New Media Lecture 2

This week we had a man by the name of Torsten Zenas Burns come to share his digital artwork with us for the New Media lecture. Torsten is a filmmaker who has spent time all over the country and world attending residency programs and teaching. During his travels he has done much experimentation with film using digital effects. Some examples of his work can be seen at http://mysite.verizon.net/holyokeresearcher/. He started off by showing us a PowerPoint of selected images from some of his works. He had these images separated by project so he could show us different examples of things he had done over time. At the end of the lecture he put on a DVD that contained some of his movies that he had made. This way we got to experience some of his artwork in motion, rather than just looking at still images of it.

I understand that artwork is a creative expression of its maker and that I may not like or understand all art that exists under the sun. That is why I try to have an open mind when viewing the works of others and try to understand what they are trying to express. That being said, I am going to have to say that not only did I not understand Torsten’s presentation of his work, I didn’t like it as well. I perceived his films to be very abstract strange and almost disturbing. I could not seem to find a point in any of it. Needless to say, sitting through the entire presentation was difficult. The constantly changing images and patterns mixed with the highly saturated colors made his films difficult for me to watch. Also, when trying to understand what was going on in the films I often found myself confused and lost. One work in particular made me rather uncomfortable. It was the film in which a naked man danced to strange country sounding music while holding his belly as if he were pregnant. This reminded me of a disturbing scene from the film The Silence of the Lambs in which the naked cross dressing serial killer character “Buffalo Bill” did a similar dance to the song Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus.

My intention is not to put down Torsten or his work, only to express my opinion of it. I do not always know what’s best and just because I don’t understand or like something doesn’t mean that it is not good. After leaving the lecture and having time to reflect on my experiences it occurred to me that Torsten has spent considerable time in Korea teaching film. This could explain a lot of his style. Its characteristics and randomness in a way reminded me of Asian anime. I respect Torsten even though I may not appreciate or understand his work. It takes a lot of courage for any artist to stand up and present their art to a group of strangers. I’m sure there are many who would like his style and what he is trying to portray, I just don’t happen to be one of those people.