Game For Change

Cyberbully: The Game

I'm only sleeping beatles

Palpatine No! No! No!

ChopSuey

wake me up- Avicii

mr blue sky

How could this happen to me

Tommy Boy

Beck Little One

World Building

Artist's Statement: Textual Poaching

The aspect of my self that I chose to explore with this piece was  my being part of what is known as Generation Y or Millennials. Like many or most of the students in this class I was born in the early 90's and have lived through the burgeoning of the information age. My fellow Millennials are often referred to as the natives, because in a world where technology and information culture have become so important, we are the first generation to grow up with computers in our homes. Because of this, we are often represented in media as a group that is extremely tech-savvy. We are known for our use of social media, our obsession with communication and being connected, and our consumption of electronic media such as online music, videos, video games etc. I have definitely been influenced by this culture, and though there are aspects of it I find disagreeable, as there would be in all cultures, I do not dislike this culture in general. The truth is however, that I have never felt comfortable with the majority of the technology that has emerged or technological advances that have taken place during my lifetime. Not that I fear or hate them, I simply have not felt that I was included in them. I somehow seem to have navigated my life without receiving whatever orientation the majority of us Millennials have received. I simply don't understand, don't know how to use, and haven't participated in the majority of the technological phenomena that is associated with my generation.

I've never used iTunes to download music. I'm not sure if it's free or if you have to pay or if you need some special software or an account or whatever to do so. I have most often collected the music I wanted to listen to by purchasing CD's at music stores. Occasionally, I have collected songs by using a tape recorder to record music off the radio or off of other's computer speakers.

Videogames are a huge part of our culture. I however, have only ever owned a Super-Nintendo, and that was a long time ago. I have played Guitar Hero a few times and I am terrible at it. I play the actual guitar, and I love old-timer blues and folk music. My personal guitar hero is Mississippi John Hurt. I might feel more drawn to that game if that was the kind of music the players pretended to perform, or I might just prefer to play the music in real life.

I have never had an iPod. Well, a friend gave me one that I tried to use but it broke. Throughout high school I carried a portable cd player and my cd collection with me from class to class. I recognize that iPods are more practical, easier, and safer to use, but I don't know how to use them.

I probably have inherited this technological retardation from my mother, who despite being extremely intelligent, has never mastered the use of a VCR. Another possible explanation is the fact that I grew up  in a very small rural-idaho town. Whatever the reason, I accept this part of myself. It is not always convenient and I sometimes wish I was a little more clued in, but then I realize that it's not really that big a deal. I know I broke some rules by including texts that were created after I was born, but I kind of had to for my subject.

Textual Poaching

Artist's Statement

Medium Specificity Artist’s Statement

For this project I wanted to work in clay because it is probably one of my favorite things to do in the world, and I almost never do it. Every time I get the chance to sit down and sculpt I feel this incredible relaxation and sort of zen-like joy. I love when I can focus in on something, and manipulate it and tweak it to suit my desires. I think I have difficulty multi-tasking, but I am great at focusing all my attention and creative energy into a single channel. I love the feeling of transferring energy from my brain through my hands into a project.

I think that human hands are one of the most beautiful of God’s creations, and our ability to work precisely and creatively with our minds, through our hands is one of our defining characteristics as human beings. I have great respect for those who work with their hands, and I see parallels between the carpenter who fashions a piece of furniture with love, the computer programmer who uses his mind and hands to create intricate masterpieces, and the surgeon who delicately repairs structures of the human body. Hand and mind are a match made in heaven, literally.

I decided to work with clay for this project because I love it. I realized I love it because it’s such a primal medium. Making stuff out of mud with your hands is about as simple and human an art form as you can get. I decided to create a sculpture about the basic connection between hand and mind, and the joy I feel when I am using my hands to shape clay into something I think is beautiful. I am pleased with the result and I enjoyed the process of creating this piece.

I guess in working on this project I was influenced by The White Stripes because I feel like their music is largely about music, and the primal, minimalistic relationship between man and the medium. I wanted to do something similar but with clay. After reading the “Showing and Telling” comic, which is really a comic about comics, I realized that medium specificity is really about exploring humankind’s relationship with art. Art is important, so art about art must be really important.

Medium Specificity

Historical Story by Danny Hunt and Jesse Faucett

INT. CHARLES AND VIRGINIA’S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING

CHARLES is putting on his tie and fixing his hair while his wife VIRGINIA lies despondent in bed. She looks sickly and unhappy, staring blankly at the wall.

CHARLES

(stroking her hair with a concerned look on his face) Good morning. How do you feel today? (She doesn’t respond)

CHARLES (CONT’D)

Do you hurt? (Virginia nods, Charles walks into the bathroom and returns with a glass of water and a pill which he sets down gently on the bedside table.)

CHARLES (CONT’D)

Try to be cheery today okay? I love you (kisses her forehead, a smile flickers on Virginia’s face and quickly disappears. Charles leaves and Virginia’s eyes linger on the pill.)

CUT TO:

EXT. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIO- MORNING

CHARLES walks up the road leading into the studio. He looks discouraged and worried. He is smoking. He passes a SECURITY GUARD who allows him to enter.

CUT TO:

INT. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIO- MORNING

It is the set of the 1935 film Anna Karenina. GRIPS and STAGEHANDS scurry about as THE DIRECTOR yells directions. A MAN with a clapboard steps in front of the camera.

MAN WITH CLAPBOARD

Anna Karenina, Scene 6, take four.

DIRECTOR

Action! (The man with the clapboard claps it and steps out of frame.

(Enter GRETA GARBO and BASIL RATHBONE, fake snow blows around the set)

BASIL (KARENIN)

For some time, I have known that in uniting my life to yours, I have made a mistake. But this I must bear for the sake of my public duty... and for the sake of my child. I believe in marriage as a sacrament. I could not consider myself justified in breaking the ties by which we are bound by a higher power. The family cannot be broken up by a... whim or a caprice.

(Charles is sprinkling uncooked cornflakes in front of a large fan to create fake snow and watching the action intently. He is especially focused on Greta, we see a close up of Greta’s face illuminated by the stage lights.)

GRETA (ANNA)

But it can't go on.

BASIL (KARENIN)

It must. I have stated these views in public, and I will not violate them in private.

GRETA

Then you will not give me a divorce?

(Slow dolly in to Charles’s face as we hear Greta speaking in the background)

CUT TO:

INT. A DINER JUST - JUST AFTER DUSK

CHARLES enters a diner and buys a coffee. As he waits for his coffee he puts another cigarette in his mouth. He notices A WOMAN sitting at the far end of the bar. She has her head covered and is wearing tinted glasses. She is reading a novel. Charles does a double take and realizes it is GRETA GARBO She has an unlit cigarette in her mouth and is fumbling for a lighter. Charles receives his coffee and walks towards her, pulling a Zippo lighter out of his pocket.

CHARLES

Good Read? (Lights her cigarette)

GRETA

It is wonderful, but very sad.

CHARLES

(Lighting his own cigarette) The Russians are sad people.

GRETA

You Americans don’t look so cheerful either.

CHARLES

I guess you’re right. Been in the country long?

GRETA

I know you, (removes glasses) you’re the man who makes the snow.

CHARLES

Among other things. My name’s Charles (shakes her hand) And I know you; that is, I know who you are.

GRETA

Oh you do? And who am I? (In a dramatic russian accent) A Russian aristocrat who is tortured by the love she feels for a man who is not her husband?

CHARLES

Well you had me convinced.

GRETA

Nonsense, my accent is less Russian than yours.

CHARLES

(Speaks a phrase in broken Russian)

GRETA

Very good! You should be my Count Vronsky. You’re better looking than Fredric.

CHARLES

Nah... Better than Basil maybe.

GRETA

(Laughs) Where did you learn?

CHARLES

I sailed with the Merchant Marine for a few years. Spent some of that time in Murmansk.

GRETA

How did you like it?

CHARLES

Like I said, sad people, and not one girl half as pretty as you.

GRETA

From what I’ve heard, that doesn’t stop a sailor. Tell me, (looking at his wedding ring) were you married before or after you took to the

high seas?

CHARLES

Now there’s a story. It was before.

GRETA

What’s her name.

CHARLES

Virginia.

GRETA

And how did the Russian women compare to your Virginia?

CHARLES

(takes a long drag on the cigarette, exhales slowly and smiles) Her smile would have melted all the ice in Murmansk.

GRETA

Well then you should take her out on the town more often. Maybe she could cheer up some of the gloomy faces. But then, you sometimes look a little gloomy yourself.

CHARLES

That’s your job isn’t it? That’s what the movies are for.

GRETA

If that’s the case then I’m afraid this movie will be the end of my career.

CHARLES

You don’t have to make them smile, but maybe if they cry enough about  Anna’s tragic story they’ll forget their own for a while.

GRETA

Perhaps. And if people like the movie maybe some of them will decide to read this lovely, sad book. I’ve read it twice. This is my third time.

CHARLES

Tolstoy must be a hell of a writer.

GRETA

Well, he knows something about love.

CHARLES

What does he know?

GRETA

You want to hear my favorite part?

CHARLES

Sure.

GRETA

(Flips through book until she finds a marked page then reads) “I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be.”

(A BEAT)

CHARLES

That’s nice.

GRETA

It is.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE STREET LEADING UPT TO CHARLE'S HOME - NIGHTTIME

CHARLES walks up the road. He arrives at his front porch and as he does the door opens. VIRGINIA steps out, her hands hang at her sides, her face is unreadable. Charles looks up at her and she walks slowly down the steps and embraces Charles. As she does so she begins to weep softly. Charles holds her and strokes her hair, kissing her cheek softly.

(The camera pulls back as Charles and Virginia hold each other on the front porch.)

FADE TO BLACK.

Process Piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp9FdA8G9RM&feature=youtu.be

Round Robin Artist's Statement

The idea of the exquisite corpse is an interesting one. The idea is that a group can collaborate to create a work of art without a uniform vision, with each member of the group working in an entirely different context, and that the beauty of the finished product lies not necessarily in it's cohesiveness but in it's concept.  Working on this project I was at times a little confused because I tend to think that collaborations can only really work if everyone is striving towards the same goal. I wasn't convinced that the exquisite corpse style of collaboration would yield results as interesting as a project in which all the members of the group shared some sort of vision for the project.

While I still believe that these series of tiny stories would be “better” if the creators had been able to communicate more, I realized that the purpose of the exquisite corpse is not to create a perfect work of art, in fact it’s not so much about the product as it is the process. The process of creating an exquisite corpse mirrors real life. Human beings all work and live and create within their own bubbles here on planet Earth. We are not conscious collaborators with the rest of humanity, and yet we are constantly creating an enormous work of art, the sum total of all human creativity and industry. The finished product may not appear cohesive on the surface, and yet as an unconsciously created art project it is the best and most honest reflection of the human soul and collective subconscious we can hope for. These series of tiny stories are like tiny reflections of that bigger picture. There is something interesting about tapping into that subconscious and seeing what ideas, feelings, and aspirations seem to be common in all of us.

Round Robin

Once a young boy found a strange looking telescope. That night he looked through it and saw an alien planet on which a terrible war was being fought.

Everyone else had gone to sleep. He thought that waking them up would just make them angrier at him, so he kept the news to himself.

The Kitchen Aid kind of broke. Butter was flying everywhere. So much for cookies.

Would the police believe his story? His face scrunched up, a solitary tear dripped and mixed with the shattered glass strewn on the concrete.

When the tear hit the glass, its magical properties enacted, and released a floral aroma. When the scent reached his nostrils, he forgot everything, and went forward in life, always laughing.

Artist's Statement: Music Mosaic

Artist’s Statement: Music Mosaic

The piece I chose for this assignment is Chorus of Shadows by Harry Partch. Partch was an experimental composer who invented his own musical scale using tones found in between the notes in the standard 12 tone scale used by most western composers. He also invented an array of musical instruments designed to play the music he composed using his own personal musical scale. As a result of Partch’s experimental approach to composition, his music has a haunting, dissonant, and utterly unique sound. The song Chorus of Shadows, like many pieces of music composed by Partch, has a primal minimalistic feel, with syncopated percussion overlaid with droning instruments and voices.

I believe the imagery I created while listening to this piece was partially influenced by the visual style employed by another experimental music/performance art group known as The Residents, whose music is also dark and surreal like the work of Harry Partch.

Listening to this piece, I was impressed by the way Partch managed to wring a beautiful, though slightly unnerving melody, out of the dissonance of the droning instruments. The deep male voices, mixed with the higher tones of Partch’s own instruments create a strange texture that gives the piece a surreal and nightmarish quality. As I listened, I began to visualize the shapes of the mouths of the singers as they performed this unique piece of music. I wanted to create images of mouths that would capture the mood and texture of the song. Some of the mouths I drew may appear to be singing, or they could be viewed as grimacing or screaming. Some appear to belong to expressions of pleasure, and others to expressions of pain. To me Chorus of Shadows is excellently bittersweet, and I wanted to create images that reflected both ends of the spectrum. Some appear more masculine in representation of the deeper tonal drones in the song, and others more feminine to represent the higher tones.

I drew the hands in representation of the percussive and rhythmic aspects of the piece, which I felt gave the song it’s primal feeling. I am attracted to music that to me feels like a pure expression of emotion, a clear reflection of the creator’s soul. Thanks to Partch’s conceptual style of composition, he is free to make music without precedent, and his music feels at times like it could have been the first ever made. I wanted to create images that could represent the strong percussive elements of the song in a way that also feels raw, human, and primal. I felt I could accomplish this by showing human hands in emphatic, staccato positions. The positions I chose are simply the positions that came into my mind as I listened to the song and visualized hands.

I chose to use only black and white in strong contrast because I felt like it fit with the minimalistic and expressionistic style of the music and the imagery I was creating.

Music Mosaic, 8 images created to accompany "Chorus of Shadows" by experimental composer Harry Partch.

Listen to Chorus of Shadows by Harry Partch

Thinking and Writing Assignment: Looper

Danny Hunt

TMA 185

Winter 2014

Thinking and Writing Assignment: Looper

Looper is a science-fiction film that takes place in Kansas in the year 2044. The future portrayed in the movie is a bleak one. In 2044, society has degraded considerably. The streets in the city are crowded with vagrants and littered with trash and makeshift shelters. Crime and violence run rampant. With this film, writer/director Rian Johnson wished to make a commentary on the importance of a nurturing mother-figure in the life of human beings by showing us a future in which society has crumbled due largely to the loss of the mother figure. He communicates this message using the life and behavior of the central character, and those around him as examples of what happens when one grows up without the guiding, loving influence of a mother.

The central character, Joe, is a career criminal. Joe’s life consists of murder, drug use, and parties in a constant loop. Although he lives in luxury when compared with the hordes of vagrants who inhabit the streets,  his life is far from fulfilling. He is forced to run from the mob for his life after his own future-self is sent back in time as a target, and he allows the target to escape.

As we learn about Joe’s past, we come to understand more about how he ended up in the position he is in at the start of the film. It is revealed that Joe was a vagrant child, abandoned by his drug-addict mother, and adopted into a life of crime by Abe, a mobster from 2074 who has been sent back to manage the loopers. It becomes apparent that a similar background is shared by the majority of the loopers. In one scene where Abe and Joe converse, Abe retells the story of how he found Joe as a young street urchin. “I saw the bad version of your life… How you’d turn bad. So I changed it.” This references the idea that a child in Joe’s position is almost certain to lead a miserable life, but the alternative offered by the cruel and unaffectionate Abe is clearly not a great improvement.

The mother-figure motif is repeated many times. In one scene, another looper named Seth threatens a man in the street who responds to the threat by saying “Your mother didn’t raise you right.” There is also a sequence in the film in which Joe tells a prostitute of how his mother used to run her hands through his hair. The prostitute tries to stimulate Joe sexually, but he rebuffs her. He offers to give her half of his money so she can “raise her boy right…” but she refuses, saying that she knows that “silver comes with strings.” She begins to run her fingers through Joe’s hair asking him if that is what he wants. He does, but it is clear that her doing so is only a pale imitation of real, nurturing affection.

We are shown the life of Joe’s future-self in an alternate timeline. We see that he continues his life of crime and drug abuse until as an older man he falls in love with and marries a woman that helps him to leave his former life behind. She cares for him as he goes through painful withdrawals, and she is portrayed as a nurturing, loving, almost motherly figure. A mysterious and powerful crime-boss known only as “The Rainmaker” has her killed, and Joe goes back in time to kill the Rainmaker as a child in order to save his wife.

We do meet The Rainmaker as a young boy, his name is Cid and we learn that he is a hyper-intelligent boy with powerful and dangerous telekinetic powers which he sometimes has difficulty controlling. He lives on a farm with his mother who loves him and struggles to help him control his violent outbursts. In a revealing sequence, Cid’s mother tells of her own troubled past, and how she had for a time abandoned Cid. She speaks of her desire to save him from the life led by the men she has seen in the city who she describes as “lost”, sharing the same look of abandonment in their eyes that she saw in her own son when she returned after having left him in the care of her sister for two years. “If I can raise him, take care of him, he’s never gonna get lost.” she says. Later, when young Joe realizes that Cid is destined to become The Rainmaker, he determines that he must kill the child. Sara protests asking “What if I he grew up with me raising him? If he grew up good?” At first young Joe is unconvinced, but he changes his mind when a young and frightened Cid hugs his leg.

The science-fiction genre is often used as a means for expressing anxieties about the situations and problems we face in the present day. Stories that deal with possible future scenarios are the perfect medium for speculating about what may happen if current issues continue unresolved. For this reason I believe that in using the aforementioned story elements in this film, Rian Johnson was making a conscious effort to address the issue of the degradation of the family unit, particularly in regard to the figure of the mother.

I recognize that as a member of the LDS Church, I have a strong opinion about the importance of strong families and mothers in the development of a child. It is possible that due to my own existing opinions, I latched onto the elements I have mentioned to the exclusion of other important themes and messages that may have been of greater importance to the film’s creator. I do believe however, though it may not have been Rian Johnson’s primary intent to communicate this particular message, the film communicates it, and does a good job of it.