Final Project

https://vimeo.com/167056462

Blog #4

I was told many times that a video was composed of many images, but I could not really imagine how, until I went to the museum of moving images. It was a super-simple thing but, in fact, it really cleared my mind; it is the group video of us, that made everything clearer to me. It was a simple camera that took the video; there was nothing really special about it until I saw the camera disintegrated the video into photos, the photos that composed our group video. Therefore, now I was certain what my professors were talking about; The shots were taken so frequently that our brain sees them as if they were a single piece of video; in fact, they were only moving images.

Other than that, out of many, there was one very interesting machine. I do not really know what it is called, but it truly inspired me. It was a wheel. It had many arms that were rotating. At the edge of each arm, there was either a hand or a fish. At first when there was light, I could not understand what was it all about. There was nothing special nor interesting about it. It was just a wheel with rotating arms. But then, they turned off the lights. After that, the light was given only to the edge of the arms with a fixed-order. It changed everything; It was not only a wheel anymore; the fish magically pass through the hands, which was impossible physically. It was nor magic neither something against physics rules. In fact, it was only moving images that tricked our brain.    

Blog #3

Growing up with an uncle who is obsessed with Quentin Tarantino’s movies… My uncle made me watch almost all of Tarantino’s movies. I did not really know what was all special about his movies; neither my uncle did. But we watched again and again without getting tired of them. I remember my uncle wondering how Tarantino could make his action scenes so intense and effective. I used to close my eyes when I sensed the action part was coming. In fact, the more I grow up, the more I started appreciating those scenes. And I finally stopped closing my eyes. Just like my uncle, started wondering what was so unique about Tarantino and his movies. I guess, I finally figured it out.

Yes, it is true when the action scene comes, it gets all messy; too many people die violently; however, not only that makes it unique but also when those scenes come up in Tarantino’s movies, every single small sound is well-thought and well-put together. If we take Django Unchained Gun Fight scene towards the end in which almost everybody die except Django, we’ll clearly see every single small detail has sound. The scene is very sensitive to sound. At the very beginning of the scene, we hear bess-beetles outside, making noise at night. People’s voice get to have higher amplitude. Then we hear Dr. King pulling out his tiny gun and BOOM!  It follows: the voice of bleeding, servant screaming, voice of his footsteps, “I am sorry I couldn’t resist,” pulling the trigger,BOOM, BOOM, splashing sound of blood, the voice of books getting tear apart, BOOM, Django flies, people shooting, getting shot and the voice of suffering, screaming, the guy falls down the stairs, BOOM, BOOM, blood splash around, shattering of glass, pulling the trigger, bullets fly all around, people cry “You stupid son of a …, Django shoot, people cry, Django shoot, people cry, Django shoot BOOM BOOM until everybody die. We hear the bess beetles outside, making noise at night.
 
Here is the link to the Django Unchained Gun Fight http://youtu.be/LFIXxXVrGis

A better video making the same point more effectively, but couldn’t use it because it is not a “linear” media http://youtu.be/WKEz9Fnd4pQ

Audio Portrait of Alyssa

https://soundcloud.com/user-306755843/audio-portrait-of-alyssa

"What I hear"

The Wind

I started sound-walking right after I got out of train. I was on my way going home. The most obvious sound was the howling of the wind. It was very intense, especially when the wind was hitting my face; it was as if I was howling. The howl of the wind was the only voice I could hear for most of the time. Then I realized the sound of leaves that were crawling on the streets. The wind was driving them all around. It was the sound of leaves blowing in the streets. And, of course, the sound of cars passing by. They were not honking but making noise while passing the streets of Brooklyn. A bus passed by me and stop at the bus station. I never thought a bus could make such noise when its doors were opening.  Also, I could still hear the subway-train going to the next station. The train had its own special kind of sound. While I get closer to home, I heard the sound of flagpole shaking, which was located in the school-yard. It was actually a creepy sound, since it reminded me the intensity of the wind. The school-yard was actually pretty silent, compared to the other times of day. No sound of children playing… A lady passed by me with her high-heels, that took away all my attention. It should be really hard walking on them. Right after a man in his Mercedes, having his music on very loud disappeared in the darkness, I came home. I got in, and there was a peaceful silence. It was a windy night on the streets of Brooklyn.

 

Define A Space Ihsan Imani

Define A Space from Omer Beydili on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

Art is a form of expression, a powerful one. We as people feel the need to express ourselves and our thoughts in our society, and this is exactly why I started making art. There is no limit in art; you have the utmost freedom as possible at all. There is no one telling you what to do or why you do it. I make art just because I feel to do so.

Freud refers to Art as a way to encounter the experience of suffering in life, and I completely agree with him. Life is harsh. There are lots of difficulties and impossibilities. After having looked for an escape from the brutal life, my last destination was Art. It made me forget the existence of impossibilities and offered me such a strong apparatus to fight against the difficulties I have in life. I realized that everything is possible with art.

Time to time I fly through the skyscrapers of New York City; I start running from the beginning of the Chinese great wall until the end of it; I sometimes dive into a volcano, looking for diamonds; I even live like a fish without no memory. In art, there is no suffering but only happiness. It is where Cabe and Able still live in peace forever. There is no infant or poor. The people of art never heard of politicians or dictators, because with Art, everything is possible and there is no suffering.

If Art is a drug, let it intoxicate me until I die.