Project #1: GRL RMXD

I am having difficulties for reasons I can't quite figure out posting my final Flash video project on Blogger, which I am unfamiliar with...please bear with me as I attempt to solve this problem...I promise this will be corrected (in some form or another) before noon today...thank you for your understanding and patience.

-- UPDATED --

After tinkering for a bit with things, I've figured out my previous posting problem and am able to place my project online. I hope my meaning was as clear as I envisioned.

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GRL RMXD - Artist Statement

I have always enjoyed Jamaica Kincaid's works...when I first read "Girl", I heard it simultaneously in my head in much the way I've attempted to portray it here. Words starting slowly, then coming faster and faster with instructions piling one atop another until the words no longer make sense and they form a kind of white noise running in the background of a person's life. To compare and contrast that sensation I chose to underlie the text and the progressions with a soundtrack of actual static, increasing in pitch and volume as the commands began to overtake one another. The ending silence is mainly to assert that it is the mother who is creating and controlling the chaos, in addition to starkly underscoring the point where her instructions are interrupted finally by the voice of her daughter. I also wanted to highlight certain lines of the text, this being one of the most important to me because of the emotional impact of the mother's final, doubting question.

At the same time I wanted to reinterpret it and make it something of my own by adding and subtracting various elements (natural to the poem and otherwise). Maybe I was more than a little influenced by our readings from the DJ Spooky treatise in this, which is partly why I chose to call it GRL RMXD, because it is girl and it is remixed and thus it becomes something almost different.

Images were chosen based on their illustration of random lines of text, their ability to be converted to an interesting black-and-white/inverted image, and their antiquated feel. The font is based on a somewhat crooked typewriter, which I chose because it hearkened back to the 1930's and 1950's (mirroring the images I chose of classic homemaking). Color choice is solely black and white to indicate an outmoded and rigid worldview.

I wanted the text to standout, for the words and letters themselves to take on a persona and a voice based solely on their appearance. To that end the position and punctuation of the text are of foremost importance. I wanted to gradual disintegration of syntax and grammar to represent the gradual wearing down of individual will.

Having just starting working with the Adobe's CS3 this year, I'm still familiarizing myself with the various programs and options...I realized after finishing the work that Adobe After Effects would have been an easier and better choice for text animation but I'm unfamiliar with the program and would have to learn. This semester I would like to work on learning After Effects so that I can utilize it in future creations.

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Final Project: GRL RMXD