Reading Response: Distracted Reception:

This reading discussed the idea of art as a form of distraction, both in a positive way or a negative way. It states that art is not only a distraction but is received in a state of distraction, used to distract ourselves from other distractions in a way that does not create more distraction but rather brings the viewer back to attention because they are distracted from whatever it was that was distracting them before, at least for a moment or two before they are against distracted.

As the above slightly tongue-in-cheek explanation might suggest, this reading seemed a bit repetitive to me, though the idea that it was trying to get across was fairly clear. For hundreds of years, humans have used art as a distraction and created art in search of distraction. Whether 'distraction' is a bad thing or a good thing is open for interpretation on a case-to-case basis, though. On one hand, if art is too distracting without also contributing attention to something constructive, it can take away from tasks that need to get done and more important subjects that need the viewers attention more urgently. On the other hand, every day life is stressful, and constructively distracting art can lower that stress, at least for a little while, before the viewer has to get back to whatever task happens to be at hand. So is distraction by art a problem? In high quantities, it can be, but if it's 'constructive' distraction that in turn brings attention to something worthwhile or simply helps relax the viewer from high stress levels or other unpleasantness I would say it is not a problem.

In the modern era, as interactive art becomes more and more common in the form of video games and other technologically produced work, it is important to keep this idea of distraction in mind. We are often enthralled by interactive art that speaks to us, whatever it may be, and this is a good way to introduce important ideas to the viewer, or in this case the user, as a way to bring attention to them while at the same time acting as a distraction. At the same time, though, we ought to be careful not to make these works too distracting without creating any sort of attention, and if we do, we should not indulge in such works too often.


Reading #2

The author of this reading seems to have a problem with the pretension that seems to surround art in the modern era, stating that

"Next time I see another 16mm film projector rattling away in a gallery I will personally kidnap it and take the poor thing to a pensioners home. There is usually no intrinsic reason whatsoever for the use of 16mm film nowadays except for making moving images look pretentious, expensive and vaguely modernist, all prepackaged with a whiff of WASPish art history" (Rourke 2013).

He also mentions a modern "refusal of class" in the modern digital art world, and in the world in general, artists trying to create without being defined by a class, place, economical standing, etc. To them art is not elevated on a pedestal but is simply another aspect of life, and the subjects of this art reflect this idea. In general, he seems to make a case for "real" art, art that is relevant in some way to real life and real ideas that speak to the everyday man, and not art that puts abstract symbols on a pedestal for high-class citizens to wonder about. It is this sort of art that truly speaks to the masses and is the base for artistic revolution. The idea of the glitch rides on the back of this idea, as being a part of mass-produced digital media which is constantly reproduced and reformatted and redesigned in this sort of mass media sharing.

Project 1: Self Assessment

I based my project on a landscape I had imagined for one of my original stories. As an aspiring author, I felt that if I could put this landscape on paper, it would help me move forward in putting together the rest of the story as sort of a concrete base to work from. My intention was to imagine what a subterranean environment might look like if bio-luminescent life were more common than it is in the real world, along with making it look like someone could live there, even if there were no signs of animal or human life in the piece.

I began my project in Adobe Illustrator, sketching out the basic line art of the piece. I had initially intended to create an environment that looked more civilized than the final product did, but creating shapes that looked like inhabited places and putting roads and other signs of a town or city into the environment was proving to be a challenge, and as time was limited I opted to skip these shapes in favor of a more simple environment with just a river, mushrooms, stone pillars, and a cave. Though the resulting environment looked very simple, it still satisfied the subterranean look that I had been aiming for.

I then imported the line art into Photoshop in order to begin giving the piece more depth. I began with the base colors, grays for the rock surfaces, bright colors for the mushrooms, and blue for the water. I then added textures to each piece, making custom brushes for them to make them more like I wanted them to look, though I lost my first water brush when Photoshop crashed and I couldn't seem to recreate it. Finally, I added some fog and shading to the piece, using the timeline to animate the lighting of the mushrooms as well as the movement of the water and fog.

Though I was, on the whole, satisfied with how my piece came out, I think with a little more time and effort than I was able to put into it it could have come out even better. The water animation and shadow shading, in particular, could have had more to them, and perhaps a few signs of animal life could have been added, such as small glowing bugs or a pair of eyes in the cave. The simplistic feeling of my piece is nice, and adequately conveys a soothing subterranean atmosphere, but in some ways it feels a little barren, just a little bit lacking. The smooth flow animation I was able to do, however, does add to the ambiance of the piece, giving the environment a happy, calm feeling to it as opposed to a creepy or mysterious feel. In the future, I will set aside more time than I had for this project to work on the piece in order to get a better sense of the shading and coloration my pieces need, as well as to add more complexity to the piece if necessary.

Overall I believe, taking into account effort and outcome, I deserve a B for this project.

Project 1

Image sometimes disappears on the blog, but viewing it in a separate tab should work.

Project 1: Artist Research

Artist #1: Wojciech Magierski

(Source: http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/37.html)

Born in 1983, Wojciech Magierski is a polish digital artist who works primarily in the realm of digital illustration and photo manipulation. He has spent 7 years in the digital art industry, and his work has been featured in advertisements for several companies, including big-name companies such as Samsung. Magierski has also featured prominently in magazines such as Advanced Photoshop Magazine.

(Sources: http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/26.html and http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/32.html)

I see a lot of use of the surreal in Magierski's work. This is especially clear in his less obviously commercial work, but even in the Samsung advertisement above there is a hint of the whimsical. Though a clown fish is a real creature, the way the water around it swirls around it catches the eye more than more realistically portrayed water would. The effect is eye-catching, and yet subtle, which is interesting for an effect that is essentially a fish jumping out of the screen at the user of that object. This subtlety is a good choice, though, as it does not completely detract one's attention from the technology being advertised, which is, of course, ideal for any art used within an advertising setting.

(Sources: http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/32.html and http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/37.html)

By and large Magierski does not use many bold, contrasting colors or shapes in his work, preferring a more gradual flow between colors. Even when a piece uses very different colors, the transition from one to another is never abrupt, but rather subtle, blending together to make create a rather soft, ambient feel, even when the content of the piece is not particularly soothing. To me, this says he does not want to draw the viewer's attention to any one thing, but instead wishes for it all to be experienced as a whole, with smaller details revealing themselves over time given more time for viewing. I can really appreciate this approach to art, as it encourages the viewer to take time to appreciate the piece rather than looking at it once, thinking "Oh, that's cool", and moving on to the next piece.

(Source: http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/37.html)

The ambient feel of Magierski's work is something I would like to emulate in my own work. The subtly colorful and ambient feeling of his pieces, whether in landscapes, portraits, or more abstract works, really speaks to me as an inspiration. Such color schemes and subtle shapes are appealing to me, and since my first project is a landscape piece meant to incorporate several colors within a natural environment, a gradually flowing color scheme might allow the viewer to observe the landscape as a whole environment before their eyes wander into smaller details. 

Information on Wojciech Magierski taken from: http://www.magierski.pl/page/about.html

Artist #2: Adam Spizak

(Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Tweet-This/1930231)

Adam Spizak is another Polish artist. His work lies primarily in the art of photo manipulation. Many of his pieces lay within the realms of portraiture or otherwise include humans, primarily their faces, within them, but there are other sorts of pieces in his portfolio as well. He is a self-taught illustrator, learning through trial and error to use digital art programs such as Adobe Photoshop. He has done work involving some very recognizable characters alongside his more individual work, including characters from the Game of Thrones series and Iron Man.

(Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/eraser/213707)

According to Spizak, there is a back story in every single piece he creates. In an interview he stated that he did not want to be like some other skilled artists that "design rubbish, pointless designs just because they got the skills", instead focusing on telling a story, conveying emotions within every design and every piece. I can absolutely believe this, as none of the works by him I have looked at have ever seemed static. Whether they include humans in them or not, within each one there seems to be something going on, a scene taking place within the still image that we have only captured but the tiniest piece of. This method of creating a piece of the action makes pieces of art a lot more interesting to look at, in my opinion, and is a great way of grabbing and then keeping a viewer's attention.

(Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Desktopography-2013/11463849)

Due to his use of photo manipulation in his work, Spizak's work often takes the real and makes it surreal while still not completely wiping the realism from the piece. Human faces become more abstract works while still maintaining their shape and remaining recognizable. Animals maintain their shape and general colors while finding themselves in a fantastical, unearthly environment. I rather enjoy this combination of the real and the digital fantasy world. It creates a very interesting contrast and intrigues the mind upon viewing, grabbing the audience's attention and making them want to know more about this scene that has appeared in front of them.

(Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Things-Behind-The-Sun/1129937)

Though Spizak uses contracting colors in his work that definitely cause certain parts of the picture to pop out, I do not believe this causes the viewer to overlook the parts of the piece that do not contain these colors. Rather, I believe that this use of contrasting colors helps to create the dynamic, story-telling scenes that Spizak strives to create, giving the piece life and energy. I would like to do such a thing in my own work, using colors in the right places in order to give the impression of an active setting, even within a landscape-type piece like the one I am working on.

Interview found at: http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/adam-spizak-interview--psd-3723

Reading Response 2

This reading discussed the differences between older and new mediums of art. Though it did not discuss such recent mediums as computer software and other purely digital methods, it did cover art techniques up to the invention of film.

I found the tone of this reading to be slightly difficult to interpret, as in one section the 'newness' of newer mediums, particularly motion pictures, was described as unfeeling and mechanical, and in another it might be described as being a better medium than painting and other traditional art methods when paired with a modern day audience. Regardless of the overall tone of the piece though, the message was fairly clear: The modern audience interfaces with modern "art" in a different way than traditional "art". The piece referred to the 'essence' of a piece of art, of any medium, as its 'aura', and defined it as the effect distance has in the relationship between art and observed. The greater the distance, and I suppose the mystery, the greater the aura, and I suppose by extension the more open the piece is to various interpretations. In this way, film and photography could be said to have less of an 'aura' than paintings or sculpture. Film, whether stationary or moving, does not allow for the same type of open interpretation that a more abstract piece, whether pictures or words, does. Whether this is a bad thing or not though, I believe, is open for debate. While a film cannot provide an open arena for interpretation as easily as a painting, it can provide a more complete sense of immersion, telling the story it means to tell more vividly than could be provided by a painting or a sculpture.

While this medium was not covered in the piece itself, I cannot help but give and honorable mention to video games as art. Whether video games are, on the whole, considered art is still a hot debate in some communities, but I have found in recent years that video games can tell a story in ways that other mediums of art could never hope to achieve, specifically in the way of immersion. Video games also have an advantage over film in that stories can be open ended, allowing for that sort of open interpretation that critics of film say is lost. A game need not even have a story, allowing the player to make up their own story as they go should they choose to (If you want an example of largely story-less gaming as art, look up a game called Proteus.).

Section Review: Section VIII

While this section is fairly short, it gives an interesting insight into the differences between film and live acting, which could be considered a disconnect between the old and the new. Live acting, the section states, provides a personal link between the actor and the audience, allowing adaptation to the audience and portrayal of cult values, or values which are not necessarily meant to be seen by the masses but to be experienced by those they have intrinsic meaning to. On the other hand, in film there is a connection not between the actor and the audience but the actor and the camera. This results in a more static performance, which may be argued to be a less feeling and personal performance. In addition, what the viewer sees on film is not the result of one piece but of many shorter pieces cobbled together to make the finished product. Film, it is argued, is not a medium with which to present values to the few but rather to present a story to the many.

Project 1: Preliminary Notes

General concept: Subterranean scene, glowing parts that potentially dim and brighten as an animated loop?

Glowing parts:
-Mushrooms
-Some rocks
-Some plants
-Some animals (? May or may not include based on time constraints)

Big parts:
-Waterfall
-Stalagmites/stalactites
-Bridge and paths
-Rock ledges and caves
-Fungi and plant life
-Given time, small animal life (e.g. bugs? Very small by scale)


Possible angles:
-Overhead shot
OR
-Close up on one cave

Movement/Animation?:
-Glowing fungi/plants/rocks
-Glow is different colors, different colors dim and brighten at different times?
-Emulate day/night cycle? Dependent on time constants
-Water flow/light reflections?