Monday, April 1, 2019

Project 4 PechaKucha Presentation

Link to Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MoNnTMaNJ_0gMWfYG__712BngpLz0NpOMIsy4PMqVOg/edit?usp=sharing


Project 4 Proposal

Area of Interest Statement:
Interested in creating a tessellation with varying degrees of color found in soil around campus. (Preferably soil within on area of UWF property, but may change depending on availability of soil color variety.)


Thesis Statement:
This research project will focus on soil quality, soil component, and soil color found among soil along UWF’s E.B. Nature Trail.


Introduction:
Trailing along the west side of UWF’s main campus, E.B. Nature Trail is a half-mile long nature trail beginning behind Crosby Hall (Building 10) and snakes around in a loose oval shape to end near the start of the trail. Along E.B. Nature Trail, visitors can enjoy long peaceful walks or explore a bit of Thompson’s Bayou with canoes / kayaks. Throughout the trail, various mammals, birds, and fish can be seen among a sea of trees. Supporting all of the wildlife present in the nature trail is soil and their various contents that keep many of the plants thriving with quality components.


Primary Research Sources:


    1. How To Read A Munsell Color Chart (n.d.) munsell.com. Retrieved from


    1. David H. (September 2013). Color Interpretation and Soil Textures [Powerpoint Slides]. Florida Health. Retrieved from


    1. Colorado FFA (n.d.). Soil Color and Its Causes [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from


    1. Natural Resources Conservation Service (n.d.). The Color of Soil. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from


    1. Cornell Cooperative Extension (n.d.) How To Take A Soil Sample. Cornell University. PDF file. Retrieved from


    1. Athia H. (October 2, 1988).The Art of Navajo Sand Painting. The New York Times. Retrieved from


    1. Pennsylvania Envirothon (n.d.). The Color of Soil. envirothonpa.org. PDF file.Retrieved from


Fieldwork Locations:
E.B. Nature Trail and the edges of Thompson’s Bayou


Data to Gather at Field:
  1. Soil Color
  2. Soil Component (component giving color)
  3. Soil type
  4. Moisture


Type of Final Product: 24” x 24” sand/soil tessellation on canvas


Planned Visual Outcome of Final Product:


Materials: soil moisture meter, Munsell Color Guide, glue, large canvas/foam board, and at least 5 samples of soil of varying colors


Size: 24 inches x 24 inches


Other Formal Elements: visuals of quilt, tilings, tessellation, and mosaics.


Questions and Statements

  1. What allows different soils and sands to appear in different colors?

    The main factor is soil component; red colored soil will appear more vibrant when the level of oxidized iron oxides are higher while the lowers levels will appear as a dull yellowish-white color. Darker soils that are closer to dark brown and black have high levels of organic matter; some soil are darker colored also because of specific minerals. White and tan colored sand are made from higher levels of quartz crystals.
  2. How does moisture affect soil color?

    Higher levels of moisture allows soil to appear darker while dryer soils allows soil to appear duller.
  3. What significance does the Edward Ball Nature Trail have in UWF?

    Edward Ball Nature Trail is a nature trail and wildlife sanctuary built on the UWF campus on November 16, 1969 as a collaboration with the Edward Ball Wildlife Foundation to introduce sanctuaries to college/university campuses.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Project 4 - Rough Draft Ideas

Out of UWF’s array of properties, I feel that I am most interested in looking further into the nature trails on main campus. Many times when I have long breaks in between classes, I will go out to Edward Ball Nature Trail with friends to look around and unwind. While I currently do not have a definite idea on what I wish to look into (due to having to be in the earlier stages of research), I do want to work with the natural resources I can find on the trails to make my final piece; some of the materials include the soil/dirt samples along the trails, water samples, and foliage. Since temperatures are warming up, I am also curious to see if anything can be done relating to floral plants (if such can be found along the trails).

As I understand that the process of reading is part of the overall artwork/project, I am curious to see if differences in color and texture can be found from dirt samples taken along the trail that vary in environment (such as areas that are closer to water, farther from water, under foliage, richer in minerals, and etc.). As a final piece, I will like to make something that appears tile-like or quilt-like that can show small differences in color and texture (similar to the style of Mark Rothko and how he places various colored rectangles/squares with various hues and shades to create his abstract color field paintings). At this moment, I will only perform fieldwork when there is no rain since color and texture can be affected by an increase in water/humidity (this is mainly to maintain various samples under similar conditions without the influences of big external factors).

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Read and Response - Edge Effect: Six Quick Lessons in How to Read a Landscape

Prior to reading “Six Quick Lessons in How to Read a Landscape” by Daniel Grant, Spring Greeney, and Ben Kasten, much on my thoughts on reading landscapes were quite literal. I imagined that the process of reading landscapes were to be observations, some testing/sampling, and other direct fieldwork in the location selected; nothing more, nothing less. Instead, I was quite wrong with my idea because there is so much more that goes into the process of reading landscapes; many of the steps taken can be quite intimate and personal rather than to just simply observe and record. This idea of intimacy in reading landscapes is briefly explained in the article’s last lesson, Particularize.

In the last lesson, the writers explain the importance of reading further into landscapes and how symbolism/themes attached to such landscapes can help elevate one’s understanding of the selected location. While there are symbols/themes that are generally understood about a location, intimate and personal experiences/knowledge can also become an important symbol/theme of the location. The main objective of reading landscapes is to not just scratch the surface of the landscape’s visuals and history already known to the public, but to also find the hidden treasures that the public were never aware of. These deeper findings can lead to unexpected connections to other locations or a “better reading” of the location (which is the, again, the main objective of reading landscapes); examples could be certain patterns present in specific locations or comparisons of before and after of specific locations only the artist/reader may know. As readers will understand after going through Edge Effect’s article, landscape reading is to present findings that merge the scientific observations of a location with its history and culture; out of the three, culture is what can bring meaning into the story of the process of reading a landscape.

From a project’s point of view, this individuality can also help separate a project from the rest when focusing on similar (if not the same) landscape/location.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Appropriation to Open Source PPT

Below is the link to Group 3 powerpoint on Appropriation to Open Source.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sEc9cJ6tbZiNN2OAPillFZR-nDE5P3wd4Ge2yMcESI0/edit?usp=sharing

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Discussion - Net.Art is not art on the web

Most individuals may not know the difference between net.art and artworks on the web when such difference is as important as knowing one’s A, B, Cs. First, artworks on the web are literally what the description states; they are scanned, photographed, documented information of artworks that are housed on the web. Simply, one can say that artworks on the web are like artworks on a digital museum known as the web. On the other hand, net.art are not artworks on the web; of course net.art can be presented through the web, but the key difference are their medium of artwork. Net.art is a specific genre of Net Media Art where the medium used to create the presented artwork is the internet. Net.art utilizes the internet and its codes to the best of its abilities to present an idea into a visual form. Another way to visualize what net.art is, the internet for net.art is like the paint used for a painting. Net.art are not artworks documented on the web (artworks on the web), but are artworks created from the internet.

With net.art, the codes used can be with .htm and .html with css. By using specific names (such as style, fonts, colors, etc), artists can begin creating the visuals of their idea in the form of typography, shapes, colors, movements, sounds, and other factors of design. Examples of net.art are from our previous reading with Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology include Automatic Rain by JODI and Female Extension by Cornelia Sollfrank. With JODI’s Automatic Rain, found images from the web along with the aesthetics and functions of the 90’s web creates three web pages that make a statement on the clash of perfection and imperfection in the world; JODI particularly focused on the sprinkler systems used in the Silicon Valley through symbolism and images that relate to the location. To further emphasize the precision and timed feature of the sprinkler system, JODI incorporates codes that allows one of her three webpages (page with a list of blue links) to refresh itself; this one and off features allows the linked numbers to appear like jets of water shooting out to water Silicon Valley at a synchronised, precise time. Female Extension by Cornelia Sollfrank utilizes net.art, each only a maximum of 5 megabytes of data, submitted by multiple artists online for a competition named Extension. With the submissions, Sollfrank pushes the boundaries of presentation by remixing the submissions and applies them to three hundred fake artists to then be judged and awarded at a press conference. This decision Cornelia Sollfrank takes to remix net.art websites allows her project to become net.art rather than a contest that houses artworks online as artworks on the web.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Discussion - Rhizome Net Art Anthology

The Rhizome Net Anthology presents visitors with a collection of Net Art projects by various artists throughout history. For this discussion, Mouchette, LOVE, Form Art, and A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century are the projects in focus. As a popular theme among Net Art, two of the four projects selected focuses on sexuality, innocence, and personalities; none of the projects focusing on such themes censors any of their materials and are fairly explicit to bring out a sense of rawness for visitors to personally connect with. The artworks that hold a close, personal connection with their artists and their audience members are Mouchette and LOVE while A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century and Form Art are on the exploration of Net Art media/distribution.

With Mouchette, audience members will navigate a blog-like website of a young girl named Mouchette; Mouchette is not a real girl, but is an online character made by Martin Neddam for herself and the public to become. Along with sexuality and innocence, Mouchette.org also heavily discusses death and suicide; on many occasions, Mouchette questions about suicide as if she were a fanatic and invites visitors to actively participate in her exploration of such topic. Apart from the themes Mouchette is interested in, the website’s design and function is highly thought out and relies on poetry, gifs, and images; all images have filters on to allow them to appear slightly pixelated in a similar fashion as classic early gif styles. Text used on the website do not have use a strict set of colors; instead they use colors that aesthetically match well with their webpages’ designs. When colors that are not aesthetically pleasing are found on a webpage, visitors can easily understand that the word/sentence selected is important and to be under focus for discussion. Unlike the four projects in focus for this discussion, Mouchette is the only project that utilizes motion in its texts (such as having sentences run across a page or paragraphs moving from bottom to top) and audio (such as sounds of moans, men speaking in foreign languages, and giggling voices of a girl/Mouchette.)

Following Mouchette is LOVE by Michaël Samyn. LOVE is a project made of seven different parts that each focus on different aspects of love from the view of Group Z, Belgium (a group made of nine “artistic alter egos” of Michaël Samyn.) According to Michaël Samyn, the seven parts of love the project presents are various forms of love, from innocent to explicit, that audience members can journey through. While the loves in focus are divided into parts, it is safe to say that the love present is mainly from Michaël Samyn’s lovelife and the emotions he felt when splitting from his past partners. Unlike Mouchette, LOVE utilizes simple pictures with filters with little to no gifs on its web pages; this decision to use such simple images and layouts sets the tone and aesthetic of the project.

A Cyberfeminists Manifesto for the 21st Century is a project from 1991 to 1997 that, unlike other projects in focus, directly interacts with audience members by presenting itself through “fax, snail-mail, paste-up poster, billboard, and online posts” (Rhizome, 2019). As one of the many projects that sparks Cyberfeminisim, the project main focus is on feminism while exploring the use of propaganda as an art form. The decision for VNS Matrix to use such forms of distribution paves the way for Net Artists to depart from traditional methods and experiment new ways of communication through ways never thought to be relatable to art.

Form Art by Alexei Shuglin is another project that explores distribution of art through experimental methods. Rather than presenting its work visually through images, Form Art is a projects that works mainly with HTML and its bare elements. Eventually, Form Art departs from only working with HTML and begins to explore innovative methods of distributing art that engages with its audience members. Examples of such methods include live outdoor performances and contests.


While all of the projects discussed above have designs that appear scattered, all designs present are actually following models that their making a comment on. With Mouchette, the layout is similar to a blog post in the 90s where many introduce visitors to its page with a short, bulleted bio; visuals relate highly to the dark, edgy humor seen in many of the online teen blogs during the time. LOVE also follows a similar take on layout as Mouchette by allowing each of its page appear like a blog entry by one of the nine personalities of Michaël Samyn. As mentioned before, A Cyberfeminists Menifesto for the 21st Century presents itself with methods used in propaganda to make a statement on future feminism; much of the visuals for the project use simple designs with layers of images and texts to have the iconic style of early Net Art but with a different distribution method. Form Art embraces the core of Net Art with html while also expanding mediums of Net Art to become more interactive with audience members (thus following it's name of Form Art.)

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Read and Response - GIF.

From many of this week’s articles on GIFs, it is easy to see and understand that GIFs are highly open and available in ways unlike traditional forms of art; rather, it can be one of the most open form of art with its file available for anyone to use for free.  According to SHA from the Digital Materiality of GIFs, GIF is a visual language that is open for anyone to interpret and use freely; GIF is not owned by anyone and is a file format for people to constantly create new visuals and reinterpret such visuals in an infinite number of ways. GIF is a universal visual language where context is not necessary to understand what is present on screen; this lack of context needed is what brings in a democratic nature to GIFs because it allows viewers to see and do what they wish with the format through their own decisions. An example that visually shows this definition of GIF art is with the MTAA’s release of Simple Net Art Diagram in 1997. By placing a flashing red thunderbolt/connection symbol at the center of cord that connects a computer on the left to a computer on the right, MTAA pushes viewers and artists to begin thinking about active communication and how Net Art truly occurs when artists influence artworks through reinterpretation.

With the democratic nature of GIF formats, we can understand that GIFs are highly shaped by society and their culture. Again, GIFs can be reinterpreted and edited countless times since it is a free, universal visual language; this means that GIFs can easily be a group or club project with multiple artists adding their interpretations before presenting itself to the public. From “A Brief History of Animated GIF Art, Part Two,” readers understand that many artists began to release GIF art to the public through “collaborative blog platforms” from 2006 to 2010. On these collaborative blog platforms, artists will post their own GIF art online while sharing artworks of other fellow GIF artists as well as editing some as reinterpretations. Examples of such forums include the Computers Club Drawing Society and Tumblr.

As a young graphic design student in 2018, these simple low tech method of GIFs represents a visual and active understanding of how Net Art and the internet works. As an open place for people throughout the world to come together and communicate, the internet is not a place for people to go solo; this idea is applied to Net Art. Artworks, once published online, may no longer be works to be kept to oneself but are now a form of visual language for artists and the public to use to communicate; this is especially the case with open formats such as GIF. Net Art truly becomes Net Art when collaboration and manipulation occurs to present artworks as visual words for communication.

With many artists continuing to rely more and more on the internet and social media to gain farther reach, this idea of Net Art can also be where issues emerge. If artists donot clearly state their set of guidlines for the public to respect or have a mutual understanding of their artwork's position, then there can easily be misunderstanfings in communication where another artist may appropriate or reinterpret another artwork when such artwork was not open to such art methods.

GIF WIP





Friday, January 25, 2019

Project 1 - Conceptual and Technical Process



Human Collage

Overall, the three collages revolve around the idea of views; views can be from gazes by passing people on the street to views on the internet through digital devices. With the human collage, the type of view in focus are physical views; this can be physical gazes and attention gained without the help of technology. The central figure of the human collage is of a woman to bring attention to unwanted stares and gazes many women may receive in the public. Some gazes feel stronger and more intense than others while many come from places the figure does not know.

The figure under watch is a woman built from one of the ladies from the Marble Statue Group of the Three Graces and a portrait of Lee Miller by Man Ray; the choice of placing the two artworks together is to present the figure as beautiful and perfect. To emphasize the age old practice of people watching and to also emphasize the setting of the collage, the majority of the human collage is void of color (or mainly grayscale). Within the grayscale piece, there are small cut outs that are a bit more colored to help them stand out from the rest; this is scene with the eyeballs and eyes scattered throughout the collage to bring out the inescapable atmosphere os gazes and stares from the figure's surroundings.




Machine Collage

In the center of the triptych is the machine collage. Rather than representing the idea of views, the machine collage focuses on the introduction of technology (or the machine) to humans; a force that will influence the future and the way people watch others. The central figure of the machine collage is not of a woman, but is the military airplane dropping revolutionary communicating devices to the world. Unlike the human and hybrid, the machine is a piece that represents transition and is the connecting piece of the whole triptych.

To show a transition from traditional to digital, the machine collage is half grayscale and half highly pigmented with bright, neon-like colors. As mentioned before, the choice to use grayscale is to represent the past; the past before the introduction of technology. The highly pigmented bottom portion of the canvas represents the future where everything in the world become digital. There is a gradient filter from the bottom to the top of the canvas to further emphasize the transition of past to future. The placement and drop of important subjects in the machine collage is influenced by many of the photomontage techiniques used by Aleksandr Rodchenko.




Hybrid Collage

The hybrid, unlike the human and the machinem is completely in color and has little grayscale images. Many of the colors in the hybrid are highly saturated (some close to neon colors) to emphasize the idea that viewers are no longer looking at the past but are now looking at the digital future. There are no longer physical eyes staring at the central figure. Instead, the subject is now under constant stares from having to be in a digital world where privacy no longer exists. Patches of glitches found throughout the collage is what can remind viewers that the collage is a mix of both human and machine; the merge of the two is not necessarily perfect/ideal and is one that can glitch up at times.

When it comes to technique, the composition of the hybrid is almost a reflection of the human collage; the saturated female marble statue is placed on the left side of the canvas with flipped buildings from the background of the human collage. Along with high color saturation, the background is distorted to appear wavy, unreal, and digital to further bring out the hybrid's setting in the digital world. The addition of distortion and raised color saturation to buildings resembling ones found in the human collage is what presents the merge of human and machine. To further emphasize the mix of human and machine, there are patches of glitches found throughout the hybrid piece.

Monday, January 14, 2019

New Media Art Response

Rachel N. Gibbs
Professor Asmuth
ART 2602
January 14, 2019

Many individuals, including myself, typically imagine new media artworks as contemporary digital pieces that heavily utilize technology and innovative techniques; this idea of what forms new media art is not necessarily the truth. According to New Media Art by Mark Tribe and Reena Jana, New Media art is neither new or old, but in fact an art movement that continues to evolve while walking on a fine line between new and traditional media. Depending on how an artist wishes to respond to an external stimuli (ex: political tension, trends, etc.), New Media art can become inclusive and exclusive of traditional media.

When inclusive of traditional media, artists may utilize traditional mediums (such as paints, photographs, etc.) while practicing new techniques of creating and distributing their works. An example of a New Media artwork that is inclusive of traditional media is Michael Mandiberg’s After Sherrie Levine. As the traditional media of his piece, Michael Mandiberg utilizes re-photographed images taken by Sherrie Levine in 1979 of Walker Evan’s Depression era photographs. To transform the traditional media in hand into a New Media artwork, Michael Mandiberg appropriates the photographs by posting them online to a website (AfterSherrieLevine.com) as well as forming an event for invited individuals to print and frame the re-photographed images. Of course, it is easy to see that the use of the internet and computers are the new media factors of the artwork. To take it a step further, the decision Mandiberg made to share his knowledge and allow the public to take part in After Sherrie Levine shifts the traditional practice of “passive audience reception” to “active participation” ( a practice well known in New Media art as interactive art). The decision for artists to rely on both traditional practices of art while also introducing innovative technology, ideas, and practices to comment on mass media are one of many ways New Media art can be inclusive of traditional media.

When exclusive of traditional media, artists may utilize strictly digital mediums to both create and distribute their pieces in an method that is highly untraditional; many times, the methods used can stretch the typical concept of art to the farthest it’s been. An example of a genre that can be found in New Media art exclusive of traditional media is the hacker culture. For the hacker culture, artists hack into technology to create pieces that have transformed information previously written into the systems that have been hacked; rather than following traditional practices of displaying artworks, the hacker culture focuses on sharing their knowledge of computer science for the public to emulate and further advance technology. This moral code of allowing the public to interact and/or emulate pieces from the hacker culture is completely void of traditional practices of only allowing the public to view artworks passively; instead the hacker culture is mainly active with audience participation to further distribute their pieces to the public. On top of their practices, the “new media” portion of the hacker culture is also their use of technology as a medium (such as video games, cd-ROMs, computers, and web sites). An artist from the hacker culture that easily presents New Media art exclusive of traditional media is Cory Arcangel. With Cory Arcangel and his piece Super Mario Clouds, a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Super Mario game cartridge is hacked, replaced with a new programme chip to show only background clouds, projected onto a screen, and then ultimately shared his source code online with tutorials for the public to also create their own Super Mario Clouds . As viewers can see, New Media artists exclusive of traditional media most often do not rely on traditional media but instead focus on introducing technology and science that can aid the public.

As Mark Tribe explains throughout New Media Art, New Media art is not one type of art style; it is a massive art movement that consists of many different genres hat erase the dividing line typically seen between new and traditional media. There are New Media artworks that are inclusive and exclusive of traditional media depending on how an artist wishes to present their idea to the public.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Project 1 - Resampled Library


























Statement/Analysis:

For the first project on “human, hybrid, and machine,” I want to focus on the body/anatomy of all the selected subjects. To build and create the body of a machine, many of the images selected are of zoomed in machine parts (particularly cogs) that are both rusted and new. To help with the resampling/editing process of the images to create my collage, some of the images selected are of disassembled machines (such as cameras) with a blank background. Personally, I don’t think all bodies are built with the newest grade of parts. Many times the body can be built with polished, new parts while also having a rusty piece hidden within; this rusty piece can be from the beginning or from old bad habits that have degraded the once polished piece. For my human portion, the images selected are of the human anatomy. There is an image of a skull as well as a muscle chart of the human body to show bits and pieces that form the internal makings of humans. Instead of going for an image of any human, I will be utilizing an image of the Marble Statue Group of The Three Graces because they are Roman statues that present the idea of a perfect body. There are also images of old portraits and human skulls to possibly add on top of the Roman statue to further bring my collage to life; almost as if the figures in the statue are talking to one another. For my hybrid of human and machine, I will like to mix many of the external human qualities to the internal makings of a machine. Images selected for the hybrid are not of one figure, but are of parts that can create one figure (similar to the images selected for my machine). My hybrid will also use some of the images selected for the machine and human to present the merging of the two collages that form the blend of two worlds. I particularly will like to add a glitch art look to my hybrid collage because I believe that an addition of a glitchy image can further emphasize the mix of both human and machine (almost as if it were to be from a space between the two worlds, glitching because it is not fully one or the other.)




Project 1 Bibliography:

Machine:

Metal cogs bronze and gold

Three red dot metal cogs

Disassembled canon camera

Blue machine parts

Buttons and measure

Hybrid

Red stained measures

Rusty Tractor

Orange flesh bg

Rusty Wires

Bronze male statue

Human

Steel Blue Eye

Three marble ladies

Three women photo

Yellow Skull

Human Muscular System Back
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bougle,_Human_muscular_system,_posterior-ca.svg

NYC Street BG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_14th_Street_looking_west_12_2005.jpg