Response to Chapter 3

There were a few digital pieces that I found interesting in chapter 3. The first one was the work by Sommerer and Mignonneau called Life Species. The art consists of a website and a physical environment. People that visit the website can type in words or messages that become the genetic code for virtual creatures. The piece represents the fluid transition between digital information and the programming of the code. The visitors also interact with the piece through body movements, motions and gestures.
I really enjoy the idea of having a creature that is created from words and messages and having the ability to interact with those created creatures. It is very exciting that every creature is different depending on the information you have given it.
The second work that I really enjoyed from this chapter was the piece called Autopoeisis by the artist Kenneth Rinaldo. The sculptures have sensors that react to visitors’ movements by moving their arms towards them, only to stop inches from their face. They also have tiny cameras that project their views onto the wall space around the exhibit. The sculptures also make telephone dial tones, conveying all sorts of emotions.
I was really drawn to this piece because I find it so interesting that these technological sculptures communicate with each other and the visitor. The idea of machines talking one another, and conveying emotions such as stress, fear or relaxation is a little creepy t o me. I feel like we are in the technological age to where we will start communicating with machines on a regular basis through emotions. The dependence we have on technology is a little terrifying, but completely necessary. The terrifying part is that everything is run by technology, the Y2K flop that happened could be realized in full if cyber terrorists wanted to do it. Even our president is so connected, it would be possible to hack into his Blackberry and find all sorts of valuable information about national security and diplomacy. The sculptures in Autopoeisis remind me of the close-knit interactions we have with technology.
The last piece that really stood out for me is called Striking Feeling by Kennith Feingold. A head modeled after the artist sits in a flowerpot, representing the growth of an “organic human”. Visitors can talk to the head and their dialogue is projected onto the screen behind the piece.
I just thought this piece was strange. The concept behind it is very interesting; the wonder of “why is this head here?” and “what does it mean?” is very intriguing. I feel like the head is there because it is a mixture between technology and the human being, an idea that may be very widespread by the end of our lifetime.

Project 3 Process Portfolio

I began this project by brainstorming a controversial subject. I thought it would be intriguing to create an image of Muslim women with hardly any clothes on with only their faces covered in a burqua. I thought of a couple mosques o holy places and came to the site of the Dome of the Rock, which is reminiscant of my first project, only this time, I placed the subjects in the interior on the actual rock that is holy to all three major religions.
    First I found the most perfect background of the interior of the holy Mosque. I then looked for female bodies in the positions I wanted them in that would fit to the rock surface. After that, I found Burquas and placed them with the body they went with to complete the image of the women. I then converted the image into a vector-like piece by adding the cutout filter to the image.
    The concept for my piece is about the women power and the triumph over the constraints, stereotypes and limitations that the three major religions often place on women.

Chapter 2 Response

When I was reading Chapter 2, a few pieces of digital art really stood out for me. The first was Erwin Redl’s Shifting, Very Slowly is quite amazing because I like the idea of loosing sense of space and time. I was thinking a lot about what was stated in class, that we are prisoners to our senses. It makes you think of what other sensations and events are taking place all around us and we have no idea. The theory of other dimensions other than our own becomes believable when you think of the fact that we are at the mercy of our senses and I think Erwin Redl portrayed that very successfully.

The next piece that really stood out for me was Jim Campbell’s Hallucination, in which the viewer standing in front of a screen all of a sudden bursts into flames. A couple seconds later, a woman comes into the frame and shakes her head at the spectacle of the burning man. I think this piece is quite amazing because it is interactive and strange. The people burst into flames, which is weird enough then the woman that comes and shakes her head in disapproval is a little shocking. The idea of hallucinations is the core of the piece and I think that is very intriguing. I would like to hear what the artist has to say when explaining this piece.

The last piece that caught my eye was Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe’s No Ghost Just a Shell. This piece is shocking to me because her face looks so nice and yet her eyes are giant black holes. The saying that the eyes are the window to the soul rings true for this piece. You can tell no more about her other than she has a friendly face, other than that she is this sort of blank notion of a person without any clues as to who she really represents.

I think this chapter was exciting because it encountered the digital age of the interactivity of the digital art that lead to all the wonderful technologies we enjoy in today’s society.

Project 2 Murder of America

Project 2 Process Portfolio

At first I had decided to take medieval paintings of Saints and change their faces to controversial world leaders interacting with each other. As I was looking up images of Saints, I came across a really gruesome graphic painting done in 1620 by a woman named Artemisia Gentileschi. She was and is one of the most famous female painters in all of history. The painting depicts a story from the Old testament of Judith and her maid beheading Holofernes as he lays in bed in a drunken stooper. He is a General to the Assyrian King Nebuchadnezzar who has surrounded Judith's city of Bethulia and has cut off the water and food supply to the town. The night before the town surrenders, Judith and her maid kill the General by cutting off his head.
      I thought the image was so striking and I had to come up with some idea of how to change it to the confines of the project, which was "Fabrication". Before realizing the concept, I changed the heads around to make the maid a donkey representing the Democratic Party, Judith's head to an Elephant representing the Republican Party and the General's Head to an Eagle which represents America as a whole.
      After alot of thinking, I realized what the image that I made represents. I think that human nature is very competitive and American Political system has just become another game for most people to compete in. And instead of the parties working together to make this country better, they are working together to bring it down due to their selfish competitive squabbling that has taken over the political scene in America. The Dems and the GOP put their own party issues above what is best for the American people. For example, health care reform, gay marriage, and abortion just to name a few issues that instead of working out the "problems" they come to a roadblock . Politicians don't want to agree simply because they are so loyal to their Party, they won't think on their own to solve these issues in order to make America a better place to be.
       The reason my image is a fabrication is because both the image and description are an exaggeration of the truth that politics aren't necessarily holding down and killing America.