I really enjoyed the talk that Raphael gave, he really knew his stuff. He looked like a stereotypical snooty artist, but thankfully the snootiness was only projected in his wardrobe. He was very open and approachable and seemed down to earth (for an artist). I liked how he was taking pictures of the crowd while giving his lecture it's like he can't stop making art.
He showed off many of his projects and techniques which were very interesting. The floor mat sensor was cool. At first you weren't quite sure how any art could be made from the graph that it showed, but after it's replicated and flipped it formed a nice pattern. There were many other things he talked about that I'm sure the other students will go into better detail on, but there was one particular segment of his speech that really hit with me: Space.
He says that space is just as important as the actual things that occupy it. In particular he talked about his piece in which he motioned captured his friend doing Capoeira and mapping out his motions. His movements and motions involved nice large sweeps and crescent kicks and it was nice and fluid. The most interesting part to me however, was when he mentioned the martial art itself is like a dance and an interactive artistic movement with a partner. One person presents his motion and the opponent responds with his own maneuver. It's not so much about hitting the opponent in more so that it is about occupying space and their reaction to it.
For me, this mirrored fighting video games perfectly. In games like
Street Fighter you occupy space on a 2d plane in hopes of hitting your opponent. Which seems simple enough, just walk up and hit the guy. Without going into too much boring detail (unless you think hit boxes and invincibility frames are an interesting topic, in which case talk to me!) it's not that simple. You are constantly filling the screen and space with your punches and kicks and fireballs and whatnot in attempts to limit your opponents own ability to occupy that space (and therefore hit them to do damage). This might seem like a stretch to some people to compare the two, but to anyone who has played fighting games competitively their whole lives, this type of thing is the perfect representation of what those games are all about. I don't want to droll on and on, so I guess leave a comment about it or any questions and I can flesh out this metaphor further.
Also, here's a neat video that demonstrates how you can get artsy even with video games. Skip to about
0:55 to get to the neat part where neither player hits each other and performs more of a dance.
http://youtu.be/Sob01PmaSp4
