Feedback/comments for all projects

Xerox projects
Sebastian: I think this was a very interesting take on the use of xerox. The was that he integrated the Bitruvian man was amazing and the wooden board, blackberry, and headphones were all great additions that completed the piece.
Francesca: The way that this pray mantis piece was collaged together was incredible, the use of eight different people made it even better and I loved that it was 5th tall, enough to compare to an average person.
Grace: this project was very cool and well thought out. I love that you had hands everywhere to present motion, especially the ones that were on the window and door.
Luis: The baseball theme and field that you used for this piece was unique and different. I loved the creepy upside down eye the best.
Hessa: This was another amazing collage. The idea of covering and layering over and over gave the piece depth and the fact that the hands looked like they were reaching out for you was even better.
Amanda: The dancing puppet idea was awesome!! I love how almost all the joints are joined together with metal pieces. Very clever.
Sarah: The idea of adding things like song lyrics was different and I liked it. I also loved the different hands and faces, especially the bracelets.
Steph: I think the fact that she choose to do it on the closet was a great idea because it measures the entire to collage to something that ,any of us could imagine. The fact that there are hands and faces on a closet represent to me the fight you have when trying to look good.
Emily: I thought this project reminded me of the vernacularn photography we did before. I liked e dog scene the best!
Ray: making yours into a hookah was very different but definitely a great challenge and a good source of comparison. I think all the heads were very interesting.
Abby: this is aother one I loved. The fact that she basically leaves footprints for the viewer to make up their own mi d on what happened is original.

Performance art pieces

Louise: it was 100% creative and original. I Ike how you used then convenience of the beach to your advantage. Would have liked to ysee you fully submerged.
Hess a: this peace was very random and spontaneous, both of which I like. The fact that were so many differenteople joined together from music fro just a small phone shows how technology can bring people together.
Abby:I remeber still seeing the litle iPods on the ground even a week or two after you did this. It was an amazing idea and concept and it was hilarious tha a squirrel ran awY with an apple.
Danielle: I feel that a strong point in this performance art piece were the lights that you decorated into a skirt around your waste and the reactions from the passer us. The use of pink instead of the original green color on the statue of liberty is also a plus.
Stef: I liked that you showed the end produt of what you were typing at the end. Also the whole gesture of using it as a laptop was great. Would have liked tobseen it performed in more different areas.
Grace: The phone idea was great and I think it had so much potential ifnthere had just been the right crowd or if you had time to stau there all day. The part where you have a conversation with the popular statue in ybor was funny.
Sebastian : this idea was also amazing, I would have liked to see more footage and different people touching the screen. Otherwise, it was great and a little freaky t th
E same time. It was a great way to get people to interact.
Emily: it shows how much people real,y ,ove to destroy things that are issengial in life. It was intestine to see how peole differently era Ted.
Francesca: Probably one of my fbavortjes, I loved everything about it. The fact that you sang I. Public, with two different computes recording each other, and binary code. All of these great characteristics musher together created an amazing piece. X
John: I wished that we had been ale go see you in an electric wheel cart. I think the idea was there for the piece but the execution, given the circumstances, did not reach it's potential.
Roy: the " I am dead technology staement" was great! It was an interesting statement that drew In the viewer.
Sarah: this priest was very colorful and exciting. I wished there and been a litle more done with the hula hoops on a different level , to better express yourself ghrough performance art.
Amanda: This was another favorj project, I loved the whole sitting on a chair for a long time. The dress that you wore was creeepy and the video was well made. It was hilarious that it scared people and I loved that you used a projector.

Video Art

This is my wacky video that I made for the video art project. It's supposed to represent stereotypes among people. In particular, stereotypes for asian people. Before I moved to the states for college, I had never really categorized myself completely as an "Asian". But, after living here as an adult (I did live in the US as a kid/preteen), the realization that what I look like really plays a role in how some people will treat me. Living on a campus community isn't too bad. However, I've been to New Orleans, Baton Rough, and even in Orlando at Universal studios and heard people walk by and say "ching chong chang ching". The ignorance of people continues to always surprise me. I'm not saying all Americans are like this, in fact, it is probably a small percentage that would actually say something like that.
The video I made is confronting the stereotypes. I'm running away from them; the clothing and godzilla. In the end, I'm a regular person that may embrace cultural aspects often (like the earring).
Enjoy!

Interesting Korean Artist... 우람초

My boyfriend found a link to an artist, 우람초 (U Ram Choe) , who was inspired by a class he took his junior year of college. Basically, he creates living sculptures that move and seem to come alive. I think it's interesting because he has to create their own memory, just like a computer and that he likes them because he describes them like people; that they move, live, and eventually break down and die.
He reminded me a lot of Jean Tingurly, I remember he almost made machines that didn't do anything in particular. I think he was categorized under abstract industrialism.

I believe his work is very, very beautiful and intricately made. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing one of his pieces this winter in a gallery in Korea.


Here's the link to the video:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9qnXhx/www.thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/creators/u-ram-choe

Also, his English website:

http://www.uram.net/eng/intro_en.html

The Extra Music Videos Analysis

These are the reasons for why I think the rest of the music videos were uploaded on to the site and what they were demonstrating.
Geiteros de San Jacinto: I think this provided a way to show how electronic recording is important to cultural preservation, because it provides a way to record cultural music and pass on and play it on a tape instead of live.
Toto la Momposina: Maybe shes a famous singer that, now with electronics, is able to rerecord certain verses that are repeated instead of having to sing them over and over again?
RMX: Whereas the two examples before this show traditional recording of latin cultural music, this example represents the use of systems to alter, repeat, and change things such as reverb, etc on a track. It sounds like its all composed by a computer.
Sidestepper: This song is a more stretched out type of useage as RMX, in this one there is alot more electronic presence, especially with the reverb on the girls voice.
LA 33: The beginning almost sounded like pink panther. I'm not quite sure about this one, I guess it uses electronic recording?
Chobquibtown: This one sounds like it uses some electronically produced sounds/instruments, and some of the DJ "scratching" sound and technique.
Bomba Estereo: This uses a voiceover in English at one point...
Sayayin: The use of electronic instruments and sounds are very obvious in this song,
Retrovisor: This uses a remix of a speech I think, in part of the song and some digitized "scratching" sounds, and alot of electronic sounds.
Silverio: This is a remix of sounds, the screaming, talking, and the dance remix.
Plastillina Mosh: This song is outright using electronic instruments, with a heavy beat and electronic voices .
Molotov: Im not sure what this uses in particular, It's kind of funny though.

Performance Art - Walk With Me, Technology

For the performance art piece, I decided to show how technology affects us. By wearing different technology, I tried to show that technology can speed us up at times, but also slow us down. This is performed by jogging (speeding up) and walking slowly (slowing us down). It also shows the ridiculousness of our reliance on technology. 

I was wearing: headphones, dlsr camera, iphone, playstation controller, computer mouse (left leg), computer cord/box (right leg), and computer monitor (held up by computer wires). 

Enjoy! 

Extra:

• At one part, I trip on the cords and I'm pretty sure the box hits the lady next to me and then slams on the ground and breaks into pieces. I then continues to walk on and step in an ANT HILL. 
• I got bit 5 times on my right foot. 
• I think the man in a car said "CRACKER". My sister thinks he said "FASTER". 

The Dreammachine

The dreamachine has a similar affect that the strobe lights due on our eyes. Bascially, it's a tube (originally) and it is a on platform that spins really fast. The tube itself has slits on the side that lets light from the middle of the tube spill out. As the tube spins very fast, the lights begin to blur and when a person closes their eyes they start to see different colors and shapes. It is even said to bring on a hypnotic state to the person. It was created based on a book called The Living Brain, by William Grey Walters, and was produced by two artists: Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Unfortunately, it is recorded (in wikipedia) that 1 in every 10,000 adults will have a siezure while viewing the dreamachine, and even more with kids. It is also a good source of epilepsy.

Xerox Project

For my xerox project, I wanted to make it about our dependency on technology. With half xeroxed/half scanned pictures of my body, I think I was able to convey it in an interesting way.
Don't forget to watch the video ~! Enjoy :)

Images:

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) was a European artist from Germany whose artistic talents are very much appreciated and adored today. One of the main factors in his artwork that he often draws or makes installments about is the war that he was in. In 1940 he joined the military in Germany to avoid being drafted and became a pilot. After that, he was eventually captured by the British as a POW (prisoner of war). His endurance through the war and his experience of coming to terms of the kind of military that he worked for splashes out on much of his artwork.
Beuys is known for his great experimentation in all of his work, and because of this is called one of the most important german artist of the 20th century. MoMA compares him to Andy Warhol,

" His influence is comparable to that of the American artist Andy Warhol, but whereas Warhol's work features a style and imagery that is readily accessible, Beuys intentionally devised a challenging formal vocabulary, layered with meaning and metaphor. " 

Beuys was a person who felt like he needed to share his knowledge with everyone, so eventually he taught / was a professor at Dusseldorf Academy. All of the art that he made includes performance art, sculptures, installations, graphics, and music. I found one of the most interesting thing about him was that he considered everything to be art. And at one point in time, he explored pop culture and made his own band in Germany.

Here are some websites/gallery's that hold his artwork and have more information on him:


http://www.gagosian.com/artists/joseph-beuys/
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/306  

Why the Beat Generation?

The Beat Generation, the people who joined in on the fun, were basically a group of writers who experimented and reached out into different areas expression and explored them. According to Wikipedia, the "Central elements of "Beat" culture included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and the idealizing of exuberant, unexpurgated means of expression and being." The group was prominent in the 1950s and in 1948 Jack Kerouac came up with the name "Beat Generation" because it represented the young people in New York (mainly) that were beaten down. (It also represented music beats too.) The beats started in Colombia University, with a group of people, who although they claimed to start their own ideas, got many of their ideas from a professor. The small group of the first beats was a bit hectic, with one of the killing another. They were also well known for their drug use, including marijuana, morphine, and LSD.

"Scandalous" Artwork

This link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/30/the-most-controversial-wo_n_989772.html#s381081
that we were told to explore, had some very interesting artwork and "scandalous" artworks that are confusing and offensive to many people. After looking through most of them, I thought some of it was funny, some of it perplexing, and the rest just a very interesting idea and perspective on the idea of art.

I think my most favorite one was David Cerny's, Shark. I think that the impact of how much it supported "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." is not only a mind shock and something to think about about what Saddam Hussein probably thought of himself, but also something we can think of ourselves and relate to. It also poked a little fun at the one before it - the Tiger Shark in formaldehyde.

A funny one that enjoyed watching the video of, was Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning. He basically explains that he was having a difficult time drawing and that he erased his art over and over again. And then somehow got it in his mind that he needed to erase art that already existed. He then asked, while he was drunk, de Kooning to erase one of his pieces. De Kooning gave him his artwork right off the easel and Robert worked on erasing the piece for a month. It's very interesting to see the process that different people go to to decide what they have to do to achieve and get to the point where they can consider it artwork. 


Overall, all the art pieces were enjoyable and gives the viewer something to think about. The comments also gave me the ability to appreciate the art but also understand the feelings of the viewers at the time. For example, if I had to walk around Richard Serra's, Tilted Arc everyday, I would be quite upset about that!

Grid Project - Bubble Dog

I used a picture of my puppy to create my grid project. Basically, I put that picture into a grid and then drew a huge grid on newspaper. I choose bubble wrap as my grid and used nail polish as my medium (because that's the only thing I had that would stick to it.) Over 2 days I eventually got to finish and match up each grid box on to the bubble wrap.
I left out most of background because I felt it was too distracting from the main image, my puppy!!
Enjoy~ I had a lot of fun doing this and I love how it came out.

Final:

Fastest computer and mark j stock

We learned about computers and saw a video from about 10 years ago, saying that IBM's computer was the fastest. Even while researching this topic, I found a lot of links and youtube videos to the IBM computer. However, after looking through more pages, the most recent article I found says that the Japanese (not surprisingly) have the world's fastest supercomputer. It's super computer is called the K Computer. In the article I read here: Article Link  , explained how the K Computer was determined to be the fastest, saying that "K Computer sped to the front of the class by achieving more than 8 quadrillion calculations per second (petaflop/s)". They go on to say that the Japanese haven't held this achievement since 2011.  Also that they use another special computer, the Linpack to determine which computer is the fastest saying that, "It tests the performance of a system for solving a dense system of linear equations and is measured in calculations or floating point operations per second, hence flop/s".

On another note, I checked out Mark J Stock's website. I remember his work at the Electronics Alive show last semester; in particular the photo with the mathematically calculated papers that flow across the screen with individual code on each one. (This was perhaps my favorite!) He made it for a dissertation on vortex's. 

I also really, really loved his Japanese piece. It looked like blue smoke that was flowing around the bottom of the portait, more opaque in some places. It was made to look like a ocean wave, like that that the Japanese depict in their traditional drawings/painting. I think he did very well with trying to mimic their style and incorporate his own, unique techniques into the piece of art. 

Radio Shows and TV

The radio show that I listened to was the Hindenburg Disaster.
It was really interesting and although I expected the reporter to freak out, I didn't expect it to feel and hear the fear and sorrow in his voice. He was reporting for about 15 minutes about the landing of it, everyone was excited and so was he. He said that there may be complications because it was landing while it was raining. He explained that there were 39 passengers and a crew of 61 on the zeppelin. I also noticed that there was a lot of advertisement in the beginning for American Airlines - basically him telling everyone that it was AA that sponsored the event and that they were good, etc.. And then eventually at mid-sentence, he exclaims that it's going down and that it's burst into flames. His voice alone conveys the horror and the surprise of what just occured. I remember that he says alot of things like "oh no, how could this happen" and "oh the humanity!" After this he goes on and off the air, trying to recoop himself and see what else has happened. He tells everyone to back away from the burning zeppelin. (Which he explains had helium in it, which is very explosive)
He then, near the end, finds a dazed survivor - Philip Manson of New York. He tells everyone that he jumped out the black of the zeppelin with several other passengers as it got closer to the ground. Overall, this was a very sad report and very interesting because it was live and we got to hear a first person's account about the event.

As for the most important moment in TV history, I would say it would have to be the nixon-kennedy debates. I think this started a whole new revolution of where people are judged by looks even more than before. I think this is the start of where society shows an interest is something more than just brain knowledge. It was because of this that Nixon lost (even though he had more votes). He lost because he didn't look as appealing as Kennedy did on the air. And this is a turning point that really changed american history. 

FlipBook - MOVIE

Hey guys! so I got a chance to make the flipbook into a movie, and added a little sound. Enjoy!

Brain Scanners

The brain scanners that we read about and watched a short clip on, is an amazing new study that basically scans your brain for images that you have seen/watched in the past. In the test that they did in the article by Evan Ackerman, they used an MRI machine to watch for patterns that are the same as the things that people watch on the monitor and the ones that are in their head. In the example, they watched about 18,000,000 seconds of random youtube clips stitched together. With time and experiments, they were able to get information out of people's head to make the video clips (blurry at that) come to life.

What Ackerman is basically saying in the article is that in a few decades or so, the scientists said that they'll  be able to suck out better quality images, and with that open a whole new door. They could possibly use it on criminals, and completely wipe out the use of judges,etc. They could also use it to record and intrepret dreams. They could even use it to make videos, cameras, and cam corders OBSOLETE. Through recording images that are high quality and first person from your brain, what do you need a camera for to reminisce on? All of your best footage is right there in your brain!!!

FlipBook

Here are some images that I took of my flipbook I made for the class. There wasn't really a theme to it, I was just playing around with morphing things into another thing. Here's the chronological order of what it all turns into:
Seed > Plant > Butterflies > Buildings > Godzilla > Water > Pizza > Girl > Fairy
Of course, they didn't all just morph into one another, some helped bring about different topics, etc.
I hope you guys enjoyed it :)

(I'll post the video as soon as I can!!! >_<)

Singing in the Rain - Two very different Meanings

In the Clockwork Orange movie that we saw, we see the main character basically terrorizing people and beating them up while sining the song "Singing in the Rain". This is the original song of the 1952 movie, Singing in the Rain.

Between these two different times is a period of 1952 (movie) - to 1962 ( the Clockwork Orange book). After reasearching, I think I can come up with a pluaisble reason to why there was such a different mood and style between the first song and the second, and what happened between that time to cause it. Between these era's, the Cold War was happening. I think, that in the beginning (1952), people were still looking for something to look foward to, to recover from, and maybe even to celebrate their win from WW2. Therefore, they were looking for new forms of media, and the happy movies, and the types of movies they were used to became popular.

However, fast foward to 1962, and people during that time are becoming more suspicious about people being nazi's and trying to secure their freedom and partiotism in America. Therefore, I think that they started to practice the freedoms they have, one of them being in the media/freedom of speech. They started to explore new areas, and started to reflect things that they had seen in the war, things that before they were not focused on before. Therefore, the stories and movies were becoming a little more "darker". On top of that, between this time there was the death of Stalin and the cuban missile crisis. So perhaps people were putting their anguish and hatred of the USSR into media.  These are just my thoughts.

Some flipbook animations

Flower love this is probably my favorite

pretty cool

The apple of karma

Retinal Persistence

Also known as "Persistence of Vision", retinal persistence was the belief that when we see things, that the image is imprinted in our retina for a few hundred milliseconds, until it faded. The scientists at the time said that this is why when images are played one right after another, that this is what gives us the perception of motion. However, this theory was proven wrong on several different points.
 The first is that we actually still see movement , even with only 10 frames per second. That is to say that if you were to flip through 10 photos, they would still look like they were moving. This disproves that it stays in your retina for so long.
The second point, as seen on " The brain from top to bottom" is that if we were seeing images that lasted so long, then what we see should be images on top of each other on our retina. I kind of think of it like an opaque old image at the bottom of a new image of what we're seeing now.
All of this was proven wrong by Wertheimer in 1912.
The new theory that they have today is called the beta effect. It basically states that when two images that are only slightly different in appearance are played on after the other, that our brain automatically puts them together into believing that it's a moving image.
Pretty nifty stuff!

I know that people online have used this to their advantage to make cute or funny gifs, with just a couple images. For example a couple cute ones:

And even one I've made for my own blog! :

And some funny ones: 

Abelardo Morell

Abe Morell is a very interesting artist with a unique taste. He was born in Cuba, but did most of his work in Boston. According to wikipedia, he is well known for doing camera obscura images ("an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.") It is usually done on landscapes and other places around the world, for example I know he did one piece in Italy. One very interesting piece of his is when he made a tent in Big Bend National Park in Texas. It was a very interesting piece that kind of transformed the surrounding landscape onto paper, into a kind of rough painting image. 

The other piece that I really liked was other on location piece that was also done in Big Bend National Park, Texas in 2010. Basically, he used his own light to make a humongous square on the side of a huge mountain. This makes a very interesting piece, it makes it look like an outside theater, where you could play movies on the side of a mountain. Also, it looks cool because it makes the mountain itself look more like a silhouette. 

Overall, I think his work is definitely an interesting process with very cool effects. The different outcomes that he gets is amazing and something that would be fun to try out someday. 

Stock Market Crashes & their technologies

The stock market crash of 1929 and the one in 2008 had many differences.
In 1929, there was a long period of time, in the 20's, in which it was doing extremely well and everyone was buying stock. Because stock represented capital (raw materials), and shares that almost all corporations in the United States owned, the fall of stock was a huge deal. In particular, the Banks had put alot of money into the stock with the help from deposits made by customers. When the stock market crashed in 1929, demands for goods fell because people were now poor and didn't have enough money to buy nice things, just the staples. This in turn made companies fall and banks.
In 2008, the main cause of the stock market crash was due to mortgage. Basically, people stopped fearing their loan companies and didn't pay back their loans, putting some banks into bankruptcy. Many different banks filed for bankruptcy that year, and were bought out by other banks. Such as, the Bank of America buying out Merrill Lynch for 50$ billion dollars.




As for technologies during 1929, the radio prices soared up to $125-150, and the first built-in radio for the car was made by Motorola. However, such technologies, in general (such as tv and film) were all given a second priority because of the costs of buying and viewing such things. People were more generally focused on buying food to support their families.
During today, however, we see a great increase in new technologies. The new smart phones are outselling regular video games , because of price and portability. Phones are usually something we take around everywhere with us - and the price for a game can be as cheap as 0.99$ or even free. As for video games, they usually only serve one purpose and can be hassle to take around - and very forgettable. Not only that, but the price for the console itself is pricey - the price of a smart phone that can do so many more things! Also, I think radio has slowly, over the years, died out because today, most people only listen to it in their car - traditional radio that is. We now have new and improved radios online or on itunes that are customizable and play only songs that we like. So there have been alot of changes due to price and preferences these days in technology.

Madama Butterfly Animation

This short,recreation of the opera, Madama Butterfly, was very beautiful. The characters were elegant and well played out. And the concept was done in a different way that let users still perceive the same idea. The whole animation itself was beautiful, with all the little details and I loved the fact that they used a Ken and Barbie doll to represent the Americans, and a Japanese -style doll to represent her.
The sound was brilliant and I feel like the opera wasn't too overpowering, and all of the effects matched what was going on in the particular scene. The sounds really captured the mood also.
The fish tank and the fish signified her baby inside her , and the water/fish tank was the body fluids; and when the tank cracker, that was her water breaking. The fish that came out was her baby. Why they choose a fish - I'm not really sure, maybe because it was different on the inside, and changed when the baby came out. So from a cute, fish that doesn't really do anything but swim around in the fish tank, to a baby that whines and grows.

My favorite part was when the mother was hanging on the string like a kite, and the boat came, and her eyes opened for the first time, in wonder and happiness. I think that was the best emotion ever.

Overall, this is an animation definitely worth seeing, it's short and sweet and has a very sad ending. But it's a great story and opera wrapped into an animated short that anyone can understand.