Animations
Martin – Seeing as you choose to fling around credentials, I recieved
my B.A in Radio/Television from the University of Arizona, with a
strong liberal arts background and MIS as my minor. And the golden
rule was and is don't let the production element get in the way of
the message. If you have no message, then its special effects for
their own sake, which is entertaining but not art. A friend of mine
calls it "eye candy". A less generous interpretation is "flash and
trash". And like candy it has no nutritional value. I do not
presuppose the purpose behind your work. While you may keep some of
your work hidden it still expresses meaning on some level. (The
problem with trying to explain this is that it gets metaphysical on a
certain level, I also subscribe to the theory of Choas.) Ana
understands this on an intellectual level as well as on the intuitive
level. (Pardon Mademoiselle). For me its mostly intuitive. You
influence your work, and your work influences you, as do your friends,
the world etc. You are a product of your society, and vice versa, so
it goes. The political message is there, whether you are aware of it
or not, whether it is your intent or not. Notice that artists
typically don't try to explain their art; they are the conduits of
the message who may not even fully understand the message themselves.
I have heard the analogy of a bowel movement before and I suppose for
an undisciplined artist this is an appropriate analogy.
As regards "Metropolis" Fritz Lang had in mind a powerful
message, wherein he chose a metaphor which required the use of
special effects. If you had been working in a sweat shop in the early
1900's you would not have thought his message mediocre and I do not
feel that it was poorly executed, quite the contrary it was ahead of
its time as political propaganda. The acting was poor. You say the
message is a convenience to create the art, I see it the art
expresses the message. Understanding the social conditions of his time
its pretty hard to dispute that the art was used to express the
message. It was an anti-capitalist theme right out of Karl Marx's
(Engles) writings on the effects of capitalism. The one thing we do
agree on is that it is Art but not what makes it so. -JE