Cranes in the Sky

Yemi Adebayo - https://youtu.be/1or-QdD69MI

Intention

Solange released her album recently and my favorite song from the album is Cranes in the Sky. It had been stuck in my head all week so I wanted to create my 3-D representation of it since my mind was on it. Rather than going with just interpreting the meaning of the song directly I wanted to look at the end result of the issues discussed in the chorus.

Product

I created a mobile with origami cranes and a heart attached to a wooden letter "O". I used colorful yarn to attach the origami objects. I used colored printing paper for the cranes and graphing paper for the heart. Overall the materials for this are pretty simple.

Approach

So as mentioned before I really liked this song so I wanted to put my spin on it. My favorite part of the song is the chorus. I really like the melody so that is the section of the song I decided to use. In it she references "cranes in the sky," which refers to construction cranes used a metaphor for her emotional recovery. Rather than just recreating construction cranes I wanted to make something a little bit more uplifting. Construction cranes are generally ugly but they can be used to create something beautiful. So I instead focused on the product of that emotional recovery by spinning the cranes she referenced into the animal cranes. I used to do origami in primary school so I used those skills to represent the finish line of emotional recovery. And the heart represents being whole after that recovery. I used graph paper for the heart to show the construction aspect of the heart because a lot of work is done in the heart as on processes emotions.

Reflection

I feel like my installment fits the mood of the song accurately. Both give off a a pretty calm and serene feeling. However, I do not feel that it is recognizable to the original sound. I don't feel as though it is very specific to the song. It could almost go with any pleasant slow-paced song. I learned that translating art from the digital to the physical is difficult because of the extra rules. Before when we were remixing digital art through digital means it was a lot easier to be creative because of the vast capabilities of technology. However, when creating something physical from the digital there are all of a sudden new rules. We must comply with the laws of physics and not just move things the way we want them to. So that difference was very interesting to see. If I were to change something I would like to play with the rhythm of the song as well. I feel as though if I added that aspect to my installment it would be more representative of the song and an all around better 3-D embodiment.

2 comments · Latest by Jared Moore

The very literal approach you took is interesting. I think it turned out pretty well. I like that you tried to add more to it by considering the emotions expressed in the song; the heart is a nice touch. It may have been interesting if the whole thing could spin, almost like a baby carousel.

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Create my own twist on the 3-D embodiment of the chorus to Cranes in the Sky by Solange Knowles.