lbonk 210 prototypepresentation

purpose of project

the purpose of this project is to focus attention on how beauty is constructed and how the influence of something that is already seen as "beautiful" can form a juxtaposition with something that is not considered to be beautiful. in this way, the two objects can inform one another (with the aspects of their beautiful nature) to form one object that can be seen as both beautiful and not beautiful. thereby creating a different definition of beauty and furthering the notion of aesthetic.

explanation of prototype

for this project, the design was to use silent film (specifically greta garbo) and urban sprawl for the two opposite sides of the term "beauty". the idea of using urban sprawl then lended itself to the idea of having a large scale installation. for this prototype, however, a smaller scale installation would be performed to test the theory behind the project.

for the prototype, several publicity stills and frames from silent era films were pieced together to form a video track. this track was then overlayed with photos of nighttime freeway traffic in los angeles (for this mockup still photographs were used, however, for the final prototype actual footage is likely to be the source). the inclusion of publicity stills is something that i would like feedback on. (did you find the inclusion of publicity stills useful to the understanding of the premise behind the project? should the stills be removed or should the focus be solely on the publicity stills?) i would also like feedback on the use of the video overlay. (was it distracting? did it serve any purpose?).

media

• prototype mockup installation

• prototype visuals

informative quotations

• "garbo still belongs to that moment in cinema when capturing the human face still plunged audiences into the deepest ecstasy, when one literally lost oneself in a human image as one would in a philtre, when the face represented a kind of absolute state of the flesh, which could be neither reached nor renounced" (barthes)

questions

• what was (the audience) reaction?
• was the overall concept apparent?
• was the concept clear?
• did the installation achieve the goal intended?
• should there be an inclusion of sound?
• did you find the inclusion of publicity stills useful to the understanding of the premise *behind the project?
• should the stills be removed or should the focus be solely on the publicity stills?
• was the video overlay distracting? did it serve any purpose?