Critique Response Assignment #3 : Stop Motion Video

This project had only a few requirements; to make a video using still photography to create motion. We could use live action, drawing, or anything except computer animation to give the impression of life to something inanimate. We had to create at least one minute and add sound to the piece. We had three weeks for this project which was ample time and I think even made things a little more difficult. Having too much time is sometimes a problem. During the course of the three weeks I had a hard time making initial decisions and changed my mind a lot. Other people in the class also changed their minds last minute or even started completely over multiple times.

For me this project ended up being a sort of merger between painting, sculpture and experimental video. After about a week of trying stuff out, nothing was really feeling good so I checked out a book on Jessica Stockholder to get inspiration and also paid a visit to the goodwill outlet for some objects. After I had a stock of materials, I just started to play around with what these materials could do and how they could become animated. Putting things next to each other to find out what it looked like and then responding or reacting from there. Following a feedback loop of responding to what I just did and then doing something else.

During the course of making this I found an essay taken from a statement from Marina Abromovic in 1992.

"In our 'civilized' world the non-rational capacities which we still posses as children are completely destroyed within a rational education system. Bit by bit we are pushed into a rational pattern, losing our non-rational abilities and instincts. Our society is constructed entirely upon rational patterns. Everything which is not rational is treated with a certain secrecy. Only among friends can someone admit he believes in dreams, telepathy, acts of providence, astrological prophesies, magical powers or visions. Our rational way of thinking demands proof, evidence, but this is only one element in our preceptive capabilities."

The statement goes on to say that artists should take on the role of couriers through the non-rational. Artists accompany society on the search for a new order. For a new way of thinking for society. Making art is about searching for new ways of thinking, probing the limits of the realm of perception for things not previously explored. For new "mental jumps" which aid the brain in finding new places for opportunity to open up, new ways for the brain to make sense of phenomena.