More interesting Stuff

Watch the first two videos. The other links are so-so.



Check out this video of a mischievous Octopus.
I watched the beginning, and I was like "eh, another blurry underwater video", but the middle is really cool and serene, and the ending was like "WOAH" when things suddenly became brilliantly sharp and vibrantly colored. I think the music fits it pretty well too.

http://www.vimeo.com/10966874


This is an ad. . .And I can't believe I forgot about it while we were doing our presentations!
I think this best illustrates why you don't always want to re-touch photos too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcbZ0v8Mpvk








A Good use for the new Apple iPad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40



A few links which I'll try and forward to the right people in our class who might find them interesting :


Both of these actually seem really important as we talk about social networking, and how much information about ourselves is floating around online - whether we know about it and want it out there or not.


"Google Street View Shoots Same Woman 43 Times"

The van with the camera that captures images for Google Street View was driving around at the same time (and about the same pace) as an English woman taking her dog out for a walk. Her husband found her on Google Street View 43 separate times.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20002799-71.html



Google and Library of Congress to Archive All Public Tweets

I'm not much of a Twitter fan. I think I want more then just 140 characters to say what it is I have to say, and its nice to add in pictures and links now and then. I'm tempted to move to Plurk, which is like twitter, Facebook, and instant messaging combined; You can post things, and your friends can comment on them, right on your page - So you can post a photo, and then watch/read your friends comments on it like a conversation.

I think that its an interesting idea to archive the public tweets, since there is a LOT of information conveyed by them - like when Obama was elected, I bet there were millions of people tweeting about his victory. A quote from within the article states

""Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition. I'm no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data," wrote a Library of Congress representative in a Facebook note."


What I'd like to know is how exactly they will be archived - For instance, If I have a tweet that I suddenly decide I don't want to be public, and I change the privacy settings on it, what happens? Does it get deleted from the archive? (I don't even know if you can set privacy setting for individual tweets, so it might be a moot point.)

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/14/technology/Google_Twitter_archive/

Ning

The more I use Ning, the less I'm liking it.

Here's the link to my Ning network

http://acolorfullworld.ning.com/


I like the idea behind Ning, but I think Blogger is just as powerful (for the most part), and its much more user friendly. I think Blogger also has more powerful built-in tools, but I'll see how Ning does.

Some more stop motion to check out

Watch both of these on their respective sites;
The Youtube one should fit on screen, and I've got a higher resolution version of the one on the bottom too.

How Not to Paralel Park (V. 2) from Mark Sylvester on Vimeo.

Process

Topic Presentation Question:

is process an important part of creating artwork?


(actual typed conversation transcribed by Rachael Kulik)

RACHAEL: The process is definitely important when creating an artwork. I personally am process oriented, and tend to work and build as I go. I’m not usually a fan of others seeing the process beforehand – only the final product- but it’s still pretty important to get to the final product. Not to mention the process changes the piece entirely, whether you start out with an outlined drawing or just go draw for five minutes without thinking. Whether it’s a little or a lot, the process is still important to the piece.

MARK: I think that the process is important for new media because it shows whether or not the artist made distinct choices or just used premade decisions from the technology available to them, you know? It really lets you show how much work the artist put into it. Did you actually spend time toning and balancing a photo if your making it sepia or did you just quickly do it in photobooth where it looks like your dog peed on it instead? There’s the actual thought out way where your thinking about it and paying attention, and then there’s the quick-and-easy-do-it-in-two-seconds-on-your-computer-and forget-about-it-way.

DANIELLE: So, I think process is important because it shows how the artist thinks, and it shows the choices the artist goes about how they’re going to complete their artwork and how somebody chooses to complete a task, whether it be washing the dishes or doing a project for a school paper. For example, someone might use a reference photo instead of a still life or model to do a drawing or a painting. It might not seem that important when looking at the final product, but I think that depending on which one they chose, it affects the drawing or painting.



Artist Examples:

Glenn Feron


http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/index.html

One thing we found interesting about Glenn Feron is his interaction with the before and after process for doctoring photographs. These days, airbrushing photos is important for the industry. We live in a world surrounded by aesthetics and supposed ‘perfection’, in turn causing problems with those growing in the modern day society. It’s interesting to see the differences between the old photos and the new photos – some small, like a color balance change, and others larger, like eliminating wrinkles or ‘fat’ curves from the body (in some cases, even adding a few!) We found it interesting to see the before and after process with these photos, and loved being able to interact with them. They really get you to start thinking. Check it out for yourself - see what you think.

George Vlosich III


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYM__s3R5q0

George Vlosich creates artwork using an etch-a-sketch. We found his artwork interesting because the process is SO essential in creating the work itself. If you shake the etch-a-sketch, you essentially erase the whole entire piece. Plus, creating it takes such patience turning all the smallish knobs to follow the important linear components. However, if the viewer had no possible idea that the etch-a-sketch was such a temporal medium and had they not seen the entire process of creating the piece, we would only have a still image of basketball player that doesn’t nearly strike us as hard as knowing it’s created using a simple child’s toy.

Kseniya Simonova


http://www.popeater.com/2009/08/28/ukrainian-talent-winner/?icid=mainmaindl2link4http://www.popeater.com/2009/08/28/ukrainian-talent-winner/

For this example, the process of creating the work IS the piece itself. There’s so much that goes into her work - The motion of her hands, the background music, the sound effects, and the lines and shapes her hands create. One could take still pictures of all of her pieces, and it would mean absolutely nothing unless you saw her actual creation OF it. Her pieces themselves actually speak so much more than making a simple aesthetic piece. Her work stands for the pain and suffering her country has faced and survived. Without any of the other added components and without documenting the process, her work would not nearly hit anyone the same way it currently does. Can you imagine making an artwork out of the actual PROCESS of creating it? Talk about interesting!

Process Question

How does process affect the final product?

Looking at the artists and their works above, how do you think process affects the final product? We chose a few really thought provoking artists to help get you thinking about the concept. You can find a lot of resources about the artists by accessing youtube or even wikipedia. A lot of times the actual process can be overlooked when it’s actually such an important component. We've included a few good links for the artists, too.



Kseniya Simonova:

http://www.kseniyasimonova.com/

http://artisticthings.com/sand-animations-with-kseniya-simonova/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kseniya_Simonova

http://www.bareknucklevideos.com/video/o0xnLvk8xW4/Sand-Artist.html

George Vlosich III:

http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/index.php

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2009/01/tipoff_george_vlosichs_etch_a.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Etch-A-Sketch-King-George-Vlosich-III

http://www.veoh.com/collection/PeerSientje/watch/v6259925f9GcbjWc

Glenn Feron:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2009/08/glenn-feron-i-have-no-sense-of.html

http://ocaoimh.ie/glenn-feron-the-art-of-retouching/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/glennferon

(more of glenn's work can be seen on his portfolio at his website: http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/)