Video Art Piece-"Cut Short"

So at first people are going to be confused or see that they may have seen a lot of the clips in my video. But once you get to the middle your going to see that there is a distinct message behind it. I also made the the entire song using garage band. Here is the you tube link. Hope you like it.

Link

Musicccc and Technologyyyy

Ok so im not going to lie, once I got home from the past 2 classes I went straight to my limewire and starting downloading some of the songs we listened to. I have always been into music as I have stated previously and it was fun to explore the different genres of music that came about because of advances in technology. I had heard a lot of the songs and bands before, but it was interesting to see how all the music was actually created using technology and machines. So as I'm finishing up my take home quiz right now I'm listening to some songs my Depeche Mode to ease my stresssss! 

Video Art

The videos we have been watching in class are quite entertaining. Some of the material like the Paik stuff I am very familiar with because I once did a research paper on him. But what really intrigued me was the work done by the group "The Residents". Some may find their work weird but it is so clever that they have kept their identities anonymous. Their work with the 1 minute songs are brilliant. This is what actually inspired me to get my idea for my video art piece. You all will see the influence in my work very sooon.

Perfromance Art Piece- Build Your Own Fortune(In a "Two Piece Suit")

I really enjoyed the performance art pieces that everyone did last thursday. It is great to see that even non art majors came up with such creative ideas! I definitely saw a lot of influence from the videos we saw and artists we learned about the past 2 weeks in a lot of everyones work. I certainly was influenced by several of the artists in my piece. The video we saw on the typewriter lady where she had people dictate what they wanted to say to the president and then gave one copy to the person and sent another to the president had a major impact on mine. I combined that idea with the ideas of randomization and the cut up poems to make my piece a randomized way that fortunes could be created with the involvement of the audience. I also tried to use technology as much as possible to make it like i was removing myself as the artist form the work and just let technology fully take over. That is why i chose to not speak but rather have the computer speak for me. All of the pieces were very creative and entertaining and I'm just glad that nobody decided to go with a Stelarc approach... 

Performance art or not?

Ok so with Easter and everything, I came about something that I couldn't figure out. Wellll, outside of one of the stores in my town, there was a person dressed as an Easter Bunny pointing for everyone to go inside and obviously an advertising scheme by the store. But then i thought to myself, is it possible that the person is actually putting on a performance. Although the store told the person to go outside and stand there to attract customers, it is up to the person in the costume to put on a unrehearsed and unique performance with hand gestures and dancing while wearing this suit that is clearly not him/her. So would this be considered performance art in a way?? 

Xerox Project

orbit gum and one finger circle at top right spin......bottom left corner depicts hands ripping off black to display the signature initials written from the change in my pocket.......the rest is up for you to decide....

Its time to do some catching up....

ok so there is never really a good excuse to not keep up with your blogging but im gonna try anyway.........so as the swim season came down to the last couple weeks, i was forced to miss a lot of classes and more importantly a lot of work.....Im not complaining though because I had the opportunity to compete in Houton, Texas at NCAA's. With that said, once I came back to real life I realzed that all the work had caught up to me. Oh and by the way.....nationals was during spring break so its not like I was out partying instead of doing work :(   

Anywayyyyy.......swimming is over, im back to being a dedicated blogger and I will get to commenting on all your grid projects and xerox projects once they are all up. 

Grid Project(FINALLY!!)

Flipbook

These are just 3 pics from the flipbook i made. Being a swimmer i thought it would only be fitting if i did a guy during a race......hopefully i figure out how to put all the pics together to make the quick video clip and you all can see that this isnt your ordinary swim race.

kids do the the darndest things...

who would of thought a bunch of MIT students would come up with something as incredible as a wearable computing system?? I was just talking to my friend about how the itouch and iphone have really set the standard of what is expected out of new technology but after reading the article, that certainly takes the cake. I have heard recently from another friend that the new features that are expected in cell phones will be the capability of them to have a built in projector in it. This seems as if it would be very similar but with this device, it is just so interactive and so revolutionary that when you watch it in action, it just bows your mind. What i thought was an interesting issue was what happens when you start writing and drawing or doing whatever on other people's things? Although you are not truly leaving a mark, would that be considered temporary defacement? Could you go to jail for drawing a virtual smiley face on the white house? I guess we will have to wait and see what this crazy world comes up with next....

I knew that sounded familiar!

OK! so i just heard an opera that we listened to in class last week in one of the commercials during the super bowl. I wasnt paying attention to the commercial but once I heard the tune I knew it sounded familiar. It took me a while to find out what the name of it was but thanks to my great memory and the help of youtube i found the orange video from sesame street and realized it was habanera. I thought it would be cool to blog about it because like we discussed in class, the operas of the past still have a significant impact on us today. Anyway, back to the game....

The picture says it all.....

When we watched parts of Amadeus in class I thought of two things. 1) This guy is absolutely nuts. 2) This guy is an absolute genius. But like all great minds of the past, insanity usually comes with it. 

I have seen this movie before for other classes and I truly enjoy it. I played the bass clarinet in my school band from 3rd grade to 12th grade so music has always been a big part of my life and I recall playing many works that he had composed. What he did in the short life that he had is incredible. The amount of symphonies that we can easily recognize as Mozart are still being played and his place in music history will always be apparent.

This time period is a very interesting one. Like we are discussing, the only forms of entertainment besides church was to go to these operas and dress nice and socialize. It is amazing to see how they used such little technology that they had in order to make the play or opera look right. Obviously they do not compare to what we can do now, but for the time period, the use of the 4th wall was incredible.

blogs are like girls......and if you dont like commitment, dont be their first entry...

Well here it goes.....

I'm Paul LaPorta and this will be my first blog so try and bare with me. As you can see I like to make witty and somewhat inappropriate comments and that will certainly never change...

I swim for UT and that means I am up at 6am everyday for practice and back in the pool at 3pm. So if I am ever looking a little cranky that is probably the reason why. I only have 2 semesters left at UT so I am really trying to enjoy my last bunch of classes before the real world. Since I am an accounting major it is a relief to finally have a class where I can have some fun, be creative, and not look at financial statements!

I wouldn't consider myself very artistic when it comes to painting or drawing or anything like that, but it is great to be in a class like this where i don't have to be an art major in order to understand and appreciate the material. 

My overall goals and expectations of the class is to come out of it with a better appreciation for art. I think it helps having a professor who is very passionate about the material and that is why I know i will enjoy this class and learn a lot from it. 

(i'm probably going to think of more to write as soon as I post this, but thats all for now folks...)