Fireside Chat

Artist Statement

I feel like The Fireside Chat was the perfect project to end the semester with.  Throughout the semester we have been stretching our creativity in ways that we did not even know existed.  This assignment was the marriage of that newly found creativity with the core beliefs of our hearts.  It is something essential that every artist must learn how to do.  How do you communicate your cause through your art?

To start out I had to consider what I really believe.  I brainstormed all the different sets of beliefs I have and what points I wanted to get across.  Then I remembered Benjamin telling us how a parent once assumed that The Fireside chat was graded on the effectiveness of producing a certain feeling or response from the audience. Benjamin told us that that was completely opposite to the point.  I realized that the purpose of this assignment was not to be didactic.  The purpose of the assignment was to share what was most important to me.  It was to be sincere no matter what response it would evoke.  Coming to this realization, I considered what motivates me more than anything.  It is my desire to serve others with my talents. 

The next step was to figure out some artistic way to present this belief.  I decided that the most sincere way would be the simplest way – to speak from the heart and use accompanying images for a backdrop.  What kinds of images could I use?  The very works of art that inspired me to adopt this ideology – “Les Miserables,” and the “Little Prince.”  One of my favorite quotes in “The Little Prince” is when the Prince speaks about the Lamp Lighter: “That man would be scorned by all the others… nevertheless he is the only one of them who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself."  I would use this to illustrate my belief that it doesn’t matter how great or small your contribution is so long as you are serving in whatever capacity you can.  To finish, I would share something that I had created with the motivation of using my talents to serve – a parody that I made with Divine Comedy.

As I shared my cause to the class I felt very vulnerable but I think that was the point.  The purpose was not only to be authentic but practice empathy as others boldly shared their feelings.  In was as Dave Isay told his grandson “if everyone stopped and listened, I think we would see that we are not nearly as different as we think.  We’d see a little bit of ourselves in the stories of strangers.  Because when we take the time to really listen… we know that every voice matters (Listening is an Act of Love, https://youtu.be/8rgJRzz_zHo ).”  If there is one thing that I think Benjamin would want us to take from this class, I think it is this – our voice matters.

Speech

In preparing for this presentation, I thought about what key beliefs I have, and what I wanted to get across when I realized that the purpose of this assignment is not to be didactic.  It is not for me to use missionary-like zeal to convince you guys into believing something that I believe.  The purpose of this assignment is to be authentic about my beliefs.  So I am going to talk about what motivates me more than anything else, what I cherish most – my belief in serving others.

But as a disclaimer I am not going to talk about volunteering in hospitals or raking people’s gardens.  I believe in serving others with my talents.

I think it all started during that awkward time in junior high.  I remember walking down the crowded hallway and feeling an overwhelming sensation of love for the hundreds of people I passed by.  Later in high school my love for those around me increased as I served in student government.   I began thinking about other ways I could make people happy and I thought “I Know people are happy when we win our football games, I’ll join the football team so I can guarantee the win,” That year we went from second in state to last in region.   I realized that my lack of athletic ability was causing more misery than happiness and so I left the football team and started a tailgating club called “The Beards of Extraordinary gentlemen.”  (Because beards make people happy).    Since most people couldn’t grow beards, the club was an opportunity to gather as many people as we could to eat, socialize, and play Jenga.  I continued looking for ways in which I could bring joy to people’s lives and got involved in many other things including musicals and finally film.

All of these things are normal hobbies that everyone has, but to me they were opportunities to serve.  Service is literarily the motivation for everything I do.   It is why I aspire to be a film-maker.  Someone in the program told me the other day that he will no longer work for free.  I understand that we must make a living, but as artist we have an enormous opportunity to create things that inspire, entertain, and simply bless people’s lives.  I believe that it is our responsibility to give our best work, even if sometimes we have to work for free.  I know that I will probably never create something that reaches a ton of people or is life changing, but that is not what it is about.  It is about serving in whatever capacity I can.  Because without it, life would be without meaning. 

Currently I have the wonderful opportunity to make videos with Divine Comedy.  I probably invest the same amount of time in it as I would a part time job.  None of us get paid, but the payoff of providing comedy is well worth it.  Matt Meese from Studio C once received a letter from a teenager who was involved in a severe accident with 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns all over his body.  He said that on the way to the hospital he watched studio C to keep his mind off the pain.  Stories like these remind us why we do what we do.  I’d like to end by sharing some happiness you all with our latest video.  It is a Parody of the Beats by Dre commercial.  

Concerned Citizen

Artist Statement

In our reading for this week, activist Arlene Goldberg speaks of an idea called “storyland,” where she asserts the power of storytelling in shifting societal ideologies, beliefs, and the status quo. In Goldberg’s “storyland,” “we understand that the resilience that sustains communities in times of crisis is rooted in culture, in the stories of survival and social imagination that inspire people to a sense of hope and possibility even in dark times.” We as a team likewise were able observe our BYU culture and identify a director and group actively serving their fellowmen. However, our experience making this documentary is not limited to the time stamps, but rather created another story in which we can share with others and inspire.

At the start of this project, we realized how out-of-touch we were in terms of social change. Although each of us do small acts of service that are often ignored, we wanted to find someone who was a leader and organizer, as we felt society needs more individuals that are willing to raise up, commit, and guide others in service. For the first time in our BYU careers, we walked into the Y-Serve office in the Wilkenson and followed a trail of breadcrumbs to a vacant lot in the middle of Heber.

That cold Saturday morning, we came to know Johny Jacobs, director of BYU’s volunteer efforts for Rural Housing Development (RHD). RHD is a government-sponsored agency that helps homeless families secure financing for housing materials and, alongside them, help build their home. Johny became involved in the effort more than a year ago and volunteered to raise awareness and coordinate the efforts of BYU students in helping housing development. Johny goes up to work on houses every Saturday from 8 am – 12pm, usually with a different group every week as he recruits new volunteers. We came to see firsthand that, even in the Happy Valley, USA, there are those that are unable to have the pride of home ownership. Rather than ignore that homelessness is a real issue, which often can be the case in a cultural as prosperous as ours, Johny sacrifices his time to improve the lives of the poor.

In terms of our documentary, we wanted to emphasize the transformative processes occurring while Johny answered basic “what, why, and how” questions to give the sense of activity and progress. In a symbolic way, the processes that were transforming raw materials into a home were also transforming Johny and the volunteers’ personally. We sought inspiration from process piece documentaries, utilizing in particular the editing techniques seen in Smith Journal’s The Smokehouse. Much like that film, our short documentary juxtaposed actions with dialogue so there existed a sense of synergy between what was said the interview and building process. It allowed Johny’s words to have greater power, as we see an active application of his ideals towards a productive solution rather than some abstract rhetoric.

We do not know how many people will be inspired (or even watch) our short documentary. Even if it is ignored, we as a team have lived a story that is personally inspiring and motivates us to participate more actively in finding solutions to social issues.

Information about Rural Housing Development

https://yserve.byu.edu/programs/rural-housing-development

World Building

Artist Statement

“What if…” is often the beginning of a form of art called design fiction, a term coined by Julian Bleecker in his essay of the same name. What if the world was fundamentally different? What would it look like? H.G. Wells was a master in design fiction, particularly with his novel, The Time Machine, in which he describes the future state of mankind. It’s not real, but it follows real patterns and rules. It’s a fantasy world, but it has its roots in real science. So it is with design. Artifacts from these manufactured worlds both augment and represent a kind of parallel reality displayed in the world from which they come.

So what if? As students at Brigham Young University, we have a natural interest in our Mormon roots. At one point in history, a state of Deseret was proposed. It never happened because of issues with the U.S. government regarding polygamy, but what if? What if the South won the war? What if the Union was so fractured that they didn’t care about a burgeoning community far in the west? What if the Mormons pulled it off and gained sovereignty?

              
The 1860s would see a drastic change in the world when the South would end up winning the Civil War.  The members in the state of Deseret would take this chance to seriously begin building their nation.  Part of being a sovereign state meant they would need their own currency for the exchanging within its economy and government.  This Currency would reflect the events of Mormon history and significance to the nation of Deseret as well as its prominent leaders.

“Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand.” - (Doctrine and Covenants 45:70)

In fulfillment of this prophecy, the people of Deseret would take a strong defensive stance during the conflicts throughout the 20th century. Though their ambassadors (i.e. missionaries) would still be sent out, they would also employ military force toward any country that sought harm to their congregations. The evolution of this thought might be expressed in a new flag. The twelve stars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, point inward toward deseret, a honeybee, the protector of the hive. The red field represents the blood of the righteous calling for justice. The flag is a symbol of the state’s fierce defense and retribution against any that dare to come against God’s people.

Many events of our world would still “come to pass” in this world.  Hitler would still try to dominate the planet.  But what if Einstein immigrated to Deseret?  What if revelation was given to our military leaders just as Captain Moroni received it in the Book of Mormon?  Deseret would emerge as a world power.  We also read of the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon.  If Deseret prospered for too long there would likely be much apostasy.  Different factions of the faith would compete for power.

Webspinna Battle

Artist Statement

For the last couple of weeks I have had a hard time coming up with artistic ideas.  This is manifested in the absence of posts for the last two assignments, Medium Specificity and Textual Poaching.  I brainstormed for hours but could not think of anything.  Perhaps my creativity has been constrained by mid-semester stress.  I believe that stress is part of it but after this week’s discussions I can also see that perhaps I am not looking in the right areas to generate ideas. 

In the reading “The Ecstasy of Influence,” John Lethem talks about how we all “plagiarize” as artists, or rather we are constantly borrowing ideas from others and adding upon them to create something of our own.  He said, “Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos. Any artist knows these truths, no matter how deeply he or she submerges that knowing.”  In my brainstorming sessions I was doing the wrong thing.  I just sat at my desk and was trying to create something out of the void.  I should have been looking at other art for inspiration.

In addition to receiving inspiration from other’s works, we learned in class that inspiration also comes from limitations.  Such limitations helped Pepe and I come up with the idea to do Napoleon vs. Pedro for the Webspinna Battle.  Two days before we had to perform we still had no idea what we were going to do.  We knew we had to dress up so one of us asked, “Well, what do we have for costumes?”  Pepe said he has a couple of masks and some other things, and then I’m like, “I’m a poor college student, I barely have 5 t-shirts let alone anything for a costume.”  Then inspiration struck.  I wear my costume every day.  I have an afro!  I could be Napoleon Dynamite and Pepe could be Pedro.  It would be the perfect combination.  Hence the limitation of the requirement to wear a costume and the limitation of not having much for a costume turned into the inspiration for our entire project.

Obviously our idea was not only inspired by limitations, but as Lethem discussed in his article, we stole from something that already existed.  Our duo could not exist if Jared Hess never came up with the idea for Napoleon Dynamite.  It turns out that even Hess likely took the inspiration for Napoleon Dynamite (at least in the name) from another artist without being aware of it.  Supposedly he met a Napoleon Dynamite on his mission.  He did not realize that Napoleon Dynamite was already a stage nickname for Elvis Costello (http://www.mtv.com/news/1488386/napoleon-dynamite-director-inspired-by-his-own-mamas-llamas/).  Of course, Hess also took much inspiration from his own life experiences.  As artists, this is what we do, we take things and rearrange them into something new.  If we don’t have our own experiences then we borrow them from someone else.

Playlist

1) Butterfly Song

https://youtu.be/GYHrmr484pc

2) Music From Napoleon Dynamite John Swihart D Qwan Boogie

https://youtu.be/qfwEq8V0piI

3) Kip waits (LaFawnduh's Theme) - Napoleon Dynamite Soundtrack

https://youtu.be/rXcKtSlQn0c?list=PLtulFWwgSMAZPZQReQnbTy5YiHyy7Q2vq

4) Napolean Dynamite Soundtrack - Nap Dance Bedroom

https://youtu.be/j-ZFOW2ZLfg

5) Yes but adds) Napoleon Dynamite - Canned Heat - ADDS

https://youtu.be/VcMb6M2mpJw?list=PLtulFWwgSMAZPZQReQnbTy5YiHyy7Q2vq

SFX

A) Whatever I feel LIke Gosh

https://youtu.be/e01kyqsE0kQ

B)

cow moo

https://youtu.be/l0E7-ecpFus?t=1s

Riffle

https://youtu.be/BoTA9PfSp1g

Kids Sceaming

https://youtu.be/bE4AZeNK00k?t=2s

C) Skills

https://youtu.be/b58fAt0MdgI?t=1m10s

D) Idiot

https://youtu.be/NZJrGuC92U8?t=1m26s

E) I've been practicing, some dance moves

https://youtu.be/M9UgDtnNEmw?t=21s

F) Dynamite

https://youtu.be/bhZs3ALdL7Y

Historical Story

Click this link to view screenplay: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxcufOFiIwAvVDVwaTFvQ2FnXzg/view?usp=sharing

Combined Artists' Statement:

Tom: When Trevor pitched his story about how his ancestors ran out the settlers of the neighboring homestead, I was immediately jealous of his family history, or rather, I was jealous of such a crazy story.  It inspired me to search through my family history to find something equally kooky that would contribute to the story.  I did not find anything close to running out neighbors with guns, but it surprised me how similar were some of the stories that I found.  In the book “An Aspen Creek Homestead,” my cousin Dale J Hartvigsen writes of a neighborly feud over water.  Most of the people in the valley had to get water from Aspen Creek.  The only problem was that it was contaminated.  If you did not purify the water first you would get Typhoid Fever.  However, there was a fresh spring on a neighbor's land.  So what did my ancestors do?  They piped into the spring without the neighbor’s permission, which eventually forced him to sell the land.  Fights over water were a real issue in the 19th century.  In our story, it serves as the basic motivation for the Germans to chase out their neighbors.

Trevor: Looking back at my family history after having pitched the story, I found that I’d completely exaggerated the events. One ancestor, Walter Smail from Pennsylvania (not a German) and some sharpshooter friends fended off claim jumpers after staking their claims. I heard the story as a seven year old and in the time that passed it grew into something stranger. The detail that stuck with me is only two sentences long: “Another man had staked his claim on the opposite corner to Bill’s 160. He set up a white tent planning on staying, but Bill and Walter shot it full of holes during the late evening and the next morning he had pulled out.” It’s a smaller and less terrifying conflict than my childhood memory of the story became, but there is truth to strangeness of the violence that my little mind honed in on. Remembering this way turned it into mythological truth, formed through the weird old tradition of oral storytelling. The story we wrote is heavily fictionalized, and that reflects the memory distortion and modern perceptions of a far removed time period.

How we wrote is in contrast to New Orleans after the Deluge which is journalistic in process and purpose. It looks at people, draws their faces and transcribes their voices, to bring awareness to the realities of their experience. Ours is a tall tale and a ghost story, exaggerated to reflect the weird distance of time and memory as well as the weirdness of a time when people shoot at each other to take what they want. Ours is also a critique of the attitudes of a time where actions like that are acceptable, and of how cool a younger version of me thought the violence was.

Tom: To finish our screenplay, we drew upon another story from our ancestry.  In the same book before mentioned, Dale Hartvigsen writes about a time when JF Hartvigsen met a naked Indian on horseback by his homestead.  The Indian was hunting for food while JF was tilling the land.   The contrast between settler and nomad was very interesting to us.  Here are our ancestors trying to “own” the land, even fighting over it, when in reality it had always belonged to the Indians.  In our story, after all of the settlers have killed each other for land ownership, the Indian kicks the cabin and it falls to the ground.

Tom Hartvigsen

Trevor Bush

Audio Process Piece

If video does not work, click here to listen to our process piece

Artists' Statement

When the project to create an audio documentary was announced our minds grew wild at the fascinating possibilities.  We fancied that we could record a process that sounded like something else and then surprise the listener at the end by revealing what they were actually hearing.  For example, the listener would hear someone being murdered, but in the end realize that it was a very ordinary task such as tying a shoe.   However, we soon found that this would be a lot harder to do than we thought.  The end product turned out much different than what we had originally intended.  Yet we still created something that is interesting and gained much through the process.  

Going with the whole murder idea, we thought that ice hockey would be a good source to generate the sounds of death: blades could sound like knives; laces being snapped together could sound as if someone was tying up a victim.  However, once we actually retrieved the sounds, we found that they were not very analogous to homicide.  We had to come up with a new approach and decided that we would just focus on hockey.

As a result we have an observational style audio process of a man preparing for a Hockey match.  We say observational because like observational cinema, there are no interviews.  We only hear sounds.  Yet it can also be classified as performative as the sounds were created to represent a process that did not actually transpire as we recorded it.  With this style, it is as though the listener is the athlete himself.  At first he has a nervous focus.  The only thing he can hear is the sound of lacing up his skates or walking out of the locker room.  It is similar to the movie Rocky the night before the fight.  Rocky walks through the arena and the only thing that the viewer can hear is his footsteps.   In both pieces, the sound reflects the athlete’s state of mind.  As our hockey player makes it to the rink, he begins to hear the crowd and the adrenaline kicks in.  Finally, the music stops and the athlete is immersed in an intense focus.

Of course, this is what we hope to convey to the listener but we are aware that he may interpret it differently.  Using roommates as a test audience we asked what they thought of when listening to the piece.  The hockey game was pretty obvious but the sound of lacing up ice skates at the beginning did not click with them.  They thought it was someone dragging something through snow.  One person even thought of a crime scene.  With this ambiguity of the piece, we can say that we touched upon our original intent.  However, we were far from communicating either vision.  As we learned from Ira Glass, we had good taste but our end product was not as good as our ambitions.  It’s a work in process.

- Tom Hartvigsen

  Juan Rodriguez

Round Robin

Contributors (in order of appearance):
Tom Hartvigsen
Weber Griffith
Keith Grover
Hannah Hansen
Adam Hardy

When the police officer returned to his car to scan the driver’s license, he found he had locked himself out.

The officer quickly drew his side arm and opened fire on his car window. It had been a long day!

As each shard of glass hit the ground, he felt his control slipping.

You’re buying me a replacement proclaimed his mother.

Middle-aged Brian lived with mom. Mom's into sci-fi. The metal cereal bowls were always off-limits. Brian didn't listen.

Combined Artist's Statement

In Totems without Taboos:The Exquisite Corpse Paul D. Miller discusses the need for us to respect the flow of information from different places, perspectives and cultures. In our own version of the exquisite corpse, we too had to practice this respect for each phase of the story. Each night there would be a new edition to our story and we no longer held the control to change or develop it.  In that sense, nothing was really our own. Everything was sort of an homage. Each artist was trying to express their independence in creativity, while simultaneously bending their personal pursuits to align with the previous artist. This process resulted in a final product that reflected the different perspectives and ideas of each contributor.

As to how each individual story turned out, we can all relate to Adam’s comment on his final compilation:  “In terms of my own story's exquisite corpse, I think there was a slight creative disconnect.”  Keith’s comment may explain a little bit as to why there was a creative disconnect: “As for me, I was limited by time and my inability to draw, but my contribution meant something different for the masterpiece.” Different styles of art led to different interpretations.  As one of the great philosophers has said, “Anything you put in front of the human eye man will draw a conclusion from;” once the artist has released his work, it belongs to the general public for interpretation.  Thus the theme of each of the stories were different based on the translation of the previous artist.

The exquisite corpse can be compared to the cartoon, Adventure Time, in the fact that all parts/episodes have their own beginning, middle, and end.  Yet they do not necessarily have to be viewed in order. Similarly, each story in the creative corpse does not necessarily communicate the same theme. The collaborative process and the mixing of form and content, narrative and theme, individual story and series is beautiful in and of itself.  It shows how similar yet different man may be.

As aspiring filmmakers, it is important to realize the auteur approach is not necessarily the best way to go. Making a film is a big deal and there's no way one person will generate the kind of depth that makes for good stories. Paul D. Miller talks about the sheer volume of information available to people today, which allows for infinitely more connections than ever before. Letting go of pride and ownership allows us to enjoy the endless buffet of experience coming from all sides and contribute our own bits. The writer may win the Oscar, but that award is due in part to the 13 year old girl on Pinterest and the source from which she pinned. No matter how successful we may be, we can never take full credit. Our part may merely constitute the feet.