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.