As I have developed my thesis, I have run into the idea of fantasy. What does it mean to have the epic and the low?
How do I combine the drama of Cinderella’s gown with a gentle look at materials and simple combinations? How do I amplify fantasy for reality?
Linda Nochlin addressed the issue of how the goals of art criticism differ from those of art history.
I suffer pangs of jealousy, because I missed this talk by a year.
Some bands have this amazing sound that just makes you go “you can get that sound with just a guitar and drum?” Others have amazing videos that awe you. Usually I don’t get both in the same package. To remedy this, I have mashed the Raconteurs song with Glitterbanditz video.
The result is pretty as a picture.
Branding and food should come to all as no surprise, as the brand is a shorthand sign of what the company, artist, creator is hoping to tell you about the brand. Is it Upscale? Down Home? A little bit of both? To this degree The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue tickles me in a peculiar way.
I’m not a displaced southerner in New York. I am in fact less than an hour away from where I was born and raised on Long Island. My parents however, were displaced South Carolinians (Cah-Ro-Lin-E-N or Cah-Ro-Line-An) who taught me both to joys of creamed corn, stewed vegetables, ox-tail, okra and the effect that a double boiler can have on white Carolina rice.
Do I eat Boiled Peanuts? No…That wasn’t common in either region that mom and dad are from, but seeing the palmetto with the state flag’s crescent moon as a part of the masthead is a signal from afar that recalls childhood summers of peas, beans, BBQ and krispy kreme.
Laura Simpson
5’2″. Energetic source for ideas and explosions.
May program, but I want to make code dance and pixels quiver.
On Video:
Video has surprisingly become my medium of choice, but not for the same narratives that I watch on television. I make narratives out of nothing. Video is a powerful critical tool in examining aspects of time, qualities of space and how I perceive them.
On Installation Art:
Installation has taken on many meanings for me. At first blush, they seemed to be sculptures that refused to be “outdoors” sculpture, made of rock, metal or plastic. Upon second, third and fourth investigations, Installation is ever growing and evolving. Can my little creations grow to take up all of your attention?
On Design:
Design is an amazingly organic process, that flourishes within a structured system of prototyping, testing and iteration. I’m not really a designer, but I’ll steal design methods and process.
This summer kicked off with ambitions. Beautiful, big ambitions. I would research and start building an amazing thesis.
I would write an elegant abstract for TEI such that I would be selected among the great unwashed graduate students as worthy to sun myself in intellectual engagement from the forefront of HCI and on Portugal’s beaches in January. (Full disclosure: I personally dislike going to the beach, it’ll be winter in January anyway and I am fairly sure that I’m probably the majority of that great unwashed… just kidding, my hygiene is superb even on days I don’t leave the house.)
Instead, I’m in a bit of a Pickle. It’s the 13th of July, six days from my unbirthday, thirteen from when I have commitments in Western Mass, and a little over a month from having to show something for this summer/ something to show for Intern Show. What a mess.
Where did it all go? I couldn’t really account for it all, bit and slips here and there. Some was sitting in a bus terminal, parts are in the subways, lots were spent learning a valuable skill in rapid cover letter writing and digging loose change out of couch cushions. More valuable time was spent brainstorming for game concepts and participating in InterActive Music New York.
Brainstorming game concepts sounds so far from what I would describe my work as being about. Game Design and Interactive Installation Design aren’t so unconnected as it might be perceived. I want to create a rule set for engaging in any of my works. I want a set of standards, behaviors, punishments for interacting with my work. Is not not like designing any interface or even a game? I have a world and mind set that I want you to be surrounded by. It’s the beginning of something beautiful. I think..
What now? My summer is half over and I have some scattered ideas for a game, some writing and a visual step sequencer. This alone does not a thesis make, or even a foray into a thesis inquiry. Or does it?
“Advise Me” has taken a turn towards mass distribution. Since turning in the direction of a video series, it became necessary to storyboard. Here is a storyboard for the first episode.
This is one of the multiple video loops that can be viewed when interacting with the interactive piece: “Advise Me.”
I’m getting closer to a fusion of video, hardware and software.
The Advisor is a persona that is one of the key themes of the piece “Advise Me.”
Without the Advisor, the Supplicant would not feel as comfortable asking for advice from a stranger.
There is something built between the Advisor and the Supplicant. I call it “false intimacy.”
AdviseMe: The Advisor from Laura Simpson on Vimeo.
This video is part of the interactive installation “Advise Me.” The Advisor lures in the advisee and begins the interaction.
It would seem off for me to post an article about a thirteen part skit from the Japanese comedy show “Downtown” as a real and accessible lesson on design. Elements of design are continuously brought up by Dokura, the evil villain as he critiques the inept GoRangers. Questions of “Who is your audience?” “You can’t fight in that, can you?” and “Why are their two yellow rangers? People can’t tell you apart!” are raised and each week the Go Rangers raise different degrees of design fail. Below is a sampling of two of the amusing thirteen episodes. Be sure to watch the entire series.
Full Playlist for “Five Rangers”
Parental Advisory: These videos may contain adult subject matter and should be viewed prior to showing to sensitive audiences.
Seriously.
Motion Wall: E4 Moodwall from Matthias Oostrik on Vimeo.
After I stumbled upon this installation, I longed to go see this in person, or at least have a conversation with Matthias.