At the start of the semester,  I had no idea of the broad spectrum of things that were New Media. Learning different mediums and forms that art could take, I was excited to see and try new things. Though some topics were harder for me to grasp, it was interesting to learn about these concentrations that I would not have pursued on my own. Studying new media also challenged me to question the how of everything I come across. Seeing designs, films, and other forms of art, I immediately want to know how and why it was made.

For my final project, I want to incorporate as much as I can to fully embody what an intro to New Media would look like. I hope to use Photoshop, photography, and animation to bring my ideas to life. Using these tools we learned in class, I want to create new from natural, and do a braod overview of what we learned in class. This projects seeks to show the things we learned, come to life, and develop a personality of their own.

Prior to watching this documentary, I had little ideas about copyright laws, public domain, and free use. All I knew was: illegally downloading music is bad, taking things that aren’t yours is bad, and YouTube won’t let you use music in your video (a major annoyance).  However, I didn’t know how extreme laws are and the cost of attaining copyrights. I was interesting to see this issue from the point of view of the “copy left.” I sympathize with their grievances with corporations, the music industry, and recording studios. However, I do believe the answer to the problem lies in a compromise between the Copy right and left.

One thing that really bothered me was the idea that copyright infringement is handled so arbiltrarilly and is based completely on the “violated.” This bothered me because there is no true justice, just the exercising of one’s “right” when one is mad. Sampling one note is illegal? Just one sound? While on paper this may make sense, in practice it does not always. The idea that companies can lock up and put a price tag on a note, chord, or melody, seems excessive.

It was also interesting when they talked about songs covered by other artists. It bothers me when people think Birdy is the one who sings Skinny Love. Sadly, most people I’ve talked to do. Though its a wonderful cover, Bon Iver deserves some credit too, no? Even on YouTube, the company has cracked down on its musicians. There are increased restrictions on what people can and cannot post. This is extremely sad because in its early days, YouTube fostered the growth and followings of many young artists and became a community of collaborators.

The internet was created to be a tool to share between users. Over time, this global landscape has become limitless in its potential to create and collaborate. As I said in earlier blog posts, I love the idea of a global collaboration, however in practice and reality, we have to adhere to some rules. (It was also awesome to see the director stick to his beliefs and allow collaborators and remixers to help in creating the film.) I agree with many of the points in the Remix Manifesto. How the last two points manifest themselves will dictate the future. Though hackers and remixers represent a financial minority compared to the power of corporations, I believe that numbers can dictate change. Though this change will not be instant or as drastic as we would like, I believe that a slow compromise through redrawing copyright laws is necessary.

I was amazed and impressed by Girl Talk’s work and can see what the narrator means when he claims that his work is creating something completely new. Though I don’t believe that free access everywhere is the answer to the problem, I know that corporation’s grasp on creativity is extremely hindering. I hope that compromises can be made in the future to encourage global growth and creativity.

Extended Voices (1968)

I am constantly amazed by musicians and artists who push to the next level in creating sounds that are unique and have never been heard before. The idea of making and developing sounds that are completely new is bizarre to me. It was strange to think about the “development” of sound as Russolo points out in the reading “The Art of Noise.”  His idea that ” The ear of an eighteenth
century man never could have withstood the discordant intensity of some of the chords produced by our orchestras…” is something that I never though about- the beginnings and development of something I take for granted. I also liked how he highlighted that since the beginning of time, humans have constantly strived to achieve more. This applies to sound in that, by wanting to hear more, we create more.

I was drawn to Pauline Oliveros’ “Extended Voices” track from UbuWeb’s Sound archive. It is an extremely haunting audio clip. All of the sounds are created using human voice that has been altered or directed. The sounds that the voices create replicate other sounds, giving them a unique twist with a slightly creepy edge. The changes in volume in the voices adds to the suspense of the track. Oliveros’ ability to create or emulate sound using a different approach is extremely interesting. Using voices to create chords is haunting and gives an ethereal, “holy”ish sound that Russolo talks about in the reading.

Sounds are something that can easily be taken for granted. By being more in tune with the noises that we hear everyday, we are more inclined to create meaningful sound that goes beyond what is already being heard. Russolo urges the reader to push boundaries aside because sound is infinite in variety. This reading inspires me to create and discover new concepts in my work because the results are infinite.

Although it might go against every anti-plagiarism fiber of my being, I like the collaborative nature of hacking. Hacking can be both the use of abstraction to create unique content, or it can be taking someone else’s work and elaborating on it or changing it. Its interesting how this idea seems to be widely embraced in the hacker community and it can even be seen as art.  The hacker manifesto gives the virtual world a voice. this virtual world is practically limitless, and as Wark notes, transcends any rules of the real world. This is an interesting concept that is coming into conflict with authority constantly. The “rules” of the virtual world are defined differently by all participants. And even though hackers take and make it their own, Wark describes a very Marx-ish idea that hackers do not place a lot of weight in property and ownership, even of their own content. He even say that hackers take from each other, whoever has taken most recently claims ownership.

According to Wark, the hacker embodies a rebel revolting against the laws of the world, and takes to action in the virtual world, where he or she is most comfortable. Hackers hack or steal content from the internet and other hackers. Hackers take, twist, and make it their own. Wark has a firm idea of who a hacker is and does not give much space for any opposition. The picture he paints of a modern hacker is very extreme and leaves no space for anyone lukewarm. Though I don’t know much about the hacker world, I doubt a majority of hackers share Wark’s bold ideals on education and government (okay, maybe not government), but have more mild stances on these issues.  Overall Warks idea of the hacker as a bold vigilante, fighting oppression for all, is a nice one, but perhaps may not be the most realistic.

Felix could do anything. He was the master of both the narrative space and the graphic space. This meant that he could straddle the line between rational and irrational discourse without self-consciousness.

These excerpts from Seeing the Brick and Cameraless Animation gave a lot of insight on the development of animated pictures. The area of animation, and particularly early cartoons intrigued me. Like any other child with a television, I loved my Saturday morning cartoons growing up. Even now, adults still indulge in animated movies and television shows. From the beginning, animated pictures offered an opinion or idea on a particular topic. Cartoons are used to teach young children everything from morals to language, and even for adults, cartoons carry a larger ideal and message. I loved when the author described Felix the cat cartoons and their use to share ideals.

Reflecting on this, I began to see the immediate impact of cartoons on their audience and the relationship between the two. Cartoons are wonderful because of their ability to replicate reality and show it in an altered, or shaped way. The audience is then able to view what the artists wants them to see, or how he or she sees the world. The artist is virtually limitless in how he or she can represent the world and share ideas. Since cartoons often are similar to every day life in one aspect or another, we then apply what happens on the screen to our own lives. Morals, lessons, and themes shown in the animated picture are placed in our lives without us even knowing it.

Animation is powerful because we can say whatever we want. Artists can create and manipulate characters, environments, and situations to say whatever they want about the world. Which makes me question my whole childhood.

“A new media object is not something fixed once for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions. This is another consequence of numerical coding of media (principle one) and the modular structure of a media object (principle two).”

For someone like me, who isn’t the greatest at math, this reading was horrifying to me. I never had really imagined the role numeric data and the quantifiability of art, particularly new media. As I am leaning more about new media, this reading helped me to understand that all of the “data” that is numeric in New Media can help create something beautiful. As Manovich states in this section, numeric representation and modularity are fundamental parts of new media that allows for increased variability in art.

In new media, digital art can be manipulated because it is quantifiable. Manovich argues that this is what makes this work new media. He wrote that new media “is characterized by variability.” Variability,  he says, is the ability of new media to put out multiple, different, varying copies of a piece. This is only possible through the digital means of art, such as layers in photoshop, etc. This unique aspect of new media has helped it to be completely unique and allows for even more freedom by the artist. The artist can now manipulate the image in an infinite amount of ways and is practically limitless in what he or she can do.

I particularly enjoyed the way the chapter explored different types of digital forms and their role in art today. Though many people may be resistant to these new mediums and art forms, digital forms of art work seem to be gaining more clout and recognition. Though these forms may lack “human touch” through bristle marks, the artist’s tics, or minute errors, they may offer something new to art, and do not necessarily lack the artist’s signature.  One great example of this is Joseph Scheer’s work. 

(Click image to see details)

Scheer is an artist most famous for his work with moths. Using digital mediums and manipulations, Scheer takes scans of moths and enhances the image. His work offers greater detail and beauty than any camera could offer. These large prints have been shown in galleries all over the world from Brooklyn to Beijing and have been featured in The New York Times and National Geographic. He calls his works “Imaging Biodiversity,” and shows that intensifying the images and scans of living creatures creates a beautiful image that is haunting, and though it is altered, extremely natural. The hyper realism and enhancement in his work doesn’t seemed forced. Scheer shows that digital manipulation can be extremely beautiful, and ironically enhance natural beauty. His work also influences the science world and its relation to digital art.

Digital art can offer a new perspective and can challenge the eye in ways traditionally created art cannot. Though many may argue the artist plays a small role in the actual creation of art through digital mediums, the artists use and manipulation of digital forms can create a beautiful pieces of art. Scheer offers a new lens to look at nature, and enhances the experience in ways traditional art could not.

This art installation was a great interactive and hands on program that really forced me to re-evaluate how petrochemical plastic plays a huge role in my life. It was amazing to see how many ways plastic is used in our lives, so many that we often overlook it. Also, I was very interested in learning just how much natural gas is used to make plastic products. It seems like such a waste that a highly limited natural resource is used so freely and heavily on a product with an extremely short life span and detrimental effect on the health of the planet and its inhabitants. Yet our reliance on plastic is so heavy that we don’t even begin to see this as a problem.

I also really liked the idea of “adoption” of the plastic products we use. It was a very interesting way to phrase our use of plastic products. It paints an idea of ownership and responsibility- that we ought to be responsible for the plastic products we use, their effect on us and the environment, and where they go after we’re done with them. The act of labeling the items we brought in, added a sense of true ownership and responsibility for these items. We were then even asked to really “get to know” these items, further familiarizing ourselves with them, we begin to see their impact on the environment and our bodies. I particularly struggled with identifying my item, and then had to scroll through the many types of petrochemicals, each with their own set of problems.

It is an uphill battle trying to raise awareness about the dangers of being so reliant on petrochemicals when you can probably grab at least ten things made of plastic within arms reach right now. I felt awful when Marina Zurkow was talking about the impact and environmental cost of plastic while we all chomped away on our food with plastic forks, on plastic plates, sipping from plastic cups. I really appreciate all of her work and her desire to raise awareness about this issue. Since grade school we were all taught to recycle, but this was probably the first time I really got information on why we recycle, and how bad plastic really is for everyone. This art exhibit was great and I really loved working with the artists.