Final Essay Topic

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E S S A Y

a.k.a. Topic a Month in Advance

a.k.a. Writing About A Duet of Working Contemporary New Media Artists

a.k.a Presenting on A Duet of Working Contemporary New Media Artists

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1) This is a two part final assignment.  You will be creating a 5 to 10 minute presentation for class and a 1500 word Illustrated Blog Post/Paper on the same subject matter. 
http://www.wordcounttool.com/
Or you can count by hand.



2) Choose two artists (or artists groups ; collaboratives) from the following websites featuring literally hundreds of artists for you to explore.  You are to make an attempt to choose artists we have not covered in class: 

http://www.eyebeam.org/people/current 
(search through "fellows" and "residents" for hundreds of amazing artists, links to their websites will generally be on their profile pages)

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/wilson.artlinks2.html 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_art 

http://rhizome.org/art/ 

http://www.gamescenes.org/ 



3) Research your chosen artists. Make sure to record citations of where to find the works, links, etc. 



4) Choose ONE representative work from each of your artists for a total of two works to be considered in your paper and presentation - you may choose to include more works by these artists in your visual presentation to the class. 



5) Describe, analyze, interpret, compare and contrast the artist’s works, considering broadly their chosen formal and conceptual strategies, being careful to address genre (film, video, performance, interactive art, simulation, game art, etc) in your general analysis of the works. As part of your research, make an attempt to contact both of your artists to ask questions regarding the work. (If you don't hear back from them please note such in your paper and presentation). You must as well reference the readings from the class in considering the works in question. Manovich. The Shallows. Video Art. Walter Benjamin. For the paper/blog post, make appropriate citations following standard academic paper guidelines (MLA or Chicago Manual Style).

Please limit your chosen artists/works to those created after 1980 - the only requirement is that the artists are somehow intrinsically involved in the creative use of digital technologies in their works. 

The intent here is to give you the opportunity to critically engage in basic research and analysis of artists and artworks while at the same time encouraging a greater depth of experience of various artist’s creative production and contexts. 

The paper is to be in the form of an extended blog post - include illustrations, videos where appropriate, etc. 

Here are some online resources to help you in considering how to critique, compare and contrast your chosen artist's works:


http://writingaboutart.org/pages/introduction.html


http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/comparing-and-contrasting/

http://uwc.utexas.edu/handouts/editing



Grading: 
Your presentation and writing will be graded according to the quality of your research, the originality of your analysis, the clarity of your writing, design, and clarity of your presentation.

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Due Dates: 

In Class Presentations of your Paper (chosen at random)

YOU WILL TURN IN HARD COPY OF PAPER THAT DAY.

Illustrated blog post will be that same paper, only with images, videos,

and links to specific information concerning your essay!

Monday, December 3rd - Group One
Priscilla
Shay
Jenie
Katie
Elissa
Brian
Serina
Stormy


Monday, December 10th - Group Two
Lena
Carl
Elo
Elizabeth
Emma
Kaitlin
Erin McMahon
Chohnny
Erin Meyering




Paper as Illustrated Blog Post:
Posted by: Monday, December 17th Midnight


It also goes without saying... Plagiarize existing work... Not good.

But good luck.

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Order of 'The Shallows' Sections!

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Salutations Digital Media I,

Here is the order of those who will be going in partition to the Nicolas Carr internet reading.

I think a good thing to keep in mind with this list is a good interpretation of the work you have seen thus far of the colleagues around you. This is in addition to of course remaining true to your own vision and strengths. What are their own aesthetic cues that they work in? What makes them tick? Take a large part of yourself in visualizing your paragraph in addition to also understanding the paragraphs and potential visuals around you. What is unique about this assignment is that it is not totally embedded in one's own artistic practice. It is 'all' found footage so it all literally existing in the socially networked parameter of this world. We all get along!

Any questions : You know not to hesitate to ask.

1. Erin McMahon
2. Emma
3. Serena
4. Shay
5. Erin Meyering
6. Brian
7. Elizabeth
8. Jenie
9. Kaitlin
10. Elo
11. Katie
12. Lena
13. Stormy
14. Elissa
15. Priscilla
16. Carl
17. Chohnny

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Wafaa Bilal. Project "3rdi".

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Good luck.

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Project 5, "Crossover : Reading + Found Footage"

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DUE : Throughout dates

spanning three weeks.

Nov 5  : EDITED ASSIGNMENT

The SECOND ROUGH EDIT of your assignment.

You will build from your edit from the previous week of this
turn in. VISUALLY (VIDEO WISE), the piece should be complete.
AUDIO WISE, only include SOUND EFFECTS in your piece.
We will place the videos together in a single reel on Final Cut
Pro and watch it all together as a group. We shall decide then
a correlating audio throughout the short film, what is working
in transition with one another's cut, what is not working, and more.
The short film will effectively be finalized altogether in class
next week. By the end of the day, it will be uploaded and online.

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WORKSHOP TIMES : 

With myself.
Thursday, Nov 1. 1-4.

Sunday, Nov 4. 1-4.

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A S S I G N M E N T   5

"Crossover : Reading + Found Footage"

a.k.a.  a collaborative short film using existing

internet footage to make a visual representation of

Nicolas Carr's "The Shallows : What the

Internet is Doing to Our Brains"

inspiration : https://vimeo.com/groups/foundfootage

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http://archive.org/ (Thousands of existing free-to-edit video. Old time footage!)

http://keepvid.com/ (For taking footage off of a Youtube video.)

Plus plenty more aggregates that exist in finding "found footage".

We are about to embark on an experimental assignment not attempted before. One which combines aesthetic-technical ability with academic study.

Yes, you are reading right. You are not to shoot any of your own footage for this assignment. This may come as a relief for some of you possibly. BUT, we are to attack one of the most technical of all aspects when it comes to creating your own video : editing. Essentially, for those any and all familiar with the language of cinema, everything ends on the editing floor. What may have been a Godfather could become a Curious Case of Benjamin Button (I apologize in advance for that).

You will be locating any and all video footage you can put your hands on for this assignment in conjunction with a section/paragraph of your choosing (which will be finalized in class Oct. 22) of the reading. There are 17 divisions total and 17 members of our course. Here are the bulletpoints of the assignment below-

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★ Have in your possession by the end of class your paragraph/section of the reading.

★Your assignment is to be exactly, with no intro or outro credits, 30 SECONDS.

★Edit a visual representation to your paragraph/section using found internet video footage!

★A minimum of 7 cuts and/or transitions must be utilized in the 30 seconds.

★Somewhere in the 30 seconds, audio representation somehow of a 'computer'.

★Somewhere in the 30 seconds, video representation somehow of a 'reflection'.

★If your paragraph references a specific time-place-person-etc... You shall do so as well.

★All edits must be Standard Definition (4:3 Ratio; Exported 720x480) (edit upon export).

★All edits will run at 24 FPS (standard cinematic frame rate) (edit this setting upon export).

★You are to consult the person going before and after you on a proper transition between!

★And a few kinks which we will go over as time rolls along surely.

Once more, this is an experiment designed to not only emphasize the technical aspects of this course's study but the theory behind what we are all doing.

SOME things we might consider in the end-

Potentially having a musical score become the background of the whole edit.

Having a graphic intro/outro-credits emulate the cover design of the book itself.

Shipping this virally to the author himself who is Nicolas Carr. He might be thrilled.

Shipping this to (maybe discussed) a student film festival of choosing this/next semester.

And more.

This assignment alleviates more for the brain cells, naturally, as the length is decisively 30 seconds.. no more, no less. It may also be deceptively simple. In much lesser parameters, I expect a myriad of editing skills you will learn in between now and conclusion. I shall reiterate that all cinema/video ends on the editing room floor. This is a project that will literally begin and end on the editing room floor.

Good luck.

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Part 2, Burning a DVD of Your Video

Back again. By late-Sunday, you should be finalizing your projects for the home stretch. Understandable that shooting and editing video is no laughing matter beginner or advanced, the fun part (and this goes for most art) is installing the piece in its proper format. In our case, we will burn DVDs so each of your two emulations/reenactments are playable on it! It is straightforward and I will walk you through it below. For practitioners of digital art or aspirers, this is crucial knowledge I believe to know how to do this. If you have a clue or bluntly just know how then more power to you! For those who want to know follow along.

WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE HAND : A DVD of course. They're everywhere. Walgreens. Best Buy. Wal-Mart. Target. No missing them. They come cheap too for sleeves of 5. DVD-R is recommended, though +R is okay too. DVD-R is write once format, which in the end is better.

On we go. The top finder menu contains in the MOVIES

folder of the user two examples we will be burning. It

is necessary for the files to be in there and you'll see why.

The finder window below is iDVD in the applications

folder. Double click iDVD to continue-

Create a new project!

You have typical options such as file name and

where to save it. Here's a thing to notice and

remember of your videos : Were they widescreen

or standard ratio? What will work best for me?

Select the proper one and CREATE-

What you'll see upon entering. We'll be putting

on media very soon. Lets double click "revolution

main" to change the title...

Peripheral things to alter, aside from the title which

is fairly important. We've changed it to "Jane Doe".

In the bottom right, you will have noticed three

options... THEMES, BUTTONS, and MEDIA.

Go from THEMES (current) to MEDIA. Now

you'll realize why we needed to put the videos

in the MOVIES folder. Click on that folder within

the iDVD interface to locate its contents. Drag in...

Now they are playable!

In fact, click on the play

button to preview the DVD.

It will look as it is in a player.

Clicking on DVDDemo_1...

Clicking on DVDDemo_2...

Up to you to decorate it, though I will not

count off for particularly uninspired designs

this time around. That one is just on your

own mental anguish if it is tacky.

Simply go here to take note of the

flow your DVD runs at. Make

sure there are no warning signs of

the sort. Now click on the BURN...

It will give you this prompt. Insert the DVD.

Now the waiting game...

Congratulations. Don't forget to also

upload to Youtube and post on the blog!

Good luck.

Part 1, Approaching "Video"

Hello ART 245,

Do not consider the below as a final word on the method to accomplishing this assignment, but as a solid guide towards achieving your goal! It is very image based to help clarify what needs to be done. Do keep in mind however that it is ultimately on you come into workshops, take notes during class (when you 'are' in class, ahem), and do exploring on your own for the most specific visionary details you predict happening that only you could understand.

Now to begin-

The issue of actually RECORDING VIDEO!

UNR Art Department Media Check-out!

[E-mail me or Dillion, lab tech, when his email is available. Me for now.]

We have plenty of cameras, tripods, and peripheral equipment ready for checkout! First come first serve basis. Same as the knowledge center. You may be filling out a short check-out form (standard protocol) to acquire them and then you're off.

UNR Knowledge Center A/V Equipment Checkout

http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/atone/gear.aspx?equiptype=Video

Check out the multimedia area of the UNR Knowledge Center F1/basement (back of the big @One lab) to check out what they have! Use this link and additional tabs for more stuff (such as audio equipment for checkout) to pinpoint what you want. Some items may require on the spot training but its something you gotta deal with. Call ahead of time to make sure it is in stock! And of course, don't bring it in late! They don't like that.

Yourself!

You must have your own device that may be used for disposal for this assignment and the next. Look around. If you feel the need to obtain your own through borrowing or purchase, that's your decision.

Now a brief run through of common methods.

SHOOTING video varies from device to device, though each on its own is very intuitive to harness control of in that aspect. A MAJORITY OF OCT 8 CLASS WILL BE UTILIZED TOWARDS SOLIDIFYING ANYONE'S QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EQUIPMENT THEY HAVE AND/OR CHECKED OUT. This will be a crucial class if you feel overwhelmed by video and need me and/or Dillon's assistance in figuring it out hands on.

Capturing media also very much varies, but we can begin here visually are it relates to editing the video. I have done two very quick graphics to explain. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

The manner of recording on each device varies

from data on the actual device drive, a memory

card, a cassette, or otherwise. Important to know

what you're dealing with there. Often a breeze.

.Find this application if you're importing most

material. Oftentimes you'll have to (per image

caption) with a video camera go through LOG

AND TRANSFER/CAPTURE from the FILE

menu on Final Cut Pro to get off card/cassette.

For a typical iDevice or [video] SLR camera- this.

 

 You'll typically find a screen like this. Select

your device and select the .MOV (or movie file)

you want to import from your device into a

certain folder. In this image, I am importing

that video we shot in class of myself impersonating

Vito Acconci from my iPhone 4S onto the Desktop.

Viola. A brand new video file. Get

ready to import it into Final Cut Pro for use.

More if you have multiple shots.

A master runthrough of the FCP interface.

Beyond this explanation, it should be easier

to intuitively figure out the tools involved.

Start off by importing that video file into FCP!

FILE -> Import -> Files. Sometimes FOLDER

if you have just a ton of files. For now FILES.

We're in the system now. Our file is

in the BROWSER. It can be dragged

down onto the timeline for editing.

Drag and drop. That simple. Top bars above the

equator line are VIDEO and the bottom is VIDEO.

Note how we're looking at Vito/me on the viewer

and canvas. I have the file selected from the browser

and am viewing that on the viewer. However, the

video is on the timeline and the scrubber is over

a part of it so we are viewing it. The reason the base

file is upside down is because I may have shot it

upside down. I fixed it through a tool called "rotate"

within the viewer menu. If you shoot properly like

I didn't, that shouldn't be necessary to do.

What you'll do now (and everytime there

is RED on the video or audio) is SEQUENCE ->

Render Selection -> Both. This is so you

can play video back and actually see what

you are doing.

One problem though : Our video may look nothing

like Vito Acconci effect wise, even though I'm

slouched down and slurring at the camera like him.

Lets browse EFFECTS. It is up to you ultimately

to decipher which of the effects that will benefit you.

Once you have added an effect, it can be modified

through the viewer on its own tab.

This one's a freebee. Look at the image to find

out where Desaturate is. Some of you may be utilizing

this as lots of the UBU videos are black and white.

The reason why both the viewer and canvas are B&W

is that I have double clicked on the video WHILE it is

on the timeline, so now the 'viewer' is looking at that

instead of the video file from the browser (the raw file).

Now its a process of adding more effects. Look

at the viewer side and see how you can modify

effects. It's literally like Photoshop, just as a

video editing exercise. Again, decipher what

effects you'll need for your OWN videos.

Lets look at little more closely at the TOOLBAR.

Say I wanna hack off that unrendered end of my

video because I started too late, rushed the project,

and generally don't care. Look below...

1. Select the blade tool.

Cut on the timeline to

divide video and/or audio!

Tip : Align scrubber to where

you wanna cut for a fine cut.

2. Select move tool again.

Just to see its separate.

3. Have cut off end selected and

then DELETE or COMMAND+X

to get rid of it. Now its gone!

If you're interested in special transitions

between clips and at the ends of clips,

use this! For instance, you can find "CROSS
DISSOLVE" and fade into/from black.

KEYS : I and O are key. When ready to export video,

hit I when scrubber is at beginning of your video to

have an "IN" point. O likewise at the end, as an "OUT" point.

Make sure you're on the timeline when you do this.

FILE -> EXPORT ->

Using Quicktime Conversion

You should get an interface like this.

Don't SAVE (export) quite yet. You need

to go to OPTIONS besides QT Movie.

You'll get to this now. The next three images

will be selecting these in THIS order-

Video : Settings.

Video : Size.

Audio : Settings.

The only things you should change on this

is scrub Quality to BEST.

Video : Size. It varies. We clearly have standard ratio

[4:3] here so export on the left dimensions. If you

have a high quality widescreen, export w/ right settings.

Audio : Best. NOW GO BACK TO

THE FILE SAVE SCREEN AND "SAVE".

That means export. It will export your video!

This may/may not take some time. Depending

on your length.

Congratulations. You have a new video file.

TUTORIAL to be continued with burning

a DVD [e-asy] with your video file later.