Black
Darkness
open
styrofoam
tin
metallic
light
stage
fright
anxiety
nercousness
impatience
paience
sound
audio
round
curved
procineum
shocked
still
motionless
petrified
aplause
audience
isolated
feet
stationary
center
spot
staples
pink
covered
special
L.E.D
battery
expectation
awkward
eyes
stalker
concerned
curious
turn
surprise
narration
exaggeration
vulnerability
whole
tape
impatient
placement
projection
personal
i was extremely excited about the idea of creating a stop motion animation; it’s been something that i’ve wanted to do for a while now. At first i thought this assignment would involve me just taking a bunch of pictures, not realizing how much action I would actually put in in order to create hopefully a successful, interesting and entertaining film that captured my theme as well as my personalty.
My theme for the final involved the intertwining of human artificial creation and nature;the purpos of the stool was to represent something man made, confined by walls in every direction that seperate ever so slightly the outdoors from the paved floor. The stool breaking free is where my word, “sorted” comes in.
The actual process was both fun and nerve-wrecking; I enjoyed seeing my work come together after every so many pictures and thinking of cool ways to show the stool moving from one location to another. It was relatively simple to film inside because the obstacles were simple and straight forward. However, as soon as I brought in the outside element, the intentsity rose greatly. The river scene when I watch it seems almost playful. Thats not how I felt when i was taking those pictures, that river was deadly and I did NOT want to slip and fall in to freezing water. So, I wound up wrapping my legs in plastic bags to step into the water. I also put rocks in specofic locations in order for me to place the stool in the water to have it cross over to the Alfred State side. When it got to the point that it was dangerous to cross any further, i found a fallen tree and used it to hoist the stool into different positions. It was incredibly frustarting when i got the stool to travel halfway across the stream because of the wobbly weight of the 12 foot long tree and the stool hanging at the end of it; I must have dropped the stool 3 dozen times into the water sideways and upside down.
Despite these obstacles, this projects went pretty smoothly. I think the use of the stool represents my humor as a person and the fact that it moves adds a playful quality to the piece that makes it pleasing to watch. Not to mention the audio, I made my own soundtrack for the background noise which I feel adds more of a personal quality to this work. I’d like to give many thanks and credit to Jordan Hendrickson for assisting me with the editing process of both the animation images on the computer, as well as organizing the sound!!!
My first idea deals with presenting a stop motion animation video that deals with sorting the leaves round me, progressively revealing the soil on the ground. Eventually, there will be a separation of ground/ turf, as well as the separation between me and the fallen leafs.
My second idea also utilizes stop motion animation, but instead of incorporatin my self in constant motion, progressively moving forward, this one would have a very static appeal. There’d be a sorted presentation between rocks and soil, in a way that shows a build up of both of them. However, there would be a variety of locations, with different rocks and soil. I want to clear the soil of all rocks to achieve pure tones.
My third idea consists of documenting the key assets of the environments on the sides of Alfred State and Alfred University in a collage. These would most likely be displayed on poser board, or some sort of display that’s weather resistant in order to post one another’s scenery on the opposite side for those walking the line.
Being that my word for documentation is “sorted”, I decided that my explorations would focus mainly on the visual distinctions in the atmosphere around me on the line.
1.This exploration deal with the physical separation and assortment of the ground and gravel. I thought it was interesting to look at the slowly intertwining hues of gray; almost like they were painted on the ground. When I look at the image, the outside environment doesn’t even seem to play a factor in it, despite the few leaves dispersed here and there. I intentionally removed all of the leaves from the ground so I could observe the ground and as a result, I was able to discover these beautiful grey pastels.
2. My second exploration displays a variety of objects I found lying around, dispersed on separate portions of the line; I found it interesting that someone left the top of a garbage pale on the ground up in the woods. But there was a theme that seemed to work very well as I stumbled upon the plastic and glass bottles. together, they formed a contrast between nature and human inteference. We as people don’t find it suspicious at all for garbage to be scattered on the ground, in grass or anywhere else. It’s like the litter overwhelms the environment. When I look at this picture, i think there’s almost a feeling that the garbage is the environment instead of the forest.
3. This exploration deals with the physical separation of leaves to soil. being that the leaves are dying, there’s a beautiful hue of dry orange on the ground all around, and it makes it so that the soil is almost forgotten. This exploration has a barrier of leaves around flat soil to show sorted atmosphere; I wanted to create a visual that almost makes the soil seem like it naturally repelled the leafs in a way that distinctly separated the two .
4. Similar to the one prior, this exploration is also a physical barrier between leafs and soil, however, I thought the tree’s presence made a much stronger impact in it’s own realm. It seems like the tree has it’s own designated space as the leafs form a border with a diameter of about 5 feet or so. it took me about 10 minutes to clear all of the leafs I wanted ( they kept blowing back because of the wind). Thats something else that i think adds a special quality to this image; the leafs rest almost effortlessly despite the spontaneous weather that could wreck the composition at any second.
5. walking up into the forest, I eventually realized that there was a beautiful contrast between the leafs and the ground, opposed to the trees and the air. The trees almost provide a stitching between the ground and the sky, bringing together the sorted appearance of the ground and the sky. The visual completely changes when I look at one particular space, but when I zoom out on the environment as a whole, the separation becomes apparent. Originally, looking at the side of the hill makes the composition seems diagonal, but when I tilt my head, there seems to be a flow in different directions that forms a beautiful aesthetic.
6. My final exploration was very blunt and involved no tampering with in any way. A beautiful tree sat in the middle of the forest and there (as you can see) is almost a purposeful border created between the dark and light gray. The maze like texture between the bark almost makes it seem like the two values are merging until they stop in the center abruptly, facing eachother. There’s a strength about the tree’s texture thatis evenly distributed on both sides of the image and I think it provides a strong sense of merging despite the segregated sides.
1. “Sorted”- To assign to a particular class, group, or place (often followed by “with” or “together”).
2. The boundaries and context of things that have been, can, could or will be “sorted”. People have been sorted, or categorized in different groups for generations; African Americans, were considered un-equal, and were in a category of inequality. Gender differences are constantly categorized. There are material forms of things that have been sorted; whether it be by importance, color, size, distinction, etc, these are things that can physically be placed in a category by definition to a person or a group of people. Things are sorted every day; friends are sorted, trash is sorted (no, there is no correlation to hose two examples (usually)). When we sort things, we are placing them in an order that generally provides comfort or familiarity or reasoning. it’s not often that things are intentionally mixed to niches outside of their own.
3. Synonyms- arrange, assort, distinguish, categorize, select, divide, file, store, group, grade, distribute, pick.
4. Antonyms- confuse, derange, disarrange, disperse, disturb, mix up, disorganize, scatter.
Exploration #1. The Sprint- Probably the most short lived component of my exploration, at one point of my trek, i began top run directly upwards from the corner of scholes library. For about thirty seconds, I ran until I hit the point in which the trees dominated my path. It was extremely difficult to run up the mud without slipping, or injuring my self, so I decided to give the sprinting a rest.
Exploration #2: the trees- The line is obviously surrounded by trees of different kinds. They overwhelmed the line on the Alfred University side and as part of my exploration, I decided I would try to see the line from a different perspective; I climbed several trees to get a different view of my adventure. The first tree I climbed, I was right outside of the science building near the path by Tefft. The branches acted as steps until I comfortably stood with my arms and legs spread in different directions as if I was part of the tree. Looking out into the distance towards alfred state, I could see the mountains and trees from a whole new perspective; I was surrounded by space and although i stood on a surface, the trees;s elevation granted me a sense of floating towards my visual. The second tree I climbed had no branches and it was oddly shaped near the top over a hill. I climbed it with my feet and hands until I hung from the top and swung over the ground. This experience was far different since I was using more energy to support my body weight, I wasn’t focusing on my environment as much, but I did look at the ground and it was definitely a way of expressing the line’s infinite expansion in elevation.
Exploration #3: The Glasses- I did not expect my vision to be as slewed as it was by my pair of sunglasses. For a while, I had no problem walking with them on; Ioccasionally wore them and took them off to adjust to new lighting. it was extremely refreshing to take off the glasses and see the actual light and colors around me. However, on the way into the forest as I wore the sunglasses, I found it difficult to keep tabs on what was on the ground. On several occasions, I found myself stepping into mud (quite slippery might I add) and losing my balance, only to luckily catch myself at the last second. Not to mention, I had to constantly make sure that my glasses wouldn’t fall off as I ascended those treacherous hills.
Exploration #4: The Backwards Walk- As I entered Alfred State, I was assisted by Kyrie in my efforts to travel the second half of the line backwards. Kyrie guided me carefully so I wouldn’t trip or stumble; I was successfully able to go up and down hills, slippery mud and grass without problems. It was beautiful watching the mountains recede in the distance; everything seemed to replace itself as I backed up past countless buildings and trees. It also helped that the sun wasn’t in my eye, so i was clearly able to see what was in front of me. It was acyually a lot tougher than i originally anticipated to trust someone to guide me without turning around and checking where I was walking. After we finished the line, I realized that the majority of the time though, I was nervous about stumbling and therefor refraining from solely looking at the view in front of me. Mainly, i just stared at the ground.
Exploration #5: The Cell Phone- On the way down form the hill, I decided to walk down while conversing on my cell phone the entire time to see how technology would distract me from my surroundings. Surprisingly, I did not drop my phone although there were a few moments when I was distracted from talking to my parents and I almost tripped. I paid almost no attention to the beautiful trees around me as apposed to the journey up. I realized how I took everything for granted and for a moment I even felt like i was neglecting the group I was walking with. My priority wasn’t the line during this particular exploration.
Exploration #6: The Balloons- My birthday actually gave me a great opportunity for this line assignment. My parents managed to embarrass me even from 327 miles away; they sent me balloons and I didn’t have the opportunity to take them back to my dorm, as a result, I tied the balloons to my back and walked around Alfred state with them showing above my head. One balloon had the age 18 on it, so people would stare at the number flailing in the air. The balloons definitely affected my journey, they kept on hitting my face in the wind and it annoyed the hell out of me. There were many instances when I couldn’t see what was in front of me. The balloons definitely took away form the experience since i wasn’t focusing on my surroundings.
I’m so high up, the trees directly in front of me don’t even reach me.
Everyone practicing on the football field seems like ants in the distance.
The numbers on the yard lines seem like written fonts on a computer.
Fall leaves dominate tree branches and almost resemble a box of crayons.
Not a bird in sight, despite me being surrounded by space.
There’s a slot like entrance on the right side of the building that seems like a giant door that leads to a diffeent domain.
I feel my feet dangling over the ledge.
I look down and my feet seem like giantss in a sense
In another sense, I look down and see almost infinite space between me and the ground.
The wall I’m sitting on seems endless, and the brick seems so linear as I look directly down.
I feel almost like I’m sitting atop an enormous chimney.
when I turn around, there are several white columns that I grab at moments to feel secure on the ledge.
The mountains in the distance remind me that I may be high up, but I could be MUCH higher.
The paths on the floor slightly resemble a maze as they intersect eachother.
The windows located behind and below me, lead into the vocal room where I have choir rehearsals
People are staring at me like i’m insane.
When I turn around, I’m level with the ground, which directly contrasts what lies in front of me.
The actual walk to the ledge makes me feel like I’m walking in a tunnel despite all the space around me.
The wall on my right and the pillars on the ledge seem like they couldn’t support me even if i held onto them.
Looking up, I see the gray of the sky. I’m reminded that space is relative
Lying upside down, there’s a sense of fear and beauty as I look into the trees.
I feel insecure with my surroundings.
there’s approximately 40 inches of space from the ledge to the wall.
My ears pick up the heavy winds.
My nose and cheeks begin to redden in the cold.
On the ground, I can see different kinds of weeds.
Dirt shows through the grass.
The grass almost reminds me of my own curly hair (not to say that my hair is patchy).
Looking down at the brick, it seems to get lighter as it gets closer to the ground.
I feel like a spectator at a game with the field in the distance.
The mountains in the distance make me feel like I’m in a bowl, surrounded on all sides.
The gray platform underneath my feet contains a very smooth texture.
The ledge I stand on has different hints of light reds and whites to make it seem stone like.
All the colors around me have a pastel tone.
Looking to my right, I look into the window that expands for at least twenty feet.
Having the glass right next to me, I feel so close to something I’m so much more comfortable with.
The gray clouds reflect off of the window.
My territory continues on the right at the end of the ledge.
Being as high as I was, I found myself able to appreciate the building’s structure even more.
Leaf colors include: green, yellow, and orange although the intensity of these hues vary.
To my right, there’s a path that leads from the hill to the football field.
This path is vaguely constructed from the dirt and sits next to an intense yellow.
The trees carry continuously to my right past the corner of the building and builds a sense of curiosity.
In front of me, past the football field, I can just make out the stream of water running aside the tennis courts.
The ceiling above me connects with the plain white columns.
Looking behind me, I can still see the foot prints I left behind from walking in the rain.
Branches on the treeson front of me seem heavier with the leaves drenched by the rain.
The gate that i hopped over seems so much farther away, knowing that I’m about a hundred feet up.
Nature and moderns architeture clash in this set up and it creates a very interesting environment.
The grass on the hill almost seems to seep into the building.
I’m terrified to make any movements that I feel might jeopardize my balance.
1. Desk lamp- Extremely dark value spread out on top of the black surface. Even in he areas where light s clearly reflecting, it’s more of a gray than a white tone. The light also reflects easily off the white walls surrounding the room created a distorted sense of space and perspective depicted on the lights “outer shell”
2. Fan- White fan with clear contrast from dark to light. The reflections seem flat due to the material the fan was constructed out of.
3. Window shutters- The light is almost a solid form located on the right side of the blinds compared to the dull beige-ish hue of the rest of the shutters.
4. Phone- My roommate’s cell phone clearly reflects a direct image of what lies in front of it. The light almost seems identical to the surrounding environment.
5. Cotton ball- Light flows around the portions of cotton that stick out and doesn’t reflect off the surface much at all.
6. Floor- The floor reflects light strongly and eventually dispersed out and monochromatically illuminates the rest of the wood.
7. Bottle- The gatorade bottle shows light reflecting off both the near and far surface of the plastic.
1. The constant, static buzz coming from the television
2. The direction of the wood grain on the floor.
3. The bright orange fire drill sign on my door.’
4. My feet dangle over 18 feet off the ground.
5. There’s a roll of toilet tissue six feet away from me on my roommate’s desk.
6. My garbage pail is overflowing.
7.The fire alarm is right over my bed.
8. My room mate left his drawer open with his sweat pants laying on top.
9. There’s a blue towel on the back of my door.
10. A huge role of acetate is left over on my desk.
