Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Contest Image



Creative Image Design is a photography studio in California. I had to create a flier with the title on it and anything else that was contemporary art. I used different tools in Photoshop, including the brush tool where I created a digital camera brush and the gradient tool. I used the gradient tool for the background because it brings out the title more. I enjoyed using the different tools in Photoshop.

Monday, February 26, 2007

The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin

William Burroughs describes a technique, the cut-up method, based on earlier experiments of the surrealism period. He also talks about computer pioneer John von Neumann, who uses the cut-up method of action into game strategy in his Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Burroughs considers writting cut-ups because it turns into collages. Cut-ups can be anything and it is used in any field. They can also come through as code messages with special meaning for the cutter. He concludes that cut-ups could add new dimension to films, meaning a person can cut and rearrange the word and image in a film.
Question: Why did he decide to have the preceding two paragraphs that are cut into four sections and rearranged at the end of the article?

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Dada Techniques

10 techniques used by Dada artists:
1.)photomontage- variation of collage in which posted items are photographs; the Dadaists use brushes and paint instead of scissors and glue; they also call themselves monteurs(mechanics) rather than artists because of their radical notion on traditional art;

2.)collage- developed by Picasso and Braques in Paris; used papers, fabric, and other 2D materials and pasted them together; they broke down the barrier between everyday life and art by creating collages;

3.)assemblage- 3Dwork of art; examples are sculptures and pictures hung on walls; they were also built from everyday objects that were fastened, nail, or screwed together; examples of these objects were bits of trash and war supplies;

4.)readymade- everyday manufactured goods that are considered to be art; created by Marcel Duchamp, who collected manufactured objects and renamed them in English("readymade" to objects purchased "as a sculpture already made"); he also added signature and titles to these ibjects and converted them into artwork;

5.)typography- mixing fonts; used different punctuations; printed words both horizontally and vertically; this experiment shows the audience the fascination with the newly printed culture;

6.)sound poem- poems without words(abstract poems); language is broken down into abstract parts like letters and syllables and then are reconfigured as meaningless sounds; it offers both a metaphor for the destruction caused by war and a commentary on language;

7.)abstraction- began in Zurich; Zurich dadaists saw it as a way of gaining access to a more inner consciousness; it is also the primary force for creative expression in the visual arts;

8.)chance- antidote; offered a way of letting go of conscious control; presented a critique of the notion of artistic mastery;

9.)photography- relished its modern means of creation; dadaists used double exposures, radical perspective, unconventional subjects, and photograms; these are among the earliest abstract photographs;

10.) overpainting- Max Ernst embellished wallpapers, knitting and crochetting instruction sheets, pages from handicraft booklets, and a printer's catalogue; his series of work included painting or drawing over pages of found print material;

Artist: Tristan Tzara
1.) Salon Dada, Exposition Internationale- in this piece of artwork, Tzara uses the technique typography; he described the Dada revolution with graphic work; the tool he used was lithograph; he wrote down words in different sizes and shapes; the words are positioned sideways, diagonally, and horizontal; he also wrote phrases and numbers; most of the phrases are surround by some kind of border or frame; the title of the piece is written in big words at the bottom; what I found interesting was that he had the letters of Salon Dada positioned differently and Exposition Internationale written straight forward;



2.)Mouvement Dada: 8. Dada-Soiree(Dada Movement: 8th Dada Soiree)- in this piece of artwork Tzara is lithograph and collage additions; the first part of the title, Mouvement Dada is writtten in lithograph and the rest look like pictures that were mounted onto the paper; the college additions are tilted, which is how a see a collage(a poster with a bunch of pictures mounted on different ways); The title is the first thing that catches my attention because it is in big letters and its color is black;
journey

Here is my musical journey file. It consists of musical instruments, including the piano, violin, and viola. Most of the piano music was recorded by me and the other music was downloaded from Freesound Project. Here are the attributions:

February 2, 2007
By ERH (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=215874
string_1_loop.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30192)
By HerbetBoland (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=129090)
PianoMood38.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=29843)

February 5, 2007
By HerbertBoland (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=129090)
PianoMood33.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=29838)
By FreqMan (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=92661)
violintuning.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=25454)

February 6, 2007
By HerbertBoland (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=129090)
PianoMood26.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=29831)
By iktinus (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=30688)
v_riff2-2_by_iktinus.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=23112)

Enjoy it!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Heather McGuire Lecture on John Baldesarri

In Heather McGuire's lecture, she talks about John Baldesarri's work and how he used surrealism in his photographs. Baldesarri looks at 2 specific themes: one is the questioning of the arts and art does not have a meaning. He points out that art critiques our thoughts when looking at an image. He calls objects as a way of seeing things. McGuire shows different slide shows of his artwork. Here are a few examples: "Blasted Alleghories"- in this picture, he took pictures of scenes from a television and mounts them into different individual squares; he then puts words and color together in each square( "Blue Delayed"); it is supposed to read like a poem starting from top to bottom. One thing about alleghories is that they can mean so many things and they can create new ideas. "I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art"- in this picture, he asked students to write this statement over and again on a classroom wall in Nova Scotia; the photographs seemed interesting to me because of the way the students were positioned; my favorite one was the close up picture of the statement written in cursive; I also liked the way the pictures were mounted in the slide show as well. "The Pencil Story"- this picture was about narration and storytelling; Baldasarri kept a pencil on the inside hood of his car and decided to take 2 pictures, one of an unsharpened pencil and the other with a sharpened one; he concluded that this piece of artwork had something to do with art. In conclusion, Baldesarri explores the dissolutions in photography, meaning he breaks down the rules of photograpy.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Janet Cardiff sound file

I did not like this sound experience because it was kind of creepy throughout the file. It felt like I did not want to be on this journey. The sounds that were used felt like you were in a haunted place. It was not what I expected it to be like. What I expected was more of a collection of peaceful sounds.