Xianrui ~Jerry~ Chen

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September 13, 2019
by XIANRUI CHEN
Comments Off on Reading 2

Reading 2

This week’s reading is not as fun as the last week’s one. Well, the beginning part was alright where he talks about how he studies programming without even seem a computer. After that, a lot of ideas and information coming to play with not as interest as personal experiences.

What is the New Media Art,  the author express it as “computer begins to host an array of new forms; Web sites and computer and games, hypermedia CD-ROMs and interactive installations.” and the explanation of art using the ideas of Representation-Simulation, Control, action, communication, information. I agree with the author with both sides because back in the days when we talk about art, we may think as the paintings in the museum or some beautiful handmade souvenir. Now, the digital world is also a part of the art. I really agree with the line “The New Media Art is applying appropriate algorithms, we can automatically remove “noise from a photograph, improve its contrast.” This is something that we never thought about in the past. The software that I can think of right out of my head is the photo editing PS software that we used in class last week.  Thanks for people who make the algorithms, we are able to make Simpson found this house and his drinks just within couple clicks and that is media art right there. Make the impossible possible.

In addition, when the author talks about the five words that express the representation, my mind is thinking a show that inspires me since I was a child. The show is called “Ultraman” where it talks about a hero who coming from another planet to save the earth from the attack of alien enormous Kaiju (Information). The show is teaching children how to keep our environment clean and never give up on what we want in life. (communication) Also, from the highlight where audience watch the Ultraman fights with the evil enemies, I believe that the Action will inspire us to become a hero for our love ones.  Move to that, I also watch the behind the scene for making the Ultraman series. The shooting beans and monster throwing fireballs. They are all makeup by some components such as a creative artist, a pen, an animation computer software, and a wonderful drawing skill. It is not attractive to you how the art world’s transformation these days from pen and paper into pen and computer.

September 8, 2019
by XIANRUI CHEN
Comments Off on THE TOOL-Artist Assignment 2

THE TOOL-Artist Assignment 2

Did you ever sitting down in your room, just about to begin your unique artwork, but you realize that you forgot to take your brushes with you.

Did you ever prepare everything for a wonderful trip, you think you are fully prepared, but on that day, you left the most important diary at home.

The tool that I am gonna introduce today will solve all of these problems at once and help you become a way more organized artist. It is called “Micro Sensing Detector’. As you can tell from its name, it can detect the items that you needed before your activities started. Moreover, it is a small sensor that you can stick on every surface and it also comes with the different size so that you can stick it onto a small brush or onto a big backpack.

The Micro Sensing Detector software, installing into your phone (IOS & Android) or desktop computer, tracks all the small sensors that under your account, providing the locations, sounding and lighting so that you know where the item is located.

Another unique for the detector and the software are the reminder feature. All you have to do is to preset the items you needed onto the software. In addition, by using the alarm system, the software shows up all the preset items and it will also trigger the sound and light on the sensors so that you know what items you need and where their exact location.

Let’s go back to the problem from the beginning. For the first problem, let’s say I would like to going to my studio at 3pm and start my artwork. I can do my items preset ahead of the time or use the recent setups as my preset items along with an alarm on 3pm. When the time comes, my phone or desktop will ring and shows up all the required items and their exact locations so I do not need to get up and focus on my artwork.

Same ideas apply to the second problem, By presting all the required items and before I leave the house, I can track what items I need and their exact locations. Personally, I have been through the situation that I have to go out with friends and took me a long time to get prepared because I can not find all the essentials that I need for the day. So, I ended up meeting them late. With the new Micro Sensing Detector, I do not need to worry about where my items are and I can get ready in minutes.

The Micro Sensing Detector is your best daily helper!

 

 

                                                     

September 5, 2019
by XIANRUI CHEN
Comments Off on 15 Things Artist Should Have- Artist Assignment 1

15 Things Artist Should Have- Artist Assignment 1

  1. Phone: Can be used for voice recording and taking pictures of immediate ideas.
  2. Symbolic item: Remember ourselves the reason why we want to become an artist.
  3. Books: Books that you love to read.
  4. Scratch Paper: Write or draw anything we want.
  5. Pencil: Writing and Drawing.
  6. Water: Stay hydrated.
  7. Candy or Chocolate: Make yourself happy.
  8. Portable Charger: Keep your phone in session.
  9. Cube: Playing while waiting.
  10. EarPod: Listen to music for relaxation.
  11. A Watch: Track our time spending.
  12. Small telescope: Watch something that is far from us!
  13. Backpack: For daily outside activities storage used.
  14. Apple: An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.
  15. Sunglasses: Enjoy the Sunlight.

 

September 5, 2019
by XIANRUI CHEN
Comments Off on “How to Be an Artist 33 Rules” Reading 1

“How to Be an Artist 33 Rules” Reading 1

This is a very interesting article with some interesting opinion-based discussion about the 33 rules to being an Artist. What I mean by opinion-based is that there are some of the points from the author Jerry Saltz that I disagree with. Just a quick disclaimer, I do support most of the ideas from the article because not only that I learn a lot of useful materials as a beginner artist, but also like how he express his opinions freely. I also taste a little irony between his lines when he takes about the real-life vs. expected life.

Let’s talk about the format of the article. The author phases his main 33 points as”lesson” and organizes them into Six steps of how to become an artist. I really like how he does the formatting of the article because of every time when I want to start doing something new, I usually would like to have a guild to help me not doing through the wrong direction. Moreover, I really like how he starts his Step from the individuals’ mindset to a big, real art world point of view.  (From learning to become an artist to how to survive, but most importantly the individual’s attitude)

I really like how Jerry Saltz’s ideas on “Lesson 3: Feel Free to Imitate” and we can also relate the theme with “Lesson 17: See As Much As You Can”. In my opinions, we learn from imitation. Children learn how to speak by imitating their parents, Students learn how to solve homework problems by doing the practice questions and aunts are learning dance moves by watching Youtube videos. It is fair to say that we are imitating and learning from others every day. In addition, I know a lot of guitarists such as James Hetfield from Metalica starts off playing cover songs with friends until he realized that he wanted to improve and produced his own songs and stepped out his comfort zoon.

There is one lesson that I think the author is overly opinion-based, which is “Lesson 26: Make an Enemy of Envy”. Personally that I find envy can also help to improve ourself by having a positive attitude. Let’s say my cousin receives a higher GPA than I do in this semester. Surely I will be envy about it because I have already put in a lot of efforts toward my academic, but still not the best student in the family. In that case, I will only be upset for a period of time and ask my cousin for advice on how to improve my study strategy and learn from him.  In other words, envy will let me understand that there are always better people out there that I can learn from. If I can have a positive and humble mindset, I believe that I can improve myself in the long run.

I also find out an interesting thing about this article is that Jerry Saltz repeats “Get to work” many times throughout the article. The most attractive “Get to work” in my opinion is in “Lesson 21: Define Success” where I feel like he is ironic about reducing full-time work to 3 days a week and not get depressed anymore to “now get to work or quit”. It is telling people the fact that real life is very different than expected. If people can not handle the depression in real-life, it is more than likely that people will quit being an artist.  He also wants to remind his readers using  “Get to work” at the end of the article, concerning difficulties, never gives up and act now!

In conclusion, this is a very interesting article to read. There are a lot of decent and positive comments that we can learn as a beginner toward both becoming an individual artist and the have the correct attitude with the art world.