The final wazzzam!

 My book came!!!!

 Look! ITS SO PRETTY!!!!!

THE FIRST IMAGE PAGE!!!

Hello folks!
Today I'll be finishing & showing my work from the last 10 weeks! Its been a fun ride, and full of lesions in each step of my projects... To give you all an idea of what i've accomplished this term, I'll just give you a laundry list of tasks that ended up in beautiful results!!!
- Scanned all my negatives into the computer (30+ negatives)
- photoshopped all my negatives
- printed 16# 17x22 inch prints (honors show)
- printed 3# 30x30 inch prints (senior show)
- Designed & printed a book from booksmart (honors show)
- Designed & ordered my honor show invitations from Got Print.
- Ordered my sample frame for my honors show
- Made a performance dance film & collaborated with two composers for my "soundscape"

Its all been really fun and exciting and I can't wait to start hanging my solo show for my opening of May 11th!!!! I'm also equally excited about the senior show and how the large prints will look in the space with all the other senior art major's work.

p.s- Thank you Hillary Rogers for the great idea of how to display my excitement for the arrival of my book! ;)

Bust up! and away with those films!

Image: Film still from Cathy Cook's film "Bust Up"


Greetings readers!
Tonight I'm going to update you on the recent film screening "Bust Up" with guest filmmaker Cathy Cook. Tonight, the Digital Processes & Intro to Electronic Music class had their collaboration film screening in partnership with Cathy Cook's film screening of "Bust Up". Overall, I found the experience working on the collaboration project insightful and fun. To expand more on "insightful", I found working with two composers who were working on their soundscapes separate from each other a great experience.  Seeing how they differently interpreted my film and then contributed their ideas to the piece was totally worth the few extra meetings I had with them. I also feel that both composers took different parts of my explanation of the piece to heart, and branched off from there. I found this particularly interesting because my film is based on a individual's movement and how that in and of itself shares an experience with the viewer. In a sense, my first viewers were these composers and I found their work a response to the film verses some films that had their composers be more narrative and storytelling like. Lastly, I just had a really great time working on the film with Adam and Alex and I really liked seeing all the films from the class together as a whole show. Thanks to everyone who came and thank you, Cathy Cook, for sharing your stories of filming "Bust Up" and being apart of this process.
peace,
Ali  

Bookmaking, music and film oh my!

So this post is all about my progress on my honors book and the collaboration video project. This last week, I photographed, developed the negatives, scanned in the negatives into photoshop, and edited the images to use for my cover and back cover of my book. The images are put in my layout and everything for that book is just about done. I just need to do a couple more edits on my artist statement then I should be ready to order the sample book by thursday! yay!
For the cover/back cover, I decided to do a simple image of the orb with no human interaction. Then the back cover is the same image, a little bit lighter and lower contrast. This lets the viewer see a subtle sign of the footprints around the orb, giving a clue that this had human interaction at some point in the past... also a little mysterious and I like that. I also think the cover photo is mysterious, but in a different way, as if you don't even know what it is to an even further extent. I have also been figuring out where I want my title to be and what font/color it should be. I decided on a gray for the font, sense that sort of represents the "human" color in the series. The font just seems right but I want other artists opinions on that, and it seemed like it would be very visually strong to put the titles inside the orb, but I'm not set on that...

The collaboration video project is going swimmingly! I heard two different ideas from one of my composers and I really like where hes going with it so far. He really captures certain qualities of the movement with the dancer, so I'm sure his work with only strengthen the piece.

Reflection on relational artists...

    Photo from: Noritoshi Hirakawa, film still, "Vier Zwei Eins" 
 

          Photo from: Noritoshi Hirakawa, film still, "Vier Zwei Eins" 
  Hello everyone! Yesterday I gave a presentation to my digital class on artist Noritoshi Hirakawa. Noritoshi was born in 1960 in Japan, and ever sense 1993 has been living and working in NYC. Noritoshi's work is about sexuality and censorship, by combining the public and private image into the same image, which theoretically, gives the viewer a more sincere depiction of that society. Noritoshi studied applied sociology, so most of his work is critiques on social construction and censorship. We talked about in class how and why he would be mentioned in Boreau's book "Relational Aesthetics" and I believe it is because Boreau is interested in looking at artists who try to depict society and experiences just the way they are. Noritoshi Hirakawa in a sense, is doing this by combining two-- very real-- aspects of our societies into one image. When Noritoshi puts these images together into one image, often the viewer feels uncomfortable or surprised by the image. This reaction to the image is a result of a constructed society facade which creates a culturally uncomfortable feeling when a public interaction intertwines with a private, for instance: bedroom, interaction takes place at the same time. To leave with you something more specific about Noritoshi's feelings on the matter, this is a quote from him during an interview about his work:

"The framework of society is based on fictions and this makes people lie," says the photographer. "It is always easier to believe the lies. But it is these lies that are loosening the bonds of society." - Noritoshi Hirakawa. 

The other presentations were also really helpful with better understanding the concept of Relational Aesthetics. Even though Hillary really didn't like her, I thought Venessa Beecroft was supper interesting! I also thought her work related a lot to my artist in the aspects of censorship. Venessa does seem a bit strange as a person, given what information Hillary spoke about, but I can help but be fascinated by her work. 

Here are some images of Venessa's work, check her out! 

               Photo from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNpulBF4hR3YHYILNpF8sxtVA3FvCUB5Em4r5_bpamIsi9NavzJg0URBvLpaDgeDCBbVtsYiQgyBWzapbMa8q3hRFN1r6EFCeYY-LfnB0FQeDYvQqE9cHZ5Exz2eAED6SBvApJt9LM-_v/s1600/MuseoMagazine-VanessaBeecroft-V

                                     

photo from: http://gliving.com/vanessa-beecroft-less-than-sympathetic-artist-becomes-unbelievable-character-in-sudanese-adoption-documentary/

vanessa beecroft, vb61: still death! darfur still deaf?, 2007, performance, pescheria di rialto, venice

Nick Olson's lecture

                                     Photography from Nick Olson, from Nick's Website
Nick Olson, 2008 alumni from Lawrence came to speak about his work on monday night. Nick works with a very old photographic process called collodion tintypes, which is not done by many artists in the contemporary world. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this fascinating lecture due to lovely airport delays, but reading about his work through his website and what I heard from students in and out of class, as well as talking to the artist himself these are my reflections...

I think that his decision to use such an old technique really fits well with the concepts behind his work. He says in his artist statement as well as in person that it is largely about him creating an "object" as well as an image for the viewer to experience. This process creates more of an object you hold in your hand and interact with rather than the viewing experience of a silver gelatin or even more recently an image on a computer screen would be viewed quite differently.

I also related a lot to his ideas about space and how one reacts to their environment changing based on our cultural time. I think bringing up the Thoreau stuff is a little "overdone" but at the same time his work does relate to that within a more contemporary context so I don't have too much to complain about that.

Overall, really nice guy to talk with and I really liked his work.

Nick Olson visit

Photography by Nick Olson. from Nick's website

Contemporary Collodian artist/ alumni Nick Olson came to campus yesterday to give a talk about his work with the old photographic technique Collodian process and his time in a log cabin in the woods.  Today, he spent time with students giving art critiques, having lunch with students, and coming to my senior seminar class in the afternoon. Reflecting back at the experience, there are a few aspects of his visit and work that really stuck out to me such as the obvious (working with a very old, hands-on medium in contemporary art) and his thoughts about my work after our critique. 

First off, I think its really awesome he's working with the collodian photographic process. I think people these days get too wrapped up into working with the "newest" medium or technology and honestly, if your work is better supported using a process thats slower and more "hands on" then I think that makes you a more accomplished professional. The element I would watch out for though, is to make sure that your ideas are relevant to the current contemporary climate audience because if your just repeating the past historical work then your really not bringing anything new to the table. Though, after saying that, his artist statement in his website does say he is not interested in contemporary ideas, and who knows, maybe hes got it right and we'll all be dissatisfied at some point with new technology. 

Second part I wanted to address was my art critique. He looked briefly at both bodies of work and had a lot of positive things to say regarding my images and overall concepts. He said he could see a strong similarity between both bodies of work sense they both have subjects interacting with objects in particular spaces. He also was interested in seeing a film aspect for my senior show work. Nick mentioned he could really see the presence of yoga and dance beliefs and movements within my work without me really saying much about my background in both of those areas. Overall, good critique and his work makes me reflect a lot about artists decisions with their process and equipment  reflecting back to their ideas behind their work. 

Project update!

                                    (Photography by Ali Scattergood from series I am who am)


My project continues to make progress! yay! This last week I've finished scanning all the 120 negatives into the computer and photoshopping those images to be ready to be put into the book.(This is for both my senior show book and my honors project book). I'm also almost done assembling my images into both templates for books and want to get some opinions on the layout before I order any "test" soft cover books. I've made 8x10 test prints of my large 30x30 prints so I will be ready to print some of those this week. My film is going well too... I'm working on editing the shakiness out of the cuts and ideally would like to get the dark spot on the glowing orb edited out as well.

These are the links to the template applications for the books i'm creating.
my publisher: http://www.mypublisher.com/

Booksmart:  http://www.blurb.com/make/booksmart/?ce=google_brand_booksmart&gclid=CMqs8c-HiK4CFQsBQAodrFgH7A

This week I'll be working on editing the film more, writing an artist statement for my I am who am series to use for the book and finalizing the layout of both books. (Maybe I'll even get to printing some large 30x30 inc jet prints!)

wish me luck!

p.s- I'm co-curating the Rabbit Gallery art show this year (and running the whole business with 4 other lovely people) and the opening is Wednesday, February 8th 6:30-9:30pm. It would be wonderful to see people there if you are in town!
http://www.rabbitgallery.com/

More about the video collaboration!

So guys, my film is part of my honors studio art project that is both black and white photography and video titled I am who am. For this film, I had my subject-- who has a background is in contemporary dance- move and interact with my glowing orb of light that is a hard plastic ball 2ft by 2ft for three minutes. After the filming I had her write a brief reflection on the experience as well. This reflection might go into the film, but will definitely go in to the book I'm creating of the still images and production stills of the film. I showed my rough cut to my two composers, Adam and Alex, and they are looking into ideas for me with the scores. Alex and I have already been talking about playing around with some cello and voice sounds. We haven't officially decided how much involvement I'll have in their process, but it sounds like they're pretty open to anything. I'm excited to hear what they come up with! I'll be posting a rough clip of the film soon! 

Project process update!

hello folks!
So just wanted to update you on my project thus far. I've been working on scanning all my negatives from both projects into the computer and photoshopping them to be where I want them. The three images that will be printed 30x30 inches are photoshopped, and I'm printing 8x10 test prints to make sure I've got the saturation and such where I want them. The large printing of those images should start tomorrow or tuesday of next week. The mini books are coming along quite nicely, they should be ready to order in about the same time frame as printing the large images. I have met with my composers for my film project and have made a rough cut of my footage. I will be using a haiku that I wrote for my short film. This is what I've got so far...

Movement dance with light
Essence will seek an understanding
it's I am who am 

Thoughts for Book Design...

After reflecting about different ways to go about book design last week a few aspects stuck out to me for my project. Some of these aspects include picture presentation on page, cover, title/fonts, spacing of images and blank pages, and size of book. There are so many different ways to go about designing a book! At first it was a little overwhelming, I'll have to admit... but as we went through as a class what stuck out to us I couldn't help but piece together what I wanted for my book.

First off, for my senior show, I really want to create small books. I want them to be able to almost fit in your hand and have a simple design. I want them to almost be a flip book so as you view the little images of the figure with the fabric it appears as if he is moving in that space.

For my honors project, I want to create a 12x12 inch hard cover image wrap book. It will be 20 pages in length with bleed off images on every other page. I'm also really interested in having a written statement from one of my subjects as a reflection of their experience doing the project as well as their reflection of the project as a whole. I think having my artist statement along with the others statement would be a nice balance for the project. I also want to have a photograph of just the glowing orb with the used black backdrop as if the space had a presence of someone but is waiting for the connection or that presence has just left. I got this idea from Mona Kuhn's body of work titled "bordeaux series" in it she has portraits of people in a certain space so her cover is just the blank space. I really like this because ultimately this is a documentation of these individuals experience in this space. I'm a little nervous about doing all of this in one term and i've never used InDesign so I"m going to be using BookSmart- supposedly an application that helps you not screw up your final book product in blurb. Thats always a good thing!

more to follow soon! I hope to get a lot done this weekend! yay! Also, just filmed my video stuff and it looks awesome! can't wait to get in the editing room!!!!

peace,
Ali

Cathy Cook Response

(Cathy Cook from www.lorineniedecker.org/ 2011Presenters.cfm )


Last week we had a quest artist/filmmaker come into our digital class to talk about filmmaking in the contemporary art world. Cathy Cook, a filmmaker & professor at University of Maryland is doing a collaboration project with our digital class making 3 minute films based on a piece of literature. These pieces will have scores written for them by fellow composition conservatory students.  Cathy Cook brought up many different aspects of filmmaking, focusing on the component of sound within the film and showing us many examples of different ways one could interpret the project. I'm in the advanced section of the class, which gives me the choice to either pass on this project and focus on my overall long term project for this class or give this film a shot and see if I can incorporate it into my larger project goals. I've decided to give this project a shot.
My film will be a 2-3 minute piece that is branching off of one of the bodies of work I'm doing right now with a glowing orb. I'm going to have a contemporary dancer dance with the glowing orb-imprav. So its basically an performance piece made into a film. My original idea does incorporate aspects of contemporary dance and contemporary art into practice so I think this will be a nice component for my show.
When it comes to reflecting on her presence in the classroom I thought she brought up some interesting components of filmmaking that haven't been discussed much in class so far. Most of the components of filmmaking she brought up I've experienced before from previous filmmaking classes from high school (Interlochen arts academy). Though, considering the type of class she was speaking in I thought it was very relevant. 

Guest Lecturer: Debra Brehmer

Debra Brehmer, a Milwaukee artist, art historian, and gallery director came to lawrence yesterday to give a talk on Milwaukee Painter Bernard Gilardi. During Debra's visit, she also took time out of her schedule to do art critiques with myself and some other art students. I found Debra's talk about Bernard Gilardi really interesting, I thought she did a really nice job of describing the work and really engaging with the audience so we shared in her excitement of finding this major collection of work from a never recognized deceased painter. I also thought the work itself was fascinating! All the works had such loaded imagery and were creatively put together with a corky but intellectual sense of humor. All the religious paintings were especially fascinating, but it was nice to see in the lecture some of his other work to see how his humor and style was a common thread.

Another major aspect of her visit I really enjoyed was when she took time with me to do an art critique of my work for my senior show (May, 2012). I had about 12 prints I showed her with an artist statement and her comments and suggestions were very encouraging and enlightening. For instance, she said that my concept and this body of work could really go somewhere and she thought I was using the nude figure in the landscape in a new way that was worth exploring. She found the more abstract images more interesting and powerful- which I agree with her about. She also said she really liked the water, meadow, and woods combination, and could be a strong triptic. She said my work reminded her of the artists "Eiko and Koma". I looked them up after the critique and they are modern dance performance artists. They are well know for their "dance dramas" which just includes the two of them in the performances. Their performances seem very primitive and raw to me. I like it, I think i'm going to look farther into their works.

If you're interested in seeing one of their performances, here it is!



If your interested in seeing Debra's portrait gallery here's the link. seems really cool, I definitely want to visit!
http://portraitsocietygallery.wordpress.com/