Sensory Experiences and Expressions: A Digital Video Project

Title: Sensory Experiences & Expressions

Summary: Sensory Experiences & Expressions is a four-part digital video piece that explores my sensory relationships with the natural world, painting, cooking, and dancing.

Description: Sensory Experiences & Expressions is a four-part digital video piece that I created in the Spring of 2006 in Multimedia Authoring. The assignment, Video Stories, was to create a series of short digital video narratives with a specific theme, point of view, and concept in mind, completing one video a week for the last month of school. Video footage was captured and edited using Final Cut Pro, and then compressed and posted on a blog for online viewing. During the week I began working on this project many exciting things were happening in my life: my senior year was reaching its final stretch and I was starting work for final critiques in painting and printmaking; the first Student Art Show at the Katzen Museum opened, showing three of my pieces; my dance performance took place, which included a piece of my original choreography; and spring was coming into bloom. With my involvement in the arts a launching point, I dove into some of the sensory experiences of my last month as a senior at AU. The final product is a short video series covering my sensory relationships with the natural world, painting, cooking, and dancing.

Part I: Spring


Part II: Painting


Part III: Mango Dinner Party


Part IV: Dance


These pieces can also be viewed at the American University Multimedia On-line Gallery, along with the videos of my classmates and other multimedia works.

Vlog4: Dance

Vlog 4: Dance

Dada Sound Poems

"Dada Sound Poems" is a two-part audio piece that I created in the Spring of 2006 for a class called Multimedia Authoring. At the time, the National Gallery of Art was exhibiting a large show on the Dada art movement. Our assignment was to create an audio tour 'in the spirit of Dada' that we would upload to the web in a format that would allow listeners to podcast the projects and listen to them as they viewed the Dada show at the National Gallery. I allowed my piece to lead me in a slightly different direction, and created two sound poems: "What is Dada?"; and "Who is Dada?" that would serve as an introduction or summary of the Dada movement. My goal was to make works from the stance of a Dadist, and in the Dada style. The pieces are each about a minute long, and were created using Pro Tools. All of the sounds and voices, with the exception of the man singing in the second piece and the obvious crashing and shooting sound clips, are my own.

Part I: What is Dada?



Part II: Who is Dada?

Vlog3: Mango Dinner Party

Vlog3: Mango Dinner Party

Vlog2: Painting

Vlog2: Painting

Vlog1: Spring

Vlog 1: Spring

Everything's Dada

Wow. What an exhibit. I was very impressed with the extensive collection of art, and with excellent curation of each section. Because the exhibit was so large with no doors or windows out, you could really immerse yourself in Dada, separated from the outside world.

I feel like the exhibit and project have been a good refresher and expansion on my knowledge of Dada. I really feel like I have an understanding of the art movement, and am familiar with more of the artwork and artists. The NGA website was very helpful in conjunction with the exhibit-- it covered the basics, the locations, the major artists, the techniques-- everything you need to know about Dada. I found it helpful to consult before and after my visit, and it definitely helped me make my Dada audio project more accurate.

My one complaint about the Dada exhibit would be that it was too big. At least, it was too big for one visit. Unfortunately, a full course load does not always allow students to go to the NGA as often as they please, and I only had time to go once. Even though it is too late to go back before our project is due, I would like to go back for myself to take a closer look at some of the art that I had to pass by quickly. There is so much to see!

The Dada audio project has definitely been my favorite project so far. I felt like I learned a lot about art history, ideas in art, and perceptions of art. Along with that, I also learned how to use a new medium-- sound-- and a new program-- ProTools. I just wish I had more time to improve and expand on the project!

Hypersituational Photos- Kennedy Center/Snowstorm