Paul Zelevansky






Six vimeo links to animations by Paul Zelevansky. 


1. GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE THAT WAIT:
https://vimeo.com/195319165

2. THE ORIGINAL MYTH:
https://vimeo.com/57074263

3. WEATHER:
https://vimeo.com/59755290

4. AN ACTIVE LINE ON A WALK, MOVING FREELY, WITHOUT GOAL:
https://vimeo.com/59920776

5. THE MOST PRIMITIVE STRUCTURAL RHYTHM:
https://vimeo.com/59920772

6. SWALLOWS:
https://vimeo.com/60919810 




Paul Zelevansky 


is an artist and writer living in Pittsburgh, PA. His work includes animation, video, artists books, theoretical writing, performance, graphic design and teaching. He has an EdD in art education from Columbia University Teachers’ College, and has published widely on the use of text and image, the internet, popular culture and educational and aesthetic theory. His website, GREAT BLANKNESS (www.greatblankness.com), advances a form of visual metaphysics, as fragments of words, images, video, and sampled sound and music interact and combine to form new narratives. He has published several visual novels (artists books) including THE BOOK OF TAKES, THE CASE FOR THE BURIAL OF ANCESTORS trilogy, THE SHADOW ARCHITECTURE AT THE CROSSROADS ANNUAL, and MONKEY & MAN. His visual primer 24 IDEAS ABOUT PICTURES, develops a phenomenological approach to visual thinking that integrates theory and practice. Finally his video project, MISTER ROGERS FOR ADULTS--based on the work of Fred Rogers--explores the power of ethical thinking in a media context. All of this work is ultimately in the service of epistemological and philosophical ends: How do we know what we know, and why do we believe what we believe?

"While I have some detailed descriptions about particular animations, no one has written in general terms about the animations and videos. But I have written quite a bit about the working of language and image, so here’s a short section from a book of visual/verbal essays I’m putting together called SOMETHING IS ALSO SOMETHING ELSE. In any event, my conceptual approach and thinking is the same whether on the page or the screen:

'I’d like to help you out. Which way did you come in?'
(Henny Youngman)

"...My project has been to start with a basic epistemological problem--how do we know what we know?--and to use pictures, symbols, texts, and commonplace things as both evidence and the raw material for the research. Since much of my work as an artist and writer has involved the interpretation and manipulation of symbols and pictures, it embraces art, semiotics, visual culture, and design. Most importantly, this involves using images to dramatically enact ideas on the page, and in turn asking the reader or viewer to self-consciously reflect on how this unfolds. Like a text, a picture is the product of a communicative language, incorporating accepted meanings and prescribed uses, as well as unorthodox associations and interpretations. Made up of lines, shapes, colors, tones, and iconography, pictures can be read in terms of the formal compositional choices made by those who produce them, but also understood in their relationship to other pictures. Therefore images are not solely representative examples of their type and function, but appeals to active visual thinking: graphic calls in anticipation of a response.

"When a picture is presented as an example of, or commentary on, reality, it takes its stand in a particular medium or form. It is a portrait, a sketch, a diagram, a cartoon, a photograph, and so on. This list does not begin to describe the type and style of portrait or sketch, no less the circumstances in which it is framed and justified. Where I often begin is to take apart the graphic style and form and then pass it through questions like: Why would someone make this? How does its history, context, and use affect its reach into everyday life? How does it express its concerns and expectations? How do we respond? Finally, why should anyone invest in the exchange?"

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