My final project for WARP…  We were allowed to do whatever we wanted for this project.  It was for that reason that I had so much trouble coming up with an idea.  There were too many things that I wanted to do!  Eventually I realized that I could take all of the subjects I wanted to make something about and combine then into one piece.

This project is a machinima using Super Smash Bros. Melee.  Each of the four characters in the movie represent a subject that I am interested in (described below in more detail).  In the beginning, they fight for dominance, but soon realize that, together, they created something greater together than they could have done alone.

Here is my original description of the piece:

For this project, we were basically allowed to do whatever we wanted. We did have to turn in a proposal for approval, but other than that, it was free range. As for me, I decided to finish up my collaborative project, thus adding meaning and depth to it. But I soon realized that I did not have the time nor patience to try to finish it so quickly, so I decided to change my idea. After a lot of thinking and not-so-good ideas, I came up with another idea that used the same medium as my collaborative project yet was very different from it.

In this project, there are four different characters, Link, Kirby, Mario, and Pikachu. Each character represents a different aspect of my life—video games, music, computers, and art. In the movie, these characters battle it out with each other, representing my internal struggle I was experiencing while thinking about this project; I just could not decide what I wanted to do, yet all of these aspects of my life were things that I wanted to base the project on, things I wanted to implement into it. Finally, after much fighting and chaos, the characters cease their battle and realize that in fighting for dominance, they have subconsciously created a beautiful and creative work of art. This of course, represents my sudden realization that my idea was in right in front of my face the whole time! Instead of trying to base my project off of only one of these aspects, it was very possible to use them all in the piece. And thus, this work came to fruition.

This project was a fictional collaboration of sorts.  Each student picked two artist names out of a hat, researched them both, then decided one to base his or her piece off of.  I learned that one of my artists, Gary Hill, did a lot of interactive video installations.  This was totally something I wanted to do, so I stuck with him.  For a while I had been wanting to try my hand at machinima (fan-made movies created from video game footage), so I decided to create an interactive video installation using Super Smash Bros. Melee as the video game I would capture my footage from.

There were basically two areas of work for this piece—creating the machinima and creating the interactive installation.  While creating the machinima took a long time, it was pretty straight forward.  I wrote up a script for the story, and I captured the footage.  The captured footage was of my dad (who helped me control multiple characters) “acting” out the scenes in-game.  I then edited the footage together to create the movie.

The interactive part… hoo boy…  In the end, I had three videos  running on three screens (two projections and one monitor) in a small room.  A user could control the three videos as a group or independently  by using a GameCube controller plugged into the computer running it all.  The user could control playback speed, volume, and other video controls (play, pause, stop, next, previous) by using the controller.  Again, the user could control all of the videos at once or one at a time.  Normally, there would be captured footage of Smash Bros. Melee playing on the three different screens (not the machinima), but when the Start button was pressed on the controller, the two side screens (projections) would stop playing video and go black, and the middle screen (computer monitor) would begin playing the machinima.

Unfortunately, getting the programming side to work took so long that I didn’t get to “act out” the entirety of the script I wrote for the machinima, but I was still impressed at how much I did and that it all worked!

Here is my original description of the piece:

This project was actually a pretty cool idea. The first thing we did was choose two names out of a hat, each were artists. We were then to choose one of the artists to use for our project. The actual project was to create a piece which was a “collaborative” work with the artist we had chosen. In other words, we were supposed to research the kind of art the artist did then base our work off of our findings about the artsit’s work. In my case, I chose Gary Hill. Hill is known for his interactive video installations. Naturally, I was ecstatic when I found this out. I immediately knew what I was going to do! I was planning on making an interactive video installation (go figure). I would use the video game Super Smash Brothers Melee as my medium and use the characters of the game to act out a story I came up with. The installation would be interactive in that I would have a Nintendo GameCube controller hooked up to the computer as, basically, a controller for the movie that would be playing.

The installation ended up using three screens—one computer monitor and two projectors, projecting onto walls. I was also fortunate enough to be able to use 5.1 speakers (surround sound) thanks to my roommate.

Prior to showing the piece, I painted the installation room black. I then painted a white rectangle, one each on two of the installation room walls. On these white rectangles, I would then be able to project the movie from each of the two suspended projectors. I also built supports for the projectors (they were up on top of the room’s walls) to ensure they would not fall down and break. Cuz that would be bad…

In addition to these setup steps, I had written a script that the characters from the video game would act out.  To accomplish this, I wrote a fairly extensive computer program that enabled me show the movie on the three separate screens and would allow any individual to use a GameCube controller to control the movie on any of the three screens. Thus, with the program I wrote, I was able to allow a user to manipulate my movie by use of a GameCube controller.

This was the first project for our WARP class.  It was also the first time I had really painted anything.  Each student was to write down six verbs and put them in a hat.  Then, everyone would pick six verbs out of the hat.  Additionally, each student was given a color (picked from a book) at random.  The project was to create six unique paintings, one for each verb, all using the assigned color as the dominant color.  My verbs were “capture,” “connect,” “discharge,” “extort,” “move,” and “shine,” and my color was this really nasty green (the teachers called it “puke” green).  However, I soon discovered that this “puke” green was nearly the exact same color as lights that are often found on electronics, so I based three of my verbs around that.

Here is my original description of the work:

For this project, we were told to make up six different verbs. After each of us wrote down our verbs, we put them all into a hat, then proceeded to pick six each. When we all had our six verbs, we then picked a random color out of a hat. After we all had both our verbs and our colors, we were told that our paintings were to reflect the verbs we were given by using abstraction and the colors we chose. The color each person had was supposed to be the dominant color in each work; not necessarily the most abundant, but rather the most prominent.

This project was really, really fun!  Every year, the art department holds an open house, called ARTBASH, where all of the different art majors showcase their students’ works in unique and creative ways.  Every year the WARP students (WARP is an entry level art studio) make giant inflatables for the show.  We were grouped together, and each group was tasked with making a big inflatable “utopia” out of trash bags.  By using an iron, it was possible to fuse the ends of the trash bags together, making one continuous piece of material.

My group decided to make a giant star.  First we had to design it, to make sure everything would actually fit together and not break when inflating.  Designing and building it took a few weeks, but when we finally blew it up without a single problem, it was all worth it!

At the show, we had visitors write a wish of theirs on a paper star and stick it to the inside of the inflatable (the backs of the stars had tape on them).  Everyone who visited the inflatable loved it.  I still say we had the best inflatable there!

Here’s my original description of the project:

Coolest. Project. Ever. For this project the class was separated into groups of five or six (our awesome group had six). The assignment was to create an inflatable, made out of garbage bag-like plastic, which would be presented as a utopia. Our group decided to make a planetarium of sorts. We designed our inflatable to be shaped like a big star and then have people come inside and place glow-in-the-dark stars, with some of their wishes written on them, inside the inflatable. You could also just go inside, lay down, and relax (which was, in fact, very relaxing).

Although I had used Flash a few times before for small things, this was the first time I ever made a hand-drawn animation with it.  It was also the first time I used a Wacom tablet.  I think it belonged to the computer lab, and I had get special permission to use it, but thank goodness I did.  I can’t imagine how difficult this would have been using a mouse to draw everything.

As the title suggests, this assignment was to create some sort of metaphor with the medium of our choosing.  I chose to do a Flash animation because, as I said, I had never done before but had always wanted to.  The metaphor in this piece is about friendship.  Wherever you go, however far away you are, however long the separation, friends will remain friends.

Here is my original description of the piece:

I had a very difficult time starting this project. The problem was that I just couldn’t think of a good metaphor. One day while I was trying to think of some ideas, I looked up at my wall on my calendar to see what day it was. As soon as I looked at the calendar, it hit me! You see, the calendar has students’ pictures from my high school senior class on their birthday months. You must also understand that my class was a very close one. Everyone knew each other; everyone was friends with each other. A few weeks earlier, we had all gone off on our separate ways to college. Yet despite this, we all remained (and still are) very close. This is what I decided my metaphor would be about–friendship.