HW# 9/2: Animation Process and Classroom Connection

My experience with exploring Scratch was a little difficult because I had a hard time physically making it although the tutorial video made it seem easy. I checked out many videos that were shared on the forum and studies how other people did their project. Drawing my characters was a little frustrating because I often accidentally "poured" all the paint throughout my canvas and I had to "clear" the entire image and redo it. After a few times, I started to grasp the drawing tools and I felt more comfortable with the tools later on. Having music in my piece was very important to my piece because the Dance Magic would enhance the mood of the overall visual experience. However, I could not have my sound play in the piece even though I added it. I also tried to find tutorials on the forum but there was no results. Overall, the experience was quite fresh and fun!

Two connections I can make this experience with an art classroom are 1) frustration in art making, 2) the overall design, drawing, and sound aspects in art.

HW# 9/1 Scratch Animation: "Hit Me!"

HW# 8/1 Sound Creation: Intro to Sound

           This was my first time using Audacity to edit sound. I used three tracks of various sounds I made when I was washing my dishes. I also experimented with materials that made interesting sound: slamming the refrigerator door and playing with plastic bags. The tutorial video on how to use Audacity was extremely helpful on how to manipulate sound. I examined the tracks one after another, cut out the parts I didn't like, relocated some areas, and manipulated the volume a bit. I enjoyed listening my tracks during the process to carefully select the sections because that's when I really paid attention to sound: how they work together. There are many times when I listened to the sound, I wondered what made that sound and what location/environment this could be. It was fascinating to me when various sounds are mixed together they become surreal.

HW# 8/3 Observation on Sound in My Life

       I think I take sound for granted in my life, especially in NYC, there are so much noise around. However, in contemporary art practice, I have seen more sound art pieces are showing in museums. Many short videos and installation work incorporate sound as a significant part. In terms of curriculum, I have never seen an art class (except college level) talked about sound. Since sound is still being seen as a new art form, unfortunately, not many people know how to appreciate it nor how to teach it. I wish sound can be accepted and included in public school art curriculums soon!

HW# 8/2 Sound Artist: Janet Cardiff and George Miller

        

    

Artists Janet Cardiff and George Miller worked together creating a series of audio which were functioned as a tour audio, where the audience would be listening the audio while walking on specific paths. What is creative about this series of work is that both artists cleverly used the audio with the physical experience (walking/looking) at a specific site. This creates a very unique and personal experience listening to the (hi)stories about that particular site and allowing imagination to happen and to think about what's like in the story. The audio also creates a context about the site which would change the audience's perception about the location. One of the series was P.S. 1 Walk, where Cardiff and Miller made an audio where they used the staircase as a site in their storytelling. When the viewer actually walk on the staircase, the experience of walking is dependent on the context of the audio whether he/she will feel sad, scared, happy etc. In this way, audio is very powerful convincing the mood of the walking experience. Reference: http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/walks/ps1.html

HW#7/1: Video

HW#7/6: Selfie

I have been enjoying the past projects from this class. I feel like there is more to explore and discover in each medium that we learned in class. I hope that we would have more studio time in class or periods to spend to familiarize with each technology. For example, I never had done Photoshop and I still don’t understand how the basic tools are functioned.