Week 6 Assignment: Photography Exploration

This week I teamed up with MJ to share our blog information. A few times I have felt like I have posted something or made something and nobody has read or seen it. So I am looking forward to sharing my work with another classmate on a regular basis. I also am curious to see what MJ's take on our assignment are since she is taking this course from a different perspective.

Last week I took a picture of hand painted signage on a door on the second floor of Macy Hall (below). I am always intrigued by hand drawn or hand painted signage and follow many typography artists on social media. My background in graphic design fostered this love of letters and numbers. These days, seeing hand painted signage is few and far between. This door stands out to me in the halls of Macy as it is one of the few doors with this detail.

There were two important themes to this picture. One was the hand drawn letters. The other was the question of what was behind the door? My initial idea was to create a video of the door to "studio b" opening, unveiling a big reveal. The other was to explore this idea of hand drawn letters, perhaps involved with photography. 

I began by looking at photographs of rooms for inspiration and imagined them as the inside of "studio b". I was inspired by a particular photo of a room which looked like it was full of color, creativity, and whimsy, but had also been neglected. I ended up creating a narrative based on this photograph and incorporating hand drawn type on top of other found photographs to help tell the story.

I painted on top of the photos with acrylic paint and used a drawing pen for detail. The story is loose, but the photographs capture objects from around the room that were left behind that give insight into this person's life. 

The following are the images:

An example of an artist using photography is Andy Goldsworthy.

Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer, and environmental artist who lives and works in Scotland.His artwork made in nature may sometimes last only minutes and relies heavily on photography to capture it for others to see. His work is well known, but I think it is important to appreciate his photography skills within his process. Sometimes the piece relies heavily on composition and the photograph is just as thought out as the piece itself.

The following are a few examples of Goldsworthy's work:

When thinking about relating photography to children, I am reminded of old photographs of my childhood. I love looking back on these photos, reminiscing on memories and noticing how different everyone looks.

By giving children the chance to practice photography, they are getting the chance to show their own perspective and share a glimpse from their own world. I feel this can be empowering for children and is a good opportunity to explain composition.

Lastly, manipulating photos artistically can be fun for students but I also think photography is important because it can help a student to notice and appreciate natural beauty.

Week 5 Assignment: Video Exploration // Things I Like

1. Video exploration using a template

The video I chose to interpret is titled the Scared is scared, by Bianca Giaever.

Bianca has a gift for interviewing people and creating videos to go with their stories.
This video is narrated by a little boy, Asa, who tells a story of a bear and a mouse.
The bear and mouse do a lot of things, but the point of the story is to know what to do when you feel scared.

Asa explains that the scared (feeling) is scared of the things you like. So when you start to feel scared, you can let that feeling go by thinking about the things you like.

The following is Bianca's interpretation of this part of the story in which she shows the things she likes:

Here is my interpretation of the clip, showing things that I like:



I HIGHLY recommend that you watch the full film which you can find here. It is ten minutes long, but every time I watch it, it makes me so happy and I am reminded by how wise and funny kids can be. It definitely makes me excited about a future of doing creative things with kids.

2. If you look back at working on a project with your peers: How does technology-learning lend itself to be explored collaboratively? Think about this process and make 3 connections between media and classrooms or communities.

1. Online classrooms: Technology is now used to create online classrooms in which students can learn from a specific professor or university without needing to go into a physical classroom.
2. Connecting people of different cultures: In one of our Artistic Development classes, we had a guest teacher visit us and she told us about how she connected her students with another group of students from Guatemala. They talked and shared artwork over Skype. This made me really excited. There are so many opportunities for learning here.
3. Google Drive/Google Docs: Since being back in school I have discovered the power of Google Drive and Google Docs. Because we have had so many group projects and each group member has a different schedule, these programs have helped me to stay connected with people and work on the same project together without sending it back and forth. 

3. Research two artists who have used video creatively. Describe what makes their approach unique or interesting.

1. Bianca Giaever: Although Bianca has received a lot of praise for the Scared is scared, she has done much more than just that. She has a gift for interviewing people and getting great stories out of them. Most of her films are narrated by someone telling a story (always someone different) with her interpretation of the story as a film. Most recently she got picked up by NPR to do a short series of videos. You can watch the first one here. Bianca is particularly inspiring to me both in her story telling abilities but she certainly has an eye for video.
2. Rachel Ryle: Rachel is an example of someone using Instagram to get her work out there. She specializes in hand drawn illustrations turned into stop motion films. She got a lot of recognition when she won an Instagram contest for Starbucks, when they asked "What would you do if you won free Starbucks for a year?". Since then I've been following her account. She is a self taught artist and has only been doing animation for a little over a year. 

Week 4 Assignment: Social Media Etiquette, Artists Using Social Media, and Digital Drawing & Painting

1. Go to http://eetiquette.com and pick three select quotes that you find meaningful, interesting, or surprising and re-post them to your blog. Add a sentence or two why you chose each.

I enjoyed visiting eEtiquette.com and browsing through some of the guidelines and suggestions that were posted. The following are three that stood out to me:

• Only R2D2 is allowed to end a relationship digitally.
• To me it seems obvious that conversations like this should happen face to face out of respect. However, these days break-ups and touchy conversations in general have begun to happen over text messaging and email. In my opinion, R2D2 is the only one who should be getting away with that...
• Be here now - hug one real person for each digital New Year's message sent.
• As much as I love technology as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, I definitely appreciate the value of hugs and more personal connections. Making the extra effort to meet up with someone in person to catch up instead of via email makes a huge difference in your relationship.
• Online and offline is like vinegar and oil - the balanced mixture does it.
• I found it interesting that there were many quotes about the balance of being on and off and taking a break from technology. I find this important in my own life but I know many people who are always connected and struggle with times when they are not. 

2. Research one artist who works with social media creatively (whichever part of social media you choose, be it twitter, social networking, blogs/wikis, mobile apps, etc.) and blog about them. 

Shift-Lab is a collaborative group of letterpress artists who have joined forces within the last year. Members include Tricia Treacy, Sarah Bryant, Katie Baldwin, Macy Chadwick, and Denise Bookwalter. 

Shift-Lab's first project, [in code] was inspired by social media. This project is in the process of being made but is not yet completed. The guidelines for the project are as follows:

1. #tweet #retweet #text between January 2-4 [cbaa] or March 27-28, 2014 [sgc]
2. Use the hashtags #printedwork #woodtype #letterpress #shiftlab #cbaa #sgc2014
3. Watch your tweets become part of a collaborative print project.

The dates and hashtags chosen were centered around book and letterpress conferences. 

The idea here is not only that social media was used for content but this connection between technology and handmade. The end product will likely be a series of letterpress posters or a handmade artist book.

The following images are a few process shots of the project. More information can be found on Shift-Lab's website.

3. Digital drawing and painting assignment.

I really enjoyed this process of drawing and painting! I didn't have a stylus so only used my fingers, but was amazed by how much it reminded me of painting with a paint brush. However, I did miss mixing colors.

Week 3 Assignment: Technology Conversation + On/Off Experiment

1. Go back to our class discussion about technology. What did you notice? What did our discussion make you understand about the relationship that we have to technology?

One of the things that stood out to me during out class discussion was a feeling of control we have when living through or technology. We discussed a feeling of frustration some may get when transitioning from a day on the computer to interacting more naturally and in person with another human being. When we work on a computer or communicate with someone using a smart phone, we are experiencing things at a high speed. There is no such thing as grey, only black and white. The technology you use performs how you tell it to, how you expect it to. We have control over the situation.

When interacting face to face with a friend or stranger, we have no way of predicting what they might say or how they might react to what we say to them. There is an awful amount of grey. Sometimes things get in the way of our regular life which we cannot control, such as the weather, or moldy bread.

It is understandable how this can be troublesome for someone who spends a lot of their days navigating through life via technology. I started thinking more about this idea of control.
What exists in this world that not even technology can control?

I also found it interesting that most students in the class felt uncomfortable by technology changing so quickly and reminiscent on forms of older technology that we brought in to class. I wouldn't expect people of my generation to feel this way about technology. For me, I do miss some of the older forms of technology which required us to read books made of paper and purchase full albums instead of just the top hits. However, I also feel excited by new technology. I try to understand how it can make my life easier or help me to see things in a new way. Often times a change in technology has opened my eyes to information I didn't even know existed.

2. Give an account about how you implement technology in your daily practice.

The most used piece of technology is my iPhone. It is often the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I look at before going to bed. It has allowed me to be in constant communication with those in my life. This is a blessing and curse. Other than communication it is full of tools ranging from a calculator, to a flashlight, to a web browser, to a map, to a camera. And within each of these tools there are multiple options. I remember a world before smartphones, but I am often asking myself "what did we do before they existed?".

Other forms of technology in my daily life are my laptop, electricity (a very important one), the subway, television, tools such as a blender, a coffee grinder, and the oven.

3. While having been with your computer/digital device for a while, decide to leave it and turn it off. Find artful ways to exit the online world. Monitor closely your Turn-on/Switch-off experiences and make them be the beginning of a creative experiment.

By switching off the technology I use in my life, I became very aware of the sounds around me.
I realized that I am often trying to cover up the natural noise in my life. I'm sure this is due to the fact that I live in an apartment building with thin walls within a noisy city. However, I didn't realize my constant habit of using my headphones or putting on the radio until I forced myself not to.

I compiled a list of all the things I heard over the course of a day:
-Jazz musicians practicing in 3D
-Someone playing the radio on the 6th floor
-The beep of someone coming in an out of the apartment
-Upstairs neighbors walking around
-People talking in multiple languages
-Subways racing
-Sloshing through the wet snowy streets
-Shaking salt on the ground
-Cars driving by
-Cars beeping
-Cash registers
-Laughing
-Sniffling/Coughing
-Typing on keyboards

The following painting is a visual documentation of these sounds:

4. You brought a piece of technology into class. What was it? And how could you use this piece of technology creatively in an (art) class? How would you want to explore it with your students? Create a lesson plan that introduces your choice of technology in a way that approaches it meaningfully and creatively.

The piece of technology I brought to class was an iPod. I think the biggest difference of listening to music through the iPod vs. the iPhone (which is what the average person uses today, and most certainly young students) is the fact that one doesn't have as many distractions. While listening to music through an iPhone the music can frequently pause due to receiving a form of notification. One can listen to music and check social media at the same time. An email can be sent, a transaction can be completed, and a picture can be taken before a single song is even over.

The iPod allows someone to focus more on the music.

This relates to my experience with turning off technology and becoming less distracted and more away of the sounds around me.

I would use the iPod to have students listen to a song and create a painting based on the music.

My lesson plan is as follows:
Through painting using acrylic paint, paint brushes, and an iPod filled with songs without lyrics, students will learn that they can represent sound and emotion through color, texture, and shape.