Dreamscapes and Flipbooks

Well, in class recently, we've been delving more deeply into highly conceptual films, most of them much more modern. One of my personal favorites was the Stanley Kubrik classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've loved the movie since the first time I saw it, about five years ago. Everything from the realistic vision of the future, to the psychedelic final scenes, it is a clear scinematic masterpiece. We also watched another Kubrik hit, A Clockwork Orange. Of course, it's widely known to be a very intense, and at many times, vulgar film, but the overall message is definitely one of anarchy and world change. Definitely a visionary film in the same way 2001 was. In addition to these Kubrik classics, we watched other interesting takes of the future, Bladerunner and Videodrome. We followed up with the musical oddity (a classic though), Rocky Horror Picture Show. All are great films in their own rights, and should really be seen especially those by Stanley Kubrik.

In other news, we've been working diligently for the past two weeks on flipbooks, as a way of exploring traditional animation techniques, and I have to say that, though I've made the simple flip-animation here or there in the past, this was a much greater undertaking, and I very happy with the final result. In the very near future, I will post pictures from it, and eventually I hope to get the time to compile it into a digital video of some sort, probably an animated gif or something. So look forward to that.

The Glorious Silent Era

We're progressing nicely in our Art & Technology course, making the sensible move from the origin of moving pictures and film to the first silent movies. This is especially exciting for me, as about two years ago, I started purchasing various silent films on DVD, and have really enjoyed most of them. Among those that I've seen are The Golem, a famed 1920 seudo-horror film of German origin (I was a bit let down by the ending.), Nosferatu, the orginal horror classic, and The Lost World, a real showcase of the stop-motion special effects of the day. In fact, one of my favorite movies of all time is the silent film The Thief of Bagdad. Its overall atmosphere and special effects make it stand out clearly among other films of its era, and even make it somewhat comparable to modern films. (It was one of the most expensive movies ever made, costing around $2 million, which in the '20s was unheard of.) Watching clips in class also reminded me of how much I really want to see Metropolis, the first true sci-fi film. Sadly, I've never seen a copy in stores, and haven't gotten around to looking for it online. It's been my experience that many people find that silent movies just don't grab their attention, due to the dirth of dialogue, but I've been surprisingly compelled by most of them. It seems that musical scores and acting (Which was then a necessity, and now, not so much.) more than make up for the lack of dialogue, aside from the odd text blurb here or there. So, needless to say, this particular class topic is extremely enjoyable to me.


And I almost forgot to mention that we watched A Trip to the Moon, a movie I'd long waited to see. For many years, I've known the iconic image of the man in the moon with a bullet-like object in his eye, but did not know from what movie it originated. Now, not only do I know its origin, but I have had the pleasure of watching the movie with English commentary, and enjoyed it immensely.

The Dawn of Motion Pictures

Most recently, we've been exploring the beginning of photography, which is extremely interesting in and of itself, both historically and technologically. However, more interesting to me is what that led into: the earliest of motion pictures. Beginning as nothing more than a series of still photos strung together into a sequence, this practice quickly evolved into something much more closely resembling modern video (analog video, of course). There really is something about century-old video that speaks in ways that photographs of the same vintage cannot. It's one thing to simply look at the faces of people from long ago, but to actually see them in motion is almost haunting. Even more haunting than this early video is the beginning of audio recording. In class, we watched what is the oldest known synchronized audio/video recording, the Dickson Experimental Sound Film. Oddly enough, this past summer I had taken an interest in early film, and had discovered this same short film clip online. Viewed as just an old video clip, it isn't impressive, but when you know exaclty how important it is to the history of multimedia, it takes on a whole new air.

A Night At the Opera

We've been watching excepts from quite a few operas in class, and recently, a few musicals as well. While I can certainly appreciate the talent and hard work that goes into the production and performance of an opera, and I fully understand why it is an art form held in high regard, I'm just not a real fan. Sure the stories are often very good, whether they're tragic or uplifting. Sure the sets are often very ornate and real wonders to behold. However, it's the singing that ultimately turns me off. While I'm not a huge fan of musicals either, I can better tolerate them, as the singing that they feature is much more traditional. Operatic singing feels to me like it is more style than substance. It is characterized by an obligatory and unique technique (the drawing-out of syllables and direct transformation of words into vocal demonstrations). It just seems that the technique gets in the way of the performance, and causes me to lose interest quickly. I'm sure many others would completely disagree with me, telling me that it is that technique that makes opera what it is. They are probably right, but I just don't go for it. Well, that's just my two cents on opera.

Looking Forward

Going into my Art and Technology course, I'm not entirely sure of what to expect, but I have heard a few things here and there. From what I've been told, the course will deal with a wide variety of interesting subject matter, some of which could be considered controversial. This doesn't bother me at all, as I'm quite used to subjects that many others would shy away from, and am in fact interested to see exactly what sorts of topics we will be discussing. I have always tried to stay as open-minded as possible with regards to all things in life. (I still have my limits, of course. To this day, there's very little that would convince me to get on a roller-coaster.) As for my generally hopes for the course, I mostly want to widen my artistic views and gain a better appreciation for the nearly endless gamut of subjects that can be called art.