museum assignment

Today I went to the museum of the moving image. I would not say that I learned something about the moving image that I had not already been aware, but rather that it re-focused my existing knowledge and opinions about the photographic medium in motion. Film has a long and rich history and is ever evolving. It is a multifaceted medium which combines various concepts and culminates many media in order to create the illusion of movement. On the conceptual end of film it was also interesting to see how film had been even looked at as a scientific breakthrough, allowing Muybridge to freeze frame and study the movement of the human body as well as various other species. On the media end it was fun to take the time to acknowledge the asynchronous reality of film. Films to not exist within a vacum, nor do they represent spatial or temporal reality. A film is shot often out of sequence, re-dubbed later, scored with non-diegetic sound, the images and sound itself are treated, spliced, and combined before the final product is revealed. In truth film is a game of smoke and mirrors, a form of neo magic.  I participated in various interactive exhibits. The first was a simple stop motion approach to animation using a computer camera and a few objects to play with against a background. I found this exhibit fun because I have had experience doing short animations of my own combining photos with hand painted frames. I also ventured into the dubbing booths where i decided to insert all sorts of funny and lude audio content. I even tried out the exhibit which allowed me to swap different music tracks over Vertigo so that i could experience the images in new ways. This trip gave me no new knowledge of the media, but did help to broaden my understanding and deepen the specifics of my knowledge of film and film history.

lobster love

I had lobster for the first time recently and discovered that i love them and can not stop eating the little water bugs.

Hunter exploration and fun

Me and a very cool gal named Justyne Henley explored  the Thomas Hunter  building and opened every door we could find... that we weren't supposed to open.

Artist Statement

       My name is Alexander Martinez and I am a visual artist. 

I am currently employed as a videographer, and am studying film. 

What I hope to do in film is to culminate the skills i have learned

from my experience in painting, photography, animation, and music. 

These various mediums are in a sense the building blocks of cinema,

and this will help me to communicate my conception of existence

effectively to my audience.

      Here is one example of a concept which i have become obsessed

with and that has cropped up in recent paintings and sketches. 

The flesh is a bewildering topic and one of much fascination to me 

personally because of its unsettling nature. It can be a source of warmth,

emotional comfort, or an object of sexual desire, and yet the flesh can

also disgust and repel us. This is because of the disconnect between

the body and the soul. 

      When a lover puts their arm around you, we think nothing of it. 

It is merely he or she who touches us. But what is actually touching us?

If we were to sever the limb of that lover and they were to place it on you

with intent of touching you, would you not say that both scenarios 

are the same in that your lover has touched you? No, obviously you 

would not, and this is because the severing of the limb forces our

consciousness to realize that the arm is only an appendage and

that the person lies not within the body but somewhere else, 

somewhere vague and intangible.