Environment art 4: Mirrors

For a couple of days I was looking at images of mirrors hoping to find what other people think of them and not just an object to look at. And to my luck I have found a lot of images of how the public sees mirrors. Some of the pictures are more interesting.


The first picture is of an old man looking into a ball that reflects the room he is in, in a distorted fashion. I picked this picture because it shows that a mirror doesn't have to be neat and tidy.




The next image shows a black woman looking into a mirror that shows her as a white woman. To me it show there are no difference between them except colour. But read the text underneath he picture, it shows that this is more of a reminiscent to snow white and the seven drawfs.




The third picture shows a woman looking at her reflection, which shows an old and ugly woman, while from behind she looks quite attractive. However the woman is not even bothered by this. Maybe she sees herself as a beautiful woman, but to us we see an ulgy person.




But my favorite picture has to be the picture of a very skiny girl looking into a mirror and sees herself as a fat person. This shows that some are strugeling with the way they see themselfs. Maybe to us she is too skinny, but in her mind she sees herself as a very obese girl.

Environment Art 3

Okay so I talked to Phil about my what theme I should do for my Environment picture. And I picked mirror. I picked mirror because the mirror is like a portrait that constantly changing and also when looking at the mirror it's like seeing in to a different world. Tomorrow when I go to the uni I will try and find some books on mirror to see what effect it has in cultures and stories. A classic example is that the mirror is the window into ones soul, unlike the photograph which just captures the soul.

Environment Art 2

I actually got some more good ideas for my environment picture, but I don't know if they are too common. One idea is to have a box in a attic, making the audience wonder whats in it, or what was in side the box. Another was a salt shaker with pepper inside it and salt inside a pepper shacker. All of these ideas sound good to me but I can't help but think they are not good enough.
I don't know if Phil want's me to make something mindblowing or something that makes the audience think I don't know.

Maya Building 3

Today I have finished part two of my Maya building.



This part took a long time to make, but I got it done this week. I thought this time I don't rely on the video guides too much because it get tiring. So I thought I could watch some of the guide and guess the rest of the building process. I am working on part three of the building. Just can't wait to see the final scene.

28 Days Later

Yesterday Phil was talking about the uncanny, he was saying that the uncanny can be dolls that looks alive or things that's out of the ordinary. Like a busy town suddenly is quit. He used 28 Days Later (2002) as the example of a populated city that became secluded. I though watching this film would give an example of the uncanny.





28 Days Later is a survival horror and it start with a bunch of animal rights people releasing the chimpanzees from a lab, which they later learned the chimps are infected. One bit from them and you will become a zombie. After all that the entire film is just about a group of people looking for a safe place to stay and wait for the zombie infestation to die out.

The main setting of the film is loneliness. Everywhere our main characters go there's nothing. From populated towns, trains tracks, flats to supermarkets, roads and motorways.
The motorway scene (Figure 2) I have to say is really interesting because on the motorway there is no cars in sight. It looks just like a ghost town, there's no signs of life anywhere. And the fire at the very top of the scene shows' that the main characters are reaching danger and there's no turning back.




To tell the truth I thought this movie will have a lot of action. But it actually shows that living in a zombie apocalypse isn't all about shoot the dead. It's how you cope being alone in a lonely world and trying to stay alive.

Environment art 1

I thought I could ask a bit of help for the theme of my environment.
I had some ideas, maybe a theme that revolves around an animal or a toy. A layout of a hotel, or an empty dinner or restaurant. Or maybe a secluded area.

I just want to make something that can have a lot of meanings or focus around a theme.
Right now I am looking a Joseph Cornell and Jeff Wall, but I thought someone could give me some more people or artworks to look at.
I will be very grateful.

Invasion From MARS!!!! review

Today me and my class was about to watch a different film called 'Dead of the Night', which is a movie that has a lot of shot stories to tell, but something happened with the film so we end up watching 'Invaders From Mars, 1953 '.





The story of Invaders From Mars is that a space ship lands near a house that's outside in a field and a little boy notices it. So when he told his parents about it, the dad decided to go out and take a look at where the space ship had landed, but he got sucked into the sandy area and came out as a different person. Soon everyone started to change into mindless drones, but the military caught wind of this and decided to take action.

The movie is good but the way it's starts is quite similar too Invaders of the Body Snatchers, 1956, as in everyone started to change into emotionless people, and one man learns about this and tries to get help. Only this time a little boy is the one who warns everyone and only two scientist believes him. And I felt when the military hears about this, it feels like an add on the Body Snatchers film, to see how the fight will play out. The funny thing is that this film was made before Body Snatchers.

The setting of the film looks out of the ordinary, the hill in the beginning looks deserted and yet pleasant,





The neighborhood resembles a typical happy homey place, the inside of the police station looks frightening and the telescope building resembles a cannon and the battle between the aliens and humans takes place in the little boys garden was bizarre as well. And it works, I don't think many people might of notice it because it all looks normal.

This film also uses too many special effects near the end and stock footage, but the atmosphere in the end was all about suspense. Will the army unit save the girl, will they find the boy and will everyone make it out alive. All of these questions was flying around my mind.
The ending of the film shows that all of this was a dream made up by the little boy, but later on the event starts up again. I have to say this ending was impressive. I mean the entire ordeal was a dream but it ends with the alien space ship landing in the same area. This ending could be a premonition of whats coming, another dream sequence or the little boy is just crazy.

To wrap this up, Invasion From Mars was an enjoyable film. There were some boring moments, but the acting and the setting was impressive. An example of the acting is the dad. He started out rocky but when he turns into a mindless drone he sound believable and scary.
This film is good to watch but not so much to get too hooked on.