Content Development / Gossip Girl ep 208 - 212
| Project: | Gossip Girl episode 208 - 212 | Client: | CWTV / Warner Brothers Television | Credits: | Ghost art: NN; Photography: NN; Assistants: Garrett Morin, Sean Sullivan | Date: | September, 2008 |
The Aaron character presented with a unique set of problems. We needed to develop the character as an artist with his own point-of-view that informs his body of work, the art needed to work over multiple episodes and in various mediums, the first piece we see needed to be an installation at the Bedford Avenue Gallery, Aaron shouldn't come off as "the greatest artist ever," his art should feel honest, but slightly pretentious, just like art from a young artist at his level would.
Occasionally, in situations like this, producers opt to work with an established artist and shape the character around their body of work, but the diversity of mediums that Aaron works in and the multiple episode appearances made that difficult. Over the course of three weeks the producers, writers, and I were able to outline a rough sketch of who Aaron was artistically, where / who his references came from, and what his artwork looked like. Outlining this foundation was the essential first step for this project as Aaron worked in many different mediums, but his work always spoke to a certain sensibility.
The next step was to outline the manner in which Aaron approached the creation of art. Given all of our guidelines we decided that Aaron's art work would be process based, meaning that the purpose of the work is the discovery involved in creating the work, not the final product. His art attempts to address a central idea and the audience at once, which in this circumstance includes the other characters on the show as well as you, the television viewer. In this sense Aaron is unconsciously aware of the un-reality that he exists in as a fictitious character on a television show all the while he consciously struggles to work out some kind of resolution through his art, based on this subconscious inner conflict of said knowledge. File that last passage under "just sayin.'"
Excerpt from artist statement from ep 208 "Pret-A-Poor-J":
“Sometimes I Close My Eyes...” is inspired by a neurologically-based phenomenon known as synesthesia, where one sensory experience gets confused with another. Hearing a sound can make you see a color, or vice versa. A certain sequence of musical notes could trigger you to see a shape, or experience a sharp taste. Sometimes, letters and numbers have specific color values attached to them, so you might always see the letter R as red, or the number 6 as blue. As you walk through the installation, your presence generates an image (made of light) and/or a sound (made of waves). The wave you create initiates a light signature, and the light turns back into sound, or another image, and so on. In this way, everyone who enters the gallery contributes to an organic, non-hierarchical system composed of fluid shapes and sounds – our own language where the senses are meant to be confused.’
Quicktime: episode 208 clip
Quicktime: episode 208 test
PDF: Sometimes I Close My Eyes exhibit catalog
Link: Controversy!
Quicktime: SerenaDome tests
Quicktime: SerenaDome source files
Quicktime: Episodes 210, 211, 212
