16 mm Film Manipulation

I thought that it was a really awesome to have the opportunity to take some 16 mm random footage and totally turn it into something else. I have not really had the opportunity to use film, especially recently, so this was very exciting for me. It was so nice to have something so tactile that you could manipulate right there with your hands. Half of the time I felt like I was just ripping the film apart just to see what I could make in the most experimental way. The other half of the time I employed extreme precision so that I could get exactly the kind of effect that I wanted. This was really fun because I was able to try so many different approaches to making an experimental film all in one, which had my creativity going wild. I definitely wanted to try my hand at every technique just to see what would happen. I think I learned through this assignment that I am much more interested in more chaotic methods like oil painting and scratching and bleaching, just to see what it would turn  out like. Drawing the animations was very tedious and felt a bit boring to me at times and I just wanted to do something more unusual. I would really like to explore film manipulation more in the future, just because there are so many options to what you could make and I just think there is something so unique about film that cannot really be replicated digitally. I also have to say that I felt like a very cool artist while doing all of the hands-on (sometimes messy) work that this project required, which was a lot of fun.

Soundscapes and Listening

Reading assignment 3 was very focused on sound design and the focus on sounds around us. I am definitely a much more visual than auditory person so I had a bit of a hard time really deeply understanding and appreciating these readings and probably the topic of sound itself. I think this backs up the claims that most of these articles and videos were making, we don't listen enough. There is so much sound pollution all around us that sometimes it seems almost impossible to zero in on what we are hearing. Even as I sit here writing, considering the sounds around me, I am completely overwhelmed by everything I am hearing. From sounds outside to mechanical sounds within my home to the ambient noises in my apartment to the footsteps of my neighbors and to the clicking of my fingers on the keyboard. It's all very overwhelming and kind of really throws me off because I don't know what to make of it. I think that's why its worth something to analyze soundscapes and to appreciate the beauty and science behind what we are hearing. I thought Justin Boyd's sound and time video was extra interesting in all of the explorations he was doing with sound. I didn't realize how physical it could be; how changing the location of a sound or where the sound was coming from could change it all together. This also helped me to understand and link individual sounds to music which is something I really understand and I am interested in. I think it's very important to explore the basis of sounds in order to build the best, complex soundscapes.