La Jetée

Tuesday we watched a very powerful film from 1964 called La Jetée, the story of a post-apoctalyptic time traveler. It uses still photography and a complex soundtrack and narrative to tell the story.

Updated the Inspire Page

Man on Wire

Week 3 MONDAY

Tim brought in his videos from where he lives and also shots from Victory Project. Good stuff. Deep conversations ensued. It's so interesting to see all the differences in everyone's personal space and how we each choose to present our lives on video. Some of us don't have a place to call our own. The sounds outside of the places we live are different everywhere you go. Sometimes the soundscape is buzzing with traffic, sometimes all you can hear are the birds and children playing. Sometimes there are lots of people, sometimes there isn't a soul around. Ashia has the Flip cam tonight!

Michael showed us the basics of SketchUp, a free software program used for 3D modeling and stuff. Here's a plan of the Armory:

It turns out Nate's free-standing project that we worked on from last week was so strong it could hold up a metal stool!

Mine was having trouble with the wobbly support...

In the afternoon we watched Man on Wire, the story about a man who had a passion for tight roping. He succeeded in sneaking his team and equipment into the towers to rig the setup. After a lot of planning and close calls, he finally succeeded in reaching his dream and tight roped between the two World Trade Center buildings in the 70's. Although he was arrested for trespassing and disorderly conduct, which was pretty funny in a way, his feat became famous. The story was really inspiring...

Speaking of inspiring, we just made an Inspiration Page (link to the right), or an Art Dump, or a Style Sheet, whatever you want to call it. It just got going, but its purpose is to show any and all of whatever it is that inspires us!

Week 2 Thursday

Officially 25% finished with Blue Sky! Scary and exciting and a little stressful seeing as we haven't actually started making anything yet. We have been collecting videos (we watched Alex's today), and other tools and materials:

We got velum paper, gold leaf stuff, wax paper, surveillance cameras, projectors, little square mirrors, toxic sprays and paints, glue, glue remover, a giant mantel, sticks of wood, wires, tubing, more paper, and lots of sharp objects!

So we each began constructing an object (any object) out of paper, tape, glue, and wire. It has to be as tall as our heights and it has to be free standing and not taped to the floor or hung from the ceiling. Quite challenging... we're not completed with the objects, but we should be on monday. I'll make a page for it and post the pictures like I did for the media projects. :) Here's some in progress pics...

Week 2 Wednesday

Today we visited the exhibition space: The Armory.

        

It's a big space! Our group will be installing everything in the space above the ceiling, above the actual floor space. Here's what it looks like from above below and above:

We then grouped together and began sketching our ideas for the houses/spaces that we will be constructing in the above space...

We left and stopped for ice cream and slushies. :) After lunch, the power went out due to an earthquake in Toronto and we were surrounded in a pitch black room with no windows! It was kind of exciting. When the electricity began to work again, we finished up some video editing. Yesterday Lesley took home the flip video camera and took footage of his house and neighborhood. We watched through his videos and gave comments. Tomorrow Alex will show us his footage!

Things are just beginning to roll and our brains have started churning! 

'Till tomorrow <3 Kristen

Catch Up on Week 2

We're almost there!

Monday Week 2:
We analyzed Michael's project outline. I would enter the outline here but it keeps changing so I think that would be pointless! We will update you. It'll keep us all afoot. Aside from the exciting changes that are sure to come, it's safe to say that "this project, Space and Place, is a way to open up our shared connection to the neighborhoods we inhabit, where we live our lives day in and day out. Working together, we will seek to define the communities we live in and those we wish to explore in our imaginations."

What will we be using to create our spaces and places?

-projection and lighting

-large format still photography

-video

-raw sound and vocal recording

-music

-mapping technologies

-an array of software programs

-AND BEYOND...

How to start?

Good question! First we started by brainstorming the rooms that make up our homes and the purposes of each rooms. The common rooms that we came up with were:
Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Stairs, Hallways, Closet, Laundry Room, Garage, and Back/Front Yard

We then came up with emotions and feelings that we tend to associate with each room, and sorted them into positive, negative, and neutral (for example, "contemplation" could go both ways). 

Lighting and Video

In the afternoon Michael worked with us on lighting and camera angle, what light set-ups are used when, and what camera angles are used when. So we set up the light fixtures in our studio trying to eliminate the shadow of the subject, and we each took turns standing in front of the wall saying a phrase, any phrase, with a different camera angle each time: medium, medium side, from above, from below, and close up face shot.

TUESDAY Week 2:

Quick lil' workshop with the video editing program called Isadora. We played with all the different effects with the sound and video: We turned Andrew into a blue man. We made my laugh sound like satan and then cut it down to .5 seconds and had it loop over and over again. We trimmed Nate's video and compiled three different camera angles to make one seamless video, and then added music. There are so many options with video editing!

The Media and You

Here's a link to our media/self projects:
Check IT out(!)

Catch Up on Week 1

 A lot has happened from the start date of the project until the date now. What we did during week one:

-Lots of name games with everyone
-Took a visit to the Dayton Art Institute!
-Collaborative lunch:

-Sorted into individual groups.
Here are the links to the others' blogs!!

• Joyce Lee: Team EVOL
• Lenka Novakova: The Blue Sky Summer Dream
• John Peña: Team Nature
• Ari Tabei: Blue Sky Ari

When our group was united into one, we spent the first part of the week having discussions about the relevant topics and reflecting on the following questions:

• Why are we here? Why Blue Sky? Why THIS project?
• Why do we like art? What is it to us individually and as a group?




• Art can be our voice
• We can use art to empower us

We then moved into discussion on the media and its impact on ourselves...

• How does the media depict us? 
• How does that influence us? How does it make us treat other people?
• What are the consequences of judging someone by their appearance/behavior?

THEN we started a quick warm-up project using cutouts of magazine pictures and words to show how the media influences our personalities, our likes, dislikes, our stereotypes, pressure from the media... pictures to come

Meet the artists of Untitled Productions

Resident Artist: MICHAEL CASSELLI

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Current Residence: Yellow Springs, Ohio
Favorite Medium: Sound and mixed media
Favorite Color: Saffron
Movies: Breathless, Manchurian Candidate (original), Zoolander
Music: Joy Division, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains

Student Artist: KRISTEN MANCINI

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Current Residence: Columbus, Ohio

School: The Ohio State University - violin performance

Favorite Medium: music, string instruments, sound

Favorite Color: Emerald

Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Fountain, Babel, Quentin Tarantino movies

Music: Silversun Pickups, Death Cab for Cutie, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sigur Ros, Andrew Bird, Coldplay

TIM BROWN

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

School: Wright State University

Favorite Medium: Robotic Engineering

Favorite Color: Green and Blue

Movies: Pineapple Express, Beer Fest, Superbad

Music: Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney

NATE CRUM

Hometown: straight out of Compton

School: Sinclair Community College

Favorite Medium: Sound, video

Favorite Color: Rainbow

Movies: Goonies, Step Brothers, The Big Lebowski, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Music: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Ke$ha, Manchester Orchestra, The Doors, Bright Eyes

VICTORIA GAILLARD

Hometown: Xenia, Ohio

School: Fairborn High School

Favorite Medium: photography, ceramics

Favorite Color: Blood Red

Movies: Grease, The Covenant, Hercules

Music: The Rascal Flatts, Paramore, Brad Paisley, Coldplay, Yellowcard

MERIEL JAMES

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio

School: Miami Valley Career Technology Center

Favorite Medium: chalk pastel

Favorite Color: Royal Blue

Movies: Pretty Woman

Music: Drowning Pool, System of a Down, Rolling Stones, Disturbed, Urban Mystic [R&B, hip hop, techno, rap]

LESLEY JOHNSON

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio

School: Dayton Early College Academy (DECA)

Favorite Medium: clay, paint, pencil, charcoal

Favorite Color: Lime Green, Midnight Purple, Blue

Movies: Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11, Scary Movie 1-4, American Pie

Music: Metallica, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Beethoven, The Beatles, Jimmi Hendrix, System of a Down

ASHIA KENNEDY

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio

School: Dayton Early College Academy (DECA)

Favorite Medium: pencil, charcoal

Favorite Color: Blue

Movies: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, Ray, Constantine, A Scanner Darkly

Music: Everything but jazz

ANDREW LARK

Hometown: in the desert, Morocco

School: Stivers High School

Favorite Medium: ceramics

Favorite Color: Blue

Movies: The Hangover, The Sandlot, Benchwarmers

Music: Wiz Khalifa, Coldplay

ALEX MOSIER

Hometown: Weslaco, Texas

School: Stivers High School

Favorite Medium: mixed media

Favorite Color: Black

Movies: no favorite

Music: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Smash Mouth, Alice Cooper

Blog is featured by Untitled Productions, in association with Casselli Inc. due to the generous funding of A Program of Involvement Advocacy at......

So we're a little late on getting the blog up, but here it is!

Who are we?

One of the 5 groups working collaboratively for the Blue Sky Project 2010 in Dayton, Ohio. We have 8 weeks to get a lot of work done, so come read our blog to keep track of our progress!

For more info about Blue Sky: http://www.blueskydayton.org/

Team Casselli is....

Resident Artist: Michael Casselli

Student Artist: Kristen Mancini

Group Members: Tim Brown, Nate Crum, Victoria Galliard, Meriel James, Lesley Johnson, Ashia Kennedy, Andrew Lark, and Alex Mosier