Assignment 1: Create 3 book stacks
The contrast of interests between an Uncle and a niece
1. Mastering the trade, the potty book for girls
2. How to be a quick turn real estate millionaire baby shark
3. Getting past your breakup, no more pacifier, duck
Each image has a book from my boyfriends at home library and one book from his nieces at home library.
My boyfriend Gavin, is a 23 year old electrician whose goal in life is to make as much money as he can. He is very interested in reading about economics, learning new trades and learning about word history. On the other hand, his two year old niece Octavia is interested in dancing to the baby shark song and is being potty trained at the current moment.
They both live in the same house so I thought it would be a fun experiment to try to make funny statements using a book from each of their libraries.
I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary when going through Octavias books, however I found some funny books while looking through Gavins collection like : getting past your break up.
These stacks are a play on the “real-life” and the soft reality you live in as a child.
Assignment 2: Short Video
Ideas and Chicken Scratch:
My brother does videography for skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding. For this type of videography, the fish eye lens is very popular to use because it gives a cool look to the clip and showcases what trick is being preformed very well. This lens is also used for underwater photo/video, intentional distortion and wide panoramic or hemispherical image. I have the idea to use this lens to create a short video for this assignment and to make the video as weird as possible. Also I want to maybe use this lense for not its intended purpose. Here are my possible ideas:
- Licking whipped cream off on my face; or someone else doing this action.
I had this random idea pop into my brain, it has nothing to do with the arboretum. I just thought that the combination of someone trying to lick whipped cream off of their face and struggling because their tounge is too short to reach would be extra funny because the fisheye would distort their face.
- Someone doing gymnastics in a prom dress.
I thought that filming someone tumbling barefoot on the grass in the arboretum, in clothes that one would normally not do gymnastics in would make for an interesting video. Combined with some dancing, I think it would look both goofy and mysterious to see someone in a prom dress doing back flips in the arboretum.
- A slow performance
Another idea is a slow performance; trying to move as slow as possible when doing a specific action. I did a slow performance in a group a few months ago, and I enjoyed it a lot, but now I would like to see what it would be like to do a slow performance solo. The goal would be to walk as slow as possible for point A to point B (not sure what that would be yet), and try to connect with the rich nature surrounding me. Observing surroundings and listening to all the animal noises.
Field Trip Reflection: Toronto Biennial
Hanging Shoes:
This piece was was particularly captivating to me because I loved that this artist chose to repurpose something that probably would’ve ended up in a landfill, into art.
When I first observed this, I only looked up at all the hanging shoes and I thought that the way that the shoes were cut up, were meant to look like abstracted birds. It was only after that I noticed that the shadows that were cast from the shoes also looked like a flock of birds in the sky. This is such an interesting concept of repurposing materials and also using a natural resource to create such a cool installation.
From our guild at the gallary space, I learnt a little more about this artist and I came to know that this artist is interested in the topic of immigration/migration. If I remember correctly, the artist themselves is an immigrant and connected the topic of immigration to the migration of birds. A connection that I saw with shoes and birds is that we use shoes to get from place to place and birds use their wings.
Cardboard Drawings:
These drawings are from the same artist and are drawing of many different species of birds on cardboard that was used to import food from other countries. Depending on the season, birds migrate from place to place, and certain fruits and vegetables are only in season in certain months. Again, the artist used repurposed materials, but also has a very well thought out concept by using materials that were perviously used to transport goods from different countries.
Work in Progress: Assignment 2- Short Video
I have decided to go with the slow performance idea. I am going to set my camera on a tripod and walk towards it from a certain distance (maybe 100-200m away). I don’t want to be too far away that you cannot see me at the start of the video but I also want to be far away enough that the video is decently long (aiming for around 20 mins I think, maybe longer depending). I will chose a point A to start my walk from and point B will be my camera. I would like to do it on a specific path because the trees drape over the path very beautifully, however I don’t want to be in the way of any vehicles that may want to pass through. I am going to wear a vintage dress, and the idea is to connect the idea that when this dress was made and worn, the trees in the arboretum were growing into the beautiful trees they are today. Connecting old with old in a way.
Slow Performance: Video Assignment