Assignment #9: Movie poster

I chose to do “Humpty Dumpty,” so I could sort of make fun of the Hollywood practice of mining comics and cartoons and other “childish” things for material for serious blockbuster films (i.e. The Dark Knight, Transformers, etc.).

Assignment #8: Action Films

Batman – “The Electrical Brain”

When describing “action/adventure” films of the 1940s, some degree of anachronism is unavoidable. In the 40s, there really was not a set genre called “action.” Rather, there were gangster pictures, pirate films, and westerns. In addition, many of these films were not released in stand-alone 2 hour films. Instead, they were released as serials, which were half hour long short chapters of a much longer film.

The action films of today are rooted in old serials. When George Lucas released Star Wars (which is really an action/adventure film rather than science fiction), there was heavy emphasis on the techniques of the old action serials, such as wipes, dissolves, and outlandish, unrealistic plots. Other films, such as the Indiana Jones series, also heavily reference serials. The first modern Batman film from 1989 also owed a lot to the gangster pictures and serials from the past. If you’re stuck, just remember that the villains in that film wear pinstriped suits and top hats. That wasn’t an accident. Since then, the action film has evolved to incorporate more adult themes, increased violence, more sophisticated camerawork (such as hand-held and steadicam work), and an emphasized realism, which culminates in the recent Batman film, The Dark Knight.

The Batman serial from 1943- the first chapter, “The Electrical Brain,” is what I will be looking at. The sets are quite obviously cheap and low-budget. The costumes are also cheap looking, and there seems to be no emphasis on the realism. The characters are quite content to exist in a fantastic, unrealistic universe. The bad guys use a laser gun, which seems to be quite outlandish for a Batman film. The editing utilizes a lot of cross-cutting, which was a quite popular technique back then. It still is used today all the time, but it follows the much more traditional style found in the early pictures of D.W. Griffith (such as Birth of a Nation). The music is much more of a traditional, Romantic style piece, that continuously plays over the action. This is in stark contrast to the more avantgarde style today that utilizes different key signatures and tone clusters. And the end of the film always is a cliffhanger. While cliffhangers are still used today, they’re not used nearly as much. The themes are also much less adult and disturbing. At the end of the serial, it’s basically a bunch of bad guys with a laser gun chasing Batman around. This is also much different than say, The Dark Knight, which features Two-Face pointing a gun at a child’s head, attempted terrorism, and philosophical dialogue.

Assignment #7

I made my photos black and white to give them the feel of a grainy old horror film. I’m not a morning person, and when I wake up, there are usually these feelings of disorientation and terror. The photos were arranged quite simply to give off the impression of a storyboard from a film. I put the quote from Norman Bates to give a nod to Psycho. I wanted to give the banal (waking up) an interesting twist, and the contrast between the two quotes is my way of being funny. The piece is intentionally melodramatic.

Assignment #3

MODERN GRAFFITI

When: 1960’s-present
Where: Originated in urban areas
Who: Famous artists include Jean Michel Basquiat, TAKI 183, PHASE 2 and Banksy, and some early graffiti and tags include “Kilroy was here” (WW2 era) and Bozo Texino (the earliest railroad boxcar, dating to the 1920s).
What: Graffiti/street art has its roots in the American hip hop movement. While there were many instances of slogans/engravings in public places, as well as tagging that emerged separately from the hip hop movement, graffiti as we know it today is indelibly linked to this musical era. Graffiti artists used to paint or tag (spraypainting a design on a public surface) train cars. While this practice still exists, in New York, there was a time when the form moved away from trains due to the 1989 Clean Train Movement. Increased security and law enforcement made it difficult in New York to continue to paint on trains, so the form moved towards murals and more elaborate and different avenues to paint.
Why: Graffiti allows for self-expression as reaction to political landscape. By its own nature, graffiti is a form of political rebellion and protest. It’s illegal, but has emerged as a legitimate art form through the works of Basquiat, and to a lesser degree, Keith Haring. You do not have to go to art school to be a competent graffiti artist.

Graffiti can be recognized by its reliance on thick, visible stenciling. This is done out of a necessity for the words to be visible in a sometimes chaotic environment. Graffiti is done in public for a reason, and the insistence on large letters is due to the fact that if they were smaller, you wouldn’t be able to see them. The colors is largely dependent on how much spray paint you can carry around with you. The reliance on stencils is also a part of graffiti, as it reflects its roots as a means of political expression and protest.

Assignment #6: Waking Up

This pretty much sums up how I feel when I wake up in the morning…

Assignment #5

My favorite photographer is probably Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976). She is best known for her photographs of botanicals and industry. In 1920 she relocated to San Francisco, where she concentrated on botanical and industrial photographs, especially of various industrial parks in and around the Bay area. In 1929, her photography changed focus, and she was now preoccupied with hands. The three photographs that I feel are most powerful artistically all have to do with human hands-

Imogen Cunningham: Hands of a Hand Surgeon

The last photo, “Hands of a Hand Surgeon,” was the one I chose to recreate. I feel that the image is particularly powerful due to the isolation. The hands are portrayed as truly powerful instruments, and the fact that they are so light compared to the dark background illustrates this perfectly. I also like the fact that the body behind the hands are covered in fabric. It’s almost as if the rest of the body isn’t necessary, and it takes away any distraction from the hands in the picture.

Assignment #4

Bliss pop ad

Assignment #2

The piece that I chose was “United Enemies: A Play in Ten Scenes” (1991) by Thomas Schutte. The piece is a series of photographs describing handmade puppets. The puppets themselves have a skewed sense of balance, as they are not symmetrical. This creates a skewed sense.

Proportion exemplified in Vermeer’s “Woman With a Water Jug,” creates a sense of order. The woman’s head is just right for her body, and the picture on the wall is accordingly bigger.

In Vermeer’s “The Geographer,” a lively and energetic linear rhythm is conveyed. The man is moving his hands, touching the globe. The sheet is crumpled up, which signifies movement, past and present.

In Vermeer’s “Love Letter,” The emphasis is on the two women talking to each other. They are framed in a door way, between two spaces of clutter. This makes them clearer to the viewer.

In Vermeer’s “One Night in the Kitchen,” he expresses unity through the checkered floor pattern. The two people standing are held together through this pattern. Additionally, their similar clothing colors unifies them.