Medium Specificity

                I knew I wanted to build a diorama for this project but I honestly didn’t know if the popularly educational medium would be passable as art. Following Scott McCloud’s lead I first sought to define the medium before approaching it any further. To my surprise, the word diorama can be used to describe a whole host of displays from the classic miniature environments housed in shoeboxes to collections of household items arranged in neat exhibitions. The first dioramas weren’t even three dimensional, they were scenes painted on transparent film that could be manipulated by moving the source of light by which the display was viewed. The dictionary’s definition lacked specifics and it became a messy business trying to create a definition that truly encompassed everything that a diorama is, and everything it definitely isn’t. After some considerable effort I arrived at a definition I believed was sufficient. A diorama is a static display of elements arranged in a coherent collection.

                Now I understood my medium it was time to produce art. I wanted to challenge the definition of diorama by somehow doing everything a diorama is supposed to be but adding or removing something that could possibly disrupt the identity of the medium. I chose to manipulate the coherence of the piece. Every diorama I researched, in any shape or form, was always a display of some collective concept or idea. Whether it was battle scenes, animal habitats, or ancient relics every diorama is made of individual elements connected to one another by an overarching idea. I decided I would stage a scene that was easily recognizable, a classic diorama if you will. In the case of my piece, I chose to replicate a safari scene with two lions stalking a zebra. All elements would be particularly arranged to create a single and cohesive identity for the piece, then, I would ruin it.

                First I made everything white. From the grass in the display to the animals themselves, everything would be stripped of color. Usual painted backgrounds would be rendered blank and the false depth of field would be eliminated. It may seem an odd comparison but I drew my initial impression of the stark white display from the Mocking Jay Part 2 posters that showed their characters arranged in full color before a white throne and blank background. But just painting everything white doesn’t challenge the cohesiveness of the piece; it is after all, still a safari scene with two lions and a zebra. I then began to label each element of the piece with completely unrelated words and symbols. I was creating something else with my labels; I was forming new identities for every element in the display and therefor challenging the idea that connects them. I didn’t choose words like “capitalism” or “war”, because some words are charged with more meaning than is prescribed in their definition. I wanted to bombard the recognizable scene with unrelated nonsense that leaves the viewer still searching for the cohesive concept that unites them.  

Historical Story

Group Members: Nathan Tanner & Graham Walker

Link to script:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzlAYWykvgltZDdObXpXMGtkUFk/view?usp=sharing

Our screenplay explores the events and discussions surrounding the inception of the real-life vigilante group; the Baldknobbers. Born out of the lawlessness of post Civil War Missouri, the Baldknobbers were primarily Northern men focused on securing justice against ex-Confederates who murdered, robbed, and abused the prospering Union settlers. Information regarding these vigilantes and their exploits was scarce. We drew heavily from Gerry Darnell’s, Bald Knobbers: The Ozark Vigilantes and Kathy Weiser’s historical commentary Legends of America. Piecing together the information concerning the group’s key players and infamous methods we decided to paint a narrative that introduced the Baldknobbers as well as comically explored their true to life transformation from vigilante band to oppressive mob.

Generous liberties were taken to mold our story into a succinct and engaging exposition that scrutinizes the corruptive character of power but still somewhat genuinely describes legitimate facts. Nat Kinney, was in fact the founder and leader of the Baldknobbers. His name, and many others that we used for the script were borrowed from history. The real Baldknobbers actually met on the tree-bare, Missouri hilltops to negotiate and plan their acts of justice. To facilitate the concept of blind ambition and the blatant disregard for consequence that eventually lead to the Baldknobbers dissolution, we decided to write Nat as the embodiment of misguided enthusiasm and the majority of the assembly as the bloodthirsty simpletons. Choosing to frame their exchanges in a more humorous light, we decided upon writing one character, James, to be the straight-man. He is the only level-headed, educated brain in the bunch. Much like NBC's The Office, our screenplay portrays the ridiculous majority interacting with their energetic leader whilst a few sober characters look on in disbelief.

Our portrayal of the first Baldknobber meeting is a historical caricature similar to one of our readings from last week entitled, The Veil. This text uses the superimposed titles to tell the simple facts and uses pictures and comic dialogue as a critique and caricature of the events portrayed. We used a similar technique, with superimposed title and end cards to give the simple facts about this historical group. During the portrayed meeting, we have a representation of what it might have been like to witness such an interesting gathering. Of course, we threw in a comical twist and we took a few creative liberties, but that is what makes it art! The author of The Veil did the same thing and it makes the message and story more clear and persuasive. It was a joy to take these pieces of history and give them new life in this script! We hope you enjoy it.

Weiser, Kathy. "Missouri Legends The Fierce Missouri Bald Knobbers."Legends of America. N.p., Sept. 2009. Web. Feb. 2016. <http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-baldknobber.html>.

Darnell, Gerry. "Bald Knobbers: The Ozark Vigilantes." Bittersweet. Springfield-Greene County Library, n.d. Web. Feb. 2016. <http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/su79e.htm>.

Process Piece

Group Members: Jase Van Meeteren, Catherine Santos, & Graham Walker

For our project, we decided to use the form of an autobiographical documentary to express a complex process. The process of our project was that of social anxiety. It was inspired by thoughts or actions that we, or more specifically, Jase, has experienced in his life. We wanted to capture a real life situation and translate it into an audio form. Because of the nature of this process, it being almost entirely in the thoughts of another person, we had to recreate the situation with a simulated performance. There aren’t many ways to document human thought other than voice over; so we staged the vocalized thoughts of the subject by recording them in a controlled setting. In this manner, performance further developed our project into something more than a simple autobiography.  We felt that the he personal content of the process and the complexity of the idea could be conveyed most simply through a staged yet genuine reenactment of actual anxious thoughts.

                A major focus of our project was the genuine intimation of anxious feelings. The film Inception proved to be a great source of inspiration concerning the reflection of character anxiety in sound. In a critical scene in the film, Cobb tries to persuade Robert Fisher to trust him.  While the two are talking at the hotel bar, the background noise is faint and slowly gets louder throughout the scene.  During the conversation, when the people talking in the background are the loudest, a champagne glass shatters and distracts Cobb with memories of his past.  This is the moment when the conversations in the background are completely silenced, causing a heightened sense of anxiety.  It is this stark contrast that creates an emotional reaction in the audience.  In our audio process, we recreated this technique with a crescendo of sound by increasing the layers of voice audio, amplifying the amount of anxiety felt.  When the noise silences and the tension is released the listener is jolted by the by the abrupt change. As our anxious subject finds renewed peace in his isolation, the audience is treated to the comfortable quiet of his liberated mind.

                Since our process had to be fabricated to properly relate the idea of the piece, we had to construct our own version of the beginning, middle, and end to social anxiety. In the case of our process, we chose to document a choice of isolation and detachment. The process begins with the subject’s self-conscious thoughts and develops as he is admitted into a social gathering that further stresses his anxious mind. As he spends more time in the awkward situation; the craze of his worried mind quickly escalates until the subject is overwhelmed. Opting to leave the gathering than suffer more anxiety, the subject completes his trial by alienating himself from others. Like Borup’s My Mom the Taxidermist, not every attempt ends in success. Sometimes the beauty of the piece lies in the process rather than the product.