Assignment 2 Proposal

What concept or concepts are you interested in exploring for Assignment 2?
"I'm thinking about going with the whole indecision 2012 thing or possible explore technology and nature."

Why does this particular subject matter interest you?
"Personally I'm moderate so I don't really prefer either choice and the other I just have a few ideas in mind."
Describe the ideas you have to communicate this concept visually. Post a sketch, if necessary. (It is OK if this idea changes or evolves through the process of working) "Indecision: A fork in the road with each path leading to either Romney of Obama, possible shark teeth ha ha.  Technology: Cell phone trees or cell phone integrated people."

What types of images do you plan to appropriate? How will you borrow without violating copyright law?  "It will probably be from the web.  I plan to send a message or make them transformed enough that the original meaning is lost"

Which artists/thinkers/writers have influenced your ideas?
"Team Four Star and anyone who does parody that is not something that has been rehashed too many times.  Basically the image or parody gives a feeling of I never would have thought of that."

Fair use.

I actually believe Shepard may have violated copyright in this case or at least his fair use argument is not valid. Fair use is broken down into "comment and criticism" and "parody" and this image does not seem to be in either of these categories. One may argue comment and criticism but that is primarily used for using a quote from a book with the author’s permission in order to review, comment, or criticizes the book. Granted the image itself has been commented on, but not as a way to review the original image. It also couldn't be parody unless it was a republican image that he twisted into a democratic support image. The images themselves are too close to be different, especially if you look at the bottom edge of the original and the edge created above the word hope. If he had gotten the image elsewhere he probably would have finished the area where the tie was instead of leaving a blue background where "hope" is. All in all, Shepards argument of fair use seems invalid when broken into its two major categories.

Materializing New Space Assignment

This is an image of Nesting #4 by Jaime Kennedy and Kelly Urquhart.

The work itself looks to either be hand drawn or drawn digitally.  It is presented on water color paper.  Nesting #4 was displayed amongst several other variations of the nesting.  The overall size is 22" by 30" and looks almost like a light bulb.  The image is in grayscale on a white background.  The elements repeated appear to be sticks, fencing, and the initial house design.

The work to me seems to be inspired by overcrowding in neighbor hoods and how it looks in a nature setting.  The reason I say this is because the crowded houses remind me of the neighborhoods where houses are only a few feet away from another.  It could also be seen as a bird nest version of a mansion.  Wealthy people spend so much on these ridiculously huge houses and this can be seen as just as ridiculous in bird form.  Overall, it just seems that this nest seems out place among other nesting, as would a mansion among houses.

After viewing every one of the works set up in the gallery, I have to say that I was quite amused.  The nestings in particular caught my eye.  Each different nest made me think quite a bit because they were each unique to one another. Aside from the nest above, I would like to at least mention the nesting with the net as it almost seemed like a flying contraption like the other designs for the birds.  It was also interesting to see the brick designs since they seemed more surreal than the actual bird layouts.  In the end it was an interesting exhibit that I hope to keep in mind for my future works.

Psychological Self-Portrait

I'll go with the title Stylish Roulette.

The piece was created using various tools in Adobe Photoshop.  The objects were either scanned or taken from photos I had taken.  Many objects were taken on a bright green background in order to help ease the burden of using selection tools and to help in creating masks and layers.  The odd shapes or odd perspectives were created using the transform tools, the prime focus being the dart board.  The background itself was just a rock that I expanded to create an odd visual effect.  My process overall was simply layering the images into the whole photo and placing them accordingly.  The light bulb actually looks like it is being reflected off a few of the objects.  The watch was challenging, trying to get it appear to overlap the board.  I ended up creating several layers on top of the watch from cropped piece of the dart board in order to create the overlap. 

I guess my concept comes from a roulette wheel.  I went with the revolution theme which is why objects are for the most part revolving around it.  As for a mood, I think it gives off a light atmosphere of thoughts, feelings, and interests that revolve around one's head or psyche.  In order to add more to the revolution concept I made sure to bend objects to curve around and flying off the board.  The watch, however is concept for something definite, since the hands spin at a constant rate and as such it does not belong in the same revolution pattern as the roulette.  In the case of the glowing disc, I'll admit it was more for a whim and it goes with the reflection of fire from its packaging.  If you are wondering where Stylsih fits in, it's because of the spinner of this roulette, the center sword.  It is a replica from the orignal Devil May Cry game series called the Rebellion wielded by a half-demon named Dante.  The combos in the game are rated at different levels, one of course is Stylish which fits his personality type of killing demons in style with the occasional snappy, sarcastic remarks.

Project 1 WIP

Comments/Advice are welcome.

Pessimism/Optimism

Pessimism

Optimism

Christiane Paul Digital Art Chapter 1

I liked Carl Fudge's idea with the anime character on page 45.  I like how it really showed that regardless of the manipulation, you can still tell what form of art style it is from.

I was intrigued by Alexander Apostol's technique of removing windows and doors on pages 38 and 39 .  It really gave the look of desolation under a coat of perfection paint.  It reminds me of the shows that show how buildings decay after they have been abandoned.

I liked the idea of Paul Smith's Action series of putting an every man into the situations of the movie heroes.  I do not like the fact that he uses only himself like when he fights himself on page 41.  It just seems too staged or hyper-real and a bit narcissistic and it just loses its touch for me.  The images feel more like something from a parody action movie.