The Great Train Robbery (1903) is a cinematic feat in many respects. There had been many innovations in the in film-making up until this movie, since the first 'moving pictures' were showcased by Thomas Edison in 1891. Going back to the classical invention of the perspective, you can see in the film that the director was trying to include the audience in the scenes. The camera is placed focusing along the lengths of the train and to a slight offset in the opening scene. Towards the end, horses run toward the camera, as if they're coming out at the audience. Depth is created when the bank teller appears through the wall, letting up know that there is more to the building than just the room we are shown.
Technologically, this piece embraces the "slight-of-hand" tricks that were coming of age in film. An image of a passing train can be faked by overlaying the image of a passing train in the style of Georges Melies, who can be considered the father of modern day special effects. Other tricks including faulting film for a second to replace a human with a dummy to fake a death and smoke tricks for fired guns.
Using these elements in the production allows for a better story to be told. By suggesting that the environment extends beyond the screen, the audience becomes part of the production, embracing the characters and the narration. The robber at the end really hits home with this idea when he breaks down the 'fourth wall' that separates the audience with the story on screen.
To start with a disclaimer, the following post is written by my good-girl self.
As I started watching this animation, all I could think was 'How did this guy get away with it? Its broad daylight and he is working with graffiti that stands three-stories tall.' Although I am sure this is not what the artist hoped viewers would take away from the piece, he can rest assured that these thoughts were heavily outweighed by the emotional response that always happens whenever I view a stop motion piece.
Street art is genre in its own right because not only are the pieces unique in their images and ideas, but the surroundings of the piece work in symphony with the paintings. The textures of the surfaces, such as worn cement and brick, can give life to simple images. Often painting are done on top of each other, adding even more to the piece along with a strong sense of craftsmanship. As you will see, part of the captivation can lie in faint effect that a paint trail can leave behind; you can literally see when the character has been.
Blu is an Italian street artist who creates large-scale painting on the sides of buildings. One of his most famous pieces that has gone viral in the Age of the Internet is Muto, a stop motion animation that transforms still graffiti paintings in living creates, able to accomplishes feats impossible by man. It is evident in the character's way of transformation that the artist has a sort of fascination with surfaces and how they can make up objects. Boxes multiply into an elaborate honeycomb design, spewing out into the streets of Buenos Aires.
Blu not only uses the surface textures of these South American buildings, but he really integrates the 3D environment when the character interacts with paper. Biting and tearing at the pieces, it is hard to not imagine how all of these was accomplished. Taken still by still, the seven minute and forty second long piece would have taken months to complete.
SIDE BAR: These two were probably my favorite, and deserve to be shared.
The origins of jazz music can be traced back to the African-Americans in New Orleans. Originally, the city was split in two, with black Creole musicians and higher class citizens on the east side of town, and freed black citizens to the west side of Canal Street. The Creole musicians had been classically trained in the Parisian conservatories. When segregation laws forced the Creoles to move with the American musicians who performed blues, ragtime, hymns, and spirituals, the two types of music eventually fused together to include some of the more classical instruments, such as the violin. The proclaimed inventor of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, has been recorded talking about how classic European dances such as the waltz and polka were able to be transformed into jazz. In his article "The Origins of Jazz," Len Weinstock discusses how the transformation from ragtime to jazz was to simply add an underlying 4/4 beat to ragtime's 2/4 rhythm.
After the abolition of slavery, black men were able to find work as performers in dance and marching bands, and these instruments also became the standard for jazz music. Ragtime and jazz worked its way into the vaudeville acts the travelled the country as well, and as prohibition was enacted, jazz became the music of the rebellious crowds within the speakeasies of cities such as New York and Chicago. Now hearing the music in entertainment venues around the city, the genre took off, becoming part of popular culture and the Jazz Age was in full bloom.
The Super Bowl is the event for commercial advertisers. Usually, there is no other event that draws more television viewers, and commercial time slots for this event cost millions of dollars. However expensive, advertisers take advantage of the massive audience and create commercials that they think will win over the audience's attention from their surrounding food and friends, and use lots of wit to come up with ads that stick in American's minds.
For the event last year, there are a number of ads of ads that feature classical, some operatic, music. Here are a few with tunes you might recognize:
Following the storyline of the classic opera Madama Butterfly, Pjotr Sapegin's animation of the opera seems to include much symbolization that allows the viewer to understand the premise of the entire narrative better. Of course, having not seen the complete opera yet, this is only a hypothesis. In the beginning of this piece, you see the female lead give herself to the love interest. The lover than leaves her behind as he continues his service to the U.S. Navy, and, following the plot of the opera, Madama Butterfly becomes pregnant with the man's child. Here the story deviates though and begins to show my symbolism in the story. When giving birth, the born child is first a fish that transforms into a baby. I am unsure of what the artist was trying to convey with this and other scenes such as the ending 'suicide.' However, after the birth of the child, it is apparent that the umbilical connection of mother and daughter is supposed to represent the strong relationship that the returned sailor severs. In this, there is a strong sense of the hardship that the woman feels when the man takes her daughter that only nonverbal communications can translate.
During the Middle Ages, there was no form of entertainment to which citizens could focus their attentions. With the invention of the Gutenberg printing press and exploration of knowledge once lost, people began to take pleasure in the arts again. The Renaissance returned people to books, art, and music. In the musical world, the opera took center stage and this became the place to socialize. Great amounts of money, talent, and sacrifice were put into these productions and singers singers underwent a lot of hardship for their craft.
Under the reign of Louis XIV, the group of men known as the castrati became the greatest operatic stars. As prepubescent boys, these singers would endure the painful procedure of castration, so as to achieve the upper levels of the vocal range that would not normally be possible. I think this provokes an important topic: human mutilation for art.
Many artists practice self-mutilation, but in the case of the castrati, the procedure was done on young boys who most likely had no say in whether or not the procedure has done. Most of the boys who undergo the procedure have been offered up by their families in exchange for financial reward (source).
The sculpture pictured below is actually not what you think it is. In the style of the baroque era, the face draws on the angelic features of the ancient Greek artists. Even if you know your art history, looks can be deceiving. The cooper sculpture done by the twentieth-century art Juan Carlos Delgado. In fact, its not even just a sculpture; its an installation piece that took over the entire display room.
Although takes the form of a simple bust, it is actually a case for a refrigeration unit. Kept in a below-freezing environment, water molecules form on the surface and create unique ice formations. Depending on heat from the lighting, air circulation, and human interaction, the ice is never the same. It transforms over time, and targets multiple senses, thus making this a piece of multimedia art.
To me this piece in an excellent example of what can be done when old and new worlds collide. The figure has the romantic form, while being controlled by a twentieth-century invention. In the era that sculptures like this were created, refrigeration was an idea that was not feasible, and to apply it to a work of art would never have occurred. Furthermore, the idea of having a something look immutable and then change without showing any signs that it will transform is an idea that will definitely capture an audience's attention.
