Spiral Jetty

One strange part of Spiral Jetty was the inclusion of many shots of dinosaur skeletons in a museum setting. At firs the only connection I could draw between dinosaurs and the spiral jetty is that many dinosaur fossils/skeletons have been found in Utah, where the spiral jetty is located. As the film progressed, though, I began to see that Smithson was trying to give the viewer a sense that the jetty was a symbol of all the individual parts of the environment coming together to create this unique space where the earth art was created. He constantly cuts between the still water (presumably of the Great Salt Lake) and the piles of earth splashing down as the heavy-duty machinery creates the jetty. He talks a lot about the salt of the water forming crystals, which build upon each other to create twisting solids, just as the jetty is a landmass twisting into the water, unifying the two. When talking about the crystals, he momentarily shows a horned lizard or something whose skin is made up of patterns similar to the crystal formations. He seems to be using this seemingly random shot to create a jump in logic between the crystals and a lifeform found in the area; he's saying a similar design and influence is found throughout and that, on a fundamental level, everything that exists has been created from the same things. He illustrates this in the narration of the film when he goes through all the compass directions and repeats that the same things (salt crystals, water, rock) can be seen wherever he is looking. I think this is where the dinosaurs fit in. Although they have been dead for millions of years, their remains still exist and are therefore a part of the environment. They could be making up the salt, which is forming crystals which are, creating mass, which has been used to form the jetty. The spiral form of the jetty supports this as it seems to be a giant swirl that is spinning the biggest elements of the landscape into a tiny point at its center. Conversely, it can also be seen as taking the smallest particles and linking them to the large world existing at the outer spirals. The dinosaurs add an element of time to the equation by expressing that it's not only space and size which are related, but history as well.

tabletop video

For my tabletop video I wanted to do something interesting with perspective and space. The set-up of having a camera simply pointing down at a table and doing something in front of it seemed one-dimensional and not very exciting to me so I started thinking of ways I could take the video as far away from the table as possible. I realized that the camera was in a kind of bird's eye position and started experimenting with satellite images that I found on the internet in order to give the impression of flying high above the landscape. I found one that was large enough that I could print sections of the photo on sheets of paper and line them up to make an image a couple of feet long. This allowed me to slowly pull the images through the frame making it seem as though the camera was not only moving, but soaring through the sky rather than just standing still over a tabletop. I tried the idea with my own camera and it looked pretty good so I decided to go with the idea. I knew I needed something else in the video, though, both to give it an angle and because there was no way I could print a picture long enough to move through the frame for the full time of the video. Since the point of the video was getting out of the restricting space, I decided to start the video in a defined space to create contrast. I got the idea of first making a paper airplane (something you would do on a tabletop) in front of a picture of an airplane hangar, the place where an airplane is the most confined. Then I could use the satellite images to allow the paper airplane to take flight, representing the spirit of imagination that's the whole idea behind making a paper airplane.

I felt that the performance of the video went alright, but could have gone better if I had practiced with the actual camera and set-up rather than at my house with my camera. When I practiced I had my camera close to the surface so that I watch the camera's screen and see what I was doing and make sure the image was always filling the screen to keep the illusion of flying believable. Having the camera close also made it easy to know where to hold the airplane so that it looked like it was flying above the landscape. Not being able to adjust the position of the camera and instead controlling the distance with just the zoom made this more difficult. The other problem I ran into was having to pull the images through the the tripod legs which was awkward and made it tough to move the image smoothly; an important element creating a realistic feeling of motion. During the performance, I also pulled the image through a bit faster than I had practiced, so the timing was off and I ended up lingering on the "The End" photo longer than I would have liked. One other thing that threw off the performance was that the music I intended to have playing during the flight part of the video was not turned up enough to hear (I don't know why because I checked it before I began) so I was trying to reach under the tripod to turn it up and pull the images smoothly at the same time! Because I was so busy during the performance, I couldn't really watch the screen to see how it was going, but besides the these few difficulties I think it turned out alright. It was a fairly complicated performance- as far as getting the timing of everything right and keeping everything where I wanted it in the frame- and I knew it would be tough, but I wanted to try because I thought the idea had potential to make a cool video.

Time Lapse

My impression of Untitled Fall is that it was like a time lapse video of the girl's college experience. Every semester there is a new entry where she talks about what is on her mind, new things happening in her life, her thoughts for the future, and where her journey has taken her. In each video segment, the girl looks different (she has a different haircut/hair color, is wearing different styles of jewelry or clothes, has a piercing, etc.) reflecting the fact that the change that is going on around her is affecting her. However, her character stays pretty constant throughout, and while she might change her attitude or opinion of things, she has a consistent personality. Through these monologues we see everything from her perspective and get only her side of every story. We are on a ride with her through this chapter of her life and that is why I chose this video to compare to Untitled Fall. I saw the scenes that didn't involve the college girl as being linked to the things that she was talking about and experiencing. The scene with HelloKitty and Ronald McDonald could be a representation of a party like the ones she talked about going to. The boring lecturer showing videos could parallel her dislike of some of her professors. She could probably identify with the bored clothing store workers since she had summer jobs she wasn't happy with. All these videos seemed like an accessory to the main content of the girl telling her story. They appear, are played through, fade out and we don't hear from them again (although some of the characters did show up again in different situations). These supplementary videos make up the scenery of the girl's journey. Although she has the freedom to process this scenery and its information and form her own opinions of what it means, it is important in the sense that it affects her and makes her story interesting. The time lapsed drive from coast to coast would be boring to watch if it simply showed the inside of the car and the guys taking the trip. Instead, they take the top off of the car for most of the video so that the changing surroundings that affect them and make their journey exciting can be easily seen. The video is also fitting since the two guys are driving to New York, but we don't know where they are going in New York or why. This is like the girl who says she wants to get out of New York for awhile, but plans to return, although she doesn't have a clear vision of what she'll be doing.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3A-unBigvoY

note: I couldn't get the video to work uploading it the way the D2L link said to so I hope it's alright that I just put the link here instead.