2nd option of Blog 4

 I wasn't sure if the 1st blog was solid enough as a film example, consequently I made another in case.

      
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR0R9KfU4tY

              Mission Impossible 2 is the quintessential glamorized spy thriller, and the soundtrack certainly stimulates the action with adventurous sound. In this scene, Nyah had just injected herself with a virus called chimera to prevent it from getting into the bad guy’s hands. Agent Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) is shocked and upset that the woman he loves will die in 20 hours if they do not get the cure in time. A firefight erupts and Nyah insists Ethan should kill her. The non diegetic music in the background is soft but dramatic sound as Ethan decides on whether or not to follow her request. The Spanish acoustic guitar plays the music heard when Ethan first sees Nyah , which becomes her song throughout the movie. The exotic cords add a touch of sensuality and passion between the two characters. The music turns and roars as he throws a bomb against the wall away from them. He says that he refuses to kill her and will do everything he can to save her. We hear the dramatic music and gunshots only as Ethan runs heroically. and fires against the enemies. He runs out where the bomb had left an opening in the wall, and jumps out of the skyscraper. The music pauses as he is falling through the night, silence surrounds Ethan until we hear the parachute being opened.  Having it turn into a holy-like sound when he makes his escape from the dangerous chaos inside to the safety outside as he falls almost gracefully through the air, enhances the relief for the viewer that the protagonist got away.

Final Project

http://vimeo.com/114167260

Blog 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnZ2XdqGZWU
             
               Zoolander is a cheerful and humorously shallow take on the male modeling world. The film is a parody of the shallow male models of the world.  After Ben Stiller’s character model Derek Zoolander suffers an embarrassing loss to his model arch nemesis, Hansel, the night before, his three roommates and best friends (who are also male models) do what most good friends do and critique Derek’s enemy. Things are relatively calm in their apartment. The sound is focused on the discussion and some of the background noise of what they are doing while talking. One is doing sit ups, another is using a juicer, and the other is on his two cell phones. When all fails to cheer Derek up, the boys in unison joyously suggest they get orange mocha frappachinos. Derek perks up as the song “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by Wham! starts playing. The cheesy song sets the mood of fun and happiness as the four friends are then shown driving along in their open Jeep on that sunny day. The edits are made to show the careless atmosphere. They are shown dancing and driving, dancing while filling up their car with gas, and breaking into a playful gasoline fight. It is hard to differentiate the music since they are dancing, but this music, I assume is non-diegetic. It is the sole source of sound, with their laughter secondary. They pull into a gas station and subsequently have a gasoline fight. The music tunes down while Derek walks towards a magazine cover he is on, seen in a trash near the road. The caption  visibly upsets him. He then looks up at his friends who are still laughing and spraying each other with gasoline, and can’t help but smile because he is around nice people who are all having a great time. It seems as though nothing can go wrong at that moment. The feel good music cuts as he watches Brint light a cigarette and screams to try to stop him. When the music stops, that was the turning point of the scene. The song had set the tone as a fun and playful time, so it is a surprise to the audience when his friends then are blown up.

Nam June Paik Retrospective

                                            Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot

Entering the second floor of the Asia Society Museum to view Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot was electrifying. The “father of video art” is an exciting, zany individual whose energy is reflected in his art. Paik’s imaginative visions for the future during the 1960s were extraordinarily similar to what is now reality. His idea of TV glasses then became what Google now calls Google Glass. Paik’s “Electronic Superhighway” was an Internet like social media for artists. In today’s world, that might be walk we would consider Facebook or Instagram. He valued the concept of bringing people closer together and using technology as a medium. It made me proud and excited NYC had an exhibit about someone whose ideas and art was way ahead of their time. Paik wanted to humanize robots and incorporate technology used in society.

On the 3^rd floor, “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” was screened. It had a psychedelic and sci-fi twist to it. Orwell envisioned the TV as a tool of totalitarian control, whilst Paik demonstrated its usefulness in hosting conversations across thousands of miles, ultimately bringing people together and making the world smaller. It was a satellite instillation that used his “video synthesizer” for special effects. He wanted to use technology as a bridge between people, connecting them in ways beyond imagination.

        Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot is highly related to film 160. Paik is known as the “father of video art.” He experimented a lot with moving images and that unique creativity transformed itself into provocative art. Paik also used TVs, recording equipment and moving images in his artwork.

       The form and content had mixed media (cameras/statues/TVs/sketches/participation) to make displays about humanizing technology/robots with the use of breasts and genitalia, in addition to defecation as the robot was designed to poop beans. Making male and female “robots” using TVs, as well as the TV showing video segments that made the robots “come alive.” The three-camera participation included cameras, color filters, TV and projector. Playing around with the ideas of “live” and “recorded” broadcasting. Without the participant, there is no art, only equipment.

       To humanize technology, he tried to make it stimulating through nudity. K-456 is a robot with genitalia and breasts. The Reclining Buddha has a sculpture of the reclining Buddha laying parallel to a naked woman in the television. There was also the Woman playing cello with a TV bra. Paik explains, “By using TV as a bra . . . the most intimate belonging of a human being, we will demonstrate the human use of technology, and also stimulate viewers . . . to look for the new, imaginative and humanistic ways of using our technology.”

       It was an entertaining exhibit that truly glorifies the artist’s innovation and creativity, rightfully. The Asia Society museum celebrates Nam June Paik and his visionary art that opened the gate for so many others.

Sound Cloud

https://soundcloud.com/kfhunterfilmp454

"Codes and Modes" Experience

            I attended the “Codes and Modes” panel on “The Weak Image: Documentary as Research.” When looking through the schedule, this concept stuck out as the most interesting. Perhaps I had high expectations, but it reminded me more of an elementary school presentation than creative professionals speaking on subjects that they are supposedly passionate about. I feel like I am being too harsh, but the fact of the matter is, I didn’t get much out of it. And that’s a shame since I genuinely wanted to love it. There isn’t anyone or anything particular at fault per say, but I felt embarrassed.

           When I heard  “Documentary as Research” I wasn’t quite positive on what that would entail. At a glance, it brought to mind a discussion from Media 101 regarding Eddie Adams’ photo of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a Vietcong prisoner, one that people believe had helped speed up the end of the Vietnam War. A photo that ruined General Nguyen Ngoc Loan’s life when he returned to America because of the one sided story it told, showing him as an evil monster beyond repair. It proved just how powerful an image can be, and how skewed our thoughts become when they are not explained completely along side it.

           Irene Gustafson spoke first, and she seemed highly intelligent and I have no doubt she knew what she was talking about, but I made the mistake of sitting too close to the door, so people kept walking by me or chatted amongst each other heedlessly. So with that, my experience does not speak for the entire audience. She did mention Sianne Ngai’s Our Aesthetic Categories, which brought great insight into the subject matter. Gustafson used her example of how aesthetic judgment begins with the immediate feeling we may get when we see a photograph or the phrasing used to describe something, such examples were the adjectives “zany, cute, or interesting” and how they have a certain kind of connotation. The next person who came up was Charles Musser; he seemed a bit more upbeat about what he was going to present. He was also very hard to hear, and apparently made the error of depending on his PowerPoint/video during his speech. When the video he was going to play would not work, there was an awkward 10+ minutes in which a techie and Mr. Musser tried to fix the sound and PowerPoint before he gave up and read directly from his notes in a disgruntled and swift manner until he finished what one might presume as fast as he possibly could. I was confused and didn’t see the point they were trying to make. By the time Aparna Sharma stood up to present, it had almost been an hour and a half, which was the full time of the panel. Perhaps knowing this, she rushed through her speech that she read directly from her paper. 

           The concept of documentary as research brought to mind a cultural anthropology class I had taken, that brought up consequences that might occur when people are presented with only one side of a story. Consequently, one must be prudent when using documentary as research, as images create a stereotype at first glance.

Soundwalk:NYC

            When I started to gather the mindset to go out for the “sound walk,” I tried to imagine what I would add to the blog at that point, without actually having done it. I have lived here in New York City for almost one year now, and coming up with a plausible sound continuation actually stumped me. I realized if I wasn’t walking about with someone, I almost always had my headphones on with music playing. What surprised me was the amount of time I would spend searching for my headphones before leaving my apartment, causing much ado if I couldn’t find them. To be honest, I was affrighted to spend one hour outside, listening to the noise of the utterly chaotic environment that surrounds me. After all, there has been so much construction occurring around my apartment, as well as plumbers installing new gas pipes through my building causing there to be nothing but frustrating noise that could drive anyone mad. But so I left my apartment located in the mid 60’s Manhattan and turned down Park Avenue to go to Barnes and Noble on fifth avenue.
              Cars were honking, with the obnoxious drivers who believe if they hold their horn down long enough, suddenly all traffic will clear for them. Then there were the emergency vehicle sirens, non-rhythmic and piercing, yet they are almost always turned on. Whenever there is heavy traffic, the knowledge that someone could be suffering immensely whilst the ambulance is just stuck is eerie and worrisome. The street vendors who are everywhere in NYC are strangely the most silent. The homeless, especially in the low 60's on Madison Avenue, would yell out asking for people to "help them out." On the way down, there is a man who says "can anybody help me? Buy me something to eat?" The way he repeats this exact phrase and over again, in the same tone, it becomes a rhythm.  There are three homeless men in wheel chairs on 3 consecutive blocks with two wearing neck braces. They have been doing this for four months. The last guy will try to drive towards everyone who walks by saying "you gonna help me?" faced usually with silence. A constant sound is footsteps, mine included. Men wearing dress shoes or women in heels were the most noticeable. The sound of my shoes hitting the pavement would keep a steady beat throughout the walk, aside from when id tip toe around others to avoid run ins. The steps of others was abundant, accompanied at times with the noise coming from bags, purses, and brief cases. People would sometimes stop and reach inside their bags and I could hear the jingle and rustling of keys and other objects. However, most of the noises did not come from people, but by objects. Cars and trucks swishing bye, sirens of all kinds, and the never-ending and quite irking blare from the drilling and hammering due to construction. There is so much occurring that I feel a sensory overload, which explains why I tend to use headphones to distance myself from the utter chaos. Despite being overwhelmed at times, the buzzing atmosphere is an unmistakable trait of city life that keeps it interesting.
              In an attempt to get into the spirit of things, I began listening for everyday symphonies. Hearing the sirens and construction form music. Granted, it is a symphony that you have to really be looking for, but it was there. And it is what makes this city so unique! There are so many different sounds, smells, and colors you have to take in when walking through New York City, and they are always there! We just forget sometimes to take a minute and take our surroundings in. Our senses are what make colorful and beautiful.

Define a Space: The Six Train

https://vimeo.com/109092412

Intro to semester: Artist Statement

Kim Fleming

Artist Statement

Film 160

8/30/2014

The world has so much beauty, I am merely trying to capture it to share with those who cannot see it yet. I love the idea that something you witness, whether it be reading, listening, or watching can change your mood and perception on life in a matter of seconds. We live in a time where there are so many mediums available, we can share ideas, stories, jokes, and information with others all over the world, and perhaps make their days a little better.

Living in New York City gives me the chance to see the newest ways people communicate, and ask "how can i make this better?"

Despite my ambitions, I humbly admit to being a beginner in the creative world. However, each day is an opportunity to learn and develop an in-depth understanding of my own, as well as other's perspective.