artists #8

The above piece is entitled "Light Rain" by new media artist Paul De Marinis. I found this work in search of artists who created projects using viewer interaction, be it active or passive. I am truly inspired by artists who produce installations that involve everyday objects and occur in everyday locations. I feel that in order to visualize these projects, the artist must truly see the world in a way that is different from the average person. I have been trying to research this type of art making, because I do not have any experience working this way, and up to this point I had only thought about my art in the 2-D sense. Even when it came to digital art, I had no experience working with 3-D images or animation. However, I don't know that I am very interested in creating art this way. I am much more of a throwback designer, enjoying more tactile ways of creating (collage with scissors, charcoal all over the hands, etc). I do however realize that this is where art and the world in general is headed, therefore I enjoy learning digital techniques and hope to resolve a way to use physical and digital media together.

artists #7

I have been doing a lot of reading and research on Matisse this semester and it has made a large influence in the direction of my work in all of my classes. Although not a "new media" artists in the terms of this course, Matisse was very advanced and innovative in his techniques and ideas. In this piece we see his use of collage later in his career, and in terms of visual thinking I think this piece speaks volumes. We can see how the artist's eyes viewed his subject both in shape and color. Matisse stated that "making order out of chaos..that is creation" and I think that carries over into the digital world. Not only do new media artists work with classic artistic elements, but they can now use sound, programming, and computers to express how they see the world.

artists #6

Here is another Matisse image because I have continued my research on the artist. And this image appears in my space and screen project. In my drawing studio, we heard a lecture on ekphrastics that I found very interesting. It seemed a perfect way to combine my love of art and literature. For the S&S project, I thought that an interesting concept would involve projecting the art images with the text overlaid. However, I feel that these writings and images need a great deal of reflection on the part of the viewer to truly understand their significance. Therefore, my project will use the microphone element in flash to control the appearance of the text. If viewer's are too loud, the text will not appear and they will miss the full experience.

artists #5

Alan Butler is a new media artists based in Ireland. His website is http://www.alanbutler.info/blog/. The above work is featured at http://www.alanbutler.info/blog/?page_id=261, or click on "I'm Afraid the Party had been Cancelled". I foudn this work interesting because it showcased the issue of how prevelant myspace and other networking blogs are in our society. It speaks to how these websites can shape how we interact and see the world, as each piece of music in the piece was dubbed as #1 in its Myspace category. This reminded me of discussions and other work that classmates have done related to these websites. I think it is interesting to see how the increase in these networking sites effects the art world, both in the creation of art and in the marketing of art.

artists #4

010011110101101.ORG is an art duo that produced another work revolving around internet security. They made a statement about the issues of placing private information in what can be very public forum if you are not careful. The artists allowed everything they did on the computer to be fully accessible for viewing on the internet. Further enhancements of this project involved allowing heir actions to be GPS tracked and phone conversations tapped.

New Media Art makes an interesting comment that the artists made themselves truly vulnerable and exposed in the name of art. Also, New Media also brought up a valid point that the viewers became voyeurs to some point. This project ties in to Marshall Mcluhan's idea the "the medium is the message". It is not the material hat viewers read or listen to that is the true artwork of the piece, but the way in which it is being presented that expresses the true message of the project.

These artists are prime examples of truly becoming part of your art. They remind the viewer that we are all vulnerable because we are living in the electronic age, and that we should all think twice about what we are putting on the internet...because what if everyone could see it?

artists #3

Vectorial Elevation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is perhaps one of my favorite projects of the new media examples. Seeing an installation project of this scale really made me reflect on the vast possibilities with new media and design technology.

Until now, my study of and work in art had been completely stationary. Drawing, painting, color theory...even work that I had done in the field of graphic design had been static, unresponsive pieces. I had mainly designed in photoshop and illustrator, very little animation. And while these mediums have all served me well, they had never really exposed me to the idea of involving the viewer in a much more tangible way. My mind has been spinning in this course as I try to keep up with learning new software and how to think in very different terms when it comes to digital art. Hopefully, with these new techniques and the freedom to develop our final product as an independent idea, I can incorporate my current interests in art with new media ideas.

The element of audience participation is something that I have found very interesting in this course. I think that is why I particularly enjoyed the lessons on camera and mic use. Those elements literally allow the viewer to climb in and become part of the artwork. In Hemmer's project, the viewer gets to design the outcome of the lightshow, and therefore "become" an artist themselves. Because of this, I think that these types of viewer-involved works are an asset for exposing the average person to artistic experiences.

artists -#2

A group of artists known as Knowrobotic Research developed the above project entitled Minds of Concern::Breaking News as part of an exhibit commenting on art and internet hacking. The project involved an interactive online space in which the user could sample clips pulled off the internet by "port sourcing. Ultimately, this body of work was meant to comment on the ease of hacking on the internet and to remind people of the "big brother" aspect of using such a public source of information.

The interactivity of this project reminded me of the flash work that we have been doing in class. Much of the presentation seemed to involve simple buttons and movie clips with animations that we have practiced. The element of invasion through peoples' computers also reminds me of issues with our use of cameras and microphones on the web. It makes sense that our computers prompt us to allow camera and mic elements, because I now realize how simple it would be for someone to program cams or mics to access our home computers through seemingly innocent websites.

The Minds of Concern site was eventually shut down because internet service providers claimed it violated their use policies. I think in this case we can all agree that the website was shut down because it was actually making a very valid point about internet security. I found this piece important because it reminds us that as artists we have the right to create whatever we want, but when it comes to public domain and the web there are that many more censors and critics to deal with.