Blog #5

1. What is the most significant accomplishment in looking at your Midterm or Final? You can talk about technique in Photoshop, investigating your Big Idea, creating a meaningful artwork, etc.

      

       I believe I have made significant progress in feeling confident in my Photoshop abilities. From the midterm to the Final, I used more advance tools a such as selecting pieces of an image from one picture and placing it onto my major image then warping it instead of erasing sections of an image and placing an image with low opacity over top it. I also think I really focused my Big Idea of technological conflict into a clear and precise idea that is easily readable and extremely meaningful since it is something that most people can reference to Adam and Eve, knowledge and humanity's destruction . 

2. Choose a project in the class and discuss your most challenging learning experience in Photoshop. Focus on a technique or concept from Photoshop that was difficult at first, but that you mastered by the end of the quarter.

       My most challenging learning experience would be remembering all the tools and which tool to use when. In the project of Photoshop-ing a face, I became overwhelmed with how to create a more popping eye ball. I however learned with the individual help by Ms. Mattox to select the iris, use the burn tool then get the white paint brush and create a glare in the pupil. 

3. Compare two projects from the quarter to compare and contrast how you achieved making meaning in the work. Try to showcase in your examples an improved capacity to making visual images that mean something as opposed to being a showcase of technique.

My blog #2 tutorial image of a tree I had to transform in some way is a good example of making something to showcase technique verses an actual meaning. I tried to make the image as different as possible from the original without making it too complex and to me, the tree looks not that good. I did however use the liquify,burn tool, gradient and clone stamp tools fairly well. Compared to my second image of my midterm or my first image of my final, it is night and day for what they represent to a mere technique art piece. For the 2nd image of my Midterm, the rising sun with a funeral type image of a gun sticking in the dirt stating " Make Art, Not War" as the American flag is overlaid on top of the image carries a very powerful meaning to anyone who knows how damaging war is to the American people and how we should try to find alternative ways to direct conflict. My 1st image of my Final of the women about to bite the world with wires encircling it speaks a word of caution about our reliance on technology and the possible negative applications technology can have on our earth whether it be polluting it or using it to create weapons for warfare. In both cases, the meaning of the projects made the projects and help supplement the image instead of the image's technique being its only significance. 

Technology

Stephen Magyar

 BIG IDEA: Technology

Technology is commonly recognized as a positive development by the modern world; yet, if we look to the reasons for mass bloodshed and perpetuating conflict, we can easily find it as the culprit. In this day of age, our lives revolve too much around electronics, data and digital processing networks. We live in a digital environment based off of technology compared to no other time in history. In this place we give meaning to things based on its contemporary design, its ability to be update and how fast it can deliver our desires, which are usually just a click away. However, with "all great power, bring great responsibility", and this has never been more prevalent than in today's culture. We can look up where someone lives, what chemicals make up mustard gas, the blueprints for a building, email viruses and other potential evils that can be accessed through the Internet. The Internet however has positive applications such as mobilizing an entire Democratic movement through a social Network like the Egyptian revolution Facebook page or ceasing the censorship by the government of information. In these examples, one can clearly see the role of technology in causing or resolving conflict.

 My art is a word of caution to mankind’s future. It not only sets an allusion to Genesis from the Bible of the apple that Eve eats, but to all sources of potential knowledge that have the power to drastically change an era of human life. In the Bible, God tells Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge and of course, as the story goes, Eve eats the apple, throwing Adam and her out of Paradise. This is paralleled to my first art piece, as a woman is about to take a bite from a globe with wires in circling it. Here, the world is at risk as the wires are to be characterized as serpents of temptation. This piece is to call to arms people of the earth to use technology for its potential benefits and to defend against its possible negative applications. My Second piece of artwork is a play off of my first image but with an apocalyptic twist attached. This image is in response to the question, what if we succumb to our evil desires and allow technology to overtake ourselves? Here we can find an allusion to not only Genesis but to the Terminator movies in which cyborgs are in power and man has been forced to fight for his place on earth. If we allow technology to take over too much of our lives and dictate the reasons we do things, we will be nothing more than digital machines. There must never be a break of weighing the "economic, political, environmental social and emotional impacts of new technologies on the social worlds in which they are introduced and on which they draw for their raw material" said by Sturken and Cartwright in their book In Practice of Looking: An introduction to Visual Culture. More than anything, my art work’s voice beseeches man kind to foster our human condition and to guard against technology controlling our everyday lives by taking back the little things like interpersonal and intimate communication or enjoying the great outdoors. Finally, we as citizens have the ability to shape our scientific future. Science is not a straight path evolving out of itself but can only gain momentum by the needs of a specific culture. The prevailing truth is independent of the prevailing logic that leads us to believe science as dependent on itself when really science engulfs not only itself but also all proponent of culture interwoven. This gives rise to a promising future for humanity against the possible ills of technology since we as a culture have the power to support or cease developing science and digital technology.  

         

Two Artist for final project: Inspiration

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/outusa/horizontal_1.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0IJSOq0xg
http://www.boredpanda.com/80-beautiful-street-crimes-done-by-banksy/


When thinking about conflict awareness, the best artist who gets right down to the nitty gritty and brings his work to the people would be Banksy. Banksy is " a quasi-anonymous English graffiti artist. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy “was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s.” His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics." Some of his graffiti shows such controversial topics like crooked cops, surveillance, childhood innocence and our government's wrongdoings. He tries to communicate with his art, a conflict that doesn't go un noticed in our everyday lives but is just too risky to talk about. He shows what everybody wants to say but is too sacred to say it and buy acting as an indirect actor, he is the voice of many people. His images are very simple but carry a lot of weight like my 2nd project for my midterm, everything is right to the point and you may have to question it at first but once you understand it, its perfect. I can use his idea of simplicity and refine my 1st midterm project. I can also practice my photoshop techniques so I can become as proficient as Banksy had to become so he wouldn't get caught by law enforcement.  Banksy is, in my eyes, the bad ass of the art world because he is making a very low art form of graffiti into something high. He such a popular icon that people will cut his art off the side of a building and sell it on eBay. It is also a special note that his identity was concealed for many years and increased his popularity/ mythology as a hero.

My second artist that inspired my final art project is GenArts. Gen Arts "is the premier provider of specialized visual effects software for the film, broadcast and video industries. The company was founded in 1996 in Cambridge, Mass. by industry-renowned digital artist and computer scientist, Karl Sims. Today, GenArts develops and markets tools that have become the standard for high-end visual effects creation at leading studio, broadcast and post-production facilities of all sizes around the world. " ( http://www.genarts.com/aboutus ). I choose this visual effects software firm because they are really talented artist using computers to create amazing visuals. We do not even think of how much time goes into a 30 second clip we see on the t.v or movie screen but since I have taken this class, I am inspired to become skilled in computer art. Computer art is probably the most intelligent area of expertise to pursue since so many things are electronic and technologically driven. Why does this artist appeal to you? It is actually the art of many artist. What are the Big Ideas in their work? The big ideas are working for a customer, getting the job well done and to perfection. 

What do you find inspiring about the work? I find how clean cut all their videos are and how visually and overwhelming their work is as inspiration.  What sorts of questions, curiosities, inspirations arise from your encounter with the artist’s work? I would like to know how much training they had and what technology they use for a movie special effects verses something on a commercial or t.v program. 

How will you use this artist to inspire your final project? I will try to freeze one of the video clips form a video like Iron Man. What stylistic components can you learn to make your work stronger? Use more motion in my art. Make the viewers eyes move where I want them to move. What approaches to making an artwork that the artist uses can help you? The approach they use is using technology for its positive uses which is a theme under my main idea. 

newest version of midterm not FINAL

         My Big Idea is conflict and my references include propaganda posters, photographs, and individual artists from the last century to modern day. The art I used is unbiased, it reflects both sides of a war: pain and suffering, peace and bloodshed, happiness and celebration. I find no reason in trying to portray a single meaning besides the power of humanity that is shown as the cover image of the A-bomb exploding. That picture in particular sums up the future of our earthly solitude we find so comfortable if nations act individually. The idea of this comfortable lifestyle from all our accomplishments walks hand in hand with our doom. Behind every technology brings a possible destruction. The positive uses for each development in history may come before or after destruction. In the case of the A-bomb, it came after killing thousands of people in Japan and now, we use it for nuclear energy and as deterrent by both superpowers during the cold war.  My project is a warning to stop war and for nations of the world to continue making strives for world peace. It is too easy to destroy something and say sorry in the aftermath of reflection; instead, we need to continuously spread our democratic ideals to those who are oppressed through means of indirect conflict and cooperation of all free world countries. We need to find the positive, constructive uses of technology and guard against its negative applications. We need to continue supporting efforts for individual countries acting in concert of each other’s goals like the basic purpose of the United Nations. If every individual acts for themselves and not for the group, than the entire group is not benefiting as a whole. However an alternative solution is if everyone in the group does what’s best for themselves and for the group. This act for the common good may yield an alternative and second choice of each actor but with this critic, everyone wins. Sadly, this will decrease sovereignty of each country, especially America, but all will benefit and guard against the injustices of technology. This indirect conflict resolution can be achieved through artwork and is clearly stated in my piece with the image in the middle, “ MAKE ART, NOT WAR”. I find this image of a text the cornerstone of my idea because art moves people to think in alternative ways and crushes ignorant ideologies by the state, individuals and religion. Also, art should be open to critique along the same lines of ideologies because the very essence of it is someone’s interpretation of the world around them, which is not always idea right. Furthermore, one has to be careful when art or an ideology is disseminated to the public since people are very vulnerable in believing an image but not understanding the context it is being used in.

         In my art piece’s raw form from the computer, it would be easily transferable as a poster in history or visual culture studies. I would not want to stop here and use it as a draft for a larger project incorporating multimedia and multi mediums. I can easily see my work in a gallery if I would use painting, silk screening, multiple textures and layers. My vision of my project is a mixture of Robert Rauschenberg’s JFK silkscreen (http://fluxlisteurope.blogspot.com/2008/05/robert-rauschenberg-died.html ) and mosaic illusion art posters (http://scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2008/01/coolest_and_most_impressive_ar.php ). I was first introduced to these kinds of art through art classes; one being in high school computer graphic classes in which we used Mozodojo to create a picture comprised of multiple, individual images and the Rauschenberg’s silk screen in Art 200: Concepts and Issues. My art piece can be described as a collage like the image on this webpage, http://www.goodtechtips.com/how-to-make-a-collage-using-photoshop/. This website describes the steps for beginners creating a collage in using Photoshop. One of the techniques I used was spreading the main image, the A-Bomb, on a separate layer and reducing it’s opacity to become transparent, which can be explained in this tutorial: http://www.bairarteditions.com/pages/tutorials/photoshop/laymasks.html.

         I hope that my art reflects my main purpose of a collective body of individual images coming together to create a single picture. This piece calls upon the viewer to use art to question the status quo, humanity as a whole and to reflect upon the motives of artist and prevalent ideologies.  

tree part 3

For my final part, I used a blue gradient on a separate layer to give the sky more color. I reduced its opacity and since some of the tree was still too light, I used the burn tool again to make better shadows. 

tree part 2

I choose to use the burn tool, dodge tool and the clone stamp.

tree warping

I choose to liquify this image for my first round of manipulation. I used the Forward Warp, Pucker and Bloat tools. The problem I am running into is distorting the tree branches in such a way that it looks too stretched out.