Rafael falls under the Film, video, and animation part of our textbook. He has done several installation type pieces using projectors, lights, and very large spaces to project images, and create shadows in public places. It's an installation but it is also using film and video projection also. Usually outside, and in public places his pieces are interactive with the viewer. The context of his work involves the exploration of film in non- traditional ways. Making large interactive images is a newer revolutionary idea. The piece noted in the book is “Body Movies.� This piece was an intricate play with dark and light. Located in 1,200 square meters Schouwburgplein Square in Rotterdam in 2001, the images were portraits of people from cities around the world and were projected onto the walls. When people would walk by their shadows would cast on top of the portraits being projected, creating an interesting light dark contrast of images. While being interactive with the viewer, this procedure also creates dimension by establishing different layers of projection.
I enjoyed viewing the “Body Movies,� which I described above, but in my research I also came across several other interesting, yet highly scientific pieces of Lozano-Hemmer. The website above is a link to some of his works.
----“Synaptic Caguamas� is one of his pieces that intrigued me. It is a large motorized table with 30 “Caguama�-sized beer bottles (1-litre each). The bottles spin on the table with patterns generated by cellular automata algorithms that simulate the neuronal connections in the brain. Wow! Who knew that was possible! You have to look at this one it's weird!
----“Standards and Double Standards� is another interactive installation that consists of fifty fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from the ceiling from motors. Yes, Belts! Each belt is controlled by a computerized tracking system, and rotates automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns. Again, I am amazed by the context of these pieces, I could never think this way, and it's great to see something so unconventional.
View the Standards and Double Standards
For my final piece I am creating an animation, so I thought that I would chose and artist in this same area to provide some inspiration. I feel that Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's non-traditional pieces have opened my mind to the unknown. It gives me a better handle on how abstract a concept can be and still be interesting to the viewer. I also found myself influenced by the fact that all of these pieces are video, but are entwined with technology, to complete the “whole�.
The story I chose to re-create was Puss In Boots. I used all digital photography, and I manipulated the photography to stay within my theme. I used different filters to create the same effects throughout the piece. On the backgrounds I used photo's I took and made them black and white with poster edges. On the son I used several different photos of my brother and I used the poster edges filter and a stroke around him. For Puss, I photographed my roommates cat and used the photos differently. I used the poster edges filter, and cutout filter on him, and usually added a stroke around him to make him pop out more. Using a stroke on the characters also creates similarity between the pages.
