ZEKE - Final Project

Zeke - Short Doc Proposal (Final Project)

(This is a portrait)

Since the rise of the Industrial Age, the Western World has witnessed a clash between those of the middle class known to the French as the Bohemian and the Bourgeois. In the past 15 years, NYC experiences such a clash: updated to terms like hipster and townies. Hipsters, of this Brooklyn age, represent a kind of standard pioneered by the Bohemians of the 18th century Paris. Zeke speaks to this standard. At first glance, it would appear this vintage clothed, Howel reading, twenty-something fully encompasses the mindless, coke-induced, trust fund baby known to many New Yorkers and popularized world-wide by an image articulated through such representations as ‘the Hipster Olympics’ on Youtube.com. Yet, on second glance, viewers come to recognize a sincere gentle-man searching for meaning in a busy, often complex and labyrinthine world.

Zeke represents the celebrated creativity, novelty, anti-materialism and vivid experience embodied by la vie boheme . His attachment to Ginsberg’s Howl attests to his original hipster quality. Aesthetic and mise en scene mirrors the confronted world described by Zeke, while a generally unthreaded narrative resembles the whimsical, creative nature of the subject matter. In combination, dialogue, setting, aesthetic and mise en scene work to undo such stereotypes of hipsters, and instead attempt to humanize those that carry forth the ideals of this particular class.

Interactive Documentary Critique

7 Sons is an interactive online documentary about Beduin culture of the Sinai peninsula. The documentary invites users to explore aspects of beduin life; ranging from camel racing and courting women to law and portrayals of Beduin humor. The mode of viewership still maintains a very traditional mode of viewership as one might experience in a theatre, however, it exists online, and therefore includes a database, and offers navigation and some interactivity. As the viewer enters the documentary, he is met by an introductory sequence that he cannot escape. Voices questions whether it is an 'art piece' or not. What follows is entirely up to the viewer. As videos stream and dialogue occurs, buttons appear to the right column, displaying terms that thread a presumable theme for the proactive viewer (Life Style, Daily Life, Mobile, Starts, Girls, Women, Beauty, etc.)

In this way, the documentary oscillates between several key interviewers and offers alternative sequences that tend to build a motif. In one moment, the viewer is able to encounter a looped moving image of a Beduin man riding a camel. The offer occurs after dialogue regarding 'race'. It is coupled with music by Adult. Other 'joke' sequences tend to break the seriousness of the general material and at the same time offer yet another insight into the culture of the subject matter through the portrayal of cultural humor.

Out of these terms and offerings, a narrative is born which seems to have much control of the database. The interface is simple and straightforward. A viewer can feasible finish the documentary, and feel as though they have had a peek into the Bedouin culture. Another creator might have included other interactive features within the website to stimulate or inspire the viewer. However, that is not the case and one must assume it was outside the scope and intention of this project.

A Look into Interventionist Art: Alfredo Jaar and the Devices of Brechtian Theatre

“All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely players” wrote William Shakespeare in As You Like It. The words, not the meaning, would have been quite agreeable to Bertold Brecht, whose didactic plays were more concerned with the pedagogical participation (rather than the pleasure) of audiences. For Brecht, the sensational reading of theatre was most deplorable. His aim was to collectivize audiences and to break down the divide between players and passive observers. He attempted to achieve this through the implementation of several devices elucidated by Walter Benjamin as, and appearing here incomplete: The Plot, The Untragic Hero and The Interruption. Each of these devices, in some way calls on audiences to critically interpret the events on stage. It is this spirit of social change that lends itself to the works of contemporary Public Intervention artists such as Alfredo Jaar.

In the Brechtian theatre, plot emphasizes moments that thwart any sensational reading from within the observer. For Brecht, the pleasure of the text was not the crucial aspect of theatre, but the critical moment when players interact in ways that force audience members to consider actions on stage. Benjamin writes “suspense belongs less to the outcome than to individual events” (148-149). Nothing could be truer for audiences interacting with Public Intervention pieces that quite literally operate on the level of the individual viewer/participant who, in one moment, interacts with a piece.

Public Intervention artist, Alfredo Jaar says “There is a huge gap between reality and its possible representations, and that gap is impossible to close. So, as artists we have to try different strategies of representation” (PBS). That gap is typically artificially filled with sensational readings that create passive, non-participatory viewers, as has been experienced in countless museums throughout modern history. However, Jaar’s installation entitled “The Silence of Nduwayezu”, for example, is an attempt to represent a tragic event of Rwandan genocide that calls on viewers to interact physically and critically, imposing the question ‘why?’. As the observer approaches the piece, they notice a magnificent pile of, what appears to be, film slides. The slides totaling one million represent those murdered in the Rwandan atrocities. As the observer draws even nearer, he is tempted to analyze the slide by a magnifying glass near the pile. The observer then understands that each slide captures the eyes of Gutete, a young Rwandan boy who witnessed the murder of his parents by machete (Jaar). The approach has more in common with Brechtian theatre than the tragic theatre opposed by Brecht. It appeals to the viewers who “’do not think without reason’” (Benjamin 148). “The Silence of Nduwayezu” adequately fills the gap between reality and representation while imposing critical questions among individual viewers.

At the same time, the deviceful use of Gutete’s eyes as Untragic Hero is central to “The Silence of Nduwaeyzu”. The eyes that bare witness to such an atrocity are central to the piece because the artist wishes to admirer the experience itself. Gutete is the Thinker. In one moment he is left to ponder, and through his eyes the viewer can come to understand the reality of his thoughts. The act is vacant of any sensational response and, by doing so, makes thinkers of all viewers. Jaar’s approach is, at once similar to Brecht in its dialectics and push to make thinkers of viewers.

The essence of Brechtian theatre is conceptualized through the idea that viewers must be purged of any cathartic emotion brought on by the tragic hero in order to allow for true, dialectic and participatory interaction to occur within one reading. “The art of the epic theater consists in producing astonishment rather than empathy. To put it succinctly: instead of identifying with the characters, the audience should be educated to be astonished at the circumstances under which they function” (Benjamin 150). “Let There Be Light”, another of Jaar’s pieces prompts viewers ‘to discover the conditions of life’ as experienced through a contemporary mediated world (Benjamin 150). The significance of which is pertinent in so far that inhabitants of a mediated world (or any world for that matter) may find it difficult to objectively see the conditions in which their lives are dictated. In the words of Marshall McLuhan, “We don’t know who discovered the water, but we know it wasn’t the fish” (thinkexist). In Jaar’s “Let There Be Light” several articles that give context to the piece confront the viewer at the onset. The idea is that society is inundated with images, yet these images never close the gap between reality and the representation of the reality that it encapsulates. After viewers interact with the text, in all its void of any visual representation, they are interrupted by the experience with a bright light lasting several sections (Jaar). The light outlines the faces of those affected by the subject of the text. In one moment the Jaar is able to question and interact with media’s role in order to crystallize the text’s meaning. In this way, Jaar succinctly utilizes the devices laid down by Brechtian theatre, effectively interrupting the viewer while closing the gap between reality and representation.



Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. New York: Harcourt, 1968. Print.
Jaar, Alfredo. Art, Intervention and Film. New School University. Arnhold Hall. New York, NY. Oct. 2010.
Marshall McLuhan Quotes. Think Exist. Com, 2009. 26 Oct. 2010.
PBS Video. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service, 2009. 26 Oct. 2010.

Short Description of Sound in Union Square

Sirens from an ambulance and a fire truck. A person screaming, a man playing bag pipes, a din of screeching brakes, low tones of motors running, high frequencies of horns honking. Spanish speakers in the near distance.

Sarah in the Kitchen

Created Ambient Sound

Wehavelogo Created Ambient Sound by Chris Rogy

Interview w/ Ambient Sound

Coop nyc interview2 by Chris Rogy


Sarah Snider and Ivan Safrin speak about the need and establishment of coop-NYC, a forming organization that aggregates, mobilizes and strengthens human and other resources for the benefit of cooperative and community living.

Classwork - david Lynch Interview Intro

Assignment 4

Outdoor Ambient Sound

Subway at Union Square by user7408470


Indoor Ambient Sound

Kitchen by user7408470


Shower by Chris Rogy


Direct Sound

Toilet by Chris Rogy

Collage

Assignment Three

Photo Exhibit Critique

Christopher Rogy
Media Practices: Concepts (Documentary Focus)
Critique of Photo Exhibition: “Hurry Up & Wait”

Tibble and Mancenido have illustrated a mildly politicized, yet chic and contemplative look at America’s trucking and transportation industry. The two spent one year on the road documenting the trucking subculture and atmosphere. The images - combined with a current economic crisis – elucidate the trucking industry’s dependency on oil, while calling into question this industry that supports all other industries. Other images attach the trucking subculture to ideas of loneliness and alienation, while at the same time reflecting the loneliness and alienation of a current economic crisis; the sentiment bordering desperation.

One piece entitled ‘MotoMart, Perryville, MO, 2008’ depicts a gas station island, with pumps and awning. The picture utilizes elements of chiaroscuro lighting reminiscent of Rembrandt. The island is self-illuminated while the background remains dark and abysmal. The station seems to speak only to itself amongst a vacant world. In this way, the island idealizes itself and proclaims its importance. Yet, juxtaposed against the theme of alienation (perhaps tending toward desperation), the viewer senses a paradoxical notion here. Why do I still use gasoline when it only has itself to praise?

Another image, called ‘Empty, 2008’, echoes these sentiments. The view is from the back-end of a freight truck into the cargo element. Of course, the vessel is vacant in continuing with this theme of alienation and loneliness. The lack of any object screams emptiness and bankruptcy, while flat lighting adds to the sensation of objectless-ness.

“Oil Spill, Gary, IN, 2008” captures the residue of oil on asphalt in an attempt to illustrate the Industry’s environmental ails. Given the subject matter, viewers can only assume this was the result of an everyday trucking experience, whereby oil has most likely leaked from the tank or at the pump. Interestingly, the muted hues alternate in an almost prism-like way around the asphalt that is without any saturation.

Lastly, “Warning Triangles, Carlisle, PA, 2008” is an image taken road-side at night. The light, seemingly produced from a truck’s headlights create an eerie sensation as in most low-key/ cameo lighting situations. However, because this image is at night, the long cast shadows that emanate from the triangles onto the asphalt speak of ominous danger, perhaps linking the direct dangers of driving and a dependency on oil and trucking.

Overall, the exhibition is quite seamless, hitching issues and aesthetics of trucking subculture to issues and aesthetics of the trucking industry’s dependency on oil, and a nation’s economic crisis. The images synthesize into a cohesive piece that sticks, has voice and makes a statement while maintaining style and imagery.

Assignment Two

Assignment 1

Negative













Positive