Jeff Harris: 4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting

Sourced from TIME Light Box

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

In an effort to record the year of his life leading up to the millennium, Jeff Harris began a project in which he used his trusty Olympic Stylus 35mm film camera (he’s since gone through six) to take a self-portrait each day and then posted the results on his website.

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/01/03/jeff-harris-self-portraits/#ixzz1rWDsgqJA

The World’s Most Important 6-sec Drum Loop (The Amen Break)

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the “Amen Break,” a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison’s 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

Sourced from mobius32 on Youtube

Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium

Sourced from PBSoffbook

GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and in novation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hot bed of GIF creativity onTumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Basic Visual Language #1: Camera Angle

Che Guevara - Alberto Korda

Tianenmen Square - Jeff Widener

Migrant Mother - Dorothea Lange

This is the first of a three part exercise that introduce students to the fundamental elements of visual language: camera angel, lighting and composition. 

Materials / Preparation

1. Cameras
2. Computers
3. Students should pair off into groups of three.

Photo Exercise  (20 minutes)

In your groups choose a location and photograph your peers in the same scene from three different angles.

1. Low angle (like a worm looking up from the ground)
2. Hight angle (like a bird looking down from the sky)
3. Eye level (the camera lens should be level with the subjects eyes)

Edit / Submit (20 min)

1. Select three of your best photos (one photo to represent each shooting angel).
2. Email Mr. O your images with your period and student names in the subject line.

Presentation / Reflection

Students present photos and discuss how these techniques influence the various meanings we can take from a visual message.

VIDEO: Transmedia, The Future of Publishing

Initially I found this great video on Sir Ken Robinson’s Twitter.

Sourced from the BBC:

It used to be that fiction novels were read from start to finish on a book made out of paper.

Now, with e-books established, a more revolutionary idea for the humble novel is taking place – a story told on many different platforms.

LJ Rich investigates the possibilities of “transmedia” by getting dressed up for a starring role in a multimedia project.

View Video

Remember to join Mr. O on Twitter and Facebook and please feel free to leave a comment below. 

Photobook: Masahisa Fukase’s Karasu

Sourced from the Guardian UK

The British Journal of Photography recently asked a panel of experts, including photographer Chis Killip and the writer Gerry Badger, to select their best photobook of the past 25 years. Surpisingly, perhaps, Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency, from 1986, came a close second to a much less well-known book, Masahisa Fukase’s Karasu (Ravens), which was published the same year.

Read the full article @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/24/masahisa-fukase-ravens-photobook

Terry Gilliam’s Animation Secrets

Terry Gilliam explains the secrets of the Monty Python animations.

Sourced from The Monty Python Museum

2 Inspiring Light Painting Examples

Below are two fascinating examples of light painting. One photographed in 1949 by renowned LIFE photographer Gjon Mili and artist Pablo Picasso and the other created by the Inner-City Arts’ Heart and Soul project in 2011.

View the more of Gjon Mili and Pablo Picasso images on LIFE

This video by Inner-City Arts intersecting light painting, photography, dance, & animation.

Content Versus Technique – Alfred Hitchcock

Sourced from the “Telescope” – A Talk with Hitchcock (1964)

This 1964, interview of Alfred Hitchcock was part of the CBC television series Telescope with host-director Fletcher Markle. It was conducted during or immediately after the filming of Marnie and also contains interesting stories and comments from Alfred Hitchcock and his associates Norman Lloyd, Joan Harrison and Bernard Herrmann. There are clips from and during the making of several Hitchcock movies. While some of the recollections are part of Hitch’s standard interview material others are unique. Written by Vic Evans

Save Our Schools: “RIF Now, Pay Later”

In protest to the deplorable layoffs, the Roy Romer Middle School community has banded together to produce this lip dub video. Spread the word… show this video to everyone!!! Saving the teachers should be our number one priority!!!