Tripod, Shutter-release Cable, Lighter Fluid

Since I want to play with the imagery of fire I chose to light some shit on fire. I had some lighter fluid lying around and some things that I din't mind setting fire too. Probably the most interesting results came from The wood structure I used, I saw in the results that fire would warp around things that weren't burning, creating an effect on the fire that seemed to give it the look reminiscent of breath. I felt that the way I was moving with the project could be better. I decided to change from a sort of hand crank design and drew inspiration from an old night light that I used to have. I remember it had sliced vents on the top in sort of a propeller configuration so it would use the heat from the light bulb to power the rest of the structure. The rising heat through the vents created motion, I think that having a sort of artificial fire powering the image of a fire to be an interesting concept. Heat is essential to both but one has to do with combustion while the other has to do with illumination. I have decided to create a basic rig for different slide collections to go into. These slides will have to do with the basic elements that are essential to human survival. I will make a slide set that has to do with shelter, for this one I want to use the imagery of fire to represent warmth and hearth. The second will represent food, for this set I want to use the imagery of a deer running. The third set will have to do with water, this set is the least developed of the bunch. Im not sure whether I should represent it with the imagery of a boat or the imagery of the actual consumption of water. My timeline for completion would probably no more than two weeks. I would spend the first week working out the logistics of getting the propeller shape at the top of the slide cylinders to work properly within the basic structure. The next week would be spent perfecting the imagery. I want to draw the images by hand using pen, pencil, and watercolors. The overall construction of the main housing structure would be made out of wooden dowels each filled with a translucent paper material, like wax paper, tracing paper, or maybe rice paper. The actual slides would be made from the same materials from above, perhaps something fully see through like cellophane or transparency paper. I think the most difficult part of this project will be figuring out the motion aspect of the night light and getting the correct look to the slides that I want to accompany it. 

Presistance of vision is what makes movies possible!

I did some quick google searing and I found this nifty video.
Link

Concepts to be explored

This assignment is pretty interesting, I like the idea of thinking about cinema as individual frames and how the audience approaches them. I have always played with different sorts of stop motion and have gotten some interesting results. This time around though I feel like my work will be coming from a more informed perspective.

The first idea I have is to make a large box, that is like a peep show. The box will be self contained with a light source beside the peep slot to illuminate the images passing by. I want the mechanism to be powered by a hand crank on the side of the box. I have been thinking about the mechanics of getting images to slide past the peep slot and I want to stick with a basic mount that will be made of a bicycle tire. The tire will be connected to the crank with a bike chain and the viewer will get to experiment with different speeds and how the image is effected by the amount of force put into turning the wheel. The image that will be portrayed is something that I am still working through. I want to play with the idea of the origins of entertainment, when we were all cave dwellers who would sit around a fire and tell stories, This idea led me to an image of modern entertainment burning. So some of the things that I want to capture and transfer for this model could be a number of things, eg. Burning Dvd Boxes, Burning a Television or computer, burning an Mp3 player, etc.

The second idea I have been playing with is making a Viewfinder slide show. These toys were not always just for children, often in the past they were reserved for adults to enjoy sights from far away places in futuristic 3D. Today we find these toys in the bargain bind, people have turned a cold shoulder to these interesting machines. I wanted to approach this very seriously, giving the view finders subject matter a sense of importance. I think I can achieve a number of ways. First I could compile "Seven Wonders of Memphis" much in the style of the "Ancient Wonders of the World." This module has been used to sell an eclectic mixture of the best an area has to offer for many years. Since the days of Worlds Fairs. Another interesting subject matter to explore would be an alternative short narrative. Much like the makers of religious Viewfinder slides I would like to make the anti-christs slide set, or the slide set of a good capitalist. Over all I see Viewfinders as an interesting and powerful model for conveying images, so again like the first this is about figuring out an engaging and powerful narrative to insert.

The final concept that would be interesting to explore would be an analogue collage animation made on an animation stand. I have always loved the way older collage animations look, like Fantastic Planet, so the aesthetic would be very homemade. As for subject matter, I would like to avoid a narrative and perhaps try and capture the essence of Fear. Animation is a wonderful medium to work in because as an artist you are allowed to be as abstract as you want, without fear of pulling the audience from the suspended state of disbelief. This being said, capturing the essence of something, like Fear, would work great within animation because of the limitless potential for abstraction.