Week 4 - Intermedia, Performance, & Sound Art

This whole week's topics have closely related to one of my other classes, IASC 2P10, in which the main project is to create an interactive art installation. Many of the people talked about in class has been referenced in 2P10, including John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Fluxus, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono and others. Definitely having discussed these people in class has helped me out greatly in understanding these topics and people, as well as opened my mind to things that I never knew even existed. I would just like to thank you for this small little portion of the course.

Week 3 - Cinematic Reconfigurations of Space and Place

Having taken a film course here at Brock, I recognize many of the films referenced in this week's lecture. The Lumiere Brothers' "Arrival of a Train Entering The Station" as well as "Workers Leaving the Factory" in 1895 were some of the first modern films, just consisting of short clips in which the camera was stationary and everyone and everything moved around the camera. Georges Melies' "A Trip to the Moon" from 1902 really expanded on the Lumiere Brothers techniques, using what can be deemed "special effects" for the time with the man in the moon. I just love that one image of the moon:

Classic. haha

Week 2 - Media Transformations and/in the Avant-garde

Having discussed Marcel Duchamp last semester in IASC 1Q98, and now again in this course, I have a greater understanding of his work. I had seen his work before and always knew him as 'the guy who put the urinal upside down', but now, I can actually understand some of the meaning he put into his work. His push to change the figurative definition of art and for others to look at objects differently was revolutionary and a big influence on many avant-garde artists, like Fluxus and other artists like Jeffrey Shaw.

Week 1 - The Power of the Image

To start off, I thought I'd talk about how far photography has advanced throughout the years. For me growing up, cameras always had to have film in them. I even felt very special because my parents actually bought me my own camera (a very low end one, but as a kid I thought it was greatest thing in the world). I may have used it once or twice, since I couldn't afford to buy film as a kid. Plus I didn't even know how to load the damn thing! haha.

But now that pretty much all cameras are digital, so many more people can participate in photography. My Dad is a good example of this, as back when he was younger he used to do photography as a hobby, but he was never into the development part of it. Now, he has a high end SLR camera and is taking classes at Niagara College about photography. The digital element has removed the development from photography and pictures are available immediately.

Just on a final note, I'd like to talk about the evolution of cameras themselves. I recently found this old camera in my basement from 1953 that came from England. Here is a picture of it:

Wow. Compare that to this:

Major difference? I think so.

I remember my parents payed $2000 for a digital camera when they just came out. Now my phone's camera has the same number of megapixels as that one did. Crazy, eh?