Project 1

Assignment 1

My first assignment is based on a drawing I did last semester. Titled, "Observations in a Coffee shop" the picture was meant to capture the changes in the scenery as I continued to move my pen. While I set up rules for myself for this assignment, I caught myself quickly breaking them. After my subjects repositionsed themselves or moved away, I strained to remember exactly how the objects had looked the moment before to keep some clarity in the overall picture. Continuing along this vein, I want my multimedia project to focus on time and memory. More specifically, I want to comment on the ability to alter memory. As an artist trying to capture a moment in time I couldn't always keep up or catch every detail especially since my models were constantly in motion. I granted myself license to sometimes change the image to make it more appealing. Memory works this way too. It can catalog the overall picture but the smaller details within are often changed.
In my project I filmed myself baking pumpkin muffins. Then a week later I recorded myself trying to recall exactly all the steps I had taken. In this process many of steps were reversed, left out, shortened, etc. I then went back into the video and altered it to match my audio retelling.

Response to The Aesthetics of Narcissism

In her article, The Aesthetics of Narcissism, Rosalind Krauss comments of the introspective nature of video. While other art forms tend to focus the "objective, materials factors specific to a particular form", video, Krauss says, is much more psychological. Its focus is either the artist looking in on himself, the artist questioning the art of video, or the bringing in the viewer to consider their own involvement in the work.

Although it was a difficult article to get through, I am glad we began the semester by reading The Aesthetics of Narcissism. I was compelled by how the examples Krauss used did not usual emphasize entertainment as their primary goal. While defining the aim of video, this prolix article reminded me that the true nature of art is not always for beauty or amusement. Art can be anything you want it to be. It gave me a better sense of what multimedia is about, while allowing me to reflect on art as a whole, and what I want to produce as an artist. I want to use this semester to push myself ask the big questions (usually reserved for late night reflection) while exploring this new form of self expression.