Second Life Avatars

While looking for ideas for my fantasy avatar, I noticed that the Second Life store had a lot of animal-related elements that were available to purchase. I figured I would use this as a springboard, using a faun as inspiration, while still avoiding the "furry" look for my avatar. I had a lot of fun making this one and gave her faun makeup, horns, and hooves, although you cannot see them in the pictures, sadly. I honestly think it was more difficult to make the 'real' avatar of myself, however, as you can't always tweak the settings the way you want. You really have to find the best way to work around what the program has to offer. I am pretty pleased with the way everything turned out, but it was frustrating to have technical difficulties during the final meeting!

Project 6 - 3D Modeling

 

The original image on this first splice is from Sinchon Station in Seoul. I've spent great deal of time there, so it is somewhere that has personal significance. Each station there has its own details and unique flavor, so that is something I was interested in representing. I had started this image as my single object, a bench within the station and built the information around it, but I ended up getting pretty involved and decided to make it into the collage instead. After working on it for a while, things ended up getting a little tweaked and were no longer perfectly square, so it was annoying trying to patch holes where they popped up. It was also difficult trying to maneuver within an enclosed space, as I would often get the viewer stuck inside walls, etc.

 

This second object is a webcam taken out of a friend's computer. After days of trying to fix his laptop, he gave up and angrily threw it out the back door. He threw away everything but this piece, so there is some humor associated with this choice. It was fun working on something on such a small scale because it allowed to get a little obsessive with the details, rather than having to make up or try to remember information as I had to for the first one. This one was much simpler to work on because I had the physical object and also because it was very geometric in nature. It was a pretty alright first attempt at art in a three-dimensional space and I'm pleased with the way they both turned out.

Digital Nation Questions

•  Having been to Korea, I can vouch that the PC rooms really are everywhere. Granted, there's at least one of everything on each block, simply because the population is so dense. Literally, all of Seoul is blanketed in Wifi (it's the best). The digital culture there has a very strong public presence, which I think this has to do with the strong sense of community found in East Asian cultures, rather than the individualistic nature of Western cultures. With that in mind, I think Koreans have found a good way of dealing with issues of technology, making it very public, making people more accountable, and educating children early on, though the film makes it appear to be a much bigger problem there. What do you think about the way they handle this issue? Why?

• There seems to be a lot of controversy regarding whether or not technology should be used in a school setting and how it should all be implemented. I definitely agree that it has its benefits and can streamline learning, although it can be very distracting, especially for younger users. There were a few extreme examples of technology use in schools, as well as viewpoints from the other side of the spectrum. How do you think this issue should be tackled in respect to children in school?

Art Video Emulation

For this project, I created an adaptation of a segment of Ange Leccia's "Perfect Day". I used primarily Final Cut Pro to complete this assignment, which was a bit of a struggle at times, since I had never used the program previously. Needless to say, rendering was a serious pain.  I chose to shoot this film on an iPhone, as the original video was not very high quality. I also chose to overlap segments with other video to bring a more colorful and interesting element to the video because Leccia's was shot at an earlier brighter time of day. Overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out, especially for my first crack at film.

Busting the Tube: A Brief History of Video Art Questions

• The reading explains how this movement of video as an artform arose out of smaller, cheaper, and more accessible technology and the social climate of the 1960's. One might say we are going through an interesting phase in our own society today and technology is more available than ever. With this in mind, do you see any forms of art and communication arising currently?
• The early '70s were a time of experimentation in film, due to many new effects and complex technology. Artists were able to manipulate and make their images in new and innovative ways. Do you feel that we are beyond a point where we are still truly able to create new film techniques this way, or are there still new ideas to be found?

Stop Motion Frame Animation

Apparently, I was feeling masochistic when I started this project because I made my life as hard as possible through the whole ordeal. I chose to animate my image with Adobe Flash CS6 with no prior experience (and no experience with animating in general...). It made the most sense, as I had windmills in the original and wanted them to rotate. I had to look at quite a few tutorials to get the hang of it, but I think it was a respectable first shot. I had some issues with the windmills and it was tough to keep them from rotating erratically everywhere, but they eventually worked out, so it's good to see the struggles were worth it. I'm pleased with the way it turned out and think that animating the original image made it quite a bit more playful than before. It is a very busy piece, especially with the animation, but it has a fun overall effect.

Walter Benjamin Reading Questions

• In Section II, Benjamin describes that reproductions lack "presence in time and space", as well as authenticity, and that chemical analyses can set originals apart from forgeries. Would the fact that they are different in some respect mean that forgeries are, therefore, authentic? How different must reproductions stray from the original before they become authentic in their own right?

• The text explains, "Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art." Do you believe this holds true for average art viewers today, or have we been desensitized by the commonality of reproduced images? Does authenticity still hold the same value it once did?