cohen
Michelle Temple
New York University: Interactive Telecommunications Program
cute/monster study
I took the opportunity to practice my drawing skills for this assignment after being reminded that you can’t really SEE something until you draw it. For the monster part of the assignment, obviously the whale’s size is the number one fear inducer. I decided to focus on the mouth and eye of the whale, as these secondary parts are the more realistic feared parts (being swallowed or being eye to eye with a monster).
I found most of the cute references to whales keep the animal’s mouth closed as to nicely subside any imagination trails of being swallowed. Eyes are usually enlarged and approachable. On the monster side, the spout was once believed to be poison, so on the cute side I contrasted that with hearts.
Missed Connections “None Of These Are Ever For Me”
Our video:
Our assignment for Video For New Media is to take 20-24 still shots and narrate a missed connections from Craigslist. I worked with the fabulous Alex Kuechenberg again because she’s awesome. We chose this post:
“…because I never go out and nobody knows I exist. Trying to imagine meeting somebody new is like trying to visualize a color never seen before. I have no idea where I went wrong and lost my life. Well, maybe I have some idea… I wonder if a heartattack feels anything like heartbreak? Strange how I instinctively grab the left side of my chest when things really sting. It’s scary to think I’ll never break out of this and my life could be over before I’m 30. I guess I just gambled it all away too quickly. I should have broke it into smaller bills so it would have went further. Things could have been so normal.”
Snake Familar
Our first assignment for Animals, People and Those In Between is to make a self portrait of ourselves as our spirit animal or as our animal familiar. I’ve naturally always been (what word can I use here?) other worldly drawn to whales, however, your spirit animal isn’t necessarily the animal you adore. I took several online quizzes (cheesy but it helped) with results of Tiger, Spider, and finally a Snake. Here’s what the test result said for the snake: “Beautiful and deadly, strong willed, love to explore new things. But please, listen to your familiar, don’t strike unless necessary!”
It was the “But please, listen to your familiar, don’t strike unless necessary!” part that shook me. I’ve been trying to pay attention to patterns in myself that I don’t like because I feel like I’m getting to an age where, unless identified, these fight or flight reactions could have serious repercussions to my happiness in the future. I come from a line of stubborn women that trust and work and give their all … until hurt … then strike! I wanted to face this part of myself, honor it even.
The Day of the Dead festival is my favorite holiday. Many people make paper mache costumes for the Dia de los Meurtos parade that symbolize/portray characters or sides of themselves that they would like to put to rest. I decided to use paper mache in spirit of this holiday with the hope of putting my strike to rest, by acknowledging it.
I had a hard time cueing myself up with the self timer, and actually was quite uncomfortable being in front of the camera. I haven’t taken a self portrait since I was in a photography student in undergrad. I decided on a strait forward portrait, fighting trying to turn the snake into a concept driven piece … face it … that’s what this assignment was about for me.
Hold me, touch me, smell me, hear me (working title) P Comp Final
With a curiosity toward nostalgia and its hard wiring to the sense of both smell and sound, artists Corrie Van Sice and Alexandra Kuechenberg joined me in our final project with the goal to encase said senses in an object desirable to touch. We made several plaster prototypes, successfully hacked into a glade wisp, and created sounds from scratch. With limited time, we’re still working on perfecting the object shape (stay tuned). The shape is most important, as we want to encourage the audience to pick up the object. Using copper integrated into the surface, once the object is held, the conductivity from the holder’s hands activates both the sound and the smell (encased in the object), creating a unique experience to him/her.
Media Controller, “Closer”
Working in groups we made a media controller that detects the presence of a person using an IR sensor. The closer you get to the object, the further it moves away from you. I’d like to finish adding the tri-colored LED’s that Melissa worked on so much to make it complete. Great work team!
Counting Edward Mortimer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovXaKUiTJiQ
Worked with a fabulous team for my Comm Lab film project. Probably my favorite project, no, definitely my favorite project of the semester. Thanks team!
cin skin
Untitled from michelle Temple on Vimeo.
Stupid Guilt
To honor David Letterman and his being a “seething mass of Lutheran Midwestern guilt”.
I, too, am from Muncie Indiana. Like Mr. Letterman I grew up fearing Jesus. Walking home from the train, I passed by a 99 cent store and to my delight my eyes beheld a screen printed canvas of Madonna and Child on sale for five dollars! My stupid pet trick is made to heal the wounds from the sleepless nights I spent as a child wondering what I had/had not done right that day. “Jesus By Day” is a nightlight/painting to put your fears to rest. Jesus is judging you and there’s nothing you can do about it or change it, just go to bed and get some sleep.
I first set up the Arduino to read the values of the photo cell and with an if, then statement dedicated two pins to red led’s for Jesus’ eyes. Once I had this set up on the breadboard and working, I soldered longer wires to the said LED’s and attached them to the canvas. Once this was established, I had to tinker with the values of the photo cells to be sensitive to a lamp near by …. trial and error.
Untitled from michelle Temple on Vimeo.
Sweet dreams!
Untitled from michelle Temple on Vimeo.
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Recent entry
- 2010-06-09
- cohen
- 2010-03-23
- cute/monster study
- 2010-01-31
- Missed Connections “None Of These Are Ever For Me”
- 2010-01-25
- Snake Familar
- 2009-12-19
- Hold me, touch me, smell me, hear me (working title) P Comp Final