Kevin's blog

narrative exercise #2: the hand

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I wasn't too happy with my original set of images to make a "narrative"...but one picture inspired me enough to create a mini horror story. I'm a big fan of horror movies, and interestingly enough, I was watching "The Fly" when thinking about the narrative exercise. I put my mind to work, got props, and played around with points-of-view. I wanted to leave an open ended conclusion...even though my "protagonist" perishes, there is still the eerie feeling that he will re-emerge into something more monstrous...then again, it looks like my protagonist was attacked by a giant Elmo...

THE HAND

Setting: A dimly lite room. An obsessive horror film fanatic watches AMC's Horrorfest on the tube.

Characters: Chico, a mysterious woman...or is she?

Precipitating Event: Strange noises are coming from the bathroom door. Chico lives alone, and wonders why the light
is on. He also hears water running from a faucet. The door slowly opens, and a mysterious woman crawls in front with a mutating hand. Chico is bewildered.

Rising Action: The mutating hand grows larger and larger. The woman disintegrates. The  "hand" takes a life of its own.

Climax: The "hand" jumps at Chico, and tears his face apart. He is helpless, shouting for mercy.

Resolution (Denouement): The "hand" has consumed Chico's body, and his hand clutching the remote undergoes another mutation...what will be next, another television addict?

narrative exercise #1: the garter toss

I missed last Saturday's class because I flew west for the wedding of one of my dearest high school friends. I was fortunate enough to make a "narrative" out of one of the wedding reception games. As you can see, I had a great, great time.

THE GARTER TOSS

Setting: My friend Blake's wedding reception at the Luminarias restaurant in Southern California.

Characters: Liz (the bride), Blake (the groom) several single bachelors and myself.

Precipitating Event: Blake removes Liz's garter.

Rising Action: Blake prepares himself to toss the garter to a group of anxious, desperate, single men.

Climax: Guess who catches it? Good ol' Kevin. Lucky guy.

Resolution (Denouement): Kevin gets to boogie down with the winner of the bouquet toss ("Play that Funky Music, White Boy").

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having fun with photoshop

here are my "creative" attempts at workshop. it took a lot of time to fiddle with it, but i had lots of fun.

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L.S.D.

Storytelling through flickr pictures...

I found this on metafilter. This is an excellent concept that I think we'll be doing in our media design class soon. Maybe we should join the group and try it as well. From flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory/):

About Tell a story in 5 Frames (Visual story telling)

"Tell a Story in 5 Frames has two important parts. The first part is creating and telling a story through visual means with only a title to help guide the interpretation. The second part is the response of the group to the visual story. The group response can take many forms such as, a poetic or prose rendering of the visualization, a critique on the structure of the story, comments on the photograph, or other constructive forms of response. Telling and enjoying stories should create entertainment for the group as well as offer insight into the universal elements that help create a story for an international audience. The more people who respond , as either story tellers or respondents, the greater the reward for all.

Creating a story in five frames is not easy. Short stores of three or even one photograph are also welcome.

Guidelines for Telling a Story

Guidelines are not rules, but a formula that can be used to suit your creative imagination. Several avenues exist for story telling, such as journalistic reporting, sequential photos that reveal a moment, photographic poetry, and narrative. The following guidelines are for narrative.

A good story has characters in action with a beginning, middle, and an ending. Fortunately a lot of information can be given in a single photograph, enhancing the limitations of five photographs for your story. Location, time, and atmosphere aid viewer imagination. Keep standards of pictorial beauty, but pack as many story telling elements in one photograph as possible to develop an action.

1st photo: establish characters and location.

2nd photo: create a situation with possibilities of what might happen.

3rd photo: involve the characters in the situation.

4th photo: build to probable outcomes

5th photo: have a logical, but surprising, end."

Da Vinci's sketches come to life

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From the Victoria and Albert Museum website:

"These animations aim to bring some of Leonardo’s visions to life.

‘The animations have been made using various techniques: a combination of traditional drawn animations and computer-generated animations. The biggest task was to bring those two together, and try as far as possible to emulate the drawings in Leonardo’s sketchbooks.

‘In some ways Leonardo made it easy for us, in other ways not, because of the great complexity of his vision, and the graphic complexity of his drawings. It’s been quite a task to capture this complexity in animations, without changing it in such a way that they are no longer Leonardo’s drawings animated but our drawings. There’s some compromi'se there, but as far as possible the results come directly from material contained in Leonardo’s sketchbooks.’'

ecotopia: critique

Rescue Effort

Scenes from a Liberated Baghdad

On the Sixth Day

A NECESSARY STALEMATE: THE "ECOTOPIA" EXHIBIT
By Percy Miracles

PHOTO Magazine- October 2006 Issue

     The International Center of Photography’s exhibit “Ecotopia” presents a “collective response by visual artists to the crisis of the environment.” Over forty works attempt to address dramatic ecological changes that are further accelerated by international crises, mass consumption, and territorial devastation. On the surface, the gallery invites curiosity, wonder, and pleasure to the vibrant shots of landscapes and organisms. But a more critical look brings out what philosopher Roland Barthes called the punctum—the accidental element that “pricks, bruises, and stings” the studium, the “information” embedded in the photograph. It is this relationship between the studium and punctum that gives the “Ecotopia” exhibition a sense of urgency to our increasingly complicated relationship with the earth.
     How is this relationship explored and exploited? In Carlos and Javier Sanchez’s “Rescue Effort,” several men are frantically attempting to pull out an individual submerged in a mass of mud. This “faceless portrait” amplifies the looming tragedy taking place as the rescuers’ and victim’s identity remains unknown. Who are they, and are there others in danger? The magnetism of the frame plays a crucial role in capturing the frenetic moment with the victim being off-center, drawn by the pull of the rescuers. The studium can be read as the aftermath of a hurricane or storm, but it is the punctum, evident in the rescuers’ bulging muscles unable to lift the body, that reveals the futility of the rescue.
     Barthes “punctum” also unearths the horrors of war in Simon Norfolk’s “Northgate of Baghdad.” A level horizontal plane suggests a calm, peaceful scene until the empty missile shells are noticed emerging from the ground. The punctum, an ivory statue, rests apart from the obsolete weapon stockpile, symbolizing a fallen dictatorship and nation-state.  Gone are the liberated and occupied political actors and the televised spectacle. Beyond the palm trees, what else is left in post-media war Iraq?
     While Norfolk’s work suppresses an ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Alessandra Sanguinetti brutally depicts the relationship between animals and humans in rural Argentina. In a shot from “On the Sixth Day,” a butcher stands unscathed from a backdrop of carcasses and flames (the studium) in a forest. The sharp falloff in his wrinkled face and dirty jeans enhances his menacing stature. The punctum is not his knife, but his right eye which stares directly through us. The butcher is revealed to be guiltless of carnality, fearing no one in his path.
     What do we make of "Ecotopia" when comparing it the faceless portrait work of Kevin Chicas covered in our last issue? Mr. Chicas' photography exudes a somber, arguably horrific mood in its sharp falloffs and disorienting composition, he still retains control of his space and subjects. Although the artists of "Ecotopia" are attempting to document a period of intense environmental flux, their work cannot temper the rising wreckage disrupting the ecological cycle. Can we salvage this fragile co-existence with our planet? At a critical point of ecological survival, "Ecotopia" suggests that a detente between humans and the earth may be unlikely, but a stalemate is enough for now.

The "Ecotopia" exhibition will be featured at the ICP from September 14, 2006 until January 7, 2007 (at 1133 Sixth Ave. at 43rd Street, New York, NY, 212-857-0000).

ecotopia: documentation

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faceless portrait assignment: thoughts

I must say that I didn't expect the "faceless portrait" assignment to be so difficult and rewarding. I spent nearly a week thinking about ideas, looking at photographs through various websites, magazines, and books, reading and re-reading zettl's book, but it didn't really prepare me for the experience until I went to pickup the small lighting equipment and camera I had reserved earlier this week. When I came home and opened the lighting case, I was like, "How do I put these things together? How do I make my apartment into a darkroom?"  Although I got a few tips on lighting setups and framing shots from my father (who is a photographer) and my best friend (who does lighting for theater shows), I felt like I really didn't know what I was doing. It took hours of arranging and rearranging the pro-light and tota-lights, the heights of the stands, learning about the Canon Powershot S80s' settings, and convincing friends and roommates before I was comfortable taking the photographs.

If I was doing this for fun, perhaps it could have been easier (or less stressful), but it was hard to balance my "vision" of what I expected my photos to turn out with the lighting and composition techniques described by Zettl. Each photograph took about 15-30 minutes to set up, and I constantly turned to the textbook to assure myself I was doing the right thing. I asked my models for feedback (what do you feel comfortable doing?  what do you think of this shot?  is the lamp too hot?), and thankfully, they were very receptive and patient with the time I got out of them (or so I think). The Zettl book can be technical at times, but I really got an understanding of the possibilities of photography through applying (or attempting to apply) his techniques. It has lead me to fully appreciate how scenes in films are composed (how standard and expanded lighting build tension in a thriller like ARLINGTON ROAD or LORD OF THE RINGS), and what distinguishes a "good" photograph to an "amazing" photograph. While aesthetic judgements are arguably subjective, it does help to know how formal qualities such as vectors, horizontal/vertical orientations, and psychological closure can highly influence our perceptions of the subject(s) and background in the frame.

I think my favorite photographs were the "magnetism of the frame" series because it was really fun using my bathroom mirrors and a cell phone display to create a "disembodied" effect on my subjects' eyes. I was inspired by a clever animated sequence in PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE where Pee-Wee Herman is lost in a highway, and you can only see his eyes dart in all sorts of directions. I also liked the pictures with my female model (titled under "mood and atmosphere") because I wanted to go for a horror film style that suggested that something eerie was behind a door.  I definitely want to explore and retry some of the compositional and lighting techiques in this assignment. Like I say before, it was an equally challenging and rewarding experience.

lighting characteristics: media enhanced

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lighting characteristics: silhouette lighting

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