FMX 463

Hito Steyerl is a German filmmaker, visual artist, and writer. She was born in 1966 in Munich. She earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and is currently a Professor of New Media Art at the Berlin University of the Arts. Steyerl pushes the boundaries of video art while focusing on topics such as militarization, surveillance, and the effect of media on our lives. I really enjoyed her video installation Factory of the Sun. Viewers sit on lawn chairs while watching a video on a large screen in a room that looks like something out of Tron . "Factory of the Sun uses the motifs of light and acceleration to explore what possibilities are still available for collective resistance when surveillance has become a mundane part of an increasingly virtual world. Factory of the Sun tells the surreal story of workers whose forced moves in a motion capture studio are turned into artificial sunshine." https://vimeo.com/182657047

Here's the music video for my song "Sojourn." I filmed this while I was home for Thanksgiving break. I'm gonna chop this video up and project those videos on my objects for the final presentation.

     Jeffrey Shaw is a new media artist and researcher from Melbourne, Australia. He was born in 1944. From 1965 to 2002, he lived in various places such as London, Milan, and Amsterdam.  In 2003, he was appointed director of iCinema Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Since 2009, he has been the Dean of School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong.      My favorite work of his is Divine Comedy AR. There are a row of marble canvases along a wall. At first glance, the piece seems like just a collection of marble. But when you look at them through an iPad, the marble comes alive. The marble panels transform into spaces in which 3D animated characters move around and do various things. https://www.jeffreyshawcompendium.com/portfolio/divine-comedy-ar/

For this final project, I will film a music video for one of my songs off my new EP. As of right now, my idea is to film a video for the song "Sojourn" while I'm home for Thanksgiving break. A sojourn is a temporary stay so it is fitting to film it while I'm home on my temporary stay. I will project the video onto my logo cut out of a map to stick with the theme of travel and movement. The song has a sense of longing for home, and I want to evoke that feeling on the viewers.

     Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist. He was born in 1957 and is currently based in Beijing. His probably most famous for his collaboration with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is also a political activist. He has spoken out against the Chinese government's stance on democracy and human rights.      Because his outspokenness, Weiwei was put in jail for 81 days without any official charges. His album The Divine Comedy  tells the story of his experience with the Chinese authorities. "Laoma Tihua" is my favorite song off the album. This song paints a vivid picture of the police breaking into Weiwei's home and beating him with lyrics like "Why are you breaking in? To teach you a lesson, kid." The album is a powerful way of explaining the experience of a political dissident speaking out against an authoritarian government.   The Divine Comedy  album cover