I finally got around to watching the movie A Day After Tomorrow and it was a hoot. Initial reactions to the movie include laughter because I forgot how outrageous disaster movies are. The audio of the news reporters saying things such as “oh my god, now there are FIVE tornadoes in downtown New York” really invoked some hearty laughs. The special effects actually were not as bad as I expected, especially when considering how much CGI has advanced over the past fifteen years.

Similarly, I watched the movie taking into consideration the sound as a main player of the story. In doing this, I was reminded of the sound effects in the Transformers films because of the abundance of sounds that did not come from initially shooting the movie, but carefully constructed in order to build a world where giant robot aliens could exist. In other words, I appreciate the meticulousness of recording and editing sounds that match the visual effects.

For example, when the library started to freeze on the inside and the ice was spreading through the door, the crackling noise of the ice definitely did not exist in that space initially and nor did the ice. In order for it to be convincing, the sound and visual effects had to line up and make me believe it’s really happening.

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that although movies like these may not be well written, learning about sound effects and the important of audio allowed me to appreciate the role that sound takes in all films, shitty or not shitty.

One last thing I can comment on more relevantly is the trope of disaster movies. I noticed many aspects of this trope in A Day After Tomorrow; the ridiculous news headlines voice over audio, things getting better all of a sudden, and somehow the main characters surviving impossible circumstances…it’s all there.

All in all, despite taking a weather class this quarter and understanding that most of the shit that happens in the film is impossible, A Day After Tomorrow was super enjoyable, (but for all the wrong reasons).

AUDIO VISION Response Clip

I personally think Ariana Grande’s hit songs are fucking catchy, but she also reminds me of a rip off of Rihanna. Oops!

I think it’s funny to hear the Dick van Dyke show dialogue over something from the present day.

Happy dead week!

Here’s a powerpoint on Yomemoto. Check presenter notes for more information.

He was inspiring to learn about and I’m glad to have explored an artist of similar cultural origin.

Bruce Yomemoto 

Okay, somehow my trope videos have an angsty theme going on which is completely unintentional.

For my second trope video, I felt really really really stuck. I was experiencing some hardcore anxiety last week and from that, very little progress in my video ensued and I could not plan where to start. I had so much random B roll that finally I saw the opportunity to just make a video about how I felt during the process of trying to finish the project.

Overall, I think I successfully played more with sound than my first trope and I tried to be a little more adventurous in terms of how I edited the video.

Green Dream Screen Team

Team Green Screen Dream

Screen Team Green Dream

Dream Green Screen Team

Dream Screen Team Green

Team Screen Green Dream

damn I give up

I learned how to use a green screen! And here’s proof! (Except the paper and backdrop were different shades so I had to improvise.)

Okay, so I was not exactly expecting this to be a straightforward video and I was more than correct. The first time I watched it, I sat on my couch, straining my brain to understand what the video was trying to tell me.

Watching it a second time actually gave me way more insight into what she was even talking about but there are still clips that I do not understand. The video animations of city landscapes and human silhouettes, as well as the people with boxes on their heads made me feel like I was in a weird dream. The clips of the cityscape is bizarre because it looks like a construction blueprint of a condominium but in motion.

Although the graphics don’t make sense at some points, I think I understand the gist of what she’s touching on.  How does one disappear from this world, but still exist? In media, online, in photographs or video games is where you can still exist in a plethora of ways. It seems to be a reference to surveillance and media and the idea of privacy being intervened by these platforms.

So, with this video she shows us how to disappear even though we’re so heavily connected to the internet and media. In realizing this might be what she’s intending, it made me understand how hard it really is to disappear, going a day without being surveilled anywhere, knowing I can even be surveilled at school.

So how do I disappear from this constant reach into my privacy and my identity?

Watch Hito Steryl’s video.

Annlee is an interesting art project because I believe it relates to the idea of an objective versus subjective reality. Pierre and Philippe, along with many other artists, took something 2D, a combination of colors and shapes, and created a sort of subjective reality for it. And what’s interesting is this subjective reality changed and reflected artists through their unique voices.

Something that had really no meaning to it except to be bought and used, suddenly has a plethora of stories and settings and memories. I enjoy this art conceptually because it shows how artists create realities drawn from their own realities and realities around them. It makes me consider what artists would create if we saw everything objectively.

We would not have names or tropes for things that happen in our lives. And I don’t think we would have art either because art is a way in which we physically manifest how we see the world. Humans are the only ones that make art, I believe, because we are the only ones living in this dual reality of subjective and objective.

This project is fascinating when looking at it in the context of the human ability to essentially create a fantastical imaginary “world.” For example, money, religion and whether or not I think SNL is funny anymore, (I don’t), add up to create a perception of real institutions and whether or not someone has more power because they fill the role of “government official.” In other words, nothing is really real. Sometimes, I have a cynical view of this, but then again that’s my subjective perception of what humans are capable of.

However, with the Annlee collaboration, I get excited and intrigued because humans are coming together, communicating with others they may not know very well and actually get something productive done, without it being really harmful in any way–something that no other organism on this planet can do. In this way, art is a branch of subjective reality that I can appreciate and involve myself in because I believe in it, the same way others may believe in a higher power.

If you’re interested in subjective vs. objective reality, here’s a really good talk by Yuval Harari, a gay Israeli historian. He talks about why humans are so powerful…:

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMIN.

So here’s what happened after I was given the 24 hour video assignment.

Alright.

The article “There’s Something Wrong With the Internet” by James Bridle was actually really frustrating to read because I found myself disagreeing often. I don’t want this to entire post to be about why I disliked the article. However, right now I feel like this is the only way I can respond to it.

First of all, I think Bridle exaggerates a lot in this piece throwing around words like “abuse”, “disturbing”, and “violent.” I do understand that many of these automated videos can involve violent scenes–things that young kids should not be exposed to. But where I disagree is that it is straight up abuse. James–have you conducted studies on the effect of such abuse on kids in the future? I’m guessing not. You see, in my opinion, this violence can be completely avoided through better facilitation and adapting to such a new system in human history. I think that young kids should be separated from screen time for awhile, besides watching a movie with the family or maybe to play games here and there.

Otherwise, screen time is entirely unnecessary for the proper raising, teaching and developing of a child. In fact, studies have shown this.

Another thing to understand is that many, many systems created, especially as global and widespread as the internet, have problems when they first manifest. The management of data and especially that of automated data, is going to be challenging. The internet is so extremely vast. A system as complicated and impactful as the internet will undoubtedly have negative consequences–as well as a plethora of positive consequences.

I can think of systems that are much more abusive and lead to violence.

Money, anyone?

Money is a part of the human’s subjective reality. And ohhh boy does it cause problems for each and every human being on this earth. It can effect you as a kid if you’re growing up in a low income family or as an adult as you scrounge for retirement savings. People kill for money. People will do almost anything for it. That is an abusive system.

I feel as if Bridle doesn’t have a good argument or evidence. He makes general statements such as “What concerns me is that this just one aspect of a kind of infrastructural violence being done to all of us, all the time, and we’re still struggling to find a way to even talk about, to describe the mechanisms and it’s actions and its effects.” Um, what? Which mechanisms? What effects? Which infrastructure?

I do understand that the exposure of unwarranted content given to kids is an issue. But frankly there are ways in which we can adapt to avoid such “violent” effects of the internet. Like I said, the internet has its negatives, yet it has so many amazing, innovative positives. You can learn for the rest of your life on the internet, you can connect with people across the world, you can explore ideas and collaborate on an open source site with strings of code for anyone to use (and therefore make technology better and the internet safer).

It seems to me that we need to adapt in ways that will teach kids at a young age within families and even more important at schools, essentially making us all “internet literate.”

I know that the world is really fucking crazy, whether that be our subjective or objective reality.

I also know that we have created beasts like the internet throughout our entire human history and there’s no need to worry about it.