The Azure Resort

Monday, September 8, 2014

3 Questions (Input from "Time," its readings, and ART 21)

My 3 Questions from the Readings, from Art 21, etc. (Correlating to "Time")

What other kinds and types of time-based conepts and themes of time can they also create?
How far should they expand upon each of their works and future projects for the better?
Can such possibilities and new ideas of time-based concepts and important representations (both indirectly and directly) relating to time be well-made into full length films and animated features?

Favorite Films and Animations: Answers and Information

Favorite Films:

The Dark Knight

Inception

Forrest Gump

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Batman Begins

Kill Bill Volume 1

Kill Bill Volume 2

Guardians of the Galaxy

Favorite Animated Films:
Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Princess Mononoke

Toy Story 2

The Land Before Time

The Rescuers Down Under

How to Train Your Dragon 2

What impressed me about my favorite films' structure is that they have a well-leveled set of pacing and progression upon a literary set of events, ranging from the beginning to the conclusion (with rising action, climax, and falling action in between). It sets both a good convey of storytelling and dramatic highlights.

The stories for each unfolded in different ways, but most usually followed a rough template of chronology, whether by telling the past, being set in the past as part of the ongoing course of the story, telling the past only in the beginning, references of the past during present ongoing events in the film, and/or flashbacks.

Can I use any of this to inform my work? Surely so, but only by title mention and examplified means. Devling about into them is probably not to be done.

5 Most Important Moments selected from my Autobiography

Moment 1: Saving my friend's life in the swimming pool

Moment 2: Moving into America and the new house in Maryland for the first time

Moment 3: Beginning school starting with Kindergarten

Moment 4: Return to Japan, an ephemeral era until then

Moment 5: Moving back to America, once more and for all from now on

It wouldn't be too easy to make all of these as a film animation, but I can imagine that it can be done for all moments in one film, two films pertaining to Moments 1, 2, & 3 with the second one covering Moments 4 and 5 (since the 5^th Moments covers my years from 2003 – 2013, so there's a lot of information to be held there at once), or a film for each moment, but that would be difficult.

I can consider how the past can be shown through 2D artwork animation, sepia-toned slideshows, or sketch storyboard animations.

Referring to the present? Yes, I should, but only towards the end if I show it in progressive order.

Content Notes & Data of Art 21: Time, Stores, and Place

William Kentridge and his works of art correlates directly to that of time and space due to the fact that he references a period in history, particularly during the South African apartheid. His creations and process are done with a "darkly imagined charcoal drawings that serve as the basis of his animated films." With observation and immersion, the works he made are wild, intense, full of feeling, and powerful. Chris Ofili's art work, "The Holy Virgin Mary," reflects to time by deriving the traditional imagery and notion of the Virgin Mary and then modernizing the image in order to mirror well to that of his African heritage.

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Martin Puryear – When watching the video, it presented us to see a number of artworks that he made that provokes time and place, a state of its chronological result. One his work, Booker T. Washington, symbolizes a distant and tall ladder, which was made of wood. His work shows us that as you go up the ladder, time and space progesses and changes continuously. His statement of this artwork shows that "the view from where you start and the end, the goal," definitely invokes such. It made me wonder with his stone artworks if they're trying to say "This is what becomes of this in a matter of years," and that his works do take time, so it seems that we all live under such continuums for as long as we see evidence of changes and that our memories are still ever existant and operable.

Kara Walker – This artist utilizes silhouettes and shapes in her artwork with the method of drawing figures via black paper, cutting them out, inserting them into the scenes called "epic moments," and so forth. After much analysis of the arts and contents of her work, we viewers realize that the characters and scenes depict slavery, control, torture, etc. And that is projected by her works in the form of creating a story referencing from that tough period off of actual historical events.

Sally Mann – A photographer of light, shadow, and contrast, she is highly driven and energetic. Using her time and place in her photo works by transforming the way we see objects in any space, she enjoys the mystery and intrigue in the works as she enjoys creating photographs of object, places, and other connected subject matter that encourages us to take the viewer's time to determine what they're aiming for in her photographs. That being said, it makes me perceive her works, both by children depicted and the setting scene seen, as a sense of memory and 19^th century aura. This announced a theme of innocence, freedom, and a "timeless" peace for what she has visually created.

My Comments to others on Project 1 - PLAY

Tom Nail's "Trophy Installation" ~ I find that the honorable imagery and cleanliness of the trophies was a delightful sight, but there wasn't too much more home to write about. Regardless, I found that the information and evidence given by your process was more intriguing than the actual work itself, as it represents a symbolism of effort, hard work, and both extrinsic and intrinsic success. It's like I was seeing an animation of the process in my head as I gazed through the collection of trophies.

Randall Bezant ~ I only played with it briefly, but both by the fact that the inviting interaction of the piece itself and the humorous faces was amusement enough, highlighting that your work suits best in the niche of entertainment value. There was not much else for me to think about, but I can tell that it was meant for the literal interpretation of the verb form of "Play," as in a way of saying "play with me!" What more could you ask for?

Christine Bauleiu: I found the Barbie images, especially the ones turned around facing away from the viewer, to be mystifying and intriguingly strange. It was a rather inverted way of play, provoking "Don't play with me! Play with someone else!" There are many ways to be interpreted, and it's like as if I thought of this as "A child's play that's not child's play." To me, I thought it turned out to be better than what you intended for it to be, but it does need visual refinement and editing.

Jeff Cook: The outdoor theme of Earth was really refreshing and enticing, however, I thought of it in a more chemical and scientific side of the project that you explained to us about. It reminded me of the principle that everything is rearranged upon equivalent exchange, with no matters of the universe being truly added nor subtracted. That being said, it's not a completely original nor delightfully diverse idea, but it's a worthy difference of its own that can be further done upon if you put more objects of different colors and more materials to a larger tree.

My Reflection from Project 1 - PLAY

After we presented our projects individually in class, there was a lot of variety and intrigue to their ideas of play. Unfortunately, I could never truly understand well enough of what the idea of play is, so I took the closest context to it being referred to as a "Stage Play." I was hugely and exceptionally dissatisfied with mine as the idea of its play could never come across to other students nor my older works would blend well with the idea coming from the statue figure itself that I brought in days ago. In very sheer spite of this, I tried to present my ideas, but it was going exactly where I wasn't wanting it to go. There was a lot of information I wanted to cover, but that turned out to be most certainly the opposite, so I hope direly that next time that my next project will be much more streamlined, much improved, and subtracted severely upon for the focus of time, progression, and minimalism. I'm not giving up yet, but I'm not going to stand for another unacceptable failure.
Final Photo (tell me anything and everything that comes to mind that you see here):

Timestone Dragon

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

PROJECT 1: PLAY (FULL DATA BLOG POST)

Ryan Cook

August 31, 2014 – September 3, 2014

ARTA 1206-001

Written Proposal for Project 1 – PLAY

The ideas for this project were based off of various sketch settings, which very subtlely can foreshadow an environment from events on a storyline if it were to be made. (the floating architecture, ship sailing in the sky, a crystal mushroom metropolitan road, etc.)

However, those did not center forth with the final product; instead, what we have here is a revitalized proposal that is conceptually compacted with the idea of a feral dragon wearing a necklace of it own kind. Much can be speculated with no limit of theory and conversation.

The picture is supposed to represent a feral creature with a large pendant for its scale being the same kind; what this means is that it imposes a representation of kinship; replication, resurrection of its own kind in the stream of time, as if they had survived elsewhere with persistence and will. The red gems on the figurine can very well symbolize the blood of its kind, that such existence has to be made as long as there are other life forms willing to believe of it, think of it, and have light for it.

The original sketch settings could mean that time has passed, technology has evolved (and even become in tune with its own environment when looking at the crsytal mushroom chrome road art), and that the statue creature invokes that anything can last as long as it survives without the need of belonging to a very modernized world; that it can stand on its own from any world of its own and even in a fit timeline. (Side Note: The floating sky ship picture represents ascension of progression, sustainability, and uplifting survival)

Choice of Media: Sketch paper, graphite, dragon figurine (from Myrtle Beach, SC), and my stainless steel dragon necklace.

Reasons of Choices: I chose to set up and arrange these materials as a selected choice because it not only reflected my unparalleled passion for dragons, but I also wanted to come up with a storytold symbolism behind the arrangement, as if it was a real statue with magical lore in a tale.

Comments: It didn't take a high amount of material to utilize; much of it came from improvising the materials to rearrange, and a lot of its background contents were from its original sketches and ideas written, almost in an abstract story-telling fashion. I couldn't get as much "bells and whistles" made with this, but I'm sure with this amount, it can still hold itself well.
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Identified Researches for Project 1 – PLAY

Artistic Influences – Much of the inspiratons and thoughtful improvisations comes from a number of interests I have especially when I was a child: My deep growing love for dragons, reptiles, dinosaurs, and anything of the scale-skinned sort, fantasy action-adventure and role-playing video games that I used to play throughout the 2^nd half of the 1990s and 2000s, a high share of western animated films and magically-involved Japanese animation entertainment, shows and movies involving dragons, artwork designs, and the entire mythos of everything else to such artistic levels.

Outside Reading – No particular form of reading material was needed directly to help make the set idea for this project, but some of it has been involved from the Jeanne & Claude art-and-photos website in terms of the information of the pictures to help represent the idea for my proposal prototype sketches (which were later photoshopped for both a colored and a greyscale version as to represent the pigmented atmosphere of each setting image).