The Angelic Sound of the Balloon Harp?

For TMP III we are working with our hands now, which is a nice change. I've really quite enjoyed the video, audio and website work this semester, but I love making things with my hands.

We are creating musical instruments of sorts. Some people are remaking real instruments out of materials not normally used for musical instruments, while others are making up entirely new instruments.

I fall under the remake with new materials category. I'm making a harp, using stretched balloons for the strings. It's going to be pretty sweet, I've prepared the frame, made out of varnished wood and I'm stringing/ballooning it today. It's not going to be a real instrument, not even close, but it should be cool!


I'm also working on a final piece for my CFC II culture class, it's going to appropriate a Norman Rockwell print from the Saturday Evening Post covers. I'm dealing with idolization of the American way and contentment versus desire. Should be interesting.















Thanks for reading!

Video Pieces

Roughly one month ago I said I was going to update that weekend. That weekend is happening now, it will be glorious.

I've done some work with video this semester for my TMP III (time based media) class. We're using Final Cut and started super simple. Text and still images. We had to tell a story (that's kinda another part of the class, story telling using these mediums).

This was my first video, The Story of The Film (So Far), using text and found images.
It moves quickly to heighten the sense of pointlessness of a mid film summing up. It's also an homage to Monty Python's Flying Circus. I also realized I had previously posted about this movie, but it's nice to have all my video work in one post for easy viewing.



My second video is a stop motion type. I took lots of images of myself and sequenced them together (it's like a video flip book, or stop motion if you want to get all technical). It's called Pocketed Words. I made it for my fiancee, Kara Mia.



The third video I've done this year is actually a video, like the real movin' pictures like in Hollywood! It's an expansion on the ideas I explored in Pocketed Words. My professor (Tirtza Even) encouraged me to explore where on my body I took the words from and play around with the deeper meaning of of "i love you". I'll explain a bit after the jump/video (I only wanted to use the term 'after the jump' because I see it all the time on websites now and I wanted to be in vouge too!) This is called, Close To The Vest. Again, for Kara Mia.



I explored the meaning of my pockets and where on my body they were in this by the level of the pockets on my clothing and proximity to my skin. So 'i' started out on my jacket pocket above my left side (above my heart, on purpose), 'love' was one layer down in my vest and 'you' was in my shirt pocket. So as I went deeper into the intensely personal phrase of 'i love you', I literally was moving closer to my heart and bearing it. Tirtza loved it. Kara did too!

I've got lots of digital work and some ceramics work to show you as well in the near future. My current week should be significantly less crazy than the past few! Thanks for reading!

P.S. I'm making a longboard (a long skateboard made for cruising, not tricks) with the U of M chapter of the Industrial Design Society of America. Learning, finally (not thanks to U of M A&D, more on my dissasifaction with my education quality later), to use the laser cutter! Sweetness. But no seriously, this place (U of M Art & Design) has no focus, with no majors everyone is just kind of floating around aimlessly. I'm frustrated and thinking of transfering, see the Chchchanges post before this one.

Time is tick tockin' away

So, the semesters started up!

Let the great experiment begin!

I've got lots of things coming down the pipe right now (including, hopefully, something having to do with wine!), and not enough time currently to blog about all of it. So I thought I'd post something new for me, a video.

It's for my TMP (themes, materials, and processes) III class, which is a time based media studio. Everything from movies to flipbooks. I've posted our introductory assignment which is just to familiarize us with Final Cut (they actually gave it to us!). It's under one minute and uses only still shots to create a story. I made mine on made up relations between people in different stills. It's also a homage to Monty Python, so what's not to like? Nothing.
Oh and we had 2 hours to make it. Trial by fire here at U of M A&D.



The music is "Shark Attack Theme" from the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic.

Thanks for reading, I'll be updating this blog much more regularly now that the semester has started back up.