Project 6 Final

Project 6 Critique

- What ideas did you incorporate into the piece?
The whole conversation taking place on Skype was an interesting concept. A lot of the ideas just came from the banter. I feel that there is a weird sense of irony with the whole thing, which I directly mention in the video. 

- Do you think the piece is successful? Why or why not?
As much as it could be. It's very direct, but it gets the point across. It wasn't what I had in mind at the beginning of the project, but I did what I could considering the circumstances. 

Self-Evaluation
- What skills did you learn through working on this piece? How did you employ these
skills in your work?
I used most of the skills I already had before starting this project. I used the panning tool a bit in some instances, manipulated the volume levels, etc...

- What challenges did you face?
My hard drive failed at the last minute, so anything that hadn't already been put in the video was lost. I tried to salvage the project the best I could, but the limitations show.

- Did you find a suitable resolution—if yes, what? If no, what would you change?
I had come up with other ideas during the later stages of my project, but they had to be scrapped. Instead, I went with a blog style video with what I had. Not sure if I'm completely successful.  

- What revisions would your make if you were to do the work a second time?
I would love to have been more creative with some of the original footage, or at least my original idea. I would have loved to have been more exaggerated.

Research Blog - Yang Yongliang

Yang Yongliang is a Chinese artist specializing in painting, photography, and video. He was taught traditional painting, calligraphy and other art forms by a former professor at Hong Kong Chinese University. Yongliang continued to study art in the Shanghai Arts & Crafts Vocational College Visual Communication Department, then continuing his education at the China Fine Art Academy Institute. In 2005, Yongliang set up an art studio with his friends, taking on the role of Art Director. He currently works and lives in Shanghai, China.

Yongliang's work combines nature and cityscapes, similar to the already mentioned Lily & Honglei. I'm not sure if the art is about the rapid industrialization of China or finding the beauty in China's cities, but I suppose it could be taken either way.

I really enjoy his work. I actually found out about this artist through Roya during class, and I was enthralled with the detail in his work. The incredible amount of nuance in his videos was astounding, so I couldn't help but write a post about him. Upon further research, though, his work doesn't deviate from the urban sprawl/mountainous landscape. I wasn't able to find anything about his exhibitions, only interviews about his videos.

Sources:
http://www.yangyongliang.com/

Research Blog - Lily & Honglei

Lily & Honglei is an immigrant artist collective based in New York City composed of Xiying Yang, Honglei Li, and He Li. The trio creates "multimedia art utilizing traditional painting and new media such as digital animation, Virtual Reality, and Augmented reality." Their work focuses on how China is advancing both culturally and industrially. A recent piece of theirs, titled "Shadow Play: Tales of Urbanization of China," uses VR, AR, and the physical world in order to visualize the way China is changing, citing the country's attempt to convert the majority of their population to a urban-oriented lifestyle. The piece can be explored in the Virtual World program second life, the virtual reality portion while the Augmented Reality portion can be downloaded to the user's smartphone.

The artwork is obviously trying to keep China's culture alive if not preserving it. But the innovative use technology coupled with paintings evocative of China's history really sells their purpose. Their older work is a bit different, combining the real world with the surreal. All of their work seems to be based on what the physical world and how it's changing.

Their use of different realities to form a very expressive art form is what initially caught my attention. I'm not sure how I could critique it, nor am I sure how clearly the message is coming across: is the use of technology influencing art and culture and is this blending inevitable, or is their use of technology with their art the actual commentary? Is it a critique or a blending of the future?

Sources:
http://lilyhonglei.com/

http://turbulence.org/blog/2014/06/03/turbulence-commission-shadow-play-tales-of-urbanziation-of-china-by-lily-honglei/#more-14613

Research Blog - Jeff Thompson

Jeff Thompson received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his MFA from Rutgers. He currently serves as the Assistant Professor and Program Director of Visual Art & Technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. His work has been internationally at many venues and exhibitions. His art always incorporates technology, whether by creating his art with technology or exploring the art in technology. And though he uses technology to create his art, he "is interested in 'useless' and culturally derived data sets." We saw his artwork during our small field trip at the beginning of the semester.

I'm not sure what I see. If anything, I see how technology may be used to create art. His artwork isn't just a picture edited with Photoshop, it's a computer processing images to create something wholly unique, something besides a drawing or a painting. The top picture is meant to be every picture ever created, the same exhibit we saw during our trip. The photo on the left was created by blending 100 images, then importing a three-dimensional photogrammetry software. His work seems to involve having the computer create the images rather than using the computer to create images.

I enjoy his artwork. Seeing what images and sounds that will be produced from the computer is very interesting. His work might seem different compared to typical artwork, but the way he uses technology to create his work is astounding. If anything, his work can very difficult to comprehend without the right context.

Sources:
http://turbulence.org/blog/2014/06/10/turbulence-commission-interp-by-jeff-thompson/

http://www.jeffreythompson.org/index.php

Research Blog - Annette Barbier

Annette Barbier is an artist from Chicago, IL, who holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work focuses on using new technology to address issues relating to the environment, combining mediums to engage viewers. She has used new technology in order to highlight the direction our society is moving end its effects on the environment.  Her most recent work, "Casualties," explores how nature barely exists in in built environment, specifically through "plight of urban birds." The exhibit is not limited to a single medium as it allows its audience to view and interact with the piece.

As already mentioned, there is a very overt theme of how nature, has been affected by urban sprawl. The artist seems to want to challenge perceptions of nature, or that the art is making us think about  how urban growth and nature interact. The pieces seem to make liberal use of white space, perhaps to draw on some feeling of extinction or emptiness.

Her style seems almost like an examination, like we are looking at her work under a microscope. I enjoy how she has a distinct message in the work, that we really need to look at the world around us. Her work is prosaic, for better or for worse.

Sources:
http://www.furtherfield.org/features/reviews/broken-annette-barbiers-casualties

http://annette-barbier.squarespace.com/

Research Post - Anna Pinkas

Anna Pinkas is an artist born in Geneva, Switzerland and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a Master's from New York University's Interactive Telecommunication Program. According to her website, Anna uses art to express the art of collecting and how the act can seem mundane, such as in her most recent project " Condition: Used." This project uses bits and pieces of intimate spaces" to create scenes reminiscent of rooms in a home. Her project "Conditions," different from the previously mentioned "Conditions," uses simple programming conditions as part of its show. According to the description, " the piece constantly shifts between these different realms and meanings," again touching on the simplicity hiding behind seemingly mundane subjects. 

Like I mentioned, I think the artist is trying to find something in the mundane. She created two videos showing scenes from a dance studio; they feature different scenes of typical objects one might find in a dance studio. Her site makes mention of her technique of exploring themes through "series, collections, accumulation." I can't quite see it, but it might be her taking this technique to compose the final project rather than being an overt theme in her work.

If I had a criticism, it's that while she uses these scenes with a technique in mind, according to her website, I had trouble pinpointing a theme. Maybe it's my tendency to always create a solid message in the art I have created that's affecting my judgement. Ignoring that, her composition is what really caught my attention. "Conditions" was an interesting treat, if only a modest three minutes. If anything, I was interested to see if she would take these conditions and apply them to some aspect of human life. Her work has at least taught me to think outside of my usual strict themes.

Sources:
http://turbulence.org/blog/2014/09/14/turbulence-commission-conditionused-by-anna-pinkas/

http://www.annapinkas.com/

Project 5 Critique

PROJECT CRITIQUE FORM
Name: Scott Farrell
Class Section: 008
Critique

- What ideas did you incorporate into the piece?
I noticed that my average involves a lot of water. For example, I often wake up, wash my face, and have a cup of coffee, so I decided to run with this theme of water. At the time of the project, I felt like I had too many things to do and not enough time to do them, so I had an idea of drowning or trying to hold one's breath. There's a heavy sigh in the beginning and one at the very end, so there's a feeling of holding one's breath, as though we need to hold our breath to get through our work day.

- Do you think the piece is successful? Why or why not?
For the most part. There's only so much you express with sound alone and I feel like the sounds of water are distinct enough to drive the point home, but the idea stands enough that someone might pick up on it.

Self-Evaluation
- What skills did you learn through working on this piece? How did you employ these
skills in your work?
Learning to use Audacity for the first time. This is the first program we've used this semester that I wasn't already familiar with, so while I had no trouble learning it, I had to make time to actually figure out what I was doing.

- What challenges did you face?
I attempted to keep other people talking out of the recordings as much as possible. While there is background chatter, no distinct language can be heard.

- Did you find a suitable resolution—if yes, what? If no, what would you change?
Yes, I would say so. The background chatter indicates a public area, but there is no real conversation heard.

- What revisions would your make if you were to do the work a second time?
I'm not sure how to revise a project in order to make water sound more like water, but that's what I would do if I could.

Project 5

Project 4 Critique

PROJECT CRITIQUE FORM
Name: Scott Farrell
Class Section: 008
Critique

- What ideas did you incorporate into the piece?
I tried to incorporate some sense of paranoia into the shots; the mask emphasized the point more than anything. There was also a very limited view of the room, while shots involving doors and windows were saved until the end, giving little sense of the outside world. The focus on the person instead of the media was to illustrate how people have reacted to news media, rather than the news media itself.

- Do you think the piece is successful? Why or why not?
To an extent. The mask sells the point, but the small anxious hand movements also give a feeling of unease. The contrasting voice-overs were an interesting idea, but trying to get both the shots and the narration perfect was incredibly difficult.

Self-Evaluation
- What skills did you learn through working on this piece? How did you employ these
skills in your work?
Image sequencing in my editor was the main skill used, which, besides timing, isn't difficult. Trying to create dynamic shots that work in stop motion was also difficult, and sometimes the camera would be uncooperative.

- What challenges did you face?
Attempting to sound as something other than an angry teenage boy was the most difficult aspect of the project. Other than that, trying to get the right shot to convey the right mood was also  a challenge.

- Did you find a suitable resolution—if yes, what? If no, what would you change?
As much as I could. If anything, I would have taken far more shots but used more nuanced facial expressions.

- What revisions would your make if you were to do the work a second time?
Really, just the nuances between each shot. Some worked and some didn't.

Project 4 - The Ebola Scare

You will need to turn the sound on for the full effect.

Tabaimo

Part of the appeal of Tabaimo's work is that it challenges the viewer to fill in the blanks. Her work envelops some aspect of routine life, such as the kitchen or a public bathroom, but incorporates a surreal element in order to provoke a response Through a surreal mundane, Tabaimo instigates a way to approach . More than anything, Tabaimo combines a number of media in order to create her exhibits. For instance, she drew the line art of her hands. She then scanned the art to her computer and filled it with color and details. Finally, she uses a circular physical exhibit to surround the viewer with the art she's created. This three-dimensional envelopment of the viewer, in combination with her hand drawn animation, is what brings the audience into the art, as she says the audience is 50% of the art, and drives them to question what the piece may be about.

Poster

Pattern Examples

Project 3 "hi how r u"

Face Anagram

Project 2 Initial Images

Internet as an Art Medium

The internet as a medium allows many users to bypass the obstruction of traditional art exhibition. Price writes that, unless a piece was a painting, the context of the work being art would be lost. Art existed as art only in the art world, and considered avant-garde required definition in order to be understood, artistically or otherwise. Distribution of art was limited to the its institution exclusively.

The internet, then, allows artists to bypass the traditional institution. And with the internet's unregulated nature, communication can spread rapidly between producers and receivers. As Shirky points out, information has a way of spreading in a way many cannot predict. The deadly earthquake which struck China resulted in media users, which then grew into a global campaign the Chinese government could not predict. Exposure through use of . In order to control what the people could, the Chinese government had to shut down  Price acknowledges the internet's free market model and users' ability to feign authorship, but the opportunities presented to artists through the use of the internet cannot be ignored.

The only way an artist would be able to gain exposure was through various physical exhibitions and the ways in which people responded to them. But the internet, with its boundless communication network, allows artists who would otherwise not receive attention in traditional institutions to thrive in the new medium. The lack of adherence to traditional markets then allows artists to work with disregard to norms, which then fosters creative inspiration in the vein of the article discussed earlier in the semester. Despite the free market nature of the internet, i.e., users posting information without crediting the source, the internet is serves as expressionistic and boundless medium for artists. 

Project 2 - Slacktivism

I'd like to take moment to say that the top image turned out to be 999.5kb. Pretty proud of myself.

Project 1 Critique

PROJECT CRITIQUE FORM
Name
Class Section

Critique

- What ideas did you incorporate into the piece?
-War
-Struggle
-Individual struggle
-Wartime Media

- Do you think the piece is successful? Why or why not?
 The piece is successful in that it portrays individuals during wartime, especially the main focus of an old man with a flintlock rifle. A very visible struggle is occurring in the picture.  When first reading the assignment criteria I intended to use more color in my picture, but it was not suitable with the subject at hand.





 Self-Evaluation

- What skills did you learn through working on this piece? How did you employ these
skills in your work?
I used the selection and marquee tools selectively, the most obvious example being the overlaying text. I used layer masks and the gradient tool in order form most of my image.

- What challenges did you face?
Managing to find the right amount of text while not obscuring the image was the most technically difficult aspect of creating the image. Trying to form an image from what I had at hand was also challenging, as was hoping to incorporate brighter, bolder colors into the image.

- Did you find a suitable resolution—if yes, what? If no, what would you change?
I enjoyed how the image came out. With my limited experience and the images at hand, I think this was the best resolution of the image.

- What revisions would your make if you were to do the work a second time?
If time permitted, I would incorporate a border into the image in order better capture how war can erase the individuals' identities.

Project 1

Letham Summary

In his article, Jonathan Letham discusses what plagiarism means in the art world and how many pieces of art are not plagiarism, but are in fact being appropriated by the artist in their own works. Plagiarism is typically defined as the theft of another’s ideas, art, etc., for the one’s own gain, and is thought to be an act of dishonesty and corruption. But many aspects of art come from preexisting artwork.  Letham lists a number of artists who have taken previous stories, themes, and ideas and incorporated into their own art, e.g. the many reoccurring themes that pervade literature. And each time one of these themes is presented, it is being remade into something unfamiliar so as to keep the art fresh. Artists are aware of this, too. This plagiarism gives rise to exceptional artwork, and that “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

Letham then goes on to challenge the idea of copyright and the changes being made to copyright during an era of exponential technological growth. Copyright laws are making it harder to distinguish between plagiarism and inspiration, as demonstrated by large media corporations. These laws stifle up and coming artists who feel the same mix of emotions as the artists being mimicked when they first creating their own artwork. Even pieces of admiration or satire are being buried in the business of art. But in the art world, there are ways to get around these strict copyright rules. Gift economies, commons, etc., allow artists to use some material for their own gain.

Though plagiarism and copyright are serious crimes, art exists through perpetual retelling and appropriating of different ideas, themes, and expressions. 

Collage Critique

Some thoughts about the previously posted collages:

• I enjoyed how the "Serenity" picture came out. While it wasn't a collage in that it wasn't an amalgam of pictures put together, but the two pictures came together quite nicely. I somehow managed to get a small transparent effect when creating layer masks, which gave a small ethereal effect. The simplicity of the image contributes to the feeling I was attempting to convey.

• My first collage was forgettable. I made it, felt like it sufficed, and continued on my way.

• I did not use the selection tool on many of the images. When I did try to make a selection and incorporate it into the image, I felt as though the image felt cheapened. I didn't get creative with the tool, which may yield some nice effects if I play with the same way I did with layer masks. 

• The "Technology/War" collage came out well. The way I arranged the images gave the image a very structured and rigid feel, good for expressing the coldness of war and the technology used. 

• During the whole thing, I was more interested in color and unity than creating a unique collage.

I wasn't sure if we needed to upload our pictures or not, but having them up couldn't hurt, so here they are.

Edit: I think I'll post the corresponding ideas, too.

Entertainment

Serenity
(My favorite)

Technology/War

Community

History

Bit Depth

Bit depth refers to the number of bits used when displaying colors. This generally indicates the amount of colors available in an image's color pallet. As bit depth increases the range of colors increases i.e. a greater number of colors can be displayed.

Examples of bit depth are 8 bit, 16, and 24 bit, with the latter being true color. Past 24 bit is generally considered overkill, as the human eye can only perceive so many colors, unless the image is going to be edited with a program such as Photoshop. 

Sources:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/bit-depth.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IujXVlz-y54

Interview Transcript

Scott Farrell: So you’re now a world renowned artist with a pretty impressive resume of art. Around what time would you say you started focusing on art?

Wayne White: Oh, I’ve always been an artist. Before I could walk, I was drawing and making art. So I guess I’ve always focused on my art. And my mother was big into art, so she was always pushing me into my art. She was a big inspiration growing up.

SF: You grew up in Tennessee, so a certain amount of opposition is to be expected. Were there any teachers or other adults who supported your art?

WW: I had one teacher when I was in first grade, Ms. Stoddard, and she told everybody that I was destined to become a great artist, really do something. Look how right she was. But besides that, most people thought I wasn’t the all American boy. And they were right, I fought and rebelled against that kind of traditional shit.

SF: So, like many of us, college is where you really came into your own.

WW: Well, I found more people who thought like me, were really into creating and enjoying art. And we were just a bunch of kids just messing around at college. Oh man, it was great.

SF: Your style is very unique, and you incorporate a lot of humor into your art. Would you say that this is what attracted you to working for TV and the like?

WW: I fell in love with Peewee’s the moment I saw it. I was like, “I gotta work here, I gotta get in on this.” From there I just fell into all these other shows. They paid me so I was like “what crazy shit do you want me to make now?”

SF: Would you say that your focus on your word paintings came about as a result of working yourself to hell and back for TV shows, music videos, etc.?

WW: Well, that was definitely a factor. I just try to create art, to enjoy creating that art. But my kids also got me working on my paintings and spending more time at home.

SF: Quick final question – where do you see your art going from here?

WW: I’m still just creating art. If people like it or not, well, screw it, I got here because I just did what I wanted.