Johnathan+O'Connor

Sketches





Sketchup Exercise

**Counter-Monument Essay - Response** Counter-monuments represent an interesting paradox. As the essay states, the main theme tying every counter-monument together is that they recognize that “there is a debate that must be engaged with.” My first response is to wonder, would a counter-counter-monument posit that there is no debate, or that the debate need not be engaged with? I find the figurative counter-monuments outlined in the essay particularly fascinating. Some of them are highly detailed and realistic. These traits are not what comes to my mind first when I think of counter-monuments. I typically think of them as nearly featureless, abstract structures. However, the article states that a counter-monument can be termed as such as long as it embodies the theme of debate or dialogue. Whether that is to a pre-existing monument, I believe it does not matter. As long as a monument provokes thoughts counter to the intentions of typical monuments in a region, I believe the term counter-monument could apply.

Project 2 - The Beginner's Guide to Typing: Positions and Hot Spots Revealed media type="youtube" key="a3zKg27EPCM" width="560" height="315"

Video Exercise media type="youtube" key="ompmaDSTUlg" width="420" height="315"

Krauss Response: I believe that Krauss would have a very similar thesis if she had written her essay in 2015: that video as a medium inherently revolves around narcissism. I believe that she would state the medium itself to have gained unforseen popularity and expanded use, to the point that members of the general public now have access to some sort of video recording device. I do also feel that the concept of viewership, specifically the view count kept under Youtube videos, would also figure in to her thesis. This counter would possibly be seen as feeding the narcissism of the video art with a definable value that can be placed upon it. This then, I feel, would also cause her to write that the line of what constitutes video art, in terms of subject matter, has become impossible to define. I believe that video blogs and Vine would be a particular point of interest for Krauss. Both are typically framed in the manner of what has now become the canon of video art: a human body is generally framed in the center of image, typically with little significant change over time. The person portrayed in the video thus becomes like a sculpture, similar to Krauss original thesis. Whether or not they submit it to a site with the intention of preserving their image onscreen, it would have the same effect as an art piece in an incomprehensibly large gallery.

I don’t believe that she would change her tone. Quotes such as “the narcissistic enclosure inherent in the video-medium,” would likely remain, verbatim, but perhaps with even more conviction, considering the popularity of video blogs. I do believe that one change to her thesis might come in the form of discussion on videos that mainly revolve around audio, such as those that contain commentary from one or more individuals over another’s footage. I believe that this would represent one of the evolution’s of video art for Krauss, in that people can now indelibly record their voices in a similar manner to their bodies. Like the images of the human body, the human voice is typically “framed” such that it sounds as though it is coming from directly ahead of the viewer through their speakers. The people recording these would likely have access to instant feedback of their own voices.

I also believe that the video editing software now available publicly might also factor into her thesis. These software packages often give people instant feedback, particularly ones designed for fast and easy exporting of videos, such as iMovie. Typically, such software will come pre-installed on devices, thus giving anyone with access to an electronic device with a camera the ability to enclose themselves in the narcissistic space of the video medium. Further, I believe that the design of the hardware itself would give Krauss much fodder for analysis.

Most electronic devices produced since the early 2000s has a front-facing camera located directly above the viewing port for the device’s interface. For example, many computers come with a built-in camera above the monitor. Though these were explicitly intended for video chatting with others, much of their use in the last decade has become “selfies” or video recording of one’s own image. This also has the effect of giving the user instant feedback. In fact, most video chat software will include a resizable picture-in-picture frame of the user’s own image imposed over the other participant in the chat. This gives constant feedback of one’s self-image, allowing for constant maintenance of one’s own image in real time.

My intention with this project was to re-contextualize Rembrandt van Rijn's 1645 piece, //The Mill//, into its place in real-world history, as well as highlight the influence it had on many noted painters in the centuries after its release. I placed the mills of other paintings into //The Mill//. Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch are amongst the painters whose work is included in this piece.

Project 1: Essay

Rembrandt’s 1645 painting, The Mill, stands as an early example of a work featuring a windmill as its focal point. Other than a few works by a contemporary Bohemian etcher, Wenceslaus Hollar, the subject matter of windmills seems to have been fairly limited in use up to that time. However, subsequent eras have seen a multitude of paintings either centered around or featuring windmills as important motifs. I intend to show the influence Rembrandt’s Mill has had on subsequent generations of painters. My idea is to have an animated recontextualization wherein Rembrandt’s Mill has the mills of other artists spring up around it. Artists as diverse in style and taste as Willem Roelofs to Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet have featured windmills in their paintings. It is my hope that my recontextualization will not only highlight the influence that Rembrandt’s choice of subject matter had on later artists, but also illuminate the potential reasons Rembrandt may have chosen a windmill as the central point of his painting. I believe that the aesthetics of the windmill, with the compelling, dramatic lines of its rotary blades, combined with its functional value as a grain mill to provide food, were the reasons behind Rembrandt’s choice of it as subject matter. Taking that hypothesis further, it is possible the piece was intended to romanticize windmills as a source of sustenance and life, and possibly as pro-windmill propaganda. Perhaps it was intended to sway the opinions of those who could invest in the production of windmills to view them favorably, even if the painting itself was explicitly said to be a glorification of the aesthetics of the mill. I intend to keep the mill of Rembrandt’s piece the largest in the recontextualization. This, I feel, will help convey the influence that his mill had on later pieces. By densely layering the numerous later windmills, I hope to also communicate the sheer volume of artists who later painted this subject matter, with the result of it becoming something of a cliché in the art sphere. I am also planning to incorporate a shift of color and brightness into the recontextualization, in the hopes of conveying the change in tone that accompanied the later paintings. Whereas Rembrandt’s was dramatic and fairly dark in tone, nearly all of the later paintings depict windmills in very bright settings, without the stormy atmosphere of their predecessor. Hopefully, this will also help convey why Rembrandt’s piece still stands out from later depictions of similar subject matter. Perhaps most importantly, the composition of the original painting will be retained, with the later mills being placed around the landscape in feasible positions for them to occupy. Many of the later paintings have a much different composition, depicting more natural looking landscapes and also usually not making the mill the focal point. Through this, I intend to depict the influence that Rembrandt retains through not just his technique, but also his composition of the painting. Another idea I would also like to implement is to have Rembrandt’s mill blow away a fog that is obscuring the other mills, revealing them gradually. With this, my intention would be to convey the passing on of the idea to use windmills as subject matter. This would also further the idea of Rembrandt’s original mill as the source of this subject’s enduring popularity, as well as a large influence in their appearance.





Removal #1 Masking Images #1 Appropriation Example: media type="youtube" key="mM0-ZU8njdo" width="420" height="315" This song, //I'll Be Missing You//, by Puff Daddy, appropriates large volumes of material from the Police song, //I'll Be Watching You//. The original song's viewpoint and themes, revolving around being a stalker, are discarded and replaced with themes of mourning and remembrance.
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