For the photomontage assignment I chose a handful of my images to prompt the question of what is “real” and what is “artificial.” In both images the backgrounds are landscape pictures. All of the other images were taken a couple of weekends ago at a music festival. I thought that what I captured there worked well for this assignment given the nature of such festivities. While festivals are very real and everyday people attend, the idea and environment are both very fantastical.
First is the fantastical. I chose this particular background for this montage because when I look at the original image it is very peaceful and symmetrical – a street in a neighborhood that is very proper and quiet. The other layers consist of image selections taken from a very loud and outrageous setting – the girls sitting on a bunny statue with antlers, one girl in a crazy costume, the face of another in the center of a flower, and the girl in cutoffs and a tank top, taking it all in. I upped the brightness and the contrast to add to the unreal nature of seeing such a spectacle on the streets of such a neighborhood. serene image is completely transformed by bizarre ideas like a rabbit with antlers and girls in colored wigs.

However fantastical festivals and their attendees may seem, there are very real elements you do see on a regular basis. A boy playing in the mud or a little girl chasing a frisbee. I chose this background because I think it gives a sense of isolation. The children are on this small sand bank on the edge of a vast, unknown area. Children are not fully aware of what is happening around them, they just continue doing what is known to them which, in this montage, is getting dirty and leaving your shoes behind and chasing a Frisbee without any concern towards where they may be. I always enjoy watching children from afar at music festivals, represented by the hot air balloon. My photomontages take calm environments and turn them into real, yet unbelievable environments

Phish Festival 8

If you're just staring at your walls, then this one is for you . . .

http://www.michaelmarantz.com/motion/phish.html

Another Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4c6c6ix7P4


For my experimental video, I wanted to focus on reality versus illusion and the moods that evoked. I think it is important to think about, especially in the realm of digital media. The first video footage I took was at the concert and at the lake. I was intrigued by the contrasting nature of the two places, the crazy, loud show and the peaceful, quiet park. However, at the concert I felt very peaceful like I didn't have a care in the world, and at the quiet park I had a million things running through my mind. From this idea, I decided to create a dream-like video that touches on the fast-paced and relaxed sides of life and how emotions seem to, at times, be displaced. It is a weird occurrence, yet very real.

Jenny Marketou

Jenny Marketou was born in Athens, Greece in 1954. Marketou received a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute and is now teaching Photography and Interdisciplinary Studio Art at the Cooper Union School of Art and Science in New York City. Based in Brooklyn, Marketou works with video installations, Internet, performance, photography, and public dialogue. There is no question that Marketou takes interest in the technology available to artists today. Marketou says “although my projects are often discussed in relation to technology and surveillance, I incorporate these concepts along with playfulness, humor, and public participation in order to humanize these with other proliferating issues of social space which I consider imperative issues within our culture” (jennymarketou.com).
When researching Marketou’s work, I found the aspect of public participation most intriguing. Before the surge in technology, the public visited museums, walking through rooms and observing paintings, sculptures, and other works of art created through non-digital means. Now, however, the public is able to actually be a part of the work of art. To Marketou “reality and the flow of everyday life is more provocative then some “art” that we see today” (jennymarketou.com). In “99 Red Balloons: Be Careful Who Sees You When You Dream,” a work that we talked about at the beginning of the semester, 18 red helium weather balloons are anchored to the ground with red MOGU bean bags. Inside of the balloons are small wireless surveillance video cameras so, as people make their way through the exhibit, they are broadcast live on four video screens set up on the floor of the gallery. Marketou portrays the somewhat creepy idea of surveillance in a playful manner. Until this class, I had never heard of Marketou’s work. I can picture myself visiting this gallery and, without knowing anything about the exhibit, putting my face right up to one of the balloons, looking to see if there was anything inside of them and not knowing that someone was probably watching me do this on one of the small screens. Often times we do not know we are on surveillance cameras and if we later find out that we are being watched it sort of evokes an uneasy feeling. But, such is the case in social spaces.
From 1996 until 2001, Marketou created networked environments through the process of collective participation and events with “Translocal: Camp in My Tent,” an ongoing international and live project. In this time, Marketou set up a tent in public spaces within different cities. She videotaped her experiences in different cities as people approached the tent and received a lot of different reactions based on the city and culture. In NYC park police made her take it down immediately, while Palestine people saw her, a single woman setting up a tent, as a prostitute, creating a long line of male spectators. After setting up camp in numerous cities, Marketou set up the tent in museums and invited visitors to watch monitors one that displayed scenes from the interventions in the cities and one that showed images from surveillance camera placed outside of the museum. Once again, making the public part of the exhibit.
Marketou says that “one of [her] main interests as an artist is to make art that does not necessarily fall within traditional and institutionalized ways of working” (Brown 77), and I think that she does a great job. Her use of video is extremely thought provoking; taking us on a voyage through the world that surrounds us and causing us to think about our place in that world.

Come and Watch the Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights is the musical vision of the ultra-versatile Colorado based producer Derek Vincent Smith, accompanied in the live setting by drummer, Cory Eberhard. Together these two achieve a raw energy rarely reached in the realm of electronic music.
At a time when music lovers from almost all subcultures and genres are finding common ground in the basic form of bangin' beats, Pretty Lights is giving the people what they want; electro organic cutting-edge party rocking beats that fill venues with energy and emotion and send dance floors into frenzies (jambase.com).

After experiencing all that is Pretty Lights this summer at Bonnaroo and Red Rocks, I couldn't help but make the drive to Tampa on a Tuesday night. What can I say? 5 hr. dance parties are good for the soul.

Sea Soiree

Fairy Tale Fasion

Girls everywhere dream of being dressed in elegant gowns as they wait for their dashing heros to sweep them off of their feet. The dresses seen in my beloved Disney movies are, without doubt, fabulous, but nowadays I like to picture myself wearing couture that captivates in editorials shot by famed photographer Annie Liebovitz. A fixture in my modern-day fairy tales featured in Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar, her work always amazes. I was pleasantly surprised to flip through such publications and see her 'Dazzling Dreams' series for Disney, where celebrities imitate some of my favorite childhood characters. In this picture, Scarlett Johansson poses as Cinderella for Liebovitz.