After you’ve presented your last project, please write a paragraph or two about your project. Discuss concepts, challenges, the relationship between your video(s) and your physical object(s).
Fall 2017
After you’ve presented your last project, please write a paragraph or two about your project. Discuss concepts, challenges, the relationship between your video(s) and your physical object(s).
For my Mad Mapper project, I decided to do something with all the after effects work that I’ve made over the semester. I started with the idea of putting them over each other and trying to figure out which effects worked well with each other and which one’s really didn’t. As I worked on this, I began to have new ideas about what I could use so I went into After Effects and made entirely new designs for the project. The hardest challenge was coming up with something that they could be mapped onto. I didn’t really have any ideas for this at first but I continued to work on the project regardless. Eventually, I had the idea to create a central theme and place different logos in the four corners of the display. After finding the right time frames for each, I was still left without my idea for an object.
After watching some pro gaming videos one night, I had the idea that my objects could essentially be people. They could stand in front of the projection and have the logo’s be projected onto their bodies, thus allowing them to represent a sort of team. My main problems came in executing this where differing heights and sizes of the individual distorted the image being projected into them. I’d still be interested in finding a suitable object or object to really make my effects pop out.
The first idea I thought of for this project is the one I wound up doing. I love nature and organic shapes and following the theme of one of our previous projects, I wanted to project something that would be the opposite of what it was projected on. Water is my favorite thing ever, whether its just to look at, swim in, or make art with. I took a video of the river right behind our building with the reflection of the bridge going through the middle of the ripples, giving it a split effect. I then had to think of something to project on, and what better to be the opposite of water yet still organic, but a rock, more specifically salt, that comes from deep in the earth. I edited the video with Premier to slow it down and give it a color changing effect over time. Putting the video on top of the rough rock gave it a really amazing organic, soothing feel. I loved what I accomplished.
For my Mad Mapper project, I originally had the idea of created an abstract object out of triangles. On those triangles I had planned to project videos from concerts I’ve been to and their visual screens. Unfortunately, each time I tried to build the object, gravity would kick in and it would fall apart.
I ended up using a treehouse that I found, and went with a calmer, nighttime theme. On the bottom house part of the object, I used a time-lapse video of the night sky and homes along the bottom. It worked really well because the video was taken with a go-pro and the fish eye effect made the warp look much more natural than stretching a normal video. The look of the houses being projected onto the treehouse flowed really nicely. On one side of the treehouse I projected a shadow of myself overlooking all the houses. I got the idea after watching The Big Friendly Giant and how he watches over people and makes them their dreams.
On the roof of the the treehouse, I wanted to continue to expand on the night sky, so I projected a video of the Northern Lights, and above that, a video of green lights flashing symbolizing the galaxies above our sky. Overall, I like this new idea that I went with. It flowed a lot smoother and wasn’t as “noisy” or busy as my original idea had come out to be.
For my project, I chose to use three boxes that I made in art class, two years ago. The reason why I used the boxes is because I thought they would help the class to visualize watching television. The videos I used on MadMapper, was directed and taped by me (one was a my documentary on graphic design, the other one was a performance art, and the last one was a video art). The biggest challenge of this project was to get the shapes to line up the way I wanted it to be, so I decided to make a small change to the shapes by making it a little shorter. Overall, I liked this project and enjoyed working with MadMapper.
I hope everyone has a safe trip home, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Also, I hope to see some of you next semester.
My project started out with the concept of using recycled materials to building a 3D sculpture on which to project my images. Since MadMapper is such a powerful tool that can be used for 3D projection, I wanted to make sure I took full advantage of its capabilities. I decided to use cardboard boxes to create a sculpture that had a variety of surfaces coming out in all directions and receding into the background. It was a bit difficult at first to get the cardboard to stay together, but in the end tape sufficed and I had a cohesive structure on which to project my images.
Now the question of what to project. I wanted something with motion and color, so that each surface would jump out at the viewer and stand out next to the other surfaces. I decided to use a collection of animations I did in High School for my YouTube channel, in keeping with my theme of recycled material. Like the cardboard boxes, I was re-purposing material from earlier in my career, and making something new, in this case literally adding another dimension to my work. The animations had the desired effect; creating contrasting moving shapes and colors that blended together but also stood apart, and giving the viewer something interesting to look at on each individual surface.
The concept of my mad mapper project was to represent an abstract projection. I showed that through my object that I used to project on. I cut into three styrofoam cubes and connected them in a unique way to create an abstract foarm. I used my beach videos to project onto my object. I originally had the video of my feet walking and then an overlay of a mask of another video of water bubbles rising up. Unfortunately, the mask was acting funny the day I was presenting and I had to get rid of the overlay so that took away from my theme of abstraction. My biggest challenge during this project was actually lining up mad mapper to my object. Overall, I really enjoyed this project because it nice to learn how the cool projections actually work at concerts.
I chose to use a pillow as my object. My concept was to project onto the pillow to create the idea that the person laying on the pillow is dreaming. I am completely obsessed with cats, and sometimes while I’m at school with no pets I feel a little cat deprived. I don’t actually dream of cats but I thought it was a good metaphor for wishing I had cats in my life. To show that I was the one “dreaming of cats” I decided to use Photoshop to cut out an image of my head to overlay onto the dream sequence in mad mapper. I then created video two video sequence of kittens (that I personally took) in premier. Imported both of the video separately into maddmapper so that the two video sections wouldn’t play at the same time, which allowed for the videos to cycle through differently each time creating different scenes. I think the still image of my head “sleeping” in contrast with the busy videos worked well. My head acted as a separator of the two videos.
One of the major challenges with my project was that a pillow never takes the same shape twice. I have to be able to do quick small changes each time I set up my project. I also had challenges making sure that all of the cats in the video hit the screen in the same place. That was an easy fix once Cory showed me how to align the video clips in premier. I think my object and video related well because the pillow helped tell the story I wanted to depict with my videos and photo. Overall I think the installation was effective in portraying exactly what I wanted it to portray. I enjoyed working in madmapper and I would be excited to do another project in it.
My project is a representation of the beauty and style of dated technology. My video was filmed on a VHS camcorder and scanned into mad mapper on an endless loop. This idea also takes a jab at modern technology for it’s over saturation and instant gratification. With a dated format such as film or VHS you have a limited time frame and you need to pay attention to what you are conveying and why it is important.
Another reference to dated technology is the use and promotion of cigarettes. They are notorious in the current day for being banned in advertisements and public spaces and for good reason honestly. But this project is more of a romantic idea of dated technology and ideas with an understanding of their flaws but emphasizing the beauty of their simplicity and age.