Performance Art Piece 2

Performance Art

So I know we've been studying performance art for weeks, and I'd like to say I have a concrete understanding of performance art, but I don't.  Er, that's not exactly right.  I do.  My problem isn't my level of understanding necessarily, it's a problem with the art community as a whole.  I feel like a hypocrite as an artist to say this but I don't really like the "high art" society.  As near as I can tell, anything can be performance art so long as the artist says it is.  For instance, eating a hamburger, normally isn't a performance art piece, but put a camera in front of Andy Warhol and suddenly it is.  A musical performance done in Russia in protest wouldn't normally be performance art either in my mind.  But if it is deemed that by either the artist or the art community it becomes one.  There have been plenty of protest songs and protests that aren't necessarily performance art.
For instance the presenter at the opening of Electronics Alive gave a speech and referenced/showed videos from YouTube claiming that they were art.  As far as I could tell these videos were pretty shitty, the people making them didn't have much experience or much of a following and the reason they were so off was simply because they were new to the game.  But because the presenter who is involved in high society art thinks they're art, they become art.
As an artist I like the concept that anything can be an art, anything can be done artfully, but then when you try to define it there can't be a set definition.  The only correct answer to what is art, is becoming, "art is anything that society or the creator deems as such."  Is that bad?  No, I don't think it is, but it's becoming harder to distinguish between the two and I think it's ultimately pointless and we should stop trying to define it and just let it be.  Art has always been subjective, and it's only becoming more so.
Here ends my stream of conscious rant on the topic.

Art Response

I don't know why I love this piece so much, but it's probably one of my favorites on display.  I like that it doesn't need to have any deep meaning to it, it's just pleasing to look at.  I don't always like the pieces that are supposed to "speak to you" that have meanings so deeply hidden it seems like even though the artist is trying to send a message, no one will ever understand it.  This piece is simple, the techniques used are impressive and the knowledge of form and composition are evident.  It's a plus that it's adorable, I like cute things.

Project "I Regretted This The Second I Started It"

This is on anonymity.  It also happened to be on April Fool's Day.  So... yeah.  Enjoy.

This is my hand animation I was inspired by a sequence from Megaman.  It took something like 70 hours or so to do.  It's the same principle as a flip book... only cooler.

Grid Art

For my piece of grid art I wanted to do something inspired by old 8-bit video game characters.  So I chose my second favorite video game character of all time, Kirby.  Originally I had half the amount of sequence but it did a very bad job at showing the picture due to the amount of negative space so I filled it in some more and ended up with this.  I think it turned out pretty well and now it's hanging up in my dorm.















Also while on the topic of art and stuff.  I entered the student art show with a digital art work that I recently did.  It's a parody of Guardians of the Galaxy, I've titled it The Groots, get it?

Public Service Announcement

So this blog post I'm going to use as a public service announcement for the rest of the class. If you haven't started your flipbook/stop-motion project yet.  You absolutely should.  I've so far put about 8 hours into mine and gotten to about 46 frames, which is almost 2 seconds of video following 24 frames per second. Of course you might be able to cheat the frame count a little bit but just for reference, here is what one of my frames looks like:

Not very detailed right? Kinda looks shity and you probably can't tell what it is. Yeah. I have 46 of these in a lot of hours, and I've been workin with animation for years. Consider yourselves warned everyone.  Have a great weekend :P

Nonsensical Product

If I were to make  nonsensical product I'd probably just stick with the classic 3 gallon 10 gallon hat.  Yes you read that right.  No one wants a full 10 gallons on their head, that'd be insane, but 3 gallons thats totally cool.  No one would ever have to go thirsty ever again.  In some countries people have to carry water for miles, but with the 3 gallon, 10 gallon hat, that frees up their hands!  You can even use it on your runs.  If you thought your runner's fashion was lacking what will people think when you have a 10 gallon hat filled with 3 gallons of water!

Lights on Tampa

Lights on Tampa was cool.  I keep forgetting to post my pictures but I actually went both Friday and Saturday, it was really fun.  Some of the stuff was a little abstract like the chiming lights that were meant to go in time with the tide, but parts were just plain fun.  Especially the Sykes building strongman test, that was interesting.  I'm not sure how that was rigged up.

I thought the idea behind this event was really thoughtful and I like that the city of Tampa is trying to create more events for those in the Tampa area to go to.  They're also making an effort to beautify downtown and apparently Lights on Tampa was a part of this.  I hope they keep doing cool events like this.

Dragon Forged

           

            Dragon Forged will be an action/adventure role-playing game based in the fantastical land of Nibelungenlied in reference to the Germanic legend Siegfried is derived from. 

Siegfried's Player Model

The game will have three difficulty levels: Svak (Norwegian for weak), Hero, and Legende.  Upon loading into the story mode of the game music will start from a black screen and fade into the Siegfried (the player's character) in a mystical forest.  It's the tutorial level after all, it has to be less threatening than later in the game.  Siegfried is out hunting for food for him and his father, Mime, a dwarf.  A pop-up displays the controls and from there the game begins.  Upon moving, the music changes from rather somber classical music to electronic music (example: Link).  In order to practice the movement and combat mechanics, wolves will sporadically spawn in front of the player.  After a few minutes the player will stumble upon a clearing.  A dire-bear will come crashing through the trees in a cut-scene and the boss battle will start.  Halfway through the battle, Siegfried's sword will shatter from the impact of the dire-bear's claw slashing it.  From there the battle changes pace.  Instead of hacking and slashing, the player will have to eek out victory by dodging and striking the dire-bear.  Upon winning the battle, the player is awarded with a dire-bear pelt (for use in crafting) and a level-up.  The screen then fades to black and the tutorial level is over.

            From there a cut-scene will start.  Siegfried walks into his cave, dragging the massive dire-bear behind him.  Mime is drunk on mead, laying on a bench.  Siegfried demands a new sword from Mime, as his previous one broke and nearly killed him.  Mime, is not amused and reminds him that he took him in and took care of him punctuating his lecture by drunkenly punching Siegfried.  Siegfried takes his foster father by the throat and demands to know who his real parents were.  From there, flashback cut-scene starts in which Mime explains the story of his parents.  The player than takes control of Siegfried's father and must battle a dragon.  The player cannot win the fight and after lasting as long as the player can the dragon kills his father, destroying his sword, Nothung.  Upon completing the story Siegfried asks of the blade Nothung, which Mime then tells him he possesses the shattered pieces of.

            Siegfried enraged that he hasn't been told this before demands the sword be remade.  Mime, does not possess the skill to re-forge the blade and tells Siegfried that he must retrieve three artifacts before Mime can forge the blade.  The objects he must acquire are, the blood of a Skygge Wolf, lightning from Mjonir's strike, and finally Hel's fire.  Siegfried sets off on his quest.  Upon leaving the end of this very long cut-scene, the player leaves the cave to continue the story.  This is where the video game diverges from the Opera in interest of extending the game.  The first of the items he must retrieve is the blood of a Skygge Wolf.  This level takes place on a mountain.  Siegfried must climb a the dangerous terrain fighting various mystical enemies.  After the boss fight a cut scene happens in which you see Mime, pacing in the cave talking to himself.  He mentions that he cannot make the blade even with the mystical items Siegfried is out to get.  Only one with no fear can forge the blade.  The player resumes control of Siegfried.  From the top of the mountain, he finds a temple and ascends to Asgard, to find Mjolnir.  Siegfried must sneak past the guards, Solid Snake style.  Once reaching Thor's hall, Thor challenges Siegfried to a fight.  If he can best Thor, Thor will grant him lightning from his hammer gladly.  After winning.  Thor tells Siegfried of the treachery of his foster father, Mime.  He also gives Siegfried power to summon lightning.  Siegfried, upset with Mime, leaves Asgard to kill his foster father.

           

Mime's Character Model

 Siegfried storms into the cave and the player fights Mime, when Mime is almost defeated he stops Siegfried and tells him that he cannot forge the blade because he knows fear, and that Siegfried is the only one who can forge the blade.  Mime shows Siegfried how to forge the blade and Nothung is forged.  Siegfried then interested in the concept of fear listens to Mime's instructions about confronting Fafnir.  The player must escort Mime through the forest to the dragon's cave.  He enters the cave and fights Fafnir.  Upon stabbing Fafnir through the heart, the dragon tells Siegfried to beware treachery.  The dragon's blood mysteriously disappears from Siegfried's hands and suddenly he can hear the dragon's thoughts.  Fafnir tells Siegfried that for besting him, he has been granted Fafnir's greatest powers.  Siegfried leaves the cave.  Mime offers Siegfried a poisoned drink.  Siegfried of course can read Mime's thoughts and proceeds to kill Mime in another boss fight.  Once the fight is over a little bird tells Siegfried of a woman who might be able to teach him the meaning of fear.

            Siegfried enters the "forbidden forest"  dire wolves and skygge wolves which were at one point worthy of a boss fight are now the only enemies the player will encounter.  After fighting through a maze of nearly endless corridors Siegfried encounters a knight in shining armor.  The night charges Siegfried without asking any questions about why he is in the forest.  The player must beat the knight, but as there is no reason to kill this knight, Siegfried halts before killing his opponent, and instead removes the knight's helmet.  Under the helmet is not a man, but a woman.  Siegfried learns her name is Brunnhilde, and the two fall in love. This unlocks a side story where the player may play as Brunnhilde and learn her back story.  The game is now complete.

Response to Electronics Alive

Okay, so I've gotta say I've really enjoyed the show thus far.  If I can somehow make it fit into my schedule I plan to go to the lecture about glitch art as well but I went to the reception as well as David Andrade's lecture and both were amazing.  I have to say I'm not a fan of Fountain, despite that being the centerpiece of the first lecture, but the overall topics addressed were really intriguing and I appreciated the different perspective.  I have to say as someone who really has a passion for digital art, for technology, and for working with 3D software the exhibit has made me really happy.  There have been many times where my friends, peers, and sometimes even my mentors would tell me that what I'm interested in isn't "real" art and that I'm not an actual artist and it's always been really discouraging.  For instance back in my freshman year of high school my art teacher hated me because I drew Anime.  Now it wasn't that I only knew how to draw Anime, I knew realism too but she despised Anime and refused to allow me to draw Anime in my own sketchbook telling me it was horrible and didn't require skill at all.  I quickly made enemies with her and disobeyed everything she told me.... also my realism was good enough that she knew she couldn't fail me so I walked out of that class with an A.  Though after that year she left the school to go teach elementary schoolers... poor kids... I may have made her pretty annoyed.  But I don't respect people who don't respect others so that happened.  But this art show has made me really happy because it's the opposite of what so many people have told me.  I don't really have a favorite piece, although all the animation is great and the Buddha sculpture that hums is really cool.  I actually have a really cool story though, when I was deciding what school to go to I emailed David Andrade about his thoughts on going to UT and his experiences in the industry and today I got to hear him lecture and shake his hand and thank him which was super cool to me.  So I'm super excited to have gotten to do that and look forward to keeping in contact with him.

Week One

I could not find Juan Carlos Delgado because apparently his name is very common.  However, I did read the article on art vs. design.  What I've walked away from this reading with, is that design carries intent, it's calculated whereas art does not inherently need that calculation.  For instance abstract art can consist of random brush strokes and colors meant to do nothing but portray emotion, or sometimes just to look good.  Design implies the thought of what should go where, what components are needed.  Design can be art, and art can be designed but they are two different things despite their easily overlapping.
Raul Cuero is a very interesting person and even though the overall message is supposed to be about creativity, I more so took a message of mindfulness from it.  I'm already applying creativity to everything in my life, I live creativity.  Being mindful is something everyone should do.  It involves not judging a book by its cover, consciously being aware of what you are doing and what you are thinking, etc.  When you're aware of yourself, your thoughts, and the people around you, everything becomes much easier for you.  Creativity and creative problem solving in particular which is what Raul talks about mostly, become much more natural when you are mindful.
I'm not going to lie, I'm incredibly confused by what I'm supposed to be learning from all of the seemingly random links in third section of the calendar.  I love music.  Literally (and I say this the way the word is meant to be used not for hyperbolic effect) the only mp3 player that can hold my music library is the original iPod Video/iPod Classic.  I have probably over 100 Gbs of music.  I can't say Opera is really my thing, the concept behind the aesthetics of the Sacrificium album are interesting to me, but I don't know how it ties in to everything yet.  And then in the middle of the links is a Katy Perry music video.  I'm not the biggest fan of Katy Perry, although after listening to that song I might give her a shot, but I did love the aesthetics of the video accompaniment.  The images are very evocative and do a great job of storytelling.  There are a lot of music videos that are done just to grab attention, and I didn't feel that one was one of them.  And then we go to Die Antwoord which I assume is a group/musician, from Russia or one of its surrounding countries.  At this point all I'm seeing is a commentary on femininity among all of these videos, but how this ties in to all the Opera specifically is beyond me.
I am so very confused by all this information and sensory input.

First Impression

My first impression of this class is that it's pretty odd. From reading the first article about the definition of episteme and techne, I have got to say I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be taking away from this class.  I'm hoping we stay away from stuff like that in the future, because otherwise this class seems like it'll be interesting.  I tried to read the article and although I looked at the words and read them I didn't interpret a danged thing in that article.  It was a bunch of random fluff to me.  I was tempted to read it again but then I looked at it and decided there was no way in hell I was gonna read it again.  Personally, I love art and technology and I'm a techy as well as an artist.  In stuff like my 3D Animation I use technology to accomplish art.  So I can see the purpose of this course.  Mostly, I'm just looking forward to the projects because I'm not really a lecture person.