Assignment week 2

Michelangelo Pistoletto is an Italian artist working in the mediums of painting, object art and sculpture. He is often recognized as the godfather of the Arte Povera movement, an Italian art movement founded in the late 1960s  which used throwaway material to make art for the people

The Documentary

The documentary delves into Pistoletto’s evolution and emergence as an artist, from his early days as a studying creative to his current status as a respected creative force. The documentary touches on Pistoletto’s epiphany which he was painting a self-portrait of himself, the moment he noticed art was in his words “the freest someone could be.” This moment felt like the pivotal moment in his life as well as the moment the entire documentary hinged around, taking Pistoletto from the man rolling newspaper through the streets, to the man creating the mirror paintings.

The film took a while to explain the genius behind his mirror paintings, which from the film grasped as his most important artwork. Their interpretation of having the viewer be apart of the artwork really opened my eyes to the beauty of them, even more, when I went to go see them in person over the weekend.  This also helped me further understand Arte Povera as I was now literally part of the art, talk about art for the people.

The Talk

I found the talk extremely interesting. Pistoletto and the Scientist shared interesting similarities between their works that I had never even thought to make before entering the room. I particularly enjoyed the scientist explaining the beauty found in a particle he had created, something that to a non-scientific eye could never equate to beauty. Their continued back and forth on how different concepts of their works overlapped was very interesting and I certainly saw more of the art in science. Pistoletto also surprised me by calling his art phenomenological, which wasn’t just a word I was surprised to hear but one that perfectly explained his work; especially his mirror paintings.

What did I think?

I found Pistoletto’s work and the talk very interesting. It gives a new perspective to the piece now adorned on top of the ADM building and I will have a new found respect for it during my stay

 

Interactive 1 – Assignment 1

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

What is it?

The Wilderness Downtown is an interactive Music video created by Interactive Artist Chris Milk for the song “We Use to Wait” by Arcade Fire for their album The Suburbs. The entire piece was created using HTML5 and employs the use of Google Maps through the Google Chrome Browser.

Why?

Wilderness Downtown attempts to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the viewer as it tailors the music video to whoever inputs their address. The combined effect of the faceless runner (figuratively running home) and the ballad-like music with sad undertones tries to make the viewer miss or look back on the place they grew up in but may no longer live.

Interaction

The Video displays the most current Google Maps and Google Street views of the address entered into the browser. This allows every single experience of the piece to be different and tailored to the viewer

The ending of the video allows viewers to directly speak to their past selves; sending a message to the child who lived in the home they are seeing pass by on the screen. This moment allows the viewers to directly interact with their nostalgia and also reflect on how far they have come in life

Is it effective?

Well, what does the creator say?

The emotional reaction of the piece could range from emotional to nostalgic to even traumatic. Whether your reaction is positive, negative or neutral, everyone can agree it is nice to have a piece of art so personally curated for us and it’s always nice to see home

 

Moodboard: Research and Themes: God and the Cosmos

Quantum Entanglement

Quantum entanglement refers to the phenomena where two particles become entangled and their quantum states become independent on each other spins. This is interesting because regardless of the distance the particles will remain entangled, even if they are millions of light years away.  This is referred to as Spooky Action at a Distance. This phenomena “magically” changes the quantum state of entangled particles without first knowing the state of the individual particles.

Themes/Concepts

The idea behind my piece is the relationship between the religious depictions of the universe and how it’s connected and the scientific/sci-fi depictions of the same universe. My theme deals with QT as something unexplained to us in science because the answer belongs to a higher mysterious power present in the universe, most likely alien in origin. The religious theme is used to portray how we view and explain these alien forces and how the classic depictions of God and Man can be stripped away to reveal different mythologies underneath. The specific aspect of quantum theory I will discuss will be Quantum Entanglement and Spooky Action at a Distance, where two particles that become entangled stay connected regardless of distance. This will instead be illustrated through the religious belief of  God connecting all aspects of the universe and the science fiction mythologies of eldrich gods and unknown cosmic forces doing the same. Basically mythologizing QT into speculative fiction and science fiction. Taking Spooky Action at a distance and explaining it through mythological sources

Religion: Christianity

Religious will play the main stage in my piece, bringing up correlations between the connections found in Quantum Entanglement and how religion explains a higher power to be a connecting force between all aspects of the universe. This video follows a discussion on God’s place within Quantum Physics:

Religion in this piece will play the role of our common spiritual understanding of QF. Stripping away any and all scientific logic our notions of religious texts are the only spiritual answers we have for quantum physics. I want this to take the beginning point of my piece and peel it back as we can see where our thought process may start (with God) and where it may end (with something new).

Lovecraft: Cosmic Horror

I want to draw a lot of inspiration from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft and his concept of “Cosmic Horror”, which details an innate human fear of not just the unknown, but what could lurk within it. This video is a good explanation of Cosmic Horror:

The Monsters and Creatures in Lovecraft stories seldom play the roles of tangible and mortal entities and rather embody the absurdity of the universe all while enforcing the absolute meaninglessness of the human species.  Alien Gods and the concept of the “Ancient Astronaut” are additional parts of this mythology; all revolving around the idea of scientifically plausible beings existing with our universe that govern over its existence. Lovecraft’s horror was meant to strip the human condition of any meaning, but I will focus on it as a way of telling a science fiction for explaining the universe as a substitute for religion. The idea that our perceived notions of God and other religious entities could indeed be massive Alien beings is a frightening one and its implications make us rethink life as we know it

Moodboard

A blend of the familiar depictions of God and the unfamiliar depictions of Eldrich Gods and Monsters. The mood board shows how there are two different Supernatural answers for how QT explains our universe and how both these Supernatural answers could be the same answers with different packaging.

The Birth of Venus – Sandro Botticelli – 1484

Assumption of the Virgin – Titian – 1516

The Creation of Adam – Michelangelo – 1512

Pastafarianism – 2018

Rathish Panda – 2015

Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis – 1989

Eric Del Carlo and Jay Caselberg – 2016

Techniques

I will be illustration the technique of 2.5D in this piece. Tutorials like this show the process of alias and the push pin in order to achieve this effect:

This involves the techniques of:

-Photomanipulation

-Animation

-Compositing Special Effects

I want to employ this effect because I want to stay true to the aesthetic of painting as I will draw aesthetically from Gothic Horror art and High Renaissance Art; both which saw their lives expressed on the canvas.

Something like Kayne West’s Power music video would be a desirable outcome

with the Aesthetic of B E A U T Y

Aesthetics

High Renaissance Art (1490s) will be used as the aesthetic for the religious sections of the work to evoke the period on time were religious, especially Catholic and Christian depictions, were at their peak in the art world

Gothic Horror (1800s) will be used as the aesthetic for the Lovecraftian parts of the work for the dark, dread and monster-filled depictions of Gothic Horror perfectly match the aesthetic of Lovecraft stories and tones – works by Francisco Goya

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v7-ijbpkZjKaj0SNgBv7ettGVcyCifKaCSrGWgObDls/edit?usp=sharing

Week 1

Tristan likes to call himself an artist, a storyteller and an idea maker. In truth he is a combination of the three, trying to find a sense of direction for his craft. Tristan loves to tinker and try new things ranging from animation to fabrication while always pushing himself to learn more. Arduino coding and circuitry have recently become his greatest areas of interest and he hopes to take these skills into the future and incorporate them into more and more interactive artworks.  Currently, Tristan is enrolled in New Media at Ryerson University and is doing a study abroad exchange at NTU for Interactive Media. Learning different approaches to art from individuals and cultures from around the world is something Tristan thinks is crucial to his artistic journey. Outside of art, Tristan loves to read, ride his bike and play video games with his friends. His dream is to make an impact on the developing art scene in Toronto.

Example of Work:

This is a piece I made as a homage to Vaporware, which is an outdated aesthetic popularized in the early 90s during the rise of the computer era. Vaporwave is now often seen as ugly and harsh but when it was first created was seen as a beautiful new turn in computerized graphics. This piece plays with the idea of old aesthetics being repurposed in a modern light and potentially regaining some of their statuses.

Inspiration:

This piece was partially influenced by the quite uncomfortable piece “MAINSQUEEZE”, created by artist John Rafman.

View discretion is advised: https://vimeo.com/jonrafman/review/100324610/3e511de46c

When I first saw Main Squeeze in a gallery it was displayed inside a small box where the user was seated in a comfortable chair with a pillow, the monitor about a foot from your face and absolute darkness around you. The experience felt like I was hiding away in shame watching a video that was never meant to see the light of day; upon viewing out of the box that is almost the case. This sense of having a video which was so un-aesthetically pleasing yet so powerful, making me feel like I was hiding away while watching it; made me wonder how I could evoke the same sort of feelings mainly out of visual context and not purely out of aesthetic value. My piece goes nowhere near the territory Rafman’s touched but it borrowed that idea in its initial creation.

Resume  

TristanSauer_Resume_2018