Writing assignment #5 – Themes in Digital Media

Today themes are a major part of everday life and when you begin to discuss and analyze art, themes become a major focal point. When looking at digital art some of the major themes are telepresence, telerobotics, artificial intelligence and life, mapping, tactical media, activism, hacktivism and gaming. When one first hears these phrases they might think “digital” but they certainly do not think of “art”. Personally neither do I, but there is no denying that digital art has created an outlet for these ideas to become bigger and better than they once were.

Telerobotics is an interesing media that has become quite popular. I have yet to check out a showing of telerobotic art but I have heard they, along with other digital art galleries, are much more interesting to attend then your regular art showings. From what I have heard (since I have never attended one) they are quite interactive and give the viewer a much closer feeling to the art itself. Telerobotics in particular are more like science fairs rather than art showings. You are more likely to find telrobotics at a place like MIT, or NASA than somewhere like Denver Art Institute.

Gaming and the graphics involved in gaming is another are that has seen a huge jump in quality. from pong which featured little for the observer to be visually stimulated to pacman which actually featured different levels (of almost the same layout) to the incredible graphics and technology we have today (see below)

with graphics like those, the user gets a realistic feel of the game they are actually playing and with technology like the nintendo wii, one will feel as if they are almost in the game. Soon we could be seeing 3D projectors creating holograms that literally builds the game around the one playing (imagine Halo or Grand Theft Auto). The thing about digital media is there is no real limit as to how far it can go, whereas with other medias you might be limited to a 2D canvas or a similar working structure.

Video games are a perfect segway into Artificial Intelligence, as we get closer and closer to creating something with artificial intelligence, designers are looking at ways to add a creative feel to it. At Stanford they are looking at ways of artificial intellince research as art, it is interesting to see how the lines of art and science are once again intersecting something that stretches all the way back to Da Vinci yet has been left untouched until recently.

Digital art themes are ever expanding, when I first was doing this assignment the major themes sort of shocked me but after a further look into it, it makes much more sense and I realized that digital art isn’t always about making something visually pretty but also making something that might serve a function or  a purpose outside of the world of art.

Final Video Prject STS9 Ticket Show

This is a video I made of me getting my tickets to the sts9 shows in January, I patiently waited for them to be available at 10am on October 24th and quickly bought mine up as the show sold out in five minutes. My initial idea was just to have my listening to music and have to move to a video of the show I attended at red rocks in September, but when I got my tickets I figured it would be a much better story line to add me receiving my tickets that I have been patiently waiting. I love soundtribe.

Digital art: is it a medium or a tool?

The answer to the above question is, it depends how you use it, or who is using it? Someone like myself who focuses strictly on digital art and photo manipulation I think would consider it a medium. Yet I know plenty of artists who paint, draw, or whatever and use digital art manipulation as a tool in order to enhance the quality of their already completed work, advertise their work or to turn their work into prints or merchandise (see vicki’s fractal art). Phil lewis is a prime example (if you haven’t checked him out yet, go to the side of my blog and click on his link). Phil Lewis still owns all his original paintings but makes money by selling prints. I have had discussions with him before about how he uses photoshop and he loves it. He said it is very handy in restoring the color and quality of his paintings after he has scanned them. He said sometimes they turn out even better than the originals. In this sense and others like it, digital art and manipulation is used as a tool.
For me though it is much different, when I sit down to use photoshop, I will start with an empty screen (or ocasionally a photo) and that is my canvas. I will start creating an image with either the brush or other unedited images and begin by adjusting the levels, the color balance, the contrast, the hue/saturation, and any other color and lighting effects. I use lots and lots of layers, I will always have an unedited original layer copy and then one with the color and lighting adjustments. I am not afraid of having a ton of layers. After my initial adjustments I just go off with all the amazing tools photoshop has to offer. I have my own style just like a lot of other digital artists, just like painters and artists of other mediums have their own style in contrast to other artists within their medium. Digital art just like other mediums allows people to express themselves in their own unique way and for someone like myself, who isn’t particularly good at or fond of painting, drawing, sculpture and so on, but still feels they have a knack for creativity, it is the perfect artistic medium.

Some Narsty Spills

When people fall it is like a car accident, you don’t want to look but at the same time you can’t look away. I remember being at keystone on Sunday and watching one snowboarder stop at the top of a roller (a hill) because of the ice and another snowboarder after him wasn’t able to stop and plowed through him and they both tangled and awkwardly tumbled all the way down the roller. Our assignment was to bring in two videos off youtube of people falling. I think they were meant to be in a more hilarious context but there are two falls that I have seen that stick with me distinctly, both are sports falls and the not funny part is that the athletes got seriously injured, in fact none of it is really funny (except for maybe Tanner Hall screaming like a girl) but they are the types of falls where you can’t look away.

NBA Shaun Livingston injury

Chads Gap Tanner Hall

Creating a webpage

I have briefly worked in dreamweaver before, but for this project I tried to stray away from what I had previously learned (as it was not applicable to this project) and try to create something similar to the examples that Matt had showed us.

When the semester started I had a great idea to do a project centered around water and h2o, all the different form and the different ways people use it. We have liquid, solid and gaseous forms and there are many from there such as snow, steam, ice, clouds and so on. We also use it for so many things, we drink it, it has endless recreational purposes, we observe it, we use it for science and on and on and on and on.

so here is my water based landscape

Abject Self Portrait

Some might find this funny but those who know me will know this is a part of my life that is very abject, I do a lot of good things but I am addicted to this thing we call “bro-ing” out. Therefore I created this video and showed it on the day I officially retired from bro-ing out. Here it is…

BRO LIFE – Welcome to D-KAP

Youtube video sharing

These are some artistic videos from youtube that I wanted to share.

The first one is a graffiti animation accross a city and town it is clever and cool to watch, it must hae taken quite a while. “MUTO” by blu

The second one is a fairly famous one, it was a still might be the number 1 flash video ever. It won multiple awards. It is called “Drum Machine” by Tokyo Plastic

Enjoy

Photo Editing/Manipulation Program (for those who don’t own Photoshop)

It’s also for those who dont know or don’t like gimp…

I havent used it myself yet but I have heard it is very easy and capable of features similar to photoshop

http://www.getpaint.net/

for those who need an editing program… check it out

Another Poster Idea

So I had already finished my first poster, when I was walking around campus today thinking about the old commercial of the guy with the egg and comparing it to your brain and then cracking it on frying it and comparing that to your brain on drugs… pretty good commercial … the one I was thinking of had a man in it and he actually cracked the egg on a frying pan but you get the idea.

Anyway I am thinking about this and then I was thinking of the different ways you could cook an egg, actually I think I was thinking of that first, but I began realizing that a lot of terms people use to describe themselves when they’re on “drugs” closely relate to the ways you cook an egg, and from there even just the ways your brain could be describe in general. So I had this idea to make a satirical poster with all the different ways you can cook an egg as I was placing them in the picture, I noticed how I could sort of make them place in a way so that you could make a smiley face so I did and that is where the “put a Smile on your face” comes from across the bottom. Initially it was going to say something like “I bet you’re hungry” or “It’s egg-credible”. Now I am not pro or con drug usage, I did this strictly for a laugh, take it how you want it.

BUS TO SNOW poster

So some friends of mine run the basics fund, which is an non profit organization designed to raise money for artists health insurance. The biggest operation they run is Bus To Shows, also known as BTS. I am sure people around campus have seen some of their previous posters, with a calender of upcoming events. This winter they are trying to expand their operation a little more and run buses on the weekends/weekdays up to the mountains for skiers and snowboarders. I came up with the name “bus to snow” and was put in charge of making the poster for it. So… here it is

*edit – I realized I probably should have put a link in so people can look at upcoming events and information about the Basics fund and the Bus so here is the site for The Basics Fund and here is he address for the upcoming schedule. Ride the Bus! it’s always a good time…

Original Ski Map