It is interesting that digital technologies have been used for art and not only for math or scientific discoveries.  One of the works where digital technology was used and that mostly stood out for me, was the one from, Joao Antonio Fernandes and Edgar Coelho Silva.  They brought up something that I think most of us often think about but no one really says anything about.  For example their series “I love Calpe” talks about the importance people put on brands and not so much the message or the reality of the good or service being marketed.  I think that our society is often times more interested on the brand or image carried out by the brand than the reality of it.  Girls may want to buy goods from a specific brand just because they think that they will look like the models being shown. Which if understood correctly based on “I love Calpe”, what would be the point of showing the actual good when people will just be attracted to the brand.  Another work of art that relates to this is the work of Palakunnathu Matthew, What caught my attention from his work is that he used certain pictures and font to attract his audience.  I think it is very interesting that marketers study their market quite well just like artist do.  It is awesome that artist have more tools, techniques and ideas to explore beyond our imagination.

My work is greatly influenced on my culture and inspirations. Artists who are not afraid to show their origins are the ones who inspire me. I want viewers to be able to see my work and really think about its actual meaning. I want them to see beyond the colors and styles. I want viewers to grasp my ideas and be able to see what I see. Our city is impressively diversified, many cultures share and express their culture in their every day lives. I want to share my culture and heritage with others with my different works of art.

My work is deeply influenced and inspired on my culture, current situations in Mexico, and my growth as at artist. I like to cause reactions on my viewers. My work in mostly correlated, each one has work from past projects. Many things derive form another, and that is how my art works. I use different symbols that help identify my feelings and self.

The images that I show in my projects are mostly images of Catrina, paper airplane and heart. Catrina, reminds me of one of my favorite Mexican Holidays; “El Dia de los Muertos”, on this holiday we celebrate our loved ones that have passed away, by making “ofrendas” or offerings. “Ofrendas” consist of objects that the person liked and that he or she are remembered by. I want to be remembered not by the way I looked but by the goals and acts I have accomplished. The airplanes represent my interest in learning about new cultures. The heart represents the motion and beat that I want my viewers to feel.

I think that we have a great amount of information available through the Internet and technology. Even thought we have most access to it, we can often times be overwhelmed with so much information, and sometimes we are simply limited to use it. After watching this video I learned that the past has influenced our “growing” society. This is also true according to “A Remixer’s Manifesto” point one in the manifesto is 1. Culture always builds on the past. I totally agree with this. I think that this has been proven in simple ways.   We need some sort of foundation to learn from. If we did not learn from the past we would make the same mistake over and over again, and our lives would not improve. We would possibly not do much if we were not inspired by others to take action or create something. Artists are often creating from inspiration. What I am trying to say is that our minds might not be able to explore beyond, if we did not have a basic image or inspiration to create.

What is interesting to me is that big corporations are trying to control the future. The more I watched the video, the more questioned popped in my head. I felt very interested in the subject and wanted to know more about the laws and consequences of creating. During this time I also felt upset at that fact that it is not even technically the artist who are benefiting from the copyrights. Why do these corporations want to control creativity so much? Of course the financial gain is most likely the answer, but it doesn’t seem like the big corporations started charging people who have high incomes, or who have luxurious lives. Gaylor said “If it were up to them, you wouldn’t be able to hear anything.” My question is why should big corporations profit from this situation like this? Why not find a more effective way, where both the original, new and corporations benefit from?

When Gaylor started mentioning all the fees that had to be paid in order to make all actions legal and right, I felt a little scared. I also though about how some artist must feel limited to what he or she can create. I understand we can use works from others as long as we use fair use, but until what point is fair use enough? Meaning, when do corporations know that an artist is not constantly using his or her work to express feelings? I think that corporations are trying to control too much and that cannot be done in this growing society. It is funny that we have most access to all the information in the world, yet we cannot do much with it, because we are limited to create from it. For example Girl Talk is a bright person and during his day job, he is limited to use the information required for a medical treatment, a treatment that can save so many lives. It is quite embarrassing and foolish for us to live in a society where creators are criminals.

On the contrary to must of my feelings about the video, I do agree with the recognition and acknowledgement of the “original” artist. I think that if someone else wants to use my work in his or her art, or if they are inspired by my art, I would like to be acknowledged for it especially if the “new” artist is profiting from it. I don’t think artist should be charged crazy amounts of money from being inspired from others. Like the previous artist and so on, he or she also had to go thought a process of creating his or her work and it would only be fare if they were to be recognized for it.

Over all I think that; information today has gotten out of hands and we have yet to learn how to handle it. I also think that the control should not be excessive.

This reading made me think of all the different kinds of noises we are exposed to and that we don’t really pay attention to.  It made me wonder how it was like for people who first realized the existence of sound.  This reading also made me think about the  difference between sound and noise.  Noise is defined to be more of an  unpleasant or disruptive sound to the ear, while sound is defined to me vibrations traveling in the air, in the end noise is basically sound. I found it interesting that noise can be manipulated to make different sounds.

I honestly started to listen to different sample of sounds at random. But one that caught my attention was;Dave Drive, Axxel G. Reese – Crudo For The Menudo.  what first caught my attention was that the title is in spanish.  I like the contrast of the sounds of explosions and then all of the sudden  a person talking.  The speaker of this sample sound was interesting.  It seemed as if he was having conversations with others while talking to himself about his life, he was kind of thinking out loud.  I think people can relate to the speaker. Another sample sound that caught my attention was Blood Stereo –  Magnetic Headache, When I started listening to this sample, I though it was some one screaming because they had a headache but then I started listening to different sounds that would cause others to have headaches.  They were strange wire, electric, hollow, crowded sounds.   Art and Language is another sample sound that I though was interesting, It actually sounds familiar to Blood Stereo with the difference that there is a speaker or more like singer in Art and Language. It made me think of combination of future and past.  the beeping sounds made me think of a futuristic space ship while the singer made me think of older style of singer.

This reading was not really what I expected.  But I did think that it was going to be on the side of hacking and hackers.  There are other interesting things that I read, one is that there is more to hacking, it is not just about braking codes and looking into others information.  It can also be seen as a new way of exploration.  I think this reading goes beyond what a hacker is and how their work is done.  It goes to the benefits and brings and the categorizing of people.   One of the things that mostly stood out to me was when McKenzie says “While we recognise our distinctive existence as a group, as programmers, as artist or writers or scientist or musicians, we rarely see these ways of representing our selves as mere fragments of a class experience that is still struggling to express itself as itself, as expressions of the process of producing abstraction in the world.”  I think this is quite true, even though there are different groups of people categorized by their looks, likings, and beliefs we can still find uniqueness and individuality within each group.  I found it a bit difficult to relate and understand the part of production.  Another area that I found interesting and true is when he talks about education. “The so-called middle class achieve their privileged access to consumption and security throughout education, in which they are obliged to invest a substantial part of their income, but most remain workers, even though they work with information rather than cotton or metal.  They work in factories, but are trained to think of them as offices.  They tai home wages, but are trained to think of tit as a salary.  They were a uniform, but are trained to think of them as offices.  They wear a uniform, burt are trained to think of it as a suit…The hacker class desires knowledge not eduction.”  This makes me think that education is just a direct/straight forward way of people tell us how to behave and react in society, where as knowledge is something that is gained on our own, from own experience work.

One of the things that I really enjoy from this reading is that it is bullet point structure.  I think this makes it easier for me to see different points and follow along.  It doesn’t cause me to not want to read.

When I think of the word animation one of the first things that comes to mind is cartoons.  When I read this work I realized that animation is more than just moving cartoons.  I learned a lot of things and saw some of the examples given in the book.  A quote that stood out more for me was: “Animation is not the art of drawings that move, but rather the art of movement that are drawn.  What happens between each frame is more important than what happens in each frame”  I think this is quite true, sometimes the way the characters act is far more important then how they look.

frame by frame which is a form of animation was quite interesting to me. One of the main things that mostly stock to me from this part of the reading was the story behind the “yellow kid”  and how it was used to attract viewers  as well as to relate to yellow journalism.  Another popular yellow kid that was used as an example in the reading is Bart Simpson, I learned that Matt Groenig choose to make his characters yellow to make it easier for the viewer to identify them.

When I was also reading about the concept of frame by frame I remembered about the little flip books I used to make, with simple stick figures or little flowers.  It is interesting to me that animation started with something simple as well.  Technology has improved animation as well as our way of communication.  I hadn’t thought about all the work that is put into animation since the beginning. When looking at a film people may not consider all the work that is put into art of animation.  I think that animation enhances many works of art, it can perhaps even bring in different works of art to collaborate to create something better.

In my work I hope to show my culture and the things that influence me. I want to polish my skills and allow the viewer to grasp and understand what I see and where I come from. We live in a diversified city where different cultures are shared and expressed. I want to be able to share my culture and heritage with others.

I was influenced and inspired by the distinctive colors used in the Mexican culture. I was mainly inspired in Freda Kahlo and one of my favorite holidays in the Mexican culture, which is “El Dia De Los Muertos”. There is so much history and stories shared during the day of the dead that inspire me and bring back great memories. It is said that on the day of the dead, our loved ones that have passed away, come back to visit us. An “ofrenda” or offering is made with all the things he or she really liked and is remembered by. I decide to put my hand as my portrait because I want to be remembered not by the way I look but by the goals and acts I have accomplished.

I would say that I have a collage style in my work. I have collected a few of the things I can identify my self with. I have also left some empty space on the table to try and engage the viewer into thinking what they would like to add on to their table. The paper airplane represents my curiosity of traveling and learning of other cultures and ideas. Because my family and culture is very important to me it is also represented in my art; in this case they are portrayed as the candles beside the portrait of my hand.