Research Blog Post 5: Downloading Pixels

Downloading Pixels is an art piece by Scott Blake. In his biography Blake "takes bar codes and turns them into art- art that is simultaneously pop and op, intellectual and personal, minimal and ocular. Blake uses the black and white icon of our data drenched existence to simulate thought on topics form consumerism to religion and individual identity. He urges the viewer to consider the limitations of digitized human expression and to appropriate these symbols of  commodity."

The description of this piece on Rhizome.org says "This net art piece captures the flow of downloading images onto your computer. This animation will look different depending on what web browser you are using. If you are using Firefox try viewing this in Explorer or on an iPhone. Internet connection speed and computer processing power will also determine the final the outcome. Experiment with the different settings and unusual patterns will emerge." If you play around with this interactive art piece you can manipulate the download rate and the style of the piece. This makes me think about how drastic the internet has changed in only a few decades. Now the biggest file capacity is in Pentabytes. It makes me understand how impatient I am when the internet is slow or not available. 

I like how interactive this piece is and the versatility that it can be. I felt like an artist changing the style and speed of the formats. I wouldn't change anything. 

Sources: Bio of artist: http://rhizome.org/profile/scottblake1// Rhizome: http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/48619/
Downloading  Pixels Art Piece: http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/netart/downloading/index.html

Research Blog Post 4: Attention Hog

"Attention Hog" is a interactive game made by Chris Basmajian. Basmajian is an interactive artist whos artwork definitely has more of an in depth meaning then what is perceived.

For instance, this game, "Attention hog" was described in Rhizome.org as "The player is cast as a pig whose goal is to capture the love and attention of as many people as possible. The game’s subject reflects some of the social and psychological trends present in social-networking communities, including self-promotion, social anxiety, obsessive need for peer validation, and distraction as entertainment. The game operates on a conventional level, and can be shared with others and embedded on web pages, blogs, and social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace." When i played this game, I thought it was fun in lighthearted, but the inner meaning of this game really made me introspective as to how i view acceptance on social media. 

I wouldn't change anything about this game. It increasingly gets harder to attract attention and stay alive. I love the name and the overall aspect. It speaks volumes towards the "me" generation. 

Sources: game: http://basmajian.net/work/attention_hog/ quote:http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/48082/

Research Blog Post 3: Untitled (Pink Dot)

This piece is called "Untitled (Pink Dot). It was created by Takeshi Murata. He is a modern artist who is known for the technique of "data moshing" this is when an artist takes segments of other .AVI digital video files and puts them together to create one piece of artwork. This piece seen here is the final product.

I like this piece because it recycles old material and forms a new work of art. I think Murata is trying to say that anything can be reused and re purposed to make art.

The only critique that I would like to see in this piece is more color. Video files can be bright and exciting. I would like to see another piece of recycled data that is as bright and colorful as the pink dot in the center of this piece. Besides that, I believe that this piece is inventive and fresh.

Research Blog Post 2: Netquake

"Netquake"is an art piece by Waldemar Pranckiewicz. This piece is on Rhizome.com under the Formalism and Glitch section."This collection presents a wide range of works from the ArtBase that fall within the broad spectrum of artistic practices that exploit the aesthetics and formal paradigms inherent both in ubiquitous commercial software and home-brew computing. Two particular creative modes are presented: A) works that embrace and highlight the aesthetics, formal elements, and graphical user interfaces inherent in vernacular software, and B) works that seek to subvert these paradigms. Works that fall within the first category explore the value and joy of the pixel, user interface elements, handcrafted HTML, and ASCII."

The description of this piece describes "Netquake" as, " we might experience it one day; a quake spreading over the worldwide network, millions of simultaneous deformed connections, unexplainable clutter and vibrations on screens" I think this means that  Pranckiewicz thinks we will become so connected to the internet that one day it will fail and we will not know what to do. This "quake" is a visible explanation of what he thinks will happen to our society. 

I think this piece could be better if it were updated from windows '98 icons to todays. Or Pranckiewicz could show the evolution or the dependence of technology and then the result of the break in the internet. Overall it is a thought provoking piece. 

Sources: http://rhizome.org/artbase/collections/6/  
http://archive.rhizome.org/artbase/2406/ico.html

Research Blog Post 1 : Epic Rap Battles of HIstory

Epic Rap Battles of History (ERB) is the brain child of NicePeter (Peter Shukoff) and EpicLLOYD (Lloyd Ahlquist). This is  series of videos that pit two people form history and pop culture in a rap battle. My top three rap battles that they have done are: Sir Isaac Newton vs Bill Nye , Bob Ross VS Pablo Picasso and Dr. Seuss VS Shakespeare. All of these can be found on the ERB YouTube Channel and NicePeters channel.

Their work provides a comedic scenario that produces a "what if this were to happen". The writing of each video is very well done because they use historical facts about each person and also make it rhyme. They also have behind the scenes videos that show their creative process. they use a slot of green screening, keying, and rendering to produce the final product.

I don't know how much better these rap battles could be. It seems like every one that they release tops the last one that was made. They are cleaning up their special effects and they are getting traction enough to have famous rappers come into the videos as well.

Dependent

Dependent

My Life

My Life

Stop motion final

My poster

My Scanned Faces

Me

All of my Swatches Pt. 1

From Top Left to Right

1. Young Life Symbol: I am  thoroughly involved with Young Life here at George Mason and it's awesome. This is the world wide symbol. 
2. Bear paw print: This is two in one. I love that color of purple and the bear is my favorite animal. 
3. Cheese: Because who doesn't like cheese?
4. Bass Clef: I play a number of instruments; Tuba, Bass, Upright Bass, Bass drum. All of those instruments fall under the bass clef. So this symbol represents all of the instruments that I can play. 
5. Cross: I am very strong in my faith. It is very important to me. the color scheme represents the new life that I have in Christ (from black to white). and how he had to die for me to live (red).
6. Spanish Phrase 'Hola!': I am not fluent in Spanish. but I am pretty close. Some of my close friends speak Spanish and it is fun to converse with them in a different language. 

All of my Swatches Pt.2

From Left to Right

1. Texan Flag: My family is from Texas. We lived there before VA. Most of my early childhood memories are from our house in Texas. 
2. Chipotle burrito: I love chipotle. This was my attempt to draw a burrito 
3. Tobacco Leaves: I enjoy tobacco. Not cigarettes but cigars. 
4. Sunshine: I love the sunshine.
5. The Blob: this is a floating pillow on a lake where one person is on the end and a heavier person (me) jumps off a ledge to send them flying. (see: this link ) 
6. The last one represents being spontaneous. I love just going for it, Because why not?

My Face Scanned

TED Talk Summary

During this TED talk, Clay Shirky describes how the social media is effecting our day to day lives and how politically and socially it is changing from the way it used to be. He describes that before there used to be professionals giving the information out to the amateurs. Now there are more amateurs interacting and providing the information to each other without any sort of restriction. People now can talk to other people about things that are effecting the world before the professional media can get its hands on it. He describes how that people got word of China’s earthquake while it was happening because the people that were being affected by it were tweeting about it live. He also says that the Chinese government shut down twitter because of the overabundance of raw information. Shirky states that this type of explosion of information is inevitable today because of the fact that everyone can communicate and produce whatever they want with each other. He describes to the audience that we are living in this movement right now. He shows the audience that we now have a bigger voice then we ever did before because now we can communicate with anyone we want about anything. He also says that we can affect the political and social things that are happening in this world because we now are a huge force of voices. Towards the last part of his lecture, he talks about how Obama was going to sign a bill granting the big companies the ability to obtain any information about their clients. On the forum, the community signed a petition against the signing of this document. And Obama decided to sign it anyway but he had to write a formal statement that he heard and understood the reasons behind the argument. Social media is now a force that will be able to effect the whole world. We can now use this to our advantage to change the world as we know it, one tweet at a time. 

My 100

1. I love the Lord 
2. I love laughter 
3. I love friendship 
4. Video Games 
5. Technology 
6. Movies 
7. Comedies 
8. Chipotle 
9. Funk 
10. Rap 
11. Classic Rock 
12. Fun 
13. EDM
14. Speaking my mind 
15. USA 
16. Friendship 
17. Companionship 
18. Family 
19. Roller Coasters 
20. Thrill
21. Going for it 
22. Naps 
23. Super Heroes 
24. Bass (guitar) 
25. Creativity 
26. Thinking on my feet 
27. Dr. Pepper 
28. Young Life 
29. Purple 
30. Patterns 
31. Comfort 
32. Soft things 
33. Herbal tea
34. Elephants 
35. Bears 
36. Baseball 
37. Bacon 
38. Nachos 
39. Humor 
40. Driving 
41. Old things 
42. Thrift Shopping 
43. Hats 
44. Marching band 
45. DCI 
46. Hard work 
47. Cigars 
48. Stars 
49. Lasting Friendships 
50. Curiosity 
51. Water
52. Lakes 
53. Beaches 
54. Mountains 
55. Road Trips with friends 
56. Slim Jims 
57. Sunflower Seeds
58. Sunglasses 
59. A good pair of boxers 
60. Bow ties 
61. Time 
62. A good stretch 
63. Dogs 
64. Cats 
65. Jazz 
66. Spanish 
67. Making new friends 
68. Figuring out problems 
69. Giving advice
70. Listening 
71. Bald Eagles 
72. Public Speaking 
73. Improv 
74. Trying something new 
75. People watching 
76. That feeling you get when your super full and are about to take a nap 
77. My Roommates 
78. Showers 
79. Frisbee 
80. Learning new things 
81. Being Real 
82. Being intentional 
83. Being there for people 
84. Campfires 
85. Strawberries 
86. Smoothies 
87. Blobbing 
88. Laser Tag 
89. My last name 
90. Finding new music 
91. Hanging out with friends 
92. Vacations 
93. Ireland 
94. Making memories 
95. Being intentional 
96. Flip-Flops 
97. Experiences
98. Chicken Tenders 
99. Explosions 
100. Cheese 

Theme for my GIFs

The world is mysterious and always changing. Some people sit around and think about it, trying to look important, while others choose to improvise to improve it. 

Dizzy Galaxy (final)

Pup Puffin' on the Planet Pipe (Final)

Pup Puffin' on the Planet Pipe

The Color of Jazz

The Tribe

Von Puttkamer, W. Jesco. "Brazil Protects Her Cinta Largas." Natural Georgraphic 10 Sept. 1971: 434. Print.

W. Gahan, Gordon. "The Voyages and Historic Discoveries of Capt. Jas. Cook: A True and Accurate Account Undertaken and Performed by Capt. Alan Villiers." Natural Georgraphic10 Sept. 1971: 314. Print.

Successful and Unsuccessful Elements of my Collages

Successful: 

1. I thought putting one image on another was easy. 
2. I thought as soon as I got to play around with Photoshop, I was able to become more comfortable with the programs. 
3. I felt comfortable with the cuts that i made and the positions of the new photos on top of the background

Unsuccessful: 

1. After last class, I now know that there was more that I could have done to blend the pictures to make them seem more seamless
2. I didn't blend at all because I simply didn't know how to. 
3. This took a lot longer then I thought but If I were to do it again, I think I would be faster at it.

Conclusion: I am hopeful to work on these collages again because I am now more familiar with the other things Photoshop allows me to do. 

The Ecstasy of Influence Summary

In this article, Jonathan Lethem explains that in the fields of art, music, tv and media, everything is influenced by a proceeding similar source. He goes on to describe that the author of the story Lolita, written in 1916 can be traced to a similar story written forty years before. He also shows examples in music and other famous stories such as Led Zeppelin songs were influenced by the Lord of the Rings, and the movie West Side Story was influenced by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Lethem states that if this type of influence was considered plagiarism then we wouldn't have the Simpsons, South Park or any Disney classics. As long as the source is cited, then it isn't plagiarism. It's only a problem if the artist that is influenced by old art claims it as their own.  This "open source" society is great for the betterment of the art world because without it, there wouldn't be any new opinions or material from old sources. And that, he thinks, would be a tragedy if it was considered plagiarism .

Definition of Eps File

EPS stands for Encapsulated PostScript. EPS is a PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. To use and EPS file, you must have a specific software application to create and EPS file, like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. EPS files are often used when exchanging logos that cannot be edited by the receiver, such as sending a file to a print house. 

Project #1 Cut and Paste 5 Digital Images

My Conversation With Wayne White

ST: Good Afternoon Mr. White 

WW: Please call me Wayne. I see that you are interested in my work, do you have any questions for me? 

ST: Yes. Let's just jump right in. Why do you do the letter work on old paintings? What is your inspiration for the words? 

WW: Well, I just want to entertain people with my words and create a shock factor that I feel has been lost in modern art. You see, when you have a picture of a barn and then large profanities on it. Someone is going to laugh!

ST: I see, that makes sense. What do you think inspires you?

WW: You see, Stephen, everything inspires me, I love making big cardboard masks of presidents. I’m all about creating a reaction.

ST: Tell me about your college experience.

WW: That is where I truly found myself. I finally found people like me so I could fully blossom into the weirdo that I am. They accepted me for who I was and embraced my ideas and even improved them! For what I remember (laughs), college was the time of my life. I was so tired of being the weird kid in high school. It really felt awesome to be with people like me.

ST: Interesting. How do you avoid being called a “one trick pony”?

WW: Whoever says that obviously doesn’t know my craft at all. I know it looks the same, but, like I said, as long as it entertains and I am satisfied with it, then who cares about what the people say.

ST: I agree! Well, thank you for this quick interview Wayne. I really appreciate your artwork and hope to see more material on the way!

WW: Trust me, Stephen. I may be old, but I am still kickin’!

ST: Looking forward to see more of your future projects.