Rhythmic Collage

I researched the applications of video to still-frame art. This project attempts to bridge the gap between photography, animation, collage, and video art. The final piece became a mode of video art that I call rhythmic collage. The idea of collage carries the implication of found or appropriated images. I took found images from stock photos labeled for reuse and screenshots from Google street view. The sound was appropriated from other online sources and edited. The different buildings were digitally cut out and layered on top of the landscape background. The chosen pacing was inspired by the game ‘Tetris’. The pacing of the collage layers was important to the narrative of the piece, so the most challenging part of the project was editing the appropriate rhythm. Through a lot of experimentation, I was able select a layered pacing that begins slowly and exponentially increases as the screen begins to fill. The final result of my research was a rhythmic collage showing the transformation of a greenspace into a cityscape. The technique of rhythmic montage paired with motion collage works to create an aesthetic piece with story and meaning behind the motion. One thing that did not work, and that I have yet to find a solution to, is seamlessly matching the transition motion of the collage pieces over distances within the frame to match the pacing of the video. This failure is noticeable towards the end when a piece slides into the upper center of the frame after the pace has quickened. The jarring speed of motion over the distance causes that motion to stand apart. This video will guide my future projects in video art. There is still a lot of art work that has yet to be created that intentionally blurs the lines of material/medium specificity, and rhythmic collage is a method that will guide my future research into dismantling the medium specificity of two dimensional work and video art.