Update

Okay so I organized my blog so that all of my assignments and projects for digital art are all on their own page titled DA Portfolio. It is all pretty and organized so please check there if you are looking for my work 🙂 !

Web page project… Whistler

Okay so here is a link to my web page project called Whistler. It was really frustrating but I think it came out okay…

To expand on my idea… I wanted to make an interactive map, so you could look at a place on a map and then be able to investigate it further and see video of the actual place. So I took a bike park map in Whistler Canada and created an image map, which there is an image map tool on dream weaver and it took me a while to figure it out, but actually it is really easy. So I made all kinds of links, some to youtube videos and some to websites of sponsors…. Any way… it came out alright and could maybe have a good practical application.

http://clem.mscd.edu/~rkos1

abject self portrait movie

final poster project

Okay so here are my final 2 posters for the poster project. I went with 2 different styles, but both are promotional posters for a local bike shop. The first is titled Wildernest, and the second is Agency with Colorado Flag. For the first I wanted to give more of a sense of the scene rather than the trick being preformed, and I also wanted it to be clear and concise, I didn’t want it to get too busy. For the second poster I created a very simple graphic image in illustrator, that I think reads very clean yet aesthetically pleasing. The second poster is playing up the feeling of being a local shop and creating a community feel with Coloradans. Also think that including the Colorado flag in the design adds another dimension to the branding of the shop, specifically if the shop ever expands outside of Colorado, it would give people an idea of it’s beginnings or roots, almost like stating an established date, or when people refer to so cal, or nor cal.

Assignment #3 Response to chapter 2

What is the difference between using digital technologies as a tool versus as a medium?

 

The answer to the question above depends largely on the intended use of digital technologies. For most, the Internet is a tool for communication, data sharing and an information resource, while for digital artists, the Internet, as technology becomes a new medium for their art. For example, Mark Napier used digital images from the World Wide Web to create a digital collage entitled Riot, which incorporates things such as browsers, screen captures of different websites, bookmarks, domains, sites and pages.  Some may argue that digital artists use digital technologies as both a tool and a medium. Traditionally an artist’s tool could be a paintbrush or a chisel and their medium could be oil paints or marble. For some digital artists digital technologies such as coding could be the tool the artist utilizes to manipulate their medium, say animation for example, or a website.  This can be juxtaposed against a category loosely labeled as software art, which is when an artist has to write the code to create the software or their art. In this case the codes in software art become the medium rather than the tool.

Many artists utilize digital technologies as a medium, and there are many different variations of types of art and the experiences they create. There is a large group of artists that are interested in creating a 3D digital world for the “viewer” to experience. Some strive to recreate reality, while others use the digital world to create an experience separated from reality. There are only a few artists that completely envelop the viewer in the virtual world. For example, a Canadian artist named Charlotte Davies’s works Osmose (1995), and Ephemere (1998) enabled to experience a digital world through the use of a head-mounted display and a motion-tracking vest. The viewer is taken through a variation of virtual worlds that retain some sense of realism but they are composed of various textures and transparencies that make the worlds somewhat abstract. Another form of digital technologies utilized as an art medium is interactive images that are projected outdoors in public spaces such as the sides of buildings. One artist in particular named Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, explored this very idea in his work entitled Body Movies: Relational Architecture #6 (2001), where he projected portraits of people from around the world on projectors placed around a 1,200-square-meter interactive environment. He placed lights that projected upon the walls where the portraits were and by doing so the portraits were blanked out until a viewer would interact with the lights and behind their shadows the portraits could be seen. This is only one way that artists were concerned about the viewers being able to interact with digital technology to experience a unique digital environment, and thus they became an active participant in the artwork.

Digital technologies have opened up new avenues for artists to create new experiences, or create works of art that convey meaning, through the use of those technologies as both tools and mediums. 

Poster Project

Okay this is what I’ve got so far

Also have this but I like the one on top most…

untitled-1-copy2

Disgusting!

I am absolutely disgusted right now, with what I just found out about an incident at Metro. Apparently in some class students were given an assignment to write a negative paper about Sarah Palin. During class the professor said that he knew there were a few Republican students who wouldn’t like this assignment exclaiming “I know who you are” and he made those students raise their hands. After they did so the entire class erupted in a fiery political debate. Now if that is not discrimination, than what is? What kind of school is Metro that they would employ someone like this? Is this not supposed to be a “safe” place where people of all beliefs, political or otherwise could peacefully come to receive an education? And funny that someone who claims them selves to be “liberal” and “tolerant” would behave this way. I wrote a letter to the president at Metro, so we’ll see if I get a reply.

Here’s what I wrote:

As a student at Metro State, I must say how deeply appalled I am to hear about the recent events taking place on campus. I was just watching Fox news and came to learn that one of the professors engaged in blatant discrimination against Republican students in his class, which he made each of those students identify themselves so that the entire class could begin a fiery political debate. I hope that correctional discipline will be used in the case of this professor, as would any student would receive if he or she were involved in open discrimination. I find it puzzling that a school that makes their policies very clear about discrimination, via student orientation, would have a member of their staff violating said policies. I sincerely hope that this professor be removed from his station at Metro State to enforce a no tolerance policy against such behavior. What this man did was simply deplorable, and if these are the people you intend to employ, than I shall remove my registration from this school.

Regards

Rachel Blackford

Crazy VMA ad

Okay I’m sitting here in class and found this, thought it was cool… and the Foo Fighters are in it!!!

Assignment #4 AD

 

Ads are successful for many reasons, they are visually appealing, they can reach a wide audience, and if it’s a good one, a wide audience can comprehend its meaning. 

This ad for Masterlock specifically stood out to me as being successful due to the simplicity of the composition, which goes right along with the product they are trying to sell, a lock, a relatively simple thing. Essentially all that is present is an image with a small amount of text in the bottom right hand corner. Because they kept the text so small it allows the image to take center stage, especially since that image is so visually impacting. It’s very witty, morbid, and plays on pop culture. The execution of this fabricated image is clean and expertly crafted, and artistically rendered. The artist choose an earthy dull color scheme that plays with the emotion the image conveys. It’s dark yet unrealistic so that it doesn’t totally scare the audience away. And finally, like a cherry on top, the tag line completes the package, “tough enough for any job”. It adds a subtle witty twist that prevents the image from becoming depressing. 

The information is clearly presented here. The audience is first drawn to the skeletal figures chaned to a tree, realizing the situation, and then glances down to the bottom right for an explination. Clearly the irony that the hippies chained themselves to a tree and used a Masterlock while trying to save the environment, backfired and led to their demise. The cleaver story line gives life to a seemingly dull object, but also reinforces the lock’s strenght and impregnability. 

All in all this is a great ad! 

Assignment #2 response to chapter one in text

Digital art is inextricably linked to our western culture whether as a direct reference or as an allusion. Digital art or what is often referred to as new media utilizes various western technologies, from computer programs, scanners, and robots that use information to create sculptures or paintings. Other forms of digital art use western culture to derive meaning or stylistic attributes, more specifically some digital art is directly influenced by commercial advertising and motion pictures. One artist in particular by the name of Annu Palakunnathu Matthew creates art that resembles movie posters. These works of art are social commentaries on issues such as race, gender, class, social issues etc. The composition of Matthew’s works resemble that of common movie posters yet the meaning or statement is not about a movie, but rather various types of commentary whether it is human relationships or war. Other digital artists use common western themes as the subject matter for their work. An artist named Paul Smiths creates digital art using photographs of himself portraying stereotypical heroic or male characters. The scenes depicted mirror common images from movies or other forms of western pop culture. Modern technology is another influence digital art has derived from western culture. With the diversity of computer programs now available many can be used to create digital art, even programs that were not designed for art. Programs such as engineering software like CAD also known as computer-aided design can create three dimensional models that can be used not only for the creation of two dimensional art but also used to create three dimensional sculptures. Artists can take these CAD models and link their design to a machine that can use the information to create the sculpture. This new way of creation is the source of heated debate whether the completed work can be classified as valid work due to the fact that artist did not physically create the work. However this point can be argued, even though the artist did not use their hands, this creative use of new media reflects the innovative spirit of western culture. Due to the fact that artists are rethinking art and utilizing new media to expound upon these ideas reflect the innovative and ever-changing western culture. Some digital artists are not going to such extremes when creating their digital art. Many artists merge digital media with traditional imagery. There are several ways that artists do this. Some artists use collage, others blend modern images with classic art forms while some use digital images to mimic or mirror traditional mediums such as photography, drawing or painting. Digital art as a thought process with its innovative uses of various media has an effect on western culture too rather than just western culture having an effect on digital art. These new forms of media are changing the face of advertising, pushing it to new limits. No longer are we bound to traditional mediums or thought processes, digital art in its own way is a new revolution in artistic expression.