music art film review - REDEFINE magazine » franz kafka http://www.redefinemag.com conscious growth thru arts journalism Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:23:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Rob Sato Artist Interview: Fantasy and Reality Bridged by Words and Images http://www.redefinemag.com/2013/rob-sato-artist-interview/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2013/rob-sato-artist-interview/#comments Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:09:46 +0000 Maria Schettino http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=27349

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Rob Sato Artist Interview: Fantasy and Reality Bridged by Words and Images

Rob Sato Artist Interview

Los Angeles-based artist Rob Sato is more than a painter of fantastical watercolor dreamscapes. Challenging his own magnificent talent as a masterful visual creator, Sato is also a prolific consumer of culture. Profoundly influenced by historical events, dynamic music, and piles of life-changing books, he is able to channel many diverse creative explorations into colorfully horrific and disarmingly beautiful works of art; his work is an intriguing amalgam of childhood fantasies and literary consequence, adeptly bridging the gap between fantasy and reality.
"Writing feels like it comes from a separate part of the brain than where imagery generates from, so when I'm having trouble on a painting, I can turn to the writing to think about things from a different angle." -- Rob Sato

 

Bent on Literature

Initially concerned with designing engaging narratives with his painting, Sato learned to place storytelling at the center of his process. It was, as he calls it, "the stock of the semiotic soup I was trying to cook." Sato's focus on narrative, however, was at times a detriment to the organic realization of his pieces; his attempt at incorporating it into everything he painted often left him struggling to "jam narrative in where it didn't belong." To solve this problem, Sato now prefers to let the work unfold as it pleases. "The paintings tend to be better when I let the emotional impact of the visuals and the joy of the materials lead the way," he says. "That's not to say that I've abandoned narrative painting. I still do it, but only if it comes along naturally and feels right, as opposed to storytelling always being the main goal." Words have always played a significant role in Sato's life, and his penchant for storytelling may come from his interest in reading and writing. "[Writing] can be a really useful tool to clarify ideas or to break through some creative blockage," he shares. "[It] feels like it comes from a separate part of the brain than where imagery generates from, so when I'm having trouble on a painting, I can turn to the writing to think about things from a different angle." Books, too, are particularly meaningful. "There seems to have been one major world-rocking reading experience per decade in which I've been alive," he explains. "As a kid, it was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I just read this again recently, and it's still wonderful. In my teens it was nearly everything by Kurt Vonnegut."
Particularly fascinated by Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle, Sato received the latter while he served a short jail sentence for the unlikely charge of Grand Theft Food. Sato and his friends were convicted of stealing 27 pounds of vanilla pudding and 19 boxes of bulk pasta from fraternity house kitchens in Berkeley, California – a crime serious enough to be slapped with Grand Theft – but silly enough to make the judge laugh. Ultimately, it was due to the length of his incarceration and the brevity of Cat's Cradle that Sato found both annoyance and inspiration in the book. "I ended up reading it eight times in two days, and it didn't get old. That's a combination of that book being incredibly entertaining and jail being relentlessly boring," he recalls. In his late twenties, Sato's interest veered to the unlikely lepidopterist and famed Russian novelist, Vladimir Nabokov. "I finally got around to reading Lolita," he explains. "It's probably the funniest, most disconcerting, most diabolical thing I'll ever read."

 

Freed by Restriction

Just as Sato's reverence for words allows him the freedom to think differently, his use of watercolor is liberating by virtue of its limitations. "Watercolor simply isn't as flexible as acrylic or oil," he says of the medium's limitations. "You can mix oil and acrylics with all kinds of stuff. You can correct mistakes and change your mind almost infinitely. You can also build a surface with oils and acrylics, sand them, scrape into them, beat the shit out of them. By contrast, watercolor is pretty much just water, paint and paper. It's a delicate medium. Once a mark is made it cannot really be unmade, though the paint does reactivate somewhat when you rewet it, which becomes important when planning out how you want to layer your washes or glazes or how much fussing you want to do in a particular area. You have to improvise with a ‘mistake' rather than correct or paint over it. For me, this limitation has been oddly freeing." The confluence of his varied inspiration and the liberating nature of the medium manifests in many different ways. Some pieces come together quickly while others require more thoughtful design. "Sometimes a piece is suddenly right there, ready to go, because all the elements for an explosion have come together. It's wonderful when that happens. Often, I have no idea that I've been gathering those forces, and then, without thinking, they just get unleashed," explains Sato. This creates a raw and powerful result, but Sato admits to finding joy in longer, more conscious thought processes. "Sometimes there's an idea that was just there but didn't mean that much to me before, then suddenly it jives with things that I've been reading or writing lately or seems to relate to the world in a way that it hadn't before," he says. "Sometimes I just get an emotional charge from a composition, but haven't figured out what to put into it or the right way to put it together. It's really all about getting a piece to vibrate in some way so that it becomes a presence in the world that lives and breathes, a creation that is more than the sum of its parts."

 

Inspired by the Subconscious

With elements of horror, grotesque transformations, and whimsical beauty, the images Sato creates suggest a certain subconscious meandering akin to the surrealist movement. He prefers, however, not to brandish this particular identifier. While he is fond of early surrealist theory as it is bound by imagery drawn directly from the subconscious, he feels the meaning of the term itself has been corrupted. "I feel like most of what proclaims itself to be surrealism now (even a lot of stuff then, really) is over-manipulated, utterly but feebly conscious and repetitive imagery, lazily slurped from a depressingly shallow, lifeless myth pool," says Sato, while even going as far as posturing that "the word surreal is better applied to life outside of the arts now." Finding a place where dreams and reality meet may be the ultimate objective, and this idea is perhaps most visible in Sato's Peace at Last in a Future Passed -- a painting where the reconciliation of fantasy and reality manifests as the struggle to accept the inevitable realities of adulthood. Maturity becomes the metaphorical slayer of childish aphorisms. The painting depicts a giant decaying robot speckled with dilapidated aircraft, electrical towers, and battle armaments. With one arm missing and decomposing bits falling from its massive form, the image is captivating whilst being disturbing. "Future Passed [bridges the gap between fantasy and reality] in a different, much more specific way than any of my other work," describes Sato, "by mixing my childhood fantasies of heroism and adventurism with more mature ideas and knowledge about the reality of war." While Sato's thoughtful intent is clear within the details, it is the subtlety of color and the impetuous style of the brushstrokes that reveal something raw and wonderful. It is an affectionate struggle between real and imagined, and the harmony he seeks is daftly aided by his beloved watercolors. "There's a joy in finding the balance between my controlling nature and the fluid chaos of the medium," says Sato. While armed with a headful of ideas, he is simultaneously committed to surrendering to the sublime. What makes Sato's work stand out is that he is able to balance discipline with turmoil. This interplay between intellectual design and subconscious renderings results in a uniquely Sato-esque universe where dreams are both tantalizing and terrifying, and reality is a pliable concept.

 

Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Rob Sato Artist Interview: Fantasy and Reality Bridged by Words and Images

Related posts:
  1. Ian Michael Anderson Artist Interview: Gently Organizing Organisms
  2. Theo Ellsworth Artist Interview : Fantastical Revival Of Comic Art
  3. Jacob Van Loon Artist Interview : Layering Upon A Tangible Aesthetic
]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Rob Sato Artist Interview: Fantasy and Reality Bridged by Words and Images

Rob Sato Artist Interview

Los Angeles-based artist Rob Sato is more than a painter of fantastical watercolor dreamscapes. Challenging his own magnificent talent as a masterful visual creator, Sato is also a prolific consumer of culture. Profoundly influenced by historical events, dynamic music, and piles of life-changing books, he is able to channel many diverse creative explorations into colorfully horrific and disarmingly beautiful works of art; his work is an intriguing amalgam of childhood fantasies and literary consequence, adeptly bridging the gap between fantasy and reality.
"Writing feels like it comes from a separate part of the brain than where imagery generates from, so when I'm having trouble on a painting, I can turn to the writing to think about things from a different angle." -- Rob Sato

 

Bent on Literature

Initially concerned with designing engaging narratives with his painting, Sato learned to place storytelling at the center of his process. It was, as he calls it, "the stock of the semiotic soup I was trying to cook." Sato's focus on narrative, however, was at times a detriment to the organic realization of his pieces; his attempt at incorporating it into everything he painted often left him struggling to "jam narrative in where it didn't belong." To solve this problem, Sato now prefers to let the work unfold as it pleases. "The paintings tend to be better when I let the emotional impact of the visuals and the joy of the materials lead the way," he says. "That's not to say that I've abandoned narrative painting. I still do it, but only if it comes along naturally and feels right, as opposed to storytelling always being the main goal." Words have always played a significant role in Sato's life, and his penchant for storytelling may come from his interest in reading and writing. "[Writing] can be a really useful tool to clarify ideas or to break through some creative blockage," he shares. "[It] feels like it comes from a separate part of the brain than where imagery generates from, so when I'm having trouble on a painting, I can turn to the writing to think about things from a different angle." Books, too, are particularly meaningful. "There seems to have been one major world-rocking reading experience per decade in which I've been alive," he explains. "As a kid, it was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I just read this again recently, and it's still wonderful. In my teens it was nearly everything by Kurt Vonnegut."
Particularly fascinated by Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle, Sato received the latter while he served a short jail sentence for the unlikely charge of Grand Theft Food. Sato and his friends were convicted of stealing 27 pounds of vanilla pudding and 19 boxes of bulk pasta from fraternity house kitchens in Berkeley, California – a crime serious enough to be slapped with Grand Theft – but silly enough to make the judge laugh. Ultimately, it was due to the length of his incarceration and the brevity of Cat's Cradle that Sato found both annoyance and inspiration in the book. "I ended up reading it eight times in two days, and it didn't get old. That's a combination of that book being incredibly entertaining and jail being relentlessly boring," he recalls. In his late twenties, Sato's interest veered to the unlikely lepidopterist and famed Russian novelist, Vladimir Nabokov. "I finally got around to reading Lolita," he explains. "It's probably the funniest, most disconcerting, most diabolical thing I'll ever read."

 

Freed by Restriction

Just as Sato's reverence for words allows him the freedom to think differently, his use of watercolor is liberating by virtue of its limitations. "Watercolor simply isn't as flexible as acrylic or oil," he says of the medium's limitations. "You can mix oil and acrylics with all kinds of stuff. You can correct mistakes and change your mind almost infinitely. You can also build a surface with oils and acrylics, sand them, scrape into them, beat the shit out of them. By contrast, watercolor is pretty much just water, paint and paper. It's a delicate medium. Once a mark is made it cannot really be unmade, though the paint does reactivate somewhat when you rewet it, which becomes important when planning out how you want to layer your washes or glazes or how much fussing you want to do in a particular area. You have to improvise with a ‘mistake' rather than correct or paint over it. For me, this limitation has been oddly freeing." The confluence of his varied inspiration and the liberating nature of the medium manifests in many different ways. Some pieces come together quickly while others require more thoughtful design. "Sometimes a piece is suddenly right there, ready to go, because all the elements for an explosion have come together. It's wonderful when that happens. Often, I have no idea that I've been gathering those forces, and then, without thinking, they just get unleashed," explains Sato. This creates a raw and powerful result, but Sato admits to finding joy in longer, more conscious thought processes. "Sometimes there's an idea that was just there but didn't mean that much to me before, then suddenly it jives with things that I've been reading or writing lately or seems to relate to the world in a way that it hadn't before," he says. "Sometimes I just get an emotional charge from a composition, but haven't figured out what to put into it or the right way to put it together. It's really all about getting a piece to vibrate in some way so that it becomes a presence in the world that lives and breathes, a creation that is more than the sum of its parts."

 

Inspired by the Subconscious

With elements of horror, grotesque transformations, and whimsical beauty, the images Sato creates suggest a certain subconscious meandering akin to the surrealist movement. He prefers, however, not to brandish this particular identifier. While he is fond of early surrealist theory as it is bound by imagery drawn directly from the subconscious, he feels the meaning of the term itself has been corrupted. "I feel like most of what proclaims itself to be surrealism now (even a lot of stuff then, really) is over-manipulated, utterly but feebly conscious and repetitive imagery, lazily slurped from a depressingly shallow, lifeless myth pool," says Sato, while even going as far as posturing that "the word surreal is better applied to life outside of the arts now." Finding a place where dreams and reality meet may be the ultimate objective, and this idea is perhaps most visible in Sato's Peace at Last in a Future Passed -- a painting where the reconciliation of fantasy and reality manifests as the struggle to accept the inevitable realities of adulthood. Maturity becomes the metaphorical slayer of childish aphorisms. The painting depicts a giant decaying robot speckled with dilapidated aircraft, electrical towers, and battle armaments. With one arm missing and decomposing bits falling from its massive form, the image is captivating whilst being disturbing. "Future Passed [bridges the gap between fantasy and reality] in a different, much more specific way than any of my other work," describes Sato, "by mixing my childhood fantasies of heroism and adventurism with more mature ideas and knowledge about the reality of war." While Sato's thoughtful intent is clear within the details, it is the subtlety of color and the impetuous style of the brushstrokes that reveal something raw and wonderful. It is an affectionate struggle between real and imagined, and the harmony he seeks is daftly aided by his beloved watercolors. "There's a joy in finding the balance between my controlling nature and the fluid chaos of the medium," says Sato. While armed with a headful of ideas, he is simultaneously committed to surrendering to the sublime. What makes Sato's work stand out is that he is able to balance discipline with turmoil. This interplay between intellectual design and subconscious renderings results in a uniquely Sato-esque universe where dreams are both tantalizing and terrifying, and reality is a pliable concept.

 

Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Rob Sato Artist Interview: Fantasy and Reality Bridged by Words and Images

Related posts:

  1. Ian Michael Anderson Artist Interview: Gently Organizing Organisms
  2. Theo Ellsworth Artist Interview : Fantastical Revival Of Comic Art
  3. Jacob Van Loon Artist Interview : Layering Upon A Tangible Aesthetic
]]> http://www.redefinemag.com/2013/rob-sato-artist-interview/feed/ 0 TOMAT – “1984″ Music Video (w/ Director Gabriele Ottino & Musician Davide Tomat Interview) http://www.redefinemag.com/2012/tomat-1984-music-video-director-gabriele-ottino-interview-italy/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2012/tomat-1984-music-video-director-gabriele-ottino-interview-italy/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:31:52 +0000 Vivian Hua http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=17997

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TOMAT – “1984″ Music Video (w/ Director Gabriele Ottino & Musician Davide Tomat Interview)

2012_Tomat-01

In REDEFINE's first bi-lingual interview, we speak with Gabriele Ottino, director behind the acid trip visuals for Italian electronic artist TOMAT's latest track, "1984". Taking inspiration from George Orwell and a wide cross-section of human affairs, the video mixes archival footage of events between June 1st and June 6th, 1984, glitch and pixel elements, and modern day footage of the musician into a brightly-colored visual slideshow.
"The denser the number of events a second, the more we lose the facts itself, gaining objectivity but losing humanity." -- Gabriele Ottino

 

MUSIC VIDEO AND INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW Directed by Gabriele Ottino and produced by Superbudda Studio

 

"... All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." -- George Orwell, London Letter to Partisan Review

 

How did the collaboration form and how closely did you guys work together on it? Come è nata la vostra collaborazione e quanto strettamente avete lavorato al progetto?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): The collaboration was born from the simple fact that David and I were first and foremost musical companions in several bands and studies, for almost a dozen years. This is the first actual work in which our roles are clearly defined. David asked me to realize the music video of a song from his first solo album, entitled "1984". The concept began by matching each track with a historical event that occurred between June 1st and June 6th, throughout human history, though I started to select a series of events related to the year 1984. Then I found all the reference images and I approached David with them one last time before moving on to the editing. I did not have a clear idea about the video's outcome. The only thing I knew was that I wanted the images to deconstruct and reconstruct like the game of 15" (Fifteen puzzle), and that the pixel animations would give color and movement to an altered photo slideshow. The obtained result more resembled a visual acid [trip] than a proper video clip. David and I then decided to shoot some more "real" scenes, primarily to make everything more accessible. This choice led to a video that is more conceptual in conclusion than in practice. Its aesthetics of reality, which David accompanies digital information related to the past, is invaded by visual glitches and pixel errors that almost suggest a transition between the lived-in reality and a data bank of auxiliary memory. Davide Tomat (Director): Gabriele Ottino has been my partner in the studio and in different projects for more than five years. We have worked together on many projects in music, theatre, sound design, and we have spent a lot of time together. We lived together in our studio for a year-and-a-half, so everything we do, even solo projects, involve each other in some ways. Gabriele is a cool musician, but first [and foremost] a real artist; he is a really clever video maker. He has made many art videos and visuals for himself as well as many videos, visuals and teasers for the bands and the projects we share together (N.A.M.B./NIAGARA/GEMINI EXCERPT)... I asked Gabriele to do my first solo video, partly because we were already thinking about visuals for my solo live shows.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): La collaborazione è nata per il semplice fatto che io e Davide siamo prima di tutto compagni musicali in diverse band e di studio quasi da una decina d anni. Questo è però il primo effettivo lavoro nel quale i ruoli si sono definiti maggiormente. Davide mi ha chiesto di realizzarli il videoclip di un brano del suo primo disco solista dal titolo "1984". Partendo dal concept, che vuole ogni traccia abbinata ad un evento storico verificatosi tra il 1° e il 6° giugno nel corso della storia umana, ho iniziato a selezionare una serie di eventi relativi all'anno 1984. In seguito ho trovato tutte le immagini di riferimento e mi sono confrontato per l ultima volta con Davide prima di passare alla parte di editing. Non avevo un'idea ben precisa su come sarebbe apparso il video finito. L'unica cosa che sapevo è che volevo che le immagini si scomponessero e ricomponessero come il "gioco dei 15" (Fifteen puzzle) e che delle animazioni con i pixel dessero colore e movimento a questa specie di slideshow fotografica alterata. Il risultato ottenuto assomigliava più ad un visual acido che ad un videoclip vero e proprio. Abbiamo deciso allora io e Davide di girare ancora qualche scena "reale" principalmente per rendere tutto il piu fruibile possibile.Questa scelta ha portato il video verso una conclusione sia pratica che concettuale. L'estetica della realtà all interno della quale Davide accoglie informazioni digitali relative al passato viene invasa da glitch visivi, errori e pixel quasi a suggerire un passaggio tra la realtà vissuta e la banca dati di una memoria ausiliaria. Davide Tomat (Director): Gabriele Ottino è il mio socio di studio e di progetti musicali da oltre cinque anni. Lavoriamo insieme musicalmente, per il teatro, per il sound design e passiamo molto tempo a stretto contatto. Abbiamo anche vissuto insieme nel nostro studio per più di un anno e mezzo e quindi tutto ciò che facciamo, anche progetti solisti in qualche modo coinvolgono l'un l'altro. Gabriele è un ottimo musicista, ma prima di tutto un vero artista, un video maker molto intelligente e sensibile, ha realizzato parecchi video d'arte autonomamente e video, visuals e teaser per le band e progetti che condividiamo insieme (NAMB / NIAGARA / GEMINI EXCERPT). E’ stato quindi naturale chiedere a Gabriele di realizzare il mio primo video anche perchè stavamo ragionando insieme ai visuals da utilizzare per il mio live.

 

Pixel and glitch art sometimes loses quality in smaller video formats. Was the decision to go with larger glitch "pixels" in order to combat this technical problem, or was it purely for aesthetic reasons? Pixel e glitch spesso perdono di definizione nella conversione dei video in bassa qualità .La decisione di usare pixel più grandi è stata dettata dall'esigenza di combattere questo problema tecnico o è stata una pura scelta estetica?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): It was a conceptual aesthetic choice. It's kind of a mix between the sound and visual aesthetics of disco and my innate love for the digital errors I've found since I started working with video. Everything else is organized chaos that, after months of its implementation, continues to autogenerate significance. Davide Tomat (Musician): The idea of using a rough pixel technique in the video was mainly to make it similar to the album artwork. The artwork of 01-09JUNE is based on a rough pixel treatment of images of DNA X-ray crystallography. The idea to use the kind of images that came from a book I saw for the first time when I was 10 years old. The book is called Powers of Ten -- About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe [and] gives an interesting view of the universe starting from a microscopic view and increasing in size tenfold in each step. ‎"You are born with the entire universe within you.” That concept really fits with my album that in some ways is made with the natural instrument, the human voice, [then] passed through digital effects [added to a] sample rate frequency technique over a continuous signal. The same things that pixels do in images is the same thing that book does in its concept. Right now, scientists are trying to demonstrate that space is not continuous, as we always thought, but that space is discrete and digital, so non-analog, like pixels on images and the sample techniques in music.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): È stata una scelta sia concettuale che estetica. È una specie di mix tra l estetica sonora e visiva del disco ed il mio amore innato per l'errore digitale il quale ricerco da quando ho iniziato a lavorare con il video. Tutto il resto è caos organizzato che a distanza di mesi dalla sua realizzazione continua ad autogenerare significati. Davide Tomat (Musician): E’ stata la coerenza con l'artwork dell’ album a suggerirci di utilizzare la tecnica dei pixel grossolani nel video. L'artwork di 01-09JUNE è basato su un trattamento di pixel di immagini che rappresentano la diffrazione ordinata di raggi X aventi tutti la stessa energia per orpera di un campione cristallino di DNA. L'idea di utilizzare questo tipo di immagini è partita da un libro che ho scoperto per la prima volta a 10 anni e che si chiama "Potenze di Dieci"e fornisce un interessante e plausibile visione dell'universo cambiando dimensioni progressivamente per potenze di dieci fino a dimostrare che "Siamo nati con l'intero universo dentro di noi." Tale concetto si sposa perfettamente con il mio album, sia concettualmente che tecnicamente perchè 01-06JUNE è stato realizzato con lo strumento più naturale, la voce umana, passata attraverso effetti digitali che hanno sezionato il segnale continuo in un segnale discreto con la tecnica del campionamento digitale . Lo stesso concetto dei pixel sulle immagini digitali e lo stesso concetto del viaggio astrale del libro che mi ha ispirato. Recentemente gli scienziati stanno cercando per dimostrare che lo spazio non è continuo, come abbiamo sempre pensato, ma che lo spazio è discreto, digitale, e non analogico quindi come i pixel sulle immagini e la tecnica di campionamento digitale nella musica.
INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW TOMAT - "1984" Music Video
"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." -- George Orwell

 

What is the underlying message of the 1984, Space Invaders, war imagery, etc. in the song and in the video? Qual è il messaggio nascosto dietro space invaders, 1984, immagini di guerra, ecc nella canzone e nel video?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): Regarding the video, I think that every single event has its own central message, since the narrative was created by a series of events that were different although they occurred in the same year. The denser the number of events a second, the more we lose the facts itself, gaining objectivity but losing humanity. This is what happens to David in the video. Do you see the faces that he makes? I think that the same thing that happens to astronauts when they start to perceive with their eyes the Earth's sphericity. Davide Tomat (Musician): Gabriele tried to be consistent with the concept of the album. 01-06JUNE was recorded in a solo improvisation session between June 1st and 6th 2010, so at the end of the recording session, I tried to pick up songs or excerpts from all of the audio material I had recorded and matched the pieces of music together with events that happened in human history between June 1st and 6th, trying to match emotions and songs that were similar in mood. After many ideas we decided to apply the same technique by finding out all of the events that happened in the year 1984 and putting them all inside the video. The underlying message of the video is [raising awareness] about what happened in human history and what will happen, knowing that what we are doing right now will be part of the future, and that we are all responsible for... the future story [will be]... As Orwell said, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." At the end of the video I am alone, drowned and imprisoned, in that big pixel world media archive trying to follow pixels. That [internet] world... seems to be more interesting than what really surround us.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Per quanto riguarda il video, penso che non sia centrale il messaggio di ogni singolo evento quanto la suggestione creata da una serie di eventi così diversi tra loro pur essendo accaduti nello stesso anno. Più si infittisce il numero di eventi al secondo, più ci si distacca dai fatti in se, acquistando oggettività ma perdendo umanità. Ecco cosa succede a Davide nel video. Non si vede dalle facce che fa?! Credo che sia la stessa cosa che accade all'astronauta quando inizia a percepire con gli occhi la sfericita della terra. Davide Tomat (Musician): Come per la scelta dei pixel grossolani, per il senso del video Gabriele ha cercato di essere coerente con il concetto dell' album. 01-06JUNE è stato registrato in una sessione d’ improvvisazione solitaria tra il 1 ° e il 6 giugno 2010. Alla fine della sessione di registrazione ho cercato di estrarre dei brani dal lungo materiale audio che avevo registrato e abbinare i brani individuati ad eventi accaduti nella storia umana tra il 1 ° e il 6 giugno cercando una coesione emozionale. Così per il video, dopo tante idee, abbiamo deciso di applicare la stessa tecnica e cercare tutti gli eventi accaduti durante l'anno 84 e ed editarli per il video. Personalmente, il messaggio nascosto del video è quello di fare attenzione a ciò che è successo nella storia umana e a ciò che accadrà, sapendo che ciò che stiamo costruendo o distruggendo adesso farà parte del futuro, che siamo tutti responsabili per ciò che sarà la storia futura, ciò che verrà dipende da tutti noi, senza esclusione. Come scrisse Orwell: "Chi controlla il passato controlla il futuro. Chi controlla il presente controlla il passato.” Alla fine del video anche io sono disperso e prigioniero nel grande archivio digitale cercando, seguendo i pixel, una via di fuga. Quel mondo, il mondo di internet, in questo momento, sembra essere molto più interessante di ciò che realmente ci circonda.

 

What are some sources for the archival film and photos? Quali sono le fonti d'archivio delle immagini utilizzate nel video?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): They come from all our internet searches, from my (our) auxiliary memory.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Provengono tutte da ricerche su internet, la mia (la nostra) memoria ausiliaria.

 

As Italian artists, how do you feel about the future of Italy and the European Union right now? Come artisti italiani, come vedete il futuro dell’Italia e dell'Unione europea in questo momento?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): Good question. For the past ten years, I've planned to escape from Italy. Ours is a country that is rich in beauty but now deprived of almost any type of [deeper] meaning. We welcome anything countries more "major" than we are propose. At the same time, we don't have the cultural background in order to filter all that comes over us and deprives us of initiative and creativity. Children without imagination wear foreign clothes without even knowing how to speak their own language. It's really shit. Occasionally, however, there are connections made with some people and I admit that adrenaline is extremely inspiring. It's like finding allies in a battlefield, [though] a little too warmongering unless you decide to lock yourself in hermitage with your loved ones or to defend your castle if you have one. The European Union does not feel like anything if not for the fact that I feel the weight of fewer borders. Though in fact, I'm starting to feel a bit more at home. Davide Tomat (Musician): To be honest, it's a very strange moment here in Italy. It seems like everything is totally out of sense. Everything is going in the wrong direction. I'm generally a positive person about the future and about the development of human consciousness, always full of hopes about the future -- so in some ways, I think this bottom point we are living in right now may be the reason and the floor to start and climb and try to go back to the surface. In a bad situation only the true, the real, and important things survive. Like after a tsunami, what stays up is bound to last. What is important for everybody now is to look inside ourselves and do only things we really feel and we really believe in, by trying to be in real contact with ourselves, thinking about ourselves as a part of everything -- of the same everything that is inside us, inside everybody, and trying to forego appearances.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Bella domanda.E da una decina d'anni che progetto una fuga dall'Italia. Nostro è un paese ricco di bellezza ma ormai privato di quasi qualsiasi tipo di significato.Accogliamo tutto ciò che di nuovo ci viene proposto da paesi " più grandi" di noi. Allo stesso tempo non abbiamo le basi culturali per poter filtrare quello che ci arriva e ci investe privandoci di iniziativa e creatività. Dei bambini senza immaginazione che vestono abiti stranieri senza saper parlare nemmeno la propria lingua. Una vera merda! Ogni tanto si trovano però dei punti di connessione con alcune persone ed ammetto che è adrenalinico ed estremamente stimolante. Come trovare alleati in un campo di battaglia. Un po troppo guerrafondaio a meno che non decidi di chiuderti in eremitaggio con i tuoi cari o di difendere il tuo castello se ne possiedi uno. L'unione europea non la sento se non per il fatto che sento meno il peso dei confini. Infatti sto iniziando a entrare nell'ottica di vivermela un po' di più come casa. Davide Tomat (Musician): E’ un momento molto strano qui in Italia. Sembra che tutto sia completamente fuori di senso. Tutto sta andando nella direzione sbagliata. Sono generalmente una persona positiva riguardo al futuro e allo sviluppo della coscienza umana. Sono sempre stato pieno di speranze per il futuro, quindi in qualche modo penso che questo abisso che stiamo vivendo forse sarà il punto di partenza e la motivazione per ri iniziare a salire e cercare di tornare in superficie. In un minimo storico come questo solo la verità, le cose vere e importanti sopravvivono, come dopo uno tzunami, ciò che rimane in piedi è destinato a durare nel tempo. Quello che è realmente importante per tutti noi adesso è cercare di guardare con onestà dentro noi stessi e fare solo le cose che veramente sentiamo e in cui veramente crediamo cercando di entrare realmente in contatto con noi stessi, pensando a noi stessi come una parte del tutto, lo stesso tutto che si trova all'interno noi, dentro tutti, cercando di andare oltre le apparenze.

 

Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TOMAT – “1984″ Music Video (w/ Director Gabriele Ottino & Musician Davide Tomat Interview)

Related posts:
  1. Onuinu – Ice Palace Music Video (w/ Director Andrew Sloan & Choreographer Jin Camou Interview)
  2. David Daniell & Douglas McCombs – “30265″ Music Video (Interview w/ Director Timothy Leeds)
  3. AU – OJ + Ida Walked Away Music Videos (Interview w/ Luke Wyland & Director Takafumi Tsuhiya)
]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TOMAT – “1984″ Music Video (w/ Director Gabriele Ottino & Musician Davide Tomat Interview)

2012_Tomat-01

In REDEFINE's first bi-lingual interview, we speak with Gabriele Ottino, director behind the acid trip visuals for Italian electronic artist TOMAT's latest track, "1984". Taking inspiration from George Orwell and a wide cross-section of human affairs, the video mixes archival footage of events between June 1st and June 6th, 1984, glitch and pixel elements, and modern day footage of the musician into a brightly-colored visual slideshow.
"The denser the number of events a second, the more we lose the facts itself, gaining objectivity but losing humanity." -- Gabriele Ottino

 

MUSIC VIDEO AND INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW Directed by Gabriele Ottino and produced by Superbudda Studio

 

"... All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." -- George Orwell, London Letter to Partisan Review

 

How did the collaboration form and how closely did you guys work together on it? Come è nata la vostra collaborazione e quanto strettamente avete lavorato al progetto?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): The collaboration was born from the simple fact that David and I were first and foremost musical companions in several bands and studies, for almost a dozen years. This is the first actual work in which our roles are clearly defined. David asked me to realize the music video of a song from his first solo album, entitled "1984". The concept began by matching each track with a historical event that occurred between June 1st and June 6th, throughout human history, though I started to select a series of events related to the year 1984. Then I found all the reference images and I approached David with them one last time before moving on to the editing. I did not have a clear idea about the video's outcome. The only thing I knew was that I wanted the images to deconstruct and reconstruct like the game of 15" (Fifteen puzzle), and that the pixel animations would give color and movement to an altered photo slideshow. The obtained result more resembled a visual acid [trip] than a proper video clip. David and I then decided to shoot some more "real" scenes, primarily to make everything more accessible. This choice led to a video that is more conceptual in conclusion than in practice. Its aesthetics of reality, which David accompanies digital information related to the past, is invaded by visual glitches and pixel errors that almost suggest a transition between the lived-in reality and a data bank of auxiliary memory. Davide Tomat (Director): Gabriele Ottino has been my partner in the studio and in different projects for more than five years. We have worked together on many projects in music, theatre, sound design, and we have spent a lot of time together. We lived together in our studio for a year-and-a-half, so everything we do, even solo projects, involve each other in some ways. Gabriele is a cool musician, but first [and foremost] a real artist; he is a really clever video maker. He has made many art videos and visuals for himself as well as many videos, visuals and teasers for the bands and the projects we share together (N.A.M.B./NIAGARA/GEMINI EXCERPT)... I asked Gabriele to do my first solo video, partly because we were already thinking about visuals for my solo live shows.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): La collaborazione è nata per il semplice fatto che io e Davide siamo prima di tutto compagni musicali in diverse band e di studio quasi da una decina d anni. Questo è però il primo effettivo lavoro nel quale i ruoli si sono definiti maggiormente. Davide mi ha chiesto di realizzarli il videoclip di un brano del suo primo disco solista dal titolo "1984". Partendo dal concept, che vuole ogni traccia abbinata ad un evento storico verificatosi tra il 1° e il 6° giugno nel corso della storia umana, ho iniziato a selezionare una serie di eventi relativi all'anno 1984. In seguito ho trovato tutte le immagini di riferimento e mi sono confrontato per l ultima volta con Davide prima di passare alla parte di editing. Non avevo un'idea ben precisa su come sarebbe apparso il video finito. L'unica cosa che sapevo è che volevo che le immagini si scomponessero e ricomponessero come il "gioco dei 15" (Fifteen puzzle) e che delle animazioni con i pixel dessero colore e movimento a questa specie di slideshow fotografica alterata. Il risultato ottenuto assomigliava più ad un visual acido che ad un videoclip vero e proprio. Abbiamo deciso allora io e Davide di girare ancora qualche scena "reale" principalmente per rendere tutto il piu fruibile possibile.Questa scelta ha portato il video verso una conclusione sia pratica che concettuale. L'estetica della realtà all interno della quale Davide accoglie informazioni digitali relative al passato viene invasa da glitch visivi, errori e pixel quasi a suggerire un passaggio tra la realtà vissuta e la banca dati di una memoria ausiliaria. Davide Tomat (Director): Gabriele Ottino è il mio socio di studio e di progetti musicali da oltre cinque anni. Lavoriamo insieme musicalmente, per il teatro, per il sound design e passiamo molto tempo a stretto contatto. Abbiamo anche vissuto insieme nel nostro studio per più di un anno e mezzo e quindi tutto ciò che facciamo, anche progetti solisti in qualche modo coinvolgono l'un l'altro. Gabriele è un ottimo musicista, ma prima di tutto un vero artista, un video maker molto intelligente e sensibile, ha realizzato parecchi video d'arte autonomamente e video, visuals e teaser per le band e progetti che condividiamo insieme (NAMB / NIAGARA / GEMINI EXCERPT). E’ stato quindi naturale chiedere a Gabriele di realizzare il mio primo video anche perchè stavamo ragionando insieme ai visuals da utilizzare per il mio live.

 

Pixel and glitch art sometimes loses quality in smaller video formats. Was the decision to go with larger glitch "pixels" in order to combat this technical problem, or was it purely for aesthetic reasons? Pixel e glitch spesso perdono di definizione nella conversione dei video in bassa qualità .La decisione di usare pixel più grandi è stata dettata dall'esigenza di combattere questo problema tecnico o è stata una pura scelta estetica?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): It was a conceptual aesthetic choice. It's kind of a mix between the sound and visual aesthetics of disco and my innate love for the digital errors I've found since I started working with video. Everything else is organized chaos that, after months of its implementation, continues to autogenerate significance. Davide Tomat (Musician): The idea of using a rough pixel technique in the video was mainly to make it similar to the album artwork. The artwork of 01-09JUNE is based on a rough pixel treatment of images of DNA X-ray crystallography. The idea to use the kind of images that came from a book I saw for the first time when I was 10 years old. The book is called Powers of Ten -- About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe [and] gives an interesting view of the universe starting from a microscopic view and increasing in size tenfold in each step. ‎"You are born with the entire universe within you.” That concept really fits with my album that in some ways is made with the natural instrument, the human voice, [then] passed through digital effects [added to a] sample rate frequency technique over a continuous signal. The same things that pixels do in images is the same thing that book does in its concept. Right now, scientists are trying to demonstrate that space is not continuous, as we always thought, but that space is discrete and digital, so non-analog, like pixels on images and the sample techniques in music.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): È stata una scelta sia concettuale che estetica. È una specie di mix tra l estetica sonora e visiva del disco ed il mio amore innato per l'errore digitale il quale ricerco da quando ho iniziato a lavorare con il video. Tutto il resto è caos organizzato che a distanza di mesi dalla sua realizzazione continua ad autogenerare significati. Davide Tomat (Musician): E’ stata la coerenza con l'artwork dell’ album a suggerirci di utilizzare la tecnica dei pixel grossolani nel video. L'artwork di 01-09JUNE è basato su un trattamento di pixel di immagini che rappresentano la diffrazione ordinata di raggi X aventi tutti la stessa energia per orpera di un campione cristallino di DNA. L'idea di utilizzare questo tipo di immagini è partita da un libro che ho scoperto per la prima volta a 10 anni e che si chiama "Potenze di Dieci"e fornisce un interessante e plausibile visione dell'universo cambiando dimensioni progressivamente per potenze di dieci fino a dimostrare che "Siamo nati con l'intero universo dentro di noi." Tale concetto si sposa perfettamente con il mio album, sia concettualmente che tecnicamente perchè 01-06JUNE è stato realizzato con lo strumento più naturale, la voce umana, passata attraverso effetti digitali che hanno sezionato il segnale continuo in un segnale discreto con la tecnica del campionamento digitale . Lo stesso concetto dei pixel sulle immagini digitali e lo stesso concetto del viaggio astrale del libro che mi ha ispirato. Recentemente gli scienziati stanno cercando per dimostrare che lo spazio non è continuo, come abbiamo sempre pensato, ma che lo spazio è discreto, digitale, e non analogico quindi come i pixel sulle immagini e la tecnica di campionamento digitale nella musica.
INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW TOMAT - "1984" Music Video
"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." -- George Orwell

 

What is the underlying message of the 1984, Space Invaders, war imagery, etc. in the song and in the video? Qual è il messaggio nascosto dietro space invaders, 1984, immagini di guerra, ecc nella canzone e nel video?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): Regarding the video, I think that every single event has its own central message, since the narrative was created by a series of events that were different although they occurred in the same year. The denser the number of events a second, the more we lose the facts itself, gaining objectivity but losing humanity. This is what happens to David in the video. Do you see the faces that he makes? I think that the same thing that happens to astronauts when they start to perceive with their eyes the Earth's sphericity. Davide Tomat (Musician): Gabriele tried to be consistent with the concept of the album. 01-06JUNE was recorded in a solo improvisation session between June 1st and 6th 2010, so at the end of the recording session, I tried to pick up songs or excerpts from all of the audio material I had recorded and matched the pieces of music together with events that happened in human history between June 1st and 6th, trying to match emotions and songs that were similar in mood. After many ideas we decided to apply the same technique by finding out all of the events that happened in the year 1984 and putting them all inside the video. The underlying message of the video is [raising awareness] about what happened in human history and what will happen, knowing that what we are doing right now will be part of the future, and that we are all responsible for... the future story [will be]... As Orwell said, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." At the end of the video I am alone, drowned and imprisoned, in that big pixel world media archive trying to follow pixels. That [internet] world... seems to be more interesting than what really surround us.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Per quanto riguarda il video, penso che non sia centrale il messaggio di ogni singolo evento quanto la suggestione creata da una serie di eventi così diversi tra loro pur essendo accaduti nello stesso anno. Più si infittisce il numero di eventi al secondo, più ci si distacca dai fatti in se, acquistando oggettività ma perdendo umanità. Ecco cosa succede a Davide nel video. Non si vede dalle facce che fa?! Credo che sia la stessa cosa che accade all'astronauta quando inizia a percepire con gli occhi la sfericita della terra. Davide Tomat (Musician): Come per la scelta dei pixel grossolani, per il senso del video Gabriele ha cercato di essere coerente con il concetto dell' album. 01-06JUNE è stato registrato in una sessione d’ improvvisazione solitaria tra il 1 ° e il 6 giugno 2010. Alla fine della sessione di registrazione ho cercato di estrarre dei brani dal lungo materiale audio che avevo registrato e abbinare i brani individuati ad eventi accaduti nella storia umana tra il 1 ° e il 6 giugno cercando una coesione emozionale. Così per il video, dopo tante idee, abbiamo deciso di applicare la stessa tecnica e cercare tutti gli eventi accaduti durante l'anno 84 e ed editarli per il video. Personalmente, il messaggio nascosto del video è quello di fare attenzione a ciò che è successo nella storia umana e a ciò che accadrà, sapendo che ciò che stiamo costruendo o distruggendo adesso farà parte del futuro, che siamo tutti responsabili per ciò che sarà la storia futura, ciò che verrà dipende da tutti noi, senza esclusione. Come scrisse Orwell: "Chi controlla il passato controlla il futuro. Chi controlla il presente controlla il passato.” Alla fine del video anche io sono disperso e prigioniero nel grande archivio digitale cercando, seguendo i pixel, una via di fuga. Quel mondo, il mondo di internet, in questo momento, sembra essere molto più interessante di ciò che realmente ci circonda.

 

What are some sources for the archival film and photos? Quali sono le fonti d'archivio delle immagini utilizzate nel video?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): They come from all our internet searches, from my (our) auxiliary memory.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Provengono tutte da ricerche su internet, la mia (la nostra) memoria ausiliaria.

 

As Italian artists, how do you feel about the future of Italy and the European Union right now? Come artisti italiani, come vedete il futuro dell’Italia e dell'Unione europea in questo momento?
Gabriele Ottino (Director): Good question. For the past ten years, I've planned to escape from Italy. Ours is a country that is rich in beauty but now deprived of almost any type of [deeper] meaning. We welcome anything countries more "major" than we are propose. At the same time, we don't have the cultural background in order to filter all that comes over us and deprives us of initiative and creativity. Children without imagination wear foreign clothes without even knowing how to speak their own language. It's really shit. Occasionally, however, there are connections made with some people and I admit that adrenaline is extremely inspiring. It's like finding allies in a battlefield, [though] a little too warmongering unless you decide to lock yourself in hermitage with your loved ones or to defend your castle if you have one. The European Union does not feel like anything if not for the fact that I feel the weight of fewer borders. Though in fact, I'm starting to feel a bit more at home. Davide Tomat (Musician): To be honest, it's a very strange moment here in Italy. It seems like everything is totally out of sense. Everything is going in the wrong direction. I'm generally a positive person about the future and about the development of human consciousness, always full of hopes about the future -- so in some ways, I think this bottom point we are living in right now may be the reason and the floor to start and climb and try to go back to the surface. In a bad situation only the true, the real, and important things survive. Like after a tsunami, what stays up is bound to last. What is important for everybody now is to look inside ourselves and do only things we really feel and we really believe in, by trying to be in real contact with ourselves, thinking about ourselves as a part of everything -- of the same everything that is inside us, inside everybody, and trying to forego appearances.

 

Gabriele Ottino (Director): Bella domanda.E da una decina d'anni che progetto una fuga dall'Italia. Nostro è un paese ricco di bellezza ma ormai privato di quasi qualsiasi tipo di significato.Accogliamo tutto ciò che di nuovo ci viene proposto da paesi " più grandi" di noi. Allo stesso tempo non abbiamo le basi culturali per poter filtrare quello che ci arriva e ci investe privandoci di iniziativa e creatività. Dei bambini senza immaginazione che vestono abiti stranieri senza saper parlare nemmeno la propria lingua. Una vera merda! Ogni tanto si trovano però dei punti di connessione con alcune persone ed ammetto che è adrenalinico ed estremamente stimolante. Come trovare alleati in un campo di battaglia. Un po troppo guerrafondaio a meno che non decidi di chiuderti in eremitaggio con i tuoi cari o di difendere il tuo castello se ne possiedi uno. L'unione europea non la sento se non per il fatto che sento meno il peso dei confini. Infatti sto iniziando a entrare nell'ottica di vivermela un po' di più come casa. Davide Tomat (Musician): E’ un momento molto strano qui in Italia. Sembra che tutto sia completamente fuori di senso. Tutto sta andando nella direzione sbagliata. Sono generalmente una persona positiva riguardo al futuro e allo sviluppo della coscienza umana. Sono sempre stato pieno di speranze per il futuro, quindi in qualche modo penso che questo abisso che stiamo vivendo forse sarà il punto di partenza e la motivazione per ri iniziare a salire e cercare di tornare in superficie. In un minimo storico come questo solo la verità, le cose vere e importanti sopravvivono, come dopo uno tzunami, ciò che rimane in piedi è destinato a durare nel tempo. Quello che è realmente importante per tutti noi adesso è cercare di guardare con onestà dentro noi stessi e fare solo le cose che veramente sentiamo e in cui veramente crediamo cercando di entrare realmente in contatto con noi stessi, pensando a noi stessi come una parte del tutto, lo stesso tutto che si trova all'interno noi, dentro tutti, cercando di andare oltre le apparenze.

 

Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TOMAT – “1984″ Music Video (w/ Director Gabriele Ottino & Musician Davide Tomat Interview)

Related posts:

  1. Onuinu – Ice Palace Music Video (w/ Director Andrew Sloan & Choreographer Jin Camou Interview)
  2. David Daniell & Douglas McCombs – “30265″ Music Video (Interview w/ Director Timothy Leeds)
  3. AU – OJ + Ida Walked Away Music Videos (Interview w/ Luke Wyland & Director Takafumi Tsuhiya)
]]> http://www.redefinemag.com/2012/tomat-1984-music-video-director-gabriele-ottino-interview-italy/feed/ 0 Matt Leavitt Artist Interview : When Engineering And Zen Join To Inspire Art http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/matt-leavitt-artist-interview-engineering-zen-buddhism/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/matt-leavitt-artist-interview-engineering-zen-buddhism/#comments Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:28:51 +0000 Vivian Hua http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=5335

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Matt Leavitt Artist Interview : When Engineering And Zen Join To Inspire Art

2011_matt-leavitt-tree-untitled7

matt leavitt
Time permitting, Portland-based artist Matt Leavitt allows his imagination to run free by tinkering, inventing, and manipulating objects in the pursuit of fine artistic ideas. The fascination of his multi-disciplinary artwork can be found equally in the methodologies spawning them as in the finished products themselves; trial and error, as well as chance events, serve as stepping stones to reaching greater ends -- some predictable, some unpredictable. Leavitt creates with the mentality of sussing out his wildest artistic fantasies, all the while drawing equally from his knowledge in Civic Engineering and his experiences at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Oregon. In his experimentation, he has done things many would never consider. He has attempted to make ink from flowers petals; he has thrown melted candle wax onto frozen ponds; he has created sculptures from liquid clay. His interests flow in many directions, and these divergences are present when one looks at his entire body of work. The projects he undertakes are always well-detailed within his mind; every piece of every series falls in line with subtle stylistic rules yet deviates within a larger framework.

 

matt leavitt

Tree Series

His Tree series contains dozen of pieces, all of which begin with a single brush stroke. At times, the brush strokes are manipulated with materials such as paper towels or diluted with water; other times, they are purely ink. Careful study of the initial forms then inspire Leavitt to craft the final works, which always revolve around trees but are otherwise extremely variable. Leavitt's Tree series takes his work to the next level; with it, he received his first solo show and found a new sense of self-discipline, discovering the importance of simplicity, smallness, and negative space in his own art. He explains how he began this series, saying: "I was reading a book called The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, a choreographer. And it's sort of a book about how to form useful habits creatively if you want to make that your life. So... I was living at Great Vow Zen Monastery where I had been before, and I decided to try and do my art in a more disciplined way. I started off with doing art for a designated amount of time per day; I thought that it would also be nice if I actually finished something because of that habit of doing a lot of art and never really finishing. I decided that I would put out some smaller pieces of paper and make myself finish... my project would then be, within the two to three hours that I set aside to do as I can. I had decided I would do five a day." Below, Leavitt shares insight on his thought process behind individual pieces in his Tree series.
matt leavitt "Untitled 7 A.K.A. Vibrant Birch involved a happy accident. I put way too much ink on the page, then blotted some off with a "quilted" paper towel, and the result was a patchy texture. It looked like foliage to me, so I decided to make it foliage. I think it was the first piece where the initial broad stroke was the background rather than the ground itself. I used a box cutter to remove ink from the page to create the white branches of the trees. I also like how the bit of splatter gives a clue to the energy in the initial stroke."
matt leavitt "[This] one is called Untitled 4, but in my mind I call it ages, because it depicts young trees and a very old tree, which is actually a stump. The roots from the tree stump are very deep and visible below the broad brush stroke, while the younger trees' roots are not. This is one of the drawings I did the first time I sat down to work on this series, and it was a point when I saw a lot of potential: just by depicting trees as they are, a profound statement had emerged, which was not premeditated. It was an exciting moment."
matt leavitt "Arboretum came very soon after that one. It is one of the two smallest pieces, along with The Long Dead and Forgotten. All of the illustrations before it had started with a roughly rectangular stroke from a foam brush in pure black ink, but this time I used diluted ink and a bristled brush. This one was exciting because just with the initial broad stroke so much of the work was done. The way the paper absorbed the ink -- it had a sort of gradient, so it seemed three-dimensional. I saw a hill and went with that. This added a very fun dimension to the project: working with whatever happens to emerge in that initial stroke. That aspect of the project always reminds me of a chant they do at the monastery called "Liberation from all obstructions," which is about choosing whatever arises."

 

 

matt leavitt "The Long Dead and Forgotten (upper left) depicts a graveyard with lots of simple, small identical grave markers. In my imagination, it's not a graveyard that can be seen from any road; it's not on a map, and it doesn't even have a colloquial nickname. You might stumble upon it, enjoy exploring it a bit, move on, and not mention it to anyone. This piece feels simultaneously very dark and peaceful. Several of the tree drawings -- like Still (upper right) and Murder -- fit into that category, which is my favorite."
matt leavitt "Some of the drawings required especially intense concentration. Daybreak (above) was one of those. In the initial brush stroke, I saw an early morning sky above a grassy hill. All I added were the trees, but they are what reveals that that's a hill there, and that the sun has just barely peeked over the horizon, and specifically it's the lighting one the trees that makes the case. It was really finely detailed work with a box cutter. A lot of holding of the breath was involved."
matt leavitt "This series got me to do so much exploration. Ghostly is a good example of that. It's the only piece that involved a different kind of ink (I did one using goop that dripped from an iris, but I don't include it in the series). I found a charred window frame on the sidewalk in the industrial district, broke off a piece, put it in a baggy I happened to have on me, and took it to my studio. Then I added water and tried to pulverize it. The ink I normally use is made from soot, so it didn't seem so crazy. Well, my mixture didn't work out very well, but I did try it out on some paper. Ghostly is made from a smudge of this homemade "ink." It's always exciting to enter new territory, having no idea what might happen."

 

Butterflicker Series

Leavitt's Butterflicker series is a combination of photography and digital manipulation. Using what is essentially a lightbox, Leavitt wipes streaks of liquid clay with a sponge to create 2-dimensional forms which, in his own words, are reminiscent of butterflies. These images are then photographed and lightly manipulated in Photoshop to make them feel more 3-dimensional and gallery quality. matt leavittmatt leavitt

Blobs I Heart Series

With this playful series, Leavitt photographically documents his surroundings by focusing closely on "blobs" which occur naturally and unnaturally, through human interaction as well as indiscernible means. Leavitt has a series of rules for his chosen blobs, and explains them, saying, "Blobs have finite boundaries completely contained within the photo, I shoot them head on, as I find them, and they are generally made without intention, as far as I can tell." matt leavittmatt leavitt

www.mattleavitt.com

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Matt Leavitt Artist Interview : When Engineering And Zen Join To Inspire Art

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]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Matt Leavitt Artist Interview : When Engineering And Zen Join To Inspire Art

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matt leavitt
Time permitting, Portland-based artist Matt Leavitt allows his imagination to run free by tinkering, inventing, and manipulating objects in the pursuit of fine artistic ideas. The fascination of his multi-disciplinary artwork can be found equally in the methodologies spawning them as in the finished products themselves; trial and error, as well as chance events, serve as stepping stones to reaching greater ends -- some predictable, some unpredictable. Leavitt creates with the mentality of sussing out his wildest artistic fantasies, all the while drawing equally from his knowledge in Civic Engineering and his experiences at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Oregon. In his experimentation, he has done things many would never consider. He has attempted to make ink from flowers petals; he has thrown melted candle wax onto frozen ponds; he has created sculptures from liquid clay. His interests flow in many directions, and these divergences are present when one looks at his entire body of work. The projects he undertakes are always well-detailed within his mind; every piece of every series falls in line with subtle stylistic rules yet deviates within a larger framework.

 

matt leavitt

Tree Series

His Tree series contains dozen of pieces, all of which begin with a single brush stroke. At times, the brush strokes are manipulated with materials such as paper towels or diluted with water; other times, they are purely ink. Careful study of the initial forms then inspire Leavitt to craft the final works, which always revolve around trees but are otherwise extremely variable. Leavitt's Tree series takes his work to the next level; with it, he received his first solo show and found a new sense of self-discipline, discovering the importance of simplicity, smallness, and negative space in his own art. He explains how he began this series, saying: "I was reading a book called The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, a choreographer. And it's sort of a book about how to form useful habits creatively if you want to make that your life. So... I was living at Great Vow Zen Monastery where I had been before, and I decided to try and do my art in a more disciplined way. I started off with doing art for a designated amount of time per day; I thought that it would also be nice if I actually finished something because of that habit of doing a lot of art and never really finishing. I decided that I would put out some smaller pieces of paper and make myself finish... my project would then be, within the two to three hours that I set aside to do as I can. I had decided I would do five a day." Below, Leavitt shares insight on his thought process behind individual pieces in his Tree series.
matt leavitt "Untitled 7 A.K.A. Vibrant Birch involved a happy accident. I put way too much ink on the page, then blotted some off with a "quilted" paper towel, and the result was a patchy texture. It looked like foliage to me, so I decided to make it foliage. I think it was the first piece where the initial broad stroke was the background rather than the ground itself. I used a box cutter to remove ink from the page to create the white branches of the trees. I also like how the bit of splatter gives a clue to the energy in the initial stroke."
matt leavitt "[This] one is called Untitled 4, but in my mind I call it ages, because it depicts young trees and a very old tree, which is actually a stump. The roots from the tree stump are very deep and visible below the broad brush stroke, while the younger trees' roots are not. This is one of the drawings I did the first time I sat down to work on this series, and it was a point when I saw a lot of potential: just by depicting trees as they are, a profound statement had emerged, which was not premeditated. It was an exciting moment."
matt leavitt "Arboretum came very soon after that one. It is one of the two smallest pieces, along with The Long Dead and Forgotten. All of the illustrations before it had started with a roughly rectangular stroke from a foam brush in pure black ink, but this time I used diluted ink and a bristled brush. This one was exciting because just with the initial broad stroke so much of the work was done. The way the paper absorbed the ink -- it had a sort of gradient, so it seemed three-dimensional. I saw a hill and went with that. This added a very fun dimension to the project: working with whatever happens to emerge in that initial stroke. That aspect of the project always reminds me of a chant they do at the monastery called "Liberation from all obstructions," which is about choosing whatever arises."

 

 

matt leavitt "The Long Dead and Forgotten (upper left) depicts a graveyard with lots of simple, small identical grave markers. In my imagination, it's not a graveyard that can be seen from any road; it's not on a map, and it doesn't even have a colloquial nickname. You might stumble upon it, enjoy exploring it a bit, move on, and not mention it to anyone. This piece feels simultaneously very dark and peaceful. Several of the tree drawings -- like Still (upper right) and Murder -- fit into that category, which is my favorite."
matt leavitt "Some of the drawings required especially intense concentration. Daybreak (above) was one of those. In the initial brush stroke, I saw an early morning sky above a grassy hill. All I added were the trees, but they are what reveals that that's a hill there, and that the sun has just barely peeked over the horizon, and specifically it's the lighting one the trees that makes the case. It was really finely detailed work with a box cutter. A lot of holding of the breath was involved."
matt leavitt "This series got me to do so much exploration. Ghostly is a good example of that. It's the only piece that involved a different kind of ink (I did one using goop that dripped from an iris, but I don't include it in the series). I found a charred window frame on the sidewalk in the industrial district, broke off a piece, put it in a baggy I happened to have on me, and took it to my studio. Then I added water and tried to pulverize it. The ink I normally use is made from soot, so it didn't seem so crazy. Well, my mixture didn't work out very well, but I did try it out on some paper. Ghostly is made from a smudge of this homemade "ink." It's always exciting to enter new territory, having no idea what might happen."

 

Butterflicker Series

Leavitt's Butterflicker series is a combination of photography and digital manipulation. Using what is essentially a lightbox, Leavitt wipes streaks of liquid clay with a sponge to create 2-dimensional forms which, in his own words, are reminiscent of butterflies. These images are then photographed and lightly manipulated in Photoshop to make them feel more 3-dimensional and gallery quality. matt leavittmatt leavitt

Blobs I Heart Series

With this playful series, Leavitt photographically documents his surroundings by focusing closely on "blobs" which occur naturally and unnaturally, through human interaction as well as indiscernible means. Leavitt has a series of rules for his chosen blobs, and explains them, saying, "Blobs have finite boundaries completely contained within the photo, I shoot them head on, as I find them, and they are generally made without intention, as far as I can tell." matt leavittmatt leavitt

www.mattleavitt.com

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Matt Leavitt Artist Interview : When Engineering And Zen Join To Inspire Art

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  1. Francine Seders Gallery – Maysey Craddock, Pat DeCaro, Gail Grinnell
  2. David O’Brien Artist Interview: Manipulating Organism Through Art
  3. Zander Olsen Temporarily Creates Mountains In Trees.
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