Art410: Post #13

Ideas for Culture Jamming Project...

Although I still think my favorite assignment will probably be the Indeterminacy one, I'm really excited for this assignment. We have to choose a logo to work with for tomorrow, so I've been brainstorming some of my favorite ones. A few that I've been debating over have been: Nasa, FireFox, WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Tapatio, Sabritas, Columbia Pictures, and TriStar Pictures. I'm leaning towards Tapatio just because that's the one I'm most connected to since I've used it all my life. On the other hand, the Columbia and TriStar Pictures logos would really be fun to work with for this assignment. Decisions...decisions...

VS.

Art410: Post #12

In response to Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery...

After reading the article I couldn't stop thinking of all the advertisement that surrounds us on an everyday basis like on a bus or even on here. There's actually an option on here that I remember coming across where it asked me if I'd like to have advertisement placed around my blog for money (depending on how many clicks the ads get by people who visit my blog or something of that sort). Anyways, I really enjoyed this article. I found it interesting how Michael Deaver (former Reagan advisor) said "[the Reagan campaign staff] tried to create the most entertaining, visually attractive scene to fill that box, so that the cameras from the networks would have to use it." Similar to pretty much every reality show (or any show actually) by the way they attract viewers today. By ending the show on a cliffhanger and then showing the previews for next week's episode, editors for the program edit the preview with only the most ridiculous/hilarious/scandalous thing that happens on the episode. This way not only will they keep the grasp on the original viewers, but will venture out and hopefully grab hold of new viewers as well.

I still don’t understand media hoaxing, I don’t know how people can buy into such ludicrous stories. For example, in the article where it said “that hormones extracted from mutant cockroaches could cure arthritis, acne, and nuclear radiation sickness.” How could anyone believe that news broadcast? I find it hilarious, but at the same time it worries me that the public can be that gullible.

One last thing, can semiotics still be effective through audio? I thought semiotics was only a visual/physical thing, but after reading the article it seems as if it could still be used in audio snippets. Well, I guess the McDonald's musical tone of "bah bah bah bah bah" I'm loving it, could be an example of semiotics right?

Art410: Post #11

Round 2 for Indeterminacy (Chance) Project...

My Partner's (Bobby's) Recipe:

1. Write numbers 3-11 on a piece of paper. Tear up paper so each number is on its own paper. Do step 12 last.
2. Put papers in a container, shuffle papers. Don't Look. Choose one. Write first word that comes into your head from that number or take a picture of the first thing you think of when you see that number, it might be the piece of paper. Then abandon those pieces of paper with numbers because you are not Using Them.
3. Pick up the first book you see. close your eyes and shuffle the pages, stop on a random page. Find the last word on the page. Write it down and write the first word that comes to your mind or take a picture of how you feel after reading that word or representation of it.
4. Count how many letters that word has in it.
5. Hug yourself for that many seconds. Take a picture of you hugging yourself or of what you see or feel after, the first thing you see or feel. Or write the first word that comes into your head.
6. Find the number one less than the number in step 4 (one less than the number of letters in the word).
7. Travel that number of steps, feet, meters, blocks, until you come to a place you feel right. Take a random picture of it, or write down the first word that you think of.
8. At that spot do something good for someone else or the Earth, pick up litter, open a door for someone, let some one get on the bus first. You will know what to do when you get there. Take a random picture of the scene or moment after, or write the first word that comes in your head.
9. Turn on your mp3 player or musical device at home, listen to your favorite song or choose a song at random.
10. Spin around a number of times equal to the number of minutes the song's length is while the song is playing, example 2 minute song spin twice. Take a picture of how you feel from the song, a representation, or take a picture of the first thing you see after spinning. Or write the first word that comes in your head.
11. get in a lotus position or sit down in a comfortable meditative pose. Breathe in a number of times one more than the word in step 4, and exhale Om. Do this at home or a comfortable place where you can really breathe deeply and exhale with a good amount of sound "Ohhmmm". After write the first word that comes in your head or take a picture of the first thing you see.
12. Assemble all these words or some of them if you do not thing they fit, or pictures, or pictures and words, create a work of art or album or some representation or not with all the different parts (words, pictures, or both). Can be simple or complex. You choose. May you continue to help yourself and help others. May good karma flow your way. You just made a brighter day. Hey, hey, hey , hey. OK.

My end result...

Art410: Post #10

Round 1 for Indeterminacy (Chance) Project...

My Recipe:

1. First things first, find a coin and flip it. This will be the deciding factor of whether you'll be taking horizontal photographs or vertical photographs for this project. Heads will be Horizontal and Tails will be Vertical.
   
   
2. Now for one entire day, take a couple of photos whenever you find yourself waiting for something (it could be anything: waiting for the bus, your class, dinner, laundry, ect.). The photos should be taken of things that you find visually appealing! The first thing that catches your eye and that you find interesting after looking at it for a bit (it could be a piece of gum on the ground, a person, a building, ect.). Also, don't worry about your photos being perfectly composed, meaning not to worry about composition or framing. Simply take a photo!
   
   
3. By the end of the day you should have compiled a good selection of photos. Open them into photoshop or any other photo editing program.
   
   
4. Now, depending on what you know how to do on photoshop (for example, if you know how to make a collage or working with masks or layering images and then flattening the image to create one image, ect.) tear that many pieces of paper. Then write "1" on one piece of paper, "2" on the second piece of paper, "3" on the third and so on. It's up to you to choose which editing option corresponds to each number. Here's what I did: (1)Collage, (2)Layers, (3)Simple Masking, (4)Panoramic/Stitching, and (5)Simply working with Filters. Once you've done that, mix all your pieces of paper in a hat and choose one piece at random.
   
   
5. Once you've selected your option of editing, CREATE YOUR MASTERPIECE!! Depending on which option you choose, your result can vary from one single photograph to a series of photographs. It just all depends on how much time you want to spend on the project. In addition, it's up to you on how many photos to use! You can use all of them or only your favorite ones, but try and select at least one from each time period of the day. This way you'll have at least one photo from the morning, afternoon, night, or anything in between rather than only having a series of photos from the morning. HAVE FUN!

Here are all of the photos I took:

My end result...

Art410: Post #9

My Hybrid Project...

I found it truly strange how well all three of my images meshed so well when I chose each of them so randomly. The reason behind the Rasputin photo was only because I've always appreciated his long beard, the owl was chosen simply because of my admiration towards them, and the mechanical heart was selected after doing a search in google for "mechanical".

In return, the story for my hybrid is going to be based on the Rasputin legacy. He was going to be the second coming of Rasputin in the year 2012, when apparently the world is going to "end". After placing all the images together, he reminded me a lot like Jesus in the above photo so that was where "the second coming of Rasputin" came from. Since Rasputin was known for his mystic healing powers, I figured he was going to save the world come D-Day by resurrecting everyone after the enormous collapse.

Due to his mechanical heart he will be able to live forever as the first ever robotic human and his owl eyes are from where his healing power roots from. Similar to Cyclops from the X-Men series, but instead of killing people he will be able to heal people with the laser beams coming from his eyes.