Dick Blau

To hear where Dick Blau found his inspiration and how it transformed his work was very interesting to me, specifically how he discovered Polka music and the culture that surrounds it and allowed that to play into his work. Of the work he showed us concerning his videos, I most enjoyed Up the Block and Tintinnabula, primarily because of the feelings they inspired in me as an observer. Concerning Up the Block, due to the fact that my faith is so important to me, I felt an immediate connection with this work. I felt that the way Blau followed the church members around allowed me to experience the same situation he was in, as if I were walking along listening to the group evangelizing around their town. The camera movements were so natural, which made it easy to see how Blau was experiencing the series of events that transpired as he witnessed them, allowing himself to take part in and attempt to capture the emotions expressed during these events through his camera work. The overall sensation for me was one of joy and celebration, heightened by the cheering, dancing, and enthusiastic praying.

In contrast to the contentment I felt in watching Blau’s first video, I felt somewhat disturbed by Tintinnabula, but this was not upsetting to me because this feeling was accompanied by wonder and intrigue. I think he expertly elaborated the feelings that are associated with fairy tales before they are manipulated and sugar coated for younger audiences. This I think was done through the quick-changing camera angles, the lighting and sort of fuzziness that surrounded each scene, as if everything occurring were a dream. This dreamlike quality made the masks and high pitch sounds feel even more surreal and frightening, but still intriguing. This work was extremely successful to me and I greatly appreciated the apparent amount of time and thought that was put into each scene and Blau decided how the video would best flow and connect together with the music and sound effects.