Secondlife...my face......

OK...so I look like a monster....a burned, pimply monster, but I am there....I can't wear my new face for some reason on Secondlife, so that's good......

 However, my nose looks pretty good......

Secondlife---my alter-ego avatar...

I know I'm pirategrrl775, and I wanted to make a pirate, but I saw a cute little bee costume that I could not pass up---remember when I said I liked bees??? Yeah, I had to have it.... I also found a different skin color and hairstyle that I liked, but I still have on my glasses--I have to see, you know....taking the glasses off, you can see I have purple eyes to match my skin.....

Secondlife stuff.....created piece of clothing

So I found directions and templates to create a piece of clothing in Secondlife--super easy! Trying to get myself to wear it was a little harder--the directions on how to wear it must have been older, because the control to click was in a different location, but I did it.  I used Photoshop to create this pink top with black stars.  I decorated the template, but when I put it on my avatar, I changed it a little bit.  Too cute!!

This is the template--

Evaluation Confirmation--needing all the help I can get!!!

User	Debora Fields
Course	Course Evaluation (Spring 2013) - ART 245.1001 Digital Media I (Whittenberger, Peter)
Survey	Course Evaluation
Started	5/6/13 1:29 PM
Submitted	5/6/13 1:37 PM
Status	Completed
Time Elapsed	7 minutes out of 1 hour.
Instructions

Monday, May 6, 2013 2:00:08 PM PDT

3-D---The Sequel.....

Well, this was harder than I thought it would be!!! I used Sketchup.  Without highlighting every horrifying moment of working on this, I will just say that it looks like a pretty 3-D box.  Yes, it is the shape of the matchbox, but the elements within it are not 3-D.  Don't even get me started on the top!

I'll show the prettier ones first:

 "No, you aren't crazy--I could not get the images to match the box perfectly, despite all of the tutorials I watched.

 Uh, the top! Nothing I tried would do what I wanted............

Art Event Write-Ups

Two by Land--Katherine Sandoz and Nicole Donnelly at the Sheppard Gallery

   I attended the exhibit, but I was unable to get an artists' statement--the desk area was pretty busy, but I enjoyed the art.   I am sure this exhibit is called "Two by Land", not only because there are 2 artists, but because their works are similar, but different.  One uses more of the textural technique and images, while one used bands of color to represent landscape views. The color choice would remind you of a landscape you saw somewhere, but the muted quality of the colors suggest that this is from a memory--you can remember some of the shapes, and the colors, but the details are not quite clear.  #5 does this for me:  we can see that it is a rock or hill, but the sediment layers are visible. It reminded me of the passage between Valencia and the north part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles when you are traveling on Intersate 5. This is the San Andreas Fault rift zone, and you can see the shape of the rock, but the exact location is a bit vague in a memory.  

    

   The artist that used the textural techniques appears as though she might have used acrylics--some of the techniques used were almost like a resist, and there was also using and incorporating dripping paint into the work.  For example, #13 use the drips as tree roots. The works were abstract landscapes, with a few that had recognizable images, such as a castle and the sails rigging on a large ship. The rigging was painted white on a background that mixed broad sweeps with the resist technique peeking from underneath.  The ship reminded me of the Balclutha, a large, old cargo ship at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco.   The artist that chose to use the bands of color used color to illustrate the layers of landscape--a familiar yet unknown view from the highway of mountains, some close and some far.

            I thought this exhibit did a great job of evoking memory.  Sometimes when we travel, we see something, through the fog or in the distance, and we remember it.  It reminded the viewer to take in the broader picture, and not just the details.

Persuasion—text, placement and word use--Priscilla B. Varner at the Mc Namara

          I began by reading the artist’s statement. Varner says that printed words can be used and placed in certain ways to evoke emotion.  Words can change the mood of what we read:  a “small gathering of protesters” can be inflated to “angry mob,” sparking emotion in the reader.  Varner used photos, paired with a list of words hanging side by side—one word per line—intending to describe the picture in various ways.

           

            The first work I noted this in was “Juillet.”  The word was painted in dark gray or weathered black block letters on a white wall, with tree branches hanging over the wall. The words next to it were “anniversary, monumental, reconciliation, revolutionary, rights, unity.” And yes, those two words were printed in a fancy font.  After a short search, I found out that ‘juillet’ means ‘July’ in French. Now I could understand more about the picture:  someone’s wedding anniversary could have been in July, July is the month of Bastile Day in France, and perhaps July is also a month for other things.  In our country, it is the month for summer and the 4^th of July, so ‘rights’ might have meaning for us in the United States.

            Another example of word use is from a work called “des Rangees”, which is a photo of large chairs in a grand theatre, with little golden ornaments on top of the chairs that appear to be covered in velvet. Three of the words used are ‘luxurious,’ ‘warm’ and ‘opulent.’ Luxury means an expensive lifestyle to me, while opulent means expensive and over-decorated. The scene all depends on the word used to describe it, and that is what Varner wants us to do.

Wood, Paper, Etc—Walter McNamara at Sierra Arts Gallery

          (OK, so didn’t take notes when I was there, and I don’t recall names of pieces, but I will do my best here…) I had never seen McNamara’s work, so I was intrigued.  So many times collage and mixed media work just looks like a mish-mash of garbage put together with no purpose or meaning, but his works combine material and technique in a very interesting way.  This exhibit was interesting to me, from a crafter’s point of view, because I enjoy using mixed media myself, and I wanted to see what a “real” artist does.

            I don’t use a lot of wood, but McNamara combines wood with other materials, making a subtle statement about outdoor life here in Nevada. There is art in a tree limb or branches. I also like the message that comes from the pieces he created out of our garbage—each piece is a piece of our own modern lives, formed to create something usable from what we thought was no longer usable.

Discussion questions for Reading #7

1. Do you really think there is no new media, since everything has already been done before?

2. Digital media is not the be-all-end-all we hoped it would be, according to Manovich, so will we continue to use a flawed system, or even continue to call it digital media?

Artists Presentation: David Em and Perry Hoberman

David Em

                 David Em was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1952, and was raised in South America. He began working with oils, then he started to create his own paints.  He experimented with plastic paints that he used to create 3-dimentional works. In the mid to late1970's, inspired by the images of space being produced by JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA)scientists, he began producing digital art. He utilized the computer labs at JPL, before personal computers were available, to "create worlds of my own. (Em)"  Later, he was the Artist in Residence at JPL for 10 years. According to his artist's statement on the Digital Art Museum (DAM) website, Em states that:

                Early in the evening of January 6, 1975, I visited PARC for the first time. I had never been in a computer research lab before, so everything was new to me. Computers were everywhere. Alvy showed me how to run his paint program, which consisted of an electronic stylus that could create lushly colored and exotically shaped electronic brush strokes on a color computer screen. Moving the stylus across a digitizing tablet controlled the location and movement of the electronic brushes on the screen. Up to this point no one from a fine arts background had sat at the controls of the system. But the stylus and tablet setup were easy for me to adapt to because of my traditional painting background and my familiarity with video tools, and an hour later I had created my first computer image. (Em)

                In the 1980's, Em states that while others were working on animating their work, he was focusing on "creating paintings with electronic light." He also took programs that were used for scientific purposes (such as recreating the rings of Saturn)and applied them to his works, creating images that look like they come from another world. 

Emerald Sea

Em took a year off from working with computers, but when he returned in 1985, he noticed that the technology had changed, and he had a new-found perspective on digital media:

                While I was away from the high-tech lab, I became extremely conscious of how much the tools we use determine the physical and social environments we live and work in, and how much these factors influence our perceptions and ideas. How tedious and time consuming it must have been for Rembrandt's studio assistants to grind up a tiny quantity of paint for the master's daily work, compared to more recent times when an artist like Jackson Pollock, alone in his studio, could take advantage of drums of commercially produced paints to develop new creative directions. Now, by eliminating paint entirely from the initial creative act, the computer is pushing the envelope of imaging a little further, opening the way to a vast new and unpredictable visual territory. 

 Danae

 Transjovian Pipeline

I chose "Turner" (1985)as my representative work by Em.   

As a kid (and now!), I too, am fascinated by the pictures that come from space. Images of planets, stars, and colorful nebulas can, as Em stated, inspire one to want to create their own fantasy world, with no limitations but their own imagination.  In this piece, I see sunset on the planet Turner.  The color and swirled nature of the clouds suggest that there are gases present in the Turnerian atmosphere, creating cloud formations similar to those found on Jupiter.  The rocky surface looks much like the red surface of Mars, and I am sure much of that look is attributed to Em's knowledge and use of the technology he utilized at JPL.  His works, which have been featured in magazines such as Newsweek and in collaborations with companies like Apple, are in contrast to those of Perry Hoberman.

Perry Hoberman

                    Perry Hoberman was born in 1954 and attained his Bachelor's degree at Bennington College in Vermont from 1974-77.  From V2, Hoberman's work is described as," an installation and media artist who works with a variety of materials and technologies, ranging from the obsolete to the state-of-the-art, from low-tech to high-tech and nearly everything in between. His work has variously taken the form of installations, sculptures, multimedia, performances, concerts, plays and uncategorizable spectacles." His works are more than visual:  visitors need all five senses to experience some of his installations.  He has also published essays, exploring the issue of mistakes and accidents while using digital media, and whether or not these "accidents" have the same effect on art as they would in the "real" world.  Hoberman's works often require action to create a reaction in the piece,  such as "Timetable" and "System Maintenance"; one is triggered by other imagery reflecting onto the piece, the other is triggered by visitor interaction.  Hoberman has also worked with stereoscopic media:  a technique that was invented in 1838, in which a 2-dimensional image is positioned in such as way that the brain interprets what the eye sees as 3-dimensional, with no glasses or other external devices. 

 Gallery show advertisement

 Timetable

The  representative work I chose by Hoberman is called "Bar Code Hotel" and it also a piece that requires direct interaction. This full-scale installation received the top prize at the Interactive Media Festival (Los Angeles, 1995). Hoberman describes this installation by saying it "recycles the ubiquitous symbols found on every consumer product to create an multi-user interface to an unruly virtual environment (Perry Hoberman).    Each barcode creates a sound, video, or action which can last for a few seconds or longer. Visitors are given 3-D glasses and a wand to scan bar codes placed throughout the installation, so visitors are ultimately responsible for their own experience in the installation. 

                "Bar Code Hotel" is interesting to me, because it asks visitors to interact with something they are involved with on a daily basis:  those UPC bar codes on products.  People who work in the retail field, including myself, know that these little codes make your life easier, since you do not have to input information in each time a purchase is made.  Package designers loathe them, since they are required on all packaging, and a design has to work around it.  The only thing some people see them as, is the annoying little beep it makes as a product is scanned; that beep elicits memories of supermarkets, or reminders that we live in an automated world.  By letting the visitor take control of how the bar code is used, scanning it or not scanning it (or even scanning it over and over), the visitor can have control over their own automated world.  The mundane bar codes are now usable and are capable of output. 

 Image from "Bar Code Hotel"

Here is the link to Bar Code Hotel .

 Comparing and Contrasting the Works

                Em created his art with existing technology to create new works that he learned at JPL.  His chosen genre is visual art, and he can reach millions of people with his art, since it has been published in magazines and books, and he has produced art for many companies. Hoberman, too, has used existing technology in his art in his works that use the stereoscopic technique.  However, his works are more than just in the visual genre:  he uses visual, auditory, tactical and kinetic media in his works.  Visitors to his shows can expect noise and movement, as well as becoming a part of the show themselves.  Rather than creating works for magazines, he creates installations that incorporate the visitor in the art.

Relating The Artists to the Readings

                In our reading, Digital Divide by Claire Bishop, she states that digital artists should make a commentary about digital art in their works using digital media.  In our class discussion, an example was used about quilters making quilts about quilting and the social implications of such.  Em's works use digital media, but he did not create any interplanetary worlds that were of planets dying because of their use of digital media. In this way, he has not met Bishop's need for digital media to be commentary and reactionary to the viewer.

                 In our reading of The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, I noted that the author, Walter Benjamin, states that works produced by artists need to be able to be viewed in real-world space--simply going online to view a gallery show is not enough, and the viewer will not have the same sort of encounter with the work as the artist intended.  "Bar Code Hotel" is unable to be reproduced:  even if the installation were rebuilt, it is the visitor that creates the experience, so no two visits are alike.  You may be able to watch the video, but this installation requires human interaction to make everything work.  Besides, it no fun just to sit there and watch everyone else making things go.  

Sources

Bishop, Claire. Digital Divide. March 2013 < http://www.scribd.com/doc/115513943/Bishop-Claire-Digital-Divide>

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. February 2013. < http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm>

Dana, Jenny and Jaime Radwan. ACM SIGGRAPH. 14 April 2013 <http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/David_Em/portfolio2.html>

Em, David. David Em. 13 April 2013 <http://www.davidem.com>

Hoberman, Perry. Bar Code Hotel. 15 April 2013 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJnhwGb0s>

Hoberman, Perry. Perry Hoberman. 13 April 2013 <http://www.perryhoberman.com>

3D Sculpture

Here are some pictures I took of the sculpture project---I really enjoyed doing this, since I love to do things with mixed media like making collages and artist trading cards.  This shrine represents some of the elements and themes that I like to use in my mixed media art.

Project 5--Continued....

Part 2:

 For my own crowdsourcing project, I thought about my hobbies and what was already out there in relation to those hobbies.  There are plenty of quilt circles, and swaps where someone adds a block to a quilt.  Besides, I don't quilt, but I love to sew, and I thought doing something related to fabric would be a good idea.  I have heard of people collecting fabric squares from people to create a quilt, but I wanted to do this on a bigger scale. I know for me, I get inspired when I see fabric; I can see the kind of projects I could make from it, and have made stops at fabric stores on trips, so I do have some pieces that can tell stories.  My project would be to have people send in squares of fabric so I could make a giant blanket for an art exhibit. I would ask people to not just send in fabric they bought (although they could if it was from a special trip), but fabric from things that mean something to them.  On my homepage, I used the example of a piece of a wedding dress, a sweater, or a tie.  I also said that fabric binds us, because we all wear clothes, and most of the time, it is more than just an outfit we are wearing:  we tie meanings and memories to clothing and fabric.  If I really did this--which I know I would never have time to do this--I would want to make it as big as I could, so it would be big enough to cover the ceiling and walls of an entire room, then cut it up afterwards to make blankets for charity.

Project 5--Crowdsourcing

Part 1:

 I thought this project was a lot of fun.  It was interesting to participate in different projects, and to (eventually!!) see my work along with the many others that contributed.  I really wanted to do Dear Photograph, but the Submit button was disabled or something--I just kept getting an error message.

The first project I worked on was The Johnny Cash Project.  I am not a Cash fan, but I recognize the song:  it used to be wrestler The Undertaker's entrance music for a while. I clicked on "Contribute", and I was given a choice of frames to work on, which were probably spots in the video that needed to be filled in. I chose the blank one, since I was not really interested in illustrating the sheep frame that popped up, and the other one seemed to complicated, but you could select other frames.  The tools were right on the site to create my artwork, so I created an abstract brushstroke for a frame near the end of the video. Here is my contribution.  It is still awaiting approval, but you can see the whole video here.

For my next project, I did Collected Visions.  It is a site where you can create a photo essay about the photographs people have contributed, or you can just submit an essay, or submit your own pictures.  I chose to write a short essay about one of the photographs on the site because it reminded me of my grandmother:

Grandmothers: A Love Like No Other

Pouring over an old photo album for another project, I came across old pictures of when I was a baby. There I was, 7 months old, and being held by my grandmother. I related to this picture because I have some pictures similar to this one in the photo album, with my grandmother looking at me. This is not my own grandmother, but I can feel the love she has for her grandchild, the way my grandmother loved me. I think it's sad that we enter our grandparents' lives when they are older, and we miss out on what they were like as children, or as young adults. My grandmother passed away when I was in 5th grade, so I never thought to ask what her life was like at 17, when she left Mississippi and moved to California. My mother said she grew up in a home where children didn't ask things like that, so she didn't know either. I think our birth gives our grandparents a second life: a chance to make right the wrong things they did with their children, and a chance to hold a tiny hand, the way my grandmother held mine. My grandmother would always buy us things, including the Holly Hobbie oven my mother made her return. In my eyes, my grandmother could do no wrong: she made potato salad for barbecues, baked cakes on birthdays (nevermind that it was a box mix), prepared holiday meals, and came with us on family trips. I hope the little guy (or girl) in this photo cherishes the memory of his grandmother they way I cherish mine. She will always be in their heart

I have not heard whether or not this was accepted for submission, so I hope it will be. The website for Collected Visions is here.

The last project I collaborated on was Young Me/Me Now.  I thought it was a pretty fun project! You have to find a picture of yourself as a child, then take a picture of yourself now, trying to recreate that old photo.  I had my mom dig out the the old photo albums and found a picture of me, as a very adorable baby, so I used that one.  I don't have anything in that blue, and for sure I don't have any footie pajamas, so I did my best. I have not heard whether or not I was accepted, but this is what I came up with:

Check out Young Me/Me Now here.