Poster

Here is my poster designed in Photoshop to advertise my short film!

Narrative Video Promotional Website

Here is a link to the website I made for this class to advertise my narrative video!

 Click Here to View My Website

 I went for a high-tech aesthetic featuring my video, the crew, behind the scenes, and a page that features another webpage I made with a myriad of videos I made which you can play in any order, or all at the same time if you wish.  Please check it out if you so desire!

Jane Livingston, I Presume.

There is a dialogue from Jane Livingston on page 271 that discusses the relationship between artists with creative endeavors and advancing technology.  The beginning paragraph sums up her topic very astutely: "One of the fundamental dualisms inherent in the question of technology's uses in a humanist context has to do with the conflict between the belief that, in a word, technology is the metaphysics of this century, and therefore has to be accommodated from within, and the view that technology is somehow self-perpetuating, implacable and essentially inhuman, and that therefore humanist and artistic endeavor must function separated from it and even in opposition to it."  This seems to be an issue relevant today, still, even though this dialogue is from 1971.  Perhaps even more so as technology continually advances and rises in prominence everywhere around the world.

Sculpture Art Feature: LOTR Meets Kitty Scratchpost

I wanted to show this amazing rendition of famous movie sets that have been used for something completely different, changing the meaning, perception, and appreciation of the original works because of this new creative art piece.

Above is a replica of Bag End, the famous hobbit hole from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the tower of Sauron with a catnip-eye of Sauron on top.  These replicas were specifically designed for cats to play with, the hobbit hole serving as a hideaway/litter-box holder, and the tower as a legitimately intricate scratching post.  These items were undoubtedly built with the help of computers, printers, paint, various materials, and references to the real sets from the movie.  The tower's shape was designed with foam, which was then wrapped in a tremendous amount of rope that was painted black.  I think this would be a really interesting project to learn how to do.     

Nam June Paik, Art Satellite (1984)

On page 233 of our book there is a dialogue of Nam Jun Paik, and he referenced an interesting quote about discovering new things.  "Yes, it was the midst of so-called material progress and the discovery of new Things...Poincare pointed out that what was being discovered was not new THINGS but merely the new RELATIONSHIPS between things already existing."  And I thought it was interesting how he went on to say "we are again in the fin de siecle...this time we are discovering much new software...which are not new things but new thinks...and again we are discovering and even weaving new relationships between many thinks and minds...we are already knee-deep in the post industrial age."   

Youtube Artists

While an obvious and possibly redundant topic,Youtube certainly cannot be ignored when it comes to artists portraying their work through video platform.  Youtube has allowed everything from singing, blogging, dancing, instrumental music, sketching, and a myriad of other subjects to become career opportunities solely by using Youtube videos as the launchpad.


This artist, Taylor Davis, plays violin because it is her passion.  Her other passion is video gaming.  She mixed the two into a distinct career making video game soundtrack violin covers on Youtube.  Because of her success as a Youtube violinist she is now starting to tour around the world so she can play live concerts for the very people who support her on Youtube, while making more fans, recognition, and most likely income.





I think we can conclude Youtube can be used to jump start just about anything.  Therefore, we should always be keeping it mind as we go about our DTC lives...also Patreon, Vimeo, and others are pretty neat too if you are biased against Youtube or want to use multiple platforms.

Reading Response (202-228)

Reading parts 1 and 2 of an interview with Gillette and Ira Schneider let me to see some personal insights on what it was like to work with film and tape recorders when they were just emerging as a medium.  When Frank was at Fordham university he gained access to video equipment including two studio cameras, two portable cameras, two playback decks, and two moniters to do with them whatever he wanted and this served as his introduction to videotape.
      Ira's first experiences with videotape came out of the desire to get "sync sound", which I am not quite certain what that is, but Ira expresses that videotaping was a much better option to achieve it.

Reading Response (193-202)

The American Museum of Natural History collaborated with NCSA to create The Search for Life, Are We Alone?  The Search for Life piece is basically a virtual tour of the Mily Way galaxy, utilizating one of the biggest computers at the time (2002), a virtual software team, using flight paths through data to create tours users can experience.  I think art with a definite purpose is usually really engaging.  In this case people can learn about the position of elements in our solar system, even if they don't find life on other planets!

Reading Response (166-193)

On page 170 Shanken highlights an installation called Breath.  Breath measures the viewr's breathing regularity and speed by using sensors.  The information is then fed through a computer and displayed on a screen as a wall of polygons that morph according to the patterns.  Steady breathing allows the polygons to expand and grow, while inconstancy causes them to retreat back to original size.  This piece apparently analyzes the biological functions and forms of the human body and how most functions work unconsciously.  They observe that when we do try to focus on those functions, like breathing, it can through us off a bit which means it is great they function on their own.

Reading Response (111-166)

Page 144 features a piece of art that was actually made a computer programs to make art based on the process an artist goes through in their mind while creating art.  This program, AARON, is deemed to be an artificially intelligent artist that continually creates its "own" art.  Though this is an extremely interesting concept, I don't see this as a step towards real "artificial intelligence" as people define it today, like you'd see in sci-fi movies.  This is because in the end, someone had to have created the initial code, the algorithms, the hardware, everything that goes into a computing device no matter how intricate.  I mention this because the artist is calling it the "artificially intelligent artist", which, while it works for the piece and is fascinating, I wonder how long people will be using this term in art and technology?

Reading Response (96-140)

An interesting art piece is found on page 125 of Art and Electronic Media.  It is called La Plissure du texts (The Pleating of the Text).  This was a collaborative effort conducted in 1863 where artists in Australia, Europe and North America each logged into a computer network called Artex over the course of three weeks and contributed to a an unfolding story.  By doing this it is determined that the authorship of the work is split between multiple artists and that it was the "only medium really capable of of breaking the barriers of time and space".

Making Narrative Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4LwfLjusGo  Since we have watched all the video projects in class already I am sharing my video on here in case anyone wants to see it again!

When I first started making videos it was with a Flip video camera.  Maybe you remember those?  At the time I thought they were the coolest things ever because they were small and portable and shot HD video.  In fact, I shot a three-minute "horror" film in the woods with my friends were being stalked. and then attacked by a mysterious creature.  Sound familiar?  I wanted to make a comparison between that film and the one I linked above because so much has changed, but at the same time, its not your equipment that makes a good film, its your imagination and determination!  
      Nowadays, there is HD quality video on every newer smartphone so those Flip camera went obsolete pretty quickly.  Having a smartphone that shoots lovely video, and access to the school's filming equipment, makes me realized how privileged I am.

Comfortableness in Front of the Camera

Since we just finished up our narrative video projects, I thought I would talk about how self-conscious people turn when they are placed in front of a camera with people watching.  I have been watching the show Food Network Star which features half cooking and half TV personality elements, and I find it so fascinating that even the contestants, who are cooking experts and have been on cooking shows many times, can totally melt, become awkward, or forget their words when they know all the attention (and cameras) is on them.  Even if it's just a little bit, it seems to happen to everybody.  I experienced it a little as I directed my narrative, because as I was acting in it I found myself often bursting into laughter or overthinking what I was supposed to be doing.  When I'm on the filming side of the camera everything seems to flow like clockwork (not all the time, but in comparison).  That being said, I feel satisfied with my performance (mostly, lol) especially as I got used to it,

Ingress, the Ultimate Interactive Game

Hey all, so I am trying to get the ball rolling again with my blog posts.  As you might have noticed I have been woefully neglecting them due to focusing the majority of my time on the major projects at school, and working at my job!  I don't have access to my book for the next while, so be prepared for a few non-book-related posts about media and art!

The first item I want to highlight is a little game called Ingress.  You may have heard of it, or you may not have, but I have been playing this game recently and it is amazing!
      As far as interactive art is concerned, this game has to be among the top.  To summarize, Ingress is an app for your phone that uses GPS as it's mainframe.  Instead of seeing Google Maps as per usual, you see Ingress's sleek secret-agent style interface on which you can see hidden portals and rogue energy particles.  These portals are the focus of the game, and instead of being randomly placed, they are coded to be literally on top of interesting objects around the world be it a statue, a memorial, a unique sign, a shop, a boulder, or other artifacts.  These portals can only be seen with the Ingress app, and you can join a team called the Resistance or the Enlightened to hack these portals for your side.  You must venture to the actual item to hack it, which makes this game extremely interactive and engaging.  I won't go into any further details, but if your interested you should watch this video, download the app, play, and tell me what you think!
    No, I am not a solicitor for this game (officially), I am just curious to see what you think as it is an amazing combination of Art and Technology!  ;)

Video:  https://www.ingress.com/events 

Of Working with Videos and Weddings

Wedding videography is something that has increased in popularity extremely quickly, and has become even more of an in-depth art form.  I had the opportunity to film a wedding yesterday, and it went pretty well!  I watched a playlist of wedding videos for inspiration beforehand, so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, though this was my first time ever filming a wedding.  I set up two cameras on tripods to capture the ceremony from different angles, and manned a third camera myself.  All in all, it was definitely a good learning experience, and the editing process now begins...

Reading Response

Shanken presents a plethora of vibrant artworks within pages 54-78, and the one that I want to talk about is titled "The Weather Project" by Eliasson (2003-04).  It looks like a mysterious scene from a sci-fi film.  In actuality, is comprised of a mirror ceiling, mono-frequency lamps, and mist.

The Weather Project

The result truly looks like a landscape, perhaps in an industrial city, or something from the sci-fi show "Firefly".    

I really feel like this is something you have to experience in person to understand it fully.  Anyone been there?

Reading Response

Shanken talks about simulacra on page 43, which are "understood as second-order simulations, or simulations of simulations, wherein that which is being simulated is presented and received not as a simulation but as an original.  While this description is a little difficult to fully wrap the brain around, I found a great example of my own to help elaborate.  HER interactive has been producing real-life, but fictional, simulation games for over 17 years.  My family owns all of these games, and I have played a couple myself.  The first one I ever played was called "Danger on Deception Island", and one of the reasons I found myself so excited to play it was because it was designed to take place on the Puget Sound, following the events surrounding the appearance of a unique killer whale.  Since 9-year-old James was living on the West Coast at the time, it was exciting to play a simulation game based around where I lived, and I played it all the way through.  They are still coming out with more, and having played them periodically, I have to say they are still pretty spectacular simulation games.  The real-life simulations in those games, along with amazing artwork and voice acting, are what I am guessing has kept these games so popular.

The Return of Our Good Dr Megavolt!

Many art installations are wild and imaginative.  I think Austin Richards got both requirements down pat.  Dr Austin Richards has been building these amazing Tesla Coils himself since 1981, and he uses them to create a spectacular light show.  I discovered his work last semester and thought it was too cool!  The guy has two physics degrees, a metal suit he runs around in to attract his homemade lightening, and he then proceeds to get zapped repeatedly for show.  What not to like?  

He's got a website, too:  http://drmegavolt.com/burning-man-2011/

Reading Response

In Art and Electronic Media  pages 1-30, Edward Shanken highlights various methods of creating art how they evolved into the next advancement.  He used examples of kinetic art, art that uses light as an essential component, and also time based pieces.  While reading about these, and other technological advancements, it is neat to learn how far we have come.  It also struck me that I have seen very few Kinetic art pieces before, so I find the examples on page 16 quite informative.  Shanken says "Gabo's Kinetic Construction (1920) produced a virtual volume only when activated, thereby making motion a necessary feature of the art object and further emphasizing temporarily."  I kind of would like to obtain a motor and make a kinetic piece now, so I can test different shapes, and see what they turn into when spun around perpetually.  

My Digital Cave Art Project

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing "Cave Art Re-imagined"!  I've included my artist statement to explain it a bit.  This was a very fun project to work on, and I got to go crazy picking and perfecting colors for this piece.  The goal of this project was to recreate a famous historic art piece, and make a jpeg and gif version of it.  I picked cave paintings because petroglyphs have always seemed intriguing and mysterious to me, and so making my own version of one is kind of something I've always wanted to do.  Granted, I didn't get to etch glyphs into the wall of a cave by torchlight, but I have created something new, and that is pretty cool too.

Artist Statement

“Cave Art Reimagined”

The work that I have digitally recreated is cave art from Albocasser, Spain from the La Valltorta Ravine.  I chose this piece because it is a famous representation of art from ages past, and while not everyone has seen this specific piece, it is popular among the cave art genre for its clear depiction of hunters and game colliding in contest.  It is supposedly thousands of years old, and is made up of a matte reddish-brown substance.  Keeping the original’s dim, rustic color pallet in mind, I decided to make my own version into a splash of vibrant new colors, running deer, and hunters with modern weapons.  By doing this, I aim to have this piece highlight the differences between ancient culture, and modern culture.  It is fascinating to think about the changes and advancements made over the years.  Back then, bows and arrows characterized long-ranged weapons, and most art was made with natural colors and methods.  In contrast, today’s modern weapons hardy resemble those of old, and the resources we have for creating art has vastly expanded. 

(click to enlarge any pics)

original (completely un-edited)

digital re-creation 

animated GIF highlighting the changes