Video Art

A fundamental idea held by the first-generation of video artist was that in order to have a critical relationship with a televisual society, you must primarily participate televisually. Images from around the world, which had only been available in newsreel in movie houses, were now filtering the average home. This century's establish a kind of media technology pecking order, with cinema still on top, followed by television, then video, and now compute-transmitted images; all of which arguably, derive from theater, which has suffered the most from loss of audience and loss of artist to the other media.

Nam June Paik was one of the early pioneers of video artist who uses personal camcorder to capture video as mean of art expression. His early video work involves him taking footage of the Pope, shot from a cab and at that night showed the result at an artist hangout. Unlike broadcasters or other production oriented counterpart, he was not ' covering' the news of the Papal visit. It was simply a rough non-commercial product that was a personal expression to the artist. 'As collage technique replace oil paint,' he is quoted as saying 'so the cathode-ray tube will replace the canvas. 

Video record and reveal instant time, whereas films had to be treated and process. Video feeds back indigenous data in the immediate present time environment. Film is contemplative and 'distanced’. It detaches the viewer from present reality makes him a spectator. 

In addition to video, several early video artist engage the technology of camera and created innovative means of expression that were both used by other artists, and commonly usurped by mainstream media and advertising. Ed Emshwiller, abstract expressionist painter exploited the capabilities of video synthesizers and computer system with his own original artistic and electronic strategies. In scape-mate he utilized a form of computer animation in which resulted in an almost psychedelic dance of figurative and abstract elements.

Several artists take their cue from Paik and other video artist incorporating sophisticate technology in their critique of technology. Like painters involved with the content of their palette, these innovator probe the video medium in much the same way that abstract artist or colorist did, they were more interested in the mechanism of video as they function artistically. Video becomes an extension of artistic gesture so long associated with painting.

To many new artist, video us an intense personal medium that contains within it's power a full range of expressive possibilities. It allows artist room for experimentation of ways in conveying personal narratives. New development in video production gave access to artist to further develop their narratives producing video works that are considered high end, employing sophisticated film-like technology, occasionally mixing film and video resulting highly polished end product. What is so vibrant about video art is the fact that it embraces both high and low end budget in equal measure, at least in terms of what is shown in festivals, museums and galleys. There is a strong curatorial interest in conceptual often performative, technologically primitive work evident for well know art institutions that featured low budget video by artist who engage the camera in direct, personal way.

In this article, Althuser paints a big picture on the functionality of ideology in society.  Ideology establishes a certain mentality that is embedded in the minds of society in order to maintain the consistency of labor power generating the machine of production as a whole. Taking cue from Marxist ideology, the Ideological State Apparatus introduced by the corporations/institution (State) as tool to enforce their authority and ideals to maintain control over the production.

What I find interesting is the comparison the writer made with religion, especially the function of churches during feudal period. The church is the ideology institution that influences society’s daily lives. They represent ‘the state’ that has influences over politic, economy, and education using the religion (ideological state apparatus) as means of maintaining order without them being physically present. Their main objective is to maintain and preserve the production process in order to keep the cycle going. This very much the same methods adopted by corporations today. By taking over the role of the church, schools as their ideological institutions, is their resource for their production. In school, we are taught, trained and groomed for specific area in the work force. The mentality that is embedded is designed so that order is maintain within society (subject) as well as production. The state enforces but Ideological state apparatus governs. The same ideology is applied within the art community. Artist is the subject of the ideological State Apparatus.

In many ways belongs to the same production with corporations and museum acting as the states.

Storytelling is an important part of oral traditions of Malay communities. The relating of genealogies, folk tales and local history, reciting myths and chanting sacred narratives all form a valued part of people’s lives. They also express and serve to transmit social and cultural values. 

In most traditional communities, folk tales are told for entertainment and sometimes to give moral instructions to the young. Folk tales are fictional, and while the range of subject matter is vast, some recurring themes with variations are found. These stories are populated with talking animals, spirits, giants and other characters. Animal tales are common in most communities. In the past, youngsters were often entrusted to the care of a grandparent, who related these tales just before children fell asleep at night.
 Epic tales, too, are popular forms of storytelling. It usually involves a stylized type of recitation by a skilled performer and can take several nights to complete. Although they may contain legendary or historical materials, epics are basically fantasy. Much of the listener’s enjoyment comes from the dramatic skills of the storyteller and the beauty of the language used.

The true importance of these genres, particularly the more elaborate ones that incorporate ancient stories, lies in the preservation of legendary history, the recounting of the origin of the world or of a particular community, the remembrance of the deeds of a cultural hero or the explanation of the origins of a place. Through the narration and repetition, and use of performance as elementary theatre, such tales are kept alive, and connections with the past are maintained. Some have retained their past connections with mysticism.

Lego, to me was a necessity. It was  the centerpiece of my childhood and imagination.
An introvert, i spent days of my life growing up constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing and creating stuff i see on television with these plastic building blocks. 
Lego began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen , a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well".
Indeed  playing with Lego served me well, for i gained so many things from the activity. Anything was possible - as my juvenile view of the world was completed with my imagination. On top of that,I learned to be discipline, patience and innovative.It was the building block and foundation for my creative endeavor.


Here's a lovely animation about the history of Lego:

Enjoy!

Mainstream media are nothing more than a propaganda tools. It functions to influence society’s opinion. Historical analysis reveal how during World War 1, the British utilizes the power of propaganda via Ministry of Information to entice the United States to enter the war which in process saved the British form total destruction and lead to the world wide dominance of the u.s influence. The method also was adopted by Hitler to spread his ideology that later transformed Germany into Nazi State. This demonstrates the power of media. It is no different from what we see today. Corporations have high stakes in the media industry giving them control over the content that are being broadcast to the mass.Ironically, the decisions are being made by intellectuals who represents the nations leaders, entrusted to making decision that would benefit the mass. However, powerful individual from the corporate world also play a major role in the decision making for they influence the economy. Mainstream media will be the tool used to gain consent by the public to carry out their plans. Manipulation of information tactics, are utilize to draw the public to a single conclusion that ideally would be beneficial for the general. This way, under the illusion of democracy, the State maintains order and carry out their propaganda unchallenged.

Structurally, corporation is setup to look after the interest for their stockholders and board of director as well as of the public. This documentary shows the development of the contemporary business corporation and how it evolved from being an institution meant for public function to adopting a personality with entitlement to most legal rights of a person.

The film examines and criticizes corporate business practice, to establish parallels, between corporate legal misbehavior; disregard for the feelings of other people, the incapacity to maintain human relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness, the incapacity to experience guilt, and the failure respect the law.

The concept of individual ownerships is disperse, creating a unit that functions as a single entity; the corporation as a whole. Profit is the ultimate form of expression of this institution with the law protecting their rights as a free individual.

An experimental animated short combining traditional cell animation, Flash animation,After Effects video compositing and Photoshop.  Music/sound are composed,collected,manipulated and remix using Audacity,Soundbooth ,Pro Tools and Reason.

Death of the author deconstructs the myth of primary ownership of a creator in his work. Originality it self is an illusion, for creativity is built upon past works and ideas that is borrowed and reinterpreted to give new meaning to a work in which it was built upon. Language itself is a constitution that has it’s own structure and hierarchy meant to give the author control over the narrative, symbolism creating myth to conceal the truth from the massive culture. However, the meaning behind a work is lost when the author begins to write. The language becomes a space containing the ideas that offers multi dimensional meaning to the readers. The essence of work changes as readers extract and reinterpret the narrative providing their own meaning base on their experiences. Therefore, part of the ownership of work transferred to the audience. It becomes an art piece when readers create meaning. An author’s role is realized when the reader contribute their experience in the work which unifies the piece as a whole. The notion of ‘death’ in this content symbolizes the elimination individualizes authorship and transfer of value within a work to the audience which in some ways effect them.

Cinema can help audiences deal with radical changes in identity; it carries them across layers of cultural transformation so that a more or less coherent national identity remains intact, spanning cracks that threaten to disrupt its movement and expose its essential disjointedness.

Princess Mononoke, an animated feature by renowned director Hayao Miyazaki, offers this argument in the film. Despite the film’s fantasy element, the story revolves around a time during feudal Japan when the realm of the supernatural lives side by side with the world of men. Conflict arises when men begin to destroy the environment by extracting natural resources excessively challenging the forest gods along the way.
 The story begins with a warrior prince named Ashitaka who encounters with the boar god on a rampage and threatens the safety of the villagers. He battles the creature, eventually killing it. However the prince, who was injured in the process now bears the creature’s curse after it was revealed that the boar was one of the forest god turned into a demon by men’s weapons. Ashitaka's journey eventually leads him to a fortress-like city named Irontown. The people of Irontown, under the rule of Lady Eboshi, have been mining iron from within a nearby mountain. It is with this iron that they are able to manufacture early forms of rifles, crude by today's standards, but very devastating nonetheless. The mining, however, has resulted in the destruction of the forest, which once covered the mountainside. The creatures of the forest are not pleased with being driven from their homes, none more than Moro, a giant wolf god, and her adopted human daughter, San. San has been repeatedly attacking the humans of Irontown in an attempt to drive them away. Ashitaka, though, believes that the humans and animals can get along peacefully and this lands him squarely in the middle of the conflict.

Miyazaki presents the audience with a universe filled with difficult choices, which, very often, do not have easy answers. For instance, he makes it clear how actions that are morally praiseworthy when looked at from one perspective may be reprehensible when seen from another. He even manages to remind the viewer that an action's being right or wrong does not necessarily depend upon the supposed moral worth of the person towards whom that act is directed. A hurtful deed is shown to be as potentially reprehensible when committed upon a wicked person as it is when done to one who is virtuous. Such meditations are not, however, included in the film in a heavy-handed or overtly didactic manner but are, instead subtly incorporated into the structure of the narrative itself. In fact, the presence of such quandaries gives the movie a depth it would not have had without them.


Princess Mononoke reflects the anxiety that is felt not only in contemporary Japan but also in developing countries around the world that attempt to transform themselves to a modern societies in the presence of technological advancement that is constantly evolving. Although the story seems like a simple tale of humankind versus nature, there are many layers which complicate things. Multiple conflicts abound with humans against humans, humans against nature and even nature against itself. What the film offers is an alternative world that contrasts with the idealized myth of harmony, progress and unproblematic society, the film offers a vision of cultural dissonance, spiritual loss and environmental apocalypse.

Stylistic elements taken from German Expressionism are common today in films that do not need reference to real places such as Blade runner, Dark City, The Crow and Inception. 

Ambitious adaptations of the style are depicted throughout the contemporary films of director Tim Burton . The re launch of Batman franchise during the early 90s is often cited as a modern attempt to capture the essence of German Expressionism. The angular building designs and severe-looking city squares of Gotham City evoke the loom and menace present in both Fritz Lang's and Tezuka Utomo’s Metropolis.

Burton’s inspirations are most apparent in the drawings he creates. The playful aesthetics of his drawings and animations continue to inform his work nurturing an engagement with his past.  The isolation he felt growing up in the suburban environment disconnected him from the world. This period of solitude focuses his attention to his imagination producing sketches that would serve as blueprints for his film. Burton’s drawings have an air of social commentary, a critique of community and mistrust of social relationship underscore his works. 

For instance, Burton’s interpretations are seen in the fairy tale suburban landscape of Edward Scissorhand. The appearance of the titular Edward Scissorhands reflects Caligari somnambulist servant. Burton casts unease in his candy-colored suburb, and the tension is visually unmasked through Edward and his Gothic castle. Burton subverts the Caligari nightmare with an inspired narrative branding, casting the garish somnambulist as the hero and the villagers as the villains.