Reading Response #3

1. I selected Paul D. Miller's "Material Memories: Time and The Cinematic Image." I chose this article because the title sounded interesting, but also because he is DJ Spooky and I found one of his videos that we watched in Film 114 to be very thought provoking.

2. The first main point of the essay is that ritual is art. Miller describes how Maya Deren was one of if the not the first person to discover this, when she traveled to Haiti to capture the tribal Voudon dances. Miller describes her intentions in the first paragraph of the article, "She sought a new art to mold time out of dance, a social sculpture carved out of celluloid gestures and body movements caught in the prismatic light of the camera lens." Miller goes on to talk about how she influenced what the term "ritual" truly means and how it in itself is one of the most ancient art forms. Miller's second paragraph talks about how we as a human race depend entirely on currency. Money, dollar bills, cash, its what makes the world goes round and often times a few have too much and many have too little. He goes on to explain how Surrealists have determined what our society and culture actually is at this point in time. Today's society is based entirely on how quickly and easily we can do things in our every day lives, regardless of whether or not that central theme in life is deteriorating our necessity to interact with each other. Miller also talks about how our society has become obsessed with celebrity's and the fact that virtually everyone is trying to get their fifteen minutes now. He explains here, "...where identity is for sale to the highest bidder. Screen time. Prime Time. Life as a infinite level video game with an infinite array of characters to pick from." The overall main point of Miller's article is to make you think. He talks about theories and Greek gods and even the Wu-Tang Clan. But he does it in a way that makes want to take another look at our culture today and reevaluate what its really all about.

3. This entire article and everything in it is relevant to my own practice as a media artist because if I do not stop and question what I am being immersed in every day of my life, then all of my natural creativity is lost. Miller talks a lot about how we've progressed as a world and not necessarily in a good way. For instance if I just sit in front of two different screens every day (my TV and computer) while I am not in class for the rest of the year I will not be able to appreciate the work that I do outside of my apartment as a media artist. If I don't take some time each day to simply walk around the environment that I live in and take it in for what it is worth I might as well be dead. I feel as though 95% of what I consume through my computer and TV is complete garbage, that has no real substance or meaning. Miller talks about these kinds of ideas in his article, and that is why it is relevant to my practice as a media artist. Because without creativity and vision in this practice, you might as well not even try.

Video Hardware/Software Response

1. My overall experience with the Olympus digital camera was a good one. I did not run into any serious problems with the camera and I found that it was very easy to use whether I was recording video or just taking pictures. I haven't used a lot of digital cameras in my life, but I have used a few compared to this one, and I would have to say that the Olympus matched up pretty well. The controls were straight forward and when I imported my pics or video to my computer it was pretty much seamless. I would say that I was able to implement my Image Capturing Strategy with this camera. It had enough features that I was satisfied with my work at the end of Drift 2. In an ideal world I would have a six figure camera that shot in HD. Then I would be able to capture my Drift 2 in the highest possible quality and it would turn out stunningly.

2. I chose to use Quicktime Pro to edit my video. I am familiar with just Quicktime and have used it before, but I have never used Quicktime Pro before. I got more and more comfortable with this program, but I felt that the editing options were somewhat limited. I was happy with the my Final Video for the most part, but I think I could've produced something a little more unique had I chosen to use Final Cut or something a little more sophisticated. There's a chance that I would use Quicktime Pro for future projects but I might look into some other software, just to see what my other options are.