Second Life

So, besides the whole trouble of freckles and trying to save as a targa file in a program that won't do it, this wasn't so bad! Let me explain, freckles are impossible to replicate, it just makes you look like you have stuck your face in dirt. AS to the tga file, as soon as I used creative studio, it all worked. I wish my chin wasn't quite as pointed. It makes me look like an elf in second life, but overall, it is cool to see how my work turned out!

Here is how it turned out in second life!










And here is my alternate avatar! Clash of personalities, bright shiny flower and goth girl!

I had a bit of trouble getting my flower to float like I wanted it to, but I did eventually figure it out (this was my built object).

3-D Sculpture

My original piece was titled "I Have Left My Heart in So Many Places" (see earlier post), well now I have left my heart and soul in a computer considering how long this project took. I chose to work with Google Sketch because it seemed the most user friendly to learn and this is my first 3-D project. There were disadvantages and advantages to using this program. On one hand, it was more user friendly, but this also means that I had to create new ways to do things that may have been easier on the more advanced programs. Several of the problems I ran into were working with the sphere and the stamps on the box. First, I tackled the stamps on the box, this problem really ended up as a learning curve. I first tried to insert scanned pictures of the stamps into premade shapes as textures, however could not figure out how to then size and edit the texture. Then I figured out I could just drag and drop the picture onto the googlesketch screen, but that had its problems as well. I decided to work on another aspect of the piece and in the process accidentally figured out how to edit the textures. Therefore, it still took a while to do, but this frustration turned into success when I figured it out (plus I really like how the box came out). My other frustration was the sphere and basically everything that went with it, and this did not turn out a success. Googlesketch will inform you that you cannot do very much with a sphere after creating it, which includes sculpting, adding lines, and texturing. I had naïvely thought that I could sculpt the piece on googlesketch, however never figured that one out. Since the sphere on googlesketch is made up of a whole bunch of little parts, it is very difficult to color or edit those parts because there are so many of them, therefore, my earth is colored and designed, however it is not as realistic as I had hoped it would be.

Persuasion (gallery critique)

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU READ THIS PHRASE versus this phrase? Those first seven words probably sounded louder in your head right? Why? All of the letters are the same as the second portion and the font size is the same as well. The meaning doesn’t change, however the tone in your head sounds angrier, more excited, or just in general louder right? As we grow up, we don’t just learn how to read and write, we also learn how to manipulate the words we are reading and writing. We learn to use quotes, bold, capitals, italics, underlines, and many other tools when writing in order to influence how our reader absorbs our text. In the same way, others use these things and others to influence how we are understanding text, pictures, ad campaigns, and everything else in our daily lives. In other words, how we are persuaded or how others persuade us.

Priscilla Varner plays with all of these ideas in her exhibit, Persuasion, which was shown in the McNamara Gallery for most of April. In her artist statement, she mentions the idea that differences in texts could change how a viewer views her pieces, therefore, for her six pieces, each has text “associated” with it, but the text shows many different fonts, which induce different feelings in the viewer and therefore change the whole experience for the viewer. The text in this case is six or seven different adjectives or nouns that could be associated with the image. Sometimes these words work together and other times they are very different, however they “persuade” the viewer to think of the piece in a certain way, the same way titles often influence viewers to see pieces how the artist wishes. For instance, in a piece titled Un Jour D’hiver, the words listed are cold, dreamy, historic, soft, somber, unhurried, and whispers. Clearly a broad range of terms that all have varying degrees of strength. “Cold” would most typically be assumed as a bad thing, for instance a cold waiting room, cold hands, being cold, but at the other end, cold could be a cold drink on a summer's day, it could be crisp or refreshing, all of which aren’t typically bad things. The same goes for unhurried. On the one hand, it could be nice lazy days were you have plenty of time to dream and relax because you are unhurried, but at the opposite end of the spectrum it could be those frustrating unhurried geese that are crossing in front of your car when you are late for school! All of this depends on the viewer. Please note, these words all bring images together but we have not yet discussed the actual image for this piece. This one was a black and white snowy picture of France, with several notable landmarks within it. Therefore we have the cold idea (snow), the dreamy idea (snowy days are sometimes dreamy, as is being anywhere in Europe), historic idea (with the landmarks and the black and white), soft (the picture looks a bit blurred from the black and white and snow), and so on. Yet these impressions all depend on the viewer, for somebody who doesn’t like snow, this piece is going to bring a lot of different thoughts to mind. Plus, we already had images of geese and waiting rooms in our minds when we finally looked at the image.

The next interesting thing that Varner mentions in her artist statement is that oftentimes people read the title before looking at the piece and interpret the piece based on the title, or vice versa. In this case, the titles were all in French, so that didn’t have as much effect on me, but the words included did. Therefore I made sure to alternate, sometimes I read the words first and other times I looked at the piece first and then at the words. Obviously I read the words first on the snowy picture, Un Jour D’hiver, which can be seen by how much thought I put into the words above. However, I interpreted one of the other pieces, that of a stone with the word Juillet printed on it with a little bit of greenery growing over it, very differently. Since I looked at the image first, I saw it as a stone on the ground (which could be wrong) that was used as a marker for a grave (which could also be wrong). Therefore, while the image was bright and inviting, I still thought of it as a little bit sad because I made the association of a cemetery. I then read the title, Juillet, which really meant nothing to me since I had already read the stone, and then the words, in this case they were, anniversary, monumental, reconciliation, revolutionary, rights, and unity. Now some of these could go with my cemetery idea, but others don’t quite fit, for instance, unity? Therefore, I viewed this piece drastically differently than I would have if I had read the words first. So, the artist did manage to persuade me in both cases, while I made the choice to pick which part of her art was going to persuade me.  

Manovich Questions

Manovich States that classical art is interactive, for instance, when we have to
fill in missing details in a piece, we are interacting. He says modern art just
pushes this further. Yet he says many are using "interactive media" to strictly
and ignoring the psychological  interactivity, like filling in the missing
pieces. He says everyone is focused on  physical interaction, like pushing a
button. Do you think these types of interactivity should even be classified the
same? Or has the difference in interactivity between classical art and modern
art become so big that they should be separately defined?

Many science fiction and future predicting stories make claims of "extending the
powers of reason" just as this text mentions. Whether it be shared consciousness
or expanded brain function, many criticize and applaud the ideas. This piece
mentions the idea of returning to the "happy age of pre-language,
pre-misunderstanding" however this brings up the question of pre-understanding
as well. Is it better to return to that "happy age" and lose all of the modern
advances we have discovered? Or should we stay misunderstood and keep
the technological advances?

What Do You Hear? Artist Critique

           It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small small world. Are you singing it yet? What is the connection between humans and sound? Obviously it is one of our five senses, but is it more important than smell? Or taste? Sound is something intricately connected into our lives and we have been raised to obey it. We jump when we hear something that startles us. We get ready to leave class when we hear the bell. 75% of us have an alarm clock that plays some sort of noise to wake us up. We are all already very familiar with one form of sound art, more commonly known as music. From Mozart and Bach to Lady Gaga or Lady Antebellum, we have musical artists who make art. Yet there are other ways that art may incorporate sound as well, as can be seen in the pieces of Don Ritter (Intersection) and Shu Lea Cheang (Baby Love: Drive Me Drive Me Crazy).

          First, the pieces and artists. Cheang has created the piece titled Baby Love: Drive Me Drive Me Crazy, or just Baby Love. It is the second in a series of three, with this one appearing in 2005. If we return to the Disney metaphor, on a base level, think of the teacup ride mixed with any type of bumper cars. This is what Baby Love is. There are giant teacups that are directed by the riders while public selected love songs play. When this piece was on exhibit, riders and other viewers could provide music on any form of memory drive and it would be inserted into the system, or distant viewers could upload love songs over the internet.


One key thing here is each teacup has an additional permanent rider, an oversized baby, which doubles as the music player.

Each teacup/baby pair starts by playing one of the selected songs until it crashes into another teacup/baby pair. At this point, the two don’t only physically collide, but their musical portions collide as well, providing a disagreeable music clash.



















All of the music clashes are recorded from the exhibitions.




           While the actual art piece is original, as are its three sibling pieces, the idea for the whole unit, The Locker Baby Project, came from the 1980 Japanese novel by Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies. Like futuristic novels, this book looks at how our world is advancing and what the possible future advances could be. In this case, the idea that children could be grown from a salt water pearl and placed in a locker to be nurtured with a soundtrack of a beating heart.

          We can see how sound can be used to affect the viewer in a different way through many of Don Ritter’s pieces, but in this case, we will take a look at Intersection. If Baby Love is the teacup ride, then Intersection is Space Mountain. The ride is obviously thrilling under any circumstances, but even more so because you have no idea where you are going. You see light every once in a while, but mostly live your life for those 30 short seconds through your ears. Take out the little portion of light and the riding in a car, and we have Intersection. Shown at several galleries and museums, this piece is always set up so that there is a pitch black room for viewers to walk through and it must have a sound system. As viewers (or participants) walk through the piece they hear cars rushing all around them, in fact, they hear four or eight lanes of traffic around them as they walk through the piece. The key factor here is they don’t just hear the random noises. The “cars” are timed to sound like they are rushing at and by you, coming out of a speaker on one side and then the other to have maximum effect. Finally, thanks to sensors that are triggered by the participants, the “cars” will screech to a stop if you stop in their lane. Feel what it is like with this video (fast forward to 2 minutes).

http://aesthetic-machinery.com/intersection.html

          Again, the question of why are humans drawn to interactive pieces? I purposely chose these two pieces because of their interactive nature. In Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance, by Rita Raley, Lovink makes the comment that tactical media “offers participants in the projects a new way of seeing, understanding, (and in the best-case scenario) interacting with a given scenario.” Many humans respond better to interactive pieces, partly because they feel they have something to contribute and are therefore a part of the piece, and a base need of human beings is the need to belong. This can even be seen in other forms of media that have become more interactive, for instance, crowdsourcing. In Crowdsourcing: The art of a crowd, by Carol Strickland, the idea of human beings wishing to belong and be a part of something is brought up, pointing out that crowdsourcing is “eliminating the boundaries between artist and audience.” In both cases, it is possible for multiple people to be interacting with the piece at once. In the case of Intersection, multiple people can be crossing the dark space at once, while Baby Love works better with more people involved. Finally, both share the obvious characteristic of being digital media and as such being part of a more modern era of art. If we look back to the readings from earlier this semester, we see that change has never been accepted in the art world, from The Work of Art and the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Walter Benjamin where we see photography as the evil that will phase out painting to Claire Bishop in Digital Divide and her idea that old media is more “precious” than the new media. Part of the point of art is to open our worlds and present new ideas, yet with every single one of these new ideas criticisms also appear. In the case of these pieces, I emailed the artists to ask their opinions and any criticisms that they had encountered with their pieces. Ritter never responded to me, while Shu Lea Cheang didn’t really tell me any criticisms she had encountered, however she did respond about her opinions on changing medias, saying, “I believe each era/time has its own technology in art practicing and I do not believe one new form of art should not be killing the older art form. We do update ourselves—hardware and software wise.” However I believe she is also a little biased, coming from a digital media perspective, besides our reading I would be interested in hearing the opinions of an artist from an older media on this idea. Yet this is a similarity that the pieces share, being part of a controversial period of art history (which all art has probably been a part of at one time or another). Overall, these pieces have similarities, but it is within these similarities that we can find the defining differences.


          For instance, not only do both pieces have interaction, but the main interaction is through sound. Yet the sound is used in different ways and the viewer can interact with the piece as a whole in different ways. Cheang’s piece is focused on the interaction. The viewer must first submit the love songs which then changes the whole scene depending on the type submitted. For instance, if a group only submits love songs from one artist who creates very similar songs, the clashes will not be as dramatic if we are hearing the love song of a Japanese pop artist and an English country love song. Intersection gives the choice of participation to the participant as well, however the piece can still function without participants, there will not be any screeching stops, but the cars will still be there. While Intersection mainly interacts with the participant through the sound, interaction is not the point of the piece, as stated by Jozef Cseres in the reviews on Ritter’s site, Ritter “is not a technocrat; for him the interaction is not the aim but the means to test the influences and impacts of nature, machines, and media to humans’ personalities.” He is seeing how the people respond to the piece and in order to accomplish this goal, the people must interact, however their interaction ends at walking through the piece and causing the sound interaction. Baby Love has the interaction of submitting the music, choosing to ride in the car, choosing how to drive the car, and choosing to run into others and cause crashes/clashes. This one does have the aim of interaction.

          Another similarity that the pieces share is the clash of motifs within the piece, however once again, looking deeper into this idea shows us more differences than similarities. Baby Love has the literal crash of teacups and clash of music, but it also has the clash of the old, carnival style teacups ride with an oversized baby clone that is based off of a science fiction book. Intersection also has the element of modernity, with the technology of cars and the speed at which we go through our lives, however it clashes with the idea of one of our most primal fears, the fear of the dark. So many myths, legends, and stories circle about the idea of the human race finding, winning, or being given light and how it improved their (and therefore our) lives. By having to walk through this pitch black room with cars roaring around, participants are taken back to that prehistoric time without light, but with the modern fears of technology. In some of the galleries that Intersection was shown, viewers had to walk through the piece to even get into the rest of the show. Many couldn’t do it and missed the rest of the show, they could not conquer their fear of the unknown, which brings us back to the very root of Baby Love, which was based on a science fiction novel from the eighties of what is to come in 2030. Both pieces deal with the fear of the unknown, one taking us back to our fear of the dark and one looking ahead at the future.

          Does this root make these pieces more similar or more different? That is the beauty of art, it is the interpretation of the artist of something, but is then still open to interpretation on the part of the viewer and it therefore evolves and changes depending on the person, their experiences, and the situation. It is interesting how perfectly a quote in the Bruce Johnson press release for Intersection also fits Baby Love as well, “Norbert Weiner created the science of cybernetics, envisioning systems where humans and machines merged to create a new hybrid” (Ritter). We are in the age of cybernetics, which could be some people’s unknown fear and others’ dream come true. It is all in the perspective. For instance, the song from earlier may make no sense to someone who hasn’t been to Disneyland, just as someone who is used to the hustle and bustle of a city may not be as affected by Intersection as someone who comes from rural town with a population of 10 people and over 500 cattle. But even beyond the reference to “It’s a Small World,” the lyrics themselves describe the idea of the unknown perfectly, “It’s a world of hopes, and a world of fears…it’s a small small world…”

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. 731-751. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 1999. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Bishop, Claire. "Digital Divide." Artforum. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr 2013.

Lea Cheang, Shu. Baby Love: Drive Me Drive Me Crazy. 2005. Photograph. BABYLOVEWeb 16 Apr 2013. http://www.babylove.biz/html/exhibition.html.

Raley, Rita. Tactical Media. Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2009. Print.

Ritter, Don. Aesthetic Machinery. N.p.. Web. 16 Apr 2013. <http://aesthetic-machinery.com/index.html>.

Strickland, Carol. "Crowdsourcing: The art of a crowd." Christian Science Monitor. (2011): n.page. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2011/0114/Crowdsourcing- The-art-of-a-crowd>.

Ser y Durar by Democracia (exhibit critique)

Parkour, “a holistic training discipline using movement that developed out of military obstacle course training.” Participants try to make their way through environments as fast as fast as possible, using only their bodies and environment, without being unsafe. This probably is not such a new phenomenon, but it is new to the average person (not military oriented), which is similar to digital media. It isn’t all that new (forms of it are, but the basic idea is not), however it is still new to the average viewer. Both of these are combined into the piece called Ser y Durar, by Democracia. Ser y Durar, which is Spanish for To Be and To Last, was created in Spain, using a group of traceurs, the name for those that parkour. It is currently a video installation at the Hirshhorn in Washington DC. It is in their black box theater, which means it is all very dark and you do not know what you are walking into until the movie begins.

            Democracia is known for their “socio-political work,” and this is no exception. The traceurs all have symbols on their red sweatshirts. According to the artist statement, these symbols stand for working class, internationalism, anarchy, secret societies, and revolution. On a more aesthetic note, the traceurs all wear these red sweatshirts, with their hoods up most of the time. This gives the display a uniformity, but also a hint of danger. Playing off the audiences’ subconscious feelings, Democracia makes us feel a little bit of fear. Red: the color of anger, of passion, and of blood, it makes us think of danger. As a society, we feel more comfortable seeing people’s faces and heads, to us it is disrespectful to leave your hat on inside and faces shouldn’t be covered because facial expressions in our society are used as an extension to words and feelings. All of this means that subconsciously, we believe that people wearing hoods are up to no good, and this paired with the red uniforms make the audience feel fear or at least uncomfortable, it may not be fear of the traceurs, but that uncomfortableness could possibly be fear for them.

            While not directly interactive, this piece pulls the audience in by making them feel like they are running alongside the traceurs. The viewpoint changes constantly within the twenty minute film, from running along the ground and focusing on the feet, to taking in the surroundings as if we are a traceur. Finally, there are multiple viewpoints where we get to see the traceurs and their tricks. Sometimes the video slows down, while other times you speed along as if you are running with them. The last view that appears throughout the movie involves the surroundings. The video doesn’t always focus on the people, sometimes we are looking at the bricks or the headstones in the cemetery it was filmed in. Multiple times we zoom in to the logos located on the sweatshirts. I got the impression of no matter how many obstacles you make it through or over in life, or how fast you are running through life, there is still a futility to it all. We are all going to end up in that cemetery, or as ashes, basically dead.

            On a more positive note, despite this futility, the traceurs continue to run, and the camera continues to provide us with different perspectives, all moving at a high speed. They follow their motto, “never stop and never give up.” We will all end up there, but may as well do what you can while you are here!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/democracia/#collection=democracia&detail=http%3A//www.hirshhorn.si.edu/bio/black-box-democracia/&title=Black+Box%3A+DEMOCRACIA  

3-D Sculpture (In real life)

I have left my heart in so many places.

 This quote is always something that has meant a lot to me, and I believe it applies very well to me. Some of the best relationships that I have cultivated have been across the United States and in other countries. Even if there is not a specific person there, I fall in love with places and leave a little bit of my heart there. Yet while my heart is "fragile" and must be "handled with care," it is still traveling and leaving itself more places. I find a certain amount of beauty in that and that is what I tried to portray.

Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance

Why is interactive such an important thing in our society? What draws humans to interactive things? It can be seen through theories on education and teaching, which stress the importance of involving the student as well as in workshops (people complain when made to sit too long) and art. This can be seen through the quote from Lovink that says some of this tactical media "offers participants in the projects a new way of seeing, understanding, (and in the best-case scenario) interacting with a given scenario."

While talking about resistance and "being-against," the text mentions the idea that there is a difference between those that act because they are focusing on individual freedom (and fighting for it) or because of social justice, however both can use modern media and final pieces of both can sometimes be exchanged, why are they different? Or alternatively, what are their similarities? 

My Own Crowdsourcing Site

The Beauty of Ag crowdsourcing site came about after a week full of explaining to many people just what agriculture is and why it is important to all of us. These discussions helped me to realize that there are a lot of misconceptions about agriculture and I would like to fix that. However, offhand, people are not interested in agriculture. Therefore, I would like to use art as a medium to connect those that wouldn't necessarily be interested in agriculture with those that have a lot of valid information. Through this site, individuals would be able to submit their own stories and pictures of beautiful agriculture along with any facts and or figures. Others could then click on a picture to learn more about each beautiful thing, while becoming more educated.  

Experiment with Crowdsourcing Take 3

Crowdsourcing take 3

For my final crowdsourcing experiment, I used the young me/now me site.

I first found a picture that was more recent and knew that I must have a similar one from when I was young, so I started looking. Sure enough, there are always pictures with presents!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then followed the directions on the site about how to submit them.

And sent them off!

I do like the idea behind this site, but I prefer the Dear Photograph site and I think they are along the same lines. As an audience, the dear photograph site is much more interesting to peruse. This one has its entertaining photos, but not all of them.

Experiment with Crowdsourcing Take 2

Crowdsourcing take 2!

I loved this one, however it didn’t want to behave for me (welcome to technology). So I started on the website:

 

Browsed through a few of the photos and figured out how to do my own.

Went and took my own and then tried to upload it, only to be met with this page:

So, technology:  1, Kelsey: 0, however I still really wanted to do this project, because I love the idea. Therefore, I created a tumbler and tried it again, with still no luck. I also went to their facebook page, the commonly asked questions part, and the news area. Still no luck, although I found this one that is pretty cool:

Annnnnnnyways, this is documentation of my fail at uploading my photo. Here is the picture!

And here is my blurb that should go with it:

Dear Photograph,

The Reno Balloon Races are a huge event held every September. I find it amazing how the park where they are held changes for the day. Between the difference in time (I would never be up and there early enough for sunrise otherwise) and the amount of people there (I run there every week and have never seen that many people there), the park changes dramatically. I believe this photo will have a lot more significance for the subjects in future years since this was taken before they were even dating (which they now are).

Kelsey

However instead of being on the crowdsourcing site, I am leaving it here, to be forever famous in my blog. This is definitely a site I will add to my list of places to check out when I am bored. I also have other ideas about things to submit as well (and hopefully actually submit them).

An Experiment with Crowdsourcing Take 1

Crowdsourcing take 1

Looking at all of the pictures, I thought back on my family and what I grew up with. Therefore I checked the box for extended family and decided to tell my story.

I then typed up my story. Originally, I had trouble deciding what to write about, but after solving that problem, I became excited and started writing away. Yet all too soon I seemed to run out of ideas, plus I started to wonder who would actually want to read it. I also found myself sharing a lot about myself which gets uncomfortable, first because I am not used to do that, or using “I” when I write and also because this is something going on the internet, which is someplace you are not supposed to share your information.

But I chose my pictures:

     

 

 

 

 

 

And entered my story:

The black and white picture is the kind I grew up seeing of my mom and grandmother’s family. With my grandmother coming from a family of eight (who each had at least seven children) and my mom then coming from a family of ten, she never lacked for family. With kids spanning almost twenty years, there are endless stories that I have been told of their one bathroom home and who shared what with who, who got in what car accidents, and who dated who’s best friend. I am sure that at the time, my mom wasn’t too fond of growing up in her family. Being the oldest of four girls, she always had to keep up with the boys and set the standards for the girls, but they all turned out all right. The color picture is what their family could have looked like at a later date, when some of the older kids already had significant others while the babies were barely out of diapers. These are the stories I grew up with and looked forward to, however I didn’t have quite that experience since I was an only child. Instead, I got to hear my mom reminisce and my friends complain and I sat tight with my multitudes of imaginary friends. I do wish that I had siblings, I have always secretly wanted a twin (which obviously isn’t going to happen), however all situations shape who you are, and mine definitely has. I value time with family all the more because I got to be really close with my cousins since they were my pretend siblings. I was able to see more of them as well since I was an only child and able to travel more. I twitch a little at the word spoiled because I always wonder if I was. I hate confrontation because I never had those siblings to fight with. I am really good with people older than me, while I am an introvert that struggles to fit in with people her own age. Overall, I am me and as much as I wish for things that can’t be, I am happy being me and realize I wouldn’t be the same if I had grown up differently, so for now, I am happy listening to all of my mom’s stories and soaking them up.

And then I submitted it

 

Now to wait and see if I become famous in their gallery!

Overall, this was an interesting site, however I truly wonder who reads them. I looked at a few pictures and the ages of the people who submitted stories, however I really didn’t read many of the stories, so who would care about my stories?

Crowdsourcing Questions

According to the article, Crowdsourcing: The art of a crowd, by Carol Strickland, crowdsourcing is “eliminating the boundaries between artist and audience.” On one hand, this makes art more personable and accessible to the common people, but at the same time, do people really want to see some of this random stuff? For example, “take a picture of your parents kissing.” Yet, people are contributing, so clearly people do want to be involved, why do these seemingly random assignments interest others? Why as humans are we interested in seeing pictures/reading stories about some “insignificant” details of others’ lives?

In “Participative Systems” in Rethinking Curating, the author mentions the question of “whether the participants are the audience, and who is watching—ultimately questioning whether this type of art shares an audience with fine art at all.” Which relates back to my other question, before I asked why do we care, but in this case, who is caring? Is it the traditional audience still or is it a new audience? Is there an overlap? Do you have to know anything about art to be part of the audience?

CADRE art show critique

Connections

The human mind works off of connections. Connections between ideas, people, events, and concepts, all of these are what make the human mind function correctly. This is how we learn, tying newly learned ideas to previously learned concepts so that we remember the new information. Therefore, we look for connections in all parts of our life, for instance when we meet someone new, “Oh, do you know so and so?”  This is often a key phrase within the first few encounters with a new person. The same thing happens when entering a new situation, for instance an art exhibit. The mind looks for connections, trying to find the underlying theme of the pieces or how they tie together. Sometimes there is success, and sometimes there is not. For instance, in the case of the Lake Tahoe Community College show “CADRE,” many of the pieces did not seem to tie together, until reading through more information on the exhibit and finding out that the contributors are all alumni of the CADRE laboratory for New Media at San José State University. After discovering this, some of the pieces made a little more sense, however there were still specific pieces that stood out, even before discovering the tie between pieces.

First, Papal Propagation, by Geri Wittig, stood out because of the recent events concerning the pope. Overall, this is interesting because the piece is not new, it is actually from 1994, yet it has new relevance with our recent events. The piece itself is very well made, it looks like a real video game, until you go to play it (especially after being able to play the other games in the gallery), only to find out that it is not interactive. Just as a church should be open to the voices of its people, the video game should be able to be played. However, this game cannot be played, which reflects the Catholic Church and its openness to change and opinions.

On the other hand, we have John Bruneau and James Morgan’s Cooperative Gaming Co-op which are interactive. This is unusual in itself because we have been trained to not touch the art; but this is art that is very much meant to be touched and discovered. While Papal Propagation was very realistic and could be confused with a marketed video game (until the name is read and it is found to be non-interactive), Cooperative Gaming Co-op is less put-together, and does not look like something that could be found in an actual arcade. That being said, the fact that this piece is interactive is a plus. Whether playing the highly inappropriate game where an adolescent is going through puberty or helping to save people from a fire, the user is a part of the art, and therefore able to make his or her own connections. In this way, the art means something to the user, or in other words the viewer.

These two pieces stood out because there was the connection to video games for both of them, and therefore a connection between the two of them; however, another piece that stood out was Siena, by Vera Fainshtein, also because of connections, but in this case, connections to our class. While other pieces were also digital media, this piece tied in with our class and all of the video/animation work we have been doing, which allowed for more appreciation of the piece. There were very simple parts to this piece, namely the background and whole idea, however the shadows made it different and helped it to stand out among the other pieces.

Once again, all of the pieces were interesting, but those that seemed random (for example, were harder to make connections to) were more difficult to understand and therefore did not stand out as much as those that could be tied to previously known information. Yet this is also the whole idea of art, broadening horizons and challenging thinking. Therefore, the next time random art appears, there may be connections to be made with pieces from the “CADRE Show” and then they will not be as random.

Video Reenactment

Here is the original movie that I took sound and ideas from, I use the music from about 2 minutes and 25 seconds in:



And here is my redone version of it.


While there are a few shadows in the portion of the movie that I stole music from, my video represents the whole style of the video as a whole, and less of the specific portion. Throughout the whole movie there are shadows that dance and turn into other things, and that is what I tried to portray through the shadow puppets in the background. I tried to incorporate a little bit of the Dali idea of surrealism as well as the Disney idea of innocence.

Video art chapter questions

News and video art uses the same materials, however to different effects. Oftentimes the same footage can even be used to both effects, what separates them? The article mentions doing it for payment, but both can be. It also mentions the intent, artistic intent or not, but what changes the meaning from art to news? The article states that the two can have overlapping quantities however are not the same thing, do you agree or disagree?

Over and over we have read criticisms about the new forms of art, whether it be photography or something newer like video art. Yet history shows over and over again that art only grows through change. This article itself shows this in a positive light when talking about the Vasulkas and how they played with the "video" medium, however this article does not mention the critiques that probably went along with the changes (that always go along with change). Do you think there is any form of change that would not be critiqued or will it all be critiqued? Why?

Second Class Reading

Bishop talks quite a bit about old media versus new media, stating that many still prefer to use "real analog equipment" (as in old media). Her reasons include the idea of old media being more rare and therefore being "precious," while new digital art is easy and cheap to recreate. Do you think this a valid point? What about those that create to be seen? Far more people will see art that is easily replicated. Yet there are also those that create art to make a living, and these are the ones that easily replicated art can hurt. What are other reasons that art is created and how might the old versus new battle factor in?

Bishop also "introduces" the idea of "ineligibility," which refers to the fact that humans skim as they take something in. While reading, we skim for main ideas; while watching a movie we see important things, but can miss small details; and with art, we look over the surface, often failing to dig deeper into the piece. Many artists have accommodated this and created art accordingly. For instance, artists making massive pieces that a single viewer will not completely comprehend, but is instead expected to skim over. Is this really a new idea though? One that has just appeared since digital art? Human beings have discovered new things and ways of doing things, but we have always been able to skim. With our first books I'm sure people did it because that is how our minds function. Other examples include the forefathers taking in a battlefield and figuring out what to do, they didn't have the time to examine every little thing on that field. The same goes for sailing on the ocean, which has been around long before digital art as well. Captains had to look and make a decision instantly because things change instantly, they had to be able to skim the scene and figure out what was important, so, is the idea of "filter and graze, skim and forward" really a new one that is unique to digital art?

Animation with sound

Diptych Animation

Showing the end of the world and the fall of mankind, I chose to show a very literal falling of the Eiffel Tower, along with other apocalyptic happenings in the back. Buildings and well-known landmarks that human beings have built and are proud of are being destroyed and carried away, showing the change that is occurring.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Questions

Do you agree with how Walter Benjamin describes the feeling of actors before the camera, that they put their whole self into the film and therefore bear it all to the public? Is this a plausible or acceptable reason for many celebrities’ “interesting” behavior in public? What about celebrities who do not seem to have “false personalities” in public, do they not give their everything in front of the camera?

Do you believe that the surgeon and the magician (and therefore the painter and cameraman) are as opposite as the text makes them seem? The text says surgeons and magicians are “polar opposites” yet that depends on how you look at the situation, yes they do it in different ways, but they are both still trying to heal someone, each using the ways that they know best. Both have the chance of failure as well. If we look again at the example of the painter and the cameraman, we see that the painter is distanced from reality while the cameraman is right inside reality; the painter produces a total picture while the cameraman put fragments together in a new way. According to the text, these reasons point to a “representation of reality by the film” that is more real than that of the painter. Do you believe that painters and cameramen are polar opposites? Why or why not? Do your reasons support the idea that film is a better representation of reality?

Apocalypse Diptych

There are many different interpretations of the apocalypse and it means different things for different people. Some see it as pertaining to biblical or technological matters, while others are thinking more along the lines of a personal or zombie apocalypse. We decided to show a combination of these things as well as the portions that many different scenarios seem to agree about. We included the new and the old, the unknown and the predictable, and the chaos of it all.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

Hey there! My name is Kelsey Conklin.