Extra Event 2

Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa

Hammer Building, Level 3

Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA) 

Video and Film-Based Works of Africa 

When I saw the advertisement regarding this exhibit, I just wanted to explore this exhibit, because the topic itself sounded very unique. I have never thought about time itself, and this exhibit gave me a great opportunity to think about this very abstract topic "time." 

When I entered this exhibit in the Hammer Building at LACMA, I felt strange by the fact that the exhibit room was too different from what I expected; the room was quite noisy with all the videos and films on, and also the room was very dark with all different colors of light coming from all those videos. 

I was just too confused by the concept, I approached the staff, and asked. He explained to me that in this exhibit, there are videos and films created by five leading African artists, who examined how time is experienced and made by our human bodies. The staff also added that time can be measured but it is quite challenging to understand; I totally felt the same way as I walked around this exhibit. 

Walking around after looking into some of the works, I asked the other staff there, "what is time based art?" She said that time based art repeat, resist, and reverse our expectation that time should move always forward. Especially, three-channel video projection by Bernie Searle was quite interesting. Here, genealogical time was addressed with ancestral family portraits, being tossed by the winds and waves of generational loss. It was quite surprising and shocking that people could come up with this kind of idea. 

About to forget 

Bernie Searle 2005 

Three-channel video projection 

Furthermore, this video projection was also amazing because three different channels were on simultaneously; this really shows how art, science, and technology can be combined, delivering very abstract and challenging concept. After this exhibit, I looked into the definition and concept of "time perception." Time perception is known to be a field of study within psychology and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience of life: time, which is measured by someone’s own perception of the duration of the indefinite and continuous unfolding of events. In addition, many studies have already shown that everyone perceives time very differently. 

 

Brave New World II By Theo Eshetu 1999

Multi-media and video installation

Even though this exhibit itself was quite challenging to understand, this exhibit definitely opened my eyes into time perception, making me think about this abstract concept. Furthermore, this is video and film-based art, and therefore, to feel these works, I strongly recommend to visit this exhibit in person. I really enjoyed and this exhibit clearly showed how science and technology can work together with art, conveying very challenging concept.

Extra Event 1

LECTURE

03 May 2016 | 6:00 PM

EDA | 1250 Broad Art Center | UCLA

I went to a lecture by Anne Niemetz on May 3^rd at 1250 Broad Art Center at UCLA. Anne is known as a media artist and designer, who works in the fields of wearable technology, interactive installation, and audio-visual design overall, and also during the lecture, she said that she is very interested in combining art, science, design, and technology. She also mentioned about many collaborative projects she has been working on.

Among the works or projects which she has shown us, wearable technology was so interesting and appealing. To me, it was the first time to see these works. Especially, it was so striking that people were wearing clothes, which were not real clothes. Through these wearable technology shows, I could see how art, science, and technology. 

wearable technology by Anne Niemetz 

“Forks in Sockets”, where musicians and engineers together perform with and through the Tesla coil, looked so amazing, since through this performance, I could definitely feel and learn how engineers, contemporary composers, designers, and artists can work together, producing such a great performance. "Forks in Sockets" is a public performance in which the exciting results of these interdisciplinary collaborations are shared with the public.

Forks in Sockets

Lastly, "Drone Sweet Drone" was also quite interesting because drones are often associated with unmanned attacks on people, and especially drone swarms have been a big concern. By looking at some of the slides with Drone Sweet Drone, I could also think about these issues, and these made me really think about drone technology’s uses beyond its associations with warfare.

Drone Sweet Drone [The art installation, Drone Sweet Drone, is in dialogue with these debates and asks us to consider the ordinary and extraordinary affects of drones in our everyday lives.]

This lecture was so informative, and also gave me a great opportunity to learn and feel media art, installation art, and audio-visual design. Since I could clearly see how art, science, media, and technology can be combined in many different media, it was a great learning opportunity.