Actress]
8.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
9.Columbo: Try and Catch Me (1977) (TV) [Actress]
10.Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977) (TV) [Actress]
11.Murder at the World Series (1977) (TV) [dialogue coach]
12."Quincy M.E." [Actress]
13.Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975) (TV) [Actress]
Death-10
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.Virus (1999) [Actress]
3.Fierce Creatures (1997) [Actress]
4.My Girl 2 (1994) [Actress]
5.My Girl (1991) [Actress]
6.Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) (TV) [Actress]
7.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
8.Roadgames (1981) [Actress]
9.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
10.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Female-Nudity-7
1.Halloween: Resurrection (2002) [Actress]
2.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
3.Un homme amoureux (1987) [Actress]
4.Perfect (1985) [Actress]
5.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
6.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
7.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Gore-3
1.Virus (1999) [Actress]
2.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
3.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
Violence-5
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.True Lies (1994) [Actress]
3.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
... aka Halloween II: The Nightmare Isn't Over! (USA: video box title)
4.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
5.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Vulgarity-1
1.Trading Places (1983) [Actress]
Blood-5
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) [Actress]
3.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
4.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
5.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
Sex-6
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.A Fish Called Wanda (1988) [Actress]
3.Un homme amoureux (1987) [Actress]
4.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
5.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
6.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
To do the program using processing analyzing the data from imdb was proving not only to be difficult, but realistically was allowing far too much of a chance aspect. The visualization was starting to become more and more appealing to me and I really like the direction of the project and with the limited knowledge I have in processing, it would have been hard to create a piece in the time that is left that I was truly happy with. Really, I wanted to have control of the data set and the visualization rather than let processing do the work for me. With this said I have decided to make eight individual prints. The layout of each print would be identical in the center a visual hybrid of animal and man, the actor and whatever animals would be representative of violent of sexual keywords that were attributed to their acting career. For example the keyword murder would be visually represented with a part of an octopus's body. The color of that body part would be determined by the number of movies in that actors career that contained murder as a descriptive keyword. I will now visualize the piece as a stenciled print. I will be able to control body parts, colors and layout this way. A long the right side of each print would be a legend.
Statement-A visual representation of each actors career, with a legend that allows you to decipher the tone and direction of their career based on a hybrid visualization. With a specific categorization and scale system for the frequency or intensity of each sting of data.
Violent and Sexual Searchable Keywords
GORE
MURDER
BLOOD
DEATH
FEMALE-NUDITY
VIOLENCE
VULGARITY
SEX
Animals to show Primal Characteristics
OCTOPUS
SHARK
TIGER
EAGLE
CROCODILE
SCORPION
CENTIPEDE
SNAKE
The only problem being, how do I make direct connections between the keyword and the assigned animal? Why does an octopus represent murder and so on?
Actors predominately in Sexual/Violent Cinema
Viggo Mortensen
Dennis Hopper
Samuel L Jackson
Sylvester Stallone
Holly Hunter
Jodi Foster
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jamie Lee Curtis
Intensity Based on color scale
EXAMPLE-->
Jamie Lee Curtis- Keywords
Murder-13
1.Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) [Actress]
2.Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) (TV) [Actress]
3.Escape from New York (1981) [Actress]
4.Roadgames (1981) [Actress]
5.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
6.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
7.The Fog (1980) [Actress]
8.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
9.Columbo: Try and Catch Me (1977) (TV) [Actress]
10.Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977) (TV) [Actress]
11.Murder at the World Series (1977) (TV) [dialogue coach]
12."Quincy M.E." [Actress]
13.Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975) (TV) [Actress]
Death-10
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.Virus (1999) [Actress]
3.Fierce Creatures (1997) [Actress]
4.My Girl 2 (1994) [Actress]
5.My Girl (1991) [Actress]
6.Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) (TV) [Actress]
7.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
8.Roadgames (1981) [Actress]
9.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
10.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Female-Nudity-7
1.Halloween: Resurrection (2002) [Actress]
2.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
3.Un homme amoureux (1987) [Actress]
4.Perfect (1985) [Actress]
5.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
6.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
7.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Gore-3
1.Virus (1999) [Actress]
2.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
3.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
Violence-5
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.True Lies (1994) [Actress]
3.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
... aka Halloween II: The Nightmare Isn't Over! (USA: video box title)
4.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
5.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Vulgarity-1
1.Trading Places (1983) [Actress]
Blood-5
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) [Actress]
3.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
4.Terror Train (1980) [Actress]
5.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
Sex-6
1.The Tailor of Panama (2001) [Actress]
2.A Fish Called Wanda (1988) [Actress]
3.Un homme amoureux (1987) [Actress]
4.Halloween II (1981) [Actress]
5.Prom Night (1980) [Actress]
6.Halloween (1978) [Actress]
Sunday, October 26, 2008
FINAL PROJECT PLANNING-ENTRY 1
To start, the small model( to the right) was created for the first assignment of the communication with hybrid environments production section. The assignment was to make a small interactive piece over one week of the course that lead the way in aesthetic and interactive properties for the piece that you would be creating for the final assignment. This model is what I came up with. I was interested in questioning how I could somehow generate interactivity and user independence juxtaposed and ultimately taken over by a tactile control senses that the piece itself would warrant. So now I have a lot of investigating to do. Rebbecca and I have decided to work together once again, as water and wire went over so well. We did not have one creative difference while working on the piece. So we have our first meeting on Tuesday with Steve and I will blog again after that, as I am sure a lot more ideas with be brought to the surface regarding solving technical problems and programming issues, so on and so forth. I obviously have a lot of ideas about aesthetic properties. I was inspired by minimalist sculpture such as Donald Judd's work(untitled) a reoccurring piece that has been created in a multitude of materials from plexi glass to wood to stainless steel and copper.
Another inspiration for me is Dan Flavin's work.
The cube is something that has always interested me, simplicity, symmetry and balance included. The cube represents something that has been stripped of any metaphorical relations, it is a neutral object . It always seems to rear it's head as a visual starting point for myself in most of my work. So For this piece I wanted to continue with the tradition of using the geometric shape as a starting point. I first initially thought about creating a drawing space that covered each side of a cube( obviously excluding the bottom). A drawing surface similar to the etch-sketch or abacus. The user would be able to manipulate the surface by moving small beads across a string and create images in each side of the box to create their own piece. Then upon leaving the room the whole piece would wipe clean, all beads would move to one side and the drawing would be evidently erased. The perceived control would no longer be in the hands of the user.
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