Waking up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning was torture and I definitely was not looking forward to attending this Macaulay Snapshot Day, however, after the exhaustion wore off and I started the video project, excitement and pride set it. I entered the building thinking that this was going to be some pointless event and I honestly had no idea what the purpose was but soon an introduction was given to the students and the idea of having such an experience started to inspire me. The students split into groups of 3 to 5 and started the project by exploring the exhibits that held the snapshots of New York that were taken on October 11, 2011. There were many different representations of New York, such as subways, bridges, apartment buildings, and even Occupy Wall Street. The benefit of this exhibit was exposing the different points of views of the Macaulay students as well as depicting certain settings that perhaps most people have not seen. It actually complemented the Arts in New York City Seminar very nicely.
The assignment given to the groups was to take a video of the images we found to be the most interesting and use them to create a video in which a story was being told about the connection we found between those images. I particularly liked the video that my group made because I got a starring role, it was created in fast motion, and the story was about chasing dreams. Our story was about a model that came to New York in search of a modeling career. Entertainingly enough, the last couple of weeks of my English class were about the same thing: female characters who came to New York in order to accomplish a specific goal. This event allowed me to incorporate a variety of data and skills that I learned over the last few weeks and to broaden my view of New York. It was definitely worth waking up early for and I am sure that future students will enjoy the event as well.
Don’t forget to categorize your posts.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the event so much and found it useful! What is the name of your movie? I will be uploading them to Macaulay’s YouTube channel within the next couple of days.
Enjoy!
It believe it was called Super Special Awesome Picture Time. Yes, we were very enthusiastic when choosing the title!
Beautiful photo. Is that yours?
Unfortunately that is not my photo but I agree that it is beautiful. My photo was actually of the 7 train late at night after we attended an event for the seminar. I couldn’t find it at the exhibit.
I agree with Monika that the snapshot day was quite a unique experience. It’s quite impressive that we can make an entirely new artistic work out of a pre-organized gallery, with just a video camera. The effects of art videos have certainly not gone unnoticed. John Berger, an art critic discussed in my English 110H class, describes how videos of art can change our entire perspectives on artworks in his essay “Ways of Seeing”. A lone piece of art has a different meaning wherever it is placed. If it is in a gallery surrounded by other paintings, it will certainly have a different effect on its viewer compared to hanging alone in somebody’s living room. Videos of art work on that same concept. The meaning of that individual piece of art is directly affected by what comes immediately before it and immediately after it in the video. The soundtrack, angle, lighting, and countless other factors change the way that we see that painting. Art is limitless in this sense. Without even picking up a paintbrush, art can be reinvented time and time again. It shows how valuable a job curating a museum is. Here is the link to the quite lengthy and cryptic essay by John Berger, “Ways of Seeing”: http://110h2011.qwriting.org/files/2011/09/Berger-Ways-of-Seeing.pdf