Kylejoconnor's Blog

Quarts Screen sHoTs!

kylejoconnor — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:46:29 +0000

Final Video Project

kylejoconnor — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:49:14 +0000

video examples

kylejoconnor — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:41:36 +0000

www.download-finished.com

Final Project Phase One

kylejoconnor — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:09:06 +0000

For this project I have settled on simply creating a series of videos which will collage footage from around the city with paintings of architecture and scenes of suburban St. Louis from memory.

The idea is to explore the connection between memories of my surroundings from childhood with the experience of my current surroundings here in New York. It will also be a formal exploration of the media of video and painting.

The paintings are crude and inaccurate and after multiple attempts still only achieve an approximation of the thing being depicted. These are personally iconic places which have withstood the test of time in my memory. By contrast, the footage of the city is banal, dealing with details of the city which approach abstraction, consciously or unconsciously absorbed on the daily commute.

I want to experiment with different ways of processing and combining these images using AfterEffects. Some ideas are to experiment with compression and also compiling and reshooting the videos off of the computer monitor followed by further editing.

So far I have shot a lot of footage and created a dozen or so paintings of these two architecturally strange churches I attended in my childhood. I think I will make three separate pieces, each a little different aesthetically or in mood. Next class period I hope to have them nearly completed for critique before the final presentation.

Final Project Proposals

kylejoconnor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:36:41 +0000

Proposal Number One
My first idea, to create an interactive audio visual piece using Flash, came about while fooling around with the keyboard switch patch in Quartz Composer. I am attracted to the look and feel of multiple video clips cropped, layered or collaged in interesting ways, and by using the key switch a viewer can control the juxtaposition of imagery, and by using Flash instead of Quartz, the audio component can also play a big role. What if the audio for some clips is rhythmic and for others it is ambient or melodic? If the clips are synchronized and playing on a loop, the viewer can simultaneously arrange a video collage and a quasi-musical audio track.
Maybe there is an interface where the user can navigate between different areas with distinct video clips to work with. Maybe one area is comprised of cut up clips extracted from the internet, specifically the childhood television ephemera I have been working with regularly. Another area is comprised of new footage—ideas include shots from around the city or in the subway which are on the abstract side. Maybe a third area includes hand drawn material or animated vector images.
A big part of this experiment would be to create a way to explore different layers of experience. It would be important to have a really wide range of audio and visual information to work with (thought not necessarily too large a quantity) so that there can be a range of possible outcomes.

The first two weeks would probably involve gathering footage, then the

Influences:
I really like the work of Javier Morales and John Michael Boling, though it’s not 100% relevant to my proposal. At the very least their work reminds me that very simple but clever ways of using new media can be successful. http://www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com/

also this blog speaks to my sensibility: www.everythingisterrible.com

Robert Rauschenberg has had some influence here, too. After looking at his work more in depth for a Graphic Design Concepts exercise last year, I have paid more attention to the organic build up of layers of images, textures and surfaces in the urban landscape. The city itself sort of generates this kind of imagery in places where advertisements are defaced and graffiti is painted over.

Proposal Number Two

On a more practical note, the second idea is to design an avant garde 2010 calendar interface also using Flash or maybe Quartz Composer. Instead of a typical Calendarish photo for each month there could be a really short video loop or animation. Maybe it incorporates an RSS feed as well. Maybe I can use Omnigraffle is a starting point in the design process.

There are no major artistic influences specifically that I can think of off the top of my head, though it would probably be generally influenced by some of the information graphics that we have looked at and that sort of thing. The idea is mainly to do with a desire to create something functional that can be an addition to my suffering graphic design portfolio.

The first week would involve creating solid sketches of the structure of the calendar interface and making decisions about the appearance and what video content would be needed. The next week would involve writing action script and pretty much completing a draft, or a piece finished enough to be critiqued in class.

Maybe I can put the interface on a website.

Map Project (Reworked)

kylejoconnor — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:35:25 +0000

View Larger Map

Response to NY Magazine article

kylejoconnor — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:08:08 +0000

My dad has been a copy editor for something like thirty years. The majority of that time he’s worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the only major newspaper in my fair home town. He should be retiring any year now, but I think he really likes to work. Over the summer while visiting home I asked him if he and his colleagues often discuss the fate of the printed newspaper and the changes taking place in journalism. How did he feel about buzz words like citizens journalism and mass amateurization? “No, we don’t talk about those things. We talk about movies and baseball,” he responded. This makes sense, and I think it reflects the generational gap that was touched upon in the article. Dad is too close to retirement to either feel threatened by or excited by the shift towards web based news.
Something that struck me about this article is that as the Times integrates new web based media into their output, they must be careful to uphold the stringent standards that the readership expects. As one person in the article comments, this is a great thing since there is so much content on the web now, so many blogs, so many sources which are not necessarily very good. Another point someone makes in the article is that when they read the printed newspaper they find they have to sit by a computer anyway and search for things on Google. This emphasizes the advantage of web based news, where, not only are there greater audiovisual and interactive possibilities, but the connection to other related information is so immediate.

Extra Credit: Response to Learn to Read Art: History of Printed Matter

kylejoconnor — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:43:40 +0000

One of the most interesting things about this exhibit is that while Printed Matter’s mission is to democratize the distribution of artists’ books, they have dealt with such prominent artists. The wall of photographic works, for instance, includes works by Richard Prince, Barbara Kruger, and Vik Muniz. Also, it reminds one of the range of media that printed materials encompass: books, zines, promotional materials, photographs, posters, t shirts, record/cassette/CD covers, T-shirts, skateboards, art prints.

I’ve been to the store several times, made a purchase or two—I like their selection of queer zines such as Butt Magazine—and have met people whose books have appeared there, but I was pretty much unaware of the history and mission of the place. Despite their dealing with fairly high caliber artists, it is inclusive and makes one want to participate.

The installation of Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essay was pretty fun, each page repeated to form a column, each column a different bright color. It covers an entire wall of a pretty small room, so it kind of assaults the viewer with this intensely hyperbolic language and color. I don’t know that much about Holzer or what the intention behind Inflammatory Essay is, but it really cracks me up. It’s so dramatically serious that it becomes kind of silly.

One criticism would be that the gallery which had books loose on different pedestals around the space really seemed to invite the viewer to pick up books and flip through them. And why not? They didn’t seem too terribly valuable or rare. They seemed like they were from larger editions. I was not the only one the guard had to ask to please not touch the books. But, overall it was a worthwhile trip to PS1.

Audio Project

kylejoconnor — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:38:33 +0000

This is my own recording of me doing the dishes with some additional sounds from freesound.org.

Scratch | Project | MAZE

kylejoconnor — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:27:07 +0000

Scratch | Project | MAZE

Shared via AddThis