Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
End.
This shall be my last post Im afraid, as tomorrow is indeed the deadline. I have installed the television and toilet and am pleased with the outcome. I can take comfort in the fact that I have also produced another bit of interent that literally no one other than myself has been onto,though perhaps this did not use the format of a blog to itsfull potential, It has been a relativly good way of tracking my own progress.
Rather unfortuanly for my exhibition I seem to have competition from a rival exhibit of rudeness.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/britishcomicart/default.shtm
and this ones at the tate. some people have all the luck.
Rather unfortuanly for my exhibition I seem to have competition from a rival exhibit of rudeness.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/britishcomicart/default.shtm
and this ones at the tate. some people have all the luck.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Ready Made
The installation of my film in the studio is coming along well, with today possibly being the biggest leap forwards with the addition of the all important toilet. After trying to locate a toilet in various ways, somewhat unsuccessfully, I was at a bit of a loss when the toilet I had hoped to get today from a friends next door neighbour did not arrive. Fortunately after seeking advice on where to find a toilet from art technician Martin I was able to simply walk over to the plumbing department of college, and very soon walk back with a toilet courtesy of the plumbing technician. Technician seem to be very good at doing things simply and quickly with no nonsense.
There is a rather interesting relationship between the bathroom and the art gallery. perhaps due to the somewhat taboo subjects of the bodily functions that go on in them playing into the hands of the artist who seeks to shock, the stigma of the art gallery and the art gallery patron's ability to be shocked.
largely considered the first significant piece of porcelain to enter an art gallery was Marcell Duchamp's Fountain in 1917, though technically the original was rejected from the exhibition originally submitted to and then lost. It demonstrated the idea of the Readymade very well, showing boldly the idea that any item can be a piece of art. But I think it is also important to remember with this work that it is also kinda funny. a joke. The name of the piece, Fountain, suggests a different use for the object, a use we clearly know it does not have. Indeed Duchamp could have used any object as a ready made, but he opted for the urinal, a staple of toilet humour, yet somehow elegant in its form.
Later on in the course of history Italian artist Piero Manzoni.
Piero Manzoni Artist's Shit 1961" vspace="2" width="243" align="right" border="0" height="256" hspace="4"> Took things that bit further, canning his own excrement in 90 can to be sold, the idea being that,
"if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit, that is really his.'
Again I feel it is important to remember how funny this stunt is, the punchline coming from the art world, as cans where indeed sold for fairly high prices. an added piece of irony is that is it now debated whether the can do actually even contain "the artist shit" at all.
an interesting article on the work can be found here.
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=27330&searchid=16857&tabview=text
There is a rather interesting relationship between the bathroom and the art gallery. perhaps due to the somewhat taboo subjects of the bodily functions that go on in them playing into the hands of the artist who seeks to shock, the stigma of the art gallery and the art gallery patron's ability to be shocked.
largely considered the first significant piece of porcelain to enter an art gallery was Marcell Duchamp's Fountain in 1917, though technically the original was rejected from the exhibition originally submitted to and then lost. It demonstrated the idea of the Readymade very well, showing boldly the idea that any item can be a piece of art. But I think it is also important to remember with this work that it is also kinda funny. a joke. The name of the piece, Fountain, suggests a different use for the object, a use we clearly know it does not have. Indeed Duchamp could have used any object as a ready made, but he opted for the urinal, a staple of toilet humour, yet somehow elegant in its form.
Later on in the course of history Italian artist Piero Manzoni.
Piero Manzoni Artist's Shit 1961" vspace="2" width="243" align="right" border="0" height="256" hspace="4"> Took things that bit further, canning his own excrement in 90 can to be sold, the idea being that,
"if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit, that is really his.'
Again I feel it is important to remember how funny this stunt is, the punchline coming from the art world, as cans where indeed sold for fairly high prices. an added piece of irony is that is it now debated whether the can do actually even contain "the artist shit" at all.
an interesting article on the work can be found here.
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=27330&searchid=16857&tabview=text
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
The animation process is over.
I believe that today I have finished animating. I say believe for I am not sure whether perhaps I should develop more of a title sequence or not. I will seek advice on this from tutor and peers.
It feels good to have reached the end of my planned storyboarded film though, and has defiantly been the longest three and a half minutes of my life.
However I cannot rest yet, for the animation process is only part of the finish article, now, in a way, the interesting part begins. Up until now I have know what Ive wanted to achieve fairly precisely, as I made sure to plan my animating time as much as possible, and though I have been thinking constantly about how to show the film, now it is time to actually begin doing it. It will be harder than the animating in some ways, as am not as sure set in my intention, however this allows me freedom to experiment more than the animation process, and will hopefully be far more interactive than spending hours alone in my animation world.
I must now begin to think about installation, an art form that has always interested me, but one I have seldom attempted my self. One thing I find interesting about installation is the way that they can so versitile, being something huge and overwhelming as I remember Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project at the tate was:
It was a truly remarkable thing to visit, and the way that he completely transformed a space by doing so little sticks with me even now. I find it interesting how, in works like this, the participation of the audience is so key, and is perhaps even the part of the installation that has the most impact.
Or on the other it can be hand subtle and understated that you could miss it, such as the exhibition Freianlage by Andrew Bracey I once saw at the minories in colchester, in which he had created a "zoo" of toy animals by placing them around the gallery in various places, sometimes on pedestals, some times tucked away in the very bottom corners of the rooms or even hidden down cracks in the floor boards.
here he talks about one animal in particular.
It was interesting how this, involved participation from the viewer, but in a very different way to weather project, as this work asked the viewer not to bask in the grandure of the insallation, but instead lose oneself in the details of it. It seems to me that this interaction an instalation can have with an audience is key to how the installation can affect them and how they perceve it. I also feel that this can be infuelced by very small, details of context and simple logistics, which, though often not the most obvious things, can be some of the most crucial.
The installation aspect of my work is more a tool to enable the viewing of my film and so has a function, but this, in a way, opens up interesting new possibilities. It will be interesting to explore the way in which we interact with media such as film, something which now adays we are more acquainted with, and encounter more regularly than ever. Is it still possible for this medium to be as captivating as it once was?
It feels good to have reached the end of my planned storyboarded film though, and has defiantly been the longest three and a half minutes of my life.
However I cannot rest yet, for the animation process is only part of the finish article, now, in a way, the interesting part begins. Up until now I have know what Ive wanted to achieve fairly precisely, as I made sure to plan my animating time as much as possible, and though I have been thinking constantly about how to show the film, now it is time to actually begin doing it. It will be harder than the animating in some ways, as am not as sure set in my intention, however this allows me freedom to experiment more than the animation process, and will hopefully be far more interactive than spending hours alone in my animation world.
I must now begin to think about installation, an art form that has always interested me, but one I have seldom attempted my self. One thing I find interesting about installation is the way that they can so versitile, being something huge and overwhelming as I remember Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project at the tate was:
It was a truly remarkable thing to visit, and the way that he completely transformed a space by doing so little sticks with me even now. I find it interesting how, in works like this, the participation of the audience is so key, and is perhaps even the part of the installation that has the most impact.
Or on the other it can be hand subtle and understated that you could miss it, such as the exhibition Freianlage by Andrew Bracey I once saw at the minories in colchester, in which he had created a "zoo" of toy animals by placing them around the gallery in various places, sometimes on pedestals, some times tucked away in the very bottom corners of the rooms or even hidden down cracks in the floor boards.
here he talks about one animal in particular.It was interesting how this, involved participation from the viewer, but in a very different way to weather project, as this work asked the viewer not to bask in the grandure of the insallation, but instead lose oneself in the details of it. It seems to me that this interaction an instalation can have with an audience is key to how the installation can affect them and how they perceve it. I also feel that this can be infuelced by very small, details of context and simple logistics, which, though often not the most obvious things, can be some of the most crucial.
The installation aspect of my work is more a tool to enable the viewing of my film and so has a function, but this, in a way, opens up interesting new possibilities. It will be interesting to explore the way in which we interact with media such as film, something which now adays we are more acquainted with, and encounter more regularly than ever. Is it still possible for this medium to be as captivating as it once was?
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
The Point?
As the exhibition aproaches things seem to be starting to pull together. People are working now on work to be exhibited, and the studio is far more active as people work is no longer the beginings of ideas and experiments, but much more finished, clear "art."
This is strange to me in a way as, what with doing an animation, I have not had this sudden jump as such. It has just been a gradual build up of seconds. Maybe it will change when I exhibit it, as the instalation element to my piece will begin to take shape. I plan to install a toilet as a seat to watch the film on. I have been promised said toilet by a girl on the course who yesterday was wanting to give up all together with the whole exhibition. Fingers crossed I gets me toilet.
What has begun to come clear as I have seen every one elses work come together, is that i'm doing something a bit weird, and I have even begun to question slightly wether my own work is really art. I have though slightly, am I selling myself short with this? For one it is an animation, yet not in the traditional "arty" sense. If we look at this video by animator and director Stephan Irwin, then we see such a high level of skill and inovation. The way that he plays with traditional, fairly low-fi and basic animation, yet pull it together, connecting up small "screens"of animation, and using them to tell the narrative is truely ingenious.
My animation is not like this. It is crude and not beautifull. It is childish in its rude humour, and animated, though to the best of my abilities, relativly basicly.
However this self-questioning has lead me back to my original intention, that perhaps where not a clear in my head as they maybe are now. I never intended to Produce a highly polised piece of animation, nor did I want to produce something interlectual or refined. I realise now that it was through my disolutionment with the whole concept of fine art in itself that I was compelled to to do art. this was the point of Tom Armstrong does a Film in the first place. I intend to does a film and film I has does.
To contextually justify this let us look for a moment at Fischli and Weiss. I was just now watching a programme on the television about the 10th aniversarry of the Tate Modern, and This work came up.
WEISS, David
Untitled (Tate)
Acrylic paint on polyurethane foam and mixed media Dimensions variable
It seemed to justify my own intention to myself. This work is stupid. It is pointless and dumb, a complex process for an ordinary outcome. And this is what I like about it. I remeber seeing it myself, quite a while ago, and indeed to this day I did not know that it was all polestyriene. Thats quite a long wait for a punchline. And thats what it feels like, a puchline to a joke.
OK so its a bit of a pretentious joke you could argue. but who care? not that many pople really care about art anyway.
This is strange to me in a way as, what with doing an animation, I have not had this sudden jump as such. It has just been a gradual build up of seconds. Maybe it will change when I exhibit it, as the instalation element to my piece will begin to take shape. I plan to install a toilet as a seat to watch the film on. I have been promised said toilet by a girl on the course who yesterday was wanting to give up all together with the whole exhibition. Fingers crossed I gets me toilet.
What has begun to come clear as I have seen every one elses work come together, is that i'm doing something a bit weird, and I have even begun to question slightly wether my own work is really art. I have though slightly, am I selling myself short with this? For one it is an animation, yet not in the traditional "arty" sense. If we look at this video by animator and director Stephan Irwin, then we see such a high level of skill and inovation. The way that he plays with traditional, fairly low-fi and basic animation, yet pull it together, connecting up small "screens"of animation, and using them to tell the narrative is truely ingenious.
My animation is not like this. It is crude and not beautifull. It is childish in its rude humour, and animated, though to the best of my abilities, relativly basicly.
However this self-questioning has lead me back to my original intention, that perhaps where not a clear in my head as they maybe are now. I never intended to Produce a highly polised piece of animation, nor did I want to produce something interlectual or refined. I realise now that it was through my disolutionment with the whole concept of fine art in itself that I was compelled to to do art. this was the point of Tom Armstrong does a Film in the first place. I intend to does a film and film I has does.
To contextually justify this let us look for a moment at Fischli and Weiss. I was just now watching a programme on the television about the 10th aniversarry of the Tate Modern, and This work came up.
WEISS, David
Untitled (Tate)
Acrylic paint on polyurethane foam and mixed media Dimensions variable
OK so its a bit of a pretentious joke you could argue. but who care? not that many pople really care about art anyway.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Film nearly complete.
I have progressed well with the film in the week since I last posted, and am near completion of the first draft, if you will, of the film. I feel that I have learnt a great deal in just these three minutes of animation, and am actually fairly pleased to be re-doing the first minute, as I am confident that I should be able to improve it greatly.
As with many things, whilst animating I have learnt those little things that you can only learn by actually doing something but which can make all the difference. Though reading about the theories behind animation first was of great help, It as only when I began to put these into practice that I began to truly understand them.
Though I have struggled with the technologies involved slightly, I have found stopmotion pro to be a very useful programme indeed. It is very simple in interface, and It the video tutorial on its website have been invaluable in using the programme effectively.
http://www.stopmotionpro.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=285&Itemid=122
One large thing I have discovered is how useful loops are when animating. This has been helped by astutely observing when watch animated programmes, most of all the Simpsons, what in it is looped, for example in this clip we can see how homers dance is made up of a few simple motions reversed and repeated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrfhjLd9e4&feature=related
after a while you begin to realise far more of cartoon are on loop, or at least certain movements looped.
Looping has been incredibly useful not only in speeding up the animating process, but also in the producing a far smoother, more flowing animation. For example you can see bellow how a whole sequence is made up from the three frames highlighted in red, simply by copying and reversing the order.
another point worth making from this screen shot is the "hide" tool. This is a handy feature of stop motion pro as it allows you to remove frames in order to change the animation, but easily "un-hide" them as well, overall making the process of editing the film very flexible, allowing you to try out different edits as you animate.
As with many things, whilst animating I have learnt those little things that you can only learn by actually doing something but which can make all the difference. Though reading about the theories behind animation first was of great help, It as only when I began to put these into practice that I began to truly understand them.
Though I have struggled with the technologies involved slightly, I have found stopmotion pro to be a very useful programme indeed. It is very simple in interface, and It the video tutorial on its website have been invaluable in using the programme effectively.
http://www.stopmotionpro.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=285&Itemid=122
One large thing I have discovered is how useful loops are when animating. This has been helped by astutely observing when watch animated programmes, most of all the Simpsons, what in it is looped, for example in this clip we can see how homers dance is made up of a few simple motions reversed and repeated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrfhjLd9e4&feature=related
after a while you begin to realise far more of cartoon are on loop, or at least certain movements looped.
Looping has been incredibly useful not only in speeding up the animating process, but also in the producing a far smoother, more flowing animation. For example you can see bellow how a whole sequence is made up from the three frames highlighted in red, simply by copying and reversing the order.
another point worth making from this screen shot is the "hide" tool. This is a handy feature of stop motion pro as it allows you to remove frames in order to change the animation, but easily "un-hide" them as well, overall making the process of editing the film very flexible, allowing you to try out different edits as you animate.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Revelation and Set Back
In keeping with the lo-fi spirit I have adopted for this Film, by circumstance as much as choice; I have acquiesced to a certain number of set backs. However, todays set back was a culmination of theses acquieses being thrown back at me through chance and acident.
It was by accident that I happened to solve the problemes I had been having with the capture from my camera. The main problem that was lt slip through the net, though not through lack of trying, was the "logo" that I could not remove from the screen of the camera. I decided to allow this, to use the parlance of our times, through convincing myself that I could claim this as my own "logo", to stamp the film as my own as it were. With the later lack of even noticing the "logo" from others I was relativly satified.
Until today, when by sheer mistake I set the camera to black and white photo mode and realised that on this setting I could produce a live feed to the computer completly clear of the retched logo. This balck and white mode also eleviated the developing problem of inconsistencies in the lighting and tone of the animation. This new setting was a great revelation. Bellow you can see the differnce between the two settings.
Unfortunatly I had already spent the best part of a week animating the first minute of the film. With the logo stamped in the corner and the tones all wonky.
After much debate with myself, and the advice of tutor David, I have decided on the Solution. To continue with the film in this new and improved capture setting and then return to animate from the first minute when this is complete. I inted to emit a scene to save time, and hopefully as I now feel much more confident animating and am working at a quicker rate this should be achievable and overall make the film much more aseticaly pleasing. This however is the set back.
It was by accident that I happened to solve the problemes I had been having with the capture from my camera. The main problem that was lt slip through the net, though not through lack of trying, was the "logo" that I could not remove from the screen of the camera. I decided to allow this, to use the parlance of our times, through convincing myself that I could claim this as my own "logo", to stamp the film as my own as it were. With the later lack of even noticing the "logo" from others I was relativly satified.
Until today, when by sheer mistake I set the camera to black and white photo mode and realised that on this setting I could produce a live feed to the computer completly clear of the retched logo. This balck and white mode also eleviated the developing problem of inconsistencies in the lighting and tone of the animation. This new setting was a great revelation. Bellow you can see the differnce between the two settings.
Unfortunatly I had already spent the best part of a week animating the first minute of the film. With the logo stamped in the corner and the tones all wonky.
After much debate with myself, and the advice of tutor David, I have decided on the Solution. To continue with the film in this new and improved capture setting and then return to animate from the first minute when this is complete. I inted to emit a scene to save time, and hopefully as I now feel much more confident animating and am working at a quicker rate this should be achievable and overall make the film much more aseticaly pleasing. This however is the set back.
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