Over spring break I went to NYC for an art department program called "Art & the City." As part of the program I kept a blog, and now you can check out a record of my experience in Art + the City. I'm hoping to upload my pictures soon as well. There will also be an exhibit this week featuring an art piece by each student on the trip inspired by our art-consuming travels.
On the topic of doing things. I've been busy working on and playing with different advertising + art moments. Here's one from my basic design class. The guidelines:
Video
20-60 seconds
must have (interesting) credits
no music allowed (only sounds)
it has to be "about a space" (dodges the problem of bad student acting)
This was a fun first project. Now I feel I have my toesies wet in stop motion techniques. I'd like to take on another project soon and keep playing.
Here it is:
First Ok Go had a new video "A Million Ways."
Then that inspired another video "Ok Go! Vs. Lego."
Then Ok Go introduced treadmills to the culture by way of a tricky tango in a new, infectious dance meets running meets music way with "Here We Go Again."
Then that inspired a whole slew of videos with everything from Ok Go's dancing logo to hippos to more Legos in "ok go treadmills."
It even inspired the commercial for Nike +.
And a Ok Go YouTube dance competition.
So minutes after my last post, I became rather curious about the SSSR animators and decided to explore. Just like that I found out that the wise folks at 72andSunny in Los Angeles had felt so engaged with SSSR's talent that they had them do a bit of a brand film for Zune. Great stuff.
Here's a great creative project that I saw the other day. It's a trilogy of music videos from the group Subtle. It was animated by a Norwegian-Japanese collective called "SSSR." What I love so much about this style is that it combines computer animation with raw, hand-drawn materials.
Right now I think so much creative work we see relies too heavily on the computer. It's too polished. While this video challenges my imagination, it's still real. It's raw. I think there's a sort of digital revolution coming where now everyone is beginning to know the tools, but they're beginning to experiment. The technology is also much more accessible and enticing now. Soon we're going to see more things like this. Not with this same look, but we'll see more instances where technology is used to enrich projects rather than manufacture them.
I can't wait to see more curious combinations. This one gets its unique look from largely black and white images taken from combining drawings, animated models, cut-up film, and 3D computer graphics. With this kind of creative innovation Subtle's "Swan Meat" won best music video at the British Animation Awards 2006
I stumbled across Canadian designer Bruce Mau's "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" in my basic design class. It's definitely worth a read. More than a few points resonated with me as things to keep in mind in my own creative growth process. I love the thread running through it that addresses jumping into creative projects without fear of failure and with the possibility of failure. The truth is that failures (or misses) can become great ideas. You may find the right answer to the wrong question rather than view an incomplete idea as a failure to your current creative problem. It's great to experiment with imitation and repetition and to get off your computer and be more hand's on. Also, there is a spontaneity of ideas that can't be manufactured just because you have set aside a time and place for them to happen even if you're prepared, rested and organized. More often than not growth and ideas sprout from the cracks in the sidewalk, during coffee chats, lazing around, showers, walking home, doing laundry, in what Dr. Seuss calls 'the waiting spaces.' Sometimes you're exhausted and you're
into the wee a.m.s. Just a few things to reflect on.
The Christmas/Festivus season has come to a close, but don't look so glum! You can still surprise the neighborhood with fun, random acts of illumination (no, I'm not talking about rearranging lighted deer into compromising positions). All you need is some LEDs, batteries, magnets, and tape. See how to create throwies on the instructables site or check out the video. I'm happy to reignite my old Lite-Brite obsession in a new, healthy and perhaps more creative form. Ooh, ahh. Me likey the lights.
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