Ashley Long - Solo Together Exhibit

Bethany Taylor 

American, born 1969 

Runoff Verdure 

2014 

                    Bethany Taylor's Runoff Verdure uses fiber to create images of animals, all connected to one another and to the center photo tapestry of a wooded space in Florida. The concept was to draw attention to the increase in poison run off in Florida's waters and surrounding ecosystems, harming its wild life and our own fresh water. Upon first inspection, I definitely saw the way in which all of the animals of the ecosystem were connected with one another, in this sense, with thin strands of fiber, reflecting the way they were all connected through the ecosystem. I really admire the technique and patience it must have taken to create a decent likeness to each of these animals and then connecting them afterwards.

Celeste Roberge 

American, born 1951 

Ocean Floors II 

2010 

                    Celeste Roberge's Ocean Floors II reflects the radiation found in all metals by displaying a variety of pots and pans that each have a bright yellow or red center, similar to that of hot iron. The colors of radiation shown in these pots and pans are not usually visible, so this display shows something that usually goes unnoticed. This piece was also dedicated to the artist's parents, as they are "reflected in the thin layer of…gold and copper leaf that overlays the elemental iron and radiates through time and space". I initially thought this piece would have something to do with the actual function of the appliances and possibly gender roles and intertwining that with the toxicity of radiation. My first assessment appears to be wrong, and after reading the artist's statement, the piece seemed to have a sweet kind of reference to the artist's parents being as precious as the metal used and their memory radiating through time and space. 

Ashley Long - "Encounters"

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“Encounters”

            Chance encounters can end up being the foundation of very meaningful relationships, usually developed through a continuous dialogue between two or more individuals. The beginning dialogue tends to be verbal and, after the initial awkward stages of a budding acquaintanceship, friendship, or romantic relationship, physical contact becomes another way of communicating between most individuals – comforting hugs, enthusiastic high fives, and so on. However, what kind of a relationship would spring from physical contact early on, in the form of holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes for five minutes? Would the two individuals performing this action together communicate in nonverbal ways, developing a relationship through a form of silent dialogue?

            This question was a large part in inspiring this project. Knowing that strangers, in certain situations, can have a large impact on someone’s life even in a short span of time is an interesting and wonderful concept. Marina Abramović, for example, only had to acknowledge anyone that sat in front of her, and the responses from that short interaction were astounding. People would start crying or feel so inclined as to strip themselves, which was entirely unexpected, but that’s exactly the point. When two people are made to acknowledge each other, what will their reactions be? As emotional as the partakers in Abramović’s The Artist is Present, or will it more likely be awkward and tense since both individuals are strangers to one another, and neither is a well-known artist.

            With this project, I asked several strangers to sit across from each other at a table and hold hands, looking into each other’s eyes for five minutes without any verbal communication. I interviewed them before and after, asking questions regarding the activity and gauging how uncomfortable they might be during the activity compared to how they felt afterwards. This project, while being focused on the silent interactions of strangers, was also an exercise in openly acknowledging those unknown to ourselves and willingly doing so for an extended period of time. We, as a human race, are so divided by our own labels and attempts to catalogue one another that we force ourselves into societal boxes and ignore, for the most part, anyone outside of them. We are all strangers to on another, but we are all also people deserving to be acknowledged and embraced by one another.

It was nice to see those boxes willingly forced open, if only for five minutes.

Ashley Long - "I Am" inspired by "#IAMSORRY"

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Ashley Long - Draft Pieces

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Ashley Long - Homework (11/19)

Project 4 Proposal

          Relationships have always been interesting to me, the way people interact with one another whether it's people who don't know each other at all or friends that have known each other for decades. I also like thinking of the relationships between one person and the rest of the people in the world, the empathy someone can have for a huge expanse of people or the complete indifference someone could have towards a person that is in desperate need for help. That's what I want to explore in this project.

          I would like to take a group of people - large or small, depending on how many I can get to agree to help me - and put them in situations where they have to interact with another person that they are completely unfamiliar with. I thought of using what I saw in the movie we watched as inspiration and having two people stare at each other for five minutes, but that seems like too simple and too obvious of a task. It doesn't require much cooperation and I don't think it would necessarily reveal anything. Therefore, I'm going to come up with a task that requires the cooperation between two people who know nothing of each other. I will record this interaction, possibly with added background sound although I'm not sure what I would use yet, and then follow this up with an interview of each person, asking them how the experience was for them. 

          My ideal scenario would be to place these two people across from each other in chairs, with or without a table between them, and to have them perform whatever task I come up with together in front of a white background, which will most likely end up being my living room. The walls are all completely white and I have a perfect space, although I will definitely need to work on fixing the lighting. I have already begun enlisting people in this possible project - currently having three available participants as of this post - and plan to record these events over a period of two or three days in the case that some of the participants are unable to come in on a specific day. 

          I hope to have everything figured out by the end of class on Monday so that I can get a head start on everything, hopefully having filming done a few days before the project is due (if not sooner) so that I will have sufficient time to edit. I am going to use my Nikon D3200 camera as well as a few other cameras simultaneously so I can get varied angles. I will also be using my Snowball Microphone to record the interactions to have unified sound quality. I will be thinking of what task(s) will be performed by the volunteers, possibly asking outside sources for advice. Ideally, I want this video to represent strangers working together, despite not knowing one another; a piece of unity regardless of acquaintance-ship. 

Ideas

• My proposal is the idea I feel most strongly about. I would love to get strangers together to perform a task together to exemplify the idea of working together in spite of not knowing each other.
• A less communal idea I had involves someone cooking in the kitchen, paying attention to the utensils and ingredients they use. It would begin more or less normal, but eventually escalate to utter wastefulness where the person is wasting more food than (s)he plans to actually use. This would be representative of the wasteful consumerism that seems to be really popular, and has been for some time. I don't feel as strongly connected to this piece, but I would be interested in trying to play it out.
• Finally, I had an idea similar to Yoko Ono's or the Stanford Prison Experiment, but with a lot less actual physical harm done. It would involve inviting a group of people to draw or write phrases on one or more volunteers (one probably being me, in this case) that they would either like to preform or say to the person. This would need to include some sort of anonymity, otherwise the individuals wouldn't feel comfortable putting their actual feelings or desires in a public sphere. I feel the least connection to this piece since I feel like it's almost a watered down version of Yoko Ono's piece, but by the same token, I think it would reflect more of the inner thoughts than the plausible actions of people (i.e. someone might think they want to shoot another person, but they might never actually do it).

Red Tapes

• Acconci uses a few different voices, letting them overlap at times. From what I inferred, after reading the blurb about the piece being a "topography of the self", it seems that the whispering voice could be the self conscious, the regular voice could be his narration of events or just his regular voice to represent his normal way of interacting, and the lower tone voice could have to do with emotions or the lack thereof, as it went from saying very simple, emotional things to even simpler, emotionless things. It seems like there are also times when he is performing as people such as guides.
• 
  
• I still don't entirely comprehend the story. I think it was a soldier that became a prisoner, but it was very difficult to follow for me. In any case, there were references of nationalism that were obvious - such as when he was silhouetted in front of the American flag, reading off different states, and when he repeatedly states "we are the people". There's also an instance in which he is describing the Kennedy assassination, but it was awful graphic and I don't think it was very nationalistic in that sense. He also says "no country, wild is the wind" which could either be nationalistic or revolutionary. He makes another mention of revolutionary acts closer to the beginning, and shows images of men most likely in the war among others before slamming his hand repeatedly on the table. It makes me feel as though he had a deep connection in a nationalistic way that may have been betrayed by the president (which would inspire the grotesque imagery and the slamming of his hand on the table) in a situation where he was arrested, most likely involving a murder.
• 
  
• The multiple visual elements made me think of a constant shift in thought, from thinking of events that had happened before (still photographs) to trying to recall places or visuals (paintings and pictures of landscapes) to just thinking and remembering events without visualizing anything at all (pure vocals, no visuals). There were many instances in which he was talking to himself, or thinking to himself, which led to peculiar visuals including the (found?) objects lying across the floor boards that led to the paintings and pictures of landscapes and vegetation both on the floor and along the wall. There were also instances of him silhouetting himself against a background, making the background almost a representation of himself at the time of the thoughts, like when he was talking about electroshock therapy with a lightning bolt behind him.
• 
  
• As I said, the details of the story he was trying to narrate were hard for me to truly capture. But I do feel as though there was a soldier that somehow felt betrayed by his country, and that a murder took place that either seemed to be or was, indeed, his fault. As a result of this, he was imprisoned and thereafter thought of revolution against the government that "betrayed" him or revolution to instill a better government without necessarily feeling betrayed. The images of the man in the cop car and a man behind jail bars followed by his slamming his hands on the table created a sense of animosity towards whatever events unfolded. He also became increasingly agitated as he repeated "We the people" as if the phrase or its implications created some sort of frustration for him, which makes me feel as though he did not feel represented in that statement anymore.       

Notes

whispery voice - narrator,inner thoughts? self conscious
person - talking about revolution
deep voice - emotions, up front thoughts
videos of himself vs videos of landscapes from book (intense music accompaniment, his voice joins in)
overlapping deep voices - multiple narratives/emotionless
map of america, lots of lines across
regular voice - just his regular self, narrator
videos of closed spaces, walks into the frame
pictures of cars, music, voiced car sound effects, narrative, moves into frame, telling a story?
more closed spaces, narrative, into frame out of frame, murder?
no imagery, a voice trapped, he was the murderer?
a floor with random things on it, random talking, found objects?, painting of leaves, picture of trees, pictures of landscapes, train narration, temperature narration, directions, back to the first objects, different states being stated
Times being stated as well as actions during that time, no visuals
silhouette, slow voice, talking about Kennedy's assassination, disgusting visuals
his face, lightning bolt behind him, other half of face, tornado?
different halves of face, different visuals
dramatic music, no visuals
images of buildings, walks into frame making sound effects
talking to himself, no visuals, fades out
floorboards and talking about nature and people, more landscapes, tables with paintings/pictures
whispery voice - death of son, leading listener, death of daughter, no visuals
finger trailing maps, double voice - "no country", "wild is the wind", upbeat music follows
silhouette in front of american flag, talking about moving to avoid freezing, buried alive, ghosts
whispery overlapped voices, image of two statue figures holding up a bar?, different images of statue figures doing the same thing
voice saying to "remember", no visuals
image of a man, vocal music, talking about strokes, man is now bald, altering the image of the man, man is aging (different man?), fades out
voice saying we are the people faster and faster, gets cut off
car sound effect, different images of people, slams hand against table
END TAPE 1

Ashley Long - In Class "Maria Abromavic" Exercise

The Gaze

                    I don't handle awkward situations well, so I had to stifle my giggling for the first minute or two. Afterwards, I kind of let my eyes focus on one eye or the other, my vision becoming a weird, bright kind of hazy if I didn't change my focus. When we were both able to be quiet, I was able to focus on small details like the dark edge of her iris and the dilation of her pupils. There wasn't really any emotion that took me away in the five minutes - I think because it was a kind of forced interaction and because we know each other, so we couldn't help but find the situation a little silly. If it weren't for my usual awkward nature, I might have opened myself up more to feel something powerful within the five minute gaze, but I was not able to do that this time, so I took a much more analytical approach in noticing all of the small details of her eyes.

Drawing

          It was interesting trying to fit five minutes worth of drawing into the time frame. I ran out of ideas of what to do, so I started overlapping.

Ashley Long - Under the Skin Reflection

Under the Skin

**Spoilers**

          Under the Skin stars Scarlett Johansson as a succubus of sorts. In the beginning, she lures men into her vehicle with small chat and offering to get them where there going. Shortly after, she takes them to her place, where she then lures them into what is some kind of dark liquid-tar substance that absorbs them and then removes their skin from their insides. After meeting a deformed man and luring him into her "lair", she has a change of heart and decides to let the man go. This event seems to lead to her wanting to stop abducting and killing men, as well as an odd sort of self reflection in which she is trying to be more "human". Unfortunately, even after finding genuine affection for a human man, she is reminded of her inhumanity and runs off into the woods. Shortly after, she is assaulted by another man that most likely intended to rape her until he reveals that she is actually an alien shielded by an outer layer, or mask, of human skin. He proceeds to douse her in gasoline and light her on fire, ending her life as well as the movie.        
          The film itself was interesting, albeit confusing. They utilized jump shots to their advantage, both to create a sense of quickly lapsing time and to create an atmosphere of confusion (30:00, 41:20, 44:50 are a few examples). They also had a scene in which everything was sped up (38:10), both to pass time and to create a sense of oddity. I do feel like there were many scenes that were unnecessarily drawn out, as if the filmmakers couldn't decide which scenes they liked more so they kept the entire five minutes of mirror inspection in the final cut. This may also have been intentional to create a feeling of uncanniness or discomfort which was effective, but it was a tool used too often in the film that made it far too drawn out. The use of eerie sounds were also very effective without being overused. The sound (used at 56:34) generally indicated that something bad was about to happen, usually right before someone was taken into Johansson's mystery adobe to become...people mulch, I suppose. There was also a moment in which multiple scenes and faces were piled on top of each other visually with Johansson's face in the center (47:24). It was almost like seeing through beer goggles, which made me think it was being utilized to pass time as well as to bring back that sense of dizziness or confusion. A few of the random cinematography bits I enjoyed, not including every scene with amazing framing and wonderful technique since there were too many to count, included the car interior shot of Johansson leaving (64:30) and the following white out scene, the motorcycle tracking (64:30), the overlap of Johansson napping (92:37), and finally the very last moment where the snow begins to fall on the lens of the camera (100:56).
          Honestly, this was one of the creepiest films I have ever seen. I couldn't rewatch the beginning on account of the really grotesque (but really well executed) scene of the man getting his insides sucked out of him, leaving his skin. That was too much for me, and it made me sick; but it was really well done and completely unexpected. The movie itself was very confusing and difficult to completely understand - Why were those babies there? Did it have to do with the idea of sexuality being for procreation, and not for recreation? Was the people mulch meant for the aliens, or for Johansson alone? What was up with the motorcycle guys? - and I think that took a lot away from enjoying the film. But it was also far from cliche and extremely captivating to watch, even if I didn't know exactly what was happening the whole time. All in all, it was a pretty good movie - but I wouldn't watch it again by myself.

Ashley Long - Project Three Critique

Project Three Critique

           For the most part, I am really happy with the response I received at critique. Everyone seemed to have the appropriate reactions to the beginning, middle, and end (more or less). I am a little disappointed with how the second half turned out as it did end up sounding more "one after another", as someone put it, instead of pleasantly overlapping. I'm not sure what happened, but I plan to look into it to try to improve the piece in that sense. I was also really glad that everyone liked the song near the end, and that all the sounds came together pretty well. I agree that the cat sound was a little off, but I think it was the quality more so than it was the actual repetition that caused the problem, and that is another thing I plan to fix.

          All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results of this experimental project, and I am definitely going to be messing with audacity even more in the future.

Ashley Long - Draft Reflection

Draft Reflection

A day late and a dollar short

        At the final critique, I was told to avoid doing back to back noises and to, instead, layer them on top of one another utilizing the "auto duck" effect option. I also needed to add more sounds and to edit the length of the "serene" sounds, as well as finding a better way to lead into it. I willdid mess with the effects and add more sounds while editing the previous sounds to improve the project.

Ashley Long - Project 3 "Raindrops"

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“Raindrops”

            Small, annoying things - things that never really seem to matter at the time - can build up on top of each other over a period of time until it overwhelms a person. To get this across, I took little, unpleasant sounds and slowly piled them on top of one another. The sounds individually are not that great to hear, but are not at all unbearable. But the more sounds that join in this symphony of unpleasantness, the more distressing the listening becomes. Finally, after roughly a minute of agonizing noises, I put the listener into a place of serene quiet, with birds chirping in the background. This is followed by other pleasant sounds, such as coffee brewing and animals panting and purring happily. The final two sounds are of BJ Thomas’ song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and a baby’s laughter to counteract the very first sound of a baby crying loudly.

            On a daily basis, everyone hears these kinds of sounds and, if they let it all build up, become overwhelmed by all of the small things. The point of this piece was to audibly portray someone going through this at a much faster rate until they find something to calm them down. For me, it was the outside – away from industrial sounds and busy, noisy work. I even drove in the car and happened to hear Thomas’ song on the radio at the same time I was recording. It seems like the most appropriate song for this particular project, and the fact that it just so happened to come on at that point in time made me feel as if I had to put the recording at the end to tie everything together. In short, when everything is starting to get you down, it’s wise to find a quiet place for yourself where you can take in all of the pleasantness of life instead of focusing on the frustrating noises.

In-Class Group Exercise 11/12/14

Vimeo link

Ashley Long - Project 3 Draft

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       My project idea has remained the same, although I do need to do some research into how to alter sounds to fit my needs. I still want the beginning to start with frustrating or just annoying sounds that elevate to almost unbearable screeches (maybe a little less than that), and then drop into a subtle forest or calming sound. I personally find that sitting outside is not only calming, but it also symbolizes a relief from daily life and industry, a primal auditory vacation of sorts. When the noises begin again, they are relaxing sounds, or the happier (or less annoying) versions of the other sounds. It's supposed to be the same situations with the same scenes, but the person begins to acknowledge the lighter side, the calmer side of it. A dog barking transitions to a dog panting happily; a cat hissing transitions to a cat purring; an alarm clock to coffee brewing; a crying baby to a laughing baby, etc. etc.

Ashley Long - In Class Exercise (11/3)

Exercise One - X

We would repeat the one through five countdown, each time altering one of the numbers with a different sound. We would choose another number to alter each time until we were eventually left with nothing but random sounds.

Exercise Two - X

Ashley Long - Project Three Idea & Sounds

Project Three

          For this project, I'm going to take a variety of annoying sounds - a baby crying, an alarm clock, dogs barking, etc. - and begin with them going at a regular pace, one after another, but eventually becoming more hectic and overlapping. As time goes on, the sounds will become distorted and create a strong sense of discomfort and annoyance as the unpleasant sounds are repeated until a pleasant, quiet sound comes in, most likely of a serene outside area. After a moment or so of this kind of quiet, the nicer versions of the previous sounds - a baby laughing, a coffee maker, a cat purring, etc. - will play one after another until the last sound fades into quiet. This is meant to be representative of how carried away people get with negativity, letting little things become so distorted and awful that it begins to turn into something terrifying and dreadful to hear; a symphony of negativity. But when we take the time to breath and go somewhere quiet and peaceful, we can see the good that overpowers that same negativity.

Soundcloud Link: X

Ashley Long - Homework (10/28)

Project 3 Brainstorming

       I've had a couple of ideas, including:

1. Audio beginning with small annoying sounds with pauses in between, such as a baby crying followed by a pause and then a dog barking followed by a pause, etc. The sounds would eventually become louder and would overlap each other, perhaps changing in pitch and speeding up to create an almost unbearable tune. At the apex, a pleasant sound, like that of an empty forest or something, would slowly come forth, quieting the aggressive sounds and filling the room with serenity. This would be followed by the pleasant sounds associated with the former annoying sounds - instead of a baby crying, it would be a baby laughing, a dog panting, etc. 

2. This idea focuses more on the lack of an ending, or a satisfying one, anyway. There would be numerous sounds, one after another, each of them beginning quietly and then growing louder and louder, increasing anxiety and anticipation until it reaches an almost climax - but stopping abruptly before it, creating an "infinite anticipation". 

In Class Exercise

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Homework Sounds

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Ashley Long - In Class Exercise (10/27)

John Cage's "Imaginary Landscape No. 1"

       I avoided looking at the visuals so that I could focus on the audio of the piece. The repetition of the initial humming sound that begins low and gets higher makes me think of a reoccurring event, such as the sun rising and falling, or a beam of light from a lighthouse that circles around and approaches the viewer for a moment, then fades away, only to return on the next go around. The dramatic sounds in which there is an absence of that repeated humming makes me think of a paused moment in time in which a specific, non repetitive event is occurring as opposed to the repeated instance. An example that I imagined in particular was a large animal walking through an imagined forest and leaving marks of its presence there, or a large machine that interrupted the usual and mundane events of this specific space.

       This piece, based on the repetition and the title itself, functions as an environmental piece. The sounds envelope the listener and put them in a space where they become familiar with the humming that rises and falls, and are off put by the sudden dramatic "stomping" that interrupts the regular flow of sound. The different noises are composed to create a certain feeling of normality and structure in a way that I would imagine sitting in a wooded area might. The sounds create a scene of such, and the random dramatic flourishes signify a specific and possibly unnatural, or at the very least unusual, event happening in this normally predictable space. 

Ashley Long - Project 2 Reflection

Project 2 Reflection

       I was extremely pleased with the way my project was received in critique. I'm proud of this piece because it came together as well as I had been hoping it would, and it was really fun to actually do. It is also a piece I would love to branch off of, asking more people and recording them doing the same thing. A lot of people said it was therapeutic, including myself, which I was happy with, and I think it would be neat to have a sort of broader experiment with more people involved to help get the point across even more so. 

       To further see how it would be received, not just by my class but by non art students, I shared my project on Facebook. It's received very good reactions from there as well, furthering my resolve to try this again once I have the means to more participants and time. The only thing I did not like was the grainy essence of the close up shot. Next time, I plan on using two or more cameras at once - one for the whole video from the same angle as this one was taken, and one or two more for different close up angles so that the quality isn't lost in the transition.

Ashley Long - Project Two Artist Statement

Click here.

Project Two Artist Statement

            After a lot of deliberation on this project, I finally decided to lean toward something more personal to me, but something that is also universal to everyone affected by media, social networking, advertising, and even their basic surroundings. I focused on the bodies of two “anonymous individuals” – although our class understands it was my boyfriend and myself. It begins with these two people walking in front of the camera in front of a white(ish) backdrop, completely revealing their torso areas, save for the woman’s sports bra. Over time, insults and negative thoughts begin to cover their arms and then stomach, and they eventually try to cover this by crossing their arms. The derogatory and mean words continue to cover them, however, until they are almost completely covered in this mess of negativity and they turn around to avoid looking at the camera. Finally, the two end up on the same visual plane where they turn and reveal themselves to one another– their insecurities covering their bodies. This immediately leads to them starting to cover up the hateful lettering with random colors of paint, smearing it across the words until they aren’t necessarily visible anymore. They collaborate to cover up the hatefulness that has covered them until they are almost entirely covered up with random mixes of bright colors. The very end shows each of them, paint covered, with only a word erased out of the bright mess – “Human”.

            I realize this video is probably a little more than cheesy, but the point was to capture that feeling of wearing every negative thing that’s ever been said about you or that you have thought about yourself on a daily basis, feeling like everyone is constantly seeing your flaws or thinking about how “stupid” or “fat” you are, or even things that don’t even make sense for them to think about you, yet you still feel like your wearing these dark emblems that cloud your perception and make you feel covered in negativity. The follow up of that was to display what it feels like to be in a healthy relationship – platonic, romantic, familial, etc. – or even just meeting someone that makes you feel like the insults are no longer following you around, like you are helping each other paint over them and create something brighter to carry with you. I was really happy with how the parts of painting one another came out, because it looked like we were having fun and working together – and that was the point. The final bit with “Human” kind of erased into the paint was meant to replace the way the insults were being formed. Rather than a hateful word, it’s a word that describes all of us, and it’s the only word that really matters. I debated what to actually put in for a while, but things like “smart” and “beautiful” and “loved” all sounded cheesy, and didn’t really create the sense of unification I desired. So, “Human” was the word we wore together in front of the camera for the final cut.

(I'm really sorry if this also sounds cheesy.)

Ashley Long & Tami Moreno - In Class Assignment (10/14)

 It's a video about an object.

Ashley Long - Homework (10/8)

Project Two Draft

Click here.

       I honestly did not like either of my first two ideas, even after talking it over with our guests. I thought I could try messing around with time and such, but the video did not come out the way I wanted at all, so I went in a completely different direction. This is an incredibly rough draft and I plan to have a lot more people involved. I will be asking them the negative things they think about themselves or that they feel other people think about them, and over the course of the video - like this one - we will write them all out on them. I do feel like they should be shirtless for it, since it creates an "exposed" kind of feeling, but I'm not sure how many participants I would lose if that were the case. I'm also thinking over the course of the video, things might get faster and more distorted if it flows well. I tried that in one of the versions in that clip, but I can't tell how well it came out.