Final Days of EMAC

I'm gonna miss this class; this group of people. A group of very talented artist with some serious design skills. I remember the first couple of classes filled with people dreading computer media. I also remember going over the first letter form project and watching people create super-creative pieces with low photoshop experience. Software is only a tool, creativity is the key. Everyone can eventually learn all the tricks and functions of a program, but those who can really let their creativity work through the tool will be the most successful. I thought the class became fairly comfortable with each other over the weeks and it became a good work/learning environment. I also thought that Tim Hoover was a great asset to the class. His professional experience really helped the class build on the foundations of design. I was very grateful for his help and being an overall cool guy. I felt our teacher also performed very well; always having a game plan and introducing interesting projects. I would have liked to go deeper into some of the programs and learned some more techniques, but I also enjoyed delving into some many unexplored areas of electronic media and culture. This class helped open my eyes to the broad range of electronic media. From robotics to video art, this field is very interesting and always moving foreword. I am glad that I will still be able to work with electronic media next semester in my intro to 3d computer animation class. I am soooo excited to get into that line of work. I feel like this semester has flown by, yet sometimes it seems soo long. Orientation weekend  feels like years ago. I believe I have grown considerable in the time between, both as a person and an artist especially. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes and track my own growth as well. This has been an amazing and successful semester and I look forward to the challenges and experiences ahead of me.

Almost forgot about the laser cutter

A couple weeks back we had the chance to create a project based around the use of a laser cutter. I have never been able to use one of these machines and was surprised at its capabilities. There are so many possibilities with laser cutter. For my project I created cut-outs of four people. I choose people who show up in the news almost every day. I placed them on playing cards of rank. The ace went to Obama, King to John Stewart, Queen to Lady Gaga, and Jack to Justin Bieber. I feel like these faces show up all the time in the news/media. Now this plan has not been completely executed. I was able to make an Obama card on a think piece of a book cover, but still plan on placing the set of four on four cards eventually. I was pleased with the results of my engraving. I wanted the piece to be completely cut out, yet the material I used was a lot denser then I thought and after seven passes with the laser, I stopped. It did not end up being expensive at all and I will definitely go back and use the machine.

Website design

Website Design is exceptionally important. People browse the web at light speed and the only way to get their attention in order for them to stop on your site for more than 2 seconds is to have a solid design. During my latest EMAC class we recieved a great presentation from Tim Hoover, the Teacher assistant for the course. He did a great job going over the good and bad of web design. Keeping a good separation of content and design really helps a site look smooth and easy to use. I'm glad we get to dive into web design, something I see everyday and wish to learn more about. Tim had numerous examples of good design. I walked away with a bunch of sites to check up on including ffffound.com which has great examples of design in general. One thing that I find myself obsessed with from time to time in Type and Typography. I have a passion for text and its uses for some reason. I feel that good, well used type can really enhance a website. Our next assignment in class is to develope our own website using the dreamweaver program. I have had some previous experience with this program, but I prefer to use wordpress in website design. I am glad that I get another chance to work with Dreamweaver and explore its possibilites. I am planning on creating a personal website to showcase my own work, work in progress, and work from other artist I follow. I want to give it a minimalist view with nice text and a good selection of colors. Hopefully I can get through the 'set-up' phase of the site without any problems. After last class I remember how tricky that can be just to get the foundation ready for the site. I belive once I can get back into photoshop to design the site, I'll start picking up speed.

History of Video Art

There is a huge gap between film and video art. When I think of film, I see movie theaters. I see directors, actors, sets, and scenes. I hear beautiful background music and sounds, and listen to professional writing. Film is of a high interest for me. When it comes to video art I see something completely different. I would say that about 90% of the 'video art' that I have ever seen has left me either confused or unsatisfied. I'm sure there are plenty of good examples of video art out there, I have yet to experience them. Recently in both EMAC and elements, I have been introduced to a bunch of video artist and their pieces. Some are rather interesting while others seem to lose all artistic merit. I feel this medium is hard for artist to use to produce something other than film. I've seen videos of a guy crying for 40minuts, I've seen random collages of people and images talking in weird ways and floating all over the place. I try to search for a message of symbol but every time I identify with one, I lose it in the crazyness before me. I have seen some amazing work before. Not everything video-art related confuses me. The work of  Alejandro Jodorowsky has astounded me. His use of symbolism and imagery blew me away. Many of his works are out of this world, yet for some reason i can stay with his films and follow what he is trying to say. With other artist I feel they fail to capture the audience. I still find interest in this field and hope to look into it further despite my bad experiences so far.

Shepard Fairey

A big part of electronic culture revolves around copyright issues. This subject has been brought up numerous times in class, this time we focused on a certain graphic designer named Shepard Fairey. He is most well known for his rendition of the Obama hope poster and his line of Obey graphics. Fist off I find his designs very attention-grabbing and professional. The issue with this artist is that he is constantly targeted for violating copyrights and stealing from artist around the world. It's true that he uses older images and symbols in his work, sometimes he blatantly takes the image, while sometimes he slightly modifies it. From what I have seen, many of his pieces are taken from considerable older images. Images that were used in different political/social movements in the past. He takes these iconic images and places them in his own work. Some are angry with this, which I can understand. I'm not the biggest fan, yet some of his images are great. I do feel however that Mr. Fairey is not trying to upset anyone. I believe he just enjoys seeing his designs all over the world and does not focus solely on profit to get rich, but profit to continue his lifestyle. I'm not sure if he has already, but I would like him to state exactly what he has taken from others. I feel if he is completely honest about it people would appreciate that even if he continues his practices. I also feel like many of his images are taken from very old sources who should be happy that their design has surfaced once again.

Professor Warwick's Lecture on the History of Electronic Music

This class was an amazing example of technology. We held a skype conversation with a professor between Baltimore, Maryland and Toronto, Canada. I thought this was fantastic. I've had skype conversation before, but never like this. We had a open lecture/discussion as if Mr. Warwick was right there in person. The reason for this event was to talk about electronic music. This form of music has been around longer than I thought. Pretty much ever since audio could be created through an electric machine, electronic music has been produced. I thought it was amazing to learn about the pioneers of this field and to see how they created tones and certain sounds. Some of the equipment they used looked super big and exceptionally old compared to the technology we have today. Although their machinery was somewhat primitive, they made amazing steps in this field and produced some amazing pieces. We also learned more about the battles going on over issues of copyright and such. Some people copy others on purpose, yet give out their music for free such as the artist 'Girl Talk'. I don't have too much information about this artist, but I've been listening to his stuff for a while, especially his new album. I have been having a great time listening to how he remixes popular artest and gives them a new refreshing beat by combining old and new songs together. Overall I appreciate electronic music, although sometimes I get tired of the synthetic-ness of the music. I like knowing that another human possesses the talent to produce notes from an instrument and create a song/melody. Overall I really enjoyed this class and hope to have such discussions in the future.

Telematics and Robotics

Whoa time passes by so fast sometimes. It's hard to believe that 2 months have passed since my last blog post. I guess it's just one of those things you mean to take care of, but something always comes up and distracts you. the past 2 months have been relatively busy. Classes have been flowing very steadily and projects come and go. During the last 2 months in EMAC, we took some time to focus on Telematics and Robotics. These areas are both heavily involved with technology. Telematics use computers/computer programs/ and forms of artificial intelligence as their medium. Many of these pieces are interactive and focus on the behaviors of both humans and machines. This is a very interesting subject, yet also somewhat frightening. I always start thinking of Skynet when I see or hear the word artificial intelligence. Its great that computers are becoming more advanced and helpful, I just don't want them taking control of my life. Robotics is another subject we covered. This media deals with building machines that can operate on their own or are controlled by outside forces. Both of these subjects are advancing in step with technology, yet are also used in the art world more and more. Some pieces are small, while others are huge demonstrations. Overall it is an interesting medium, one that will hopefully continue and advance in years to come. 

Copyright Controversy

I believe Copyright issues hold a proportional relationship with the advance in technology. As one increases, so does the other. In today's society technology make it too easy to copy and use copyrighted materials. It was interesting to research the beginnings of Copyright laws and learn how and why they were originally put into place. They were intended as an incentive for scientific, artistic, or other creative achievements. they allowed the author to retain the sole rights to copy or distribute that work. These laws were not intended to restrict access to there works, they were meant to influence other authors to create more works, increasing the creative effort within society. Of course these first laws were set in place a while before our current modern age. Today we have the amazing device of the Internet which I feel is a big culprit of Copyright infringement. Simply put it is too easy to obtain/copy/sell copyrighted material. I have done it personally mainly because all I have to do is boot up a program and search for any media and i will have a copy of it on my computer in about 8 seconds. I understand how the authors feel ripped off in this situation, but I have no idea how either the author or the government can defeat this Internet problem.

Copyright infringement is a big deal, especially in an art college where plagiarism is a real threat with harsh consequences. In one court case a sculptor created a piece from a postcard picture he found in an airport. He made a good deal of money off of his work. The photographer of the picture found out about this and sued for violation of copyright. This case delved into the rules of Copyright laws. The court tried to draw the line on where a piece can be considered copied or not. Basically you must change the original work in such a way that it cannot be recognized, or use the piece in a satirical or criticizing way. I think they will settle out the guidelines eventually, but as technology moves on it will become a harder problem to address.

Barbara Kruger Interview Response

Many people criticize society silently. They think about the struggles of control and power found throughout the world, yet refuse to act. After reading this interview with Barbara Kruger, I view her as an interesting visual artist that acts as a watchdog. She brings important issues to light. Barbara's work focuses on the kindness and brutality found in social life. People receive images and sounds, but sometimes we forget to consider the meaning behind them. The work done by Barbara forces its viewer to think more about the message of the visual or design. She plays with the many possibilities of meanings. Each viewer will react differently to each image or text. This allows her work to reach out and touch the mind of its audience. One of Barbara's major issues in her work deals with power. This could be anything from personal, political, persuasive, or advertising power. She views power as the most free-flowing element in society which I thought was an important point. Our lives are shaped by many different powers around us. Every social situation is full with different power forces. Our own personal power shapes out morals and beliefs, while persuasive powers give us ideas and opinions. Power determines what our life will feel like. Speaking of life, during the interview Barbara talks about what it means to live a life. Who we are, and the work that we make is a projection of where we were born. Our upbringing along with our color, sex, class, and country is a reflection of ourselves and the work/art we produce. I think this is true. Our early years shape how we will act and how we will think for the rest of our lives. These years are the basic foundations for our personal identity and drastically influence our work. Barbara always wanted her audience to sense life in her work. She wanted them to feel the good and bad emotions found in life. The article then delves into the world of media and its heavy influence. Barbara talks about the good and bad involved in the media. How representations of glamour and expenditure parade on and on in every issue of a magazine. How gossip brings celebrities down to a human level, and how public talk shows push the public into political discourse which may not be necessary, but allows for debate and introduction of new opinions and ideas. One last interesting point of the article focused on new people breaking into the art world. Barbara talks about how the art world was dominated by men, but over time women and people of race around the world joined in. This opened up new stories that had not yet been told. I thought this was cool. New people entering into art brings in completely new perspectives on life. New stories, new cultures, new everything. I think this not only expands the world of art, but also enhances the connection art has with people along with life in general.

EMAC class video response #2

Wow! It has only been two weeks, but I feel like I have been at MICA for an exceptionally long time. This past school week went very smoothly and I am starting to feel more comfortable in this new setting. During the week I had another EMAC class where we looked at another video. This film looked at the worlds of advertising and marketing. It focused on how companies try to sell their product to maximize profits. These companies try to force their ways into the public mind and convince them they need whatever product the company is selling. They turn a boring item into a must-have object. They go through extensive (as well as expensive) research programs and focus groups in order to find the basic, primal feeling of a consumer. It was a interesting science, yet I feel like its based around greed. These companies go through all of this in order to gain the most profit, which is a good goal for a company, yet I feel it cheats the public. Many products out there are not necessities. A person does not need a Hummer to go buy groceries, yet they will buy one anyway. This film made me look at what I spend my money on and why. There are plenty of products that I buy, yet never really need, but this is so normal in our society that I never really notice this personally. I purchase items that make my life easier or more entertaining. Luxury items are expensive, but fun to have. I just hope that some of these companies will cool off, and limit their advertisements. In the video one thing that stuck out was the amount of clutter these companies create. There are ads everywhere, and I get tired of it sometimes. Commercials are boring and repetitive, ad signs litter the roads and cities, will it ever stop or will we slowly fill every nook and cranny with some ad for some product? It would be interesting if the video went more in-depth with Internet advertising, because that form of media is always changing. Overall this was an interesting video that made me look at how i use my money.

EMAC class video response

On this past Wednesday I had my first Electronic Media and Culture Class over in the new Freshmen building. When my orientation group toured the new building, my two Orientation leaders were really impressed with the place and I agree. It is well fitted out and looks like a great work environment. I thought EMAC was very interesting. Most of my art comes from electronic media and I am excited to become more comfortable and efficient with computers and their programs. I personally am a very computer-savvy person and have worked with a good amount of art programs such as Photoshop. I feel like I will have a good time in this class. During the class we watched a video which talked about Hackers. Now at first I thought about current day hackers who try to gain a profit or sabatouge a person or group, but this video focused on early hackers who contain a very different definition. Back when computers were just being introduced, hackers were the 'normal' everyday people who were very interested in these new pieces of technology. They didnt necessarily work for computer companies, but took apart computers in order to build their own. Theses hackers were inventors, and risk-takers. At first eveyone thought they needed permission to go where no-one has gone before, but they quickly broke down that barrier to produce better personal computers which heavily contributed to the computers we use today. Some individuals in the video did take things too far and began using their knowledge of computers to take advantage of others. The government cracked down on these people exceptionally hard and tried to make examples of hackers to scare the public. Instead of using these hackers to improve their system, they locked them away, afraid they could start wars and serious incidents by using a simple telephone. This closed mindedness frustrated many hackers who wanted to imrove the computer/internet/phone system. Overall I think this was an interessting video that shows the true beginning of the computer. It explains how hackers turned a room full of machines into a box with a monitor that can fit on a desk and perform amazing functions. It would be interesting to see a follow up video to see a more modern view of hacking, mainly becuase the video we watched in class was somewhat dated, although still expressed good information.  

First Week of College at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Whew. This has been one of the longest and busiest weeks of my life, but I have had an amazing time. Move-in day was very smooth and well coordinated. My parents along with myself drove up, moved in, and settled down fairly easily and quickly. I was surprised to get everything done so fast. I think everyone along with myself hyped up the big move-in day a bit too much when in reality it was a fairly easy procedure. I really enjoyed the Emerge Orientation program. It was heavily planned out and structured, but I think that was necessary for the first couple days of college. Orientation was great for meeting new people, seeing new places and becoming familiar with MICA.

Classes started up this week and have been really interesting. I enjoyed meeting my teachers and seeing what amazing things we will be accomplishing over the semester and throughout the year. I am pleased with my classes and teachers, although the homework is already piling up. I understand the work will only get more intensive, but I am ready for that challenge. It feels nice to relax on my off day today and collect my thoughts, plan out shopping runs for supplies and start to structure my schedule. I am really interested in getting deeper into the semester in order to find a good routine that works for me and to become emerged in the college lifestyle at MICA.