Final Project Work in Progress

So, I completely changed my idea for this assignment like 20 minutes ago because I didn't like how my fake McDonald's ads were turning out.

I was listening to a song by Andrew Bird and one of the lyrics was "she's got blood in her eyes for you" and it gave me an idea to manipulate a picture I had taken of my sister last semester. I haven't spent much time on it, but I plan on experimenting with a lot of different tools in Photoshop until I'm satisfied.

Final project proposal

I haven't come up with a single concrete idea for the final yet, but I am interested in elaborating more on my Ugg boot advertisement, maybe using one or more different companies that make their products out of animal skin/fur and turning their advertisements against those kinds of products. I was also thinking about appropriating bits and pieces of different advertisements and putting them all together to create one ad representing a single message like my Ugg ad. The other idea I had was about the way magazine companies heavily edit celebrities who appear on their cover, often making them skinnier, taking out freckles or other marks on the skin, in the end making the celebrities look like something they're not. I've seen a lot of before and after pictures like this. For the project I would find celebrity head shots (for both genders) and take out the eyes, mouth, or nose etc and use that to create a person made entirely of celebrities' facial features.

Technoscape Assignment

Originally I had something completely different planned for this assignment, but in the end I decided to literally create a landscape. I appropriated different images of different landscapes and used the cloning tool to combine them into one piece. It took me awhile to find the right images to use, there was a lot of trial and error. I didn't want the final product to look completely photoshopped, thats why I added the sunset sky, because I think that the trees, water, and sand all look like one picture, even though they're not.

The whole purpose of creating this landscape was to make a point that with today's technology there is almost nothing you can't create. Which gives artists great opportunities, and I'm always surprised when I see digital artwork, because I would've never thought to do some of the things people come up with. Technology has it's downfalls though, for instance you can search google for thousands of different landscapes and never set foot outside your house. You can view the whole world from your bedroom. It sounds awesome, but if you're able to do that, why travel? Why should we leave our houses if we can do almost everything on our computers? I hate thinking like that. I would much rather travel and see the world through my own eyes, rather than someone else's camera. 

I didn't violate copyright law because I found all these images on a public domain website. Therefore, they are free to use without violating any copyright laws. 

Technoscope Proposal

For this assignment I really want to compare/contrast the relationship nature has with technology. I will set up different scenes outside and inside, for example, setting up a living room environment outside with a TV and people watching it. I also want to create an environment inside, and I may end up using photoshop to add in grass and trees to my photographs of technology inside a house. I haven't quite decided yet.

Digital Nation response

After watching Digital Nation I was really shocked at how much technology rules our lives. I've never thought technology was good or bad, there is a little bit of both. Without technology hospitals would not be as effective as they are today. I think medical advances in technology have been the best benefits of technology. I can't even imagine what life would be without all of that medical technology. But on the other hand, I think kids are becoming too plugged into technology. Some kids let it rule their world, I think there should be a balance between the outside world and the digital world. It's good to get on the computer, or play video games every once in awhile, but I think nature, and the outside world has a lot more to offer than the digital world.

I think the art world would be a whole lot different without technology. It's opened up a whole new medium for creating art. People who aren't great at painting or drawing can get on the computer and create amazing works of art, that take just as long as it would to draw or paint something. But now that we have a new medium to create art, we also have a new way to view art. Instead of going to art galleries, people can just get online and look at pictures of art or pictures of art galleries. Even though they are still looking at art, it's not the same experience as physically going to the gallery. And that's something I don't really like. I think the artist creates his or her own little world when they display their art in a gallery, and viewing it on a computer screen is totally different then being there in person.

Muybridge Minicinema

For this assignment I chose to turn the horse riding into the headless horseman, and I did that by first cloning out the rider's head in each frame, then I searched google for the perfect evil pumpkin, and placed him in the rider's hand. After that I drew in a cape for him, even though I feel like it would be kinda difficult to wear a cape with no head?

When I was a kid I used to watch the animated Disney version of Sleepy Hollow, I was in love with the whole story of a headless horseman terrorizing a town. It's so creepy. And so when we were given this assignment I immediately thought of that movie. Although I didn't really enjoy the process of it all, it was very tedious, and I can't imagine doing this with  more than just a second of footage. It would drive me crazy. I am happy with the final product though.

Artistic Mapping Assignment

I chose to map 2 different songs from my favorite band Motion City Soundtrack, because I love music and this band has been a big influence on my life. These 2 songs in particular, "Attractive Today" and "Everything Is Alright", are about insecurities, and trying to be okay with who you are. I chose theses songs because I feel like they really describe how I'm feeling at this point in my life.

What I did for this assignment, was list every word used in each song, and how many times it was used. Then I converted that number into a font size. So the bigger the word, the more times it was used. I thought about doing 4 songs, but I like the simplicity of the piece. You can zoom in and read all the tiny words and get a sense of what the songs are.

When I look at my finished piece, I get a sense of relaxation, and calmness, but that's probably because I know what the songs sound like. I also feel like it's reassuring me that everything will be okay, and that it's okay to feel sad every now and then.