Saturday, April 25, 2009

KwadwoO_IVP2


The following is a mural on Duke's Graffiti wall. The subject is Anansi, the African Folk Hero. According to legend, the sky god gave all the stories in the world to Anansi. That is what this mural represents.

IVP3 - Kojo












My final project was a story about the African Folk Hero, Anansi. I was unable to upload any video to the blog; however, if you follow this link, you can watch the entire thing on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJhcIs-5YI

IVP2 - Chelsea Canepa - Questions of Life



As a whole, the five posters I created address the social object and dynamic of questions. My artwork displays the beginning framework to the endless questions of life. Questions seek answers, and within each of my philosophical questions the answer is positioned in the visual center. Although this placement may appear clear to the omniscient eye, in reality the truth is often obscured by unforeseen circumstances of the present.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Madeline L -IVP3

For our final project I tried to explore the idea of perfection.  I combined images of "perfect people" in their own field to combine into a a mask of an ideal.  I express non-linearity and time through a continuosly looping video. 
 

Madeline L -IVP2


Writing has been the foundation of communication and knowledge from the beginnings of human civilization.  Our ability to translate perceptions of the world through word is a defining quality of our identity as complex social beings.  To illustrate the social nature of books, my composition attempts to illustrate the global, and historical importance of writing.

Composition 2A - Kristin Oakley



I tried to show depth here using a pair of heels, I thought the red sole would contrast nicely with the darkness given my lack of light. The pearls are there to serve as a standard of distance.

Suarez IVP2


IVP#2 - Kristin Oakley




My project for IVP#2 was based on fabric as a social object. Fabric comes in many shapes sized textures etc. These pictures are based on a larger work that uses fabric to fill a void.

IVP3-Maria Suarez and Marquise Eloi-9 Happenings in 3 Parts


For our project we drew inspiration from the artist Allan Kaprow. He is famous for producing the 18 Happenings in 6 Parts and has forever changed the definition of a happening. A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered as art. Happenings take pace anywhere, are often multi-disciplinary, often lack a narrative and frequently seek to invlove the audience in some way. We decided to take this definition to heart and produce a similar event, the 9 Happenings in 3 parts. The 30 second clip is one of the happenings we included in the project. We had a performance component for our presentation but weren't able to accomplish it in the setting. However, we feel that the video accompanied with performance art truly portrays what a happening is and gives credit to Kaprow's interesting take on lifelike art.

Composition 2a-Kayla Kirk


I attempted to show depth through the layering of my CD's. The different colors and patterns emphasize depth.

IVP#3 - Kristin Oakley




My goal with this piece was to show time through fashion because fashion is constantly changing; it changes every day, every season and every year, more and more. I read several street style blogs every day because they give inspiration and provide insight into the ways that people really dress, the (somewhat) practical side of fashion. I was inspired to incorporate these pictures because they are photos of real people and the blog I used is updated daily. These pictures were all taken by Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist. I used the song, "Around the World," by Red Hot Chili Peppers because it is fast paced and shows the movement of time.

IVP2-Kayla Kirk




My project defines shoes as a social object. I believe that shoes can tell a lot about who we are and what social groups we interact with. Shoes are also the means by which we travel through our social networks. In the pictures, the shoes are the only thing in color for emphasis. However, the black and white portions are also important as they show different social settings.

IVP3-Kayla Kirk



With this piece I wanted to contrast the different stages that wood undergoes over time. I used tree branches, craft wood, a table leg to create a tree-like sculpture. I also used common wood working tools such as nails, a hammer, a saw, and wood glue. I combined these elements in a nonlinear format, juxtaposing the ideas of pure nature with man's manipulation of nature. My video displays my tree in a very contradictory setting. The backdrop for my tree shows both untouched forest and a construction site. The statue is resting on a wooden stair case...another use of wood in today's society.

IVP3-Colleen Ugliano-Defining Identity

My third independent project raises the question, How does an individual define his or her identity? To depict this I use an athlete (Ryan Giggs from Manchester United) who is accustomed to playing before a large, faceless crowd with a group of uniformed teammates. To his coaches, teammates, and fans he is an important and talented piece of the puzzle, yet his memories leading up to his present moment—whether or not it is shared by others—separates the athlete from his uniform and others around him.
Visually in the project the athlete finds himself facing this question when he sees his own name in the crowd. The progression moves from a photographic public conception—dressed in uniform—to a dark outline, and as he begins to think back he fills himself with memories which progress as memories typically come to mind (not always chronological; one memory can instantly bring about the next in sequence, or one factor may bring another memory to the surface.) The magnitude of the athlete in the final outline, once filled with these thoughts, is greater than the crowd, which also becomes an image in his memory.

Linda Yi IVP2 postings





This is my 2nd Individual Visual Project for which I chose music as my social object. For me, music and art have always seemed to have an intertwined relationship. After all, both are aesthetic mediums which speak in ways as profound as they are intangible. This relationship was brought home to me on a recent visit to the Sichuan region of southwestern China. While there, I participated in the traditional Yi minority fire festival – an unforgettable experience. The mounting crescendo of a myriad of joyful voices, harmonizing even in their apparent dissonance, was exhilarating – and truly completed the ritual fireside dance. This social aspect of music is what caught my attention – each note and chord evocative of our activity.

I chose to apply the "rough pastel" effect to my 2nd crop because ideally, that is the type of medium I would associate with this type of music - free, uninhibited, flowing. However, my skill with "real" pastels isn't quite at the level at which I can achieve the visual effect I want in that manner yet - hence photoshop aid. :)

Composition 2B JUNLIANG ZHU

IVP3 - Chelsea - The Dating Project

The Dating Project - This project was designed to explore the social structure of dating at Duke. The video interviews multiple Duke students about their individual experiences with dating, hooking up, alcohol use, and other observations. At the core of this project is the idea that something about dating at Duke is not altogether healthy. The concept of courtship has dissolved into a culture of one night encounters and hook ups. The video not only sheds light on the situation at Duke, but on individuals trying to build relationships everywhere. 


IVP 2 JUNLIANG ZHU BAMBOO CHOPSTICKS VS METAL FORK



A conflict of Ancient Chinese with Modern Western Culture.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

IVP3 Sarah Wallingford



To keep with the theme of games, I went with the game of "tag" for this project. Birds and other animals in nature (the squirrels on the quad, for example) often seem to be chasing each other around in a playful manner. Birds do so in a way that is graceful and beautiful, and I wanted to express this with my video. I also wanted to play on the fact that the birds allow the viewer to see through the canvas to the background of watercolor. When the birds meet, the game ends and the background becomes visible. I ended with a shot of one bird flying across the screen. This can be interpreted as the two birds became one when they met in the middle - metaphorically, all animals play games, therefore we are all one with nature. I hope you enjoy! This has been my favorite project!

IVP3 JUNLIANG ZHU ANCIENT VS MODERN, Visualization of time

This is my IVP3 , a short demonstration of my project


The object is clock, under the background of the modern Greenwich clock system.

I added 2 layers on the original clock: One layer is the ancient Chinese timing system, in China Calligraphy, the second layer is the Chinese explanation of the body system, and how the body system works in different times.
I used the second layer, the "mysterious" Chinese medicine as the bridge that connects the ancient Chinese timing system, with the modern western timing system, as no matter it's western or east, our physical body does not change, the Chinese medicine is applicable to all the people

IVP3 - Jungmin Oh

I chose mirror as a social object as mirror reflects people or objects you see in it. In terms of time, I wanted the viewers to feel the elapse of time while watching the work. I wanted the giant "LOOK" to be the first thing that draws people's attention when they see this work, and from there it says "at the bottom", to "up" and to "follow" and so on. While following the instruction, the viewers can feel the elapse of time to finish all the steps. Also, in terms of non-linearlity viewers can notice this by the way they adjust themselves to see the work.

IVP 3 Min Cui (34 sec. quicktime)

The topic of IVP3 is nonlinearity and time. My project is a board game that depicts life as a series of nonlinear paths through time. Also, I've incorporated elements from the first two projects into this project. The first project involves charts and diagrams, so I've incorporated some charts into this project. The second project involves a social object, a concept represented in this project by the "board game" setup. 

IVP3 - Sadel Serra Dilmener

YELL: "OWCH"



YELL: "OWCH" is a game based on color intensities. The purpose is to wipe out all yellow bubbles which have the least intensity thus least power. While blue has the highest intensity thus the most power, other colors are assumed to be more powerful than yellow and less powerful than blue. Therefore any color can undermine yellow bubbles but none has the power to undermine the blue ones. As rings of bubbles form, any color except blue wipes out the one it overlaps. If a bubble ring forms but doesn't wipe out any of the yellow bubbles the player gradually loses points.



The video I prepared portrays what one can see playing the game or watching someone else play it. I used Power Point slides and created 600 frames by editting a former slide to create the latter one. Then I merged them all one after the other, so we can consider this a stop motion video.


There are two parts to the game. First one being the wiping out of yellow bubbles by other ones while second one being the "revenge of the yellow bubbles" by turning into a "Pacman-like" shape and eating out all colors.


The name of the game YELL:"OWCH" is the combination of yellow and to yell: "ouch" which refers to pain. Since there is no literal kind of pain in this game my goal was to make reference to the weak getting beaten up by the stronger, followed by revenge of the weaker.


My inspiration for the video was the circular overlapping patterns of bubbles I have used in my previous game project: "Bubble the Trouble"(IVP2). First my aim was to create a visual entertainment by creating a sequential video of how I formed those patterns. Then I added a twist to it by applying a basic game strategy: strong vs. weak. However, since I was dealing with colors and shapes I used the notion of "strong/weak" in terms of colors which is color intensity.



Enjoy watching the competition between colors before the GAME is OVER.




IVP3 - Lisa Gao


Concept:  For my third project, I decided to do a literal interpretation of the game concept, a stop motion animation clip with musical chairs.  As I was browsing through the Lobby Shop, I saw a pack of gummy bears and thought that it would be interesting to do stop motion animation of gummy bears playing musical chair.  Hence, that idea blossomed into this project.  

How:  I made the chairs from starburst candy and the background is just colored construction paper.  The stop motion animation was a very tedious project and took over 600 pictures to create a video of about 3.5 minutes.  But it was great to see it all come together at the end.  

IVP2, Nikki Sales



The recent millennium has promptly ushered in an evolution in the communication of language. Although we can now visually see the language (via Facebook, iChat, BlackBerry Messenger, or text messages), we have sacrificed our vision of emotion and personality in favor of convenience and 21st technology. I have depicted a young woman, detached and isolated, using binoculars to see through the fabricated text and into the colorful reality of her friends and family. I represented binoculars as a social object to comment on the disintegration of personal communication in the 21st century.

IVP3, Nikki Sales: Superstition



For my project, I made a book dealing with people's superstitions and beliefs. What irrational things do people believe in and why? Are they really irrational? The book has two sections: BAD LUCK and CONTROL FATE. First, I created 4 pages of different things that bring people bad luck: a black cat crosses your path, walking under a ladder, braking a mirror, and opening an umbrella indoors. Second, I created 4 pages of different ways to control your fate, or to get rid of the bad luck: knocking on wood, throwing salt over your left shoulder, forwarding chain emails/text messages, and crossing your fingers.

IVP 2 - Nichols Mabry



spread for magazine

IVP 3- Nichols Mabry - Expressions

For my IVP 3 I decided to make a video documenting photos of my friends' facial expressions. This is ultimately supposed to reflect how we act in front of the camera. The pictures you see in black and white that flash really quickly are supposed to show a possible response someone might make to the (or facial reaction) previous expression (in color).

IVP2-Colleen Ugliano-The Podcast



The Podcast--Colleen Ugliano
When we see others with earphones in, listening to an ipod, we often associate this state with introversion as the listener is separated from the social and interactive world, occupying the world of music specific to his or her own tastes. However, the free podcast feature on iTunes enables people from various countries and social groups to cross borders and share interests and news with the click of a button. Whether the topic is sports, entertainment, art, literature, or music, podcasts update daily, weekly, or monthly, and are produced and uploaded by large organizations such as the Discovery Channel, ESPN, or The New Yorker, along with individuals, often in collaboration with others. My project attempts to portray the individual side of listening to podcasts (the person listening with earphones and interacting with the podcast) in connection with the broader social context (connecting different countries with world news and interests.)

IVP2 - Lauren Anderson



For this project I took on the task of presenting babies as social objects.

IVP 3 - Lauren Anderson


When I began this project, I wanted to do something with the image of ideal female beauty and how it changes over time. Specifically, how people manipulate the idea of how beauty should be based on cultural forces. When I thought more into it, however, I realized how fluid the ideal image of beauty can be, especially when I broadened my perspective and explored the general concept of "beauty". What is perceived as beautiful can change from second to second, based on thought, influence of new ideas and opinions, new perspective, slight alteration, etc. In this way, beauty is truly difficult to capture (artists of all kind have been attempting to do so for a very long time after all), and I wanted to illustrate not just beauty, but how perception of beauty interacts with and is manipulated by time.
My mixed-media sculpture consists of a metal shell comprised of old, rusted lawnmower blades. These were hand-forged into a structure to hold the strip of canvas presenting an acrylic Venus that is suspended in the metal structure from lines of thread.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

IVP3 Nonlinearity - a work's progress through time.



In one of our previous classes, we explored the different primary colors via paint. What I found interesting about the exercise was that my finished product looked nothing like what I had on my paper - it had somehow "morphed" into a whole new thing. Interestingly enough, I was quite pleased with the final result - despite the fact that I had not planned it out.

This is we the kernel that grew into my final individual visual project. I decided to do a painting - yet in a novel (at least to me) methodology. Unlike my previous works, I didn't start out with a well laid plan. Instead, I started on intuition, made multiple changes to the original painting as inspiration struck and changed, and finally landed on what I had before me. Along the way, my work began to resemble more and more a close-up of an embryo - a seed of life coming into being. In a way, I found this a fitting subject to end my piece on - as the development of life is (as mentioned by others in our class as well) an extremely non-linear progression of different and unique happenings.

In my second part of the progress, I made my painting (and the process by which it was developed) into a short film. I hope that the quick flash-backs and forwards present in the short film mirrors the changes in perspectives and evolving of aims that was key to the production of the piece. The music, "I just wanna live" by Good Charlotte was chosen to pair with the theme of the painting - life fighting (and succeeding) to emerge out of seeming randomosity. :)

IVP3 - Beth Haynes


For my last project, I chose to create an audio/video documentary-like slideshow, blending my love for the environment and education with my newly-discovered passion for photography. The original piece is one minute and forty seconds long, and this clip is taken from the middle. The idea came when I took an assessment to determine my own ecological footprint. I consider myself to be an environmentally-friendly individual, and was shocked when the results said that if everyone on earth lived like I did, the human population would require 3.5 earths for survival. The project also happened to be originally due on April 22, Earth Day, so a little environmental commercial seemed to fit perfectly. I combined the photos I took around Duke's campus with commentary on my own experience with the ecological footprint survey, challenging other individuals to become more aware of their impact -- not just on Earth Day, but every day.

IVP2 - Beth Haynes


I chose to focus on letters as a social object. In order to achieve this, I created a collage by making numerous photocopies of actual letters I have sent and received throughout the year. The letters are all displayed in black and white, documenting the antiquity of the art of letter writing in a society that demands instant communication. I also chose to include address labels, mailing codes, and stamps in the collage, which emphasize the social paths the letters had to travel in order to connect individuals in a social way.

IVP 2 Min Cui + Monopoly Game (two images)



These two are the images for my Second Individual Project.

ivp3 Hilary Huskey



I am currently taking the 3d modeling and animation class here at Duke. I decided that I wanted to work with the maya software for this project. Everything from the modeling to animation was created in maya. I decided I wanted to do an animation with balls. I took the phrase 'the grass is always greener on the other side' and decided to make an animation around that. I created three different types of balls. There are three yellow balls which are easily able to bounce over the fence, two orange balls that can slip under and one black ball that is massive and unable to bounce or roll under the fence. He needs help if he wants to make it to the other side and he recieves it from one of the small orange balls.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

IVP3 Chrissy DiNicola



For my project I documented people playing my favorite board game, which is scrabble. I decided to add dramatic motion to the generally tame board game (by making my friend throw the scrabble board) in order to illustrate the competitive nature of many forms of "play." I wanted to create a piece that displays the anger games often ignite in people, because this reaction seems to contradict to the purpose of play.
I originally planned to document the game with video. However, I chose to use a series of still photographs played quickly because I thought this would create a nice parallel between my medium and my content. Like a scrabble board, photographs are not usually in motion. My project is silent to make it seem like a flip-book, emphasizing the fact that it is a series of still pictures changing rapidly.
The longer version of the video shows one player play all seven of her letters (a rare success). Another player looks at the score, becomes incensed, throws the game board, and walks out of the room. The sequence of photos in which the player throws the game board and walks out is then played backwards until its beginning. After this, there is a slight but noticeable shift in the photos, and the three players clean up the board in a civil way as they normally would. The reversing of the game throwing sequence shows that it was only a fantasy of the angry player. The shift in photos that occurs just before the players begin to clean up the board game illustrates a return to reality.
Most of the photographs play for .5 seconds, but the pictures in which the player is throwing the board game are on screen for a considerably longer period of time because these were the most interesting, time-worthy photographs. Dwelling on the pictures where the scrabble board and letters are airborne, my video addresses the fact that their is a certain beauty and excitement in succumbing to irrational passion. The monotony of the quickly shown photographs in which players follow both game and social rules is meant to show the contrast between fantasy and reality and to demonstrate the fact that anger, stress, and competitiveness are often internalized or repressed during play.
I included a sequence of "blooper" photographs that show the natural reactions of the players when the angry player first tried to throw the board. She threw it too hard and it fell on her head. I thought this sequence of photographs was valuable and entertaining because it unintentionally showed a different kind of play in which people enjoy being shocked by something unexpected. The blooper photos contrast the performance photos, displaying a spontaneous form of play that lacks competition, a form of play that seems most true to "play's" definition as something for amusement, fun, and recreation. The blooper photographs also demonstrate the powerful ability of flip-book style artwork to dwell on details, by freezing them, that don't stand out in film.

America-Our Brand

My project was inspired by a class discussion that I had in a public policy course called America in a Global Age. In talking about the benefits of public diplomacy- the importance of explaining our culture and actions directly to the people of foreign nations- we recognized the need to essentially "sell" the American Brand abroad. That got me thinking about the games of politics and advertising, and I grew curious to see whether I could put together a compelling "commercial" for the U.S.

However, as I got more involved in the creative process, I began to experiment with combining contrasting images and sound to produce a subversive political message. Ultimately, I found that even if I paired images reflecting relatively negative messages about America with majestic, overtly positive music, I could create a commercial that generated a positive overall atmosphere.

My final product is a short commercial that chronicles the evolution of Brand America over the last eight years (the real extent of my political memory). The below clip mainly focuses on the changes in Pres. George Bush's expressions over time and the juxtaposition of his face with Pres. Barack Obama's- signifying a major change in American history and the future of our brand.

The process of creating this short advertisement has been an interesting one, since it is my first foray into putting together video clips. However, the project has definitely encouraged me to consider how I can incorporate video compellingly into future projects for other classes as well. Perhaps this summer I will use video to chronicle parts of my Duke Engage experience and to capture interactions with locals that will become a useful aspect of field research for my public policy thesis!

Monday, April 20, 2009

IVP3 - Danielle Kachulis & Kim Wenger -Female Athletes



Danielle and I worked together in making a documentary type movie reflecting on female athletes and the image they embody. We used interview audio, music, text, photos, and film together to create about a five minute video. This 30 second clip is a short segment from the start of the movie just to provide a taste of the real project.

IVP3 Adeeb Yunus



My project is an animated rendition of Richard Connell's short story The Most Dangerous Game. This tale is of a hunter named Sanger Rainsford who crashes on an island owned by the bloodthirsty General Zaroff. The General has hunted many animals--buffaloes, tigers, jaguars--and has grown bored with hunting. To entertain himself, he brings people onto his island and hunts them. Rainsford is forced to be his next catch. General Zaroff tells Rainsford that if he survives for three days, the General will let him leave. Rainsford tries to make a confusing path in order to vex the General but is found. The General lets him live, wanting to play the game a little longer. As a result, Rainsford assembles traps to kill Zaroff. He makes three in total (one each day)--but they are only successful in killing the General's hounds and bodyguard. Zaroff chases Rainsford through the jungle until Rainsford jumps off a cliff and supposedly to his death. The General returns home, only to find Rainsford waiting for him. Rainsford then kills the General. This story was always a favorite of mine and so when I saw the syllabus, this project came to mind.

For my film, I wanted to keep the theme of games throughout the story. In order to do so, I used board games as the set and characters. The Clue gameboard was an easy choice for the General's mansion. While looking for character pieces, chess pieces were the most easily available. These pieces were very useful since a hierarchy of the pieces is already well-known. Thus, dividing the General, the bodyguard Ivan, and the dogs was simple. On the other side, Rainsworth was also a simple choice. When thinking of which gamepiece was the most clever, I instantly thought a Mousetrap piece. The other major choice I had to make was the three traps that Rainsford installs. And so when I went to my dorm's collection of board games and I saw a box of Dominos and Connect Four--great traps. Of course, I had to use the Mousetrap trap as the final trap as well.

In terms of filming, I reread the story a number of times and worked from there. The process came easily since I had done a stop-motion film earlier in the semester. All in all, I had to collect two gigs worth of pictures and clips.

Editing was the most difficult portion. iMovie on my computer seemed to have a difficult time after over a minute of film. Regardless, I got through it and was very satisfied with my product. Choosing music was also difficult but I was able to get very lucky in finding songs that fit the timing and theme of my movie.

The clip above is one of my favorite features of my movie--the Connect Four trap. I really like the slow motion and how the music moves the story.

Crashed IVP3-Lucas Best

Crashed!

Follow this link to play!


I started coming up with an idea for a 2d style game and after experimenting with various aspects of Flash that I had not yet explored. In doing this I also realized an old love for scifi. I love Star Wars and I'm a pretty committed Treky. I remembered some of the old plots from some of my favorite Star Trek episodes, so I decided to make a scifi game where the main character crashes on a planet and has to use the guidance of another ship captain who had crashed on the previously some time before. This plot has been used in at least one Star Trek episode, but hopefully I've stayed general enough to avoid copyright problems...

I wanted to integrate video into this game more than I had in my previous games, so I decided to have video actually progress the plot in this one. (Credit to my best friend Joel Leonard for doing the acting for me, I'm a terrible actor and he did the recording in one sitting, which is pretty hard to do.)

If you get Flash errors while playing, just hit continue until in goes away and the flow of the game will still stay consistent. I don't know what the problem is, but I'll try to fix it.

Enjoy!

IVP3-Nasia Haque

My video is a journey through the mass amounts of information located in Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, free to all world wide web users to access and edit. With all the knowledge Wikipedia has to offer, it's sometimes difficult to navigate and sift through. My video tries to go through hundreds of pieces of information trying to link them all. It begins with the Wikipedia homepage and a search for Duke University, a piece of information we are all familiar with. Then, through hyper linking, Wikipedia is navigated through, in a seemingly random way. Over 50 pages of information are accessed, from Sir Walter Raleigh to biomedical research, finally ending where it began, back at Duke. Finding the correct path from Duke to Duke at first seemed simple, but Wikipedia proved it to be quite tedious. The background music is "Kaleidoscope of Mathematics" by James Horner, a beautiful piece that really engages the viewer.

IVP3-Greg Johnston

"Check Your Answers"
I created a three minute film about checkers, of which I have posted a 30 second outtake. The inspiration behind my game began with a consideration of the question "What is a game?" I thought about the headlines about a year ago when scientists and game theorists used computers to solve the perfect game equilibrium of checkers. In other words, if two people (or computers) play perfect games of checkers, it has been proven that it will end in a draw. It is a pretty amazing accomplishment, but one that almost strips checkers of its status as a game. It now seems like more of an algorithm--one which we have solved.
But what if there was more to the little black and red pieces than we realized? My film attempts to answer that question in a humorous way. It tells the story of my magical checkers set that, while I am away, manages to finish my math homework for me.
To animate the checkers, I used stop motion animation. This raised a couple of questions about execution: how many checkers should I use and how should they move and act? While I would have liked to make the pieces move "kitty-corner" style, this proved to be incompatible with the setting and goal of my animation. I decided to scrap that idea. I used a couple other film strategies to make the short a little more interesting. I tried to compose every shot carefully, taking light, entrance, and background into account. I also used a slight speed up effect in some of my shots, a tribute to the Benny Hill show, from which I also used the song. If you don't know it, have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spz8_rpE0e0
While the film is meant to be funny, it is also intended to make you think about the role that games such as checkers play in contemporary society. I hope you enjoy the excerpt!


IVP3-Catherine Cordeiro

A Day at the Carnival



For this project, I was inspired by Spring and the idea of the sun coming out and everyone having a chance to play outside. In the Spring, amusement parks open their doors to hoards of excited people and give the public a chance to let loose and enjoy themselves. I wanted to give the project a really homemade feel so I collected photos from Flickr that various people took of their children and their experience at local county fairs and amusement parks. I think this appropriation gives it a feel of a family scrapbook or photo album. I also incorporated my own scanned Crayola crayon drawings that depict an ice cream cone melting over time. They are inserted between the family photos, which are arranged according to the time of day, indicating the passage of time over one day, from sunrise to sunset. 
The project was completed using iDVD and crayon on paper. I am known for being absolutely terrible with computers, so although it seems rudimentary, it was a great accomplishment for me. I gained skills in using iDVD and downloading and moving pictures from one application to the next and to insert appropriate background music. While I'm content with the outcome, I would have liked to fit the timing of the pictures to the beat of the music for emphasis. 
The music on the title menu (not on the short version) is reminiscent of music on an antique carousel or from a black-and-white movie. The music during the slide show is "Kids" by MGMT, which begins with the sounds of children playing and has an overall upbeat, laid back yet excite tone. 
I think the project succeeds in capturing the truly American spirit of springtime at a carnival and reminds the viewer not to take life too seriously and to enjoy every fleeting moment. 

IVP3 -- Rachel Pea

THE SOCIAL GAME--A Spectator Sport


I filmed on a Saturday night at Caffé Driade, a coffee shop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. I’ve always been fascinated by coffee shops—the way unrelated individuals occupy the same social space and the interactions that result—and Driade is particularly fascinating to me because of the eclectic clientele it seems to draw. I was looking to capture on film the way people interact in this public space. Do you act differently if you know you are being watched? The film reveals the dynamic in which people are both watching and being watched. I decided to make a silent film to heighten the viewer’s attention to the smallest of visual details in these social interactions. From the girl biting her nails, sitting alone at a table to the barista staring at a woman as she walks past, I think the film reveals the subtleties of the game of human interaction. The reoccurring motif is the framed sequences of the barista who—in between putting away dishes and serving customers—with a furrowed brow, stares right into the camera with an inquisitive eye. This social game is a spectator sport, and I reaped the benefits of this observer’s status last Saturday night.

IVP3 Rosie Gellman

My video is supposed to serve as a sort of optical illusion and transformation. Within it, pictures of myself are interspersed with pictures of flowers, as the picture evetually transforms from me into a flower. It is supposed to also be a sort of play on words because my name is Rosie and I shift into a flower, so it is basically like going from one rose to another in a sense.
My video was inspired by a Youtube video in which a boy takes a picture of himself everyday for 6 years and then compiles them in rapid succession which creates a very interesting change over time show. Also within an All-American Rejects music video, they employ the same techniques that i did with the static person and changing clothes, which i also thought produced a cool effect. I believe my video would be cooler if the transition times between photos were faster, however, I utilized the fastest transitions that iMovie will allow.
My video was created taking a bunch of stills of myself in different outfits, altering them in photoshop to make them each a different overlay color, and then placing them in rapid sucession in iMovie. I then did the same with photos I have taken of flowers around Duke. I worked with the timing and placement of the images to make it a smooth transition between pictures and form beginning to end. Then I added music, which is "The Golden Afternoon" from Alice in Wonderland, the song sang by all of the flowers. The song seemed fitting as it is from one of my favorite movies and also focuses on flowers, the theme of my movie.

IVP3 -- Sarah Hamerman

Project Title: "The Game is Playing Us"



About the Video: My project focused on how consumption-oriented leisure time and the 'false gratification' and 'false participation presented by commodity culture and the media spectacle conflict with an idea of spontaneously-organized, participatory "play" in local space. Essentially, the proliferation of communication and information in the virtual realm in which "social" life increasingly comes to be organized has as its consequence a disappearance of social life based around the production of communities in the immediate physical realm or the reclaiming of "empty" spaces. The idea behind the film is inspired by the theories of the Situationist International in "Society of the Spectacle" and "The Revolution of Everyday Life."

Methods: My video mixes a variety of television screen captures with my own photography from various locations around Durham in an experimental photomontage I created using I-Movie. The concluding portion of the film, which acts as a sort of positivist take-away message in contrast to the fairly critical tone of the rest of the film, is shot in moving images to add emphasis. I mixed the audio soundtrack using Audacity, distorting sound clips from various songs and layering my own voice at different pitches for the narration. The "script" is partially quoted from "The Revolution of Everyday Life" by Raoul Vanigem and partially of my own writing. I tried to create an "arc" to the audio around which I could sequence the images. 

Special Thanks to: my friend Andrew, who is featured in the video.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

IVP3. emily lin.



I used to cut paper in high school for my portfolio, so I wanted to return to that and simply show the process. People who looked at what I've made consumed with their eyes in just a couple seconds what took my hands and x-acto knife a few hours to quite carefully make. So this project (the storyboard in addition to both the original and condensed videos) offers a glimpse into those hours, in the quiet hope that others might one day look at an object and linger to wonder how it came to be.

Keep calm and carry on’ is a phrase from the wonderfully iconic posters the British government commissioned during World War II as a sort of encouragement in case the Nazis ever managed to invade Britain. I've used it in previous projects and developed a bit of a personal attachment to it. I used the horizontal line to keep the letters together, but it also serves as the border between sky and sea, the surface of water on which the jellyfish is floating. The original posters had a crown to go with the phrase and were vertically oriented, but I think jellyfish and a horizontal layout embody the phrase well.

Regarding games, stop motion is a playful medium. In cutting paper, I play with positive and negative space; in showing the process, I am kind of playing hide-and-go-seek with what eventually emerges from the paper.

If I did this all over again, I’d have better lighting and try to find a way to make things more consistent - I shot all 314 frames by hand on the floor of my room without any kind of a setup, so the camera angle shifts a bit from picture to picture.

I’m overall content, though. It’s kind of nice to sit back and appreciate the process of creation.

IVP3 - Eliza French

"Dress Up"

Inspiration: I chose to base my video project loosely on the idea of playing dress up. My most recent project focused on commodity culture, and with this project I expanded on that theme to examine the fashion industry, our obsession with celebrity, the portrayal of women in media, and our reaction to that image. All of the footage I used was found footage, mainly from fashion shows and a short experimental film. I also used still images of starlets like Lindsay Lohan, Lil' Kim, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Nicole Ritchie because they are known  for frequent and drastic changes in their overall appearance -including clothing style, weight, and hair color. I also considered feminist theorists I have read in my Literature/Vistual Studies class "Fashion and the Avant-Garde," including Judith Butler, Elizabeth Grosz, and Pamela Church Gibson.  In creating this video, I hoped the viewer would start to see that "dress up," instead of being a little girl's game of make-believe, is in fact a performative behavior we engage in every day to conform to standards or ideals circulating within our society.  
Method: I used a very straightforward website to download streaming videos from Youtube. I edited using iMovie. I mostly kept the found materials original audio because I liked the effect it added when it got sped up with the video.  For some clips, added audio clips from online and also from the iMovie library. I added visual effects like transitions between clips and the "flash" effect on the stills, and in many cases I sped up and/or reversed the footage. 
Found Video Material:
Retractable dress from  Hussein Chalayan's Spring 2007 collection
"Fantasia" video from SHOWstudio, a very unique and important project in the fashion industry, founded by Nick Knight
Cindy Sherman's "Doll Cothes" (1975), now in the Tate Collection
Marc Jacobs' S/S 2008 show, staged backward, inspired by surrealism and featuring the backward high-heels

IVP3- Margot Mausner

Life.
We live in a goal oriented society.
People are constantly aiming for success and wealth
and somewhere in the process of growing up, getting an education 
a family, a job... we lose sight of things.
We go through the motions
day to day
never stopping to think or look around
at all that life has to offer
We walk the same paths 
apathetically placing one foot in front of the next
determined to get from point A to point B

Even in a location as simple as the bus stop
these behaviors are readily visible as people
wait and board the bus in an almost robotic manner

I tried to emphasize this idea of a careless
existence, of a society that has removed itself from
the little pleasures in life by fast forwarding our already
fast paced life style.  

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."- Eddie Cantor

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

IVP2 Lisa Gao


Once Upon A Time …

“Once Upon A Time…” is a 3-D boardgame where you can live out your own fairy tale!  Choose

 to be either a Villain or a Good Guy and fight your way to your happy ending.         

GAMEPLAYAdd Image

Number of Players: 4 – 2 Teams of 2 players, Villain or Good Guys

How To Win: Reach your team’s happy ending, whether it be “Happily Ever After” or the “Reign of Evil”

How To Play:  

Part I (played on the sides of the game board)

1.   1. All Players start at the place on the game board labeled START and start the game heading toward the left side.

2.   2.  Go the number of spaces which you rolled with the dice. 

3.  3.  When you land on a Red Apple or Poisoned Apple space, take a Red Apple or Poisoned Apple card and follow the instructions on the back. 

4.  4.  In each of the two decks of apple cards, there are three Element Cards.  Each team must collect their respective element cards to gain “access” to their respective paths to their happy ending. 

5.  5.  If a player picks up an element card that does not belong to their team, the card goes back into the deck. 

6.  6.  After one team gathers all three of their element cards, the opposing team must forfeit all the element cards they have gathered thus far and return them to the deck.

7.  7.  At this time, all players must make their way to the entrance to the path of happy ending for the team which gathered all three of its element cards.

8.  8.  However,   Part II of the game does not begin till all players are lined up at the entry point to the path of happy ending for the team which gathered all three of its element cards

Part II (played on top or bottom of game board)

9.  9.  The goal for the team which has gathered all three of its element cards first is to reach its “happy ending” first whether it be “Happily Ever After” or “Reign of Evil.”

10.10.  However, the opposing team can make a comeback in the following two ways:

a.     During Part II of the game, if the opposing is able to collect all three of their element cards then the game is reset and all players return to START, and each team once again has 0 element cards. 

b.     During Part II of the game, if the opposing team reaches the other team’s “happy ending” before they do, then the game board is flipped over and all players are transported to the opposing team’s path of happy ending, now giving the opposing team a chance to win the game instead.  Hence Part II is restarted but on the opposite side. 

11. 11.  Whichever team reaches their “happy ending” first, wins the game!

Inspiration:  When I was brainstorming an idea for this game, I knew that I was interested in creating somekind of boardgame but I wanted to have some kind of twist to the game, so I came up with the idea to create a 3-Dimensional board game.  The theme of fairy tales came to me because I have always loved a good fairy tale since I was young so it seemed fun to make a board game which incorporated various aspects of classic fairy tales.  I made the game box by cutting out pieces of cardboard and putting it together to create the shape I wanted.  Then I covered the board with paper and painted on it to create the game board.  

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

IVP2 Hilary Huskey




Game name: The Game of We; A Private Emotion
Inspiration: Since coming to Duke, I have been exposed to a myriad of experiences. One of the most significant experiences thus far has been the relationship I have entered into with my boyfriend. It is my first serious relationship and has been a lens which has colored the different trials and tribulations I have faced since coming to college. I wanted to make a game that was eloquent and personal for me, which led me to craft a game that conveyed my perception and gauge on my relationship. I decided I wanted to play off of the cliche "game of love". I have heard it a multitude of times throughout my life, yet I have never developed a meaning for this phrase. I thought about what the "game of love" meant in confines of my own relationship and how I could craft that into a game, however, I struggled to give the phrase life or meaning. I came to the conclusion that I do not view our relationship as a win or lose situation. There is no start and finish with a straight or twisted trail in between. There is not one point of convergence or divergence. The starting line of our relationship is not clearly defined for me because the process of forming my own identity and finding 'me' is an important aspect of our relationship. A relationship cannot form without solidifying the 'me' position. The finish line is equally ambiguous as the start. Some would say that the finish line is defined as a break up or death of a loved one, however I disagree because a meaningful relationship never dies. Given this I knew constructing a functional game was going to be impossible for what I was trying to achieve.
I decided that my boyfriend and I would be the 'game board'. The first striking aspect of the game board is that we are both scantly clad. This is traditionally a very vulnerable situation, however, I believe we have reached a state of complete comfort with each other. The stripped figures are representative of both the physical and mental position of our relationship. He has accepted me, flaws and all, and visa versa. The figures are unaware and unashamed at their current state, and it is reflected in the positions which they are posing. They are not attempting to hide or cover anything they perceive as imperfect.
I decided to apply the game board to their skin. However, I had a difficult time envisioning how the paths on the figures correlated with each other. I eventually decided that the path that our relationship has taken is not so defined and therefore this trail was not intended for us. I believe the people who do not know how love works are on a constricted path. Love is multifaceted and cannot be defined by one moment, or one space on the game board.The pawns on the bodies represent all the people who tried to date or fall in love with us. Those individuals who are enamored with the physical, dwell on the minute details or love with a tunneled vision. These pawns are traveling down a path with no beginning or end. Ultimately their trip serves no purpose because they have no great meaning on he nor I.
However, their is a game being played. It is the process of crafting 'we' which is a game. This is represented by the two colors that each figure possess. My blue and his purple represent our definition of 'me'. In the image, my blue is beginning to infiltrate his purple and visa versa. This represents that we have started the process of creating a 'we' from two distinctive personalities, yet at the same time still maintaining our base color because in our game of forming a 'we' neither he nor I have lost our individuality.

IVP2 Chrissy DiNicola

UNIVERSE

The Directions:


The Idea:

I wanted to create a space themed game, because I have always loved astronomy. At first, I thought I would make a game where aliens tried to conquer earth. However, I wanted to give my game some characteristics of sky maps. In order to do this and keep the arrangement of the planets relatively accurate, I decided the aliens would try to reach the sun.

Instead of overlapping circles, I used overlapping ellipses, because then the game board could be square. Each corner of the board features a picture of a different galaxy and its code (like M83). Players can start from any corner of the board.

The game has a primarily navy blue, black and purple background with a yellow game path, because I wanted to use the color scheme generally found in space photographs. The background of the game is a collage of space photographs, and there photographs planets, the sun, and a black hole strategically placed on the board. I wanted to use a collage of photographs because space images are generally interesting and visually appealing, and because they would create a nice, textured contrast with the yellow game path.

At first, I wanted to use a collage of many different space images. After testing this idea, I found that with lots of pictures, the collage background seemed gaudy and distracting, so I settled for a few.

To play, each person chooses an alien. I wanted all of the aliens to be unique, which I thought would be a fun aspect of the game. People can fight over the cutest one...etc. Players roll dice to figure out how far to move forward, and follow the instructions on their square. These are all space themed. Many of them go specifically with the plant to which they are closest. Squares range from "Find a jet pack. Move forward 3 spaces." to "Retreat to home galaxy to escape death by supernova." Players' aliens can get stuck in orbits of some planets, ride comets, and get mauled by hostile life forms on earth.

The goal of the game is to land on the square that lets you take the shooting star to the inner ellipse. Once there, players must roll a 2 to reach the sun and win the milky way (the game). If they roll a 10, they get sucked into a black hole and have to start over. This allows for exciting upsets, and can be funny for players.

The Process:


I thought it would be really neat if the box for the game was like the box from Jimanji (the movie). Also, I thought having a large, sturdy case would suit the nature of game, because it is called Universe, which is a strong, rather majestic title. Luckily, my friend's boyfriend has a wook working shop in his basement and helped me use it to build this box. After almost choking my hallmates out of their rooms with spray paint fumes while the box dried (a learning experience), and adding hinges and a latch, I finished it.


I made the path for the game first, on Illustrator. I chose Illustrator because I was working primarily with lines and shapes. Then, I cut out photos for the board's background collage and scanned them. I added those to the Illustrator document as well. Also with illustrator, I made directions to go in one side of the box when it opens and a space for all the alien characters to sit for the other side of the box. Each alien has one square with its name on it. I printed the board and the directions at Kinkos and glued them to the box with spray-on photo-paper adhesive. I chose yellow dice to go with my color scheme.


The End:




The completed game looks like this.








My friends like to wear costumes, so I let them dress up like aliens (or just like strange people) to play my game. I will incorporate this into my creative representation of the project.