Is this burning an ETERNAL FRAME?

|| The Eternal Frame (1975) is a videotaped reenactment of the assassinated of John F. Kennedy’s assassination by Antfarm which seeks to draw attention to the power of the mediated image.

 

Antfarm is a collective of radical artists founded in San Francisco in 1968 by Chip Lord and Doug Michels (1943-2003) that sought to rebel against the conformative style of art in their time and build a community of artists that vigorously experimented with new forms of art.[1]

 

http://kadist.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ant-farm-eternal-flame-2.jpg

 

In an Interview with Chip Lord by Randall Packer over the Third Space Network stream, Chip Lord mentions that John F. Kennedy’s death was the first televised American tragedy ever, and Eternal Frame sought to explore the power of the media to immortalise such a historical moment and ingrain it into the minds of people by converting a real-life event into a processed memory via the media. [2]

 

 

In another interview about The Eternal Frame hosted by Constance Lewallen (2012), Doug Halls states that he resonates with Jean Jacque-Rousseau’s view that something cannot be true until it’s fictionalised, and the interpretation of a memory aberrates as it is constantly reappropriated throughout time, which is possible if an event is immortalised in a digital form. [3]

 

” I think that idea of you kind of grasping to it and extricated into your time, then in the act of doing that, certain truths disappear but other ones begin to emerge.”

– Doug Halls

 

 

Taking the achievements of past post-modern art movements like Constructivism and Futurism to a greater level, Antfarm’s fearless venture into different media and experimenting with different spatial contexts allowed them to successfully added new layers of meanings in their artworks that allowed them to make political and social statements.

 

 

Resources:

[1] Constance Lewallen, Still Subversive After all These Years

[2] Interview with Chip Lord: https://vimeo.com/257224713

[3] The Eternal Frame, hosted by Constance Lewallen: https://vimeo.com/53734504

#01: \\Experiment in Social Broadcasting// (class activity)

Today in class we did social broadcasting! With our phones, we went LIVE on Facebook while we were all in different parts of ADM; during which, all of our broadcasts were collated on Facebook Live Video Wall platform. By condensing the local space of ADM and the remote space of the internet, we could gain access to the Third Space (ooh sounds trippy!) Hearing about this term made me remember what my 4D teacher mentioned in the previous semester about ‘metaphysical space’, which is a space that exists but is not visible. With the Third Space, we can easily access the visual portrayal of this metaphysical space, coupled with audience participation that would give rise to unpredictable live videos, the video wall was just a stunning piece of art! 😀

 

Posted by Yue Ling Tan on Thursday, 18 January 2018

Entry #02: Story about a Thing

For our second project for Foundation 4D I: Story about a Thing, we are supposed to choose… well, a THING as a theme and create a visual narrative surrounding it using sequential images. In class, we also learned about narrative structure and story-telling techniques using images such as scene-to-scene and action-to-action closure to fill in the blood in the gutter.

 

My first task was to select a thing (as if it wasn’t the hardest task ever; sometimes the simplest briefs are the hardest). I decided to use something wacky and bizarre because solemn stories aren’t really my thing.

So, I chose a wig.

 

Yes, a wig.

 

My initial story plan was inspired by this game that I found on Kongregate.com a long time ago, The Visitor by James Ziebarth. It follows the storyline of this alien worm-looking creature that starts off really small, but goes around people’s houses devouring larger and larger prey until it grows to maximum size. The plan was a horror genre and I wanted to make my wig consume people, but I felt that the horror genre is a tad bit grotesque to do and doesn’t really have an interesting storyline to it, so I decided to change it to a comedic story instead.

Instead of having a completely evil wig that murders people, I decided to change it into a yandere wig. ‘Yandere’ is a character archetype in a lot of Japanese animated films that are often girls that are so obsessed with a boy that they would kill for them, or just carry out violent acts in general that also endangers the lives of everyone around them.

Popular examples of ‘yandere’ girls:

Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki (Future Diary).
Lucy from Elfen Lied.
Kotonoha from School Days!

Yes, I wanted to make my wig an obsessive protagonist.

So here is my rough storyline using the monomyth structure:

A CEO of a company who starts off with a head full of luscious thick hair starts to bald for unknown reasons (presumably stress or old age), and since maintaining his image and his dignity is really important to him, he thinks of the immediate solution of getting a toupee (as inspired by the Principal in Captain Underpants). He hesitates for a bit when he thinks that it might fall off and his colleagues would laugh at him, but he decides that his image is much more important so he goes to get the toupee anyway.

Little does he know, the toupee has a mind of its own and develops a liking for its owner. They spend time together as the protagonist goes about his days concealing his bald spot with his newly bought toupee.

One fine day, he sees an advertisement on the television for a hair growth cream and has an epiphany. He purchases the cream and successfully manages to grow back a full head of hair, much to the obsessed toupee’s dismay.

The now desperate toupee decides to take superglue and put it on …itself (?? shall not assume gender here) and awaits its master’s arrival.

When the protagonist puts the sticky toupee onto his head, he is appalled to find out that he can’t take it out again. Left with no other choice, he decides to shave off all his hair. The ending twist is that he buys another toupee which has a life of its own. And so the cycle continues.

————————————————————————————————-

Now I know what you’re thinking after you’ve just read this.

Wtf???

Good, that’s the intended effect.

Now it was obviously a terribly hard task to find a bald man to act for me so I decided to substitute the human protagonist to a squash instead. I was inspired by PotterPuppetPal’s Neville Longbottom (below):

Neville the squash (vegetable) compared to a more human-like Harry Potter.

I supposed this would create a much more comical effect since the story itself is pretty silly.

 

Below was my rough plan for the sequence of my images:

1- Potato going to work, show status at work

has full head of hair (gelled backwards) (end of a day at work)

2-Potato puts down bag at home and goes to toilet

3- Toilet: Potato discovers that its hair is falling out (more and more hair on the floor/clogged in sink)

4- Potato’s distress over hair (bald spot)

5- Potato thinks of solution (toupee)

6- Consider: Colleagues laughing at toupee dropping off (Captain Underpants)

7- Potato says no

8- Potato goes to the toupee store to get a toupee

9- Potato goes to work with new head of toupee (show life of its own with oogly eyes with heart)

Show laptop time

10- toupee time with owner (afternoon)

11- toupee time with owner (night)

12- toupee time with owner (morning)

13- potato watching TV

14- TV shows hair cream

15- potato is amazed (bright light at the front)

16- show hair cream beside potato as he does stuff to his bald head

17- next day at work with full head of hair

18- sad and angry toupee at home

19- toupee goes to get super glue and puts it on himself

20- potato goes to work with toupee the next day

21- in bathroom he can’t get it out

22-another attempt to get it out

23- gives up

24- shaves off

25- returns to work with new toupee

26- toupee thumbs up

 

 

Story plan:

Storyline plan

 

Storyboard plan (arrangement not confirmed yet)

 

|| The Obsessive Love of a Wig || I made some tweaks to the storyline; instead of the wig superglue-ing itself to Philip (yes he has a name now, I’m overly attached) and forcing him into eternal baldness, the wig now switches the hair growth cream Philip bought for superglue (muahaha!) and forces him to wear a the evil wig forever. Initially, I wanted to try a circular arrangement to imply the structure of the hero’s monomyth, but then I saw an opportunity to arrange my photos in a heart-shape to echo the theme of the story (definitely romance, or at least one-sided)! They are also read in an anti-clockwise direction because it’s easier, reading clockwise sort of feels like you’re reading the story backwards. The file size uploaded here is pretty small so the images are probably pretty hard to see so I’ve added a link below to a .pdf file with much better quality!

 

PDF FILE:

https://app.box.com/s/zl05lrp6nbhh067kbu7l8p4l6i0dmppd

 

Entry #01: The Disappearance of Moonling

Composition techniques:

  1. Rule of thirds
  2. Leading lines
  3. Strong diagonals
  4. Point of view
  5. Framing
  6. Simplify
  7. Depth of field
  8. Strong foreground
  9. Fill frame
  10. Active space

 

My attempt for class activity:

 

Umbrella in the Field

|| Strong diagonals, active space ||

 

Project 1 research:

 

If I suddenly disappeared while doing my everyday chores, what would the world look like without me in that instant?

What a peculiar (and slightly depressing) question to ponder about.

 

In this project, there were two main things to be taken care of:

  1. Content
  2. Composition

I decided that it was a wiser choice to start thinking about content first.

Content: What objects tell others about myself?

 

Recalling what we learned about semiotics in the first lesson, I decided to first scope some life themes and then do some research on symbolism and allegory for them.

The life themes that I found included:

Family, friends, community, knowledge, nature, growth, time. solitude, and recreation.

 

http://www.manifestyourpotential.com/self_discovery/3_discover_your_life_way/life-theme.htm
https://www.shmoop.com/life-of-pi/themes.html

 

Below are some symbolism/allegories that I have found for these themes:

 

Family- Tree (life, origin, family, nature)

Workload, responsibilities- bag pack

Knowledge – books, glasses

Time – clock, calendar, road (passage of time)

Growth/Youth- Tree, playground

 

I decided to mix these symbolic subjects up with subject matter that was both important and personal to me and below is the list of ideas that I came up with:

 

Music – piano, earpieces

My past (specifically band)

Every day things – lrt gantry

Knowledge – book at lib/ glasses

Love for nature – botanical gardens, community garden

Time – clock/calendar/road

My love for solitude/privacy/self-reflection – diary, room (yes, with the cluttered floor and everything), mirror

Creation – my 3D hw/tablet/sketchbook/bunch of drawings/art tools

Growth – Tree (family, origins),

Community, youth – playground

 

Losing my identity as I go through life (WTF SO DEEP b0SS)

No longer there physically

 

Clouds – transience

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/allegory-examples.html

http://www.learnstrong.co/uploads/5/3/9/2/53925379/symbols.pdf

http://www.tarotteachings.com/symbol-meanings-of-tarot-s-z.html

 

Theme of Art: Leaving art materials behind, indicative of my hobby of creating artworks. Attempted a fill-frame of the things in my box of art materials.
Theme of Friendship: Disappearing in the midst of having a meal with my friends. Attempted using strong diagonals.
Theme of Community: This garden is a community garden, where many residents contribute to the healthy plantation here as they similarly do to the vibrancy of the community.
Theme of Identity: In the moment of disappearance, I drop my IC on the floor of the train station right at the gantry. The gantry is meant to represent a crossing into another place (presumably some other dimension after I disappear) and the IC is my identity.
Theme of Knowledge: Books and glasses are symbols of knowledge. Since school has been a large part of my life, knowledge that I have gained throughout the years would be something that I would leave behind. I attempted using Depth of Field here.
Theme of Music: Playing the piano has been one of my childhood hobbies (admittedly quite abandoned now) but in the moment of disappearance, the piano keys are still being pressed down. I attempted to use Depth of Field here.
Theme of Youth: For me, the playground has been a very nostalgic place where I used to frequent when I was a child. I attempted to use a strong foreground here.
Theme of Music: In my free time, I enjoy making covers of Japanese songs (or any songs that I liked at that time) in private.
Theme of Growth: The path represents a journey, as I disappear on the journey, I leave my bagpack behind which represents the responsibilities that I carry with me. The trees around are a symbol of growth and nature. I attempted using leading lines but my subject matter was too small ;v;
Theme of Growth

 

 

Those were cool and all, but they didn’t tell a story.

Why my pictures didn’t make the cut:

  1. There was too much background such that the background of the photos became my subject.
  2. There was too little subject matter. I only had a single subject for most of the photos.

It wasn’t until I consulted XM for help and after receiving my 2D Project 2 that I had an epiphany of what I could add into my photograph.

The advice I received about telling a story and juxtaposition. Focusing on the photo of me disappearing while making a cover, I could tell a more elaborate narrative about myself.

New narrative (this is really personal??):

(has to link back to the whole disappearing thing and what I left behind)

Ever since I was in primary school, I discovered anime (Japanese animated series) which really helped me to tide over a difficult period in my life (and has largely guided me on the path that I am on today). With each new series I watched, I enjoyed printing out the lyrics of the openings and endings of the new series and singing along to them. This hobby of mine developed even further when I discovered the vocaloid subculture in secondary school (yes, it’s all pretty complicated) whereby tons of creators from all around the globe could use these voice programmes to make their own songs, so you could imagine how massively huge my song collection got. I had begun learning how to make covers on my own of these songs using SUPER basic software and hardware such as Audacity and a simple Logitech microphone. I really enjoyed this hobby of mine but I never really had the audacity (oh no, unintended pun) to step out of my comfort zone and actually do singing (although I had band background). I’d watch my classmates go on school talent competitions in awe and admiration (even now).

 

SoOOOoO that was a pretty long but very personal story for me (even my parents don’t know 8’D). So I wanted to take a photo which conveyed a scene of me silently wanting to pursue this hobby further but always simply continuing to karaoke to myself, with myself in my bedroom, and never stepping outside of my comfort zone. When I disappear in the middle of my (almost daily) karaoke sessions, I leave behind all of these emotions behind as well.

Subject matter:

My aim is to juxtapose the razzle-dazzle of singing on stage and the contentment of singing in my bedroom.

Instead of using the condenser mic in the previous photo I took, I decided to use a dynamic mic (that my family happens to have for some reason) because it is more commonly used by singers on stage, compared to condenser mics which are used in studios for recording, which implies a sense of isolation from everyone when singing. Also, it was a more easily identifiable symbol of the act of singing.

This is paired with red bed-sheets (to simulate the red curtains of a stage) and colourful lights so it could value-add to the whole flashy theatricality of singing on stage. I am also including a black jacket (which I presumably threw “on-stage” before I disappeared) because my favourite rock singer always wears a jacket/hoodie.

Pertaining to the contentment of singing with contentment in the comfort of my own bedroom, I am including my bed (of course), stuff toys as an imaginary audience, anime posters stuck on the wall to indicate my preferred music genre.

With these subject matter, I will be attempting to take shots using the various techniques of composition that I have learned.

 

 

I decided to use this photo as my final because I managed to capture most of my subject matter into the photo. I attempted to use a strong diagonal of my bed as well instead of a flat, horizontal stage which looks a bit boring. The blue lighting (projected from my little brother’s toy car and white lighting creates the mood of a concert (and a KTV room maybe). Big Bird also looks like he’s having the time of his life.
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