MOMI Blog Response

I arrived to the MOMI a bit late on Wednesday and got to experience the tail end of a demo in stop motion. What stood out to me was the Farel Fount rotating stop motion sculpture. Gregory Barsarnian used a strobe light to create motion with his sculpture inspired by his dream. The rotating sculpture to the naked eye looks like many sculptures on a rotating cylinder, but with the addition of the strobe light the sculptures turn into motion and you see a water drop turn into a bomb and then a paper airplane before landing in the dish rack (imagery inspired by Barsarnian’s dream). I feel like this piece illustrates how motion/stop motion works very well. How you need many small moving parts to create the illusion of motion. And also a fragment of a second between each “frame” (the strobe light) for the eye to read the change in size and shape as motion. We also played with sound effects and adding different effects to famous movie scenes. We redid the sound to a scene in the Terminator which I enjoyed very much. Sound has an enormous impact on how we perceive certain scenes on video and I think it’s fun to manipulate the mood by the sounds you choose to illustrate the action on screen. Technology has dramatically changed how we share and experience the moving image. What was first created as a 24 fps film recording has now been condensed to digital recording with the maneuverability in something as convenient in our phone. We are all little documentarians with our phones on snapchat/Instagram all the time. This development in technology has also allowed for faster and cheaper production of moving images. Film is just plain expensive, though it has a unique look and feel that is classic. Now a days to see a film projection you have to go to special screenings and theaters that still have film projectors. The digital age has definitely taken over the look and feel of modern day moving images, from movies and TV to our social media, but some film makers still prefer the look and feel of film. *side note, I thought the Jim Henson exhibit was particularly inspiring. So awesome to see all the puppets and the drawings/story boards behind the production of TV shows I watched so much as a kid!