[-empyre-] Introduction to week 4 and BLENDO

Tue Feb 23 17:25:49 EST 2010

Greetings everyone.  Thank you for the introduction, Renate.  Little did you know that I, too, have been lurking in the background absorbing all the wonderful comments for the last week. I presume I do not have to reiterate my bio, so I will carry on with the BLENDO question.   I have not heard of it and do not know where the term comes from, but it seems like a creative title for an an exhibition showing where the world of moving image art is right now.  In a way, hybridity is the new black. And BLENDO is most likely describing the merging of many techniques to create something new. I have always kept up on Joshua Mosley who was the first 'fine artist person' that I was aware of who was successfully mixing media and using green screen to shoot his puppet films - A Vue is a good example - where he shoots his stop motion character and places them in a digitally drawn environment. http://joshuamosley.com/
We have reached a time of technological silly putty.  Almost any effect and new way of approaching media is at our fingertips.  Scanning textures to map onto 3D characters, modeling in 3D to resemble cut out flat characters. There are limitless possibilities to combine media and sometimes the most striking imagery is made by an invented workflow that came through the process of problem solving. For example, Luis Cook, who did The Peace Sisters knew he wanted a rough and sketchy quality so they had to experiment with different processes until they were satisfied with the design.  To quote from the website "...we animated everything in the computer with cg models, then printed the frames out and worked over them in 2D filling in the details and expressions and scanning it all back in over the 3D.." and the process goes on and on. They wanted the 2D looseness but with some volume so they had to figure it out as they went. http://www.pearcesisters.co.uk/production.html
So, that is my very practical and non-theoretical idea of BLENDO right now. Would like to know where it actually came from though. :)
Eileen

> Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:27:19 -0500
> From: rtf9 at cornell.edu
> To: empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Subject: [-empyre-] Introduction to week 4 and BLENDO
> 
> I can't believe that we are into week 4 of empyre's discussion on
> Theorizing Animation: Content and Context.  A sincere thank you to
> Christopher, Eric, and Melanie for being our guests this past week.  I'd
> like to introduce Thyrza Goodeve who has made a number of posts already
> this month.  I met Thyrza at the Quay Brothers exhibition here at Cornell
> and she so graciously agreed to be our guest this month.  Also, Richard
> Wright has also made posts especially this past week.  We are also most
> grateful for his participation.  Welcome to Eileen Reynolds from Singapore
> who will join in on this weeks discussion as well.  I have attached their
> biographies below.
> 
> We will be continuing our discussion through Monday, the 28h of February. 
> I'm hoping that all of our subscribers who have been lurking this month
> will feel free to make posts as well.
> 
> I just got back from USC in Southern California and noticed that this week
> they  are hosting an exhibition entitled BLENDO: A hybrid approach to
> moving image art - combining 2D / 3D animation, Photography, Motion
> Graphics, Text, Green Screen, or other elements. Anyone else heard of the
> term BLENDO used to characterize manipulated moving imagery.  Anyone know
> where it comes from?????
> 
> Thanks to all of you once again.  Renate
> 
> Week 4:Thyrza  Nichols Goodeve (US) , Richard Wright (UK), Eileen Reynolds
> (SG)
> 
> Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, PhD is an art writer and Adjunct Professor at
> The School of Visual Arts in New York City who teaches in the film, art
> history, and MFA Art Criticism and Writing departments. She has known The
> Brothers Quays since 1996 when she interviewed them for *Artforum* in
> conjunction with the premiere of *Institute Benjamenta*. Most recently she
> has followed the Quays foray into the exhibition space with their traveling
> exhibition DORMITORIUM (curated by Ed Waisnis), a rare selection of vitrines
> of original puppet theaters f such as *Street of Crocodiles* or *The Cabinet
> of Jan Svankmeyer.* Last week she was with the Quays as they installed the
> exhibition at the invitation of The College of Architecture, Art and
> Planning at Cornell University  where the Quay Brothers work was featured.
> 
> Richard Wright is a visual artist working in animated media who made
> several pioneering computer animated films and interactive pieces.
> ‘Heliocentrum’ (1995), an animation about Louis XIV, was described by
> writer Hari Kunzru as ‘…an amazingly effective way of showing how a
> sovereign manipulated power’ and ‘The Bank of Time’ was nominated for
> a BAFTA in 2001. His last short film was "Foreplay" (2004), described
> as “a porn film without the sex” .
> 
> Richard helped set up the MA in Digital Art and Animation at London
> Metropolitan University and was postproduction and animation tutor at
> the National Film and Television School for three years.  He has a PhD in
> the aesthetics of digital film making and has
> published forty book chapters, articles and reviews.
> 
> >From 2004 to 2009 he collaborated with Graham Harwood and Matsuko
> Yokokoji, initially as Mongrel. Their last project 'Tantalum  Memorial'
> won the transmediale.09 award.
> 
> Current projects include a public video work called “decorative 
> surveillance”, researching a book about contemporary animation
> practice, the “narrativising” of new media and data visualisation as
> the successor to documentary film making.
> 
> 
> Eileen Anastasia Reynolds is an experimental media artist working with
> painting, photography, and stop motion animation. She is interested in the
> visceral responses that stop motion animation creates, using tactility to
> explore levels of emotional impact. Her current work, is an experimental
> animated documentary that attempts to bridge illusion and reality while
> embracing the magical realism of stop motion. Her ultimate goal is to
> preserve the integrity of stop motion which, she feels, is the perfect mix
> of art; including but not limited to sculpture, painting, photography,
> lighting, performing, writing, and music.
> 
> Eileen continues to exhibit her personal artwork, consisting of painting,
> photography, and stop-motion animation.  As an Asst Prof at the School of
> Art,
> Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University since 2005, she has
> taught stop motion animation, animation seminar, and animation history.
> 
> Her research interests include bioethics and emerging technologies, which
> raise scientific, social, and ethical concerns. Her most recent project
> embarked on a journey with 33 EEE students from NTU who helped in the
> creation of an animated film series called "Synchronicity Series". They
> performed, choreographed and animated their bodies using the stop motion
> technique called pixilation.
> 
> Renate Ferro
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Art
> Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
> Ithaca, NY  14853
> 
> Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
> Website:  http://www.renateferro.net
> 
> 
> Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre
> 
> Art Editor, diacritics
> http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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