Nam June Paik: Becoming a Robot

Nam June Paik also known as the father of video art was born in Seoul, Korea was intrigued with combining the human body with technological art. He was the first videographer to experiment with developing a new kind of art form that combined electronic media such as TV screens with sound and even live performance.

On his mission to interpret the human body through several of his pieces, Nam June Paik created the “Family of Robot”. The “Family”, although is being exhibited together at the Asia society was separated for many years. The three sculptures represent the mom, dad, and baby. Descendants of robot k-456 one of Paik’s most famous interactive robot pieces, the three robots that are being exhibited come from a series of robots that represent a three-generation family including grandparents, parents and children.

Collectively it is recognizable which robot is which by shape, size and body form of each individual piece. The mother robot differs in form from the father and child because she has wider hips and a slim waist. Where as the father appears to have broad shoulders and is a few inches taller than the mother.

Head size seems to be one of Paik’s many tactics to portray a gender difference. The baby as oppose to the mother and father has no shape and maintains a very rectangular torso. As a child who is not yet developed, robot baby doesn’t seem to portray a gender and consists of the same size screens all through out the sculpture.

Robots mom and dad, had different shaped TV screens in different sections of their bodies in order to enhance interpretation of gender and age. The robots show a series of random images through the screens that add a more technological abstract touch to the exhibition.

I chose this piece because Nam June Paik is in a sense portraying what is happening today with smart phones. The screens all over the human sculptures represent not just abstraction, but how electronics have become a part of the self.

Whether it was through provocative interpretation or experimental robots with his trademark use of screens, Paik was an example of a proactive individual who loved his work. Needless to say it would be interesting to know what he would think about how people currently interact with technology on a day-to-day basis like the use of smartphones.

Scene Composition Review

The film adaption of William Goldings critically acclaimed novel "lord of the flies", portrays the intensity and importance of the scene of Simon’s death with a series of rapid shots, in contrast to the static shots used in the rest of the film. Goldings novel illustrates the degeneration of a group of british schoolboys who crash land on an island during an imaginary World War III. The rapid pace of the shots alters the audiences perception of the murder scene causing a significant contribution to the storytelling of the film. There is a mixture of both silence and noise in this scene that collaborate in order to emphasize and depict the degeneration that the boys have taken. In the the narrative Simon is the christ figure, which is why in the scenes where he is shown the specific shots are silent in order to represent his spirituality. When the boys are shot there is allot of movement in the camera with a combination of primitive screams to emphasize savage behavior. The wide shot is used to show Simon coming out of the woods into the clearing, where the boys are chanting with painted faces that hide their identities. The shots grow in pace when approaching the climax, in this case the climax is Simons death. I feel like the cuts for this scene are obvious to create fast transitions causing a combination of bulky and smooth shots. The murder is bulky, whereas the shot where the ocean waves transition into a floating dead body gradually become smooth.

Panel Review

Codes and modes: EDUARDO COUTINHO: MASTER OF THE DOCUMENTARY ENCOUNTER

A short introduction on Coutinho’s contribution to Brazilian documentary with Prof. Ivone Margulies, Dept. of Film and Media Studies, Hunter College

Screening of JOGO DE CENA (Role Play) (Brazil, 2007, 80 min.) 

Q&A with Ivone Margulies and Prof. Marty Lucas, Dept. of Film and Media Studies, Hunter College

Professor Margulies began by giving a short introduction of Eduardo Coutinho by presenting some of his work and explaining his filming style. The movie ‘Jogo De Cena” was filmed in Brazil and reveals the struggles of many people by having one person telling their story and an actor re-enacting it. 

At a point I thought the people acting were actually telling a true story, but soon realized as he changed from person to person back and forth, that there were two people telling the same exact story. It was funny because some actors were being more dramatic than the actual person who went through the experience. One actress cried and seemed to feel every word she was saying than she chuckled and mentioned that the idea of the baby being described got her emotional. 

According to Margulies, Eduardo Coutinho died earlier this year. Coutinho’s main focus was to shine light on the history of the struggle of the agrarian community. 

Sound Walk

The location I chose is the area outside of Hunter’s west building because it is a highly busy area and I wanted to be able to divide all the different sounds if possible. 

Sitting outside of the 6 train entrance I can faintly hear the train arriving underground. Several conversations of students and by passers congest the area, as a fire truck passes instantly drowning all other sounds with the loud siren for the first few seconds. 

My focus shifts back to the people who carry on with their conversations as if the fire truck didn't swift by. One student talks about her midterm her voice being projected to a group of peers she's with, also reaching the point where I'm sitting not to far from them. She rants about the length and content as one of her peers across from her interrupts and begins to describe one of her professors. 

Another train unloads a group of people as multiple conversations rise up from the underground subway station via the stair case the voices get closer defining them in space. Two guys reaching the top talk about the bar and drinks. 

An old lady asks some students to move over so she can pass while a girl asks for a cigarette and offers a dollar in exchange. Several voices say no sorry, while one voice rises from the background saying yes. The groups murmur and whisper amongst themselves as the girl walks away, her steps sound faint as the volume of everyone else reaches the foreground.  

All of the different sounds were hard to separate since they all seem to immerse into a soundtrack. Surprisingly sitting in an area and trying to decipher each sound really puts into perspective how many things actually go on all around at the same time seamlessly.

Interviewing an vegetarian from michelle viera on Vimeo.

MOMI- Class trip

During the class trip to the MOMI we got the opportunity to interact with different parts of film production, including sound and visual. The first item we got the opportunity to experience was a thaumatrope which has a bird on one side and a cage on the other side of a flat disk. The thaumatrope is the earliest form of combining two images to create one via persistence of vision. During the demonstration the museum guide explained that what made the combination of the image possible was the empty moment in time formed when the disk was flat on its side and neither image was seen, also speed is necessary in order to create the image and the two images that are being combined. 

 We moved on to the Zoetrope next during the tour.  The cylinder shaped zoetrope has slots that allow the viewer to see a running man. The slots create the break in time necessary to build the visual motion. It was nice to see the zoetrope in person.

On a more modern not, we viewed a piece that created an illusion when placed in a strobing light. The on and off effect of a strobing light created the break necessary to portray the illusion that combines all the visuals. Although discussed in class, the idea of needing a break in time and being able to see it in person, made it easier to understand how a moving image is put together or broken down. 

An interactive photo booth, which video taped movement of people posing in front and than chops it up in to pieces so you can create your own flip book. A flip book is often used in animation to create the effect of motion using several images. 

Seeing the many cameras of each generation was interesting because of the change in material shape and sizing. The one camera we specifically went over was a wooden one, which really shows how inconvenient filming was at the time being that over heating of the camera could cause damage of the footage or just burst all together.

 I personally enjoyed going into the soundproof room where people record voice overs. Students got the opportunity to read a few lines and place voice over the school of rock movie. The voice over sounded funny and it doesn’t seem like a fairly easy job. 

Lastly we went over sound reviewing a section of the titanic film and how different each part of a specific scene sounded when turned off, on and broken up into segments. Leading us to the discovery that many of the sounds actually came from animals and even folly artists who use objects to create sound effects for specific scenes in a film. Over all the trip was a good experience and I would love to go back again and learn some more on my own time.