This is a montage of found footage I made using clips from Sonny and Cher's variety show, The David Letterman show, and the news footage of Cher speaking at Sonny's funeral.

In this piece, I was interested in Cher and Sonny's relationship as performers.  Honestly, Sonny Bono sucks, his jokes weren't funny, and pretty much his only actions shown on their variety show were of him grabbing Cher's waist, stomach, or shoulders.  Cher makes most of the jokes that are funny and Sonny in multiple episodes tells Cher that she messed up her lines or was saying something the wrong way. It's interesting that Cher and Sonny lasted as an act together for so long, despite their minimal movement of dance or performance on stage.

Cher moved on (thankGOD) and did her own thing.

Also Cher's twitter is SO GOOD, check it out: @Cher A goddess, a genius

The Exploding Plastic Inevitable

The Exploding Plastic Inevitable was organized by Andy Warhol. This piece included the artists, Gerard Malanga, Mary Woronov, Ingrid Superstar, Danny Williams, The Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground played live while dancers, Gerard Malanga, Mary Woronov, Ingrid Superstar danced while images of Andy Warhol's movies were projected over them.

Lou Reed was not at the performance that was recorded on 16mm film by Robert Nameth

McLuhan describes the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, “with-in this all-encompassing, audiovisual environment, the flickering half-presence of television’s (then) low level of resolution was seen to create a “mosaic” that called forth the spectator’s “participatory” in-filling and a synaesthetic, multisensory response.  “The TV image... requires each instant that we ‘close’ the spaces in the mesh by a convulsive sensuous participation that is profoundly kinetic and tactile.”

Ronald Nameth - Andy Warhols Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966).mov

This is a 16mm film that captures images of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

“The EPI represented the “auditory space” of electronic media, which as McLuhan explained, was multidirectional, synaesthetic, and interactive.” (Branden W. Joseph)

The Exploding Plastic Inevitable created a a small scale global village McLuhan describes in his book, The Medium is the Massage.  McLuhan describes the Exploding Plastic inevitable in “The Agenbite Outwit,” “Any pattern in which the components co-exist without direct lineal hook-up or connection, creating a field of simultaneous relations [which] is auditory, even though some aspects can be seen….They form a mosaic or corporate image whose parts are interpenetrating.  Such is also the kind of order that tends to exist in a city or a culture.  It is a kind of orchestral, reasonating unity.” McLuhan describes the creation of the global village in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable as the creation of an experience that all the participants and attendees unconsciously felt through the interdependence of the sounds, the light show, the projected images, and the performers.

Good Girls Gone Bad

Me and Lilly created an experimental sound piece.  The idea was influenced by Cher and Sonny, Andy Warhol, La Monte Young, and John Cage.  For this project, Lilly and I guided our class to the wellness center and asked people to position themselves on different levels of the stairwell in the building.  We then asked everyone to use their phone to play the link we sent in email.  The piece is about the experience of listening.  Driving influence from La Monte Young's Dream House, a piece about sound that viewers walked through and heard different sounds playing from different locations of the room.

Image of La Monte Young's Dream House

For this piece we were interested in the distortion of the song from not only being in a space with reverb from the concrete walls but also distortion from the layers of everyone playing the song off of their phone at slightly differing times. The sound was dependent on the process of streaming it from youtube.

Some ideas that Lilly and I were thinking about for this piece was its connection to McLuhan's idea of the global village.  The internet is a tool for mass communication amongst people.  The song was a clip we posted on youtube.

"I've Got You, Babe"

The piece was about the interconnectedness between the individual and the global village.  Because we asked everyone to play the song off their phone, a personal item it was an individualized experience.  The location in the stairwell also affected the individual experience.  By asking everyone to stand on different levels and play the song, the piece was a distortion from the interacting layers of sound.  A global village was created in that moment of an understanding or experience to sound that was different for every individual but was completely interdependent on the actions, sounds, and movements of every individual present.

Other things I was thinking about but will explain later is how this piece connects to a "cinema of attraction" defined by Tom Gunning.
-----act of putting something on display and the subject as spectacle.

Something is Happening

Something is Happening was an art exhibition in the Mudd Gallery.  The show was a great experience and the snacks were off-the-hook.  A person who came to the show told me that my pieces looked really gross.... and they didn't even see the book I made....  The two pieces I hung were Wrinkle and Ankle. These were selected from a series of photos I took that captured images of the body so that they were not recognizable body parts.  The book I created was titled "Skins."  The book is collaged photos from my album Skins on Flickr, screenshots from the video footage from when I made the video Magnus, and other photos I took on my iphone of ink in a can.  I wanted the book to present itself as fragments of the Organ player's life even though the images I used are from unrelated times and of unrelated subjects, besides the theme of red and skin throughout the book.  I also think that the pictures of me are either full of movement or very still and reflective.  And by juxtaposing this with still images of ink, skin, and other abstracted body parts, i think it makes it seem like the organ player is seen as reflecting on the images or that's what they are seeing.

Cover of "Skins"

Today

Recently, I keep listening to this song called "Disengaged" by Grouper.  I really like that they use found sound and distort the voice and piano.  In many other songs they have on this album, they also use found sound.  This reminds me of McLuhan's reference to John Cage in his book, "The Medium is the Massage."  John Cage talks about everyone having the best seat in the house in reference to enjoying music and by redefining it to be every sound around you, creating a piece.  This is because"the ear world is a world of simultaneous relationships" (113).

Grouper - Disengaged

Originally for this project, me and Lilly sang "I've Got You, Babe" by Sonny and Cher.  We sang over a karaoke version of the song in GarageBand while using guitar distortions.  We really don't like Sonny Bono so we decided that we should make a new song.

This song was made by recording myself playing the organ and distorting it in GarageBand.  I then sang over the organ playing through GarageBand then distorted my voice through a guitar distortion.  I duplicated parts of the track and layered them to make the song.

Today

Rashaad Newsome

     Some of Rashaad Newsome's first artworks were based in collage about heraldry, its role and iconography.  He was influenced by hip-hop culture as well as baroque.  This is present in his collages.  As a visual tournament the patterns and designs in the collages as well as the frame compete for the attention of the viewer.  He also interested in idea to reference the body without being formally present, reintroducing the idea of Renaissance portraiture with our being physically present through use of architecture.  In his collages, Newsome uses modern depictions of wealth,
This idea is continued in his work tracking the movement of dancers using a program that then allows him to 3D print as a sculpture or to make prints.   Rashaad Newsome's most recent work, FIVE, is influenced by vogueing.  There is an aspect of improvisational dance.  Newsome uses a program designed for Kinect hand recognition to track the dancers.

     His interest in challenging the canonized art world is present in his recent video art and animations.  Newsome has created a new art medium.  McLuhan writes, "Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions.  The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act--the way we perceive the world." Newsroom alters the environment in which the viewer experiences art.  Newsome plays with sense perceptions.  While incorporating sound, texture, and movement.  Newsome creates digital alternate realities and new collaged worlds in his videos.  Combining collage, video art, improvisational performance, music, design, digital art, and fashion, Newsome has created a new art form that is entirely his own, while also drawing from his own identity and knowledge of art history.  Rashaad Newsome's work challenges the canonized art world which has been historically dominated and controlled by wealth, white supremacy, and the patriarchy.  Newsome's art is a new medium that calls to be viewed and consumed in a new way, directly challenging the high society art world.

Skins

https://www.flickr.com/gp/147213572@N02/DB8iP0

For this project, I began by taking pictures of my skin.  I tried to take pictures of parts of the body that were not easily distinguishable.  I did not want the viewer to be able to easily identify the part of the body.

Coming Soon!!! Blog Post about visiting speaker

I will be attending a talk about art. Stay tuned!!!

Magnus

     I began this project by collecting items around the house I live in on campus.  I started to collect items that mimicked (or were) taxidermy animals, horns, hooves, furs, and antlers.  I collected items that reminded me of roughness, hunting or sex dungeons.  The items I used were generally shades of brown, orange, red, and gold.   For over three days, I added items to this scene and rearrange them in the corner of the basement.  On the third day I filmed. While in the basement I discovered a Magnum Organ which I used to create the audio of the video.

      While arranging the clips of the movie I was interested in the role as the viewer.  While watching I noticed I felt more intrusive or present as a viewer while watching myself perform on the organ and dance around the scene rather than when watching the video of my reflection in the mirror, or of the still life shots.  Although the mirror scenes seemed more intimate, I did not feel as present as a viewer. Whereas during the scenes of me playing the organ and dancing I noticed my gaze.  McLuhan talks about the effect of medium and that the medium is more important than the message itself.  In this video, the use of the camera only versus the use of the mirror as an additional medium the camera curates for different gazes.  Maybe because the images of myself that I typically consume are reflections--in mirrors, in puddles, on snapchat, so that is why I don't feel myself watching during the mirror clips.  The medium curates for the gaze.

      McLuhan also discusses that "our electrically-configured world has forced us to move from the habit of data classification to the mode of pattern recognition...instant communication insures that all factors of the environment and of experience coexist in a state of active interplay."  This is relevant to my video because all factors of the process are at constant interplay, especially in the process.  I built the scene by collecting items. The scene seems like the most precious part of the project for me. I think this is because of the medium and its physical presence.

Ann C, that's me!

My work aims to access all of the senses through the visual.  Through the use of specific textures, colors, and line quality I explore my own experiences while attempting to reenact those experiences that others can relate to.  I want the reader to feel a visceral response to the seemingly tactile style of my work.

        When selecting a theme for a piece, I usually return to memories I have really embodied because they feel honest.  Once I have a theme, I choose the materials that best express the idea.  For some reason very specific but mundane memories from the everyday can stick the most.  To create the images in my work, I draw directly from these experiences. For example, the floral and linen textures of the bedspread in Wet Dream were pulled directly from the memory of the pattern of my bedspread in the dream.

The piece Jerry’s Super Market reflects the overwhelming sensory experience of being in a supermarket.  I attempt to replicate the almost nauseating experience of intense colors, patterns, textures, and smells within the maze of products.  From prior work, I used the textures from photographs of grocery aisles combined with drawn images to ensure that specific textures of water bottles, cardboard boxes, and hot sauce containers would instantly grab the viewer’s senses.

Recently, I have been interested in exploring narrative forms.  In The Medium is the Massage, McLahun writes,

“The alphabet is a construct of fragmented bits and parts which have no semantic meaning in themselves, and which must be strung together in a line, bead-like, and in a prescribed order. Its use fostered and encouraged the habit of perceiving all environment in visual and spatial terms-particularly in terms of a space and of a time that are uniform,

c,o,n,t,i,n,u,o,u,s

and

c-o-n-n-e-c-t-e-d.

The line, the continuum”(44).  Relating this to my own work, I am interested in how traditional book forms create narrative as compared to non-traditional forms.  While Wet Dreams follows a traditional book format, Jerry’s SuperMarket has no linear order. There is not a timeline in which the audience consumes information in a specific order, but instead explores the interior of the supermarket on their own time and order.  However, Wet Dreams is not presented as a traditional book format on this blog.  Images of the scanned pages present themselves in chronological order in blocked sections.  This demonstrates narrative reflects the  “technology of the alphabet”. I think the format of the piece affects the experience of the viewer. McLuhan explains as “the fragmenting of activities, our habit of thinking in bits and parts--”specialism”--reflected the step-by-step linear departmentalizing process” (45). McLuhan also discusses the interaction between the audience and the medium with traditional book form and how the printed and portable book “added much to the new cult of individualism” and allowed men can read in isolation and privacy (50).

Annspissvideo

This video is about my consumption of toilet paper after a week and a half of urinating.

Wet Dream

Wet Dream is a short narrative in a traditional book format.

Jerry's Supermarket

Jerry's Super Market is a a box structure with a hinge cover.




This image is a detail of the interior walls of Jerry's Super Market.

This image is the bottom of the box, which creates the floor of Jerry's Super Market.