Gender Reversal

 

For the rest of the images, link to:

http://jaimetylercomputerclass.blogspot.com/2011/04/final-project-new-perspectives-on.html

http://kellymcglone.blogspot.com/2011/04/gender-reversal-group-final-project.html

Hell Of A Life

"Hell Of A Life"

Michael Dixon

Honestly, I couldn't find very many pieces on that website that I could lie to myself and write about. I didn't see the art in many of them and found most of them to be cliche or hackneyed concepts. But one artist that I really liked, but sadly had little work on the site, was Michael Dixon. Upon entering his actual site, I found a goldmine of art I loved and felt personally connected to. A lot of Michael Dixon's art deals with being bi-racial and the stereotypes surrounding blacks and whites. He's a very good painter and drawer and he has the message to make his work seem intentional and passionate, and so my exhibition would be entirely on him.

http://www.michaeldixonart.com/

Lul.

Fair Use

1. The PVLA seems to be the closest representation of the opinion I have on fair use. The more similar a work is to another, the more private it should be and the less profit it should receive. For example, if someone wants to print out a picture of a movie/actor and put it on their wall or use it for a poster advertising something, I see that as fair use. It is not claimed to be something new, it has no profit attached to it, and it's purpose is blatantly to draw attention/idolize something. It is copying, but fair copying. If one were to try to sell these poster  or claim they made them and deserve profit, that is where error arises. For me, a new work must have a "so what?" factor for it to be original. If the piece is relatively the same  and does nothing to change the picture physically or on it's purpose/meaning, it is not fair use. Warhol's work treads this line very carefully but, none the less, it was changed enough to become iconic and act as a representation of a culture and it's obsession with mass production.

2. About the project "Stolen Ideas", I found it pretty interesting. I believe that, in terms of modern art, it can use it's meaning and value when it's taken out of it's natural setting and placed in some pretentious museum.  Banksy looks great on a public brick wall, David Hammons' installations looked great outside, and many modern artists host public, outdoor showing for their work. It is here that they were best displayed and explored, not when they are roped off and hidden from full absorption of the viewer. I can understand it for restoration and reservation purposes, but that only comes after a length of time where, inevitably, the piece would wither and be unable to be viewed. So I can appreciate what "Stolen Ideas" is doing in taking these pieces of art and commemorating them and, so long as it remains non-profit and they don't try to take charge of creating some "new" idea in doing this, their piece fits within fair use.

3. In the article about Shepard, frankly, Mark Vallen appears to just be a jealous ass. How he can attack Shepard but then defend other works, including his own, very similar to his is ludicrous. After watching "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and seeing Shepard work and his interactions, he really does not seem to be the type to be about finances and theft. As displayed in the film, he doesn't kick back and get rich off his work like others have done after "selling out", but he's still out there putting up posters and making new designs. Yes, his works often use a stencil of a real figure, but the messages he ties with them and how he uses them put it under fair use. Some may belittle his work to just Andre's face on another work's body, but Shepard's thoughts behind it and his backseat attitude to capitalism pushes it from being merely a copy/rip off. I can understand the debate over whether it's art or not, but in terms of it being theft, the pieces differentiate themselves enough to not be stolen, but like I said, the question of "art" remains unheard of.

3.

Final Kids

I agreed with most of the critiques that were given to me about my piece, and if given more time, I'd love to mold the pictures more to the faces and differentiate the plains between the kids. But, given as it is, I'm happy with it's current outcome.

Healed Image

This girl must be really offended if the tear was a real deformity on her and we blamed it on the picture.

Heather Knight: Silicon-based comedy & The Pen Tool

The clip that I viewed was about a robot developed by Heather Knight that was able to tell jokes to a live audience and log it's feedback. Acting in a method similar to Netflix, the robot is supposedly able to gauge laughter, clapping, boos, and good/bad colors to it's jokes and then adapt to it. This means that, given the audience, the robot is able to switch genres of jokes in order to please a wide variety of people and demographics. Personally, I find this quite fascinating, but a bit unnecessary. It may be a cool toy to have around a gathering but, in terms of professional stand-up, what really brings the comedy to life is the personality of the comedian and there on stage movements. Although I do not think the tech is put to best use in comedy, the gauging function and reaction to real people could be used for something far more useful.

Pen Tool: The pen tool is a fantastic tool to use as the base outline/frame work of your illustrations. For those looking for a crisper line or are not as steady with a mouse/pen tablet, the pen tool allows anyone to make smooth curves and straight lines with simple clicks. All one has to do is click in two different spots to create an anchor and a line is created. To change the shape, one simply holds the click down and stretches it to their desired shape, adding more lines if trying to create a full shape. Within the pen tool, there is a add anchor, delete anchor, and convert anchor tool. The add and delete tools are self explanatory, allowing the user  to add or take away points of interactivity for the line. The convert tool is the tool that allows the interactivity, allowing the user to click onto an already laid out anchor and adjust the shape of it.

Hot/Cold

Basic experimentation with the inversion of colors and warm vs cool using vector art.

So Many Kids

MGMT would be proud. Slight edits made to try and add more space and layers, will continue developing at a later point.

Lost In Translation

I thought the task was to combine the images like a mash up and then realized we just had to combined them flatly next to each other.  Oops?

Drawing & Object

 One of my objects was the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I chose this object because it is one of my favorite books and is one of the few texts that I've read that has influenced me.

Walking through Philly is one thing, but walking through it with the right theme music is key. At this point in time, my music was by the Cool Kids, and so, they were drawn.

Photographs

I'm a commuter, so these are images from my part of the hood. The streets are tough and the people are mean; the suburbs are a rough area to raise your kids in, but we do what we can.

Day 1 Exercise

Lieutenant Gritty works in Gritty Town where everyday he has to deal with gritty criminals in his gritty life learning to gritty live in grittygrittygrittygrittygrittygrittygrittygritty...