Self Portrait Recording

http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/94457737/file.html

This self portait recording was of my daily routine before leaving my apartment. I usually grab my keys, turn off the fan, and open the door to leave outside. After, I lock my door. The after effect of listening to it made me realize that I dont pay attention to sounds enough. When replaying it a few times, I heard things that I hadn't noticed before when rushing out of the door such as the sounds of teh cars down the road or the banging of my keys against an object while locking it. A lot of the sounds become quite fascinating.

My Avatars

At first, I was extremely irritated that I couldn't figure out how to form my avatar. I don't even think I remember how many times I recreated the facial part of my Avatar. I felt that this kind of struggle opened my eyes to how hard work pays off & I will have to get through difficulties in order to get a finished product. This was great training, I thought. The fun started to come when I gave it clothes and new hair. The dress-up part was pretty hilarious. I was very satisfied with this avatar.

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The Fantasy Avatar we were to create was all based off of the insects, animals, and patterns I liked. I have an obsession with butterflies and their wing patterns. I had to make sure that whatever wings I purchased, were of a distinct pattern so I added money to my account in order to make this happen. The colors on the wings were awesome as well. Next, I progressed to an animal I liked which was a mouse. I actually began with the mouse avatar, then added things, took away others, and altered the sizes of the rest. I kept the mouse's tail and took away it's feet and hands. Next, I used zebra skin to add the last bodily changes because I love zebra skin as well. I wanted my avatar to have style, so I added accessories, the punk rock pants, and the huge, spiky hair. I was very fascinated and proud of this avatar!

Two-Artist Writing Assignment

         The broad, yet not definitive meaning of art leaves so many questions as to what art really is. The two artists Liu Dao and Michael Snow are two artists that I’ve chosen to write about not to define what art is, but to demonstrate how complex and diverse the art world can be. From the permanent installations by Michael Snow to the paper collages done by Liu Dao, all are forms of artwork that represent much transmission of the old creations of art progressing into the modern stages of art.

            Liu Dao happens to be a group of six in which is how their name is derived (Liu Dao, meaning Island Number 6 in Chinese) from Shanghai, China. The members are Zhang Deli, Wang Dongma, Rose Tang, Cai Duobao, Bing Bing, and Kong Mosha. They all work together on majority of their projects, but also have their own individual works. This group was founded in 2006 by Thomas Charveriat, director of Island 6 Arts Center. When working together, they all are to adhere to the director in trying to collaborate on conceptualizing different art pieces which is what I use to reference to a previous reading that I’ve done (Participative Systems). [In reading about participative systems, the terms interaction, collaboration, and participation are very frequently used and elaborate on how the different artists collaborate and agree on projects. When artists collaborate, they have to work off of a concept willingly and the when contributing their physical attributions, they are to conceptualize in relatively the same manner so that the piece becomes prideful and successful in all of the contributing artists’ views.]  Some of Liu Dao’s work that caught my attention was the “Vigilance”, an LCD display with decorative black and shiny glass tile to surround the left and right of the animation screen. The frame is completely made of steel which added more preservation to the piece. Another that I was well interested in was the “People, Birds, and Beasts” piece because they have a classical method of using wood framing in this one and there’s more to their digital presentation. I think this also showed that they are complex and not just stuck to one set aspect of art, even though they specialize in digital art. I also like the idea of them holding onto their signature style of framing their work which sets a totally different mood.   

Vigilance

People, Birds, and Beasts

          My next chosen artist was Michael Snow. He is an installation artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, jazz musician, and filmmaker. Born on December 10, 1929 in Toronto, Snow matured into being a jazz musician as a young man. It’s not really odd for great artists to start in other directions before actually pursuing art as their later career. Snow is very well rounded I would say because he definitely does not stay constant in one area of art, but he continues to expand in other areas he doesn’t really receive as much credit for. His works are most viewable inside of exhibitions in North America and South America, and Europe. His beginnings to becoming a full blown artist started when his first exhibition in 1957 alone took place. Even though I was interested in one of his earlier films, “Wavelength” made in 1967, I was to pay attention to his more modern films and “Corpus Callosum”, made in 2002 happened to be the better judgment since it was made after 1980. I noticed there was more popularity particularly in this film mainly because it received the Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award from LA Film Critics Association Awards. In this film, I watched as he played with the human’s mind be zooming in and out, distorting different images, and creating illusions in a fascinating manner as he filmed office workers and formal dressed people walking around and socializing. He has much fun with this film, but it is definitely evident that he edited each and every part of the film from panning to zoom, to digitally rendering certain images, etc. This film seems to have taken much time to film, let alone edit. Another piece that I came across by Snow was the “Red, Orange, and Green” sculpture. I assumed there was a more symbolic meaning to this piece because it was made of all silver material and had no other color so I was very curious as to why he titled it “Red, Orange, and Green”, if it had none of those colors involved. I gave an educated guess that this sculpture, in the shape of a tree was supposed to symbolize the colors that weren’t there especially in the shape of the leaves that were engraved in the tree. There were different shapes of different trees as well I think to help differentiate the different seasons in which the color of the leaves change into when the seasons transition. This kind of mind boggling in an art project also leaves me to reference back to a past reading (Tactical Media). [In reading about tactical media, the central message is how artists stay “intact” whether it is in purpose, modern relevance, complexity, etc. Snow tries to keep his purpose intact by keeping the audience guessing on the meaning, but not confusing them on what it may be. He’s sure of his plan and executes in a manner that is viewable to everyone. He also tries to stay relevant in the way that he constructed the sculpture (clean metal).]

Corpus Callosum

Red, Orange,  and Green

          In comparing and contrasting the two groups of artists, I chose moderately distinct works of art from both sides. Liu Dao had a very unique, yet simplistic work called “Squeezed Identity”. Michael Snow has a very complicated and rather large work called the “Flightstop”. The reason I chose to compare and contrast these two works are because they are two drastically different forms of art with different sizes and shapes, yet they share the same significance in the art world. I feel that each and every purposeful work of art that is showcased, or not is significant in our culture and attracts an audience of some sort whether it is negative or positive attention. The fact that it grabs attention is what claims the artworks’ significance because it was successful in gaining popularity or even a reaction from an audience. Liu Dao’s “Squeezed Identity”, what conjured my reaction was that it was so small and compact, but was sizable enough to fit an LCD screen inside of it. Their signature in the framing only leaves more of a brand in a positive way. They continue to change add to and alter the definition of modern art. The title only made it 10 times better because it helps the audience get what the message is. Humans on earth all have a different conception of works like this, but I think the general conception is that one’s identity is squeezed from an outside source. This outside source is not exactly depicted or told by the artists so it is up to the audience what the outside source is. In Michael Snow’s “Flightstop”, he was successful at making this permanent installation.  It is very spread out and large in size which creates an illusion of being in a wildlife scenario that the audience should feel. It created an emotional reality for the audience and the fact that he took this installation to a very public setting (the Eaton Centre inside the mall) made it so much more fascinating. This is one work that seemed to help capture the moment where shoppers or tourists are astounded by what they see and the happiness in the building. I feel this is one project that Snow wanted to make very public, not only to those who study art, but to those who are living everyday life. This work was very complex and looks to be quite difficult in the sculpting and setup of it. Altogether, both Liu Dao’s and Michael Snow’s both had an illusionistic effect on their audience. I enjoyed just seeing the photos and examining their technique through those photos. Seeing them in person would be a lot grander than just photos. The messages in both are still portrayed successfully and are very successful in grabbing the attention of the public.    

Squeezed Identity

Flightstop





My involvement In Crowdsourcing

1)I did the "Dear Photograph" activity.To the right is the picture I took of what i was to send in. This was one of my favorite memories because it was my junior year in high school and it demonstrated our "spirit day" as well. We had an assembly which i helped put on so i got to miss the whole day of class. The girl to the right is my friend, Amber. She had an awesome personality and her jokes kept me awake on my sleepy days at school. I really miss those days. This project really only allowed me to cherish every moment because you rarely or dont get to experience it again at all.

2)I did the "Learning to Love You More" Assignment. The assignment was to recreate or draw a picture of whatever a friend wanted using a magazine. The friend must point out of their desires in the magazine and from there, I must cut them out, and paste them to a colored sheet of paper. After that I was to scan it and send it in. Above she wanted long hair so i cut a picture of a woman with long hair. Next she pointed out the plaided jacket (red) that she thought would fit her. Then, pizza was her favorite food so she pointed that out in the magazine as soon as she saw it. She's in shape and likes to ride bikes, so when she seen it, it instantly grabbed her attention. The last thing was the couble at the lower left which, to her, symbolized love. I enjoyed making this project because each item that we came across had so much meaning and personality behind it. The use of color paper
only made it bolder.

3)The last thing I did was Sarah's "My Amazing Butt" project. I wore black shorts to symbolize my color and how my mom always called me "Black Butt". She still calls me that now and I really embraced that concept. When doing this project, I noticed that others added humor to theirs, and that it didnt have to be all serious. I liked doing this project and it made me laugh a little instead of being so serious. I loved her idea.

Participative Systems Reading

1)Can we generalize the term "participation" when dealing with art because I noticed that they are giving many aspects other than the definition itself? I would rather think of participative media as a vague definition.
2) Since the terms collaboration and and interaction are very paired with participation throughout the reading, I'm wondering if there is any clear difference between the three. In the beginning the author states that these three terms are not good unless there are purpose, creativity, and other things behind it.

YouTube Mix Project

Initially, I wanted to do my project on expression through dancing,  but there werent many videos that I've recorded with dances. Instead I made it about "Expression" through many different forms. It can be done through art, dancing, facial movement, speech, etc. There were videos that I absolutely fell in love with such as the laughing babies and the drill team performance. Others made me laugh such as the news reporters throwing tantrums and our previous project where we had to remake a video. Instead of using another dance video I had recorded, I used another previous project we did which was the animation because I felt that it expressed where I wanted to be later on in life (island trees, forests, hills, butterflies, and excluding the death of the butterfly, flood, and thunderstorm. Other than that, I felt that all of these videos displayed my concept pretty well and i changed my background to red roses, but it got lost when I sent it to Clent so the background on the digital media site is pretty boring. I created the drill team video, the jeremy blake video, and the animation the video. he laughing babies and angry news reporters video are from YouTube.

http://www.unr.edu/art/digital_media/projects-2012/Fantasia_Bolden.html

Manovich Reading

1) How can one steer away from confusing the old media with the new media if the listed characteristics aren't so visible in certain forms of artwork?
2) How can one stray from the "norm" that Fredrick describes as a place where people share an ideal image, when creating new media?