Final Project: Claymation Video

For this project, I used both video and installation media. I created the characters with playdoh, and used my backyard as a setting. I used a digital camera to capture the stop-motion. I would also consider this to be installation art, because it is site-specific. I left the creatures in the tree, so the installation would last a bit longer!

Six: Blog

The blog I created is called Parachute Pants in Outer Space. It's a collaboration of my creations, as well as things on the internet I find interesting. The are a lot of MS Paintings, many of them dealing with outer space. I call it "artsy nerdery."

Five: Music Video

I wanted to create a trippy, surreal vibe with my music video. I filmed the footage of costumed friends dancing and hanging out with a video camera, and also recorded footage of a colorful strobe light. I did an immense amount of editing of the dancing, etc. and then placed the footage of the people over the strobe footage, by manipulating the opacity for both. For the audio, I looped part of a song playing in the background of the footage, and put vocal clips from the event over it.

Four: Commercial

For my commercial, I wanted to promote my favorite and unfortunately-endangered animal: the panda. I used a digital camera to record video and still footage. I also used MS Paint to create the still shots with words, and also used it to add to some of the stills for the stop-motion parts.

Three-Point-Five: Performance Score

For the performance score I wrote myself, I wanted to create a sort of voyeuristic, and perhaps eye-opening, experience for the performer. I wanted my score to make strangers seem more like individual, breathing, people instead of blending into a combined, insignificant mass. Not that people are actually insignificant, but I know I personally usually group "strangers" into one large mental clump.

The Score:
1) Go to a public place with a lot of people. It can be a library, a mall, a sporting event, wherever.
2) Find a person who catches your interest, and take mental notes on them. You don't have to stare and act creepy, but just look at them for a few seconds and try to remember what their face looks like, what they were wearing, who they were with, etc.
3) Draw a sketch of designated person.
4) Write an imaginary description for this person. What do you think their name is? What are their hobbies? Are they married? Elaborate.

John performed my score, and his sketch of his designated person was similar to this dude:

John said this character's name was something along the lines of Dale, he lived in Millard with his wife and two kids, and his hobbies included motorcycles and NASCAR.

I think John fulfilled the score quite nicely.

For the score I was randomly chosen to perform, the description was as follows:
Go on a walk around your neighborhood. Pick up items you find along the way, and place them in a bag you find. When you get home, arrange items from least favorite to most favorite.

My list:
1) straw
2) Bit O' Honey candy wrapper
3) energy drink can
4) chocolate milk bottle
5) pine branch
6) seed pod
7) corn cob
8) spiky branch
9) bright pink leaf
10) gift bow
11) red berries
12) little red chair:


I wasn't a big fan of the objects that were litter, except for the gift bow, which I imagined was from Xmas, even though it was two months later. I also really liked the little red chair--it seemed so sad, sitting there on the side of the road. The cats at my house keep it company now, though.

Three: Learning to Love You More

I chose to do assignment #51 for the Learning to Love You More assignment. My response was as follows:

When I die, I would like my organs to be donated, and then have my body burned in a big bonfire, or something cheap. I wouldn't want my family to have to pay for a cremation and ceremony and whatnot. I've never been a person who is into formalities, so I certainly wouldn't want anything formal. I'll also be, well, dead so it's not going to matter to me what happens to my body. I'm not a religious person, but one "truth" I've come to believe in is that I'm no more important than any other creature that lives on this earth. I don't want my funeral to be about me alone; I want it to mourn the death of trees, of animals, of our deteriorating world, of mankind and all the unhappiness we all have to endure in our lives. I would want my family to use any money they may have spent on burials or ceremonies to go travel somewhere instead. Maybe they could go to Costa Rica, my favorite place, one I instantly felt a connection with. I would love for my ashes to be buried in the rain forest, or scattered in the sea, whatever my family feels is right. I only hope that they feel a glimpse of happiness through the pain; my existence was only a tiny tiny tiny sliver of a fraction of something huge and wonderful.

Two: Site Specific

For the Site-Specific project, I decided to make a sculptural pyramid out of Coke cans, and placed it on the Pepsi machine in the Fine Arts Building. My materials included: many soda cans, and a lot of hot glue. I also used the tabs to create a sort of sunburst coming out of the upper cans.

Is this project commenting on the absurdity of brand competition? About the ridiculousness of consumer culture? Or, is the red, white and blue color scheme a symbol of patriotism? Or, is this piece suggesting that whether a person drinks Pepsi or Coke is irrelevant, it's still just a high fructose corn syrup beverage that contributes to this country's obesity epidemic? Or... does it just look pretty? You decide.

Before installing:


Full installation:

One: Re-imagined object

For this assignment, I took an old vinyl record and made it into a bowl by putting it in the oven on low heat. Not only is it a bowl now, but it also doubles as a wall decoration, or as avant-garde headwear.

Before:



After: