10 students in in the Master of Design and Technology Program at Parsons/The New School University meet every Monday in downtown New York City to talk writing. . . .
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Burning Koolhaus
Some old school sound editing from 1961:
and some irony (a burning Koolhaus building in Beijing):
I think that in our days we're always trying to find what's better, faster and more progressed. We never stop and try to look back, to see what people have done in the past, and maybe learn something from them. There's a saying that history repeats itself, and I'm a total believer in it. We, as humans, always think we can do better than our ant-sisters. But instead of trying to research it, and learn what they have done, we keep on trying to be the best, but at the end usually fail. Of course there's a lot of major issues in the world, that we should have learned from people wise and older than us, but I want to even point out an equal important subject and that is art. Even art in our days has made people try to create new original and creative pieces, but sometimes I feel as if we lack of what's most important, especially in art, and that's the heart and passion. For example the film "Musical Office" by Burning Koolhaus is a beautiful well edited work of art. He really used the simple elements of a boring office to create almost some sort of a musical on screen. He used a lot of the basics editing movements that connect to the beat of the soundtrack, but with those corny elements he's able to create a piece that is lovely and entertaining to watch. I think this piece might make you think, that with all of those explosions on screen and special effects , we should keep it simple. It's not always how big or how high you can reach, sometimes it's how you do it, and where you starting from. So for the next time you are about to create a movie or a song or anything, I would recommend you to stop for a second, even watch this film again, and think if there's anything that you can take from that simplicity. That movie was made almost 50 years ago, and I'm sure that if he found that passion and love for creating something personal and simple, so can you.
On Musical Office, 1961: Innovative short produced by Ernie Kovacs in which the various objects of an office workspace come to life. The music they dance to is a medley ("Jalousie/Sentimental Journey") by space age pop maestro Juan Esquivel.
Since the 1920's Dadaist artist have been exploring experimental video, they were the first to elaborate on creating visuals for rhythm. These beginnings of explorations of visuals for rhythm creating movements that are linked to speed of sound.
Nowadays innovative music video directors look closely to notes and music, and study it's speed to create narrative visuals accordingly. 'Musical Office' reminded of one of the greatest pioneer in the music video industry today, Michel Gondry, has created videos in which objects or humans strictly obey to rhythm and sound. In those videos, the footage is no longer portrayed according to the lyrics but to musical notes. Daft Punk's video Around The World, and Star Guitar by Chemical Brothers, both utilizes objects or group of objects to represent an instrument and a its movement represents beats. Michel Gondry is doing the same as what Ernie Kovacs has done in the past. Kovacs is using the stop motion technique whereas Gondry is using new technology of filming and montage.
Response-Blog
ReplyDeleteI think that in our days we're always trying to find what's better, faster and more progressed. We never stop and try to look back, to see what people have done in the past, and maybe learn something from them. There's a saying that history repeats itself, and I'm a total believer in it.
We, as humans, always think we can do better than our ant-sisters. But instead of trying to research it, and learn what they have done, we keep on trying to be the best, but at the end usually fail.
Of course there's a lot of major issues in the world, that we should have learned from people wise and older than us, but I want to even point out an equal important subject and that is art.
Even art in our days has made people try to create new original and creative pieces, but sometimes I feel as if we lack of what's most important, especially in art, and that's the heart and passion.
For example the film "Musical Office" by Burning Koolhaus is a beautiful well edited work of art. He really used the simple elements of a boring office to create almost some sort of a musical on screen. He used a lot of the basics editing movements that connect to the beat of the soundtrack, but with those corny elements he's able to create a piece that is lovely and entertaining to watch.
I think this piece might make you think, that with all of those explosions on screen and special effects , we should keep it simple. It's not always how big or how high you can reach, sometimes it's how you do it, and where you starting from.
So for the next time you are about to create a movie or a song or anything, I would recommend you to stop for a second, even watch this film again, and think if there's anything that you can take from that simplicity.
That movie was made almost 50 years ago, and I'm sure that if he found that passion and love for creating something personal and simple, so can you.
Yoav Schlezinger.
On Musical Office, 1961: Innovative short produced by Ernie Kovacs in which the various objects of an office workspace come to life. The music they dance to is a medley ("Jalousie/Sentimental Journey") by space age pop maestro Juan Esquivel.
ReplyDeleteSince the 1920's Dadaist artist have been exploring experimental video, they were the first to elaborate on creating visuals for rhythm. These beginnings of explorations of visuals for rhythm creating movements that are linked to speed of sound.
Nowadays innovative music video directors look closely to notes and music, and study it's speed to create narrative visuals accordingly. 'Musical Office' reminded of one of the greatest pioneer in the music video industry today, Michel Gondry, has created videos in which objects or humans strictly obey to rhythm and sound. In those videos, the footage is no longer portrayed according to the lyrics but to musical notes. Daft Punk's video Around The World, and Star Guitar by Chemical Brothers, both utilizes objects or group of objects to represent an instrument and a its movement represents beats. Michel Gondry is doing the same as what Ernie Kovacs has done in the past. Kovacs is using the stop motion technique whereas Gondry is using new technology of filming and montage.