Golan Levin Blog

     Golan Levin cleverly used a Kinect to tape the interview. This was a funny and interesting idea. You can tell this video is art in itself because it decontextualized the interview into something totally different.
     Abstractionism is a topic Golan mentioned that I was very drawn to. He says that the abstract can convey things to us that go beyond language. This statement left me pensive. I realized that I almost always use abstractionism in all my projects, whether they be art or for my Ancient Philosophy course. In my Final Art Video Piece this is very clear because of the underwater element as it distorts the way we see the physical world. I think I may favor using abstract means to convey messages because I must have unknowingly had an intuitive sense that the abstract appeals to a different, non-linguistic sense of understanding and perception. The fluidity of the many different ways our brain can interpret the world fascinates me. I think it is important to know that our language is simply a means of audible communication, but that our human capacity is capable of understanding through many other mediums.

Final Video Art Piece

Final Video Art Piece 

Embrace The Error
Tracey Carrasco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6N2CPSPG2c&feature=youtu.be

Evolution of Music

The Cure- Why Can't I Be You?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI0a9hTh5AU

This song belongs to the new wave genre. The drums give it a rock type of effect and the keyboard notes uplifts it to a more pop sound but in general its a fusion of the two genres.

Darude- Sandstorm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQaBWziYvY

This song belongs to the electro genre. The entirety of the track is computer generated. There are no lyrics and it holds a constant beat and melody line (which isn't really a melody more than it is a constant series of notes). The song is very repetitive and hyper-tempo.


The Offspring- Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzY2Qcu5i2A

This song is definitely a mix between nineties and punk. It has traces of Ska which was a staple of the reggae loving youth of the nineties. Moreover, the 'punk' is this song is clear by the aggressive yet goofy attitude of the lead singer who sings with conviction typical of rock music yet stays lighthearted throughout.  

Front line Assembly- Plasticity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFPzehIY1Q

In my opinion, this song seems epitomizes the genre Industrial 75/Goth. The electric sounds are reminiscent of early electro and the "screamo" type of singing makes it dark and gothic sounding. I almost want to say it's like Post Modern Crisis because of the many influences of sounds in the song. It's a mixture of techno, electro- clash, and high energy rock. It doesn't seem far fetched to say that music after the eighties is a mixture of everything from the past, especially this song.

Performance Art Piece

Title: The Pressure on Women- Unrealistic Beauty Standards
Performer: Tracey Carrasco
Camera Person: Mariette Amici
Extras: University of Tampa student body


A special thanks to My professor of Art and Technology honors, Santiago Echeverry, for assigning the performance art piece. It made me think of an out-of-the-ordinary way to make people think, and not just think, but to think about something that needs awareness. The social issue that I decided was worthy of the assignment was the pressure on women in a mass media society society that advocates unrealistic beauty standards. The overarching insecurity that one will never reach a weight, a height, or a color for example, is pervasive.

Click the link below to view. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1LCAeneSoI

Reviewing Pandora

Pandora became as successful as it did because it was clever. They played upon our emotions, as Socrates would say. People like and will constantly use things that make life as easy and convenient as possible. Not only does Pandora do the music research for the listener, it allows you to further customize the playlist at the simple touch of a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down'. Pandora also makes it easy to discover other music groups or artists you might enjoy by suggesting them on the page. I personally prefer Pandora over any other music app because it's user friendly and because I have discovered a cheat to defeat the pesky commercials. When a commercial comes on, quickly double tap the home button, swipe up on the Pandora page, then reopen the app and your next song should play. Disclaimer: the cheat only works on an iPhone. All in all, it seems to me that Pandora mastered the art of convenience and long term customer relationship strategy.

Flip Book Animation Project

A 500 frame flip book animation on sticky notes.

Title: The Heart Tree
Illustrations by: Tracey Carrasco

The video was presented in class and received an A. It is too large of a file to upload to this website.

Corpse Project

The wine bottles in this project are decontextualized by various objects which symbolize the degeneration and demise of a young woman, or a of an entire young female generation if you choose to interpret that way. The tape measure around the neck of a bottle represents the pressure felt by young women as a result of unrealistic beauty standards set by mass media. The jewels and other female accouterments stand for the struggle and strife to meet a societal standard of beauty. And lastly yet most importantly, alcoholism becomes the young woman's coping mechanism until she consequently meets a bittersweet death. 

Compilation by: Tracey Carrasco 

Grid Art Project

A 900 square unit acrylic representation of a 10x13 ft tapestry.

Title: Emoji 

Painted by: Tracey Carrasco 

Day 5

     The Great Train Robbery by Edwin S. Porter was originally filmed in 1903. Although both, Voyage Dans La Lune and The Great Train Robbery were silent films, The Great Train Robbery was hard to follow whereas Voyage Dans La Lune was depicted in a much simpler fashion. There was a more complex sequence of events that occurred in The Great Train Robbery that might have been more clear if complemented by audio or perhaps if I had watched the film a second time again. Astoundingly one is able to see the technological advances in film from 1902 to 1903 when comparing these two silent films. The most prominent advancement I noted was the variety of camera angles. Voyage Dans La Lune had one straight on angle for the entire duration of the film. The Great Train Robbery however, depicted the characters from side angles and even from the back when they are on top of the train. I thought this was amazing. The parallel between film making and technology fit hand and glove.

Day 4

      "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (1902) by George Méliès  was surprisingly interesting for a silent, black and white film. I did not expect all the details on the set such as the rocket ship, the snow, the choreography of the aliens, and the arrival into the ocean. Before watching the short film I would not have thought a silent movie would be entertaining.  The portrayal of aliens on the moon was humorous because of the outlandish jumps and struts. I thought their reaction to the humans mimicked the way an indigenous tribe might act to trespassers perhaps of a different complexion. The aliens brought the humans to their ruler as prisoners but they escaped back to Earth with one of the creatures in tow. I believe the film was meant to be outrageous on purpose; it was too far fetched even for 1902. It seems more like the absurdity was actually a device to create wonder or humor in the audience. At the end, every one parties as does the alien. The sets were very interesting to see. In comparison to the graphics of 2015, the setting where the rocket ship landing in the sea looks like a fish tank. Nevertheless, to the audience of 1902 it likely seemed very realistic especially with the added effect of the fish and distortion caused by the old methods of film making. 

Day 3

     The Assignment was to watch an opera from before 1920. Lucky for me, the only opera I've ever seen, Madama Butterfly, was composed by Giacomo Puccini in 1904. Nevertheless, I watched the opera again to fully capture the message(s), explicit and subliminal. The opera was tragic. Act 1 portrayed a Japanese geisha who meets an american sailor, Captain Pinkerton. She is the personified symbol of a butterfly; delicate, passive, sweet, naïve, and short lived. She is the quintessence of the ideal Japanese woman. Unfortunately, her sweet and sensitive personality does not serve to her benefit when Captain Pinkerton leaves her impregnated and with no intent to return. Madama Butterfly's unyielding faith of his return causes her to go mad. She becomes depressed because no one believes in her obsession that Captain Pinkerton will return for her and make her his bride. Years later he returns but it is not for Madama Butterfly. He, Captain Pinkerton, arrives with an American wife and takes the Madama Butterfly's young son. She is heart broken and realizes his true intention from the beginning. Her reaction is just as extreme as her previous love obsession and she concludes the opera with the taking of her own life. As the audience it was heart-rendering to see the protagonist live a tragedy and ultimately die for love. The opera does an excellent job of encompassing and portraying the desperation for love and affection of a woman in the Nineteenth Century.

Day 2

     The Madama Butterfly cartoon was a comedic. The dolls as the main characters morphed the opera into a kind of parody meanwhile capturing the plots essence. The cartoon condenses the events of the original Madama Butterfly accurately and highlights the foolishness of waiting years for Captain Pinkerton. Madama Butterfly finds herself dumbfounded and heartbroken when her only love returns from making a life of his own only to take her child away. The elements that constituted the making of the characters were unique and the realistic imagery added a innovative yet artistic touch to the cartoon.However the most captivating moment of the cartoon is when Madama Butterfly, using a screwdriver, disassembles herself  and turns off the lamp light as a symbolism of suicide.
     The Birth and Life of Opera focused on opera as being the reflection of the era and society that it took place. The narrator emphasized the political undertones behind opera performances and that an opera is a kind of vessel through which societal problems are addressed or alluded to. I thought it was clever of the proletariat to have used opera performances to express the oppression of the bourgeoisie. I learned that opera performance was the invention of a group called camerata. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I'm in the university's camerata so I found it especially interesting that the original camerata of the 19th century was made up of individuals from many disciplines. Camerata's scientists,  philosophers, poets, and artists gathered in a meeting to discuss the invention of a multimedia art that would combine music with drama. Thus, opera was born. Surprisingly, opera didn't catch on immediately. It wasn't until after it became a tool for the proletariat to make their voices heard that opera began to grasp the masses. It is supposed that Napoleon himself said that Le Mariage de Figaro was the heart of the french revolution. Rescue operas called for universal compassion across all classes to escape unjust imprisonment; there is no doubt that opera was as much a fine art as much as it was a political tool for equality. The people were loudly protesting beautifully, voices on high. A sense of nationalism and pride took over and even dictators saw the uniting effect of opera and used it as propaganda. Today, opera is not as popular however still has a uniting effect on its listeners. As a whole, I found this video to be captivating and very educational.

Day 1

I'm Tracey Mitchelle Carrasco. Mitchelle being pronounced like the female name, Michelle. I am interested in thoughts and ideas. I spend most of my time making observations and have often been described as a dreamer, however this seems limiting. As I stare into the middle space I'm not simply dreaming, I'm planning. It is important that I introduce myself in a way that reveals things less obvious than my age or major. Day one of ARTH 211 was exciting, fast-paced, and admittedly overwhelming.  Day one involved scribbling notes while processing high intensity visuals, explanations, perspectives, and dates. The upside is that I have found the material to be quite interesting and therefore don’t mind the quick tempo. I expect the course to be challenging but comprehensible. I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge on the history of opera because of my involvement in the arts. I sing in Camerata, the elite all women’s choir which represents the University.

                The video of Raul Cuero’s life inspired me. I admired his ability to conquer social prejudice and transcend limitations he faced as an impoverished, dark-skinned child in a third world country. In the video he stressed the importance of Universality. He said that in order to achieve it, we must not be restricted by society’s limitations; we must go beyond what is expected of us. Being a natural observer, I liked that he also stressed the importance of observation in the creative process. True innovation comes from observation, not an instruction manual, he said.

                In Craig Elimeliah’s article Art vs. Design, I noticed that he was careful in not postulating rigid definitions which I thought to be incredibly important. Because of art’s fluid and free flowing nature, it was a good idea to allow for some blurry lines in his definitions and distinctions. One idea that stuck out to me is Elimeliah’s specificity of what separates art and design most. Art, he said, is unique; it comes from within, not from the past, not from someone else. Design is a piece of art that has been recreated, a reflection of something else but not art in itself.