Photography in Motion

In order to capture motion through forms of media made up of still images, artists and scientists had to work together to create new forms of art. As it turns out, these people inspired many various kinds of art involving portrayal of motion in unique ways.

Whether it is tracing an image frame by frame or using video to string images together, capturing natural, human motion proved to be a challenge. However, I can see how these methods inspired things like animation and stop-motion pieces, which use the same exact methods with more advanced technology. Repetition was used to create the motion as naturally and realistic as possible.

The time consuming process that these men undertook led to many variations of motion studies, letting us better understand both motion itself (in both humans and animals) as well as the ways to manipulate photography, eventually inspiring the film stir and cinematography.

Pixel Art

I made my skittles into a smiling cat, and even though the edges aren't rounded and neat like the original picture, I placed the skittles evenly and symmetrically to end up with a cohesive piece of art. I believe it is legible as some sort of cat, and like the way it turned out!

Placement of the skittles row by row made it easy to keep them in line both vertically and horizontally, resulting in a neat and precise final product.

Stage Door Blog - Broadway

The broadway shows featured on this blog represent a huge timeline, showing how the performance has changed over time. The singing and the dancing has always been over the top and entertaining, but the style of the performance has developed.

In the older ones, it seems that flashy outfits and performance OR the voice is highlighted. People were either standing still in front of a microphone or dancing with lots of people, depending on the message and tone of the song being performed. In the newer ones, the more modern techniques help tell a story, with the performers wearing fancy outfits, accompanied with live music and overall a better quality performance as technology has also progressed. The songs are recorded and the performances are filmed in better quality.

All of the broadway performances I watched showed how performance has once again shifted from previous historical ages. Now, it's all about the music and dancing, things that we, in today's society, also enjoy compared to the deadly activities people used to watch for fun. The performers show a true range of talent -- their voices, their acting, their dancing -- they can really do it all when it comes to theater, which impresses people.

Broadway is a form of entertainment that continues to live on even today, with people taking pride in the arts and praising those who are talented enough to do the things we can see in all of these broadway clips.

Decontextualization

Decontextualization is all about creativity, taking something and turning it into something else. Based on the piece of work, things can take on non-traditional meaning and completely change the context of a work. DaVinci, someone known for taking advantage of this concept, took inspiration from things like birds, turning them into creative, sometimes abstract art pieces by turning the bird into something different that most people could not imagine up.

While it may be hard to understand decontextualized pieces, it introduces a chance for the mind to make connections that may not be so obvious. We can dig deep within ourselves to make comparisons or new meaning out of everyday objects that we may not have ever had a second thought about.

It is all about putting things into perspective, even if the perspective is new or harder to understand. It deepens our understanding of our own mind and thought processes while also inspiring others to do the same, allowing more art to be created day after day.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops

The film featuring The Carolina Chocolate Drop's story debuts a group of three talented musicians who work hard to keep the culture of black string music alive. As any band, they have their struggles and their downfalls, but the amount of people they inspired and reached could be enough to keep the tradition alive and thriving for many.

Each individual musician had their own background, culture and personality, and even though they were all very different, the sound and the music somehow worked beautifully. The contrast in attitude and musical style created a unique sound that gave me chills at some points. Each person is so talented in their own way, playing multiple instruments, singing, and more, depending on the composition they create or cover.

I like how much the music was featured in this piece, focusing on both band life and personal life to form a cohesive story that highlighted the journey, the goods and the beds of the situation the band found themselves in.

I especially like the part of the film that explained Justin's burnout, in a way. While the sound was still amazing, band members did not seem as passionate or excited, something important for that style of music, as it is a performance just as much as a song. I feel like this is a concept that doesn't get enough attention is the music scene -- the tiredness, the tensions, the fights. However, it is important to understand that these people, despite their success, have their struggles and personal issues as well.

Most Creative YouTube Videos & Alternative Math

The first video I chose to watch was "CNN: Most Creative YouTube Videos," highlighting some of the most out-there, different videos on a platform with millions of videos to choose from. All of the videos featured in this clip were referred to as "modern art" by the hosts, proving that YouTube videos can be more than an Internet hole meant to waste time with no real creative substance.

The videos considered the most creative are high-quality and clear with very specific concepts. They are things I have never seen before, forms of art with lots of imagery, real artistry and time-consuming projects. Whether is is food flying into the air or arms being combined into one big picture, these videos spark an interest because they are new and different ideas that show real creativity and thinking-processes.

The next video I watched was "Alternative Math." This video, while a little bit cheesy with bad acting and exaggeration, showed a real world struggle of school, specifically teaching. In today's ultra-sensitive world, teachers must be careful not to offend or over-criticize students. It is important to note that many believe math, with black and white, right and wrong answers, does not parallel to the grays of life, and must be taught to students in a way that every individual will understand, since everyone cannot learn from the same teaching methods.

The teacher being accused of doing something so wrong as correcting a child receives endless backlash, ridicule, and even expulsion from her teaching position. However, at the end, she proves society and her superiors wrong when they pay her severance, confirming that 2+2 does, in fact, equal 4, the answer that sparked so much conflict in the first place. Sometimes, there is only one right answer, and society or schools must learn different methods to teach this so that every one is on the same page and prepared for the future, exactly what teachers are hired to do.

Madam Butterfly

Madam Butterfly provides a unique take on an opera by using claymation characters. The music paired with the character's minimal expressions create an emotional, sad story of something that happened to many different women across the world in our history. The time is sped up, but the creators use interesting metaphors to get the point across and help the viewers understand a deeper meaning.

It takes place in Japan, beginning with a man and a woman waking up in bed together as they had slept together the night before. Once the man goes to leave it is clear after a couple of seconds that the man is not coming back. It represents a disturbing story of American men traveling to various ports while on duty, sleeping with as many women as possible and leaving them behind to fend for themselves.

Unfortunately, the woman ends up getting pregnant, with no one to support herself or a child since she is all alone, The actual birth is represented by a fish breaking out of a glass bowl, a metaphor explaining this child coming into an unfamiliar setting. The creator uses yet another metaphor by showing the umbilical cord as a kite string, representing attachment as well as childhood.

Eventually, the man returns only to take the child along with the many others he managed to father on his journey outside of the United States. The women is now all alone, without a man or child that she once had. This leads her to rip herself apart (literally) representing suicide, as she no longer felt any reason to live. She returns to the screen with small butterfly wings, glowing and happy once again as Madam Butterfly.

Gothic Architecture - Cathedrals

Gothic cathedrals are a beautiful form of architecture with many features that can classify them as such. These features include a bishop, a rose window, flying buttresses, clusters of thin columns, with the entire structure in the shape of a cross. The beauty and uniqueness of these buildings can be appreciated by all, religious or not.

Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Peters Basilica and more all utilize amazing pieces of art on the inside to create beams of light, a mood unlike any other for those experiencing it. The cathedrals are meant to being a form of inspiring architecture, travel destinations for so many. The cathedrals are sacred places, some with graves underneath that only very specific people can experience.

To balance out the dark, gloomy environment, stained glass windows and art-covered walls contract the mood and turn the atmosphere into one that everyone dresses up for and gets excited about. Choirs and organs create music that pairs with the art to create a spiritual experience and sound. This is done by recruiting little boys to sing the high notes before their voices changed. This, unfortunately, resulted in castration for the sake of their voices, a darker aspect of the history of cathedrals.

Circus Maximus and Colosseum Observation

In the Circus Maximus, the audience has gotten much more involved than previous forms of entertainment. Sounds have changed from musical instruments to cheering. The entertainment style has also drastically changed as more violence is involved and much more is at stake for the participants since it is a race rather than talent such as singing or dancing.

The next example, the Colosseum, houses another large, rowdy audience. The violence is taken up a notch as well as the entertainment is killing instead of music or races.It's all about the value of entertainment provided ofr the audience, regardless of how cruel the actual acts are. While the idea of watching someone else get killed it gruesome in today's society, the violence was seen as an appeal, giving participants extra confidence and status if they came out on top. The level of danger seems to increase exponentially as years progressed, represented by the shift to horses and tigers within the stadiums.

One similarity between the two stages of entertainment is the large, architecturally impressive structures that are able to house thousands of individuals. The focus is always on the audience, making sure they leave with some sort of fulfillment.