Breaking Past Forms is a electronic music composition and performance. It uses elements of pop music, club music, and noise to create experimental yet assessable dance music. The theme of the piece is media saturation and is accompanied by a performance based upon this concept.With this piece I want to push the boundaries of dance music into a more abstract sphere and explore the possibilities of laptop performance. As a DJ I often perform with a laptop and controller, however, these performances rely upon technology such as lights and projections for visual interest. I am determined an extra level of visual interest to a laptop performance as well as to treat the space of the performance as an installation. ]]>
This series explores the difference between reality and perfection by illustrating five people, each in two staged scenarios. One image is an ordinary, realistic situation,showing the kind of struggle that comes from trying to achieve perfection. The other is an image portraying how we may see this perfection in our mind.
In each pair of images, I mean to set up tension between the real and imagined to reveal the struggle we face in trying to achieve unattainable goals. In addition, I hope to explore the way our goals skew our own view of reality and make us guilty of pursuing that which we clearly cannot have.
The frames play an important part in differentiating perfection and reality. I wanted to add distance between the photograph of perfection and the viewer to make this tension part of the viewing experience. The viewer must move around the image and adjust their body in order to get a good look. When trying to achieve perfection, no matter what we do, we never seem to achieve our goal or get close to it. Reality, on the other hand, is always in our face, much like the truth.
Synaptic Symphonic is an audio/visual work that gives a voice to the unconscious mind. The work utilizes brainwaves captured through Electroencephalography (EEG) in Dr. Christine Larson’s EEG laboratory at UWM. The waves are broken down into the five different brain wave patterns: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. These are displayed through modules that show each of the waves along with the combined waveform. They are also used as control data to create an audio work. As each wave affects the sound in its own unique way, one can find which wave is controlling what aspect of sound through the visual component.
The EEG recording session was set up to stimulate different modes of thought and, as such, has movements from periods of resting and idling to critical and creative thinking. The work explores our mind’s unconscious abilities, revealing processes that we rarely contemplate. The work allows us to appreciate and wonder at the organ that gives us our sense of self.
This work is a culmination of all my studies during my tenure at UWM and a project that I have been considering for some time. It is also the first collaboration I have done that was outside the Peck School of the Arts. The project is meant to bridge art and science in a symbiotic fashion; it must address the scientific process but not be bound by it. I believe art and technology are becoming ever more entwined and as technology becomes ever more a part of our lives, art should both reflect and challenge these changes.
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山海の中町 (Nakamachi no Sankai) is a traditional Japanese town, built between the mountains and the sea; completely constructed from digital blocks in the video game Minecraft. I was able to create the town using reference images of around the feudal Japan era (1185-1868). You are able to experience the town in three ways. A video fly thru shows highlights of the town. An interactive setup allows you to take the character of the game anywhere in the town and surrounding area. The website documents the creation of the town from day one. See it at Japaneseminecraft.wordpress.com
I created this work to show my love for Japan and the beauty of their traditional architecture. I have always felt a connection with Japanese culture and lifestyles that makes me want to explore Japan more. With this work, I decided to focused on the feudal era and similar eras of Japan because modern Japan has too many similarities to western culture in their architecture. My reason for using Minecraft is to show that video games are not just interactive toys but can also be entertaining works of art. The gaming industry is growing, not just as e-sports, but also within the arts. This is my addition to gaming within the arts.
]]>Sonder is a collection of cinemagraph portraits organized into paired sets. Each portrait consists of two cinemagraphs, each in a specific type of setting. The first takes place in an open and public location, while the other takes you closer to the subject in a private moment and/or location, creating a more intimate connection with that person. These are shown along side one another to illustrate the idea of the word Sonder.
Cinemagraphs are still photographs that have a single looping movement within them, which is meant to be subtle and discovered over time.
Sonder is defined as the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
I recently learned the word, Sonder and was inspired by its definition. I believe that this ability to realize that the random people we encounter are unique individuals has the potential to make us a bit more compassionate towards complete strangers. We often worry too much about the things happening in our lives, and we fail to recognize that others have just as complex lives as our own. After seeing this project, I hope that people will consider that no matter how far people can be in the background of our lives, they are significant in others’.
Gifs:
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Me, Now Void of You is the story of a soul held captive in Purgatory, unable to traverse into the Afterlife. In order to free herself, the woman must cleanse her tainted soul by adorning her body with the stigmas that have ensnared her, that of Grief, Longing and Obsession. Various materials, such as rope, mud, paint and fabric represent each sin, each a persona the woman embodies.
Enter into the pale room, the divine forest of the Afterlife, and in through the inky, snarled cavities in which she is confined.
This piece is an attempt to express and capture the deepest feelings of the soul, the dismal drug that is obsession.
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I’ve found the creation process for Smell Me. to be of larger value to my practice as an artist. I never before considered the study of chemistry could have an effect on wall art, as well as some of the ingredients that later on came into play. These recipes of odor and scent have helped me gain an appreciation of science as an auxiliary practice to art.
READY!
SET!
GET YOUR SMELL ON!
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Daisy is an intuitive step sequencer built entirely in Max/MSP and Kontakt 5 software. Daisy is an approachable form of musical composition that invites participants to experiment, allowing them to create repeating melodic phrases. The process is simplified by using knobs and buttons instead of keys. Daisy is thereby approachable by a wider audience, while still remaining flexible enough to create unique compositions. The title references Daisy Bell, which was the first synthesized song, programmed by John Kelly, Carol Lochbaum and Max Matthews in 1961 using an IBM 704. Daisy Bell marked a significant moment in the evolution of music.
Step sequencers are nothing new, but Daisy is my own take on the concept. Music has always been a passion of mine, but I have never quite been able to connect it to the other facets of the Arts + Technology program at UW-Milwaukee. Built from the ground up – everything about this project is custom-made. That is what I wanted to accomplish in Senior Project; I wanted to make something that was completely mine. On that note, experiment and enjoy Daisy.
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