On the way to the sublime

This installation was all about mountaintops as shrouded places of mystery. The home of the gods, the earthly paradise, the staircase to the stairs, the point where like in the Sistine chapel man can touch god. I used cairns, stacked rocks, as altars and markers of the path. A series of cairns led to a locked door. Behind the door was a strong light and if the viewer got on their knees and placed their heads as low as they can go, in complete supplication, they could see a glimpse of the Shangri-La.

The piece had several issues:

• There were not enough cairns and the path was to straightforward. The piece is as much about the act of walking as it is attempting to reveal what our true destination is. The way that the cairns were laid out did not force the viewer to walk for the amount of time that creates an awareness of the act of walking an in turn an awareness of life itself. (I am not explaining this very well but I am sure you know what I mean. Walking allows your mind to do things that sitting still will never achieve). The cairns should be placed further apart and form a path that is more convoluted, backtracking, circling, and climbing. I’m thinking of acres and acres of land with huge cairns that must be climbed in order to see where the next one is, tiny cairns that are nestled in trees, a wide variety of way-finding marks.  This is in a forest but this could also be in a desert where the cairns would stand out from the atmosphere as man-made monoliths.
• The representation of Shangi-La is lacking. People in class said that they felt disappointed: some because they were barred from reaching their goal, others because the pay-off wasn’t striking enough. It is a very hard dilemma to show the unattainable, the unknowable. I was doing something similar to what Tarantino did in Pulp Fiction but I didn’t do it enough. People wanted to be blinded by the light or to see a sort of shadow diorama.

The piece is not conceptually there.. yet. I am taking things that mark the way up mountains and placing them on flat or semi-flat land. I am taking the cairn out of context but maintaining its concept. I need to think more about that. I think that this is more of a space intervention then a sculptural installation. SO the experience is the most important and hopefully, the experience is one of having been on an adventure.

Here are some inspirations:

Leni Reifenstahl’s Blue Light (this part in particular)

The suitcase in pulp fiction

And of course, Cairns

Also, The writings of Rene Daumal and the film Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Oh.

This installation started out as an exploration of how man’s interaction with their environment formed language. I started off with the Bouba-Kiki Effect which shows that people will name round things with “round” sounds like Bouba and jagged things with “jagged” sounds like Kiki. (Looking back I think I was subconsciously trying to reconcieve the aboriginal Songlines where the environment was literally named as the singer walked past it.

Here are some notes from how people reacted to the first iteration of Oh:

As I was presenting the project to people I realized that If i said she was an oracle people had different expectations then what I was actually offering. They wanted their questions to be answered. So I tried to explain why she wasn’t answering in a coherent fashion. I would say that she was very very old and was tired of being coherent or she was rebelling against her powerlessness.

For 1/3 of the people, they found it weak so they walked away.  For another 1/3, I began to perform to make up for her weaknesses. I would shush her or pretend to be the “long-suffering” caretaker. I would add to her comments and attempt to decipher what she said. This was fun and went over well but wasn’t very sustainable.

For the last 1/3, she would say something magical and perfectly timed. She would draw them in with a smile and they would stay. They would stay and talk to her in a language that they formed between them. Instead of treating her like an oracle they treated her like a mysterious being they were curious to get to know. She responded best to this and there were some wonderful conversations usually resting in childlike laughter.

This was when I realized that I had been misleading myself. She is not an oracle at all. She is something else and I have some theories about that but I’ll keep them to myself for now

AND yes she was so so so utterly and terribly naked… It was hard for me to deal with my lack of aesthetic consideration so I decided to not think about till later. Now is later so I’m thinking about it now… She needs a feedback mechanism (flickering lights when you speak etc..) that is obvious. She also needs to be taken off the chair. People kept referring to it as a “pillow on a chair” it was awful.

As I mentioned in the notes, the main issues were:

• Identity: She is not an oracle. She is a NAMER OF THINGS. I want her to name things like Adam named the beasts of Eden, like the aboriginal ancestors named the pieces of their country and created epic songs. The Bouba-Kiki effect is all about naming.  Confucious said that there would be chaos if things were not called their proper names. But for some reason I turned her into an answerer of things.  So I need to change her form from passive to active and her language (to something I am not sure of yet).
• Form: I am imagining an object that is held aloft at the head of a religious procession. An object that moves and with a roving eye (like Saruman’s) names what it sees. An almost primitive primordial object fashioned from wood, stone, and cloth.
• Language: The language I used for Oh. was a combination of every consonant with a vowel. I realize now that her language was formed completely from my personal “baby” language i.e. the absolute basic particles of language derived from the languages I have been exposed to (a mix of Swahili, French, German, English). For example, she said things like oui, you, nu, zoo, etc.. The main influence was Swahili. The language is very simple and mostly consists of phonemes (for example, I love you in Swahili is nakupenda and pronounced na-ku-pen-da).  I think I need to descend into an even deeper form of communication, which is song. Perhaps the bouba-kiki theory is more pertinent for tonal sounds, the oms, and the harmonics of religious songs.

A very good question to ask is “why” and I don’t have an answer but that is important to making it not be a one-liner. The why will be defined by the interaction i.e. who carries it, does she walk on her own, what does she name, what are her names, why is she a woman?

Bruce Chatwin said that the aborigines believe that a landscape only exists when it is sung. In many religions songs are used as a way to speak to god or become closer to him/her.  I am approaching a revelation but I am not there yet.

Here is something that inspired me:

You Win

You Win from Nahana Schelling on Vimeo.

This installation was purely experimental. It arose from a discussion with my teacher, Marina Zurkow, where I talked about moving an idea from a page in my notebook to a realized piece.

I projected a collage of moving images into a corner with the form of a mountain peak. The layers mirrored each other. The base layer was an altered clip of the explosions that mark the moment a game show player on Who Wants to be a Millionaire wins. The second layer was taken from a Terry Gillian movie. The clip is a series of midgets running up stairs. I rotated the clip so that the mirrored clips were running into each other. The top layer, the peak, was a game show host engaging in the stereotypical language of the genre: Are you ready to play? Do you think you got it right? Repress it, etc.. I masked her heads so that the final piece looked like a two-headed fire breathing monster. The overall effect of the piece was oppressive, mechanical, and overwhelming. Since it was purely experimental there are a lot of things that need to be worked on.

• Space: The piece was limited by the space I had to project it in. It needs to be larger and higher up so that the viewer has to strain their neck to see the peak.
• Narrative: The installation should have a longer narrative based on the dialogue of the clips. I plan to add more narrative by adding more clips that react to the other clips over time.

The basis of the installation was the spectacle and performance of consumption. Naturally, the game show genre provided copious amounts of material. I wanted to say that within our consumption-crazed society, you always win but first you have to play the game. The game show merges the avidity of consumption with the drama of gambling. The majority of the genre has stripped away any effort. The participant answers simple questions or eats insects to win some sort of prize but the real prize is stepping onto the other side of the camera, the fifteen minutes of fame. I wanted the piece to show this aspect of society in its true form, as a Goliath.

To be honest, I am more interested in the form and the use of space. I came away from this experiment with an interesting way to use of video and I plan to explore it further. Maybe full on landscapes formed from pieces of video. A huge influence was Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory and the Garden of Earthly Delights.

The (Physical) Suspension of Disbelief

This piece questions the societal  obsession with making it to the “top” and the cultural dissonance that derives from it. The master narrative of climbing up and discovering treasure (Jack and the Beanstalk, Corporate Culture, etc..) is pervasive in this society. But those treasures have become corrupted by the obsession with materiality. The “morals” broadcasted to us by higher authorities are no longer our own but the formulation of averages and what is deemed to be good for the common man(Got Milk?). At the same time, the idea of individuality and singular achievement (ladders can only be climbed by one person at a time) is sold to the masses. The idea that you will have more as you  climb higher may be possible in today’s world but the true question is what will you have more of?

Parameters: Create an Exploded Comic where three events occur in 3-dimensional space

Materials: Found Objects and Spoilt Milk

What I Will Do Tomorrow

The map “What I Will Do Tomorrow” visualizes the commute from my home to my school. The home that is depicted in the map is not my actual apartment but the quintessential idea of what home is: a house with a yard and fireplace. The school building is a more direct representation of the Tisch building where my program is located. The 4^th floor (the floor of ITP) is partly obscured by clouds as a metaphor for the inward focus of the space. There is rarely a moment when someone stops to look out of the window and if they do they would only see other windows across the street and in some cases a brick wall.

Linking these two locations there exists a subterranean world and it is within this space, a long corridor representing the distance from the Bedford L stop next to my house and the 8^th street R stop next to my school, that my figure can be seen. I am running with my head down. A hobo stick is slung across my shoulder containing everything I will ever need. I do not look up because I have to get somewhere and when I am there I cannot look around because the view of the outside world is obscured by work, by obligations, and by physical constraints.

The outside world is a cartoonish ideal filled with birds and the open sky. It is carefree. The Williamsburg Bridge, suspended, between the two locations, serves a dual purpose: one, to place the map in the context of New York City and two, to acknowledge the existence (but impracticality) of other methods of getting from point A (home) to point B (school).

The map portrays one of the many dissonances of my existence. Here is an obsession with the outside environment conflicting with a devotion to the space where I can engage in my (mostly digital) work. However the map does not express a feeling of “missing out” on the outside world. Instead, it says that what I will do tomorrow is enter this repetitious cycle of going to school and coming home but what I will do today may be entirely different.

Thank you for the critique ISCO! It helped to turn my thought process into words.

Visual Communication: Website Anaylsis

I recently learned the basics of design and decided to put them to the test by analyzing a website I spend a lot of time on: outlier.cc. This is the website for OUTLIER, the company I intern for. They make tailored performance-wear for people who commute to work by bike. They are an up and coming company where everyday brings something new.

These are the 9 Basic Rules of Design and I will discuss them one by one:

Have an Idea
Outlier is based around the idea that companies should design for the future. For Outlier the future means cycling as the main form of transportation. They want to fill the gap between fashion and traditional performance clothing by making stylish clothing from technical fabrics.
Use elements that support the idea
Outlier’s website uses alot of elements that really support their idea. Most importanty, they use a blog format to highlight what they’ve been doing and promote their new releases. This allows them to turn their customers into followers who are interested in what Outlier is up to.
Use only 1 or 2 typeface families
They use one typeface family for branding and titles and another for the content of messages. Their branding typeface is very strong and draws the eye to it while the second typeface is more common and doesn’t distract from the content.
Pick colors and images for a reason
Their main colors are black and grey while links in the articles are red (grey after being clicked) and links in the sidebar are blue after being clicked. Although they are using 5 different colors they work well with each other. The only change I would suggest would be to match the color of the links in the sidebar to the ones in the articles. All of their images support their idea by using bikes, movement, and young professionals as symbols.
Make the negative space a part of the design
Outlier’s website heavily uses negative space as a part of the design. Clutter on their  website would detract from the message and from their products.
Communicate
Outlier’s site is a blog but it also serves as their online store. They need to be very clear about how to navigate their site. They do this at the very beginning by having an about button and a shop button on the top of the page after the brand. Their sidebars almost repeat each other by having one that navigates to specific locations and one that navigates by post topics. This repetition is good though because it doesn’t alienate people who aren’t familiar with the way blogs work.
Establish a Hierarchy
Their use of a blog format naturally creates a hierarchy of information which is based on time (older posts are pushed to the bottom).
Stick to one layout
Their website is centered around the posts and images while the sidebar is left-justified. There could be some adjustments to make it more cohesive however it works the way it is.
Work with a grid
Their website doesn’t really follow a grid. They have two columns with the links on the left and the main content in the center. Perhaps the blogroll could be moved to the left to balance out the page.

In terms of the ratio of branding to navigation to information, OUTLIER”s website has a good balance. The page starts with mostly branding and navigation but then as you scroll down content takes over. Also, because they are selling products, their images serve as information rather then pure branding.

Comments on Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle’s work is characterized by insight into the private lives of strangers through voyeurism and other activities with an arbitrary set of constraints. However in the process of capturing these insights into humanity there is ample room for both banality and interest.
In reading her two works “Suite Venetienne” and “The Hotel”, I found a direct link between the physical act of her observations to how interesting it was for her to document it and how interesting it was to read it.

The more passive work “The Hotel” involves her inspection of hotel rooms in the role of a maid. She categorically lists the objects left in the room by its occupants and the conversations she over hears by eavesdropping. She moves between the same rooms and repeats the same activities over a span of three weeks. Her process is completely passive in the sense that her object of observation is a location that does not move or create a great amount of risk in observing it. The only risk is the one of being caught however the time limit of her experiment lessens the emotional impact of that possibility. In her documentation she frequently sites her boredom with the project “I have to force myself to take interest in them” and seems to be searching for something sensational something to make the experiment worth while. Her lack of interest creates a lack of interest in the reader so that the only interesting objects on the page of her book are the pictures. The pictures take on a life of their own and become the project. I believe that she understood this and choose to place a disproportionate amount of pictures on each page especially for rooms where the occupants bored her.
On the other hand, “Suite Venetienne” was a completely different process. In this work, she follows a man to Venice and documents his trip. First, she actively pursued the object of her observations. Second, she was observing a person rather then the objects that people own. The primal pleasure derived from activity, from the hunt, was reflected in her writing and the stir of emotions that she expressed. In this way, “Suite Venetienne” became a much more interesting and engaging piece. Another aspect that differentiated it from “The Hotel” was location. “The Hotel” is geographically still while the “Suite Venetienne” is movement. It is frantic, haphazard movement followed by jarring stops. The lists of streets, turns, and sights links the reader to her own travels and opens the reader to her emotions. The work also panders to the fantasy of the voyeur of taking the next step (of going to Never Never Land so to speak). The man she followed to Venice was a man she had previously followed in Paris and then was introduced to at a party that same night. In a sense, she was provided with the opportunity to extend a one-sided conversation with a stranger and she took it. It correlates to that feeling of wonder of what might have been if you had not ended a conversation with an interesting stranger so soon or had stayed longer at a party.

Personal Time Piece continued

Time according to Newton is a dimension of the universe in which events occur in a linear sequence. The opposite view is that time, rather then being an entity or container for events to occur, is an intellectual tool similar to space and number used by humans to organize occurrences. A third view, the view of Kant and Leibniz, and the view that this time piece is based on is that time is neither an event nor a thing. It is unmeasurable and it cannot be traveled. The second, the hour are merely words that we use to describe the passing of time but they do not describe time itself.

Time is commonly defined as an abstract concept that places daily activities into a linear formation known as a time line that encompasses all of history. A moment in time, “now” or minutes, hours, seconds, days and so on are terms used to define and compartmentalize  the abstract concept. However, I hold that “time” is neither linear nor able to be seperated into distinct units. For example let us consider the notion of “now”. When is “now”? Is it “now” as I write or is it “now” as you read. If both and any moment can be accurately described as now then all moments are “now”, past moments were “now” future moments will be “now”. “Now defines only the instant that it pertains to. When that instant is finished or after the final -ow has escaped your lips it becomes the past.

Our personal time piece counts the nows. For no reason except to admire them. Because we cannot “know” time, the timepiece does not claim to know it. It can only measure it but it does so without measuring it by removing any recognizable symbols. It can only tick but it only does so when the user interacts with it so that the time becomes a time of reflection, interaction, and introspection. We cannot “know” time and we have invented to many ways to tether it our needs. Our personal time piece is an open container. It is meant to be used by only one person. The user activates it by winding it as long as they desire. When they have released the device it will tick. The top disk will turn based on the average length of a heartbeat. The other disks will tick at different increasing intervals.

Works in Progress

A single disk with one filleted edge

Stacked disks

The separate pieces

Week 5: Time Piece

The assignment is to design a personal time piece.

 

Inspirations

Disc Grinders

 

 

Wind-Up Bird

Notes/Sketchs

Playing with Time/ The Interaction

 

Sketches

 

 

 

 

Idea Map: Concepts of Time

 

Materials

Reflective metals shaped into thin discs. Each layer “ticks” individually to its own timeframe. The layers are stacked on top of each other and form a winding and moving object. It comes to life when you crank it like a wind-up bird except the mechanics work more like a tobacco grinder. Perhaps a hidden accelerometer inhibits the object from “ticking” if it is not on a flat plane. This would add an element of play where the user has to coax the movement and the life out of it.

Here are Diego Rioja’s pictures…

Medical Records and the Yard

 

The Pictures