Author: iz140180

Whenever I think of art, I always see it as a form of expressing yourself to get your message across, visually of course. Take those ideas of yours and turn it into something you envision simply by starting with a piece of paper. However. I have constantly duplicating artworks that have already been produced and forced to perfect them. Nowadays, it’s more than just trying to get the perfect skin tone on a self portrait or eradicating the smudge that you accidentally made from a still life. Art is more than just that; this is the only time in which you can create things that you never knew you can do. Just come up of with an idea and move on.

After being exposed to Photoshop and Audacity throughout the semester, I became more aware of what new media really is and how these new tools can help me create art that I never knew I could do. I have always heard people using Photoshop to perfect a flaw for an ad or to just enhance a portrait but there’s so much more to do. Learning how to create animation on Photoshop was definitely a challenge at first but by the final project, I was more comfortable using all the tools available. By adding sounds to the animation, it makes it complete since we mostly use hearing and vision to intercept things around us. Now I understand how much work and effort animators do to bring the characters to life. Hopefully, I can use these tools to create future artworks,

I plan to create an interactive campaign of how technology is disrupting and impeding people’s ability to communicate. There is no longer a need for talking directly to one another when we can easily text and video chat on our devices. Although technology made our lives much easier and convenient, it is becoming a big problem of where does technology goes over the line. The campaign will feature the most convenient time where every family member is at home. Dinnertime is always seen as a time for family to gather around the dinner table and eat together while talking about their day. Now, each one of them is surfing the web or watching tv. Eventually, this will hurt our relationships with each other, leading to awkward silence and brief responses like, ” Yes, no, or ttyl”. I will use animation and sound art to portray this specific scene.

Whenever I hear the word remix, I think of djs who take original music and alter it on their fancy machines by changing the pitch of the tone. They can filter the original track by adding background music or noise so it can be “original” I think the main reason people do remixes is to maybe show alternatives of the original in unique ways or to just give it a twist. When I watched Rip: A Remix Manifesto, it gave off a very unique perspective in how they introduced the topic. The introduction was like how I imagined it would be ; it gave off a vibe that a DJ was present cranking up the music and mixing them. Later, it introduced the term “copyrighting” which means that it is protected as intellectual property in which the creator has complete control of its work and ideas. If someone were to steal the creator’s ideas without any acknowledgement or credit, then it would be considered infringement. In the video, it described copyrighting as “a battleground of the Internet”. The Internet is where we get access to all types of information in a quick way. This enables people to connect with others from all over the world. Back then, people would pay good money to just listen to a song from a record but now people can easily download a song illegally. That’s where the argument comes along. Someone stated that we are so absorbed with technology that we can ” download our world’s culture ” meaning that whatever is posted online, we are capable of getting it from a click of button. Today’s culture is so different from 20 or 30 years ago.

One interesting point that was discussed in the video was ” culture always build on the past”. I agree with this statement because we get our ideas from the past  but we just fail to recognize its existence. For example, all of our favorite characters from Disney were built on historical figures and references ; Disney just adapted it to fit the needs of today’s audience. A good example would be Steamboat Bill who was an actual man on a boat. Ten to twenty years later, Steamboat Willie came along portraying Micky Mouse on the set. The subtle references of  Micky then became prevalent and installed into our minds thinking that Walt Disney originally created these loveable characters. Just by watching the video, I now discovered that the idea of Mickey Mouse was based on the past and then recently introduced. What I found disapproving was how people were charged for a large sum of money for  just downloading like five songs illegally. One mother was charged like $3000 for the song ” Journey” and may even risk losing her house. I mean we have to pay like $8.95 for buying either  a short version of a song’ s album online but that much is just ridiculous.  The quote ” If you want to create art from the public domain, you must pick before 1915″. This shows how too much information can be hazardous due to anyone having access to it.  So sometimes hearing mashups on the radio makes me wonder if that’s even considered art since you’re basically taking bits and pieces of original music and adding other music to an improved version. It may be a considered a form of expression but we sh0uld be cautious of when to stop.

http://bfpa.dreamhosters.com/nma2050/ivy/

Based on Russolo’s ” The Art of Noises”, he defined what noise was by comparing from the past to the present. He stated how noise used to be very primitive; a silent and remote sound that could be heard simply from the street outside. Now, he described noise as something that is very loud and prolific due to advanced technology such as machinery. A machine such as a bull dozer to a mechanical pencil sharpener are two different tools yet they produce two very distinctive sounds. Even one’s footsteps create sounds that can be heard. One aspect that Russolo wanted to emphasize was music. Music is an extension of noise that is organized by tones and rhythms to create a sense of emotional response to the listener. He used the term Musical Noise that creates bigger, acoustic sounds with high quality and variety. He stated.” We must break at all costs from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise sounds”. He wanted the break the silent noise and branch it out to create a variety of different sounds and tones . However, we are not capable of doing that alone. Machinery is a broad term that he keep repeating throughout the article so instead he chose to use the word instrument. An instrument is a tool that helps produce sounds and in order to create music, we need to form an orchestra. Symphony is an elaborate composition  for an orchestra; musicians work together to create  music through a variety of diverse instruments. It is a combination of machinery and noise to alter the pitches and tunes . Eventually, we will be able to distinguish over three thousand sounds.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/guy.html

I can hear different instruments being used like a trumpet or a triangle . The change of pitch changes throughout.

According to Warks “Hacker Manifesto”, he is trying to portray different perspective of a hacker. He is not interested in blaming about the job of an actual hacker who steals people’s information but he just wants to show how hackers are like in terms of creating information. One section that I found interesting was when he described how hackers are related with Information. He stated that while we have complete access to information 24/7, he is arguing that this actually impedes us from being creative and release our full potential. One quote he said was, ” It is the hacker class that taps the virtuality of information, but it is the vectoralist class that owns and controls the means of production of information in an industrial scale”. It seems that he is defending what an actual hacker is here but more about how hackers prevent free expression since everything is privatized.

http://youtu.be/j24EPpoJtVE

Based on the excerpt, Brick and Cameraless Animation, one quote that really stood out to me was , ” Animation enables me to give magical powers to things. In my films, I move many objects real objects. Suddenly, everyday contact with things that people are used to acquire new dimensions…” Since I grew up watching animation whether its from cartoons or from movies, I always thought that they magically come to life. However, I realized that it’s a tedious process that requires advanced technology to bring the inanimate object to life. One of  my childhood shows was Tom and Jerry; a cat who constantly tries to capture the mouse but the mouse always outsmarts the cat. In reality, cats will always try to chase the mouse by scaring it away but animators make it more entertaining by enhancing their characters’ capabilities to the next level. For instance, Tom tends to injure himself whenever Jerry runs away so Tom may get a big bump on his head with birds flying over him. That is what’s so unique about animation. You can do what ever you want to make your character stand out. To me, there are no boundaries in animation, no strict rules that you have follow. An animator’s goal is to go beyond what is expected and do something unexpected so he or she could wow the audience and bring them away from reality. Animation starts off from ideas and sketches and with several alternations on the computer program, you can add or delete certain things. The sole purpose of animation is to make your ideas and characters move. Swankmajer also stated, “Animation challenges the orthodox understanding and acceptance of our existence”. He is saying how animation allows us to break the mundane rules and distort to make it more visually appealing to the eye.