Responses

I was extremely interested by Kara walker's video and her utilization of both actual people in live action as well as shadow puppets along with what I assume is paper cut stage design/stenciling. I like that there were cuts of text within the piece that echoed that of silent films, which both black and white, as well as popular during the days of slavery once they became a widely utilized medium. It was definitely a unique use of light, shadow, human movement, as well as puppeteering. 

The BLU, William Kentridge, and PES videos are all ones that I've seen before but I always appreciate them as unique and fun ways of using stop motion, particularly William Kentridge mostly because I appreciate his use of charcoal stop motion. Charcoal is a medium that always shows a lot of movement anyway as it's a very gestural medium, so I think it lends itself well to stop motion film. BLU is incredibly innovative in his use of not only spray paints/roller paint, but of integrating objects within the context of where he is painting in order to make a form of stop motion sculptural work. I also find a connection between his work and Kentridge's because he seems to use spray paint in a way similar to how Kentridge's charcoal is used being that spray paint is another medium that typically shows a lot of active motion. PES' work is crazy and some stuff that I've really not seen done in such a way before aside from possibly on Robot Chicken (Adult Swim) although they hardly bring it as far or as realistically as he does in his video. I enjoy the juxtaposition of objects that look like their fruit counterparts such as the golfball turning into a lime, and how a lot of the motion is extremely fluid and seems to happen naturally. The one I was least familiar with was Kristen Lepore, and I was definitely impressed with how she not only utilized nature on sight for her film, but made it all happen in an extremely believable way. I also enjoyed seeing how she took waves as they naturally occur, however still shot them frame by frame to add to the stop motion effect of the whole short. It's a bit less clean in the shots when the sand on the beach dries up from waves coming in, but the waves themselves coming in had a great look to them

For Matthew Barney I revisited Part 1 of the Cremaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5bUPR-LlR0

It was pretty cool and I appreciated the visual mirroring and repetitiveness that some of the shots lend themselves to, as well as the inherent symmetry in his work. It's clear that Alejandro Jodorowsky was an influence on his work for sure. Although, despite what he was showing us in the footage, I feel like a lot of what he was trying to accomplish was lost in the seeming lack of continuity it had, as well as it seeming like it was just being strange and abstract just for the sake of being strange and abstract

As for the Bill Viola video I understand what he was trying to accomplish with the video, but it was way too weird for me. Life and death are certainly both universal experiences and his triptych illustrates it well by connected both experiences with the man in the abyss separating them, although I was extremely uninterested in watching a birth, nor was I interested in watching the artist’s mother on her death bed. In fact I found it incredibly unsettling that the artist chose to take advantage of his deeply personal situation and utilize it in the name of art. While I can understand how it helps with the grieving process and that it is a once in a lifetime footage opportunity, I find it deeply disturbing that the artist’s instincts told him to film his mother and use it in this composition he created.