Launching the Imagination – Interdisciplinary Arts

        In chapter fifteen of the book Mary Stewart talks about interdisciplinary art, which is "two or more disciplines fused together to create a hybrid art form", and performance art, which is "live art performed by artists" (pg 346). Before reading this chapter I was not completely sure when interdisciplinary art was, but was familiar with performance art. The first section of interdisciplinary art Stewart talked about the visual book and all the elements that go into it that can make it different. The writer/artist has to select a text/music, has to write the text, select text and type style, which can all have different meanings, and then put the words and images together to form a relationship that is both understandable and organized in a way that gives the viewer the meaning and feeling the artist was going for. In the section about installation art, Stewart talks about using space and time, the importance of context, and the advantages, such as fresh perspective, large scale and increased viewer involvement. I particularly liked the last section of the chapter about performance art because it was something that I was familiar with and something that I really enjoy. Performance art "pushes the possibilities of interdisciplinary  work further"  by mixing dance, theater, music and art with politics, philosophy, and other disciplines. The are so many elements that go into a piece of performance art, such as historical background, the characteristics, the collaboration of the elements together, the boundaries that become blurred, and the relationship/connection between the artist and the audience. The advantages to interdisciplinary art are that "the connections created offer new opportunities fro creative thinking and complex communication, ideas and emotions outside the mainstream can become accessible to both artists and audiences, and relationships between artist and audience are redefined" (pg 364). 

Launching the Imagination – Narrative and Nonnarrative

        Chapter fourteen is all about narratives and how they are viewed and used to relay different messages and meaning. Stories within the art world can be portrayed in so many different ways that it is hard to pick just one as my favorite, but I really liked the section of the book titled, Storytelling because storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment. Because stories can be told orally or can be written down and then read aloud, every single culture has told stories through the generations. The author, Mary Stewart, says that stories can "increase self-awareness, provide inspiration, supply information, and encourage understanding" (pg 320).Stewart goes on the explain in detail and provides pictures as examples of all the different ways stories can so all those things. Working with multiple images can "provide many advantages over an individual image" (pg 321), multiple-image structure can be categorized into groups, series or sequence, and scenes can be transformed into screenplay. These different methods allow the viewer to see the story from different perspectives and to be seen as more than images or scenes, because when grouped together into a series, sequence, or screenplay, you get a story that flows to tell a story about someone or something. The rest of the chapter talks about boundaries when developing a story and the different styles that an artist can use to set the mood or indicate historical setting. And also causality, character-driven narrative and narrative compression, all of which are more and different ways to tell a story. The last part of the chapter was also interesting because it talked about nonnarrative in which there is no story and viewers are just shown a series of close-ups so that they may develop the story on their own. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – When Presence-absence Becomes Pattern-randomnes: Blast Theory's Can You See Me Now?

        Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka maria x) starts off this section of the book by talking about this british group, BlastTheory, who's "installation/performance/ game piece" Can You See Me Now? broke the boundary between virtual city and physically city. As virtual city players and physical city runners communicate with each other while playing in extremely different settings seems like one of those things that is so crazy it just might work. I think that this idea is so genius that I now wonder why I have never heard of anyone else doing something like this before. As virtual and physically begin to overlap into becoming this hybrid city so do the players and runners who are present and those who are absent. As the game goes on it becomes harder to figure out which players/ runners are really present and which ones that are really absent. Honestly, I think that is what Blast Theory was going for with this 'game'. By overlapping cities it allows for communication between people of different worlds (virtual vs. physical). It also allows for those who were once though of as absent to really be present (but in a different kind of way) and vise versa. Towards the end of the section Chatzichristodoulou quotes Machiko Kasahara and explains that she believes that "our culture is undergoing a drastic change in terms of our physical and physiological relationships  which space and bodies - our own and those of others" (pg. 83). I think that even though there may be these drastic changes happening I think that in the end it will be a good things, because isn't change that our society ultimately thrives on? Lastly, Chatzichristodoulou argues that Can You See Me Now? "produces more pattern than randomness through their connections and engagements with the system and other users" (pg. 85). This reoccurring cycle that never ends, ultimately never will which makes the overlap of virtual and physical worlds that much easier to cross. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – Digital Archiving as an Art Practice

        Dew Harrison begins this section of the book by going over a few examples of artists and their pieces of art that he believes relates to this topic. Throughout the chapter he continues to provide examples for each of the different methods he proposes for digital archiving. Harrison lists collective memory/ memorial, museological methods, complexity management, art and language, and archiving the LabCulture sessions as methods of digital archiving. I thought that the last method he listed was the most interesting because it is new and because its for the arts and academic community. Because it is a "ready-made archive transposed into an online database accessible from a website" (pg 107) I think that it sounds like the best method for digital archiving. Even though Harrison explains in detail about each one he ultimately ends the chapter by stating that, "Digital archiving is an activity which will continue to develop within current art practice but may be recognized as such only retrospectively for a while longer" (pg 108). If and when it eventually develops into a current art practice, I think it will be a very great thing. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – Preservation of Net Art in Museams

        In Preservation of Net Art in Museums, the author Anne Laforet begins by talking about the different methods for preserving net art that museums are looking into using today. To even begin to try to preserve net art, Laforet says that within the museum, "the balance between documentation and preservation is shifting in favour of documentation" (pg. 109). Even though current models that are being implemented could serve as a potential solution to the "problems within net art preservation", new and updated models still need to be explored. Laforet goes on to explain that the problems that exist with preservation, such as maintaining an internet-based artwork in an 'origianl' state, the strategies are going to vary from place to place. Even though different preservation strategies are going vary depending on the institution, action needs to be taken. The author goes on to explain four different approaches to preservation, and even though these approaches, storage, migration, emulation and reinterpretation, are all possible approaches they all still have their downfalls. Later on in this section the author highlights variable media, but again says it is not the only solution. Lastly, what the author does say is that, when a concrete solution does arise the emphasis of the dialogue between net art and the environment in which it is placed could make institutions into "a living archive" or "a research space with fragments of artworks that could be updated and reactivated in multiple ways". A living archive would not only be a great thing for the institution, but for the net artworks as well, the only problem is finding the perfect solution to fulfill this demand.

DVC: Theory and Practice – Mapping Outside the Frame: Interactive and Locative Art Environments

        In Mapping Outside the Frame the authors, Graham and Elizabeth Coulter-Smith start the chapter by talking about the most recent form of new media art: locative media. They describe locative media as "a burgeoning installation art movement which is that latest attempt to involve the viewer in the work of art" (pg. 49). I think that involving the viewer into a piece of artwork is a great way to get the viewer more involved in, not only art in general, but the specific piece in question. I think it would make the viewing process more fun for the viewer and allow the viewer to enter the world that the artist is in. Having the viewer become more involved in the the piece of art has been done successfully with video games and game-like interactivity, but when it come to fin art attempts can "appear derisory" (pg. 51). "Fine art is much more successful when it comes to involving the spectator's visual perception: the level of the disembodied gaze" (pg. 51). There are so many different elements, kinds and features that locative art possesses, but one of the most interesting features, I thought, was how is uses collected interactive data to create the visualization for the viewer. Instead of altering an existing data-driven work of art, locative art allows the viewer to enter the art in a visual way. Finding new ways to involve all kinds of people, and not just those interested in art, is a great idea. Getting more people interested in things that they might not normally be interested in it always a good idea. "...new media art seems to be the only sphere of artistic activity in which there is any hope of realizing the goal of overcoming the elitism of fine art" (pg. 64). 

Photo #8

Photo #7

After a snowball fight circa 1940

Photo #6

Photo #5

Photo #4

Photo #3

Launching the Imagination – Aspects and Elements of Time

        Chapter thirteen of the book goes into depth about the elements of time. It explains that time can be used for an assortment of different things. Time can also be used in a verity of different ways. The chapter said that time especially relates to photographers, videographers, book artists, and filmmakers because they each have to rely on time for a certain aspect of their career. Photographers rely on time for pictures. When the sun (light) is in the right place for a photograph, or when submitting a photograph to an employer, customer, or art gallery at the right time. Videographers can also be on a schedule, but they also have to rely on time because of frames, scenes, the movie as a whole. They have to worry about close up shots, long shots, different kinds of relationships between scenes, crosscutting, different kinds of transitions, etc. and the amount of time each of these different elements should be. Filmmakers also have to deal with all of these elements, but also the duration of the movie, not only the movie as a whole, but the duration of time the plot should take. They also have to worry about the tempo of the story, the soundtrack, the intensity of each, the scope and setting, props, costumes, actors, the chronology of the story, and other sounds that the movie might need. When all of these things are added together the movie comes out so much better and becomes more enjoyable for viewers to watch. Can you imagine a movie without any sounds except the voices of the actors? Can you imagine a movie that is full with purely close up shots of the actors? The viewer would have a harder time trying to figure out the plot of the story. Putting all these elements together can make for great cinematic creations. The example the book used was the movie Schindler's List because of the content and composition that the filmmakers used made the movie great. The movie used all the elements listed in the chapter and even though it probably made the editing process take a long time, in the end adding all the elements made the movie great. 

Launching the Imagination – Constructing Meaning

        In chapter eight of Launching the Imagination, the title, "Constructing Meaning" kind of threw me. I wasn't quite sure how someone could go about constructing meaning and all the different ways one can do it. At the beginning of the chapter the author talked about iconography and how using it can create a variety of different meanings in a piece of art. One thing that I never really thought of was an audience. For things that I have created in the past, I never thought about what kind of audience my piece of art was for. I could relate, though, to the part about visual communication because I remember hearing in class about what messages a piece of art can give off to an audience, I just never really thought about the audience before creating the piece; it was always just an afterthought. Before reading this chapter I was familiar with the terms stereotype and clichés, but when reading about them in the book it was interesting how they related to art. Personally I am not a big fan of stereotypes and I only like clichés when they a funny, but I really liked that the book talked about how a shift in these things can cause upsets in our expectations. I liked that they can be used to challenge ourselves and the audience. In pervious art classes I have heard and learned about the purpose or intent of a piece, as well as, its context and the connections it can have, but learning how all these things form together was interesting. Along with clichés, I also like metaphors, especially when they are funny. Lastly, the chapter talks about postmodernism, which I thought was interesting to see how we went from modernism to postmodernism and how dynamic it is. At this point in my life, I guess I would describe myself as a postmodernist, but learning more about it and gaining more experience will only help me really define  where I am going.

Launching the Imagination – Developing Critical Thinking

    In chapter seven of Launching the Imagination Mary Stewart starts by talking about critiques; how do go about participating in one and how many different kinds there are. Many of the things she said about critiques I have already learned from going through the critiques that we do in class, but what I didn’t know was that there are different kinds of critiques that are supposed to get different outcomes. Stewart listed description, cause and effect, compare and contrast and greatest strength/unrealized potential as all the different kinds of critiques. As she described them, they all seemed to be helpful, not only to the artist getting critiques from others, but also when giving critiques to the artist. The rest of the chapter talks about pushing your project to reach its potential. She listed and described different ways to do that. Through adding and subtracting different elements of the piece, by transformation parts or the whole of a piece, by reorganizing parts or the whole piece, by creating different variations of the piece, and by ultimately accepting responsibility and taking credit for your own piece and your own ideas. I thought it was interesting how she broke each of those down to explain different ways of going about pushing the piece to its potential. I am always thinking to myself, ‘how can I make this piece better?’ but the way Stewart laid the foundation for taking action to do something about it made it a whole lot easier to push my pieces to their potential.

Launching the Imagination – Cultivating Creativity

        In chapter six of Launching the Imagination, the author, Mary Stewart, talks about the seven characteristics of creative thinking, which include, receptivity, curiosity, a wide range of interests, attentiveness, connection seeking, conviction, and complexity. She explains that having all these characteristics can help a person correctly cultivate their creative side. Having an open mind to others around you can be difficult for some people, but learning how to take others’ knowledge to transform it into your own will benefit you in so many ways. Another she talks about is being curious about your surroundings.  Being curious about a wide range of topics while being attentive will also help you in the creative process. Other things Stewart talks about is setting goals for yourself and learning how to manage your time wisely. When you learn to challenge yourself in the work that you do, the work you produce can only get stronger. Throughout the chapter Stewart talks about all of these individual things that I agree are very important when learning how to bring out ones creative side, but another important thing that she does explain how when all of these things are connected, or brought together to use simultaneously, they not only work to your advantage, but also make you better at what you do, thus making you client base grow immensely. The last thing Stewart mentions is making all of these things habits because once they become habits, it won’t seem like you have to try as hard to do them. They will eventually become tasks that you won’t even have to think about doing, it will all come naturally.

Launching the Imagination – Problem Seeking and Problem Solving

        In chapter five of Launching the Imagination the author, Mary Stewart, does a great job to describe how design can be used at a verb and a noun. I have never thought of it as a noun before, but how she says that it’s a plan, pattern, layout, arrangement of lines, shapes, colors, and textures really made me stop and think about it. Because design is deliberate, Stewart explains the problem seeking and solving process. Just like in a story, there is always a problem that needs to be solved when it comes to a piece of art. When dealing with a piece of art in the past, I always had the problem of what to draw or what to make or paint, but never thought of the problem as a way to make the piece of art better. I always thought that the problem was just something that got in the way of the design process. Stewart describes different ways of inspiration and different ways to thinking when trying to tackle a piece of art. I feel like using convergent thinking and divergent thinking can both be helpful, but I think that one may be better than the other depending on the type of art you are working on and the message you want it to reveal. She talks about ways of brainstorming and doing research before starting a piece of work, but I always thought that those were things that you did before writing a paper, not trying to produce a piece of art. I think that doing research can only expand you knowledge which can only make all the art you produce can even better. 

Launching the Imagination – Illusion of Space, Illusion of Motion

        The chapter four of Launching the Imagination creating an illusion of space and motion is described in a variety of different ways. With all kinds of perspective creating illusion become a lot easier. I think that creating the illusion of motion is harder than creating the illusion of space. Space can be layered, amplified, overlapped, change location, change in size variation, change in color, and can be changed with perspective. I think that because there are so many different ways to create the illusion of space it can be easier to create multiple different outcomes. To create the illusion of motion would be harder because the artist would have to make a piece of art the is normally stationary seem like it is in motion without it actually being in motion. I really liked figure 4.25 in the textbook that they used for an example for multiplication. I liked the one image was repeated but from different angles to make it look like different pictures. 

Launching the Imagination – Principles of Two-Dimensional Design

        In chapter three of Launching the Imagination I learned that there are multiple different ways to create a two-dinemsional design. By using methods like grouping, containment, repetition, proximity, continuity, closure two-dimenaional design can have a variety of different outcomes. I think my favorite  way to create two-dinensional design is when the artist uses patterns and grids. I really like the way they can come across to the audience. Another important factor I like of the grids and patterns is balance. In the section under balance, the author talks about different types of weight. Between visual, symmetrical, and asymmetrical I like visual the best. I like that the artist can manipulate size, value, type of shape, texture, location and orientation to achieve visual balance. I feel like with visual balance there are a lot more possible outcomes that can be produce. Another thing that I think would be fun to manipulate is proportion and scale of pictures, words and all the other elements within an image. I especially liked figure 3.37 in the textbook because of how much the words and lack of color and images created a completely new image that still gives off a bold message.

Photo #2

Photo #1

How Images Think By: Ron Burnett–Chapter One

        Ron Burnett, author of How Images Think begins chapter one with space and time. He says, "...images are mediators between all the different layers of what are increasingly complex image-worlds." Because  there are so many different forms of media in the world today it can be difficult to differentiate between all the versions. Images are a way to combine all these forms of media so they are more easily understood. There are images all around us, in movies, television, commercials, video games, billboards, and advertisements. Images have us navigate through life on a level that everyone can understand. Images are the same in every language, culture, and society even though they may not always mean the same thing. A big chunk of the chapter is about vantage points and how they interact with technology. When he talks about vantage point he is talking about this concept that is, "closely related to perspective and attitude"meaning that different elements of an image need to be visible. Things like position, placement, who one is and why one form of analysis was chosen over another are all important. When these elements are changed it can change the image in so many different ways. Using the vantage point in technology make things a whole lot easier because technology now gives us instruments and tools that are digital, making the process of change much easier. Technology makes it so that images can be altered, copied, cropped, etc. to ultimately make the image better, this making our lives so much easier.

Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide To Basic Design–Chapter Two

        Chapter two, titled 'The Element of Color', basically started with a review of what color is, what it is used for, the different forms, and the different colors. I had learned, from previous art classes, about all these things including color theory, the primary, secondary and tertiary colors, how color affects and is affected by light, and how to mix certain colors together to get other colors. Last semester I learned about hue, tints, tone, value, and shade, but the book went more into depth explaining that hue is a color and when you mix that color with white you get a tint, when mixed with gray you get a tone, and when mixed with black you get a shade. These would all fall under the category of value of a color which refers to how light or dark the color is. Some new things I learned about were monochromatic color schemes and analogous color schemes. I had her the terms before, but never knew that they had to do with color. I also didn't know how many color schemes there were including monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, chromatic grays, and earth colors. The part of the chapter I liked most was the very end when it explained the emotion and expression that can come out of a piece of art using color. Color keys, the dominant color, isn't something I have ever thought about before, but I really liked the exampled used in the book; Image 2.54 Sandy Skoglund, Radioactive Cats, 1980. This section of the chapter also talked about the power of color and how it can be symbolic when used the wright way. "Well used, color is one of the most expressive elements of art and design". There are so many different uses for color that I didn't even imagine before reading this chapter, but I like how the book showed that color can do so many things when used the right way. 

The Digital Image and the Pleasure Principle: The Consumption of Realism in the Age of Simulation

        In Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice pages 89-98, the author, Hamid van Koten begins by explaining the difference between hot and cool technology and how these different technologies affect people around the world. He says, "'Hot' and 'cool' can be applied to all cultural forms, not just media, but then...there is very little that is no media." He explains that things like the cinema, photographs, lectures, prose, the alphabet, and the radio are all examples of hot media, but things like television, casual conversations, poetry, ideograms, hieroglyphs, magazines, and telephones are cool media. One is not better than the other and one is not more advanced than the other, they are just different. Later he explains what 'light-on' and 'light-through' mean and how they relate to these types of media. 'Light-on' simply means that the light source is coming from behind the viewer, so something like a projector screen at a movie theater would be a good example. "Light-through' means that the light source is coming from in front of the viewer, so things like televisions and computer screen would be a good example. I thought it was interesting how van Koten explained that, "A 'light-through' medium draws us into a symbiotic relationship" meaning that because the light source is in front of our faces it gives the sense that the light and whatever is on the screen is pulling us in, so that we become apart of that world. The latter part of the reading mostly talks about video games and the effects they have on people, playing a part in development of who we grow up to be. I really liked that he covered this topic, because it is something that I also believe to be true. "...what is portrayed in the media is built from the social values, attitudes and beliefs that are manifest throughout our culture, in out everyday face-to-face interactions, economic exchanges, legal and educational institutions, artistic production and so on." I think that it completely makes sense for the things that we do and see and play on video games affects who you are as a person out in the real world. In the last paragraph of this section van Koten says that it is not surprising that people who live in a digital world can easily become extremely addicted to it. I totally understand what he is talking about because of all these 'light-through' mediums people have today, they get sucked in and find it very hard to take a step back to realize that other things are happening in the world around them. 

'Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice' Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner

    The section on pages 33-45 of Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice is titled Invisible Work: The Representation of Artistic Practice in Digital Visual Culture by Ann-Sophie Lehmann. Lehmann begins the section by talking about how the construction of many pieces of art are overlooked by the viewer. She explains that what the viewer does not realize most of the time is that when an artist is making/ creating a piece of work the artist has to, "be engineer, programmer, graphic designer, and hardware constructor all at once..." (pp. 33). I think that this is a very important point to make because as an artist works toward completing their piece of art the artist and the artist alone is the one who is ultimately responsible for getting the artwork completed. An artist does not rely on anyone else to complete their artwork for them, they are the ones who do, so they are the ones who get the credit. After working so vigorously on their piece, an artist can get a great feeling of accomplishment from working on it by themselves and completing it by themselves. So have a well rounded knowledge base can only help an artist because the more you know the wider you artwork can span across an array of ideas and concepts.
    The next few pages of this section begin talking about the materials used by artists overtime. What artists began with in the pre-photographic era isn't too different from what artists have today. Early artists started with a studio filled with the materials needed for each and every piece of art they produce, but in the 21st century artists have more of a laboratory setting to produce their work. With new technological advancements 21st century artists use computers and computer programs,advanced cameras, and new instruments/materials to complete their art. In the digital era that we live in today, art and art materials become digital and the mouse, keyboard, and even the hand (with touch screens) become the tools we use to be creative. 

Launching the Imagination By Mary Stewart

        Chapter one of Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design really put an emphasis on the fundamentals of art design. Things like line, shape, texture, and value seem to be things that most people would take for granted when producing a piece of art. Even looking and critiquing a piece of art all of these things are needed to fully understand the message the artist was trying to give. The line was something everyone learned about when first beginning to draw and write, but the older we got the more value the line seemed to have in your lives. We learned how to make lines have different meanings and actual and implied lines can do to influence our lives. While reading this section of the chapter it occurred to me how much lines are used in everyday life and how much they are over looked. There seems to be lines in everything around us and in everything we create. There are lines in my house, on the road, on a sports field, on our computer screens, etc. Another thing the chapter talked about that is also in everything around us is shape. Anything and everything has shape and texture to it. There are all these different kinds of shapes around us and the different ways that they are represented and oriented that many people do not notice. But what really caught my attention in this chapter was how all of these things, line, shape, texture, and value, combined together and related to one another. They all work together to create beautiful and interesting works of art.

'Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice' Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner

        In pages 15-22 of Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice there is a lot of information crammed into those few pages. The section I read titled, Aesthetics and Interactive Art, Karen Cham describes the separation that has occurred, and still continues to occur, between art and technology. I think that because art has been around since the time of the caveman and technology hasn't, they are hard to correlate with one another. It's hard to take an old idea and combine it with a new one. Cham says that an aesthetic can be, "driven by the senses, emotions, intellect, will, desires, culture, preferences, subconscious behavior, conscious decision, training, instinct, sociological institutions, or some complex combination of these", which I believe can be the case with art and technology and a combination of the two. I wouldn't go so much as to say that the two are interchangeable, but they are definitely factors that should be working together instead of separately. The old concepts are driving the new ones, and, in a way, the news ones can also drive the old ones. Art and technology are two great 'inventions' that serve a great purpose and should be used to together to achieve greater things.