mynameispat Has Moved!

Hello,

mynameispat has moved! The blog has been fully translated, so you can check out the new stuff as well as every old post and comment.

Click: http://www.jpatconnor.com/

Sincerely,

pat

Who Are You? or Tunnel, Light, and a Map

In this video, I used a Canon SLR in favor of my older PowerShot to re-shoot the mapping video. Although the camera gave me more creative control, my inexperience with the camera got the better of me when shooting in low light, and the final sequence looks crazily over-saturated. What I did achieve with this piece is an audio track that gives the still images a sense of three-dimensions. As I learned from reading the Final Cut manual, humans use sound to locate objects in space. So, taking advantage of the steady pan in the video, I similarly panned the audio from right to left. The effect is subtle, but I think that I've successfully used this aspect of video (often overlooked) to boost the realism of the still images.

Mapping Test Video

Following is a short test video for a project about mapping. My inspiration was the Google Maps Street View, which is a documentation of various cities across the globe. In the program, the user is free to look in any direction, and move along the street as a car would. I was interested in the process of obtaining the photos, and it turns out that a vehicle is equipped with 9 cameras and a GPS. Those photos are then merged to create a cylindrical image that can be navigated by the user.

In my project, I wanted to stitch together two points on the map similar to the way that the different photos are stitched together in Photoshop. The effect is a constant pan, but one that shifts across space and time.

The Breakup of the Hydrilla

I uncovered this video while using my older external HD. It's dated 3/24/06, but in my memory there's no way that I could have been in Wakulla Springs at that time.

The forest on the opposite bank of the spring is reflected in the smooth water. Invasive Hydrilla breaks up the reflected image. The water and the plant reminds me of a study of surface by Claude Monet in the UMMA called The Breakup of the Ice.

Combination

Alternate edit for Combination. In this case using a diptic to keep each scene separate throughout the video.

waveField

Two perspectives on a difficult conversation. The obscured view acts out the narrative supplied by the interview.

Map

I'm interested in using photography to generate video.

Videos from Rus

In many cases, the snow removers had to use bulky equipment, like this buldozer. Difficult to use a machine that isn't meant for the job specifically.



Outside the historic Art Museum in St. Pete. Video was taken from the walkway leading to the frozen Neva river.



Video taken at a famous pedestrian walkway late at night in St. Pete. The walkway was the best cleared area during the whole trip to Rus.



Provincial Russia was a winter wonderland. Here, our group is visiting the birthplace of influential poet N. Klyuev.



Couldn't help but take a video of this tractor. It kept moving back and forth outside a historic building we visited. Only a towel covered the engine.



We couldn't take the bus over this small log-bridge, so we moved into an old VW truck. If any of us were scared, the driver told us to close our eyes.

Petersburg

Photos from St. Petersburg! Today, we helped students in a Russian k-12 school locate St. Petersburg FLA on a map of the U.S.... More to come...

Top 10 awesome things about my trip so far:

Learning history/background of St. Pete, and experiencing city on foot

Actually reading words in Cyrillic

Learning key phrase "thank you" in Russian and getting by on sheer over-confidence in conversations

Easily transitioning to thinking in rubles and a 24 hr. clock

Grinning and bearing the cold, snow, and ice like a good Russian

Saving a fellow pedestrian from slipping and falling in St. Pete

Having tea and cookies while working past closing at the Vytegra History museum, then packing up and walking home (like an actual resident would)

Okay, that's only 8, but it's well past midnight and I have a big day tomorrow!

final postCard

My final image for a series of postcards that will be used to promote our thesis projects. The repeated square images represent how the videos can be seen in many places simultaneously via web video.

IP postcardTest

After mocking this up in Photoshop, I think it'd be better to create the collage in reality, and photograph it. What do you think?

FCP Screen Image

For all you nerdy Final Cut Pro users out there, here's a screen grab of the Machine timeline.

Machine

Developed a method of editing that allows me to arrange frames of video into a rhythmic pattern.

Visa

My Russian Visa arrived last week - great opportunity to make some films outside of UM campus! I've noticed that many video artists shoot video abroad. The avenues of foreign countries make the resulting pieces seem even less familiar.

I'm going to provincial Russia.

Figure with Advising Dialogue

Incorporating a discussion with my advisor. How do you advise a student who won't succeed?

Piping or I'm too Sad to Tell You

Inspired by video artist Ken Jacobs, A&D Penny Stamps lecturer 22nd March 2007 (Kate West: "feels like Spring!"). Other lectures are archived at the video resources library in the Art, Architecture, and Engineering library. http://guides.lib.umich.edu/profile.php?uid=5926

Sunrise

Using video to manipulate time.

twoSides

Simulating depth in the studio.

Colored Paper

Draw

A literal giving of self.

Silhouette

Audio from Lake Discussion dubbed over a sequence where the camera transitions from an outdoor environment to an indoor one.

Combination No. 1

Continued experimentation with the Lake Discussion material.

Snow Walk

Figure is literally "on thin ice" in this student video art piece.

Window Discussion

A second iteration of the lake discussion. The major video - sitting in the snow - has a surreal look due to the calm actions of the figure and the obvious disparity in the cold weather.

Lake Discussion and Wavefield

A concept for combining interviews about personal subject matter and abstract video performance. University of Michigan Art & Design 2010

Modeling Space Carrying Over

My professor suggested I take Cynthia Pachikara's Modeling Space, Marking Time course. This week we learned advanced editing techniques in Final Cut Pro. Although I had considered myself an expert of the program, I hadn't ever used the cropping and distortion techniques that are possible with the program. Here, I'm cleaning up an image I shot in room 2006, the photo documentation lab. I cropped the image and distorted it slightly to compensate for the light reflective board I was using. The image represents a figure seemingly in motion, but blinded and stationary.

I've wanted to add more documentation photos to the blog, and here is an image of the present state of my studio. Today, I'm working on generating ideas through drawing and brainstorming. The purpose of the work is to prepare for creating the "final" images that will be exhibited in April. I've done some good searching and experimenting last semester, and in the next month I will use those ideas to create more refined video pieces.

Also, I'm brainstorming the latest round of interviews for my project. My professors may remember that I had planned to combine my visual/metaphorical images with spoken interviews. I still plan to do this, but my biggest concern is putting these two very different types of artistic video together. So far, I'm planning to interview my past mentors in an effort to explore general teaching practices that can be related to the act of critiquing one's past. I apologize if this seems hazy now, but I'll post a sample video of my desired effect later this week.

Studio art, but on a bus

Today during our morning session of IP I decided to travel to downtown Ypsilanti to shoot footage that is a continuation of my experiments last semester, but is off UM campus, and with more thought put into the appearance of myself in the videos. I'd considered introducing a costume into my video work, but there would be an obvious disconnect between my footage shot last semester, and I think there is something effective about a totally unconsidered physical appearance - only street clothes, the garb of a college student. I did, however, cover the labels of my jacket with black masking tape, and I think I was able to make my clothes more generic, and therefore considered.

New Work and The Power of a Written Thesis

Moving into Integrative Project II is a totally unique experience from anything else in the art school. Not only is it an intensive experience, but it's one that continues through the winter recess and into the winter semester. Unlike the normal advanced studios, a student can't outrun the IP experience simply by surviving through a single semester.

Thankfully, our professors assigned a thesis over the recess, and I've recently experienced the wisdom of this. When the project gets hard, like when it's hard to see how the final work will come together, it's tempting to move in a new direction. This is dangerous, and I found myself wanting to move away from the documentary and into shorter, more narrative videos. I was into storyboarding my second piece when I grabbed my thesis paper that I had stuck onto my studio wall. Reading over my ideas and reflections, I was reminded of the original intention of the project, and the work that I still needed to do. I was reminded what my IP is all about. Capturing first hand accounts of instances of self-critique, and depicting them through performative video. This deeper understanding also facilitated a new series taken in and around a frozen pond. A "Snow Walk" represents the narrator's feelings of vulnerability.

Thesis: Semester 2.0

I'm in the midst of brainstorming for my written thesis. I'm excited about building on my project into the next semester, and I'm so glad that I decided stick with the artdes BFA. It's more challenging - I admit that I feel a bit of dread whenever I think about continuing the project. But being able to stick with it, and making it exciting despite feeling burned out, is a good experience.