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. Now is that really considered art? Making a copy of someone else’s art and claiming it as your own? 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.

Inspirations come from the experiences you have encountered or the people that you have met in your life. For me, I get ideas simply by reflecting on what is happening around me and just go with it. Remembering the times that I share like reading a funny book or seeing a hilarious video on the Internet is just a few examples of this inspiration. When it comes to art, I try to make my artwork tell a story. Not just any story but a story that can resonate with you and relate to your life. Photographs are especially prone to this since each moment you capture, whether it took 5 seconds or 5 minutes, has its own story to tell. With art and photography, I have the control in what I want my viewers to see and how the outcome may affect them. By adding fantastical effects on, say, a very gloomy sky or a magical forest, everything that you add to the photo may change completely from a press of a button. To cut it short, I would like to continue to lead you guys into a journey of unpredictable yet exciting events in capturing different stories in my art through the use of Photoshop.

“The Language of New Media” by Manovich explains the five essential principles of New Media. Throughout the first chapter, “What’s New Media?” argued that New Media is not only about the computer and advanced technology but it is the gradual evolution based upon the such as traditional black and white photography from a book. There are so many forms of New Media that it’s impossible to mention that one form is better than the other. One of the principles of New Media that I really like is “Automation ” which means manipulation. Whenever I hear the word manipulation, I am immediately reminded of Photoshop. With such an advanced program, you are capable of doing many things such as altering the lighting of the picture, changing the colors and even distorting it with special tools. One quote that captured my attention regarding the principle of Automation is ” In Hollywood films, flocks of birds, ant colonies , crowds of people are automatically created by AL ( Artificial Life) software. No wonder why I was always bewildered by many films that succeeded in making the film realistic and appealing to the audience. Three D movies are especially relying on this program so it could make it fantastical and exciting. One film that I was drawn to was “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith. It was filmed in New York City, one of the most populous cities , so it was impossible to have no people exist throughout the movie. The creator had to include artificial events to make it work by adding a broken Brooklyn bridge and a empty city through meticulous skills. This can be also named as special effects. Overall, I learned a lot from this section about the different views of depicting New Media Arts.

After reading about Paul Digital Technologies as Tool, I was intrigued by the artist Carl Fudge who was well known for doing a series of screen printings of anime named Rhapsody Spray. His inspiration was drawn from the Japanese anime character Sailor Chibi  Moon. He wanted to depict the girl’s powers of transformation through a series of processed prints. He literally analyzed every inch of the scanned image of Sailor Chibi Moon and manipulated the anime icon by using different colors. He is well known for merging pop culture with digital media in order to bring a different perspective to the public. As an anime fanatic, I immediately recognized the character since it played an important role in my childhood. Even though he altered the image thru the pixels of the image, he remained true to the original artwork but enhanced it to the next level with digital technology. I can see the overlapping layers of color and distorting certain features of the image, especially paying close attention to the nose and large eyes. The composition of the piece was done with skill and precision making sure that every part of the image was logically placed. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him manipulating other icons like a portrait of Michael Jackson or any other famous icon. By incorporating digital technology, it gives people a chance to see what’s beyond the image and may even leave people more open minded.

Today was actually very interesting since I rarely have the chance to see the New Media Arts mini exhibition that’s inside a small room whenever I roam through the library. I never thought much about plastic besides it having to be recycled and not get thrown out as waste. All my life, I’ve been doing fine arts getting my hands dirty with paint and pencil shavings but this demonstration about plastics really opened up my eyes. I realized that you can do much more in art simply by using what’s around you such as a water bottle or a plastic cup. I got to really analyze my object today and understand the chemical makeup of it. In our daily lives, we don’t think much about what we use as long as it’s useful and quick. After drinking our water bottle, we throw it away in the recycling bin or not recycle at all. The video of the oil drilling was very odd yet unique since she focused on how  oil would break down as it gets drilled deeper and deeper into the ground. Even though the video had no sound, I could clearly see the things that were around it. She mentioned having to do lots of research on oil in order to do this so I think that true art requires some planning and researching and not just throwing ideas onto the paper. It was also interesting to see how we got to think around in 50 years what  our object will be used for and so this assignment allowed me to use my imagination in a way. From now on, I’ll be more conscious of what I use daily whether it’s plastic or some other material. Who knows what these materials may do to us in the next century so we might as well be informed about it and think before we throw something out.

Based on the McLuhan reading, I agree with him that we are all living in a world where technology is always present. From the time you turn on the radio in your car to the time you play on your Wii, there is no doubt that this medium has no affect on your life. With all the exposure from new gadgets like the phone or the Internet, they are all interconnected in such a way that we, users, cannot break free from this bond. An interesting point that McLuhan mentioned was how electronic media actively pushes us away from the traditional, passive lifestyle that we usually receive in a slow manner. Now, we can access data at anytime and anywhere with a press of a button as our environment changes along with it.

I chose this image to show how this medium affects us in our daily lives. We are constantly multitasking due to the fast paced world that we live in. The woman is carrying her child while trying to talk on the phone and cook dinner. Essentially, McLuhan is suggesting that we are actually part of the new environment of advanced technology; everything that we do with technology results in responsibility and consequences just like how multitasking here may result in something negative.