In class .GIF

Here is a group .GIF we made for class.

24 hour project complete

      I did my project from about noon Sunday March 2 to noon today. I walked around my town (from my house to cvs to buy an ankle brace, past my high school, to a nature preserve, back to the high school, back home), went out to dinner, and went to school. It was easier for me to think about the main walk as an experience and collect ephemera (my rules were to walk as far as possible and to take a picture every time I stopped for whatever reason--to look at something, to figure out how to go around snow, to text, to check the map, etc.). I had trouble thinking of the daily, monotonous parts of my life as an experience and had to remind myself to look for ephemera.
      Emotionally, it was weird to re-visit places from my past. I had to walk by my high school twice, I could hear the sounds of a basketball game inside, I walked around the preserve where my high school P.E. classes would take nature walks and my family would take hour long hikes, and I coincidentally went to a restaurant with my family that I hadn't been to in six years, but it felt completely the same. I liked the peacefulness of the experience, but at times I felt like an outsider, not in a sad way, just different. I did things I don't know I would have done before this class, like sitting in the middle of a parking lot filled with bird seed for ten minutes to listen to all the birds or routinely taking pictures.
      No one had very strange reactions to me. I said hi to most strangers I passed. One couple thought I was completely lost and stared at me for a bit while I held out my map. I tried to be sneaky about taking photos if I was in populated areas or photographing abnormal things (like the library).
      My problems were: reminding myself to take pictures, remembering to collect ephemera, and my knee and ankle pain which was awful at the end of the six hour walk and my zumba class on Mon. morning. I started and ended my experience in pain :/ On a different note, it's very hard to rewire your brain to think of simple things as art and ephemera.
      I liked this experience because I got to focus on one project for a longer period of time, but didn't have a set goal. I literally hiked in a circle, for nothing, but the experience, which is really all going anywhere is.

24 hour idea revised: Nature walk

Ok, mixing it up people. I changed my idea to something that suits my lifestyle more. I am going to try to walk, map, and collect ephemera from a state park near my house, but I'm going to try to walk farther than I've ever walked in that park. Which means I'll have to walk for at least four hours in the park. I will connect this walk to the rest of my routine so I have a larger opportunity to collect ephemera before and after the walk as well.

My rules:
- Start my journey at noon (I was going to try sunrise but I sleep in. . .). This signifies that my nature walk will be connected to the cycle of the day and the source of nature itself.
- Count every place I go as an opportunity to collect ephemera.
- Stop walking/return home when: I feel dehydrated, my legs are too sore to go very much farther, or it gets dark. Sunset is at 5:47 pm today. (Whatever comes first.)
- Map out my walk.
- Don't be disappointed if I don't get very far, the whole day is an experience not just the main walk itself.

This is an opportunity to analyze my day and notice little things that maybe I don't normally notice.

24 hour rule-based project: Local food drive

I want to volunteer or make a difference in some way but a lot of organizations require long period time commitments so I was thinking I can walk around my neighborhood one day over a couple of hours asking each neighbor if they could donate one can of food. Sort of like the saying “If I had a nickel every time _____ , I’d be rich,” a lot of small things can add up to something big. Then I can take these cans of food (along with some I give) and donate them to local food shelters. I have one in my town (which I didn’t even know about) and three others within a five-mile radius.

I’m hoping to be able to get at least fifty cans and match that number myself (up to a hundred?).

I can document the work by taking pictures before and after of the trunk of my car/boxes, by writing notes throughout the experience about my feelings, and with the receipt from the grocery store at the end of the day. However, this experience is more about other people than me and I'm not entirely sure how to document their view.

This project will allow me to interact with people in my community, help people who need basic essentials, and maybe get involved with a food shelter on a long-term basis.

Worst case scenario: I get no cans, am disappointed in society, and donate cans myself. I could still document empty boxes at the end of the day to show that there are obstacles in life but you should never be discouraged.

Best case scenario: People donate cans, they feel that they’ve made a positive impact and I know that collectively as a community we have helped other people :)

I would do this Saturday March 1^st.

Sound walk: "Meditation"

This is my sound walk around campus. It starts at the Admissions office.

How Fluxus videos change our preconceptions

25 Paul Sharits - Sears Catalogue 1-3 (1965), 8 mb

Paul Sharits' video is about consumerism and how all the stuff we are told we're supposed to buy and want and need influences our lives. The artist connects his idea to art by montaging quick snapshots of an originally leisurely read catalogue. The clip progresses from washed out to normal contrast to dark images. The beginning fadedness of the photo clippings eases the audience into the work, while the darker ending and the fast frame time evoke anxiety. The frames start to go by faster during the last couple seconds. Every time I watch it, towards the end my heart speeds up and I feel heavy. A lot of Fluxus videos make the audience nervous because of the suspense or because something unusual happens.

The artist uses something that already exists in the world and changes our notions about a simple, happy catalogue. He uses recognizable pictures and words like “fluoride,” men’s’ shoes and cameras. The title definitely helps the audience know right from the start what they are watching.

The ending starts getting creepy because the artist moves from showing pictures of stuff to photos of smiling women to a mix of tools and words like “surgical” and “messy.” The frames go by so quickly that I was nervous the first time I watched the video and it wasn’t until the 4^th time that I recognized how the subjects of the photos change. 
                 The artist manages to do all of this in just 47 seconds!

My 1st full animation movie

This is my 1st animated stop-motion movie. I was inspired by all the leftover toys my mom has held onto all these years and this article: 
http://lettersandlullabies.com/2014/01/07/the-trouble-with-made-in-china/ 

This is a lower quality format for the internet.