Final Project: Wooden Bike

For my final project I made a bike entirely out of wood. Inspired by Kiel Johnson's lecture and the timelapses of his cardboard projects, I decided to do a similar piece by experimenting with making an all wooden bike.

Art 451 Blog Link

Just wanted make sure you have the blog link to the videos for the Music 409/Art 451 class. http://conroy409.blogspot.com/

Manuel Alfaro Artist Lecture

I went to Manuel Alfaro’s lecture at the UNR’s Church Fine Arts on May 3rd. His current exhibition which he calls Death, Drugs and La Linea was showing in the Sheppard Gallery during the same time. Alfaro is a Mexican America artisit who primarily works within the theme of Political Chicano Art and said he was inspired by ancient Aztec Art, muralists and Chicano Muralists. In his current exhibit, Alfaro seeks to compare ancient Aztec warriors to the current narcotics based culture that has become so prominent in Mexico. Both cultures have relied on violence and use this violence to expand their territories and dominate everyone around them at all costs. Today, murders in the cartels justify their actions by likening themselves to their ancient Aztec ancestors. To Alfaro, art has a way of bringing forth the problems in Mexico from the drug cartels and the inherent political corruption that follows them. He believes his art will be the vehicle to bring forth social issues that have not made much of an impact on American soil, but are tearing apart Mexico family by family. According to the Sheppard Gallery, "His artwork connects the present-day drug cartel violence to the pre-colonial history of the Aztecs through color palette, symbolism, and iconographic imagery. The artist's work explores the reality Mexico is experiencing today."

Kevin Kremler Exhibition

Kevin Kremler is a graduate student artist at UNR who has an exhibition in the Sheppard Gallery this April. Postcards from the Grey Area was an exhibit with four very different and distinct pieces of work that worked together to form his body of work. Upon walking into the gallery, the first thing I checked out was his modified photo booth. By sitting down in the stool and clicking the mouse to take the picture, the person in the chair was superimposed to look as if they were in a Normal Rockwell piece, painting a self portait. The camera then printed out a postcard with the image on it for the viewer and a digital copy was saved for Kremler’s own use. The biggest and most intriguing piece in his exhibit was a large hanging structure, that when loaded up with the provided colored sand, spun around and tilted like a teeter-totter sprinkling the sand on the floor as it went. Over time the sand formed color piles and patterns on the floor that changed with time and use.

His most visually interesting piece for me was a collection of small, medium and large TV’s all showing X-Ray images of brain function. The TV’s were mounted in custom wooden boxes with legs so the seemed like a pack of robotic animals staring up at the viewer. The fourth piece was a large sheet of plywood the Kremler turned into a huge postcard. With crayon the recreated a famous Van Gough and named it the Crayola Vangola. His intent was to mail it as is to a friend, with the intention being that along the way, the postman would look at it, as would anyone else involved in the shipping and receiving of the giant postcard.

Overall his work was made to be appreciated in different ways by a multitude of different people. His exhibition had a lot of variety, from giant sculpture, to digital aspects and classic drawing. His versatility made it very interesting and it will be cool to see where he takes his art in the future.

Kiel Johnson Artist Lecture

I attended Kiel Johnson’s lecture not knowing what to expect and I was really blown away by his work. I really enjoy working with my hands, be it for art or just changing the oil on my truck, and Johnson’s work reminded me of that feeling. His work with cardboard showed that anything can be used as art, not just clay, paint, computers or otherwise. His drawing work is above and beyond anything I could imagine doing, but his subjects were all very interesting, simple things that he put his own person flair into. Though Johnson’s work is almost all made of paper, cardboard and ink, he also adds a digital aspect to his work by filming the creation of his sculptures and that was really the most interesting part for me. As a lecturer, I though Kiel was awesome. He seemed really down to earth and didn’t hide any of his creative process or the ideas that led up to it. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and his positive attitude really came through in the way he casually showed off his work and gave us the back story on what led him to start creating the different pieces. One of the coolest pieces that he showed was his newspaper printing press. I though that is was really cool how he went from drawing it out on paper, to cutting it from different pieces of cardboard and finally constructing it to the point where it was a moving functional piece. The icing on the cake was that he put in his own drawings on sheets of paper so it looked like his own art piece was printing out copies of his art. It really blurred the lines between functional machinery and art and I really enjoyed that.

His work on the cardboard Twin Lens Reflex Camera was the most impressive for me. As a digital media student, I haven’t been able to really create physical art and be able to justify it as digital media, but through his work being taped and timelapsed, I was inspired and shown that there is a way to bridge the worlds seamlessly. After leaving the lecture I was really refreshed to see how digital media can be used across a broad spectrum of different art. Though I did not know it then, his lecture and art inspired me to build a functional bike entirely out of wood and glue for my final project for this class. I used a GoPro to film the entire process and am making a video to accompany the physical piece. Without seeing his lecture I would have never been inspired to build the bike and though it has been a tedious project, I am really glad that his work changed the way I work.

Weeks 3-4 progress

I am most of the way through with building the bike and have been filming everything. I have a few hours of footage that I will need to cut down and speed up to show a fast forwarded version of the build for the final video. So far, the build has been pretty fun but frustrating at the same time.

So far I have built the frame, both wheels, front fork, and front axle. By next week the bike will be fully done leaving me a week to work on the final video. To complete the bike I need to make: -seat -handlebars -rear axle -pedals

Week 2 Progress

I totally revamped my design and came up with a blueprint for an all wooden bike that should be totally rideable. The bike will feature a fixed gear drive system that will be powered by pedals mounted directly into the rear wheel.

The frame will be made from 2x4's and wooden dowels and everything will be held together with wooden pegs and glue eliminating the need for any metal screw or bolts. I believe the new design will be able to support the weight of a rider and allow the bike to be fully functional.

The wheels will be created from large sheets of plywood with a single layer inner spoke design and two layers of plywood sandwiched around the spokes to form the tire. This will provide strength and a larger surface area to grip the ground when riding.

I have gotten the plywood and some 2x4's from some scrap wood piles and am getting money together to buy the dowels, wooden pegs and glue to begin construction of the bike this week. I plan to start with building the wheels and then move on to the frame and rest of the bike as time permits, filming the whole process to put the footage towards the final video.

Week 1 Progress

Projected timeline for Project #2

4/03 Create timeline for project.
Draw projected plans/blueprints for bike
Decide on materials/strategy for building

4/10 Buy/Gather wood
Being building
Film building process

4/17 Keep building and filming
Organize footage as the project progresses
4/24 Finish building bike and filming

5/01 Edit footage into short video to accompany the physical project.

5/08 Final CRITIQUE/PROJECT #2 Due


I have two different way of making the bike in mind. The first way I would use dowels of various sizes for the main part of the frame and then cut wheels out of plywood to form the big circular parts. I would use glue and wooden pegs to hold it all together and it would most likely be rideable.

The second option I would like to explore is using branches from actual trees. I would have to hunt for pieces that are close to the actual shape of the frame so I could use as few branches as possible and have nature dictate the form somewhat. This would be much less exact and be more of a show piece than a rideable bike.

I made a general plan for the size of the frame but it is just a guide so I purchase or find the wood to start building with.

Project #2 Proposal

For my second project I really want to build something with my hands. After attending Kiel Johnson's lecture earlier this semester and seeing the videos he created following his various projects I was really inspired to actually make something physical instead of just manipulating things with a computer.

Kiel Johnson's Cardboard Twin Lens Reflex Camera Time Lapse from Theo Jemison on Vimeo.

While he made all sorts of objects out of cardboard, I want to make a bike entirely out of wood that will roll and have working pedals and steering. I plan to tie my project into digital media by filming the entire construction process and making a short video showing all the steps to make each aspect of the bike and the final product. The final product will be a wooden copy of a real bike with a video to accompany it. Everything possible will be made by hand leaving all the wood raw with no paint and each process will be revealed in the video.

Project #1 - MOTION

By filming with the GoPro I was able so get a new perspective on forms of motion that many of us see every day. Combining this video footage into a moving collage and adding an original score composed of sounds from the different motions involved in the video adds another element of movement to the piece. I really wanted to convey movement through the video and with all the elements used I believe I was able to do so.

WEEK 5

Since last week I have filmed more and tested out the new mounts I got. I have also been recording sounds with the Zoom recorder that I have access to through my Music 409 class to record sounds of motion that I will mix into an original soundtrack for my piece. My original plan was to use eyecon to control the sounds, but after thinking about it I don't think it really adds anything at all to the piece and will probably just confuse viewers. Instead of using the eyecon, I plan on dedicating my time to making an experimental music piece to accompany the video which will play along with it. I plan to use sounds from the motions I filmed and mix them together into something entirely different. I got to use to new mounts on the back of a snowmobile and i think they add a very cool new view.




Im going to spend the next week getting everything worked together in Final Cut and After effects and writing the soundtrack to have to all ready for Tuesdays presentation

week 4

I ran into a couple speed bumps this week. I ordered a couple different mounts for the camera 2 weeks ago expecting them to show up pretty quickly but I didn't get them until today leaving me no time to put them to use. I do have them now and can't wait to put them to use this week.

Before I was pretty much using duct tape so secure the camera on the skateboard and car so these new mounts will help stabilize the picture and allow me more confidence that my camera will be safe on a car or other moving vehicle.

I was able to get much better shots on the skateboard using the duct tape and better lighting. I was planning on getting some different shots outside on the streets and in other skateparks but the weather stopped that pretty quickly so I will make sure to shoot as much as possible as soon as the ground is dry again. Here is a quick mix of the shots I got last night .



This week I plan to shoot more, record sounds and edit a soundtrack with them to apply to eyecon. I hope to get enough footage to start editing it all together in final cut and after effects to get closer to finishing.

Week 3

I spent this week refining my idea and I feel like I've finally honed in on a concrete way to arrange my project and show different aspects of motion through video. I shot a bunch more video with the Gopro and ordered a couple new mounting options that will make the final product a lot easier to get right. So far I have just been compiling video and haven't edited anything together yet, but I made this mockup in photoshop of how I see the final product looking with screen grabs from some of the video I shot.

Each cluster of videos, 4 in this mockup, will have a different subject with the camera filming forward, backward, left and right while mounted to the moving objects. In this one I used a truck, skateboard, snowmobile and motorcycle. Im still playing with what modes of transportation to use for the final product and am open to more ideas. I also mocked up a picture of lights in motion with a slow shutter speed as the background to emulate the futurist paintings and might have a slideshow of photos like that for the final video product. I used one I found on google for the background and then went and shot my own at a skatepark afterwords that I like a lot more.

I want to try it out this technique at different places to get different streams of light in motion. When it all comes together their will be multiple views of different motions playing at once.

Week 2 Progress

I shot more video with the Gopro, both under a skateboard and under my car to similar perspectives of motion and watching the wheels turn. I need to work on the lighting with the skateboard and making a better mount that will handle more movement. I also came into the lab and played with eyecon to get a feel for it and how I want to use it for the sound aspect of my project. After looking through some of the works of the futurists and their treatment of motion even with static forms like painting like these ones. 

I want to explore effects in final cut and after effects that might give it the blurred ripple effect like in the second painting and apply that concept to parts of my video. Overall I want to keep shooting and hone in on exactly how I want to represent motion in my video piece.

Progess Report #1

So far I have been playing with the gopro camera and the camera on my phone to come up with a more definite idea of how to portray motion through the video installation. I have filmed some short test clips with the camera mounted on the bottom of a skateboard showing the ground go by, the wheels spinning and the side to side motion of the trucks turning. I also want to mount it to the wheel of a moving car to get the camera to rotate around with the movement of the vehicle. I want to get as many clips of different types of motion as possible and then edit and refine my final product from there.

FINAL VIDEO

Waafa Bilal Lecture

Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi artist, and an Arts Professor in New York. I was somewhat familiar with his work before, having heard about his exhibition where he locked himself in an apartment in which people could shoot paintballs at him over the internet. He spoke about his different works over the years. He is an interactive and video artist. He is known for his controversial work Domestic Tension, or “Shoot an Iraqi,” which was the interactive installation that I had recognized his name from. The piece consisted of a paintball gun that could be controlled by people who logged into the internet. Bilal lived in the gallery in Chicago for a 30 day period and people could shoot at him with the gun 24 hours a day. The point of the work was for Bilal to experience what a regular Iraqi does in time of war, which is just about every day now. Bilal also spoke about another controversial work called Virtual Jihadi. In it, Bilal took a computer game called Quest for Saddam and altered it. The game was called The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi. In the game Bilal made himself a suicide bomber and is recruited on a mission to find former President Bush. The work was pointed at bringing attention to the Iraq war and racist and stereotypes in video games.
Bilal spoke about his latest piece called 3rdi.me and it was very interesting. He has took a camera and surgically implanted it into the back of his head. The camera is set up to take a picture every minute and upload it online. He did this work for a year beginning on December 15, 2010. He captured photos of what was behind him. In this work he tried to express the issue of privacy. The photos were uploaded online and his location was shown on the website by GPS. This was interesting because he turned himself into somewhat of a cyborg voluntarily. It shows how we are connected to technology, and in the future we are going to be connected with technology physically whether we like it or not.

Lecture : Miss Representation

Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s film Miss Representation was an informational documentary about the current state of feminism in the United States and the representation of women in the media. The first thing that came up on the screen during the movie was “the media is the message and the messenger” which set the tone for the entire film. Statistics presented in the film, like that fact that of 78% of women hate their bodies and spend between 12 to 15 thousand dollars a year in beauty products tie in perfectly which what we have been learning about in this class for the entire semester. 

The documentary made apparent to young girls, “you can’t be what you can’t see,” referring to the lack of women in upper level jobs. The film said that women have to work twice as hard and earn half as much as a man while doing jobs twice as difficult. As a male with a prior understanding of the situation from my Race, Gender and Media clas, Miss Representation was an informational awareness video to the public about feminism in the United States. It was really an abbreviated crash course into what we looked at through the entire semester in class in my other class, with pictures and videos. The public has turned women to believing they can only be beautiful in a specific way and successful in life with certain career limitations. Women are unfairly treated in the United States and when given the opportunity to be on television, they are forced to present themselves in a sexually revealing way in order to appeal to the male audience. Overall I thought the film was very well made and reinforced the ideas that I was already introduced to by applying them to real people. 

Exhibition: The View Without

Morgan McAuslan's exhibit at UNR's Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery was very interesting. He took common items like colored plexiglas, small motors, some metal and the inside layer of old thermoses to make a very unique and interesting installation. With the use of the motors, he allowed the materials to interact with one another to create an interesting and unique sound art aspect to the piece. Upon walking into the gallery, the first thing that grabbed me was the constant but light sound of the installation. A mix between wind chimes, a xylophone and a steel drum, the sound had a calming effect that filled up the entire room, but was light enough not to over power anyones talking or thoughts. 

The main structure of the exhibiting consisted of a couple dozen neon multicolored plexiglass arrangements, which when powered by the rotating motor within, caused them to spin like a clock and eventually cause a series of connected small wooden hammers to make contact with the chromed thermos components. It was a very visually stimulating interaction of color and motion followed by sound. I really liked how he turned common stuff that everyone has access too like the plexiglass and miniature motors and combined it with the interesting thermos "bells" to make something all his own.

It was very obvious that the artist put a lot of though into the exhibition despite the look of chaos on the walls. When examined closely, each of the separate contraptions had dozens of little pieces that looked like they required a bit a precision to align in the right way to make it work as a whole. Another small thing that caught my eye was his use of all red extension cords to power the individual pieces. First off, I've never seen a red extension cord so I was a little taken aback at first and thought he might have painted them. They were, however, really red extension cords that were arranged and installed very neatly adding to the piece as a whole themselves.

Overall I though the installation was very interesting and a good use of the space. The constant sound coupled with the motion, color and composition of the piece made it interesting to the eyes and ears and showed very creative use of somewhat common materials. This exhibition really showed that with a little creativity you can make just about anything into a compelling piece that is sound related, but much different than anything I would have thought of regarding sound art. 

Jan Svankmajer Artist Profile

Dan Conroy
Dec 7, 2011
Art 345
Final Paper

Jan Svankmajer is a Czechoslovakian film maker who is most famous for his work with stop motion animation. His work is firmly rooted in surrealism, both through his involvement with the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group and the surreal aspects of his films, and he is regarded as “the only major film maker who’s work fully belongs to surrealism,” (Richardson, 11). Svankmajer’s work is very recognizable and intriguing to me. I really like the way he uses common materials like clay and food to tell stories and get his message across, often without any words. Though I have never tried stop motion, it has always had an aesthetic that has appealed to me and I would definitely like to try it in the future, especially after watching more of Jan Svankmajer’s work.
Svankmajer was born in Prauge, Czechoslovakia in 1939. On his eighth birthday he recieved a small puppetry theatre which would lead to his first venture into the world of fantasy and art. Later on in life, his fascination with marionettes continued as he attended the college of Applied Arts in the Puppetry Department. This is also where Svankmajer was first introduced to surrealist art forms which would later become the backbone of his work and life surrounding it, (Rogers).
Prague was both a place of birth and a source of inspiration for Svankmajer. Jan Uhde wrote that “It would be hard to imagine Svankmajer without Prague” in his essay entitled “Jan Svankmajer: Genus Loci As A Source Of Surrealist Inspiration. His interest in Prague is not that of contemporary society, however. Svankmajer and his work focus on the city’s old quarters, legends and ancient castle ruins. Svankmajer himself lives in one of Prague’s most ancient areas, just outside the Prague Castle walls. It is this connection to the the city and historical core which binds him and his art to the area. Many of his films were made in surrounding ruins, (Harper, 64), and one piece was even filmed at the Sedlec Ossuary, which contains the bones of some 70 thousand people, which had been buried there since the plauge’s of the Middle Ages, (Uhde). His fascination for such locations and morbid themes has been a theme since his school days when he was “criticized for a certain morbidity, sickness, negativism, and pessimism,” (French, 188). Regardless of early criticism, Svankmajer is a product of his environment and continues to use his surroundings and their history to shape his work and make it uniquely his own.
While Prague and the Bohemian region surrounding it are ever present in Svankmajer’s work and life, the communist government which ruled the country until 1989, did as much as they could to stifle his artistic productivity. From 1972 to 1979, he was banned from making films by the Czech Government as a result of his criticism of the regime in many of his films. Many of his other films during the period which were not banned were suppressed by the government and as a result, his work was largely unknown in the West until the 1980’s, (Rogers). The government was so against his work that his piece, Dimensions In Dialogue, “was used by the Czechoslovakian authorities as an object lesson in what was politically unacceptable,” (French, 188). In regard to the political stance in many of his films, Svankmajer said:
"I would like to say that I consider all of my films to be very politcally engaged. But I never narrowed it down to a totalitarian system, the way, for example, the artist dissident would. Because I realize that civilization does allow for the creation or existence of something as sick as Fascism or Stalinism, then the entire civilization itself is very ill, something is wrong," (Jackson).
It is this critique of society as a whole, based on his experiences with the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, that have garnered Svankmajer such acclaimed while at the same time addressing the issues and shortcomings of the communist regime in his homeland. Even after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Svankmajer still finds issue with politics and they way society is run as a whole, not limiting his rebellion to a fallen regime. “For Svankmajer, Stalinism was nothing but a particular emanation of the sickness of modern civilisation: the fact that consumerism has come to replace Stalinism does not reflect any improvement in the structure of society,” (Richardson, 133). His ability to adapt his art to the times is a key testament to his longevity in the art world and the success of his work.
Svankmajer’s work is unargueably surrealist, though he himself does not consider surrealism itself an art form. Instead he says, “Surrealism is psychology, it is philosophy, it is a spiritual way, but it is not an aesthetic. Surrealism is not interested in actually creating any kind of aesthetic,” (Jackson). This stance on surrealism and it’s connection to art is unabashedly surrealist in itself, as one of the major facets of surrealists is to “regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being and artifact,” (Surrealism Wiki).
I really appreciate the depth of Svankmajer’s work. His films are intriguing to me on many levels. The first one I saw, Meat Love, is a short, simple film involving two slices of meat interacting, eventually making love, and then being thrown into a pan full of hot oil. His stop motion style is instantly recognizable and refined, each shot obviously well thought out and presented as a small fraction of the whole. Like many of his works, the subject is food and it’s ultimate destruction. To Svankmajer, “the action of eating - and by implication of the act of creation itself - is ultimately destructive,” (Richardson, 126). This destruction a a thread that permeates many of his films, from the clay figures eating themselves and tearing each other apart in Dimensions In Dialogue, to decaying human made of fruit and vegetables in Flora.
Most of Svankmajer’s videos are very simple. He uses clay, marionettes, fruit, people and more as subjects, and through his stop motion, brings them to life in order to tell his story. I really admire his ability to make very accesable objects come alive. Most of his films also have a deep underlying sense of humor. He makes fun of his subjects, be they monkey puppets or clay humans, in order to poke fun at society as a whole. Though they may be tearing each other to pieces or jumping into frying pans, it is hard not to laugh at clay humans eating on their partners extremities or slices of red meat dancing on a cutting board.
I often have ideas for art floating in my head, but can never seem to put them into action exactly the way I want too. According to Svankmajer this is a result of an artistic block. “The artist is able to reach their resources, and overcome the block. But a clerk who sits in the office, obviously, has his blockage and cannot. This so-called ‘professionalism’, is much more a matter of technique, or skill than creativity. You can see that in naive art, or folk art, if an individual wants to express him or herself, they find a way to do it if they really want to. It is really inside me, what's going to come out. The way I see it, each individual accumulates in his or her lifetime. That which accumulates inside him or her needs to find a way out. Basically, everybody can do that, but most people do not find a way of releasing it, they have certain blockage. There is no such thing as talent" (Jackson). To be able to combine the techniques and skills that I have learned in this program with the creativity that is lodged in the back of my brain is one of my goals for this course and for all art I attempt to create.
What really draws me to Svankmajer’s work is his style. The quirky puppets and subjects, the humor and the dark undertones all work together and make for interesting pieces as a whole. His work has levels of political scrutiny, dark comedy and his own creativity that make them very unique and interesting on many levels. I really respect his ability to combine these themes into his films and make them work so well together. Though Svankmajer’s films usually deal with the oppressive government and now the rise of capitalism and consumerism, he makes them interesting on a different level and then allows the viewer to infer his real meaning behind the work. Though I will never have a communist regime to rebel against in my art, I would like to think that with time and thought I can address things that are going on around me in my future work.

Bibliography

French, Karl. Art by Film Directors. London: Octopus Publishing, 2004

Harper, Graeme; Stone, Rob. The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film, by Jan Uhde. London: Wallflower, 2007

Jackson, Wendy. “The Surrealist Conspirator: An Interview With Jan Svankmajer.” June, 1997. Animation World Magazine. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.3/issue2.3pages/2.3jacksonsvankmajer.html

Richardson, Michael. Surrealism and Cinema. Berg: New York, 2006.

Rogers, Pam. “The Works Of Jan Svankmajer.” 2002. Rosewood Graphics. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.rosewoodgraphics.us/jan.html

Voorhies, James. “Surrealism: Thematic Essay.” 2010. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm

Wikipedia. “Surrealism.” Dec, 2011. Wikipedia. Dec 6, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

Uhde. “The Bare Bones of Horror.” 2011. Kinoeye: New Perspectives on European Film. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.kinoeye.org/02/01/uhde01.php