Man With A Movie Camera

Man with a movie camera to me is one of the most well composed video that i have seen so far. The Soviet  directed by Dziga Vertov in 1929 is well know for its Avant-garde style, studying this particular piece during my a levels allowed me to appreciate the film along with the soundtracked. The Style that Vertove used endorsed him to experiment anyway possible which is strongly shown throughout his film. Random shots showing the comparison between a camera lens and a humans eye is portrayed very effectively, for most of the footage seen within the film meant that Vertov had to of gone through great risk to capture it and his method of doing so is ingenius considering the lack of technology that was accessible in those times.


"Man With a Movie Camera" is fascinating for many better reasons than its ASL, but let's begin with the point Dziga Vertof was trying to make. He felt film was locked into the tradition of stage plays, and it was time to discover a new style that was specifically cinematic. Movies could move with the speed of our minds when we are free-associating, or with the speed of a passionate musical composition. They did not need any dialogue--and indeed, at the opening of the film he pointed out that it had no scenario, no intertitles, and no characters. It was a series of images, and his notes specified a fast-moving musical score.


What really attracted me to this film was the thought process that Vertov put behind this masterpiece, Vertov thought process was, there was none. Each of his shots were shot individually, having no intention of developing or following a storyline. I find this random way of working similar to my own for it shows that not everything has to have a thought driven process for it to have a good outcome for there are times when one has to break the rules and do what you think is best to get the unsurpassed results needed.


Reference: 

• http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hsct101/manmovie/mmcmain.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeKKeiXTBos&feature=player_embedded

Appropriation

Appropriation

"The deliberate "borrowing" of an image for this new context is called "recontextualization." Recontextualization helps the artist comment on the image's original meaning and the viewer's association with the original image or the real thing".

An artist that uses Appropriation to his advantage is street Artist Shepard Fairy. Well known for his Obama 08 campaign, Fairy uses a lot of established imagery and conformes them into his own imagery, usually for his propaganda movement "Obey". 

(fig.1)

Looking at the image above you may already notice the form of Appropiration.  Shepard Fairey has taken a propaganda chinese poster with the title "Government is established through guns". Further to the left is similar picture by Fairey using the same composition with guns being saluted in the air. Portraying a different meaning Fairey uses his own imagery and concepts to differentiate the two. The use of roses gives the impression that Fairey is going against the support of guns and uses the symbole of a rose to signify love rather than the support of weapons.
The image below is again very similar to each other as Fairey has used an image from another artist from 1960 to portray his own meaning which seems to something to do with sounds.


I have been a fan of Shepard Fairey's work for a while and have noticed his style of work that he uses from other artist. Some may find it his style a lack of creativity, plagiarism, boring and even rude the fact that one could take another work and use it as there own. Personally I find it to be a resourceful method of sharing creative minds and in some way a compliment. The fact that someone can look at your work and use it to there own perspective is a complement as you have inspired them. Myself and many others have been inspried by many other pieces of work created by Artist such as Andy Warhol, Picasso, Mathew Filer, Shepard Fairey, Bob Marley etc. Appropriation ia a chance to show creative thinking with other artist and helps build character. 


Reference:

• (fig.1) .http://www.prettytasty.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1791
• http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_a/a/a_appropriation.htm