AAD 250-Online

When visiting these historic pieces of art by Albert and Arthur Runquist, it was a surreal piece of art. At first glance, the art piece really captures your attention from the different possible interpretations. When understanding the different panels, its incredible how thoughtful the painting was and artists’ perception on Capturing History. With the landmark that Knight Library represents today, more students should acknowledge this artwork to truly appreciate the building they value so much.

In this weeks reading by Erika Doss, she brings to our attention the controversy of public art, which was not apparent to me at all. According to Doss “it’s too hot to handle” (doss 1), the topic of establishing a public art piece that will represent a culture or community may not be as accepted as most would think. Doss continues to mention that even with the Washington Memorial was controversial to been built at first.

As we progress as a nation and a community, we continue to neglect the spirituality and art that represents us for what we stand and defend. ” The dynamics surrounding public art reveal an ongoing American commitment to meaningful conversations, which are the cornerstones of an active democratic culture.” (Doss 2) The authors makes a statement with the quote stating that we, as a democratic nation, need to not be ignorant with the value of art and accept change and representation; such as “…public art is as diverse as the people who view it.”(Doss 6) representing our nation being diverse.

I find it strange that more of this public art reform hasn’t been more apparent in recent culture, more or less there not being a big historic movement or figurehead. Public art used to the backbone of art and the exposure of masterpieces, such as the Statue of David. This statue and many others were major highlights in their generation of art. Another notable example was the Sistine Chapel that painted to show the passion and murals of Catholicism. An example like these are art pieces that we don’t see in our culture today. Such as a building that has more structure to it rather than a tall rectangle. The monograph that Doss writes us about gives us many examples of shifts and hardship of public art on where it was and where it will be, along with the controversies associated with it.

 

Reference

Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf

• Creative
• Insightful
• Intelect
• Innovator
• Spiritual
• Right-Brained
• Faith
• Determination
• Imaginative
• Reflective

 

It’s hard to say but I would say that this collage that I have created may be a piece of art. The reason being is due to my creativity being explored and expressing myself in putting together my thoughts. According to Dissanayake, she says “In the eighteenth century is recognized as having been a focal point in which a number of social and intellectual trends came together, intertwined and influenced one another…” (dissanayake 2). With this new creation of art of our era, this collage reflects a ‘remix’ of art that I had collectively put together from an original art piece.

The TED talk that Lawrence Lessig does is interesting to watch , plus it makes his reading make more sense. He brings to out attention these two cultures of RO and RW that have shaped our cultures to differences in certain points of views. He brings to our attention User Generated Content (ugc) that has created a controversy of this ‘remix’ of art and copyright infringement debate. Lessig quotes “…this remix era is not copyright, but remaking the content and adding more creativity” (TED talk) which I understand where the controversy comes from as these creators of remixing the content, or the RW culture, alter someones main idea. I would argue that as well, taking someones idea and altering it to make a remix is copyright infringement, wouldn’t you? How would you define copyright?  Lessig makes the statement of “The ability to channel commercial the return from music or film has allowed other to create what others have not” (lessig 85) to be the argument for copyright law.

Copyright in today’s society it not tolerated as people, most RO cultured, believe to have the right to their ideas. Examples we see is peoples writing, lyricism, and filmography. There is slightly a way that people work around this, by ‘remixing’ the main idea, it is then a new idea with new content. I would argue that copyright does in fact limit or creates an obstacle for peoples creativity to expand. With 7 billion people alive, someone else is bound to have the same or similar idea as another. This idea of remixing creates and enables people to expand their creativity to new limits. For example, in our generation we have noticed how much Disk Jockeys (DJ’s) have evolved and how much people experiment with altering music to create a new genre of music.

Although I support the idea of people creating new ideas, I believe that the current copyright law don’t necessarily need to be strengthened but remain unchanged. I’m a strong believer of peoples ideas being altered to others work. How else would someone be glorified for the main idea that others are credited or rewarded for?

 

Reference

Lessig, L. (2008). Comparing Cultures. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (pp. 84-116). New York: Penguin Press HC, The.

Lessig, Lawrence. “Laws That Choke Creativity.” Lawrence Lessig:. TED Talk, Mar. 2007. Web.

 

 

In this article excerpt Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins, written by Beverly Jones, the author believes that art is becoming a new revolution of art that is resulting in a change in the way we envision it. The author states “…examples illustrate cultural tendencies to cast developing forms of material and symbolic culture in previous modes” (jones 21). Examples that she uses was the columns in the ancient Egyptian era, these columns were a different type of art that had influenced other developing arts.

Jones states that we are witnessing a change in art. In accordance with the TED talk and the Studio 360 presentation, we are primary users to this developing art of online graphic design. Both sources tells us that about the innovation of video games and how much they have developed in our generation. I, for one, who grew up with the booming of these video game platforms, can adhere that graphics do matter. Going from a generic platform such as the Nintendo that has classic games, to platforms such as an Xbox the revolutionized the way that we value graphics in our games. We test the game makers too, ‘this game is awesome with amazing graphics, what will they make next?” Game developers are attempting to meet demand with gamers as the art in technology continues to develop. With the effects and visionary aspects that go into the making of video games is much more than that. With TV’s producing high quality of vision effects, graphic artist are now attacking the idea of making our electronics ‘real life’ perception. To add on to Jones thesis, I believe that within the technology industry, there are a tremendous amount of careers that deal with art on a daily basis. From program development, algorithm design, to computer programing, all areas have an aspect of ‘art’ that goes into their work.

 

References

Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.

When thinking about technology, it is incredible to comprehend how much we have done and developed in the short that it has been created. The user interface has been rapidly changing as well, such as its uses. In today’s society we use it to enhance our resources to better understand our environments. In this instance, we have art that has been innovated to be used in new creations. According to an article written by Beverly Jones, Computer Graphics: Effects of its Origin, “These frames exist within art and technology and art present in other forms of symbolic and material culture.” (jones 21) The art that is used in technology today, is widens the horizon for classical artist for taking their talents to a digital art field. A majority of the technology we use today is created some sort of artist. Digital art is, what I believe, to be the revolutionary type of art that we will continue to see in the future in comparison to classical art.

In this excerpt we analyze the the art of visualizing objects and why we do. In this chapter, Deeply Seeing, the author opens up to the readers with a question, “but what is the difference between merely look at a thing and actually seeing it?” (Grey 71). The way that the author brings this to our attention, it has a philosophical persona behind it. I would argue that the common saying “seeing is believing” is pretty accurate to how we interpret what Grey is telling us; there is a difference is looking at something and actually being there to see it.

Another argument that Grey brings to attention is the compare and contrast of art and spirituality. Grey lists a ‘Creative Process’ that he outlines to be the steps that artists should be using to better interpret their art work. The process goes as follows:

1. Formulation
2. Saturation
3. Incubation
4. Inspiration
5. Translation
6. Integration

I would argue that some of these steps seem unorthodox and futile. For example, the steps of Formulation and Saturation seem useless in my opinion. From what I’ve believe to know about art, it’s a creation of an artists choosing and free will. The artist shouldn’t have a problem or or subject that they should be targeting, but what the world will see when analyzing their work. During the analysis of what Grey describes during each of the steps, I am fond of how he brings in the aspect of spirituality into the work of art. That there seems to be a spirit within each work of art, the beauty of it is what stumps people and having to figure out what it says to them.

Reference

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.

The topic of horror films is interesting topic to research as this genre is not one of my top preferences. The resource that I found is a secondary resource that identifies, why are people intrigued with horror films. This is was very interesting read as I too am interested in why people so fascinated with the horror film features, contrary to a comedy where people get the pleasure from laughter. According to a psychology study, It is our survival instinct that triggers us to be feared. According to a research study from Christof Koch, when our right side of brain is developed, our minds “…fear learning, responds more vigorously to images of animals than to images of people, landmarks or objects even though those are much more dangerous in our civilized world” (FilmmakerIQ), which explains why we are more scared of snakes or animals with large teeth, even cannibalistic movies as well. This article I believe relates back to Carrol’s article, because of explaining the nostalgia that people get when watching something horrifying. It answers Carrols question, “how does it give us pleasure or why does it interest us?” (carrol 276).

The next article I found was an interesting ‘ehow’ on how to analyze horror films. I found it interesting how the article gives detailed ways to analyze films and what to keep an eye out for. As a non-horror film fanatic, I was pretty interested in reading what the article had to say and the different types of horror films. For example, the first step to look out for when watching a film is to determine what type of horror will it. Will it be natural, supernatural, or human or not, you’ll then be able to explain what kind of horror is happening,” (eHow). This article supports Carrol when he states “Thus, to a large extent, the horror story is strictly curiosity driven.” (carrol 279) By the reading through the rest of the eHow article, you’ll be able to analyze and better critique the next horror film you watch.

 

Reference:

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge.

eHow, contributer (2015) “How to analyze Horror Films”. http://www.ehow.com/how_2082732_analyze-horror-movies.html.

FilmmakerIQ.com., (2014). ‘Psychology of Scary Movies’ . Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http:http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/the-psychology-of-scary-movies/

 

 

 

 

Before this assignment, I had never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer which made me confused through some scenes and character roles. While I was watching this episode, I wrote down memorable scenes and how the music would play an important role of how it would play into the outcome of the scene.

Non-diagetic Sound

In the beginning of the show Buffy has a dream that she was in a building or house I believe and she sees a girl holding a box. During this, there is a heavy tone of mood music that is setting a mood that Buffy may be in danger. In this example, it plays a crucial role not only because of the box that was in the dream is of importance later in the show, but because it is the opening scene of the show and sets a mood for the show entirely.

Diegetic Sound

Towards the 2nd half of the show, all the civilians in the city go mute and are unable to speak. This part of the show, it all becomes a diegetic sound. An example that stood out to me, was when the men in suits are chasing Buffy through the dorms and campus. She’s unable to speak, but uses sounds to attempt to alarm people to be alert. I chose this example because it was at about the climax of the episode when all sounds are more ambient and people are unable to speak.

Mise-en-scene

I don’t have an exact example, but would like to talk about the scenes where the men in the suits are around the city to collect hearts. The camera angels and displaying visuals for the viewers to view are critical to set to set the mood. The horror that the men in suits instill is due to the visuals. The actors performance are parallel to this as well as they are to be afraid and acting terrified. During these scenes, diegetic sound is present as well and helps to amplify the scene.

Personally, I believe that the way that we dress shows our character and personal values. When I personally reflect on myself on my appearance, I do believe that I tend to dress like I was raised and the guidance of my parents. For example, I like to dress and look clean cut because it shows class, well mannered, and confident. Growing up my parents would tell me that baggy jeans were bad and expressed that I should never wear jeans like that. I didn’t understand fully on why they were against it so strongly, but now I believe that It gives you a bad look and people can judge you from a small thing like that, either by my peers or by random strangers; possibly someone that would be observing me for an assignment about body adornment…

My parents or others parents seems to be the primary source of our personal choice of dress. At a certain age, some parents will allow their child to pick and choose what they would like to wear, excluding the parents’ preference. Other parents would shape the child and ensure that their closet was filled with clothing that they would approve of, along with purchasing it as well, until the child is conditioned to believe that they wouldn’t want to wear anything else other than what they were used to wearing. As for me, I was that child that I would choose what clothes I would want to wear, but if my parents (mainly just my mom) were opposed, I would have to justify why I personally like the outfit or how it’s fashionable. Omitted variables could be a factor as well, such as the importance of demographics. Depending on the families income, geographic location, age group, etc… all would factor into appearance as well.

In the society we live in today, our peer community is a huge factor in our body adornment and beliefs. I would confidently say that a majority of the people that we are close to dress semi close. I say this, because dress and appearance strongly associate you with what type of people you like to be around. There seems to be big pressure on us today to conform with others and follow fashion trends to feel accepted into social cliques. Although, there is people that are more independent than others and don’t feel the need to care about what’s fashionably accepted and follow their own dress.

Today I sat in the library for a few hours as I had some spare time in between my classes. I tried to sit in an area where I could a good view to “observe” people for the assignment. It was difficult at first to know when or who to choose to quickly judge what I see. What I saw was mostly similarities between a lot of them. They all seem to be focused and determined to find a place to study and get to work. In their dressing apparel and body movement them seemed to in a comfortable manner. They didn’t stand out of the ordinary for me to determine what their beliefs could be. If I were to determine what their beliefs were to be from analyzing styles of clothes, I would say that their beliefs are to be clean cut, well dressed, and have proper social skills. Their ages were all similar as well, all around their twenties. They all seemed to be well off, in financial terms, as they were well dressed and had expensive possessions. These assumptions make me believe that, without judgement, we are used to describe what people may be like from not getting to know them, sorta like judging a book by its cover. We don’t know who they are, but how they are dressed and body language, we as a society are able to determine stories for people from their appearance.