The story begins with the protagonist bird who attempts to approach the other birds and share his food. The other birds steal it, and whilst the protagonist isn’t paying attention he appears to feel a connection (represented by the heart on his chest) based on their interaction and proximity with him. When they leave, however, he realizes that he hasn’t actually gained any companions and his heart breaks. The scene develops into a thunderstorm, conveying his feelings of loneliness and vulnerability. When the storm clears, the narrative appears to end as it pans away from the protagonist, but instead it comes upon another brightly colored bird with a broken heart. This bird is obviously not associated with the black forest, and when the protagonist notices it they form a connection and their hearts snap back together.

Ultimately, they story line that within my animation expresses the belief that even in new or unfamiliar environments, individuals can always connect and benefit from new and developing relationships even if they initially struggle in doing so.

From the initial planning stages of the Flash narrative project I knew I wanted to incorporate my drawing style in the animation, so all of the figures are either hand drawn and scanned or drawn with a tablet. The art style seen in the piece was meant to be kept simple in order to more clearly communicate its message. The birds that I included in my flash movie were given opposing colors in order to indicate the separation between them. The choice of teal for the main “protagonist bird” was really only to complement the other colors in the animation, while the black of the opposing birds was meant to convey a connection between them and the ominous dark environment/trees. The purple color of the very last bird is simply meant to distinguish it from the black birds and environment, however, it also establishes a connection between it and the protagonist bird due to their shared brightness. My intention wasn’t to focus on gender related relationships, so I hoped that choosing a the teal and somewhat feminine feeling purple color wouldn’t influence the viewer to perceive either the protagonist and purple bird as a male or female. The hearts on the two ending bird’s chest are meant to indicate their overall feelings of connectedness or loneliness as the hearts breaks or mend themselves. I felt that these efforts were quite effective in portraying my psychogeographical concept, or message, simply and concisely.

Lastly, I felt that learning how to use Flash was incredibly challenging but also rewarding. I was able to overcome 99% of the issues that came up with Flash, but one prevailing problem exists towards the middle of my animation. For a second or two a few of the frames are displaced, the birds are the wrong color and the motion is choppy. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some assistance in fixing the problem.

EDIT: Here’s a link to the animation. The video quality is absolutely terrible but you can get an idea of what the final product looks like.

The opening night of the Illiterate art gallery featured a showcase of art inspired by the children’s book, and recently released movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”. The aptly named show entitled “Where the Wild Things Art” featured work from over 20 local artists including our very own TA Allie Pohl. Upon entering the Illiterate art space, the main floor was filled with contemporary/street art styled pieces and moving downstairs a few installation pieces were on display for gallery-goers to experience. The type of people who were attended the show was also interesting to note; everyone seemed to be fairly young individuals boasting indie fashion and swagger filled attitudes. Moreover, everyone seemed to being enjoying the art, as well as the company, and it was refreshing to experience accompanied by a somewhat clamorous atmosphere rather than a rigid and decorous one.

One piece in particular that caught my eye was a watercolor by Max Kauffman titled “And the Walls Became the World All Around”. The piece consists of a few images taken from the “Where the Wild Things Are” storybook illustrations, including representations of Carol and the bird character (Both “Wild Things” in the original story). It is also very much characteristic of his art style which tends to incorporate contemporary looking slender brush strokes, distorted figures and childlike representations of real-world objects. Kauffman’s artist statement mentioned that he tried to imagine Max’s (the main character in “Where the Wild Things Are” bedroom walls transforming into the wild while still maintaining elements of the real world, and the piece does so effectively. It feel dreamlike and captivating, so much so that you’re not sure if you’re entering a nice world or a dangerous one. Looking at Kauffman’s body of work could be described as going back through your drawer of childhood drawings whilst equipped with a pair of ‘awesome’ glasses; it is imaginative, whimsical and playful while at the same time radiates sophistication. His online flickr gallery can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/kauffmanartistry.

Another intriguing piece in the show was the pen and ink portrait of Carol by Deadly Daisy titled “What My Eyes See”. Ultimately I was just incredibly impressed by the craftsmanship of this piece, the stippling in the face that creates the illusion of fur is incredibly intricate and feels real in person. The line-work in Carol’s hair is also extremely fine and boasts an excellent range of black and white values.  The focal point that is Carol’s eye, however, drew me in most. The illusion that the eye is glossy makes the emotion feel real; it communicates morose and deeply saddening feelings flawlessly. This is the type of piece that makes me wish I had made it. The piece can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/deadlydaisy/4056765706.

On Saturday, November 14^th I visited the opening of the new “Embrace” exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. I sort of hesitate to call it an “exhibition” because the word tends to imply that a presentation is displayed in a somewhat confined, or regulated area. “Embrace”, on the other hand, consisted of several large-scale installations that were strewn about in every corner of the museum. In total, 17 artists were featured. Rather than displaying pieces characteristic of conventional or expected forms, these were generally massive pieces painted right on the museum walls, or tacked on to them. The purpose of “Embrace” was to challenge the artists to create pieces that interact with the DAM’s unusual architectural features, and some of them did so strikingly well.

“Chamber” by Charles Sandinson was an installation that featured 6-8 projectors that were coordinated to display thousands of instances of the same image, or word, all moving and flowing together in various directions over the walls of one of the DAM’s large rooms. The flow of projections, including words like “love” or even simple lines, cascaded over the room much like a slow moving river on a relatively level surface.  I found myself somewhat mesmerized by the projections, and realized only after I left that I had fallen victim to the Sandinson’s intended goal. His artist statement detailed his efforts to utilize digital media in order to create visualizations that capture the viewer in much the same way as a campfire would –  visually gripping you strongly enough to keep you from looking away for several minutes.  His work is intended to tap into what he feels are the deep, primordial areas of the mind.

Christian Hahn’s work in the museum is intended to create visual worlds and surreal spaces that “carry the viewer away”, if you will. His pieces, collectively titled “Upside Down”, display ordinary situations from an unusual perspective, or in association with non-realistic objects.  Hahn’s inspiration for this type of work stems from his fascination with video games as a child; he felt that they transported him to new worlds as well. Many of his pieces, for instance a painting of firemen navigating through unusually massive pieces of cob corn, incorporate bright pastel colors and a very smooth and realistic visual quality. The situations he depicts are not realistic at all, of course.

Lastly, my favorite piece from the exhibition was “Mirage” by Zhong Biao. It was a massive painting, probably stretching along 50 feet of one of the art museum’s internal walls and was accompanied by a large mirror which met it in one corner and extended along the opposite wall for another approximate 50 feet.  Digital video clips resembling writhing nebulae also accompanied the painting on one side. The piece depicted several people and objects, all displayed at drastically different perspectives and in contrasting situations. They were bathed in an apocalyptic feeling orange light which created strong shadows.  Looking at the piece, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel scared or just amazed. Similarly Biao’s stated intention was not to force his understanding of an image on it’s audience, but rather to create an image which forces it’s viewer to consider its significance. Through his work Biao seeks to reflect the reality that we cannot understand everything we see.

On October 4^th, 2009 I attended a “poetry slam” at the Mercury Café in Denver. The slam was divided into two sections, one in which amateurs were able to compete, and another which was split into five rounds during which five poets performed together. Denver’s somewhat liberal atmosphere, combined with the expressive nature of the event made it one that evoked emotional and incredibly personal outbursts of thought between the poets. The performances explored controversial topics including homosexuality, religious viewpoints as well as life and death. One poet who openly identified herself as a lesbian talked about her upbringing in a rather homophobic household, and her desire to be able to go “straight home” rather than “home straight”. She also described herself as always having been more partial to spoons rather than forks due to their somewhat more feminine shape and feeling. Similarly, another poet found comfort in using ordinary things as objects through which she could relate her personal feelings. She provided one of the most interesting performances of the night, expressing her fascination with the fact that both birth and death certificates are printed on the same 24 lb. paper. She described her thoughts on the fact that because both certificates were in essence the same, it was the gold embossing on the certificate that made it “real”, or validated.  Another poet who interested me chose to express his opinion that America tends to me mainly characterized by white Christian individuals, refuting the viewpoints of an article which reported that in the U.S. Christians are the minority and are currently being taken over by homosexuals.  His performance was dull of conviction and moving, I went away from the café replaying it several times in my mind.

Overall, it was shocking but also rewarding to attend the slam and observe an event that so readily brought up issues that most don’t care to discuss. I felt that it contributed to my level of awareness, and broadened my perspective slightly. While I was aware of all of these topics before attending the slam, it felt necessary to refresh them in my mind and think them over more thoroughly. I felt as though it caused me to reconsider my viewpoints and reformulate them, to an extent.

The general story I’m working on portraying deals mainly with one main bird (the protagonist if you will) who, being all alone, decides to share his newly found and valuable worm with a few other birds which happen to be nearby. When he does, the other birds take his worm and the main bird feels included in their “group” of sorts – consequently a heart is displayed on his chest. When the other birds are done, however, they quickly fly away and the protagonist bird realizes they only came to him for food. This causes his heart to break. As he watches the other birds, clouds/weather move in and begin raining on him. He ruffles his feathers and tucks his head under a wing to shield himself. Later, when the rain stops the bird unconvers himself and looks around, still broken hearted. As the camera view, or frame, moves around he catches a glimpse of another broken hearted bird just like him. They acknowledge each other, their hearts snap together and after a few seconds the animation ends with a “The End” display.

Thy psychogeographical theme I’m trying to touch on through this metaphorical story of interaction between birds has to do with feeling alone in unfamiliar, new, or even just uncomfortable environments. The overall message is that despite these types of hardships in any type of environment it is possible for individuals to find support in other people who they can identify, it might just take some time.

Again, here is the narration for each storyboard frame.

1. The main (protagonist) bird arrives with worm in beak

2. The frame zooms out and reveals 4 other birds together on a different branch

3. The protagonist bird swoops in towards the other 4 birds in order to share his food and have a chance at becoming part of their inclusive group, or family.

4. The frame pans up and the other birds are shown tugging at protagonist bird’s worm.

6. While the other birds eat the worm, the frame zooms into protagonist bird’s chest and the texture there turns to red and arranges itself in a heart shape

7. The frame zooms into the red heart all the way and then zooms out again revealing the protagonist bird facing the opposite direction and looking at the birds who ate his worm and flew away on a different tree branch

8. The frame pans up and a frontal view of the protagonist bird is shown again, except this time thunder clouds and lightning move in and he get’s rained on. The protagonist bird ruffles his feathers and his heart breaks, turning blue (or maybe black).

9. When the rain and lightning stops the protagonist bird un-ruffles himself and the frame begins to pan right, passing another broken hearted bird. The frame does a double-take and zooms out rapidly revealing both broken hearted birds looking at each-other. Their broken hearts simultaneously snap together and turn bright red again and text saying “The End” accompanied by a black frame covers the entire frame.

The illustrations included with my storyboard are very much rough drafts, I plan to refine them and make them much more presentable for the actual animation, however, the composition of each frame will likely be the same.  Here they are:

Basically my idea at this point is to animate a series of scenes where birds are flying on and off the telephone wires due to changing weather, other birds, and other circumstances. One bird in particular will be a different color and isolated from the rest in that at times the other birds won’t let it land on the wire, or when it does and it starts raining all the other birds leave while it stays and gets wet. I’ll most likely incorporate other scenarios into the animation as well. Moreover, the situations the special bird experiences reflect particular feelings which are caused by the changing environment and behavior of the other birds around it. I think this will fit well into the ‘psychogeographical’ theme.

I’m a little worried that drawing out birds flying around/animating them will be an incredibly meticulous task and that the end product is fairly elaborate which might make it difficult to execute successfully, but I think I’m ready to challenge myself. The only implication would be if the final animation ended up being fairly short, maybe only a minute or two. We’ll see.

FLASH:

Personally, having had the experience of moving during a particularly trying time in my own life and feeling that I had to deal with two incredibly different and somewhat emotional lives before and after I moved gives me a certain amount of perspective that I would like to incorporate into my “psychogeographical” flash animation. Although I’m not sure at all how exactly I want my flash project to turn out visually, I do know that somehow I’d like to display some kind of self-representative symbol which is influenced by different settings or different objects in it’s environment…. overall the idea is very conceptual.

Some of the preliminary ideas I have include sunglasses through which several different scenes are depicted depending on their orientation or objects which transpose them. Other ideas could involve a literal figure moving through different environments and gathering objects from those environments/changing as it moves geographically.

At this point I’m wavering between making my flash project somewhat abstract or fairly realistic feeling. My ideas definitely need a ton of development… I’ll keep thinking about them.

My main approach for tackling the typography self-portrait assignment was to utilize text that I felt was evocative of my personal attitudes and characteristics.  While brainstorming ideas for the project I immediately thought of the work of French Renaissance writer/philosopher Michel de Montaigne and in particular two quotations from his work titled Essays that I wanted use. The quotations are as follows:

“To win through a breach, to conduct an embassy, to govern a people, these are dazzling actions. To scold, to laugh, to sell, to pay, to love, to hate, and to deal pleasantly and justly with our household and ourselves, not to let ourselves go, not to be false to ourselves, that is a rarer matter, more difficult and less noticeable.”

“Aristotle reputes it the office of magnanimity openly and professedly to love and hate; to judge and speak with all freedom; and not to value the approbation or dislike of others in comparison of truth. “

These quotations are especially compelling for me personally because they reaffirm a few philosophical values that I have always contemplated, but hadn’t necessarily been explicitly reinforced by an outside source until I read a portion of Montaigne’s work. My hope was that I could “kill two birds with one stone” by using one-word snippets of the quotations (referenced above) in order to both display the fundamentals of Montaigne’s message because I feel it is incredibly eloquent and relevant to my life, and also so that I could create a representation of the process by which experience has shaped my thoughts and attitudes. The words I used were: scold, laugh, sell, pay, love, hate, judge and speak.

The image I decided to replicate for the typography project wasn’t incredibly important to me because I knew I wanted to focus on representing Montaigne’s words in a readable and clear fashion that would draw attention to the actual text rather than to my expression… I didn’t want my expression in the photo to delineate the portrait’s significance. That being said my expression in the original photo is somewhat silly, however, I don’t think it detracts from the tone of the piece because it is a representation my personality and me as an individual – while I do place value in the words within the portrait they don’t necessarily influence my mood or behavior all of the time. Generally all I wanted was a detailed and contrasted photo of my face so that the final product would be eye-catching.

I chose to use a variation of Helvetica called Helvetica Nue throughout the piece for several reasons. First of all I thought it would be appropriate considering how prevalent it is in design as well as within our society as a whole… the Helvetica video we watched brought me to the realization that there have been a ton of instances in my life when I’ve seen Helvetica and been influenced by it. Whether it was in a city while I was travelling, on a store-front, in an art piece, paired with a product or organization or even just included in the header of a random website I always enjoyed and thought well of things in association with Helvetica. The Helvetica typeface undoubtedly shaped my experience with those things, and I wanted my portrait to have the same effect. In addition, Helvetica is fairly easy to arrange and is visually consistent enough to be conducive to creating regions of dark or light values.

Lastly, all the text in the image is either point text created in Illustrator or text brushes I made in Photoshop. I decided to make the switch from Illustrator to Photoshop because I wasn’t really learning anything new by copying point text over and over, and Photoshop made the process a little quicker.

The first quotation I referenced above (“To win through a breach…..”) is actually written in the darkest part (text) of my eye. It probably won’t be readable on WordPress…

Here’s the original image compared to the final image…