Julie

https://www.instagram.com/blossomblizzard

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

A third year student enrolled in the Creative Arts, Health, and Wellness program. I transferred from Fanshawe College’s Fine Arts program. My goal is to become an Art Therapist who specializes in trauma and spirituality.

ARTWORK THEMES: living with disabilities, healing, transformation, spirituality
MEDIUMS: digital illustration + animation, gestural abstraction painting, abstract wooden sculpting and musical instrument making (HARPS)–which is an endangered crafting skill!!! https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/categories-of-risk/
INTERESTS: Nature, history, baking, games (Stardew Valley, Baldur’s Gate 3, Mario Kart)

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KILOMETRE ASSIGNMENT

Julie Cracknell, Acid’s Crackle, 2026, digital animation, 1920p x 1080p

YouTube link is below if the embedded media is not working.
Sadly, it’s a lower quality compared to the source material.

ARTS & SCIENCE

My animation conveys 1 kilometre with the combination of the visual of a lightning strike and the delayed audio of the thunder.

SPEED OF SOUND: 343.4 m/s in air at 22°C
TRAVEL TIME: 2.90 seconds
Source: https://sparkcalc.com/sound-travel-time-calculator/

The sound of the thunder plays at 2 seconds and 27 frames after the flash of light on the screen, showing the amount of time it would take for the sound of the thunder to travel one kilometre from its point of origin to the listener.

The reason frames are relevant is because I was using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit, and time code is written in the format of Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames; the flash happened at 00:00:02:00 and the sound plays at 00:00:04:27. Since my video is in 30 fps, 27 frames is equal to 0.9 seconds. (30 x 0.9= 27)

IDEA

When brainstorming for ideas I glanced into my closet at wooden harp that I made last year (see below). Then I asked myself, “How fast does sound travel?” After exploring ideas of playing my harp live, I also asked myself; do I preform live or do I film; or do I want to visually show the idea to people in a different way? Then the idea of a lightning animation came to mind.

Julie Cracknell, Soothing Sugarwind, 2025, maple wood + metal harp string kit

MEDIA

Being there was no thunderstorms currently in our area to record, I had to come up with an idea of how to convey my concept. Animation felt like the best way to do this with the time and materials I had available.

I didn’t want to use a royalty free video of a lightning strike because it lacked my artist fingerprint. There needed to be something visual that said something about me. (I LOVE TREES ♥) So, I created a flat layered image that was inspired by Japanese wood block printing.

References:

Woodblock prints by Hasui Kawase (1883-1957)

However, I did use royalty free audio for the thunder sound effect via https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/nature-thunder-strike-124463/

TROUBLESHOOTING

It was my intention to create this whole project with the program Clip Studio Paint Pro. It’s similar to Photoshop, but is geared more towards illustration, comic book design, and animation. After I had created the background image, I was ready to animate the lightning strike, or so I thought. The animation timeline was not allowing me to extend the video’s duration. It was stuck on frame 24! If I cannot create more keyframes, I cannot draw animation still images.

After a frustrating amount of time, I finally found the answer online. There are three versions of the program: Debut, Pro, EX. I had Pro. EX was the version that allowed you to animate longer than 24 frames. Which equals to one second if your video settings are 24 frames per second. Not enough time for the lightning animation and sound delay considering the math I did above.

After consulting my wife, she recommended that I use Premier Pro to animate it. I was so disappointed and angry with myself that I could not animate it the way I originally wanted to. My wife reminded me that I had to take it easy on my mind and body this week. Listening to her sage advice I locked in and was successfully able to finish my project!

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Marina Abramović
The Artist is Present

1. What are some of your first impressions of Marina Abramovic’s performance works, based on the documentary? Use an image/example of one or two works to describe aspects you admire, and aspects you might agree are problematic?

When I was first exposed to Marina’s work her performance art didn’t connect with me at all. Like with all art mediums, not everyone is attracted your art style or is able to understand your message. Her performances evoked emotions of unease, sadness, and a little confusion. Generally, that’s not the type of art I enjoy or look for.

Marina Abramović and Ulay, Imponderabilia, 1977/2010

Yes, I understand that for Imponderabilia that was the point. Allowing people squeeze between Marina and Ulay’s nude bodies puts people in an uncomfortable situation physically, mentally, and emotionally. It was a simple yet powerful performance from both of them. I respected the bravery and appreciated the ingenuity. However, it wasn’t the type of art that resonates with me.

Her past works may seem problematic because often the visuals are so striking that people get caught up in that and are unable to process anything else. The public sees nudity and assumes the artist doesn’t have the same morals or ethics are they do. Thus, their message is not worth listening to. It’s a little sad, because there is a lot you can discuss about her work. Such as her choice of medium (herself), the setting, intended message versus received, and the objectification of the female body.

After watching The Artist is Present a few times, I asked myself, “How would I feel if my past partner did that during my performance?” My emotional reaction was similar to Marina’s—well I assume a little—looking at her subtle facial expressions. The surprise, joy, grief, gratitude, and pain. All the memories flooding back at once would be overwhelming.

Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present, 2009 Marina Abramović, red dress, two chairs and table
(Ulay sitting on the right)

2. Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial artworld conventions. How does Abramovic solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

Marina’s is able to resist traditional museum and commercial artworld conventions because her work does not have a lasting physical presence. Her performance with her body is the work in the moment it is presented. It cannot be easily bought, auctioned, or revisited like a collectable on display at a museum.

She negotiates these challenges by having herself be filmed, photographed, and documented. Thus, allowing her performance to have a longer stage presence. This gives her work an opportunity to be viewed by a larger audience. Plans like these help document the spontaneity of the moment that would otherwise have no evidence of existing.

I think there is a little play with her work with how its main attraction is to be seen in person for a limited time, while also being documented. Her art seems to resist control by the very institutions she often performs in. It causes the viewer to stop, think, and question trained thought patterns, and I enjoy that.

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