Twitter Experience

I was not excited about getting a twitter account, and getting one was just as horrible as I had imagined. It was like a leash... a constant annoyance telling me things that I just didn't care about. In theory, following things that interest you should be great. I could see how people would like it if they had time... but I simply cannot constantly update the world with every step I take, nor can I stand to hear about others every move either. I can easily see it being a great way to move important information quickly and reach the masses, but I don't think it's used enough in that way.
I opened an account of my own, but my real experience was spending some time with my sister who has had one for years. She was showing me the in's and out's and that was helpful, but beyond this study there is no way I will keep it. I don't enjoy other people knowing my every move. I think that I just have a natural aversion to social media, though, as I rarely go on facebook, and I really can't explain why I do at all. I post pictures a lot, but never update status's or browse to others pages. Maybe I need to get with the times!

Project #2: Appropriation

Title: Noise
Medium: Digital Prints
Dimensions: 12" x 18"

"Noise" is a series of six still images taken from an appropriated video piece, using footage from the movie "The Nature of Sound." My piece represents the idea that Noise is a function of sound, but usually more harsh, loud and confused.

Reflection: Collage Study and Remix Project

Appropriation Unit: Collage Study and Remix Project

       The Collage Study and the Remix Project were both very different from my perspective. From a physical standpoint, we used tangible imagery, glue, and scissors to create the collage study... we did it the good old fashioned way! We also had the opportunity to use anything that we could find from nearly any number of resources. The remix project was digital to start with, but for my personal project, I chose still images which I printed. In that way, the projects related. 

     I preferred the collage study because we could use any material that we wanted, however I found the the remix project was quite challenging. We all started with a rather dull, old, educational video piece and took in multiple different directions. I find that I was surprised to see the differences in ideas, each had its own voice and own feel to it, and starting in one medium led to the creation of other mediums. 

     As far as the appropriation of objects, I find that the collage piece didn't feel appropriated because of subject matter. We were using others' images, but the topic was personal to us. The remix project felt appropriated from the start. With my own project, I find that my concept is strengthened by the fact that it is appropriated imagery from that particular movie. My pieces probably could exist without the movie based on their abstract qualities, but I do not think that they would be meaningful in anyway without the movie.

Delectricity

Delectricity was an exciting event for me, as it was the first new media event I've ever attended. Overall, I was pleased with what I saw, however I had a hard time following the map, and many of the exhibits were not working properly when I was there. It seemed as though the pieces were few and far between, but I finally hit my stride when I came to The Garfield Lofts Projection. At first I didn't even realize it was lit. I was too busy looking in the windows at the small pieces within. I then looked up and had to take a few steps back. It was pretty remarkable. The aesthetic quality of it blew me away so much that I didn't particularly pay attention to the subject matter. I also thought it was funny how people reacted to the projectors. Everyone wanted to put their hands in front of it, almost as if they became part of the work at that point. Further down the street, I came across a piece that I thought fit perfectly with out participatory / interactive art unit. It was called-

Frontier Town: A Tent Camp for Children in the Urban Wild
 


The “town” consisted of tents made of a very sheer, beautiful creme fabric, and glass milk jugs that were lit (somehow). Inside of the tents were objects that lit up, people could go inside the tents and play with the lights. The lights passed through the fabric, bringing the “town” to life. It was just beautiful, and people were having a great time. Some had formed small groups and were sitting inside the tents, others just passed in and out. It was very exploratory, and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of chaos in the city that night, but somehow everything calmed around this exhibit.

Penelope Umbrico

Penelope Umbrico
School of Visual Arts, New York (MFA)
Ontario College of Art, Ontario

Born: January 31, 1957
          Philidolphia, Pennsylvania

Overview of her work:
          Penelope is an artist and photographer who is currently best known for her appropriated works of      images found using search engines and picture sharing websites such as flickr. 

Where and what is she doing now:
     Has taught at many schools including
          Rhode Island School of Design
          Columbia University
          New York University
          Cooper Union
          Parsons School of Design 
          Sarah Lawrence College 
She is currently teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, in the MFA photo and    related media program 

Examples of her work:
http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/  


Notes on her work from her website
"Photography is as much the subject of my work as it is the medium in which I work. I employ traditional photographic techniques and methods of appropriation, extraction, multiple production, and intervention, to explore how we, as a culture, make and use images.

My focus on collective practices in photography has led me to examine subjects that are collectively photographed. I take the sheer quantity of images online as a collective archive that represents us - a constantly changing auto-portrait. I view all visual expression within this collectively emergent environment as potential for social signs that hint at something other than what they depict. The work is an accumulation that navigates between consumer and producer, materiality and immateriality, and individual and collective expression.

The idea of absence and erasure is a constant theme in my work, especially with regard to the popular uses of technologies in photography and on the Internet that seem to promise visibility, community and intimacy. I question the idea of the democratization of media, where pre-scripted images, made with tools programmed to function in predetermined ways, claim to foster subjectivity and individuality. 

In much of my work I address how differently an image functions on the internet than in physical time/space, the shifts in meaning around the subject depicted in the image in both contexts, and what happens to the image's perceived value when transcribed from web-based to print-based media.

I have begun to see some of the objects pictured in the images I find as the aftermath and by-products of Modernism. These images register the disparity between an optimistic Modernism (the seduction of clean emptied space; promises of efficiency and productivity; the mass-production and availability of everything) and the dystopic result (technological breakdown, ecological disaster, social alienation)."

Appropriate Show and Tell

This is just a random video I made when I was trying to learn Final Cut. There's not really a big idea behind it, but I did use appropriated video to work with.

How did our games relate to a piece of artwork

With any piece of artwork comes pre-planning and inspiration. I feel like we  had to put as much into our thought for the game as we would if we were creating a painting. We looked at historic works to find a direction, and compared technology to see how far we could take our games. Most artwork is confined to its canvas or space just as our games had to fit a certain criteria. Also, we had multiple critiques to better our idea. We worked on developing the games just like we would pitch an idea, talk about it and then start to work out the bugs. There are also principles and elements to our games just as their would be in an artwork. We had to create a composition, with an end result incorporating different design elements.