Answer to Question

Chika asks:
1. The sound matters reading discusses how a voice can help a reader focus on words. Does that take away from the meaning of the words and add more emphasis on sound or vice versa?

I think that voice when paired with words only adds another layer if it identically correlates with the words. It can add the dimension of emphasis and emotion that ink on paper or pixels on a screen cannot provide. However, if the voice is talking about something different than the words (i.e. movie scene where a letter is shown but the characters are talking about something else). This distracts the viewer/listener and doesn't add but substracts.

Questions...

1) How much does authenticity play towards sound?
2) What are things you personally look for when designing a sound file/track?
3) Is true sound (nature, etc) ever captured accurately?

Photo Essay

Photo Essay

This project was originally geared towards manipulation of pictures in order to illustrate an argument. However, my thoughts turned towards representation rather than manipulation. I felt that any type of altering or overlay would not be the right way of transmitting my message. However, when the option of a photo essay (courtesy of John Berger) was brought up I knew immediately that I would choose that route. In Ways of Seeing, the essays without titles or explanations cause the readers to make up their own narrative and decide what the images mean to them. I hope that my project can formulate a narrative for the reader before they delve into my rationale.

Photographs to me have always been a raw capture of reality. Through the eyes of the photographer, you are able to see a moment in time that would have otherwise fleeted by. Other photographs are staged opportunities to convey a message. I knew I would use both of these aspects in order to illustrate my main point. Utilizing Flickr, Google Images and Creative Commons, I was able to compile enough to illustrate the two sides of my argument.

First, the United States as a current culture is obsessed over weight and finding ‘cures’. Obesity is now an epidemic and the surrounding environment is not helping. We have unlimited food supplies, unhealthy eating habits and massive addictions to chemically flavored foods. This obsession is causing people everyday to either gain weight in a staggering period of time or restrict all nutritional value and watch their bodies waste away. Though thyroid problems, TV shows, our computer culture do contribute to the problem, they are not the main cause. We have lost all touch with our inner selves. We seek things outside of us yet don’t listen to the core voice that would, for example, immediately reject unhealthy food. We have also lost any type of connection with the land and Nature at large. Our “hunting and gathering” and “farming” consist of driving our car to the massive store and stocking up our refrigerators. None of these things remind us of the origin. Our unhealthy path is destroying us because we are losing touch with what is important.

Before diet pills, exercise plans, gyms, we as a species existed in a healthy way. That way was having a harmonious relationship with everything around us. We planted seed and saw the fruit of our labor. We relied on others within our tribe to help support one another. The land was our friend. We didn’t rape it or demand anything from it. If we were good to it, we were rewarded. That sentiment (thankfully) is not entirely lost. Native tribes and cultures all over the world still live with this type of “checks and balances” installed. Granted, they are feeling suffering in different ways but “diets” and “exercise plans” are not part of their daily vocabulary. Their life depends on the land and they treat it as such.

The beginning part of the photo essay is all the images that resonate the unhealthy dietary obsession we have. I also added soft music in the background that is very dark and dreary. The images are ended with a photo of an art installation that is a statue of a man sitting in chains in a cage. It illustrates that we are confined by our unhealthy ways. Then the music changes as well as the image content. Now the photos revolve around a healthier way of living, caring for the land and for each other. None of the photos depict any overweight or unhealthy people because they are balanced with Nature. The final picture is a silhouette of someone standing on a hill looking towards the sunrise. It represents a new day and hope for our future.

Calvin & Hobbes

No words (except for the last frame), just the experience and an injected emotion from the reader. beautiful....

HAB Mystery Plaque

In class today, a plaque in front of the W side of Henry Admin Building (facing Green St) was mentioned....and it was surrounded with a mysterious tone. What were all the dashes and circles? Were they symbols for something? A trademark?

I whipped something out in Photoshop by memory since my camera wasn't working at the time....which is in the picture to the side.

The mystery of the plaque is solved....

The class of 1967 offered as their class gift two bronze plaques, one inscribed with the centennial symbol and the other dedicating it.

The first plaque mentions a "centennial colophon"......
The "o" and "lines" are "ones" and "zeros"....now it makes sense! It was supposed to read "100" - no matter what side you stand on.

Your view has now officially changed. :)

Question Response: Week 5

Eric wrote:
Elkins mentions how he wants to actually "see" grass for once. What do you want to make a point to see and really get to know before you kick the bucket?

I would say I want to see nature for what it is, not what I (or anyone else) make it out to be.
Not only seeing by listening... By removing my deafness and blindness, I can reconnect to Life itself. Humans at one time had an intimate communication channel with life and nature and it's possible to reopen that experience. To remove all the blindfolds and filters and crap that is in the way and to simply reconnect to what we feel with what is around us.

I will say I can't really "see" this way right now. I'm constantly working and going to class but to able to take a break from it all will help assist this new way of seeing.....

Question: Week 5

1. Since mail is no longer as greatly used as it once was, do you think the postage stamp has lost its sense of cultural value?

2. After reading "How to Use Your Eyes", did you find yourself stopping and thinking about things are traditionally glossed over? If so, what?

3. Drucker brings up that if a sign isn't immediately readable, then it makes us pause and become aware of the surrounding landscape. Do you think that businesses should take advantage of this? If not, why?

Berger: Female Nude vs Naked Female

Artist Jane Lund:
"In her portraits, which can take as long as 18 months to complete, Jane Lund creates homages to her relatives and close friends with whose lives hers is entwined. She connects with them and imbues their physical presence with a palpable sense of personae and history. These portraits are not so much life-like as they are compelling tributes, each one leading us to study the structure of a fascinating individual."


I think this artist, who I studied for a bit while I was in art school creates a sense of nakedness or "no disguise" courtesy of Berger. These are paintings of loved ones. No sensual poses, pouted lips, arched back - just an artistic interpretation of a person via the artist. I don't know this woman for example but I can feel a strong relationship between her and the artist. I cannot force that the woman is naked for anyone else besides the artist. I cannot turn her into a nude because she is naked.

The painting is an obvious break in traditional "nude" paintings but is honorable. The woman has nothing to hide and you can gather emotion and a story just by looking at her face. It is raw and real.

Answer to Question: Week 4

Eric writes:
Where else besides comic books have you seen the idea of amplification through simplification? Where could you/have you applied this to your daily life?

What instantly came into my head was living a "zen" way of life. Where focusing on one thing at a time enhances your life experience.

I think we've all been in the same boat of being exhausted at the end of the day because of stress, anxiety and the general business of the day. We don’t have time for what’s important to us, for what we really want to be doing, for spending time with loved ones, for doing things we’re passionate about.

However.... it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s possible to live a simpler life, one where you enjoy each activity, where you are present in everything (or most things) you do, where you are content rather than rushing to finish things. Through simplifying your way of life you are thus amplifying the quality of life.

Questions: Week 4

From the McCloud reading:

1) The authors mentions that the photograph requires little cognition - it is received as pure visual input. Do you agree with this? Don't our minds still have to go through the recognition process?

2) The point is brought out that cartoons often focus our attention through simplification. Do find that a more enjoyable experience in comic book reading or do you feel a need for a higher complexity?

3) Since icons are an easier association to the idea it's abstractly representing - do you think that's why user interfaces (i.e. Mac desktop) are easier to navigate than textual-based (i.e. Windows) ones?

Graffiti: A Graphic Statement

Graffiti Project: Cultural Blinding

Introduction
[Warning: the following videos are graphic.]

Elderly Hit-and-Run


Vicious Hammer Attack on Subway:



Bystander Apathy
In both of the above videos, there are two commons threads: violence and those around the incident doing nothing to help. I have always been mesmerized watching when something happens and the lengths that others will go to as to not get involved. Whether walking by, turning the other way, or simple not moving they are all nonintervention due to various reasons. On the ABC show "What Would You Do?", they stage various social situations and film peoples' reactions. Afterwards, they try and interview most to see what was going through their head at the moment - the reason for their action or non action.

The common term that revolves around this social phenomena is called bystander apathy. It is usually that when others are around, that individual action is less likely to occur. It is always shocking to hear of stories where someone is seriously injured or in need of help and people walk on by. It sounds so calloused yet is evidence of how often our own culture is willingly blinded, in essence, to the violence or problems around us. This cultural unhealthiness is sickening and the media exploits it. We need to turn to education in which this cultural blinding is no longer present and instead of people labeling a situation of 'dangerous', 'not my business', etc - action to help another will become instinct.

Stencil Translation
When I began to delve into this issue, a friend mentioned an image that really stuck with me. Blinders are placed onto horses to prevent them from being overwhelmed at the world around them. Their field of vision is heavily restricted. We have had blinders placed onto us through various means. The positive aspect is that these blinders are not permanent but are just tightly wrapped around our head and flipped out to the sides.

Working with this imagery, I used a middle aged man's face as the general face of the public. He has blinders placed on him with the straps hanging down. His eyes are strained as if trying to peek around the sides to witness something. The text that is placed on the right hand side reads: "remove & feel". This is written in command style in two simple actions. First, the removal of the blinders to uplift the restricted field of vision. Second, the concept of feeling what is witnessed. We should be able to see what we see and do something about it and not feel that helpless, awful feeling that is unnatural.
Installation/Demographic
I would choose to install this stencil in two different locations. The first would be where people quickly whisk past just to 'get through'. Examples include extreme low-income housing areas, homeless areas, drug dealing locales, etc. The second type of location would be an homage to a location where an extreme case (or any case for that matter) of bystander apathy occured. The two video examples would lead me to install them on the side of a subway and a huge chalk installation in the middle of a busy road.

I don't have a specific demographic because I feel like everyone, young and old, has fallen to this feeling of helplessness. I know that I've been in situations where my brain is frozen and my lack of action enables a huge wave of guilt in the after moments of the incident. If it speaks to someone, then my mission is accomplished. If not, then at least that person had the chance to see it.

Installation Pictures:
[Edit: the following images are digital simulation]




I hope to do an actual installation soon in the Chambana community.

Week 3 Response

From Emma:
A designer hopes, for example, that using a mountain in a logo for an insurance company will suggest that the company is solid and reliable but also big and likely to be around for a long time (p.124-125). What happens when these images are false representations, and suggest that a company is something far from the truth?

I think that if the company utilized those concepts (i.e. solid, big, strong) as a central basis to their identity then the reaction by the customer would increase. The strengthening of the tie could be through repetition or direct correlation....cue AllState:


Here Allstate is directly correlating this logo with their mission. Since the tie is so strong that if a customer did not have the experience of 'being in good' hands, they would have the feeling of being deceived. This would eventually lead to a decline in customer interest and false feeling of confidence in the company = decline in profit and revamp of the company's image.

Companies do this all the time. A misrepresentation of their company and/or product is not rare. Think of a TV dinner picture on the box...now open the box and rip off the plastic. There ya go. Not so 'gourmet' looking anymore? Yep. However, due to the minimal investment by the customer, there is no or minimal decline of customer interest.

Week 3 Discussion Questions

1. Since historical and cultural expectations have set up certain books to be dry and transparent (academic) or bright and colorful (children's books)...do we still have to adhere to that trend? Psychology speaks to the fact that humans are more active when visually stimulated...

2. Does the genre of the physical page still translate the same in on online format? (Where the physicality is still preserved, i.e. scanned)

3. How much emotion should be involved in the design process - image, text or otherwise?

Text/Composition

I started thinking about text and how people use text to give life, tell a story, or simply describe. Then I was thinking about manipulation (thus the composition) of the text - literally the shape of the letters, font, kerning, leading, etc....

Here are a couple of videos I was thinking about:
[Kinetic Typography]

Question Response

Eric brought up an question regarding Bolter and Grusin readings:

"Photography removed the artist as an agent who stood between the viewer and the reality of the image." When we view videos and pictures online, are we also removing the artist as an agent, or are we actually standing there with the artist viewing their work?

(This question stood out because I did pass through an art major through my various education routes and it brought a new perspective.)

That was touched on in the article where 'multiple representations' are brought into play (i.e. art gallery vs. online gallery). In essence, the digital/online media creation is still the artist's (assumed authentication however) but just shown in different mediums. The network economy of art still employs the idea of the artist as an agent (person capable of action) but also the online representation is an agent of manipulation. However, be it photography or online galleries it is still the artist's creation of reality. Online media is still simply a medium - something that serves as a platform for something else. Since the internet/computers cannot yet think on their own, per se, they are not yet an fully developed agent such as an artist.

"Remediation" Discussion

Questions resulting from the Bolter & Grusin readings:

“…one of the most popular genres of computer games is the flight simulator (fig. 1.9). The action unfolds in real time, as the player is required to monitor the instruments and fly the plane. The game promises to show the player "what it is like to be" a pilot, and yet in what does the immediacy of the experience consist? As in a real plane, the simulated cockpit is full of dials to read and switches to flip. As in a real plane, the experience of the game is that of working an interface, so that the immediacy of this experience is pure hypermediacy.” (“Introduction”, pg 11)

This is often presented in society as gaining a ‘real-life’ experience but if the experience is based on hypermediacy, isn’t it just a false front based on imitation?

Should we continue to invest time (not to mention money) in this abstract system for students and society as whole to gain ‘experience’? Are we heavily relying too much on this advancing technology?

***********************

Bolter and Grusin set up a great outline of remediation in (“Immediacy”, pg 44). This desire of continuous technological development is relentless (or so we’re always told) so the purpose of remediation is to have more media technologies build upon, take from or completely absorb preceding media constructs.

Since forces outside of our own lives (corporations, technology gurus, etc.) are the ones advancing these new media technologies – how do we personally assess that they are a better alternative to the prior?

Also, as Bolter and Grusin point out, it presents a problem to the consumer of“ multiple representations” (44). How should society (besides technology and the mass media telling us) sort out these multiple representations?

***********************

“New digital media oscillate between immediacy and hypermediacy, between transparency and opacity. This oscillation is the key to understanding how a medium refashions its predecessors and other contemporary media. Although each medium promises to reform its predecessors by offering a more immediate or authentic experience, the promise of reform inevitably leads us to become aware of the new medium as a medium. Thus, immediacy leads to hypermediacy.” (“Introduction”, pg 1)

If true medium transparency is the goal to gain this authentic experience, isn’t the visceral/physical realm of the human experience with a medium always going to be present – thus an ‘obstacle’? or not?