Color Correction 9.16.10 (Second attempt)

The above image is of my friends and myself. The red eye and overall orange-ish color cast over the photo bothered me, so I decided to remove it. To do this I used the red eye tool, and then decreased the red saturation level.

Color Correction 9.16.10

This image was found on Google images. The above image has not been altered. The bottom image was corrected through the use of levels and curves. I increased the blue, and also applied shadows and highlights to the image.

Art Post 9.15.10

            Shadow Glare (2010) created by Erin Shirreff takes the mundane daily experience of using a computer and becoming captivated in it's on screen world  and suddenly being jarred back to reality by an unwanted and obtrusive speck of dust, shadow, or glare on the screen that reminds you that you are not apart of the online world. People constantly lose theirselves in computers, either by spending mindless hours just searching the web or wasting time on social networking pages. The construct of time almost doesn't exist until you are reminded of the reality you are ACTUALLY apart of, the world outside of the computer screen. Usually what will jar people back to reality is the realization of something on their screen. "Shirreff’s motivation for developing Shadow, Glare, however, stems from those moments when the screen’s material presence becomes impossible to ignore, when dust accumulations, errant smudges, and the movement of shadows and glares disturb the illusion of transparency."
                          
                Shirreff discusses the captivating aspects contained within the computer screen that compete for your attention, whether it be a blinking notification or a new email, or multiple screens open, you are not going to be paying attention to the surface of the screen until it is completely necessary and you can no longer ignore the obtrusion, ie shadow. "Without altering the computer's normal operations, the program renders a morphing series of translucent forms that seem to float between the screen's real surface and the immaterial desktop." By having the program gradually shift and interfere with what's on screen, it interrupts the viewers focus and emulates what usually happens when on the computer. The user momentarily becomes aware of his surroundings. Thus, the shift in attention from the desktop to its actual screen characterizes the experience of working at a computer.

      
              I found the idea that this project purposefully distances itself from the type of art shown in a gallery enticing. Shadow Glare is not meant for close observation, and instead operates between the multiple levels of awareness that are encouraged by a computer interface. Shadow Glare is the first work Shirreff has designed  for the digital viewing, but it is fundamental to the type of work she usually develops. She calls her work "hybrid scenarios". It explores how two dimensional media like photography and video shape our encounter with sculptures and architecture. Shadow Glare ties into this inquiry by bringing to our attention the "hybrid scenario" of the complex negotiation we often enter unthinkingly, between the real and virtual space of computers.

        I feel like this is an interesting concept, but I personally do not find this to be "art". I consider it more of a visual way of understanding a conceptually interesting social concept, or construct, that has been brought about by the 21st Century and societies addiction to technology. Though I would not call Shirreff my favorite digital media artist, I would like to continue to follow his/her work.

http://canopycanopycanopy.com/9/shadow__glare
http://www.rhizome.org/

Collage 9.12.10

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Wanted to scan a 3D object with a saturated color. Just experimenting :)

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

A wicked awesome notebook I bought at Walmart one night.

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

wanted to scan an object, and I work at the Daily Grind, so I thought my uniform would be a fun thing to experiment scanning with.

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Favorite poem

"Footprints in the Sand"

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Just fooling around.
-I love elephants and if I were to get a tattoo, it would be a white ink line drawing of the elephant on the wrist in the image.

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Life Model Session

"Stern yet Curious"

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Life Model Session

"Shock and Awe"

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

"Play on Words"

- the hands are in the shape of "name" in sign language, and the little fragments of paper spell out "name sign"

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Imagined scene my friend asked me to draw

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

Imagined couple on beach

Scan Assignment 9.8.10

My take on Van Gogh's "Cool Barges"

In class Sketch 09.7.10

Artist Blog Post 9.6.10

        Our assignment this weekend was to read the Christian Paul article and then select one artist to research and learn more about. The article was interesting in how it gave a brief history of Digital Media, or should I say "new media art".  The most intriguing part of the article to me, was that it explained the process of changing and appearing in the art world occurred, starting almost 60 years ago. The list of terms used to describe the art that is now under the umbrella term of "new media art" ie. computer art, multimedia art, and digital media, shows the confusion the art world has about how to classify this form of art. I found this segment of the article helpful because it helped me to understand why I myself find digital art so confusing. This I now know is because this form of art encompasses art movements like Dada, Fluxus, and conceptual art and is created through the use of a medium that confuses me in general,  computers and computer programs. The reason I believe I find digital art to be so confusing is that it is always changing because technology is constantly changing. It's not consistent like oil painting, which has been around for hundreds of years.

        

      Though Digital Art has always seemed to bypass my personal art interests, it does not mean I do not appreciate the art that is created in this sub-section of art. While reading the article, there were multiple artists that I was drawn to, either because the messages their art conveyed were thought provoking, or because the image itself was beautiful and i couldn't take my eyes off of it, but the artist I chose to research for this blog assignment is Annu Palakunnathu Matthew. 

   

         Annu Pallakunnathu Matthew is a Professor of Art (Photography) at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island. She is a British born photographer who is based in the United States. Matthew uses her photographs as the base of her artwork. Her work focuses on the politics of gender and race.  The article illustrated two of her pieces in her Bollywood Satirized series. These included Matthew's Bomb (1999) and What Will People Think? (1999), both of which are  "'Bollywood' posters that use the traditional visual language of the movie industry's 'dream factory'". Both images are "inscribed with text that draws attention to gender and cultural stereotypes as well as nuclear politics, Matthew's posters deconstruct the creation of message and context through visual images (Christian Paul reading)".

      Specifically of Matthew's Bollywood Satirized series, she chose to focus on how commercial films in India reflect and reinforce stereotyped gender roles in Indian culture. The images she uses are from real cinema posters and are combined and altered to create works that, in the artist's words, explore issues such as the position of women in Indian society, the dowry system, arranged marriages, discrimination based on skin color, the stigma of pre-marital relationships and inter-racial relationships. Matthew uses a software program that allows her to create unusually large images that mimic the size of movie posters, which adds to the effect Matthew is attempting to make.

        I find race and gender to be a touchy topic to base her work off of, but I am also envious that Matthew can manage to get her point across in an informative and thought-provoking way rather than an offending attack of the subject matter. It is a delicate balance between informing the public of what is wrong and accusing the public of committing those wrongs.The image she compiled in What Will People Think? (1999)I feel, takes the idea of recreating and altering a movie poster to a whole new level. The placement and sizing of images, as well as the font used mimics the generic romance movie posters. If you can't think of what these may look like, how about a trashy romance novel cover? To me these two images are almost . The text Matthew added is placed in such a way that it is intriguing to the eye and draws your attention throughout the scene. The viewer is now spending more time looking at Matthew's art then they would the average movie poster, hopefully during this time, the viewer will interpret the information in the image and understand the message Matthew attempts to draw attention to.

  

Above is the image, Bollywood Satirized: What Will People Think? (1999). As you can see, the contours of the text she added to the subjects is placed in peculiar and interesting positions that require the viewer to spend an extended period of time observing the image in order to be able to see every detail. This time, I feel, allows the viewer to draw connections to the terms and the stereotypes of gender and race in Indian society that Matthew wants to convey. I believe Matthew succeeds in getting her message across to the audience. I at least caught onto the message, even before I learned more about the image and Matthew as an artist in general.

Sources: 

http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/06/07/28666.html

http://www.annumatthew.com/about/index.html
http://www.annumatthew.com/PortfolioBollywood_Satirized/index.html#_self 

Christian Paul reading

Geniusly Creative Video

Definition of "Kibitzer"

For those of you who do not know the term "Kibitz", or "Kibitzer" and would like to understand my Blog title, here are a couple definitions of "Kibitzer", which is the person who Kibitz....

1. a giver of uninvited or unwanted advice.

2. a person who jokes, chitchats, or makes wisecracks, esp.while others are trying to work or to discuss something seriously.

Not that this definition has anything to do with me, I just found it to be an interesting Blog title and a relatively humorous word in general.