I'm done with this class but if you want to see more of my pictures I have them here.

Video analysis

Reading Nature by Chris Hewitt (Dstrukt)

This movie is a series of movie trailer type headings and fluid motion with the sound of soft explosions in the distance. The text flickers in and out and discusses concepts of time. The fluid expanding and flowing all around the text appears to be measured with lines and angles and formulas. The movement of the fluids in the movie mirrored the flow of time; slowly moving and changing shape with some bursts that seemed to go so much faster than others. The natural motions and shapes in the movie are in stark contrast to the artificial flickering and contrived shapes of the text and the explosion noises in the background. This gives the idea of time a much more eerie quality.

Time, while natural as it always has been there, is also a human convention as we measure and qualify it in our lives and cultures. We have formulas and devices that break time apart and bend it to our will. Time is one of the last truly natural aspects of the world. There is no way of stopping or rearranging time in life. The one way we can really stop and modify time is through video. I think this video does a good job of showing this idea.

Portraits of a Mutant

This salamander came to visit my lab this week along with about 700 of her closest friends. Most other labs would have sacrificed her to study her mutation but we are letting her go to live out her life just like any other salamander. She is probably the most photographed salamander the school has ever had.

Idea for Project 2

For my second project I want to make shadow box shrines for various common animals. On the glass of the shadow boxes I want to transfer prints of the creature so from a distance it just looks like an image in a frame. When closer, the viewer would be able to look through the image into the box. Inside the box will be a skull or a bit of bone or feathers from the animal as well as dried flowers and coins and other offerings, maybe a little prayer on a bit of parchment. Just by coming closer and actually looking at the animal will be an act of respect towards an often overlooked creature.

Image Analysis

Roe Deer - Docklands - London I

By Maslen and Mehra

This image portrays a small herd of small deer congregated on the asphalt in front of several buildings in what appears to be a major metropolitan area. The deer are made of some sort of reflective material and reflect a distorted image of the steel and glass world around them. There are no people around, which is strange for such a busy seeming place. There is a video screen playing in the background and lights on in the buildings, but no one is occupying the sidewalk besides these deer.

The lines in the sidewalk draw the viewers’ attention into the image and towards the buildings in the back and draw attention to the environment surrounding the deer. The poses of the deer make them look perfectly at home in their concrete forest, with a few even apparently grazing on the sidewalk. The warped reflections on their “skin” look like camouflage; as if they had evolved to live in the city. The grey tones throughout the image give it a somber and depressing mood.

This particular image is part of a series depicting animals in their once native habitats. The somber mood is reflective of the loss of these creature that were at one time could be seen where the buildings now stand. Humans are not present in this image, and most of the other images in the series, perhaps because we are not native to the niches we have built for ourselves over top of the environments that once were the home to so many amazing creatures.

Project 1

Project 1 Scala Naturae

These look better when arranged as intended. I'll try to get a picture of them all together on display.