Field Report 2 - Vector Journal

To start I will first discuss the introduction of the current issue named Difference. The introduction is written by Tara McPherson. The introduction discusses technology change and how art has changed due to technological advances.  I thought this was most appropriate to the discussions we have been having with Milwaukee Art Museum's Act/React exhibit. The author talks about the digital era that we are in and how that compares to history and how like piece of art and documents compare. Difference is talked abut in a few different aspects. Difference as a change through time, difference as in changing manipulating the present, and difference as a omniscient point of view of changes occurred and occurring. This is highly reflective of everything we have viewed and discussed in class. Every film is a discussion of the change from beginning to end. Every film is compared from the change in time between that film and another.   

This brings me in to the second article. ThoughtMesh is a reflection of the Web 2.0 culture that is occuring right now. Authors Jon Ippolito and Craig Dietrich explain what ThoughtMesh is and how it relates to difference. ThoughtMesh is an intertwined search engine used to look for keywords in articles providing much more useful results than a search engine. That is because it utilizes Web 2.0 culture. Web 2.0 culture is based of the great increase of online interaction with blogging, video uploading sites such as YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. People help decide what ThoughtMesh's results are through interaction. This is highly comparative to the Act/React exhibit and works like Baghdad in No Particular Order Part 1 and especially Part 2. The advancements of technology and the differences of mediums over time help compliment each other and now so more than ever because the internet brings every art medium together.      

Act/React

The Act/React exhibit was the most fun gallery installations I have seen. There is no wonder why it was the most fun because I am an avid player of video games and interactions with video is very appealing whereas still works of art are somewhat boring if you do not have appreciation for the work put into it. This art I feel can be fun for anyone. This exhibit reflects what video games have started to become such as the Nintendo Wii which has more interaction with full body motion than any video game system released to this date. I'll come back to video games later on in this blog. 

The two works of the exhibit I found the most interesting and the most fun to interact with were Scott Snibbe's Boundary Functions and Brain Knep's Healing Pool. Comparing the two pieces, they both relied heavily on quicker human movements.  Both also had a sense of history and record of the participants movements. The contrast of he two pieces and their history is that Boundary Functions, well, had a deeper sense of history. The projected screen was split up in to many different section in which showed the interaction of you as the participant as well as many others who came before you. Healing Pool on the other hand had history until it healed itself. The history is not as extensive as Boundary Functions but could be seen for a few seconds after the movement took place. Healing only showed a path of movement where as Boundary Functions showed a reenactment of the participant's movements. 

One thing I found interesting about both these pieces and Healing #1 especially is that these are seen in almost every large mall now. In the middle of the floor usually in a corner of the mall there is a projector projecting onto a white mat in which kids can interact and play a game such as soccer by moving and interacting with the video on the mat. This and the Act/React exhibit can be considered video games essentially. The exhibit, at least to me, was essentially a playground.  

Journal Selection

Vectors Journal

http://www.vectorsjournal.org

Field Report #1

Well, I wish this could have been an actual field report because going to New Orleans is something I always wanted to do especially after Katrina. Paul Chan's invention in different areas of the world has some very interesting creative insight. He reported on the Iraqi culture in "Baghdad In No Particular Order" and payed special attention to the works of art within that culture. "Waiting for Godot in New Orleans" inserts art in to a place which some of the nation's richest art was produced. After Katrina that art did take a downfall, but it was still made and gave the people of New Orleans hope and something to live for. I found Chan's project and website very appropriate.
The term "waiting" is obviously a verb but shows much more than the action. Patience or lack thereof is the trait of waiting. This had been the action and traits of the people of New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina hit. Waiting for Godot was in a prime location and interpreted the act of the people of New Orleans the setting in which that waiting was occurring. But in terms of art and the purpose of the class, "waiting" is the act of what we do every lecture. Waiting for the purpose of every film we watch. Waiting for that spectacular image or sound. Waiting for meaning. All films and especially experimental films seem to require the trait of patience. Patience is needed when watching the film and more importantly finding meaning to the film.
Second person cinema is also shown within Waiting For Godot In New Orleans. Although the play itself is not technically "cinema", it still shows the same concept. As I mentioned before, I believe that Paul Chan's act of putting on Waiting For Godot in New Orleans was very appropriate. The audience of the play was pulled into the performance in a few different ways. First, entering there was a Gumbo buffet and that was followed by a marching band that played music and marched the audience two blocks to where the performance was being held. That was the Interactive part of performance. Second, the play's setting was on a New Orleans street, nothing more. The natural landscape was the play's set. In terms of second-person cinema, the setting gave a personal connection to the audience. In that way it pulled the viewer into more personal meaning of the play. An example is the term "waiting" I discussed earlier.
The word "waiting" and second-person cinema go hand-and-hand with each other. Outside of Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, waiting in an act we need to interpret and second-person cinema aspect of the film. We need patience to find the meaning of a film, and in second-person cinema that meaning in mainly left to us, the viewer. The film is how we interpret it through relation and personal connections and memories.