Assignment 5: Is This Really Art?

Video Sound: http://freesound.org/people/symphoid/sounds/159192/

     In my project "Is This Really Art?" I decided to question what art can and cannot be. Throughout my video you can see different everyday activities that I question to whether or not are forms of art. I came up with ideas my sisters and I usually do around the house. I began with recording my younger sister Julia doing a backhand spring to show that different types of sports like gymnastics could be considered art. Next, I painted my sister's to nails to show that all kinds of painting is considered art. After that I wanted to come up with something that most people would not consider art, which turned into Julia building a pyramid out of McDonald's nuggets and fries. After that I knew I needed to curl my hair for Easter service, so I thought that shaping and curling my hair would be another type of every day art. I also had my sister blow a bubble while my other sister Sophie recorded herself doing her daily make up routine. Another unique form of art my sister and I recorded was the famous "Cup Song" routine from Pitch Perfect. Lastly I started thinking that fashion was another form of every day art, therefore I wanted to incorporate footage of Julia and I's Easter dresses in a beautiful way.
        While capturing most of this footage, my parents kept questioning what I was doing because I was filming everything I did that day that I considered to be art. If I had not filmed any of this, they probably would not have questioned me at all because it was all everyday activities I would do at home. Some broader ideas I had in mind while creating this project is the difference between what people consider to be art or not. Because I was never in an art class previous to this I always thought that art was just what is in museums and just physical pieces. However, now I have more of a broader idea of what art really is. Art is apart of our everyday lives whether we realize it or not. These different everyday tasks are considered art because they are creations both my sister’s and I created ourselves. Art does not have to just be a physical object, but it can also be an action also known as performance art.

Below are some before, during, and after pictures of my project questioning "Is this really art?"

Assignment 4: Remix

        For this assignment, I incorporated characters laughing from various movies, cartoons, and tv shows. My inspiration came from the examples of the two videos we watched in class of the different people answering the telephone and sighing. After watching the sighing video I automatically wanted to bring the mood up, and, what other way to do so by making a video of everyone’s favorite characters laughing. Whether it is a hero or a villain, almost all the characters on screen laugh in almost every movie, cartoon, or tv show out there. I wanted the audience to realize the significance of movies, because without them life would be pretty dull. In the beginning, I tried to strategically place the clips to get the audience's attention. Towards the end I started placing shorter laughing clips to build on the laughter. My clips do not fill the entire screen so the viewer feels as if they are in a movie theater. While there is a lot of different types of laughing in my video, in the background playing is “I Love to Laugh” from Mary Poppins (also the title of my piece). Towards the end, playing in the background is ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’ from Wizard of Oz. Finally I wanted to finish the video with clips from the end of the movie, Monster’s Inc.. In the end Mike Wazowski gained enough laughter throughout the video in order to produce enough power for their monster community. The mood of this video is uplifting and humorous. I hope everyone has a good laugh watching these characters laughing just like I did making while it. 

"Remix" Response

        Before reading Remix by Lawrence Lessig, I was unaware of all of the strict rules companies including Sony have regarding borrowing and remixing content. The story about Stephanie Lenz recording her baby dancing to a popular song. Since she posted it on youtube for everyone to see she had to delete the video, or else she would get sued tens of thousands of dollars. I think this was a little ridiculous because the song was not even good quality and she probably did not have many views. I these situations artists should just be proud people enjoy and share their music with other people. Also in the story about the John Lennon tributes, they did try to ask permission to pay this tribute to him with a bunch of other fans. However, after a lot of time went by, their permission was denied. I just think there was a lot of back and forth and the company was trying to delay their time so the tributes would just give up. Greg Gillis was another person who wanted to expand consumer's experiences with various song mashups. He thought since he wasn't even close to competing with the real artist as well as only selling a very small amount of copies that he would be fine. However, he also was in trouble and possibly could be sued. Lastly SilviaO was a Spanish artist where someone else had "mutilated" her own work. I do think this person should have asked for permission but I would not call it mutilating her work. Rather this other artist used her ideas to come up with something new. I understand that there should be certain rules with taking other people's work however, not if hardly any damage would go to the artist. Creativity is always cool to hear, however, it is kind of becoming impossible especially with music. These rules should not be as strict.