Final Project: Video Deconstruction

My final project is based on the pressure that people face when it comes to beauty standards. My video "Beauty" shows a girl trying her best to apply make up in order to look beautiful. As time progresses, she gets frustrated and begins to throw the make up on her face. This music and image becomes warped to symbolize her state of mind. Ultimately she is frustrated because she cannot conform to the standard.

I chose this topic for my video deconstruction because this issue is very prevalent in today's society. Often people feel pressured to conform the beauty standards and will never feel good enough for society. It is a frustration that I have felt myself. I have come to realize however, that you do not have to try and match the beauty standards set for us, but you can be your own kind of beautiful. What people tell us is pretty or beautiful is subjective and we need to learn not to be bothered by it, like the girl in my video.

Performance Art

Our performing art project was on human trafficking. My partner Sasha and I dressed up in torn clothing, had our faces bruised with makeup, and had messy hair to give the impression of someone who has been through a lot. We also wrote the number 146 on our foreheads to represent the organization Love 146. This organization has been fighting for 15 years to stop human trafficking by bringing down brothels and rehabilitating the victims of this horrible crime. Together we witnessed how people react on campus to girls dressed the way were. We were disappointed by how many turned a blind eye or laughed at us flat out. Nobody cared to ask what we were doing.

https://love146.org/

An influence that inspired us is Marina Abromvic. She did some crazy stunts like allowing people to control her body with props such as a loaded gun to reenacting her own funeral. In my eyes, it takes courage to do performances like that. So in a way, she gave us the courage to be vulnerable and be able to act the part of a victim. Technology wasn't really made prevalent in her performances. I know she did set herself on fire, so there had to be technology to help with that.

Another influence would be Yoko Ono, specifically her Cut Piece performance. She allowed herself to be vulnerable in front of an audience as they cut her clothes. Like her, we destroyed our clothes and walked around fully vulnerable to people's judgements and looks.

And lastly, The Guerilla Girls were an influence for us because they have a cause that they're fighting for. They wear gorilla masks, not only to hide their identities, but to also gather attention in an unexpected way. This group are fighting for Women's rights because they are passionate about it and believe it is something that is mostly overlooked in society. That's how we feel about human trafficking. We feel it's not talked about enough, and it should be so people can be more aware and protect themselves. I'm not quite sure if they use a lot of technology in their performances considering I've only seen them at rallies with microphones and signs. I feel like social media has helped them spread awareness though.

Xerox Project

My project consists of multiple copies of my left and right hand. I also copied my face from various angles. I decided to make an apple tree out of them. The hands are supposed to represent the tree and the branches/leaves. My face and head are the "apples". My project was inspired by the idiom "she's apples" which is another way of saying "everything will be alright". "She's apples" is a slang term used in Australia. With this saying attached to the tree it gives it meaning which reminds me that even though this semester has been stressful, "it's/she' s apples". In some of the copy's I appear to be smiling to signify hope and in others I'm frowning to also show the stress. The hands are spread out in a high five manner to show the strain but also can be interpreted as reaching up and not giving up.

Music Genres

I choose to add the band Blink 182 to the Punk Genre. The reason I include them in this genre is because in the 90s, the band was at the peak of the punk movement and also pushing the boundaries and creating a subgenre known as pop punk. In relation to technology Blink 182 uses different lights and sets in their videos to convey the message that their songs are about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY

I am choosing to add Crazy Frog to the Virtual genre. I am including this artist to the list of virtual artists because of the popularity that Crazy Frog experienced.  It was created by a Swedish computer programmer and became a hit when its song “Axel F” was released. A computer was used to create this music as well as a music video, giving it the illusion that Crazy Frog actually exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE

I’m adding Calvin Harris to the Electronics/DJ genre. The reason I am adding him is because he has become very successful in the music industry by creating music using his vocals, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, digital audio work station, sampler, and sequencer. David Guetta and him are very similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozv4q2ov3Mk

I am adding ABBA to the Disco genre. The reason I am adding ABBA is because they combined different sounds of rhythm and blues or soul influences and cloyingly kitsch and sentimental to modern ears. Their music has become so popular that there was a musical written based off their songs as well as many covers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s

I am adding Zedd to the House genre. The reason I am adding him to the list is because of his recognition for remixing well known artists such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and many more. He has also worked with Skrillex in the Dubstep genre. Zedd uses vocals, synthesizer, drum machines, bass synth machines to create his music which is what House is created with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxxstCcJlsc

30X30 Grid Project

This is the beginning of the project. I outlined the base of the picture first before I started gluing it down. I used blue M&M's as the color for the mountain.

This is the shape of the mountain I created and glued it down with gorilla glue.

I began to glue down yellow M&M's to create the moon and I started the pumpkins with orange and green M&M's.

More pumpkins created.

For this part I wanted to differentiate the sky and the ground so I used dark red M&M's to represent the pumpkin patch/ground.

This is the finished product. I used brown M&M's to create the night sky. Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies and with the project assigned around Halloween, I thought it was an appropriate image to make, especially out of candy.

ASCII Art

I went onto the class website and clicked on some of the links provide on ASCII art. I think it is cool that words can be used to make shapes and art. It takes a lot of creativity to figure what words you want to use and what shape is relevant to those words. I also saw the lego's that formed the Mona Lisa and the screws that formed a giant picture. Again, that takes time and dedication in order to put something that huge together. I looked up other pictures of ASCII art on google images and was amazed by what I found. There were full on portraits of famous people formed by just words. There was also cartoons and scenes from various movies that people created using this art form.

In one of my classes a year ago I recall experimenting with ASCII art. I made the David Bowie signature lighting bolt on his face out of various song lyrics of his. I'm not sure if it was the same thing but that's what I can compare it to. I remember it being extremely time consuming but it was cool when the finished product was presented.

21st Century Technology

Kristen Yurovchak

Art 211

Professor Roundtree

17 October, 2017

21^st Technology

            All over the world, people use cell phones to communicate with one another. The primary cell phone that people use is the IPhone, which has innovated cell phone technology forever. Almost every year, Apple comes out with a new version of the phone that is better than the last version of it. It has new features that people spend hundreds of dollars for. However, the IPhone could not be what it is today without the help of technology that came before it.

            We are able to have the IPhone and many other 21^st century technologies thanks to invention of electromagnetism. Discovering this allowed people to invent ways of communication such as the telegraph, which is the basis for the internet. (Nesterov). Through electricity we also were able to invent the telephone and radio which is a crucial part to the development of the cell phone and the IPhone. The phone would also not be functional without a battery, another technology that came before the IPhone.

            In the year 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile. Due to this it became possible to develop a battery although not until two centuries later was this idea fully realized. In 1985, the prototype for the lithium-ion battery was invented and in 1991 in the first commercial battery was available with the battery and the electrical telegraph (Nesterov). This pushed scientists to invent the Internet and World Wide Web.

            Another crucial part of the IPhone is the computing software that was created. Without the software the IPhone would not be what it is today. Apple first developed Newton, the touch capable digital assistant in 1993 (Nesterov). In 2007 Apple then created the IOS otherwise known as the “IPhone operation system” which is what is used today. Two other technologies that helped the IPhone come into fruition as well is Wi-Fi and the photo camera.

            The IPhone has changed the world as we know it. The existence of it has created the existence of other things such as; selfies, apps, expansion in social media, GPS expansion, threaded text message and much more. The IPhone has allowed for forms of communication that wasn’t as available before. Texting has become a bigger deal and has almost eliminated the phone call. There are apps and websites that only work on the IPhone instead of being able to use them on the computer. It has allowed creativity from all kinds of people on all sorts of things.

Works Cited

Nesterov, Dymtro. “IPhone: How Did We Get There? [Technology History Infographic].”

QuartSoft, Quartsoft, 21 Oct. 2014, quartsoft.com/blog/201410/iphone-technology-history-infographic.

Flipbook Animation

My flipbook is called Forming an Idea. The animation tells a story of someone who is trying to figure out how to get a good grade on a test. They read the textbook and then they have an "a-ha!" moment or "Eurika!". A lightbulb goes off in their head and then it shows they got an A+ on their test. I thought of this idea when I didn't know what to make. My flipbook animation was done inside a regular book so that is how I got the idea of the animation for the book. I built off the idea from there. This assignment took me a really long time to complete and I have a new respect for animators who used to animate cartoons and movies by hand. It is very time consuming and requires a lot of commitment.

Angel de Quinta Stage Door

I have been very fortunate to have lived most of my life an hour away from New York City. This has given me the opportunity to travel to the city and experience Broadway. The very first show that I ever saw was Beauty and the Beast for my 7th birthday and it has remained one of my favorites. I remember the use of the scenery to convey the story. For example during "Be Our Guest" the use of bright lights and costumes made the musical number very bombastic. There were firework type effects going on stage that emphasized the number as a show-stopper. Another cool part of the set was how the Beast's castle rotated to convey whether the characters were outside and inside.

Another show I was obsessed with for a very long time was Phantom of the Opera. I got to see that show one year because it was one of my Christmas gifts. I loved how the music and the technology worked together to bring you back in time to when the story would have taken place. One the scenes that sticks out the most to me as a great example of technology in theatre, is when the Phantom takes Christine down underneath the opera house. He takes her on a boat on a lake and they have fog covering the stage and candelabras rising from the stage to give the illusion they are floating. It was super cool. Another memorable moment is during the song Masquerade when the cast is dancing on a giant staircase. In order to give an illusion of a full staircase, they use dummies they have dressed up to fill in the empty spaces. The Phantom also appears in that scene and through the use of special effects, is able to vanish in front of the audience.

Lastly one of all time favorites is Wicked. I saw Wicked for my 10th birthday and it was an experience I will never forget. The use of technology is immense. The cast and crew of Wicked want you to feel like you have been transported to Oz through their use of costumes, lighting, choreography, dialogue, and much more. One of the most memorable scenes is in the beginning when Glinda appears in her bubble and she is descending to the stage. They use a bubble machine to produce bubbles that surround her as she is there. Another memorable scene is when Elphaba decides she's had enough of how she is treated and defies gravity. She steps onto a platform, that the audience cannot see, and is lifted into the air. Along with the use of lighting and smoke machine, it gives the illusion that she is flying with her broomstick which is really cool.

Eugene Onegin Opera Assignment

Kristen Yurovchak

ART 211

Professor Roundtree

26 September 2017

Eugene Onegin

            In 1832, Alexander Pushkin published a novel titled Eugene Onegin. Today the novel is considered a Russian classic and a breakaway from the traditional Russian novels that were published at the time that Onegin was written. The plot of the novel consists of a young girl from the countryside of Russia named Tatyana. She falls in love with a young man, Eugene Onegin, who is a part of high society. She confesses her love to him only to have him reject her and tell her that she needs to control her feelings. He kills his friend Lensky, Tatyana’s sister’s fiancé, and leaves the country. Years later he returns to find Tatyana married to a man part of high society and realizes he loves her. Tatyana rejects him however due to her pride and virtue.

            The novel, when it was released, was unusual for its time because many people felt it lacked an ending. During the time, stories had the heroine and the hero end up together but in Eugene Onegin, it is not the case. People also realized that there was nothing special about the protagonist and that even though he was the hero of the story, he was unremarkable and ultimately “an ordinary person” (Belinsky). This allowed for people reading the novel to feel a realistic connection with the events of the story.

            In 1824 when the work was still in progress, Pushkin received criticism that his work on Onegin did not express enough romanticism. However, Pushkin declared it was not the point of his work to express romantic ideas but rather how foolish people can be through their actions. Ironically Tchaikovsky, who wrote the operatic version of Eugene Onegin, turned it into “a lush, dreamily sentimental romanticism” (Schimdgall).

Tchaikovsky revealed that he handled Pushkin’s characters as people and not as puppets. He wanted to express the story as three-dimensional characters rather than the ones that exist in the poem. However, the opera focuses heavily on Tatyana instead of Eugene. For this reason, Schimdgall is critical of Tchaikovsky’s score because it shows his “disinclination to develop the side of Onegin’s character…” (Schimdgall).  Despite how different the novel and opera are it is considered a successful opera.

The first reason the opera was successful was because Tchaikovsky was true to his aesthetic. He gave life to ‘puppets’ that were created by Pushkin and he made the characters more engaging for audiences. It also succeeds because of its heavily influenced Russian score which allowed Tchaikovsky to write with his heart and not make the opera feel forced or manufactured. The opera is very hard to stage properly due to the emotional aspect put into it. Tchaikovsky wants the audiences to feel genuinely, rather than having the stage exude strong emotions. Many theatre companies insist on performing Onegin on a large stage, even though the show was written for intimate theatres.

The reception to Onegin was mixed at first. Many viewers did not like how Pushkin’s literature was manipulated to fit into the opera’s version of the story. The main protagonist’s vocal range also goes against tradition. Normally 19^th century operas had tenors be the heroes of the story but instead Tchakovsky wrote the part for a baritone (Spreng). The part of Eugene is also not an orthodox part of a hero nor is he really sympathetic. The lack of death in the opera also went against the traditional opera for the time. Many opera’s had more than one character die before the end but Eugene Onegin only has one. Tchaikovsky also worried about audience’s reception to the opera because of the lack of scene changes.

            In the version of the opera that I watched there are only seven scene changes in which we do not see the transition. Every time the setting changes in the opera, the curtains close and reopen to completely new scenery. The scenery, although it was beautiful was very simplistic. The first scene showed the outside of the Tatyana’s home and it stayed that way the entire time until the curtain closed. The next time the curtain reopens Tatyana is in her room and once again the audience feels like they are in an enclosed area. The lighting used in this scene makes the viewer’s feel as if it is nighttime as well as the lighting in the back that is supposed to be the moon.

            The next scene is the place where Eugene and Tatyana meet and where he rejects her love. The scenery is simplistic with just greenery as the background and a single bench. This is done so we can focus on the plot and not what is going on in the background. After that is the party at Tatyana’s house and the scene changes a little bit. The viewer now feels like they are in a larger space even though it is obvious it isn’t an incredibly wealthy space. Where Lensky and Onegin duel is simplistic as well but the use of lighting during Lensky’s song, before his death, gives off a feeling of foreboding.

            The scene where Tatyana and Eugene meet again is in a lavish ballroom and is significantly better than the ballroom we see previously. It gives off a large feeling and lets the audience know that Tatyana has moved up in social class. Finally the last scene where Eugene confesses his love for Tatyana appears to be in a closed in study room and the feeling is once again intimate. The lighting gets darker throughout the scene until Tatyana rejects Eugene which leaves a feeling of sadness and anguish.

            If I were to make this opera into a video game, I would make this into a role playing game where the gamer would have the ability to choose different outcomes. Much of the opera is the characters lamenting about “what if”. The beginning shows the mother lamenting about her forced marriage and what life would have been like without it. Tatyana laments if she should confess her love to Eugene and struggles with the decision for an entire night. Lensky laments about what will happen in the duel and Onegin laments about confessing his feelings for Tatyana at the end. The gamer would be able to choose the path the characters take and experience the different outcomes each time they play much like how a role playing game has different endings.

Works Cited

Hoisington, Sona Stephan. Russian Views of Pushkins "Eugene Onegin". Indiana University Press, 1989.

Schmidgall, Gary. Literature as Opera. Oxford University Press, 1980.

Spreng, Sebastian. "Eugene Onegin: More than an Opera, an Emotional Symphony." Knight Foundation. Kinght Foundation, 24 Jan. 2017. Web.

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera about a Japanese woman who falls in love with an American man. He sleeps with her and immediately leaves afterwards, leaving behind her and eventually their child. Madama Butterfly holds on to the hope that the man will come back for her and her child and waits for him vigilantly. Eventually he does return but he brings his new wife with him and all of their kids. He takes the child that he had with Madama Butterfly, officially taking everything from her. In the end, Madama Butterfly commits suicide.

I thought the animation style was very unique. The use of dolls and scenery helped tell the story as well as the symbolic objects that were used. In the beginning, it is shown that Madama Butterfly has a butterfly that sits upon her head. When the man leaves, the butterfly leaves too which I think symbolizes her heart. The child is shown to be a fish in a fish bowl at first. The fish bowl then breaks to represent her water has broken and the child is born.

 She and her child are attached to each other by a string. Madama Butterfly is seen floating around in the air with her child pulling her along which symbolizes how she may be daydreaming or not completely mentally there. The only thing keeping her floating along is her child. When she sees the ship the man belongs to, she is suddenly grounded and awaits his return. When he does return he rips the child from her, severing the string and thus taking away her only connection to him. She then commits suicide by taking a part her puppet body.

This version is more simplistic than the original opera itself. We do not get the backstory that Butterfly and the Sailor are married and we miss out on the curse that is placed on her. We do not know that she is dishonored from her family for marrying him. The opera is able to convey emotion through their facial expressions and acting whereas the Claymation version relies on the music of the opera to convey the emotions it is trying to portray. Overall, I think that Madama Butterfly is a beautiful tragic story with amazing music.

Integration Assignment

"Street Light Giraffe" is a drawing I thought of while driving back to New Jersey due to Hurricane Irma. Being on the highway for 32 hours straight really causes ones mind to wander. Seeing a ton of street lights made me think of how they kind of look like the profile of a giraffe therefore I combined the two unlikely objects for the assignment.

Raul Cuero Interview

For class I had to watch Raul Cuero’s interview about his life and how he got to where he is today. Coming from nothing, Raul was able to go to college through a basketball scholarship. Off the court he was seen as someone with zero value other than his talent for basketball. This inspires him to persevere in his studies in order to prove everyone wrong. He gets a scholarship to come to a university in America and the last thing he hears before he leaves is that his god given gift is just sports. This pushes him to leave his country.

He explains in the interview there is the universal conscience meaning that you can take all of the factors that are in your way and rise above them in order to reach the full potential you can be at. The interviewer also asks how he used creativity in order to rise above the many circumstances holding him back. As a child he had no toys and virtually nothing to do so he came up with other ways to entertain himself. One interesting way is when he played with roaches and observed their movements and how they interacted with each other. He became knowledgeable on random subjects that privileged kids would probably not know too much about.

Cuero also talks about his work ethic which I think is inspiring. He says that too many people today are afraid of failure and rejection because they do not want to do something that requires a lot of work and process. He says that you need to have intensity with everything that you do. I agree because if you do not work hard you will not achieve your full goal which is what Cuero did despite the odds.

Cuero points out that kids now have a hard time working hard and solving problems because they do not think outside of the box. He refers to their thought process as “following a menu” instead of working hands on. He believes firmly in hand on learning which means that you take outside knowledge and learn new knowledge to create something.

I think that Raul Cuero is a great example of perseverance. He proves that you do not have to let your circumstances define you and that you can think outside of the box and achieve anything you set your mind to. Do not let other people put you down or make you think you are incapable of doing any less.