Self Portrait Statement

This picture represents me. It demonstrates only a small understanding of photoshop, but unlike the rest of my projects, this has a much deeper content base. The idea of this piece visually is to basically turn myself into a cartoon. Playing with filters brought emphasis to my while causing the background to kind of fade into space. It didn’t turn out exactly how I would have liked, but i do like the way it turned out.

Samuel Beckett Review

                Not I, a piece by Samuel Beckett, consisted of one small screen on which only a mouth was projected. The mouth belonged to a woman who could speak faster than most people can think. According to the exhibit information, the fast talking mouth tells a fourteen minute story about a traumatic event that happened in a woman’s life. This event is supposedly the reason that the woman is incapable of being a fully functioning person in the world. This inability causes an identity crisis in which the woman cannot define herself as I.

                Aside from the excerpt on the wall at the entrance to the piece, there is very little up-front information to denote. However, the extensive and bizarre piece itself allows a lot of room to infer as to what deeper meanings behind the piece might be. The woman speaks very clearly and emphasizes the annunciation of each word. With the mouth being the only discernable subject matter in the piece, the annunciation creates an almost mesmerizing effect, causing the viewer to stare into the excited chaos. Viewing almost turns into an effort to read the lips rather than listen to what she is saying. The excited tone suggests an intense emotion, most likely fear. The given information about this being a traumatic event is obvious in the presentation of the story alone.

                The woman’s story, although very fast, is eventually somewhat understandable. However, even when the viewer can begin to follow the words, the story is very sporadic. The manner in which this story is told makes it sound like it is being done by someone who is completely or someone who is experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs; or both. The flow of the story is constantly interrupted by sudden outbursts from the speaker. Each outburst is repeated several times throughout the monologue. They seem to be provoked by some source, either in her head or someone she is with, that only she can hear. “What? Yes the buzzing! Always the buzzing!” These jumps off topic make the whole of the story difficult to follow but they keep the viewer interested.

                Out of the entire fourteen minute ramble I was only able to follow the beginning of the event. The story starts with a woman walking on a warm April day. All goes black. She did not know what position she was in but she was still completely self-aware. This makes me think of Alice in Wonderland. She is aware of herself, but aside from that she has no idea what is up or what is down. This part is what made me think that there may be some drug use involved. In the exhibit statement, it stated that the woman had suffered from a traumatic experience. I immediately assumed that it would be a rape, a murder, or some other violent event that would have left a scar incapable of healing. An event like that could cause the woman to lose her faith in humanity, and in turn lose the ability to be a functioning part of humanity.

                This event, however, sounds like a personal journey to the inner depths of her mind. All is black and she is unaware of everything around her, but “she was not suffering. Imagine! Not suffering!” Had she been suffering on top of losing all of her senses, I would have agreed that this was a traumatic event. But she was not suffering. She was merely lost. She was lost in an unexplainable darkness, so naturally she was scared. She was involuntarily ripped from reality and had no way of explaining it.

                If anything I would call this experience spiritual. It’s a chance for this woman to step back from reality and search her own soul. I say this, of course, because I was unable to follow the rest of the story. A sudden slip into darkness and complete loss of all senses would be an unsettling situation for anyone. It sounds like this woman panicked. She was disoriented and alone, I can see how panic on top of that could be traumatizing.

                I liked the exhibit over all. This piece was completely different from anything I had expected to see. The subject matter was simple and the deeper meaning added an unexplainable validity to the piece. The presentation was chaotic and confusing but I liked it. I could have sat there for hours trying to piece together the whole story. Overall I would say that this was a successful piece because it caught and held the audience’s attention while confusing the crap out of us the whole time.

Animation Statement

Similar to my 14 day project I would like to show the progression of a drawing or scene. I’ll start with one of my created faces and send it through a series of changes and obstacles.

100 Photo Statement

These pictures show athletic people doing incredible things. By removing them and replacing them with a “shadow” of their former selves the content of the picture changes. Rather than portraying a skill set, the images now present an idea rather than an action. This thought follows the idea of virtual reality. Replacing one’s self to enjoy the world from the comfort of home. This could also say something about the increasing laziness of humanity.

Text poster

i’m confused

Cliche

Metaphor