Animation

I had never really focused on the idea of the Disney dominated Cel style animation, and the sort of underground experimental animation world and their clashish ideas and styles. True when I think of animation the world of picture perfect bugs bunny animation dominates my mind. Though when I think of this style of animation, it all seems pretty mundane and dull. The reading pointed out why this is the case and then brought out the ideas used by more "experimental" animators. It seems that Disney animation is more concerned with a realist style and seldom designs to point out the textures and realities of the animated process. Other styles of animations however, are concerned with using animation to its full capabilites and making decisions that exhibit reflexive ideahs.

I find the latter style for more complex and interesting. Filmmakers of this platform use different materials and challenge the usual approached to story and structure. Its also interesting to note how far more personal this style of animation is. Instead of making decisions to support a textbook narrative or simple character, the decisions can be used to serve the goals and feelings of the animator.

I'm excited to try out the multi-plane animation as I have very little experience with animation. Our group is more or less just bringing in a bunch of food so we will have a lot of room for creative decisions.

NOCAMERA

Cameraless filmmaking brings together the best of both worlds for me. I really have a love hate relationship with technology; digital camera menus, and most Mac software interfaces give me chills. However, I absolutely love making films. Predicament. Cameraless filmmaking allows me to make films with my most advanced piece of equipment being a pair of scissors. It’s amazing. So far, out of all the techniques we have learned, I am most into the magazine/newspaper transfers. Once projected, the image and texture looks unreal and the process for creating it could not be simpler. And the process is such an almost therapeutic experience. This past week, I spent a good amount of time cranking out a good 35 feet of a newspaper transfer. It was so relaxing and meditative and it was great to see my living room enshrouded with film strips. There is just something about pulling the pulp off a bunch of tape in a bucket of hot water that gets me.

The rayograms and direct film manipulation were also pretty interesting. It was cool to watch film get exposed right in front of me just by flipping the lights on and off. It was also really neat to develop the film with the instant developer. It was sorda like cooking spaghetti. The direct film manipulation is kind of tricky because you never know what you're going to get until you project it. I would love to just try 5 ft of every technique and idea I ever have and just project it and watch, but there is also something fun about not knowing what it will look like and just watching it unravel in front of you.

Senesthesia&Cymatics

I hadn't heard of senesthesia before reading these articles. Its a really interesting phenomenon. It was especially interesting to read that it is an actual scientifically documented field. At first I thought the artists were just trying to force the synthete experiences through their art work, but I didn't realize they were actually experiencing something beyond their control.

I liked the paintings from the synthetes like Carol Steen and Anny Salz, it was cool to be able to get a glimpse of what they experience on a daily basis. Though as I am not a synthete I really couldn't get much out of it beyond how cool it was that they were feeling sensations beyond what exists in reality. It was also interesting to see that there are artworks meant to invoke synthesia in non synthetes. Sadly, I have not seen Fantasia or been to a color organ recital, but now I'd really like to do both in the hopes of experiencing synesthesia.

The TED talk on Cymatics was also very interesting. Again they took an obscure topic like synesthesia and presented it and addressed it as a scientific phenomenon. I found some of the presentation to be a little bit arbitrary and far reaching, the starfish/snowflake sound images for example seemed silly at best. But there were really interesting implications of cymatics presented. The dolphin bit about capturing their language in a system of visual representations to better understand their communication was great. Also the installation segment where participants could actively manipulate and see sound presented on the surface of water sounds incredible. In general though, I think its great that scientists are taking a topic like Cymatics and exploring its potential in every way possible.