Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Hidden Treasures of Australian Art Review


In this video, Griff Rhys Jones is searching to find the origin of a mask. Griff crosses the globe to the remote Torres Strait Islands between Australia and Papua, New Guinea to explore what remains of an unusually creative and warlike culture. Cut off from the rest of the world for most of their history, the islanders were fierce head-hunters who believed in magic and sorcery. Griff eventually found that the mask was used mainly at funerals and was worn by only the best dancer.

In the video, you can see many sacred dances performed for specific ceremonies, materials used by their ancestors used in their costumes and instruments today and the native tongue of the island. These traditions are very important to the people of the islands because 'white man' ruins what they have when 'he' comes around. This is why they choose to be isolated with their own beliefs, family and friends. This also shows respect for their ancestors who gave them what they have today.

A lot of materials used are indigenous to the area; wood, metals, reeds and other plant life. These items are used for more than just instruments and costumes on the islands, showing their appreciation for their culture and area.

"You can't look at objects in isolation. You have to examine the lives, ceremonies and beliefs that created them." What I think Griff meant by this kind of relates to the common saying "You can't judge a book by its cover." As in you can't look at something made by a culture and say "Yeah, this race liked to make masks" because that is not the case at all. They chose to make masks because it represented their people, their beliefs and all around everything about them. They made masks to respect their ancestors, have fun and enjoy life and put themselves in their own world where they are happy.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Second Stop-Motion


I had a lot of fun with my first stop-motion video and felt like I hadn't done enough for this assignment so I decided to make another one. It took a while for me to come up with the idea, but in the end I think the wait was worth it,.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Stop-Motion Project


I have been excited for this assignment for the whole semester. In fact, I was so eager to create this video, I finished it before the class even started theirs. We had to base our stop motions on metamorphosis. Mine took 4 hours and 529 pictures.