Breillat's Cinema
McLuhan/Media Arts
Electronic Music
Film Music
Orientalsim
GRASP
Godard
Catherine Breillat's Radical
Poststructuralist Cinema
After completing a semester of surveying foundational film and video art texts, I sat down to write a paper on Catherine Breillat. She is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting directors working today, but in doing research I found almost nothing. How can that be? I decided to tackle her work myself.
Her connection to poststructuralism is not entirely surprising given that she is an artist working in the late 20th and early 21st century. However, I was surprised to find a great deal of connections to second wave feminists, especially Helene Cixous.
Read the paper here.
This would not have been possible without the direction and support of Professor Robert Bubp who forced me to always know what I was talking about.
After completing a semester of surveying foundational film and video art texts, I sat down to write a paper on Catherine Breillat. She is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting directors working today, but in doing research I found almost nothing. How can that be? I decided to tackle her work myself.
Her connection to poststructuralism is not entirely surprising given that she is an artist working in the late 20th and early 21st century. However, I was surprised to find a great deal of connections to second wave feminists, especially Helene Cixous.
Read the paper here.
This would not have been possible without the direction and support of Professor Robert Bubp who forced me to always know what I was talking about.
Whatever you personally think of Marshall McLuhan,
he has amazingly predicted our increasingly
computer-oriented world. He was a brilliant thinker
and even if his feelings on media and their
respective applications were sometimes
questionable, they are still a rich area for
exploration.
From that idea, I'm researching the growing field of media arts to see how McLuhan's ideas are being used or ignored. I think it's a shame that with the constant invention of new tools for artistic expressivity so many of us are still creating the same type of art. Often times the application for new media pieces are as silly as using a television to show the pages of a book.
With the study of McLuhan's thought on media in 1964, I hope to apply his theories to media forms that have grown since his death and to see if we're finally beginning to understand media.
I'm working with Professor Day Radebaugh, an expert on the philosophy of technology. I bring the critical theory, he brings the technological theory. So far, so good!
This paper is currently in progress. When it's done at the end of the Fall 07 semester, this is where you can read it.
From that idea, I'm researching the growing field of media arts to see how McLuhan's ideas are being used or ignored. I think it's a shame that with the constant invention of new tools for artistic expressivity so many of us are still creating the same type of art. Often times the application for new media pieces are as silly as using a television to show the pages of a book.
With the study of McLuhan's thought on media in 1964, I hope to apply his theories to media forms that have grown since his death and to see if we're finally beginning to understand media.
I'm working with Professor Day Radebaugh, an expert on the philosophy of technology. I bring the critical theory, he brings the technological theory. So far, so good!
This paper is currently in progress. When it's done at the end of the Fall 07 semester, this is where you can read it.
In Defense of Contemporary Electronic
Music
This is a fairly lengthy paper that touches on a topic I feel strongly about: the casual way that critics and academics brush electronic music with rhythm and groove aside as if it's purely pop drivel. I argue that artists such as Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, and Pan Sonic are composing music that is as artistically valid as anything that has come before it. I'm not arguing that they're writing on the level of Beethoven or Bartok, but they have a new voice and it's worth listening to what they have to say. After an examination of previous aesthetic theories, I found that not only did nothing provide an acceptable way to hear and analyze this music, but that they were almost all in conflict with each other. Therefore, I combined complimentary pieces from each to form a hybrid aesthetic theory, which I then tested on three important electronic works.
The paper is in three main sections: a lengthy survey of previous aesthetic theories, a taxonomy of contemporary electronic music styles, and finally an application of my hybrid aesthetic theory with an analysis of Aphex Twin's Ventolin, Venetian Snares' Szerencetlen, and Pan Sonic's Kesto. Click here to read the paper.
Thanks to Dr. Day Radebaugh, WSU Professor of Philosophy, who provided insightful comments, constructive criticism, and encouragement, and who was perceptive enough to force me to fact-check like I've never fact-checked before!
This is a fairly lengthy paper that touches on a topic I feel strongly about: the casual way that critics and academics brush electronic music with rhythm and groove aside as if it's purely pop drivel. I argue that artists such as Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, and Pan Sonic are composing music that is as artistically valid as anything that has come before it. I'm not arguing that they're writing on the level of Beethoven or Bartok, but they have a new voice and it's worth listening to what they have to say. After an examination of previous aesthetic theories, I found that not only did nothing provide an acceptable way to hear and analyze this music, but that they were almost all in conflict with each other. Therefore, I combined complimentary pieces from each to form a hybrid aesthetic theory, which I then tested on three important electronic works.
The paper is in three main sections: a lengthy survey of previous aesthetic theories, a taxonomy of contemporary electronic music styles, and finally an application of my hybrid aesthetic theory with an analysis of Aphex Twin's Ventolin, Venetian Snares' Szerencetlen, and Pan Sonic's Kesto. Click here to read the paper.
Thanks to Dr. Day Radebaugh, WSU Professor of Philosophy, who provided insightful comments, constructive criticism, and encouragement, and who was perceptive enough to force me to fact-check like I've never fact-checked before!
"Obtrusive Film Music in Godard's
Une femme et une
femme"
This is a short paper I wrote for a class on film music comparing the radically differing approaches to film scoring of Aaron Copland and Hans Eisler. Copland is perfectly content to allow the music to take a back seat to the narrative while Eisler (with help from Adorno) demands that music not be relegated to background noise. We already know that Coplands approach works well for film as entertainment - we aren't asked to engage our minds in a strenuous manner. Eisler and Adorno propose a treatment that is much more difficult to realize. Can music ever truly be equally important as features such as narrative, acting, and mise-en-scene? It's rare, but I believe Godard captures exactly that in Une femme et une femme, his Brechtian musical extravaganza. Click here to read the paper.
This is a short paper I wrote for a class on film music comparing the radically differing approaches to film scoring of Aaron Copland and Hans Eisler. Copland is perfectly content to allow the music to take a back seat to the narrative while Eisler (with help from Adorno) demands that music not be relegated to background noise. We already know that Coplands approach works well for film as entertainment - we aren't asked to engage our minds in a strenuous manner. Eisler and Adorno propose a treatment that is much more difficult to realize. Can music ever truly be equally important as features such as narrative, acting, and mise-en-scene? It's rare, but I believe Godard captures exactly that in Une femme et une femme, his Brechtian musical extravaganza. Click here to read the paper.
"Orientalism in John Zorn's
Forbidden Fruit
and Torture
Garden"
This paper examines orientalism and postmodernism in two controversial works by John Zorn, Forbidden Fruit and Torture Garden. After the release of these two works, Zorn came under intense criticism from the Asian American community where charges of racism and misogyny were leveled against him. I explore Zorn's use of radical orientalism and its connection to special aspects of violent and/or erotic art in Japanese culture. Click here to read the paper.
This paper examines orientalism and postmodernism in two controversial works by John Zorn, Forbidden Fruit and Torture Garden. After the release of these two works, Zorn came under intense criticism from the Asian American community where charges of racism and misogyny were leveled against him. I explore Zorn's use of radical orientalism and its connection to special aspects of violent and/or erotic art in Japanese culture. Click here to read the paper.
"Towards and Artistic Synthesis of
Audio/Video Composition"
This is a short, technical paper that I wrote as part of the Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) symposium at Wichita State University. It was published in a collection of other papers presented during the symposium. It covers my video synthesizer, which was, at that point, still in its initial development phase.
It's also important to point out that where the video synthesizer is now a tool for human interaction, the initial idea was to do an FFT spectral analysis of live audio to control video manipulations. I found that it was difficult to discern relationships between aural and visual changes and that it is much more effective for a human to control the synthesizer. Click here to read the paper.
This is a short, technical paper that I wrote as part of the Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) symposium at Wichita State University. It was published in a collection of other papers presented during the symposium. It covers my video synthesizer, which was, at that point, still in its initial development phase.
It's also important to point out that where the video synthesizer is now a tool for human interaction, the initial idea was to do an FFT spectral analysis of live audio to control video manipulations. I found that it was difficult to discern relationships between aural and visual changes and that it is much more effective for a human to control the synthesizer. Click here to read the paper.
"Godard as Seen Through the Eyes
of Numero Deux
and
Weekend"
This paper outlines the aesthetics (both constant and changing), technique, and philosophy behind the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard. I was inspired to take on a Godard study because A) after seeing Contempt I thought he was a genius and B) because all of the film majors in the class said an understanding of Godard isn't worth the time it takes. Luckily, my film professor felt differently. Numero Deux and Weekend are, in my opinion, two of Godard's most perfectly realized works and, in their post-structuralist way, they offer a wealth of different and simultaneous readings, some of which are explored in my paper. Click here to read it.
This paper outlines the aesthetics (both constant and changing), technique, and philosophy behind the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard. I was inspired to take on a Godard study because A) after seeing Contempt I thought he was a genius and B) because all of the film majors in the class said an understanding of Godard isn't worth the time it takes. Luckily, my film professor felt differently. Numero Deux and Weekend are, in my opinion, two of Godard's most perfectly realized works and, in their post-structuralist way, they offer a wealth of different and simultaneous readings, some of which are explored in my paper. Click here to read it.