Week 9 Assignment: Sound

For my sound experiment I chose to record the different sounds that water makes in my apartment. I ended up with many different clips: water going down a drain, dripping water, opening a seltzer bottle, the sound of seltzer bubbling, the shower, the toilet flushing, pouring water out of a cup, water running from the sink, splashing water, and drizzling water.

The following is what I came up with after choosing a few to put together along with some subtle sound affects:

https://soundcloud.com/user293155979/watersounds

I had really been looking forward to working with audio as it is something I have never challenged myself to do before. However, it did not come very naturally to me. Looking back I feel the biggest difference between this project and the previous projects is that I didn't have much control over the final product since I was learning as I went along. The audio clip came together organically and now I find myself questioning if that is a good thing?

It is funny how this project relates back to my original project, the on/off experiment. In that project I recorded sounds I heard that I normally don't pay attention to, but instead of through audio, I recorded them visually. I think it would have been interested to have recorded the sounds as well. This way the viewer could listen to the sounds mashed together on a loop while looking at the piece.

Sound inspiring visual art is nothing new, but I like the idea of unexpected sounds, ones that we normally don't pay attention to, becoming the muse for a painting video.

An artist I found to be using sound creatively is Adam Brown. He is basically doing the opposite of what I've written about above. Instead of letting a sound inspire an image, he is letting images inspire sounds.

He does so by taking a digital photo, turning it into audio waves, etching them onto a vinyl record, and playing it back using a USB turntable and a projector. From what I can tell, this is as complicated as it sounds. But it is a fresh idea.

Most of his photos sound similar to white noise. By following the link above, you can listen to a sample.

Although I am intrigued by sound, as I look back on the semester the one project I particularly liked was stop motion. After exploring the iStopmotion software and creating my own finished animation, I have already learned so much and there are many things I would do differently given the chance. I would focus more on lighting, background, and opportunities for illusion. I'm wondering how I can use stop motion as a tool for one of my final projects. I would like to spend more time working on it.

I also really enjoyed the video project. The way I interpreted the video exploration is similar to the audio experiment, taking many clips to create one. This had more of an impact on me than the audio. It is something I've experimented with further on my own outside of class.

Week 8 Assignment: Scanning

For my exploration with scanning I chose to focus on the simplicity of paper as my medium. Also included is a wooden block and a rubber stamp. I was particularly interested in the quality of depth I was able to achieve by using the scanner. I found that keeping the lid of the scanner open, I created the illusion of darkness or a black hole. With this exploration it took me quite some time to feel like I was getting somewhere. After browsing other artist's work and seeing the work of my classmates, I look forward to pushing the scanner as a tool further in my work.

The artist I found who uses scanning in her artwork is Jayemson Jeffers. She creates a variety of artwork on her website including graphic design, film, drawing, and collage. I found it interesting to see her use of design and collage in particular influencing her scan art. She has a way of representing the depth and movement of nature within a scan image. This inspires me to experiment more with movement. The following are both her pieces:

Week 7 Assignment: Stop Motion Exploration

I really enjoyed our exploration of stop-motion this week with our groups in class. I chose to explore this further on my own with the iStopMotion app on the iPad to create another short stop motion narrative of my own.

I agree with Professor Jochum’s thoughts about story telling becoming a lost art. Children tend to loose this ability around the age of 7 or 8. Not only do they no longer want to hear stories, they no longer have the vivid imagination they once had and often stop telling them. 

However, I think pushing students to use this skill in the classroom can push them to think critically, solve problems, explore their identity, and appreciate the diversity of their classmates.

One of the classes I am currently observing is a high school advanced studio art class. These students range from 10th to 12th graders. This is your average, New York City high school, and generally these students are doing just what they need to do to get by in the art room. However, I was talking to them about past projects and what they enjoyed doing in the art room and they told me about a video project they recently did about their neighborhood and “Where They Are From”. This is a classic TC lesson plan put into action successfully. Students were able to rent out cameras from the school and take them home/around the neighborhood to film. They spent their class time learning how to use iMovie in the computer lab to create their videos. At the end, they each got the chance to share their video with the class. It was great to see the students so excited to talk about their outcomes.

In one of my previous projects, I did a video exploration of “Things I Like”. After hearing the students enthusiasm about their personal video projects, I was thinking that this “Things I Like” prompt could be given to students. The lesson plan would look something like this:

Through filming a video about the things they like using iPhones and iMovie, students will learn that they can put together 10-15 short clips of things they like to create a video narrative which reflects their background and personality.