Project 7: A Digital You

In the polygonal mess that is Second Life this was my attempt to create an avatar that resembled myself, physically with the regular outfit and artistically with the fantasy outfit. After spending hours with the sliders and looking back and forth at pictures of myself for reference, I finally gave up on making it look like me. I stuck a Lamb of God shirt on him to make it have some resemblance to me, but other than the clothes it was a lost cause. Anyway, my fantasy self, Con-Tron, was sort of thrown together with pieces of a terminator and Nathan Explosion from Metalocalypse. He's a cybernetic guitarist and the only thing he loves more than dismembering John Connor is playing tasty Jams. The fantasy avatar isn't representative of my personality, but is really more of a version of me that can only exist in the virtual realm, where the laws of reality don't apply.

Project 6: Digital Modeling

For project 6 I had no idea what to model so I just picked a few random things that were lying around my room. The items are headphones, a CD case, a guitar pedal, and my iPhone. All of these items are music related and as such have some importance to me. The significance of the items I used are the headphones remind me of jamming and recording in the garage in high school. The pedal was the first one I ever bought and If you're a guitar player you know that an overdrive is the "solo" pedal. The CD is Deafheaven's Sunbather which in my opinion is the best album of 2013, and I modeled the phone pretty much only because it was in front of me.

For my single object, I modeled an amplifier tube. They are basically what makes guitar amps sound louder and fuller. I thought the shape was interesting and didn't necessarily choose it for any sentimental value. This item was much harder to model than any of the objects in the collage since most of the detail is inside of the object.

Digital Nation Response Questions

!. In the film, programs like Second Life are trying to replicate real life in a digital form. If these programs become indistinguishable from reality will they become boring? Furthermore, is it even worth it to create something that only replicates something that already exists?
 2. One school in the film had begun using computer games in every class in hopes of engaging the students. They had replaced most of the books with educational computer games and it had improved grades and attendance. Is the knowledge attained from a digital education fueled by entertainment, as valuable as traditional education based in curiosity?

Project 4: Art Video Emulation

For my project I attempted to emulate Takashi Ito's "Ghost". I think I captured his technique and a bit of the overall vibe, but I think his film is much more interesting. I just couldn't get the lights to do what I wanted. I filmed the whole thing stop motion, which I really don't have the patience for. My whole video turned out really dark and its hard to tell what's going on but that kind of contributes to the nightmare vibe. I wasn't trying to make it creepy, stop motion will make just about anything creepy anyways, so I focused on Ito's technique.
As to the meaning, my favorite part (sarcasm), I think it has some think to do with electronics and media causing sleep deprivation.   You get sucked into movies, TV, and video games and before you know it, it's 4 in the morning. Ito also stated his film was conceptulized while he was getting 2 hours of sleep a night. Furthermore, the media has control over us, keeping us awake. It's constantly assaulting us with information, and we are unable to look away.



Here's the original:









Here's Mine:

Reading 2 Response Questions

1. Kate Horsfield discusses how early video manipulation was difficult and highly unpredictable. Is this unpredictability an obstacle in art or does it contribute to the allure of it?

2. Horsfield states that programs like Final Cut Pro have allowed the tools for making digital art to reach the masses. Is the world becoming over-saturated with video art? Will great video artists be appreciated when anyone with a computer can produce it?

Project 2 Animation

This is a short animation I made in flash. I'm not sure as to how it changes the meaning of the original image, but I think it has added the element of illusion, giving further meaning to "perception". I think the strobe effects contribute most to the new found sense of illusion. The orbiting planet was something I wanted to imply in the original image so I actually animated it in this project. Also I think animating it made it more "metal" in a sense, I was inspired by lyric videos from some bands I like.


                                   

Reading 1 Response Questions

1. In section 9, Walter Benjamin discusses the effects than can be achieved through manipulating film. He gives the example that "A jump from the window can be shot in the studio as a jump from a scaffold, and the ensuing flight, if need be, can be shot weeks later when outdoor scenes are taken." 
Is some of the performance and nuance lost when an actor can no longer act in the moment or has to spread that moment over days or weeks? Has the performance of the actor been diluted in today's films that rely almost entirely on manipulating the film and are shot on green screens?

2. In section 12, Benjamin, on progressivism, states that "The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion." He adds "Individual reactions are predetermined by the mass audience response they are about to produce." Do people need artists to tell them what to like, or do they inherently like what they want to? 

Project 1: Triptych Montage

                  

This is a triptych that I created in Photoshop cc. I obtained all of the images from Google. The idea for this project came when I noticed the similarities between the album cover for Deftones' Koi No Yokan and a scene from the game Mass Effect 2. I got several of the images from prog-metal album covers or sci-fi artwork. As for what these images mean, I didn't initially create them with any meaning, but I think that the halo-like objects behind the figures, as well as their massive scale give them a godlike appearance. To accentuate this I applied a stone texture to them to make them look like statues.

Regardless of what exists, we only can contemplate what we physically experience. I think of music as a way to push the limits of reality and expand perception of the universe and of the mind. It is a way to escape outside of normal convention and everyday life. All in all, I think that's what this image represents.

Previous Work