Old City/New City

I started with this prompt and a very watery idea of what I might do. There were words floating through my head in various forms of order and association: life, death, youth age, presence, absence, remembrance, forgetfulness  and so forth. As I usually do, I throw a mental dart and go for whatever idea it sticks to first; something that doesn't make my frown at least.

I believe I started looking for shots of young and old people, of new buildings and old buildings and of new signs and old signs. That quickly changed to me taking pictures of anything that looked gritty, used, industrial and sort of lived in and worn upon.

When I got the photos into photoshop I knew I wanted to alter them but was torn between altering them overtly, or covertly. I didn't know if I wanted my hand to be apparent in the photos. As I started working though, I began to notice I was inclined to use a heavier hand in editing. I wanted dark, gritty, high contrasting, high intensity and a higher saturation than the original photo had. So I went with it. I realized I enjoyed the whimsical, illustrative/graphic and painterly quality the photos began to exude. How this relates to Old City/New City I believe is found in a transformative process from the old images of reality to the more emotive and impassioned images of the New City I was compelled to created.

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First Fall Showing in the Library Commons of the White Stag Building

Conceptually I've had issues with this first show. Our theme is layers. It's a very open-ended concept and full of various interpretations that I've struggled to grasp on a visual level. Every idea I have seems to be tired, played out or already well handled. I feel like I'm having issues being original in my expressions; visually. Conceptually I'm fine. I have ideas, lots of them. I have more than  I can handle. My terminal project focus for the BFA seems to be strongly rooted in perception, characterization and alteration. These are big concepts with many branching roads of expressive form by which so far I have decided on portraits to start exploring.

Panorama

I had two ideas. I completed one.

The concept for both ideas was going to be the same: cognitive dissonance. The ability of reality and perception to exist in a manner of disarray that we rationalize, piece together and edit into something we can process... or not (like me). Hence my panorama: the way I interpret my environment; small pieces of information that I can handle separately but begin to loose when clustered together. Certain things will get pushed out of focus, out of importance while others will be grabbed and obsessed over; while others still will be completely altered to fit whatever cause they best serve.

This is subsequently what my memory is like. Some memories are fragmented experiences, loose perceptions lacking significant form, but others are reinforced by similar perceptions from other experiences and skewed by conflicting perceptions from other experienced. Ultimately the world consists of layers of experience in which my understanding of them is a processes of selection and alteration. =D

Signs of Life

Surface

Photos taken around my home with focus on surface or the illusion thereof.

"dual" Collaborative Installation, University of Oregon, Laverne Krause Gallery

Last summer I took part in one of the University of Oregon's best creative summer workshops; a one week collaborative installation class. I met a group of people whom I greatly enjoyed working with, many of whom I would go on to work with in the Portland DArts BFA program; RUDE BROOD! In one week our group of strangers put our heads together and conceptualized, organized, coordinated and executed a site specific art installation in the Laverne Krause Gallery at the University of Oregon; our show title was "dual" which was more than fitting. "dual" was up for only one day. The reception was the only showing and then down it came the next day. It was a sort of ephemeral experience in the literal sense, but in my opinion had long lasting effects for every one of us and undoubtably altered my relationship with my creative making process.

Here is the actual show invite poster with a good write-up. (click for larger image)

"dual" Invitation

And here's a link to the A&AA departments blog post about it: "dual" Exhibit at the LVK


And of course photos of the show:

Here is the sound art I created for the dancer exhibit space. The dancers and I collaborated to create a soundscape that embodied the essence of not only the collaborative exhibit of "dual" as a whole, but also the creative process and our actual process of creation in it's various parts. The dancer's exhibit was about time, movement and manipulation. I had a great time and this was my first time working with dancers. I hope to do it again one day.

It really was an amazing experience, a mind altering process and just all around good fun. It's amazing what can be birthed in the period of a few days when the pressure and creativity is on full force.

So, just a quick post here because I suck at documentation with my work and I want to make note of what I'm doing for Craig Hickman's Gizmos workshop this summer and also want to get some creative and thoughtful juices flowing .

I have two elements in my interactive work that come up a lot. Well, there are more than two elements in reality, but these are perhaps my two favorites... for now. Anyway! Two elements in my interactive work: music and motion. I love making a physical connection between the creation and experience of sound, in particular music. Dance is a powerful expressive tool (that I only use in the privacy of my own home or at clubs under the influence of much obligatory drink) and music has shown to evoke strong physical and emotional reaction on small and large scales, but I feel like a simpler, more direct form of physical interaction with sound and creation of sound could be extremely impressive and perhaps even elevate and merge the two for the average person. I've been musing over such a thing for years and keep finding little bits and pieces here and there, like kindling in my mind, threatening to spark an idea I can actually flesh out and bring together as a polished, effect whole. For now, I'll settle with baby steps toward a developing idea that's still out of my reach: How can I merge movement and sound to create a simple, elegant and potent environment for the average person? How can I take body and rhythm and combine them in a new way that might get others to revaluate their understanding of sound art and artistic expression through movement? This sounds all fancy, but maybe it's just madness and nonsense.