hai-lights

One of the coolest technological developments that I’ve recently discovered is in music software. Musically talented people out there have developed software that allows music-ignorant people like me to work with sound in a familiar visual environment. I’m working on my final for Sound and Music in New Media right now. If you are familiar with music software (this one is called Logic Pro 9), you probably know waaay more than I do. But if you don’t, then hopefully these screenshots will impress you

More to come of course, once I finish the assignment.

Above is Scarlett Tse’s (’12) portait of her friend for a Cinema and Media Studies class that is taking advantage of the new photography studio at Carleton College.

While I have yet to really take full advantage of it, this year Carleton College’s Weitz Center and Cinema and Media Studies department poured a bunch of money into getting a very nice photography studio equipped with Speedotron strobes and a set of light modifiers.

Scarlett, who is in John Schott’s portraiture class, asked me for help in terms of technical lighting, so I helped. The photograph she selected above was the final lighting set-up I showed her: a basic butterfly set-up with a gelled background light.

The Relationship Theory and Finally Valuable Relationships: A Discussion on Love and its Reasons(.pdf)

Today’s post is a little different than others. I recently received news that I was awarded distinction on my senior thesis! What does this mean for you? You now know a Distinguished Scholar on Philosophy of Love.

Here it is for those interested. There was a 4,000 word-limit, so there is quite a bit left to be explained (most of which I believe I can explain).

I was browsing through my Google Reader feed when I ran across some of my own photos! The Kertz on Fashion blog posted the work of Kylie Guthrie, make-up artist, where some of my photographs were featured! Here’s one screenshot from the post:

Screenshot of The Kertz on Fashion

This isn’t very exciting, but it took me much longer to make than I expected. I’m drilling these dots into some hand-frosted plexiglass and thought it would be easier to map it digitally than with a marker and a ruler on the plexiglass itself. The word ‘Tình Cảm’ may look familiar from this old post from the previous version of my blog. Carleton College also published a short story — found here – about it in The Voice.

A couple weeks ago I set out to create invisible light. The idea was that I could light my subject noninvasively. For example, if there was a talk or a ceremony of some sort, I could light the subject without adding any light that would be seen by the audience. How? Infrared light.

Infrared light is in a light spectrum that is invisible to the human eye. However, it is not invisible to electronics that do not have an IR filter. So while the human eye might not see this light, cheap cell phones will:

Note that my DSLR has an IR filter, but not a very good one. That’s why it is picking up some infrared light (which is why it is somewhat visible from the LEDs themselves in the image above.) I bought 50 of the brightest infrared (IR) LEDs off Mouser.com along with all the other necessary small electronics pieces I needed for this project with the hopes of exploring IR portraiture. To my dismay, these lights are far too dim for portraiture…

Also note that there is no IR filter on the lens in these shots — just what is already in my Nikon D3000.

Publications asked for a shot of Carleton College’s sundail in front of Laird. Forced to shoot in the harsh noon light, this is what I came up with. And for those wondering, the green isn’t lens flare. It’s on the sundial itself.

Needless to say, I’m still very new to the audio arts. (Click link below to play song.)
Please Mind the Gap between the Train and the Platform (.mp3)

This piece was created for a plunderphonics assignment in Sound and Music in New Media. Once I got use to the public transportation system as a primary means of transportation during my study abroad at Parsons Paris, the rides became increasingly hypnotic and I would miss my stop with surprising frequency. Soon, rides on Métro became an unintentional time period for day dreaming. Please Mind the Gap between the Train and the Platform aspires to emulate a similar experience.

Credits:
-Intro by The XX
-Buddha Bar by Faithless
-Train and metro station sound tracks by FreeSound.org users acclivity, sazman, and RHumphries

I felt like I needed to post something but didn’t have any new art productions for you, so this is more of a diary post type thing,

Last Friday I saw my first opera at the Ordway in St. Paul, courtesy of TRiO. I went with the other TRiO students in the above photograph. I wasn’t really sure whether I would like opera or not; whether the novelty would quickly diminish. The performance was Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. I ended up crying… (but so did everyone else). It was terrific. I’d be down to go to another opera in the future.

Also, in other news, CUT (Carleton Ultimate Team) wins sectionals 2012.

One of my friends (probably jokingly?) thought I should screen print her a t-shirt with my face on it. She thought it would be embarrassing for me. However, I think it would be embarrassing for her, so I jumped on Facebook, grabbed some of my profile pictures, and converted them to pure black & white. I thought this one turned out the best. Maybe not that embarrassing for her though… Note the “HAI” on the image’s left shoulder.