Abstraction

 I think abstract art is something that can often get written off in terms of seriousness or interest. While I agree, it can sometimes be confusing or a bit weird, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't a valid art form. Starting off, I will say that I did not like any of Pipilotti Rist's work, I do think it was interesting to watch in comparison with the other videos. Some of what she made is similar to where my mind would go when I first hear the words abstract art. Especially in her "Sip My Ocean" video, most of the museum did make me uncomfortable. It felt a bit like if I were there in that dark room laying down I would feel like I was in one of my nightmares. I realized that I think this is because a lot of her film clips remind me of the tunnel scene from Willy Wonka (1971), which in my opinion is an unsettling scene. I did, however, think that some of what she was saying in her interview was very interesting such as, "Everyone has many personas it's not a privilege of the artist, but we are only allowed to play certain dimensions of our personality," and I think that is shown in the fact that not everyone can make art (or think they are able to make art), yet everyone can enjoy art in one form or another.

The second work I found interesting was the "Frames and Containers" video. I feel like I never really thought of film formatting in-depth in this way before. I always just had this idea that films were just horizontal and that was the end of it. I knew of internal frames in films such as windows, doorways, or mirrors being used to make an artificial frame, but I don't usually think about the actual size of frames when filming or watching a widescreen video, because my brain automatically defaults to the format. However, I do think the idea of experimenting with different frame sizes is interesting because although the horizontal widescreen is the standard, it is not necessarily the required format. Yes, it is what most people are used to, and any other format might make a viewer feel weird about it, but it could also lead to many interesting options in filmmaking. For example, this also made me think of our section on how we can layer videos on top of each other in Premiere. I think this would be a great project to experiment with regarding this technique whether it be layering videos on top of one another or next to each other to fit the full-frame. 

Thirdly, I really liked Tim Hecker's "Black Refraction" piece. It took recognizable shapes and silhouettes and made them into a sort of dreamlike vision. Compared to some of the other pieces, this was really calming to me along with the music. The way the colors and frames seemed to flow was captivating to the eye as well as pleasant to watch. 

Lastly, I enjoyed all four of Peter Mack's works. If I had to choose, I think "Sitting Waiting" and "And" would be my favorites. In "Sitting Waiting", I actually really enjoyed it's simplicity at first. I am not going to analyze it all right now, but I think there can even be things said about his choices of color combinations as well as just the way the figure is sitting. What I suppose really made the piece though, is the input of his child. The fact that it was a stand-alone piece, but another point of view added to and changed the video and art, even though the original and the end result were very simple. "And" was my favorite video for multiple reasons, and I might even say it was my favorite video overall. I think Mack's combinations of drawings and sounds were very well matched and kept my attention throughout. The audio of someone mumbling what sounded like gibberish also had the rhythm of what it sounds like when a person is talking, so even though there are no words being conveyed, we can still feel the vibe of a so-called conversation. Additionally, although many of the drawings are also simple and just shapes, the sound effects in the background match the rhythm of the sketches changing shape and getting bigger or smaller. These little things supplement each other all throughout, which I think makes it an entire experience. Although "And" was chaotic, I think I loved that it was all over the place and fast-moving while being very simplistic in its individual parts. I also thought the audio of "fingerrr" was very funny. Perhaps I also liked it a bit more because it seemed mostly playful rather than heavy. 

Peter Mack's videos also reminded me of a music video I like if anyone is interested. I think it might fit our theme of abstraction and montages, especially if you don't fully understand the lyrics.

https://youtu.be/pC6tPEaAiYU