Freelance Whales: "Generator 1st Floor" (Tiny SXSW Concert)

Just what every sluggish college student needs before the new year to put some pep in their step.

... I know I do after a month back in New York.

We getup early just to start cranking the generator
Our limbs have been asleep we need to get the blood back in 'em
We're finding every day several ways that we could be friends

We keep on churning and the lights inside the house turned on
And in our native language we are chanting ancient songs
And when we quiet down the house chants on without us

WOAH mama here I go again !

I'm always thinking, always living, always creating. Whether what I produce is valuable to others or myself is another blog entry of conversation.

This entry is purely self indulgent. I suppose this blog is as well. Those who come across it or bother to read it are subjecting themselves to my interest in art, politics, and my lifestyle.

I guess its not to much of a problem we all have a bit of Lady Gaga is us right ? Looking for praise and appreciation in one form or another. Well, so be it and enjoy !

My academic and creative interest have brought me to Chicoutimi,Quebec a town/city if you will. Definitely a lot bigger then Appleton, Wisconsin but definitely not New York. I don't think their is really any other city like New York. I've travelled to a few places around the world and nothing can quite compare to its feel. Non the less I love exploring and immersing myself in the people and the culture of every new place that I find my self in.

I've been here for just a week and I'm liking it here more and more every single day. It was hard to get to but the food and the very generous people i've encountered have been worth every hour of my journey here.

I will be posting some videos and photos on here, but for now all will have to make do with descriptions I give until I got to the store !

IN SPRING RATION

I'm working with a new concept . something that is a little more risque but not explicit.

Something honest with a touch of surrealism.

I've found that european cinema have been strong sources of inspiration for any sort creative work. The artistic nature of film is more visible then in most American film.

I'm pulling from :

Cet obscure objet du désir by luis bunuel

Brève Traversée Catherine by Catherine Breillat

A ma soueur by Catherine Breillat

Closely Watched Trains by Jiri Menzel

A story as basic as two characters and 1 to 3 different settings.

I'll see were this goes.... to be continued

Technology isn't everything

Putting pen to paper is all we need sometimes to explain the world.

Fin- The Radicant

Bourriaud addresses a few major concepts that is debated in international politics. Globalization and Americanization and the role of the artist under this political/social structure has transformed the art world. Well, at least all cultures that subscribed to or have shared the western development (industrialism to informationalism).

He argues theoretically those that partake and are the audience of the art community shape the culture.
He references a quote from Duchamp ' It is the viewer who makes the painting"

This is true in the art world relies heavily on its viewers for interpretation and commentary. Gallery openings, museums, and the elitism of the art world have shaped what art culture is today. Not to say that all art fits under one umbrella but several with different cultures, subcultures, identities, and economic statuses.

But prescribing to western mainstream art criticism would art be significantly different without the audience it has today or from what it has had historically. Would it become less important, would it become insignificant form of the human expression just as newspapers and libraries are becoming less and less important? Would humans absorb a life of the media and technology? Is technology the new cultural hobby?

Media and technology as a medium has placed a divide between the fine art and new medium. Media and technology have created a new form of interpretation that requires a new name and era to categorize its significance.

Bourriaud last section of The Radicant and James Danky meet. Danky wanted to preserve and to ensure that the expression of the subculture art had a place under the social norms of society. Bourriaud suggest after the fall of the Berlin wall that their has been economic standardization globally which has allowed the whole world to meet. Art has modeled itself to conform under this standardization and I would go so far to suggest that this standardization will move art away from the elitism and there will be a cultural norm of interpretation and viewership.

James Danky and comix

So James Danky,
To be honest I was not entirely impressed by his presentation and I was hoping to see more comics then what he showed. But taking away from the presentation James Danky is what the world of library Science would call a radical.
He has most notably collected the zines from underground subcultures while working with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

In his lecture last week, Danky discussed the role of the underground comic book and how it has transformed the economic mainstream of comics books. If it wasn't for the underground would Marvel or DC comics make blockbuster hits from there most famous heroes?

I've never been a big fan of comic books but I will say that artist like Guy Delisle who use art to make a political commentary on the countries he explores using the graphic art as his medium is both artistically pleasing ,entertaining and politically informative.

Project update**

Now that I have figured out how to add text to my story I'm obsessed with it and want to add it everywhere.More then likely it would not be a good idea but I like the quality that it gives the documentary.

Science hall and Wriston media lab is where all of the editing magic is happening. I was a little nervous a few days ago on how under developed my story line was but I constantly have to remind myself that I do have a lot of footage to work with. Enough hopefully to capture the interest of an audience for five minutes.

Questions to ask myself for this week:

What do I need to cut from what has already been edited and rework into my story line?

What are some visusal of China's landscape that need to be added?

As of now I'm still working on the skeleton of my story line I feel this is crucial to complete before moving on to cinema-graphic editing that will be happening later this week.

Follow Your Gut

Jodi Sedlock a wild life ecologist is an assistant professor at Lawrence University her research interest have taken her across the atlantic and into the tropics to study bats and the conservation of this species.

Professor Sedlock is an example of someone who trusted their gut and allowed their passions and interest to flourish into a life time of work that remains challenging and interesting. A former graphic art student she has degrees in both science and fine art.

We should have more enthusiastic people in the world who are just as passionate about what they do all of the time. The world would be a much better place.

Jodi makes it a lot easier for people like me to feel okay about doing what I want to do and following my passions not based on what is consider "THE WAY" of living life. I follow that same philosophy in my approach to my art and what I study here at Lawrence.

Sedlock found a passion that was self-fulfilling, beneficial to the conservations of bats and local communities in the Philippines.

What an inspiration to all young college students :D

Do what you love the rest will follow end of story.

Tedious Tedious Work... But Progress Has Been Made

So, I've got two more interviews that I would like to fit in to my project before I can until I can say I have all the footage that I want and need.

Editing is a long arduous process.
Science Hall computer lab will become my new home for the next few weeks until I'm done with this project.



As of now I have broken my editing process in to three section editing my beginning middle end journey. I'm saving the interviews to be mixed in between.

Project Update*

It's been a challenging couple of weeks trying to get my Lacie and Mac computers to cooperate with one another but I've got all the kinks worked out and now I'm in business with Final Cut. I've begun to edit the first few seconds of footage!

This will be quite a tedious and pain stacking task considering I have 3 hours of footage to cut down to about 8 to 10 minutes story.

I've slated the idea of placing myself with in the documentary. I was inspired by Abigail Disney approach to media and current events. In a lunch Q&A after the convocation a couple of weeks ago she discussed how she purposely did not allow herself in to the narration of documentary. She allowed the media images,footage and the women involved with the peace movement to speak for-themselves.

I commend Disney for taking this approach especially to this socially/politically charged story. Their are a lot of individuals and celebrities who make philanthropic efforts to get kudos and to gain attention from hollywood.(Not to say that their efforts are not positive )

I want to challenge myself just as Disney has done in allowing the footage to speak for itself. The story will very much so be about my experience but I want to go as far as I can creatively with my footage with out using my own narration to fill in spots for my documentary.

I want my story to be as raw as possible.

Klaus Nomi,Labels, and Culture

It's interesting to see how different cultural icons are respected and received to the world. In the late 1970's early 1980's Klaus Nomi was a German opera pop new wave sensation in the New York Art scene.

Klaus Nomi represented the postmodern condition, he was an individual that exuded and visually expressed the creative energy that surrounds the term. His performance and style was a mash up of old and new. He used his voice to push the boundaries of human sound creatively in music. To be in the presences of an individual performing to this quality was exciting and innovative. In the New York scene Nomi was a fine artist but outside of that social circle his work was difficult to define and understand.

In a performance just two miles away from the New York City border in a heavy metal club in New Jersey Nomi was booed off stage for his "bizzare" "poor quality music". I site these labels in quotation because this is the interpretation received from audiences outside the art realm.

It's difficult to define terms and to make visions universal when the world has never been able to communicate or share universally. His work and how it was received around the world put my project into perspective and it exemplifies what I am trying to express through my media project.

The world, western media, America- Our culture our government has had time to make accommodations and changes to it's development and to where it stands as a first tier state. China is a country that's has a different language, culture,geography and history therefore their development and expectations will be different.

(This message goes beyond politics or high culture) It's easy to judge and to flaunt when one is doing better than others.

It's easy to boo or to place sanctions on a country that is struggling to stand their own in the political world. I blame labels and the exclusivity that surrounds them.

Respect and compromise is needed in both political and art world.

The day that respect and compromise is made universal in world politics is the day that postmodernism will have a definition that is understood for all.

Project Update #2

My Lacie external hard drive has finally been delivered, which means I can take off with my project!

I have lots of recorded footage to run through and organize to start piecing together my project! Most of the work I have to do is editing down my footage.

I have organized to meet with a few of the international students from China just to get some of their perspectives of media here in the U.S.

Laurie Anderson work was definitely an inspiration in terms of aesthetics for my project. She does a fantastic job of presenting her ideas in a clear concise matter and as well makes them interesting to look at.

I hope to make this visually pleasing and as well as making this an informative documentary.

Postmodern World in Transition

It’s tiny it’s compact and it’s one of the most complex books I’m reading this term. It’s The Radicant by Nicolas Bourriaud. It’s difficult for me to give this book a genre because it does much more than to inform you of what art is today. It’s an analysis of world aesthetic using, politics, ethics, economics, and culture as jump-off points into his theory of art in the Post Modern world and beyond.

Media and technology has played has had a significant role in the way which our culture functions. We rely on the media for information, communicating, and entertainment. Bourriaud infers that our art culture places limits and standards to what is acceptable to the art community.

“How can one escape the impression that works are no longer evaluated how can one escape the impression that works are no longer evaluated so much as sorted and graded like eggs.”
– Bourriaud

It boils down to interest and popularity. There are plenty of artist in America alone who work very hard to get their message and ideas out to the world. It is the responsibility of the artist to market themselves well enough to capture the attention of an audience or a museum to receive critical acclaim. I view art as a form of self expression; art for art sake and art to market sell and to publicize to the world. Then their are artist and works that fall in between the categories Laurie Anderson and her work is an example of that.

The art world is in transition as well as culture and politics, were all moving from segregated individual communities to a singular global culture. It’s the post modern world; this is the time that art and people recognize their connections with the world.

“Everything is intertwined, he says and Polar opposites don’t exist… Start seeing the connections and the idea of fusion –of mixing things-seems less and less like a novelty and more just the way to world works.” Ezra Koeing of Vampire Weekend in talking about the band’s new album Contra as an example of our new era into a global culture.

Ideas and new art forms may arise but technology will always be around to define where the world is as global community. Globalization is our present and will be our future.

Laurie Anderson and The Honesty of Self-Expression

In presenting her ideas and experiences in the world Laurie Anderson uses mass media a as tool to connect and express her creativity. Mass media is accessible to the public unlike minimalist art or the work of her past contemporaries. Anderson's work shattered the boundaries and the exclusiveness that minimalist art presented. She takes idea's for what they are and doesn't attempt to deconstruct them any further.

The tools she uses to present her work using books, photographs, audio, and video are all forms familiar to the world and makes it much easier for an individual to connect with her experience as an artist. Laurie Anderson work creates the perfect balance of artistic expression and presenting her work as a part of the digital era. Her work is complex and tedious in it's process and yet simple in presentation. Her work is both aesthetically pleasing and an informative experience.

The media that presents us the news of the world could borrow a lot from Anderson's work in terms of presenting information for what it is. Their is a lack of honesty that media borrows from politics and from what politics borrows from media. It would benefit the american and political culture to have a more accurate perception of what the world is.

Carrying The World to The Future: Buckminister Fuller and His Genius

An outstanding quality of Buckminister fuller work is the breath of his imagination and how his ideas came into fruition. His ambition for what could be was impressive and is some of the reasoning behind his popularity. Fuller was creating during and era of desperation and poverty, he brought a lot of hope to people when their was not much to look forward to.

He was innovative in his thinking of the human's role in earth system and our impact on it's function.

It's taken a few decades but idea's of sustainable design and living is a reoccurring phenomena that has become pertinent to world politics and individuals way of living.

"I just invent, then wait until man comes around to needing what I've invented."

- Buckminister Fuller

His work is comprehensive and can apply conceptually to all forms of innovation and the human propensity to be sufficient and environmentally conscious in the new era.

My media My Vision My plans

My mission
My goal of this media project is to expose some myths and misperception of China that has developed in our western media Culture. I hope to show through video and diary what truths I’ve been exposed to of the current cultural, political, economic, environmental development of China. I would like to begin by keeping a data base of media commentary from major leading News network that criticize China’s development in any way shape or form. I would like to use this data base as reference as well as use it as visual to connect with my video/diary documentary.
• Target News Networks
a) PBS
b) CNN
c) BBC
d) New York Times
e) NPR
f) The Economist

• Other media sources
PBS documentary China From the Inside
Other documentaries about China
My video Footage

Some questions I plan to explore for the duration of my project

• How does media shape politics and how politics shapes media?

• Any relationship whether it is formal, informal, domestic, and international; is bound by a common interest
• That interest is the initial cause for interaction
• What is United States interest in China?
• How does our relationship with China today effect it’s a portrayal in the media and the knowledge that is the shared with Untied States.
• To what extent does China’s political system influence the media’s portrayal of the Country to Americans perception of Chinese governance, culture and priorities involving the public?

"You See Me Laughin' -The last of The Hills Country Bluesmen " Media Commentary

This is not a story of great musicians retelling the story of their claim to fame and the success that followed.
It’s a story of raw of emotion that is communicated through music for the sole purpose of listening and creating.

The technical style the director uses to tell the story of the country bluesmen is as raw as their music. The technical aspects of the film and the style which the story is told acts as a clear reflection of the history of struggle and pain that musicians like R.L Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Cedell Davis to name a few put into their music, the Blues.

Heres a short clip of the beginning of the film.





The culture and the life that’s inspired the creation of their music is expressed by the musician immediately in the opening of the film. This is their attitude through out the entirety of the documentary they openly share the struggles of their life; The blues wouldn’t be the blues with out the pain of the human experience.

Some of these musicians have never found success outside of their community and there are many interpretations of what success means to a musicians and for a few of these men having a space to perform was more then enough to make them happy. What’s interesting is that for a few of the bluesmen playing music was their only means of surviving. Their perseverance and dedication to blues is what make their stories captivating.

The controversy of Fat Possum Records taking the role as exploiters of their music is a result of media culture. I feel this is especially true for pop music. Pop musicians image is integral to their success. Foster Kamer writer for the gawker posted an article on the surrounding hype from music journalist obsession of writing about indie pop band Vampire Weekend and their Ivy League origins. Their upcoming sophomore album, which comes with a new California chic look, gives the media a point of intrigue for their fans and the public. “regionalism and branding are staples of pop music.” Saids Kamer This is the same kind of interest that is being generated by the last hill country bluesmen their music their perspective is a point of interest for the media it’s not a matter of exploitation it’s the ability to market a style of music that can reach the public.