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.

Chapter 1 Response

            I found a couple images and concepts interesting and compelling in Chapter one. First was the Beauty Composites by Nancy Burson. I find it interesting that when all these famous people’s faces are combined, you get a pretty yet mediocre face. I did think the concept behind the two pieces was original and inspiring.

This takes me to the next piece I found particularly interesting, I think Leonardo would think so as well if he were around. The Mona/Leo piece by Lillian Schwartz is so dynamic in many ways. The science of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci will probably still be uncovered in the future, as so many of his works have deep secrets. The Shroud of Turin, thought to be the cloth Jesus was wrapped in after death, was actually carbon dated back to the time of Da Vinci and is linked to him specifically. At the time Leonardo was experimenting with chemicals used in photo development. He dipped the cloth (Turin Shroud) in a chemical and stood back, the light hit the cloth and the image that developed instead of being Jesus at the time of death is Leonardo Da Vinci standing in his workshop, successfully creating the first photograph. I find anything to do with this great man fascinating and it is very interesting that technology is needed to crack some of his life’s works secrets.

I also found the ghostly fingerprints in Horror Vacui interesting. It is very innovative the way the artist used the hand to create depth, light, and shadows. It is a very naturalistic piece and yet it does have this scary feverish tone to it, kind of like old depictions of the writhing creatures that inhabit the underworld.

The last piece that I found intriguing is EYE by Jochem Hendricks. It is so interesting how the eye movements that were captured reflect the image of what the person was looking at, for example, the face on the outward facing page. I think it shows the similarities between human beings and technology. Our eyes work like a printer slowly working their way down the page, creating images as they go. I thought this piece was original in concept and very interesting visually.

Obama Parody

I think this is an interesting image because it plays off the overly naive and culturally inept Borat by making Obama look like him. This implies that Obama is clueless, naive, and has no experiences in life. I think this is a tragic comedic piece because although Obama may have been a little green in politics, he was left with a heap of troubles to sort out from the last administration. Its not like the Politics of the United States is wiped clean for the new president to start out fresh with their own new and improved ideas and policies. There is a tangled ball of red tape to cut through and Obama is not magic, contrary to what most people would like to think.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://politicalirony.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/obama_borat_parody.jpg&imgrefurl=http://politicalirony.com/2008/05/14/borat-barack/&usg=__JkZC-a1wnj0A0F7t1Elf3CreR2I=&h=500&w=335&sz=32&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=YftvF86PxNYFtM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=81&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dparody%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1212%26bih%3D768%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=214&vpy=136&dur=12712&hovh=274&hovw=184&tx=72&ty=112&ei=h3eiTP-ZA8H48Aaz4aT1CA&oei=ZHaiTLvuO8O88gaxlJn4Aw&esq=16&page=1&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

Herods Temple

Project1 Holiest Site Process Portfolio

I thought about in class how we were talking about how a picture is a representation of a memory, not the memory itself. My first idea was to take about 15 pictures of my dogs running around and playing and super-impose them into one picture, hoping to create movement and try to engage the other senses. But when it comes down to it, no matter what you do, a photograph is a representation there to remind you of a special event. Unfortunately my dogs got sick, which made it hard to create movement with sickly sleeping dogs.

So I decided to go with the historical themed images I had created for class exercises such as, the Wolves in the Roman Forum, Ruben's skinny women and the Pigs in the Vatican. The last piece struck a cord because I find the filthy pigs being in one of the holiest places in the world interesting.

I thought of even holier places in the world and came up with the Holiest Site image.

A little history is helpful in understanding this image. In biblical times, King Solomon built a temple that was thought to literally be the house of God, built to his specifications and where Abraham offered up his son for sacrifice. It housed some of the Holiest objects in history, including The Arc of the Covenant, which contained the 10 commandments. This Temple was built on a historically Holy mountain called Mount Moriah, which was sacred to many cultures for thousands of years.
 The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, all the sacred objects sacked. Until King Herod rebuilt the temple years later, only to be destroyed by the Romans. The only part of the Temple that remains is the Western outermost fortification wall of the second temple, also called the Wailing or Western Wall. People from many faiths travel from around the world to pray at this wall and write down their prayers to stick in between the cracks in the imposing stone blocks, hoping their prayers will be answered. Being that this wall is only a couple hundred yards from the site of their temple, you can see why it would be the holiest place for the Jewish faith.

The Mosque in the background of the picture is called the Dome of the Rock, and was built directly on top of the ruins of the first and second temple. According to the Islamic Faith, it is also holy for the same reason, it is where Abraham gave up his son to sacrrifice. It is also believed to be the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven directly on a rock contained within the mosque on top of Mount Moriah. So you can also see why it would be one of the holiest places for Muslim people as well.

These two faiths have fought for many reasons for thousands of years, but one main reason is that the Jewish people believe the Messiah cannot come unless the Temple is rebuilt. I don't see Muslim people destroying one of their most holy sites for the rebuilding of anything let alone a temple for their enemies.

It saddens me that 2 faiths that come from the same forefather have fought for thousands of years. Every religion has fundamentalist and it is wrong when texts are construed for one group's beliefs, or taken out of context to prove something or persuade someone.

The concept for the Holiest Site is that a simple student, sitting in a classroom could cause controversy around the world with an image or photograph. This shows the impact that  photography has on modern culture is huge.

 I placed Orthodox Jewish people praying at the Mosque's outer walls like they do at their Temple's outer wall. I then added pigs to show both the "unholiness" of the actions taking place and the similarities between the 2 faiths, as neither one eats pork (the reasons for which are complicated traditions that are thousands of years old.).

New Semester at Metro

This will be a very new and exciting class for me! The last time I took a computer class was in high school, I know how to look up things on the internet, email and write papers. So this should be fun! Heh