Sunday, December 7, 2014

smooze

Alejandro Rodriguez
12-6-14
Smoozing Project

            So for my smoozing project I went to the small art talk for the Fort Worth based new media artist Christopher Blay. The lecture itself was very informal, Blay wanted it to be very lax and not too up tight, from my time with him that just seemed to be that type of guy he is. After the lecture, I was able to talk to for a little bit. I told him that I too was a new media artist, though I didn’t have anyway to show him my work, though he didn’t take any offence to it. We talked a little a bit about our work, but the real meat of our conversation was when he stated telling me about the art community in Fort Worth. He said he so much more prefer the art community of Fort Worth, as oppose the community in New York, was because the artist in Fort Worth had a more tight and diverse network with one another. Its one of those situations where everyone knows everyone and that there’s a friendlier bond amongst them that doesn’t have a harsh competitive nature to it. This is where Blay said, for him, it was more important to have a friendly network of artist like this than one where you so happen to have the card of another artist you met once. He said that his style of community prosper more creativity for not only his art, but for his peers too. With this I agreed with, mainly because I seem to operate in the same way, I have a tight clique of friends and artist whom all know each other, and actually care about one another.   

Friday, December 5, 2014

Scmoozing? is this the class? oh god.... where am I?


A Far Thing Coming Closer @ Centraltrak

 

Dallas used to intimidate me when I was younger, I am a more hardened animal now, and Dallas can’t scare me. I know the rules; if you don’t muscle into the lane you need, you’re going to miss your exit, don’t park in sketchy places unless you have made peace with the possibility that someone may break your window to carve the AM/FM cassette out of your dash (with what you can only assume was a butter knife), and when a spun man on crutches offers you a dollar at a red light, for god’s sake, don’t take it.

                While the city of Dallas itself does not intimidate me, the people there do. It’s a funny feeling to stand in a room full of strangers, it feels like falling. Pippins and I had an assignment though: SCHMOOZE, talk to people and forge the connections necessary for success. I liked all the films. It’s was kind of schizophrenic to change gears so quick from one to the next, how much can a person really retain viewing film in this situation? I was thinking a lot about how terrible it would be if I was sitting up in those seats, getting the questions… I’m never going to be able to handle that. We went outside to smoke, met some ladies whose names I cannot remember. Pippins got mad that I told them we were students. She thinks that if they know we are just undergrads, they won’t take anything we say seriously. I think she was being influenced by our experience the last time we came to Centraltrak, things were way less relaxed and we sat at the bar for a good 2 hours, too scared to pee while we got talked at and I got lectured about being too dependent on new technology.

We met an artist with a BA named john, he lives in Dallas and goes to all the gallery shows he can. He works as an office assistant, but by night he is a film maker. He is coming to the Black Lodge I hope, I wrote the date and time down for him on a piece of paper which, hilariously enough, had my process notes about making contact prints with film on the back.

In summation, Pippins and I saw some Cinema, then we saw a Q&A session which led me to quite egocentrically question my own integrity, we observed a peaceful and happy group dynamic amongst artists, and we met a cool guy named John.

 

 



Interesting use of the word ‘enemy’ here…


 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Marks' Post

I think Marks has an interesting point of view when it comes to single-channel experimental films fighting to stay "alive" between the decline of festivals and the lack of galleries wanting to show them. However, it's very difficult for me to fully agree or disagree with all of her statements...

Why does this all revolve around money? She seemingly does not care about it, but at the same time she bases success as an artist all on funding and pay. I mean, I will admit I have fallen into the same trap of believing money = success, but I am starting to believe that sometimes using free social media sites can lead to success and THEN to money, rather than the other way around as she believes (Such as YouTube channels who make a ton of money currently, but only because they went "viral." Now given, these are internet phenomenon rather than film and video, but she mentioned YouTube and Vimeo, so I figure my comment is not said entirely on a tangent).

One point that I was very intrigued about was her discussion on films/videos that last for an incredibly lengthy amount of time. I appreciate her snarky-ness when she counters Morgan's opinion with "I question whether a distracted culture needs distracted art experiences in the first place."
That is one thing that is very accurate when it comes to our culture in my opinion: our lack of focus, our short attention spans, etc. Just an unfinished thought.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Render Farm Info

Hey everyone.

Ok, so Gabriel has sent some information about using the render farm. There may have been updates to things that might complicate this, but he's going to come to the Expanded Cinema class Tomorrow (tuesday) to give a quick demonstration for anyone who needs to use it. So if you're not in that class, maybe see if you can drop by or get someone to take notes for you.

Here's a link to the info Gabriel sent: http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/deadline-5-maya/#Job_Submission

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Cracked Ray Tube workshop at Oil and Cotton via Dallas Medianale

Hey guys. I want you to have first dibs on these, but they're open to the public.

In January, the Dallas Medianale (an extension of videofest i'm working on) will host DIY video synth building workshops led by the members of Cracked Ray Tube. Check it out: http://oilandcotton.bigcartel.com/product/jan-10-hardware-hacking-and-diy-audio-video-synthesis-workshop

If you want to see a bit more of what this stuff does, see here:


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Poetry holds the place Conceptual Art used to...Kenneth Goldsmith

I wrote down a lot of quotes made by Kenneth Goldsmith in the podcast and even some articles about him that I researched. Intriguing concepts that plagiarism is now the the New Aesthetic... 'all stolen", creativity is debunked in Goldsmith's classes--No "creative" writing allowed. By being forced to use other's work and change the context by its new placement within a document is actually how true creativeness happens ( harder than it sounds, I am sure. )
A Conceptual Art mantra?

* " a movement of observation"
* "the Lifestream is on 24/7 "
* " the warmth of a seat that has been left"  Duchamp.
* "pointing not making"
* '"a state between states"

I feel I should have stolen these boldly instead of using quotation marks. Next time...in my art...where it counts.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

OH MY!


George Takei will be speaking in the Coliseum at UNT on Oct 27 at 8pm. 

Tickets for students is $5
Faculty and Staff is $10
Public Guests are $15

This is on a Monday which is why I am posting it for Advanced. If you want to see George Takei live and in person speaking as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series program then don't miss out. The Distinguished Lecture Series program introduces the UNT community to the excellence of world-class speakers whose messages enhance student learning outside the classroom.

It may not be art related but maybe we can get a little insight on how some of Star Trek was filmed. Who knows what he'll talk about but I surely want to go!