Pipilotti Rist

What a femenist woman! Watching her video was just as intense as some of the stuff that we have watched in class this semester. But, I sufferred through it and found some of the things interesting enough to blog about. So here we go...

During "I'm not the girl who misses much" I enjoyed watching the different video editing techniques. The screen looks like a heart monitor when Pipilotti is jumping around, which corresponded to the video speeding up. I was wondering why her boobs were sticking out, but if this class has taught me one thing it is to ignore nudety because it is all artistic in some way.

Another part that interested me was when Pipilotti was video taped falling to the ground in the middle of the street. The sounds that were edited into the film sounded like abstract gunshots. If I had to guess, I'd say that this is a statement about women in other countries who are sentenced to death for breaking the rules. Her acting was like a public execution, since it was in the middle of the street.

When she dives into the pool it immediatley reminded me of the Bill Viola documentary that we watched in class the other day. Lots of his video art focused on drowning and water because he nearly drowned as a child. Likewise, Pipilotti appears to be drowning in her video. Which is weird, because she executes a perfect dive when she enters the pool. Someone who dives so nicely and then can't swim couldnt have learned to dive without learning to swim. So maybe either the person shown rescuing her was overreacting, or Pipilotti was just trying to drown herself and ended up freaking out. But anyway, the editing at this part was really cool. having the pool water in a separate square from the edge of the frame made it seem like a picture of a pool placed in the center, instead of just a small shot of the water.

The woman with the blood all over herself was enough to make me dry heave. HOWEVER, once again the video editing effects blew me away. The way that the woman was spinning and disappearing with the earth in the background was pretty cool. It looked like she was floating in space. Maybe that's what Pipilotti was going for? because although ive never been naked in space, I assume that i would bleed or something from the pressure...But who knows.

Whats with the robot looking woman with the polka dotted shirt collar? I'm pretty sure she didn't blink once. Which probably could have counted for endurance which, as we all know, is necessary in performance art. It looked like there was a video of a tv screen over this image, but it was very faint so I wasn't sure. Either way, the layering effect was really cool.

Overall, lots of nudety and body parts. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, except that I thought it was kind of weird. But if this class has taught me anything, its that anything can be considered art and we just need to be open minded and accept it unless we want to be constantly grossed out.

Video Art Project

While deciding what to do for my video art project I was really stressed over finals and everything, so I decided to use that as the inspiration for my video. I dragged the camera through plants on campus, and the effect was really chaotic. The switching between different types of plants represents how I was jumping from the work of one class to the next, and there didn't seem to be any end in sight. I edited in some different colors just to add to the chaos and make it seem more unrealistic. The flower at the end represents how relaxed I feel now that finals are DONE, and when this class is over it will be officially summertime for me! There's no audio, only because I didn't know how to make my own. Enjoy!

Television Delivers People

The music in the background reminded me of something that would have been on Leave It to Beaver, where you have the perfect family with the perfect hair who all wear nice clothes and the mom wears lipstick and pearls while vacuuming. This is ironic, because the whole point of the video is to tell us that television is not perfect, and advertising it consuming us, which is completley true! But really, who ever thinks of their lives being controlled by what they watch on tv? With advertising schemes being shot at us left and right, whether it be from telelvision or billboards or magazine adds or whatever, all of our decisions are somehow guided by the advertising that we see every day. I think that what struck me most about the music is that it represents something safe, like having a perfect family. While the music should be warm and comforting, the words on the screen makes you think and realise how you are really living your life. For a video that could have potentially been incredibly boring, this one made me think much more than anything else we have watched in class this semester!

Nam June Paik

The obituary of Nam June Paik's is the longest I have ever read. The list of this man's achievements is extraordinary. The obituary mentioned several times that Paik was proficient with televisions, which mirrors what we learned about him in class.

My favorite piece of Paik's that we talked about in class was the television bra that he made for the naked ciellist. I found it ironic that Paik used such a public piece of machinery, such as the television, that everyone watches and which televises the personal business of people worldwide, to cover up such a private part of the woman ciellist.

I also appreciated that Paik's first piece of video art was a video of the Pope, whom he followed around with a camera. Paik's sense of humor was really remarkable. So was his originallity and creativety, as shown with pieces such as his video art on stained glass. I also appreciated how reused all of his videos, this gave me lots of ideas for when I do my own video art project.

Giant Eyeballs

So, in class we have been watching a lot of music videos that The Residents made. Most of the music videos that we have watched have been very abstract. We learned that we never see the musician's faces because they are always wearing giant eyeballs over their heads. We also learned that The Residents made the first "real" music video in 1971.

What I find the most interesting about this band is that all of their music videos are a form of performance art. Since we have been learning so much recently in class about performance art, seeing videos from this band gave me a clearer view of what performance art actually is. It also helped me form ideas for my own performance art piece.

Last Monday we watched the video for "This is a man's world" which was a piece of video art created by The Residents that was the first to show some hardcore computer animation. It was interesting to see what the first forms of computer animation looked like. To me, it simply looked like squiggly lines coming out of a man's face. Other animation that was used in this video was comprised of repeating shapes in various colors. It was really cool to watch along with the music, and it was a trippy experience. This abstract computer animation combined with the fact that the band was a bunch of giant eyeballs made me feel as though they probably did a good amount of drugs, and power to them.

Performance Art

Credits:

Thanks to:

Samantha Burns and Jeff...? for filming

Matt Rossetti for help editing

So I wanted my performance art to focus on how people look at women. When women are spoken to the focus is usually on their bodies, so I wrapped my body in black trash bags and walked around Channelside asking people if they knew what time it was. In some cases they gave me strange looks on the spot, but in most cases they waited until they passed me and then turned around to get a second look. Needless to say, the focus was still on my body, but for an entirely different reason. I de-contextualized the trash bags by taking them out of the trash and wrapping them around my body instead. Ripping them off at the end was thrilling because a) i felt like a normal person again and b) i was sweating balls walking around channelside.

There was one woman who actually stopped and asked me why I was wearing trash bags, but the camera died as soon as she came up to me so I only managed to capture the tail end of our conversation. She was pretty cool though, and had graduated with a degree in women's studies so was all about what I was trying to prove.

Wooster Group

I would love to be part of the Wooster Group. I think it sounds weird as hell, but there is something about the phrase "an ensemble of artists who, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, make work for theater, dance and media" that really appeals to me. Actually, on second thought, that first sentence was a lie. However, after further research I have decided that interning with them would probably be fun, even though I would not have the balls to join them professionally. Not that they would even accept me, but still. A girl can dream. And they say it would be a "mutually rewarding experience," which sounds promising.

On a completely un-related note - does wooster remind anyone else of Rooster? I have the attention span of a peanut.

The Wooster Group's programs for junior high and high school students seem to be very educational and beneficial. It looks as though exposing young students to the arts could keep them out of bad situations, as well as broaden their horizens theatrically.