Project #4

Schizophrenic Much?

The Allens (2004) is a take on foreign voice overs and the impression that they leave, created by Erik Bunger. He plays all the different language voice overs for Woody Allen at the same time. He says that it's his belief that changing the voices into another language, while sometimes necessary in other countries, takes away from the movie as a whole. Especially with a character like Woody Allen who is known for his New York accent.

I agree with this view point. As I watched the presentation, though I understood a good portion of the French speaking voice, it was weird to me to hear the way it came out. It makes the character lose some of his personality. Perhaps this is because my entire family is from New York and speaks in the same manner that Woody Allen does, but I didn't like hearing the other voices. I spent some time overseas last summer and I remember thinking the same thing while watching even some of the more mindless shows like The Simpsons. While the German and French voice overs didn't take away from the characters as much in a situation like that, it still definitely changed the way I perceived what was going on. It was hard to watch it in the same way that I would have back home.

The No Time Machine

The No Time Machine created by Daniel C. Howe and Aya Karpinska uses a program to take various phrases from the internet that have either the phrase or variations of the phrase "I don't have time for" and puts them in an animated setting with music behind it.

Of all the things I have looked at for these blog postings, this has stuck out more to me than almost anything. Perhaps it's because I am more attracted to animated visuals, but this piece hit me. I am definitely a person who turns around and says I don't have time for things. While I was watching the phrases go by I came to the conclusion that while, yes I legitimately busy a good portion of the time, that I do make excuses for things as well. One of the phrases that appeared more than once, though worded differently each time, was something along the lines of the idea that people will say they don't have time for things when really they're just not interested in that thing in the first place. My only complaint about this piece is the music they had going. It's possible they were trying to prove a point, but it gets really old really fast. I had to seriously force myself to sit and watch more of it. Other than that I think the piece is very interesting and eye opening.

They Look Like Ants

The Aesthetic of the Poles: A Testament of Ice took a whole crew of people to create. It is the result of lengthy research of journals and other accounts from people who have taken the risk and explored the land for themselves. The thought behind it is that when people think of the vast land occupied by the arctic that there is a sense of adventure and daring. The arctic represents the total opposite of the world we live in now, where everything has a place it's supposed to be and a way in which to act. Once you get to the arctic, however, there's nothing there but you.

What drew me to this article was the picture that went along with it. There's nothing but white. A very faint horizon line is barely visible. Then, in the middle of the white nothingness, there is an imposing ship breaking through the ice and heading toward a lone person standing on the ice and snow. It gave me the feeling of being so small in comparison to everything else, and I wasn't even the person standing so small in front of the huge ship and in the middle of the one place where humans cannot live successfully.

Of Art or Money?

Pharmacy" by Damien Hirst is a large recreation of what a chemist's shop might look like. The entire work is priced to cost about 10 million pounds. Earlier this year a teenager named Cartrain, who had already had issues with Hirst over copyright infringement, stole a set of pencils out of the "Pharmacy" that cost 500,000 pounds. He was arrested and forced to return the pencils.

It is my opinion that while the piece of work itself is fascinating, the amount spent on it is a little ridiculous. It's almost to be expected that someone might take something from a work that big. There are already cabinet doors and drawers in the piece, so if Hirst wanted to put something like that on display I feel it's only natural to put locks on the doors so things can't be stolen. From looking at the some of the other works by this man he seems to have a large ego about his work and spends quite a bit on everything he does. I suppose that is his decision, and it's necessary in some things. It was not, i believe in this instance. Yes, the pencils used were rare and dated to probably about where he wanted to the chemistry lab to be from, but they alone made up 5% of the cost of the entire work. It could be said that's part of what makes the piece great, but upon looking at it, unless you did research on them before you'd never know or be able to appreciate the cost or meaning.