Assignment 5 May 13, 2009

Q: What are the major themes in digital art and why?

According to our text Digital Art the major themes in digital art include: “artificial life and intelligence, telepresence and telerobotics, database aesthetics, mapping and data visualization, net activism and tactical media, gaming and narrative hypermedia environments, mobile and locative media, social networks, and virtual worlds”. Obviously the themes included in the previous list are not only related to but based largely on the digital medium in which the artist is working. For instance, the theme of virtual worlds wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have the technological ability to create virtual worlds. This is important to note because from what we’ve studied it seems that digital art often critiques, comments, or at least explores the digital medium(s) that it uses. So, while digital artists might use a specific technology to convey a message they might also be commenting on the technology itself simultaneously.

Some of the other themes like artificial life and intelligence are obvious in that as we progressively become a more mechanical society and we rely more and more on machines, people are curious about what this means for our future. So it only makes sense that artists would be interested in this technology and exploring what possibility it holds or how it’s already affecting our world and our communications. This is a theme that digital art did not create – science fiction writers have been exploring themes of A.I. for decades.

Additionally, our book goes on to explain that other themes, which we see in more traditional forms of art, are also interwoven into digital art alongside the more “medium-specific” themes. I personally think that artificial life and intelligence fall into this category, but the book also points out issues of body and identity as themes that often make their way into more traditional mediums, as well as digital are mediums.

In a sense, digital art presents a unique quandary that reminds of the saying “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” You can look at digital art as just more mediums that artists can use to express themselves and express their opinions, views, ideas, etc. about existing issues and topics in our society. However, on the other hand, you can look at digital art at as something that has created a whole new set of topics for discussion/exploration. It seems too that the digital artists we’ve studied use both approaches. Some seem to use the digital mediums to express their views, beliefs, etc. about existing issues, whereas others actually use the digital medium to explore new topics, like that of gaming or virtual worlds.

Whatever the artist’s approach, digital art certainly is a unique beast. It’s much more multi-faceted than other more traditional mediums like painting. Painting is amazing in its own right but the medium itself only lends so much to an individual piece. But certain digital technologies can actually make or break a piece. This is the case with the artist, Teri Rueb, who I studied for our research project. She uses GPS technology and without that technology her sound installations would be lifeless and would lose much of their complexity.

Project 5: Video? May 13, 2009

Well, for project five I tried working in Final Cut Pro. Basically I just pulled some videos from YouTube that I thought were amusing and played around piecing bits of them together to create a silly sequence. This is not high tech and it’s nothing special! But, I actually felt pretty comfortable working in Final Cut Pro, so I took something away from the project. Also, I think the timing got messed up at the end of the video, but I was too lazy/didn’t have time to make it back into the computer lab to try and fix it.

Project 2: 50 Images May 9, 2009

Here are some of my images from project two, for our plastering of the library wall.

Project 4: Artist Research Presentation and Paper April 28, 2009

Links to works by the artist Teri Rueb, as well as information about the artist, that I’d like to discuss:

www.terirueb.net

Itinerant

Core Sample

My research paper:

Art1531_ResPaper

YouTube Slam! April 28, 2009

Project 3: All Things “Green” April 15, 2009

My flickr slideshow is here. it may take awhile.

Assignment 6 (metaphor examples) March 10, 2009

I thought using the image of an ice cream melting was an effective metaphor for how global warming is melting our world on this poster. However, it’s funny because the poster kind of uses a cliched image in that it uses the green on blue to denote the “world” ice cream. Kind of an overlap of both.

Okay, this poster is an old Russian Soviet poster and I couldn’t tell you what the text says but based on the picture alone I think this poster is probably a metaphor for something. Maybe a comment on government crushing the city but being infant in something? Maybe I’m completely wrong though! I tried to translate the text using babelfish just to get an idea of what it says but I couldn’t get that to work. The text could certainly change the meaning but it seems like a political statement using some kind of infant metaphor.

I’m not sure if this is considered a metaphor or not. But I thought it was interesting that they used the tire of an automobile but made it into this eye that is decorated, sort of like makeup. But the poster is for an international auto and accessories show, so the theme sort of fits. The auto show is obviously about how to detail, decorate, and accessorize your car.  I’m not sure the theme or metaphor works but it looks neat.

Assignment 6 (examples of cliche) March 10, 2009

This image uses the blood and the number 13 to denote Friday the 13th. The red color and the dripping effect of the blood seems cliche to me, as this is imagery that is always associated with horror movies.

 

I thought the use of the hand image in the middle was a bit cliche on this poster because that image is associated with music or rock music, and the poster is peddline a Web site for sharing and listening to live music. The lighter image is also a bit cliche since this image could also be associated with rock concerts.

This poster seemed a bit cliche because it uses the birds and sky image along with the blue color to denote freedom, which is somewhat overused. Birds fly free and the sky is blue – these seem like pretty obvious or overused ideas to show freedom.

Assignment 6 March 10, 2009

Cliché and Metaphor

An image is cliché if it uses a symbol or color that is trite or overused and has a specific, implied meaning (red = stop). For instance, if you used a red circle with a line through it to denote “no” that might be considered a cliché because we all associate “no” with that specific symbol or image. Likewise, if you used yellow to signify the sun or green to signify money you would be using those colors in a cliché way. Clichés seem to have a negative connotation, particularly with regards to artwork. However, there are situations when using a cliché might make the most sense. For instance, we use symbols on packaging and instructions because they have defined meanings that users can instantly identify with. A cliché usually seems also to have less deep meaning than say a metaphor.

A metaphor could be an image or color (or words) that represent an idea, and particularly an idea or something else that the image or color wouldn’t normally or automatically be associated with.  Metaphors seem to function differently than clichés in that they are more subtle and often get at a bigger issue or make a deeper statement about something. It seems that clichés are more obvious and oftentimes are meant to be as such. A metaphor can also function as the entire “story” or continuing theme throughout a work, whether it’s written, painted, digital, or even a live installation. Metaphors are important because they can inform an entire piece – the entire piece could be based around a certain metaphor, which is carried throughout all aspects of the design. A metaphor can also give you the basis for the piece you’re working on – it can give you the “platform” that allows you to shape an idea, instead of just throwing together a mishmash of un-structured ideas. It can give a piece structure and meaning. Metaphor also allows an artist to work towards a specific goal and address a specific issue or idea.

Cliché is the obvious whereas metaphor is the subtle.

Assignment 3 March 5, 2009

Q: What is the difference between using digital technologies as a tool versus as a medium?

Response: It seems that the major difference between using digital technologies (DT) as a tool versus using them as a medium, is that when you use DT as a tool you use it in a much more limited sense. You use the tool as it was meant to be used and to create a defined object, whether it’s a Website, a picture, and so on, that has specific limitations and a singular purpose. For instance, a basic Website’s function is probably to disseminate some kind of information to people. Whereas when you use DT as a medium it seems that artists push the limits and boundaries of the DT they’re using. If you were a New Media artist creating a Website, you might be using the Website to do things other than the basic function of disseminating information. You might use the Website to make the audience feel a certain way.

Additionally, in our book, Paul discusses different approaches in New Media that artists have taken, and often these may start with a DT, such as coding, software, networks, etc. but the artist uses the tool in a way that it wasn’t necessarily the original intention of that given tool. This reminds me of our first project, which involved using a software program that isn’t meant for creating artwork, to create art. Originally it seems that most technologies weren’t created with the idea that they could be used to create original, interesting works of art but New Media artists have taken those technologies to a whole new level, exploring not just what a technology can “do” on its face but they seem to use those technologies and the unique environments they present (like interactivity and bending the idea of space and virtual reality) to also critique not only our world but the technologies themselves and the impact the technologies have on our world.

It seems that this also means using the tool in an explorative way and not an instructional or one-dimensional way. I think of sitting in a class learning how to use Photoshop to edit pictures, which is basically what the program was initially created to do. But now, you see artist using Photoshop to create these amazing and layered works of art. I think this quote from our book gets at this idea:

“Code has also been referred to as the medium, the ‘paint and canvas’, of the digital artist but it transcends this metaphor in that it even allows artists to write their own tools – to stay with the metaphor, the medium in this case enables the artist to create the paintbrush and palette.”

It seems that not only code allows digital artists to do this but most DT. It presents the artist with all these possibilities and ways to customize something to fit their needs. This is very different from traditional artistic mediums, such as painting. Painting is very one-dimensional, in terms of working “outside the box”. There are only so many ways you can change this medium up – maybe the way you apply the paint or the colors you use (and how you use them) but ultimately it’s a much more closed space to work in than the freedom digital technologies afford an artist.