ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER...

 6x1 is like a creative playground; I’ve enjoyed the out of the box techniques and the theme that just about anything is possible as long as you can figure out a way to do it. I like the rayograms- I didn’t get the effect I had envisioned with the crystals, yet I’m sure that what I see in my head is possible and that it would just take experimenting and trial by error.  The scratching and painting makes me happy because I envision a small society that has survived nuclear war that destroyed all their technology utilizing film painting and scratching and old projector to entertain each other. I also think that if everybody painted on film and shared their creations with each other there might not be as much war in the world.  Today I played around with letting the ink run down the film strip via the force of gravity (which everyone keeps saying is the weakest force in the universe but it got the job done). I was please with the effect I got, especially running complimentary colors at the same time next to each other, hopefully they will shine happily and harmoniously on the screen. I have enjoyed this opportunity to experiment with color harmony. I’ve had this theory that if you lay the 8 steps of the musical major scale across the rainbow you will get the same kinds of tension among intervals. Chords of color like red/yellow/blue or orange/green/navy vibe well together- their wavelengths groove with each other because they have things in common, which allows them to resonate with each other.  Resonance in molecules arrives from balanced harmony. Benzene, a hexagonal molecule made entirely of Carbon is the example they teach you in school. The Electrons inside the ring do not stay near the individual carbron atoms which make up the points around the ring. Instead, due to the symmetrical and harmonious shape of the molecule, the electrons swirl around the entire molecule, all six carbon atoms, as one big cloud. Like a music or color, if a symmetrical and harmonious rhythm lets the energy of the pattern blossom.

 

If you took ten people from around the world that all spoke different languages and let them all live together in one big room they wouldn't be able to communicate- the words they'd use would have little to no connections in each other's mind. However, not all communication is lost in such event. The spectrum of emotions is understood among those who have experienced similar things.  If you have ever been happy you know that it makes you smile so when you see someone smile you know it means their happy. Same goes with frowning. Yet there's still an infinite amount of different kinds of smiles and different kinds of frowns that mean different things. Our inner emotional tone is a like a unified wave of all of our ups and downs - there are colors and sounds that look and sound exactly like we feel. 

The Abstract Expresionalist painters believed they could burn and bleed the seed of their soul onto a canvas without painting. The thinking an individuals muses through out the creation of art is the energy inside of it. The mind is useless without ideas. Appreciation and the ability to enjoy and share art with each other nears us closer to the benzene molecule. The more we share the stronger we resonate, the stronger we are.

Got out my box of toys for the super 8 shoot. Looking forward to playing Dr Frankenstein by making my action figures, flowers, dinosaurs, cars, and whatever else come to life by means of the energy we put through them and the light of the world.  The eatpes animations are super creative and interesting. Good sound makes things real. Good night makes me sleepy…

there is only everything because nothing isn't anything at all

The reading Stan Brakhage felt optimistic and encouraging. While much of it felt like technical advice, I had a strong appreciation for his attitude that any idea should be explored. I believe he said that much art had been born out of technical inability, and that experimenting with the intent of problem solving opens up far more possibilities than simply “following the rules.” (“many creations are born out of technical inadequacy) No rules thinking starts revolutions (usually chaotic ones). I especially liked that he used mica crystals in his filmmaking. Using crystals on the film or exposing them on film has always been something I have thought about doing. I’m a firm believer that we intrinsically see nature’s patterns to be beautiful. I liked that he asked to reader to write about successful glue types- it just goes to show that a good artist is always looking to expand their tool kit
His personality seemed to shine clearly through his writing. Perhaps I should say his light exposed his picture onto the book ;) I especially enjoyed the title- after giving and taking, what’s left? I never realized until reading the article that film tempo’s are always in even numbers- he gave the examples of 24p and 16p. Atoms with odd numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons, are on the whole less stable than ones with even numbers… The thing he wrote about crystallizing tape with an iron was way cool- I would definitely like to try that kind of thing.
I enjoyed that his work pays far more attention to chemistry than the work of other filmmakers. It’s truly experimental to follow any kind of inkling you have to get the feeling your looking for. I feel like it draws more on the world of inspiration and less on the world of what’s already been done to try and melt things into the film or mix concrete or V8 or god knows what just to see what it looks like. Way cool- its like fuck it, I’m gonna let myself loose and see what happens when I try this. Its less finite- I think it makes it more about the process and less about the product, which is awesome, cause life is a process, not a product.
The most important thing I got out of this reading is that its more important to try something new than to worry about what its going to look like. I mean sure, there’s a time and a place for everything, but its more important to try and fail then to let your good idea die inside your own mind. It’s like ART and SCIENCE. Two totally different ways of approaching the same goal- the only way to learn new things is to try new things. I mean sure, you can blow a building up or completely destroy a strip of film, but the knowledge of a process is far more important than anything you can hold in your hand… most of the time….