India Duncan
Self Evaluation
04/ 05/2013
My inspiration for this project came from all of the talk about Africanisms that was taught in ANTH 495 African American Culture. Africanisms are African institutions that were practiced during slavery, and that are still present today within the African American community. The animated video that I have constructed reflects the bond shared between females of Africa. During Spring break, I had the best time ever with my two sisters; it was as if our love and like towards one another grew stronger (I smiled the entire vacation from ear to ear). As I rode the buses through Baltimore, I started to notice that bond within other families and between female strangers who were out and about. I thought to myself, sisterly bonds (female relationships in family or between strangers) are a wonderful thing to have in this big world, and in the city of Baltimore. With Africanisms explained, the theme of my video focus on the retention of sister bonds within the black community, and reveal my thoughts of how this love for one another has maintained through slavery and modern America. Throughout this process my ideas for once, has stayed the same.
Putting together the video and audio clips that I gathered from helpful friends created limitations. The actors that I enlisted for this project were compliant with my ideas but I would have liked their hand gestures and claps to be a little more fluid. This was a mini problem that needed to be dismissed because I did not want to make the participants feel uncomfortable or that their participation was unappreciated. Because I did not know how to make the participants into silhouette figures mechanically, they had to be drawn over top of in Photoshop where animation was an option. This process was tedious because I had to import the recorded video into Photoshop’s animation element and draw individual arms/ hands (making sure to keep them in their own layers) to follow the movements of each participant. The movements of the imported video did not synchronize well with the tune I was thinking of, and did not, after I tried to change the tune to conform to its rhythm; so with the sketched silhouette figures, I had to ad lib some of the movements. After animation the video was saved as a GIF file and imported into Final Cut Pro. In this program the file was cut and effects were placed on it (Cross and Dither Dissolve). The song and clap audio were separate from one another, and transformed to fit compliment the animation. The audio of claps was another limitation to this project. The handclaps were, to me, unnatural, and became more noticeable after it was added to the Final Cut Pro file. These problems, however, could have been prevented if the handclap and song had been recorded with the rhythm of the hand game.
Before the day of the first due date, Marche and I stayed woke until five a.m. searching for a specific clip within the movie, The Color Purple. I could not have prevented this last minute change because my video needed to be approximately one minute and thirty-six seconds, and I was swamped with the burden of other work.
Stepping back to look at the finished product as a projection, I was pleased with myself. However, I would have required that the entire wall be utilized. The color of the video, once projected onto the red brick wall showed forth, which was my major concern. People wondered of how I put this project and all its parts together- and they were very pleased of the visual outcome. As for analyzing whether my message was heard, I believe the audience read it quite well. Possibly after I informed the audience of what movie I sampled from, the content of the video made more sense. I guess this video had to be viewed by an audience that is familiar with The Color Purple. And a compliment that I stored away for that night was from a viewer who said the figures were chilling.
There was not a dull moment had while sharing Monty with the projects of others. The space was shared with Jerome (my partner), Olivia, Charles, and Jeff. Each of the projects was intriguing because they exuded completely different vibes. The different artwork, surprisingly, meshed well together. Each video possessed similar color schemes; each had black and white, or silhouette figures. The hand and body gestures of these figures were quite similar as well. The positive aspect of sharing the space with others was that the projects gained public attraction. Lots of human traffic came in and out of the space and the different projections going on at once made people stay longer. When one video became tiresome, people would turn to the next. The space had a performance art vibe going. Charles piece was exactly performance art; an actual seen from the movie Color Purple that was inserted into my animation, expanded into the shape of a large theatre screen.
The most successful aspects of the first project Appropriation and Rhythm was my ability to bring together visual images/ audio that was disturbing to the viewer because of its content and repetition. The guidelines for project two were to create a piece that was original in content. The silhouette figures in my video had been sketched using scratchy markings. The sketching left empty spaces, which when projected onto the brick wall, made the figures stand apart from it (not just placed upon the wall). A strength of mine that is seen after both projects is being succeeding in making the audience uncomfortable. With each project the content, audio, and style is eerie, and many of my viewers have commented on this aspect of my work(s). According to my research, I have been looking at the work of artist Marco Brambilla who creates digital collages which I think resemble sculpture- digital motion sculptures. Dev Harlan is a light artist who builds sculpture to project light onto. If I were to combine the digital with sculpture I would create a mini movie (recreate the Wizard of OZ) where the sculptures that I have created in Advanced Sculpture class become live.
For this project I should receive a letter grade of A because my idea and theme was clear. Visually, the video was pleasant, and my goal to radiate an eerie vibe was accomplished.