appropriate! (the verb, not the adjective)

coming into this semester, i was immensely interested in using found footage combined with real objects. appropriation in general is very appealing to me. from recycling would-be trash (cereal boxes, dead light bulbs, etc.) to long-lost commercials found on youtube, i find it challenging, exciting, and rewarding to make new art from old crap.

i'm a collector, or a pack-rat if you want to call me names. i hold on to things forever, thinking there might be a use for them some time down the road. (and the occasional truth of this philosophy is why i just continue to amass all this junk.) furthermore, we as humans are continuously told to "reuse! recycle!" lest we bury ourselves in our own consumer by-products. i find this sentiment particularly poignant as we enter this age of disposable media, wherein we're virtually buried, or oversaturated, by online EVERYTHING. i think my brain melts a little in such instances where i go on ebay and buy the old taperecorder that someone held onto for 30 years, thinking that i'll use it to make some new work of art, only to learn that i can't because it doesn't work properly, but man it looks cool, so i should keep it just in case i want to put it on display when i one day have a shelf for it, but it did come in that sturdy box that i'll kick around my dining room floor until i use it to make a set for a different animation which i will capture digitally and put online for someone to find and download and clutter up their harddrive until they eventually put it in the "recycle bin," which ironically permanently erases it.

seriously, i find these connections very fascinating. of course, the more i try to develop imagery with found materials, the more i become aware of the limitations:

1. inflexibility - getting pre-existing objects and video to do something new. i am referring here to visual "newness," as opposed to perceptual newness that i feel is almost automatically achieved through juxtaposition of disparate, found elements. i seek to manipule the video and objects so that they embody the fluidity and dynamism of animation, while maintaining their original appeal.

2. integrating set video into a scene - getting found video to look like something other than a window of youtube within a bigger frame, and i don't mean just putting an afterEffects filter over it! old video has as much evocative power as old toys, electronics, and other objects. however, i think it's a whole other challenge to create original, moving imagery from pre-exisiting, moving images.

3. actually acquiring the exact objects that i imagine - for example, i would love to create imagery with one of those late 70s/early 80s tv with wood-paneled sides and big silver knobs. however, i am having a surprisingly hard time finding one for purchase. apparently no one wants to pay shipping for an item that size.

so... i thought i would look to Eric's class for potential ways to get around these limitations. visual effects is the blending of separate elements into a whole new, seamless scene. i love that the industry's history is rooted in magic and visual trickery and making things happen that no one had ever seen before.