Medium Specificity

Artist Statement: Medium Specificity

I chose to explore the medium of digital video. There are many things that are specific to photography that are similar to film or video, but one of the major things film does have is motion. I think some of the simple processes and details of life are so beautiful, but go unnoticed because they happen so fast.

            A perfect example of this is water. Because water changes shape so fast, there are so many details that go on in that process that we never see. This could be like when water comes out of a faucet into a glass, and the initial impact it has in the glass and the shapes it creates. Because of technology and the ability we have to capture movement and slow it down, we can now see the tiny details and processes that happen really fast that go unnoticed but are so beautiful. To show this, I played with the various speeds of the film in post-production. The original footage is waves, which was shot at 120 fps. When played back at 24 fps, the new amount of video gives me 5 seconds of footage. So what took one second to shoot the water – when played back is stretched out to 5 seconds giving me beautiful detail in slow motion. To play this back at a normal speed I would have to increase the raw footage (120 fps footage) by 500% to make it look normal. I instead increased the footage by various degrees of speed – like 200% and others as well. One of the issues I ran into, was that because the original footage was shot at such a high resolution, it was somewhat difficult to work with the raw footage without it being transcoded to 422 – so this particular footage is an export of the proxy files created rather than an export of a nearly uncompressed codec.

Social Media Adaptation

An adaptation of the novel The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Follow Jonas' journey on Instagram! @ReceiverJonas

OR click the links in the order below:

http://instagram.com/p/Q019MvOpOY/ 

http://instagram.com/p/Q04XLKOpAX/
http://instagram.com/p/Q06h4pupB7/
http://instagram.com/p/Q06pmCOpCE/
http://instagram.com/p/Q061x_OpCO/
http://instagram.com/p/Q0697nupCX/
http://instagram.com/p/Q0--Q-upFc/
http://instagram.com/p/Q0_HdgOpFi/
http://instagram.com/p/Q0_NUsupFq/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1AOpsOpGS/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1AmfSOpGg/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1A1_ZupGs/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1DvwoOpIq/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1D-eoOpIz/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1EPtvupI-/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1EaRuupJD/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1Ek86OpJF/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1HvMpOpKy/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1H3xxOpK4/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1IB-cOpLB/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1IJBmOpLG/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1IR4POpLJ/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1LYvNOpMl/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1LjXmOpMq/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1LvNPOpMz/
http://instagram.com/p/Q1MfbsOpNJ/


Artists' Statement:

For our social media adaption, we chose to portray The Giver through Instagram. Because this book focuses heavily on visual elements and is written from Jonas' perspective, we felt pictures would be a great way to tell such a story.  We chose to use Instagram because it allows Jonas to take spontaneous snapshots of the world around him. We never see his face because the book is told through his perspective, and so too are the pictures. This point of view allows for us to show how Jonas' world changes as the story progresses, because if it was from anyone else's perspective, nothing would change.

This first person view of the story is similar to the interactive artistic collaboration known as The Infinite Oz. The Infinite Oz leads us through several landscapes as if we are seeing them through Dorothy’s eyes. Each new artistic landscape considers something different in her journey, just as each picture in Jonas’s Instagram account tells us something new about what he is experiencing. Furthermore, all the characters in both Jonas's and Dorothy's stories are stuck in their respective areas of the world except Jonas and Dorothy who move beyond what's considered normal. So although the media methods differ, there are some definite parallels between the two, which allow us to experience the journey as if we are alongside them.

Perhaps the most important element for adapting our pictures dealt with the portrayal of color. In the beginning of the book, the reader realizes that the society in which they live is black and white, and all color has been removed. We chose to use black and white photos early on because Jonas also saw in black and white.  However, he begins to see glimpses of red as the story progresses. We used photos of specific events, like when Jonas saw his friend Fiona's hair change and turn red.  As the story progresses, the Giver gives Jonas memories with color, and this is also reflected in our images.

Similarly to our use of color, we wanted to reflect how we felt society would look.  Our adaption shows the sterile society they live in.  The pictures in the beginning are completely clear and shallow.  They highlight structure to emphasize that there is little depth and excitement to life. As time goes on, and Jonas learns more about the world he is living in, he sees more depth of field and more angles.  

In Harper's Magazine, Jonathan Lether wrote the article, "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism."  He speaks of Bob Dylan and the influence his music has had on society.  He says how "Dylan's art offers a paradox: while it famously urges us not to look back, it also encodes a knowledge of past sources that might otherwise have little home in contemporary culture."  This is very characteristic of The Giver because the entire society is created to avoid and forget the past.  The society relies upon a single person to hold the burdens of the past.

The Hitchhiker: Textual Poaching

Artist Statement: Textual Poaching

            I think when people first look at hitchhikers, they see less of a person. I’m a hitchhiker, and I’m not less of a person. There’s been so many times when I sit at a corner waiting for a ride – because I really need one, and people won’t stop. I think people won’t stop because they’re afraid of the unknown, they’re afraid from the stories they’ve heard about hitchhikers getting picked up and killing everyone in the car. In 2005 a statistic was released stating that 459 people have been killed on interstates in the past 40 years – that’s not many compared to just about anything else that’s happened in the last 40 years but it is still 459 people. So it is minimally understandable why and how people could completely avoid becoming another statistic by just not stopping. But compared to the amount of rides given each year to hitchhikers in the United States, picking up a hitchhiker is not too much of a risk. You could do more good by picking somebody up and giving them a ride.

            This picture was taken in 1971 of a guy who looks somewhat like a hippie. When people see somebody like this they might think “homeless” or “might kill me”. In reality many hitchhikers have homes, they’re just traveling to a job, or a new home and are harmless – they just need a little help. There is much more to a hitchhiker than our initial reactions. I added pictures to the original so as to suggest the depth to a human being – who happens to be hitchhiking. These people usually have families, interests, hopes, and dreams just like everybody else. This image more accurately represents me.