3.1.06
On the flight into Las Vegas and thought I'd start the website. My intention is to create an online log of this project as as I create it.

The goal of the project is to make a work of art that expresses my experience of turning 40. To do this I went to Death Valley, CA, and arranged to be at the lowest elevation of the US on my 40th birthday. This should give you some idea of how it feels to me to turn 40.

On the right are a couple of initial studies of what I want this piece to look like. It's going to be a video landscape, a portrait of Death Valley, but also a portrait of a 40 year old man.

Here is the gallery of images so far:

gallery 1

3.10.06
I've got some initial technical problems solved. I will be using Flash to compose the individual video clips, then importing the SWFs into Director. I will be using the Javascript within Director MX 2004 as the programming language. The final product will be something like a CD containing both Mac and Windows Director projectors and a few dozen SWFs. As a whole I imagine it won't weigh more than 150 MBs.

3.11.06
Here's the sequence to go from DV tape to a SWF that I can insert into Director:
DV --> Premiere --> output BMP image sequence --> batch resized, cropped and converted to JPG --> imported into Flash

Most SWFs will be well under 250 frames. That's about 16 (250/15 fps = 16.66) seconds max for each clip.

3.16.06
I have an first version running in Director. It is not web based so I can't post it, but I will post some Quicktime video soon.

4.4.06

AUDIO:

I've been exploring some audio ideas, either to use as the soundtrack, or else as inspiration to create an original score. I am currently listening to synth-type ambient tracks, but also slow rumbling minimalist tracks, usually involving a cello or twelve. However, all this stuff is too nice and pretty. There is a gritty hum, a rumbling, a slow tremelo feedback that I am looking for. Something I have heard before perhaps by The Dirty Three, Jay Farrar, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, or Sonic Youth.

Harold Budd, who's music is actually inspired in part by the sounds of telephone wires humming in the Mojave Desert, seems like an obvious choice. He is described as a composer of ambient music. His album Luxa, released in 2005 includes a song entitled Agnes Martin. More on her later.

Also Avro Pärt has a piece with 12 cellos entitled "Fratres" (fathers?) that is very nice, but moves a little fast, and is not low enough.

Lech Jankowski is the composer for most of The Brothers Quay soundtracks. I've been listening to the soundtrack to The Institute Benjamata. Creepy and beautiful.

And of course, Brian Eno as well.

CINEMATIC INFLUENCES:

The opening of The Big Lebowski
The palette of A History of Violence
Blade Runner, The Terminator, Red Planet*

*Why the science fiction influence? Each of these films have a graphic element composited on top of the image as a main part of the visual language. I am hoping to overlay statistical information on top of the imagery as a compositional device but also as a channel of information that is relevant to the subject matter.

Films I need to watch again:

Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders (soundtrack by Ry Cooder)
Lost Highway, David Lynch

THE GRAPHIC OVERLAYS:


The current plan is to have overlays of statistical information appear semi randomly on top of the imagery. I want to be clear that this is a compositional device primarily. By that I mean I am interested in the linear quality of information visualization and how that might look on top of video. Almost like webs or fracture lines, something to go across the field of vision, to overlay and tie it together horizontally. The painter in me is crying out for this sort of device. The critic in me tells me that it better make sense as well.