Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out Of Balance)

Created by Godfrey Reggio, Koyaanisqatsi, the 1hour 23minute long film to me represents life in different stages. Going from very colourful images to dark and gloomy images, paired with the music makes the viewer feel many different emotions towards the pictures being shown. For example, an image of a street which is over crowded as well as the music, in turn it makes the viewer feel uncomfortable as well by seeing the images. However, the images may be a contradiction compared to the music. Some may feel that the music has a relaxing or calming effect, instead if being sad or tense.

All of the images included in the film are interesting in their own way. Some may be colourful and grab the attention of the viewer in a good way, like watching the city at night, the dark colours contrast with the lights of the streets or cars. However, some may be colourful yet be shocking for the viewer to watch, for example, the rocket blowing up, the colours of the flames contrasting against the blue sky. The majority of the pictures around the cities and towns are sped up, this may be because it fits with the music that had been placed with it.

An example of this is the second to last shot, the rocket blowing up. The music that is paired with it builds up the tension between viewer and the picture, as people are watching the rocket take off the music builds up the tension as well as making people feel more relaxed with the rocket as if nothing is going to happen. At the time of the rocket blowing up, the music makes the people feel shocked as well as feeling upset about the destruction because the false sense of the rocket being okay, it also makes the viewers question if what they had just seen involved anyone or question why they are being shown the picture of the rocket blowing up.


From having watched the Koyaanisqatsi film, it seems that there is no obvious concept or controlling idea. To me it just seems like a couple of cleverly shot pictures have been cunningly mixed or placed together with some influential music to make the viewers judge and evaluate the images and the music to come to their own conclusion.

Chapter 4 - The Use of Exhibition Space To Create Meaning

The two artworks I will be talking about are Anish Kapoor's 'Ishi's Light' from 2003 and Robert Therrien's 'No Title (a table and four chairs)' also from 2003.

Anish Kapoor's 'Ishi's Light' is a structure with two plain colours. Being a matt brown on the outside, the attention is drawn to the inside of the shape, a gloss on the inside reveals a dark red colour. The artist said that it is to 'represent the creation of the universe'.
Being in a plain room painted white, the colours of the artwork draw the viewers attention to it. As well as the contrast of the colours on the inside of the artwork compared to the colour of the walls. As a viewer of the art the meaning was unclear, and still is. By knowing what the artist tried to reflect in the art work, it makes it slightly easier to understand the meaning of the artwork.








Robert Therrien's 'No title (a table and four chairs)' is simply a table and four chairs placed around that table. The concept behind the artwork is to try to explain that art comes in many forms, even if they are objects that are used on a daily basis.
As the same as before, being in a plain painted room the artwork stand out, as there is nothing else to look at. The viewers attention is no longer diverted onto other things in the room. The lighting, showed in the picture, make it seem as though its right as well and being wrong. For example, being the right size whilst being the wrong size. Being such a bold colour it makes it even easier for people to notice the artwork. Being able to walk under the table and chairs made them seem even bigger, or me, smaller.

Either of these artwork items fit within the surroundings of an exhibition. Either of them would look different if they where in a town center or field.
Anish Kapoor's 'Ishi's Light' I feel is more flexible and can adjust dependant of the surroundings it is placed within. If it was placed into the town center, it still looks like art, but maybe creating the feeling that its a sculpture to show what's going on instead of trying to reflect the whole universe.
Robert Therrien's 'No Title ( A Table And Four Chairs)' isn't as flexible when it is placed in different surroundings, as it looks its best in the current surroundings of the exhibition. If it was placed in the town center, it may look like an advert for furniture instead of trying to put across the idea that ordinary objects could be seen as art if they were seen in a different way or from a different point of view.

Andy Huang - Doll Face

First impressions after watching the experimental video were mixed, however the more I seemed to watch it, the more things became clear and easier to explain. This is my interpretation of the initial concept by the video creator.

The plain/clean face at the start of the video could imply that the rest of the video is going to create something on the face, as if it was a blank canvas. The random images on the TV could give a suggestion of being unimportant or irrelevant to the ‘robot’.

Firstly the TV focuses on a face, unclear to the viewer; who’s or why etc, however the ‘robot’ takes an interest and seems to copy the make-up on the displayed face. To the viewer this could suggest they are not content with the way they look or they believe that the face on the TV is the only way to look - every other way is wrong.

The smile at the end of the ‘improvements’ could suggest that the ‘robot’ is looking for an answer within the TV and appears to be startled when the picture suddenly changes to another series of random pictures and onto yet another face. Yet again the ‘robot’ feels like its wrong, therefore more adjustments are made. With each face appearing the TV moves away and the ‘robot’ follows it. However after this appearing face, the TV moves too far away from the robot and it’s not possible for the ‘robot’ to be able to see the face.

The ‘robot’ and the TV break at the same time which gives an impression that there is a connection between the two objects.

The broken ‘robot’ on the floor suggest the final adjustment the ‘robot’ was prepared to take would have been too much and potentially ruining something that was good enough in the first place. The music is trying to promote emotion towards the pain of the ‘robot’ breaking however the music is more obvious towards the end, although it does play all the way through.

When the TV shows everything it could suggest what could happen if other ‘robots’ went through the same thing (changing too many times, then breaking) or showing what happens in normal society. People change and not all the time they are accepted and because of that, they feel they have to change even more to fit in.

As the larger TV shows the viewer everything that is going on, the TV that the viewers were originally focusing on starts to get closer to the broken ‘robot’, maybe to suggest to people who cant always have what you dream for, sometimes you have to settle for what you have, until change comes to you or to question what has just happened.

The last shot of random images, to me, suggest that it is better to focus on difference rather then on one particular image of someone you may look up to or way of looking/feeling to be similar to the image.