Friday, September 28, 2012

The Many Colors of Dance...


This week we were asked whether we thought we could combine new-media with traditional media and still achieve aesthetically pleasing results.  Well, my answer is yes.  This idea of combining new and old media isn’t something that has just recently been discovered.  People have been combining these things for years, the process is simply more apparent in today’s society because of the use of technology such as the internet.  Some artists today have captured this combination idea quite brilliantly.  I was personally intrigued by JR's photography, but Laura Randall and Hector Parra really impressed me with their clever opera based on the theoretical idea of another dimension.

For my own media project, I want to use the theme of boundary-dissolution.  We used this theme a couple weeks ago but were required to work with sound.  This time I want to use myself and my movement to show the dissolution of the boundary between painting and dance.  I will be the paint brush, my movement will be the brush strokes, and the floor will be my canvas.  This idea came to me after watching one of William Kentridge’s videos in which he filmed himself smearing paint over a canvas.  However, he played it in reverse, turning it into a completely different piece of art.  This got me thinking of my own camera and the features it has, such as the ability to take out all colors but one.  From there, my train of thought moved to the many ways in which I could use color to “mix up” my current idea, and I came up with the notion to use the colors to represent the genres of dance that I am studying (blue being ballet and yellow being contemporary dance).  Using this feature on my camera, I could then go on to film myself dancing on a canvas, painting with my feet, becoming the “paintbrush” rather than just a dancer.  I also thought of how I could carry over the theme of boundary-dissolution into my dancing and discovered that I could show the dissolution between ballet and contemporary.  Even if one is classical (or blue) and one is modern (or yellow), they’re still a way of expressing emotion through movement (green).  Although a dancer might focus on one “color” more than another, in the end, it’s still movement (blue + yellow = green).

So next week I will actually be creating this composition rather than just simply planning it.  Because I believe that traditional media and new media can be combined and still be pleasing to the eye, I will be striving to do so in my project as well.  If anyone has suggestions or would like to talk about how I could improve my project or even make it easier to accomplish, I’m open to anything.  I’ll also be gathering supplies (a decent sized canvas, blue and yellow paint, and old used pointe shoes) as well as more inspiration if any comes my way.  I have a video here that shows where my original idea evolved from as well as a closer look at what I’ll be attempting to accomplish.




After I film my painting from a few different angles, I’m going to piece it together with some more effects such as slow motion or reverse (we’ll see what I decide to play around with) and experiment with different music overlaid on top.  Hopefully I’ll get it done in a timely manner and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I will!


(BTW, feel free to check out my new Google Profile at https://sites.google.com/site/amandaleaportfolio/!!)


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