Friday, June 24, 2011

SHAUN GLADWELL | STEREO SEQUENCES














Stereo Sequences is on now at ACMI, a series of mesmerising video works down in their cave-like exhibition space. This show draws analogies between sometimes incogruent contemporary leisure activities - BMX acrobatics, pole dancing, break dancing, graffiti - in an examination of the nature and impact of art iconography and its easthetic resonances. The work feels at times like a self-portrait, at other times, like video performance...Gladwell's observations and participation within contemporary culture makes me think that his work will stand the test of time and become, in its own way, a contemporary artefact of its own moment.
                                                    
Gladwell's work has been described as 'performative landscape', and it is this aspect that I am drawn to in thinking about my own ideas for an interactive project next semester. The circular video sequence in black and white (below) was particularly hypnotic and so evocative to the experience of the motion. There were 6 or so other videos similar to this one, where viewers are invited to sprawl out on the floor underneath and watch. The choice to invert the footage, (all the others were much darker than pole dancer) bestowed the image with a certain simplicity that highlighted the mechanics of each performance..... the black and white being an aesthetic I want to use in my approach to the interactive piece I have proposed.








Friday, June 17, 2011

New Music Video for Glasfrosch

Glasfrosch Album Launch; Sunday June 26th at The Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy, supported by Mandek Penha, and Sean M Whelan & Isnod.



















Friday, June 3, 2011

An Interactive | Major Project Proposal

With the aid of motion capture technology, I would like to create a screen-based interactive where visitor’s movements and proximity affect the performance of the persona(s) on screen.  My intention is to create a work that reflects upon the nature and value of electronic interactivity, and requires the audience to consider the urban interactions we engage in on a daily basis. 

I want to consider the juxtaposition of placing both character and audience in a state of expectation; both waiting on the other to instigate a performance, this state being a performance in itself. Spectral like figures stand silent, attempting to interact, then turn away. This fleeting moment leaves an unearthly, haunting sensation; do we ever really connect?









Music Video for Glasfrosch

Heading indie/pop/experimental band Glasfrosch, Justin Ashworth has given me creative reign on the visuals of his opening track Green. The song’s ambient, glitchy, looping melodies and vocal layers speak to organic themes and
elicit low, dark resonances. Green is loosely based on the ubiquitous act of waiting, and becoming lost in wondering as you wait. 

Glasfrosch in part owes it’s name to the german word Grasfrosch, as they use surreal images of frogs, ponds, sea-creatures and other watery curios to describe the band’s identity. I wanted to retain and extend this visual theme by setting the narrative in an environment that reflects this intention.

Some visual keys and screen-grabs of work in progress....








Ephemera's Launch


Few things in life are less efficient than a group of people trying to write a sentence. The advantage of this method is that you end up with something for which you will not be personally blamed.  - Scott Adams
Ephemera was the result of 4 weeks of intense collaboration between the group of digital artists that make up the Animation and Interactive Media Postgraduate Studio.
It’s not an easy task to develop an independent and original visual language while working within the theoretical space of the computer, albeit maintain a cohesive vision while collaborating with a large and diverse group of skilled artists. A nice serendipity developed through the project, where team members operated in a way that mimicked the actual function of the human brain; a state where a section of brain is impaired in some way and another section will take over and perform that function inherently. Ephemera is in many ways, a solution to the question of how to approach spatiality and conceptualise space in a way that is sincere and speaks to the original intent.