Final (Photo)

Made by a Man

Made by a Man

The Made by a Man exhibit was a showing by J. Casey Doyle in which he displayed large cloth like materials made entirely of the plastic threads pom-pons are made from. Doyle had made large weaves of the threads that gave the illusion of something else entirely. Each piece was unique and obviously extremely time consuming to make in both scale and design.
There are obvious gender questions throughout the exhibition. Even the title itself drives to ask questions about gender identification and societal ideals of gender stereotypes. To not beat the dead horse and explain my thoughts on the obvious elephant in the room I found myself more attracted to what each “blanket” represented. The plastic threads were just a few centimeters wide and no thicker than a single sheet of paper yet they were displayed on the wall with such mass and volume that I was overwhelmed. The folds and waves looked so similar to a large quilt that it took me by surprise. Something so flat and dull could be weaved into something so full and intricate. The material itself was transformed into an object so far from itself that it seemed to obey an entirely different law of physics.
The weaves in each piece caught my eye and  forced me to look at the investment Doyle had made. I feel the series brought about questions of gender stereotypes, not only present but enforced, in society but I was so blown away by the transformation of materials that went into sending the message. It's like a two dimensional figure trying to look at a three dimensional object.

Contemporary Photographer Review

Phillip Tolendano's Gamers Review

The digital world is a fascinating place that breaks the barriers we set for ourselves, both physically and mentally. We can defy physics, create fantastical and impossible landscapes, and even play the part of God to our hearts content. There is little limit to what is possible when playing a video game. A person can lose themselves in a fabricated virtual space but the world never looses them. Phillip Toledano's Gamers series points out that ugly truth that even when we are immersed in play, our bodies are still physically in the world. Along with all those grotesque faces our bodies make in reaction to our avatar's interaction with environment.
The photo series Gamers shows front facing, non objective portraits of people making strange faces in response to playing a video game. Their faces are front lit like they are close to the screen they are playing on in a pitch black space. We, as the viewer, are forced to pay special attention to the way the light illuminates the faces in a very raw way. Each image not only shows a very human and unpleasing image of a primal facial expression but captures every imperfection in the subjects face. There is little in the way of Toledano attempting to show us any sort of photogenic image. Each picture is raw and represented in such a way to capture everything that is “wrong” with the subject. Every emotion from contempt to joy is represented in some bitter way.
As a gamer myself, I find this series quite funny and thought provoking. I don't think of myself as the kind of person to make involuntary expressions such as those shown in the series but that is probably due to the fact that I have never seen myself while immersed in a game. The series seems to question how I interact within video games. Games are a large portion of who I am and this series puts my interpretation of my hobby and puts it on its head. Every merit and down side is brushed away to point out how our bodies react to something that isn't really there. It isn't a right or wrong, just what exists and what doesn't. The emotion is physically present but the cause of said emotion was fabricated with mathematical code.
There is a lot going on under the surface of such simplicity unapologetic images that Toledano displays. The raw emotion he captures while people are immersed in a video game. There is a lot to the idea of humans putting themselves in the place of another. Video games do it in such a complete way that people forget that they are still present in the physical space. It is truly being in two places at once. I found the series very thought provoking as a fellow gamer to the point that I now find myself paying more attention to my own body while playing. The series really puts a new spin on how I view both my physical and digital world.

Mr Toledano: Gamers

The Second Hand

The Second Hand

       Art has grown and evolved in the past years and started to incorporate the use of digital manipulations as more of a standard. Much like photography’s inception into the art world, there were doubts and fears on what such a new strange medium would do to the long standing traditions of drawing and painting. I am fearful of the change and the impacts digital arts may have on the skill set I have honed over the many years. What happens to me if I don't adapt or evolve like the medium?

       I decided to create a contour line drawing of the very thing that allows me to create. A hand is outstretched vertically, empty yet not reaching for anything in particular. A single dark line is accented by vague smears of graphite indicating the depth of the actual object it represents. The other side of the wall holds an exact copy of the hand but instead vectorized and printed on photo paper. The second image is no longer my creativity but a series of shapes and equations dictated by a machine that is made to represent my image.

Does one have more artistic merit over the other?

WIP Digital

The hard part will be getting the hand finished. Only about 10% of the time will be spent manipulating it in illustrator. I wanted to combine my art from both the digital and the plastic backgrounds. Both will be 18x24 presented side by side. I know where I'm going with this but I would still like feedback on where people would like to see it go.

Final Project Proposal (Digital)

     I plan to do a drawing and bring it into the digital realm to manipulate it. A large majority of my art and passion is in the plastic arts rather than digital so I wanted to find a way to merge the two for my final. The goal of my project is to explore what happens when to two artistic styles cross. I plan to display the two side by side at the same size to show where one left off and the other started and progressed. The digital product will be displayed at the original size of the drawing. I want to experiment and see the direction my fine arts skills go when crossed with the digital.

Final Project WIP (Photo)

     The idea for my project was to tell a story about my identity and how much of who I am is tied to what I own and what I do. I am more of a person working on a drawing rather than standing at the corner of the road. My overall plan is to heavily Photoshop my images to show how the objects I own give me life. I don't want to reveal just a small portion of the story so I will show a few pictures before the Photoshop process to give the basic idea of the image composition. The project will displayed and matted on the wall in varying sizes and show a linear progression from one side to the other to display a passage of time.

Project 5

     The goal of the project was to see how two artists interact in a digital world. This was an interesting project that showed some unexpected interaction based on standard social aspects of the real world that would seem to have no purpose in a fictional landscape. We were simply avatars with a large name plate above our head.
     Things like personal space and eye contact still existed even when we were only an avatar in the world. Chat boxes got rid of the need to talk face to face but it still was prevalent. Little things that are ingrained in our mind still dictated our actions. It was as though the avatars became our body. Many strange quirks like where to place a bed in a small room and the exchange of materials still had a large impact in a place that was completely made of code.
     We survived and build massive structures over the course of the week like two artists sharing colored pencils in class. We helped each other but stayed on our own for the large majority. I suppose it was because we knew little about how the other worked. It was more or less a test to see how the other designed their structure and attempt to match or up the stakes. I hate to admit it but it was more like an unannounced contest to see who could make the better place. It was fun but more time consuming than I would like to admit.

If you own Minecraft and would like to see first hand what we did here is the address to the server
184.56.209.17
I just ask that you do not destroy our hard work.

(Digital) Assingment 5 WIP

     Minecraft is a simple game based on the idea of being able to harvest and place blocks. That's it. Until recent updates there were no real goals or reasons to play past the first in game night. The game looks like it got released with the original Doom but still has that simple charm that keeps people playing for hours. 

     A digital world is randomly generated before you and you are left with nothing and expected to survive the undead onslaught and constant griefing of exploding enemies when night rolls around. This world was perfect for two artists to get together and see what becomes of the interaction. We survive to build and alter the landscape for no real reason other than the fun of it. This is what has become of a week in the digital world. 

(Photo) Final Assingment Proposal

     I plan on expanding the central theme of the last two projects. The idea of being defined by our possessions has really fascinated me this semester and I plan to take the idea further but in a more creative route than the last two. I plan on telling a more cohesive story with my images but while still keeping a mysterious background.
     I will have one central photo larger than the others that displays the overall theme and have 8 or 9 surrounding photos expand and explore the idea of the first in a linear fashion. The photos are going to be heavily Photoshopped much like assignment 5 but in greater detail. The goal is to create a surreal sense of how our possessions and clothing define our being and without them we are a blank slate of thoughts and emotions.

Digital Nation

1. As technology progresses so does our reliance and interaction with it. I feel we're already far too reliant on technology as it is and it will only get worse from here on. Years ago if the home telephone was left unanswered it was generally taken as you were unavailable. Now with cell phones in every pocket you are always available if you want to be or not. It is expected of you to pick up the phone and respond to a call or text. We are all wired into each other constantly feeding information to one another. It is great that we can all be connected in some way but it begs to question if it's really for the best or being abused by petty simple things.

2. Art is already moving forward with the digital processes. Photos can be faked and touched up to look more human than humans. We create this idealistic image and force it upon each other as being who we truly are. Digital art is a fantastic exploration of the impossible but where does the line blur into being abused? My main question is what happens when we can fake something so well it goes noticed. What happens when realistic video can contain no physical elements or object? The car posted below does not exist there physically. It was all rendered in a software and placed there digitally.

Here is a link to a site with 50 more photos like it : http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/50-stunning-3d-car-renders.html

Assingment 5 Proposal

     A lot of video of the video Digital Nation centered on the virtual world. Companies had entire meetings in a social game where they never had to leave their office or home. I plan to make a statement or parody about this idea. Imagine going to school and sitting in a classroom while your already at school in that same classroom.
     A large portion of interaction is lost when you see a digital representation of someone you're talking to. A large portion of the internet is a flaming mass of such human interaction where basic courtesies break down and name calling comes at the drop of a hat. Actions are so easy to hide behind when you're 200 miles away behind a computer screen.
    The plan (very tentative) is to construct a portion or all of Ovalwood. It will be a very crude representation of a physical space everyone in class is very familiar with and allow them to explore an area they're in while already present at that specific location. They could sit in their chair both virtually and physically. It will be displayed in a virtual game world where the viewer can move around, and possibly destroy things, as they please.

Project 5

     I spent quite a while thinking up ways to explain my thought process for this project. The grounds of fiction are so open that anyone can perceive a series of photographs very differently. One's mind can wander and conjure up obscure thoughts and reasons behind the meaning of a single image, let alone a series of five or more.
     I decided to tell a story and only give a single detail about the background. It relates to the basic idea of my last project where clothing makes the man. I want the viewer to fill in the rest because they will always find it much more fascinating if I let their minds wander rather than tell them what to think.
     I went into this project knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I took the photographs, multiple of each setting, and layered them so that I could create a seamless edited picture. It was mostly a simple use of Photoshop layer masks and some careful planning in order to fill in the parts that I once covered up.

Muybridge Project

     I decided to update the Muybridge photo set to the modern art world. The issue was how to show the basic fundamentals of art movement in a four dimensional format. I found by gradually devolving the image into the basic shapes that make up the composition to be the most effective method. It is more Kooning than Pollock but abstract expressionism all the same.
     I also found it to be a commentary on the image quality of old. What was amazing quality back in the day is like basic shaped and shadows to today's 24 mega pixel camera's and thousand dollar tilt-shift lenses. As time moves on the image we take today only gets worse and worse in our eyes.
     The process was just a simple adjustment of one of the art filters preset in Photoshop to slowly simplify each of the twelve images. I found the simple use of the filter to make my own comment on the ease of today's technology vs the processes of old world art. What once took hours of drawing or cutting now takes minutes with a mouse and keyboard. Art is evolving like photography is for better or worse.

The seasons

Here's a representation of the 4 seasons according to illustrator and the color settings in CMYK to replicate them.

Assignment 4

     I wanted to focus on something we all do but may or may not acknowledge. Deep in our mind we all develop mental shortcuts that allow us to stream through the overwhelming amount of information in our everyday life. I'm getting to the idea of judgments we pass on people we do not know based on appearance. We are taught not to do it but it still happens. We all make split second decisions about people based on observation the moment we see them for the first time. I wanted to take advantage of that and show many versions of myself and play on that idea.
     I decided to focus just on the clothing and kept my face and background context out of the series entirely. I feel it is easier and faster to pass a judgment about someone when their face is obscured. This forces the viewer to base everything solely on appearance rather than any definable facial expressions.
     Each image is a picture itself but for the idea to be most effective I needed to lump them all together into one large picture. My ideas changed little from the start but I found myself running out of unique outfits. It made me feel more to blame because I only have a few different personas to display through my outfits so harsh judgments are partially my fault in the first place.

Metal Map

    


     Metal music is chaos. It is organized but still chaos. I took all of the metal bands from my music library and linked them to their appropriate sub-genre(s). I wanted to display my personal interest in music that may seem alien to others. The music is very hectic and often layered and composed in such a way that it is impossible to hear everything in a single listen. I wanted my project to reflect the tendencies my music follows.
     The general process for creation was to split circles to make the connections in order to display a uniform line size and shape. The idea behind everything was to cause extreme confusion and overlap and force the viewer to focus much like how I have to focus when listening to music. Everything was done from scratch in illustrator.

Assignment 3 WIP

This is just the list of metal bands from my music library and the classifications I give them based on the sub-genre(s) they fit into. I may scrap the current image to a larger one with more space between each band as things are getting a little chaotic. Below is a music video from one of my favorite bands just to top everything off.

Assingment 3 Proposal

     Music has always been a very large part of my life and a major interest and inspiration for a lot of my work. Since middle school I started to deviate away from the classic rock hits my parents and the radio spoon fed me into obscure metal from all over the world that rarely sees the light of day. Artists experiment more and slowly new genres of music start to pop up the longer you spend away from the top 40. I want to explain a little of what that is to me. I want to show a visual map of the bands I listen to and the genres they are tied to. I might even be able to depict the 300 sub-genres of metal that I always joke about. The plan is to mostly use text and line to link everything together while showing connections on the amount of influence a band has to a genre based on visual thickness of the lines connecting them. While classification of music follows some rules, there is a lot of debate about specifics so most of my project could be objective depending on the view point.

Mess

     Most people want to document their homes or lives in the most tidy or cleanest conditions possible. We tend to forget that our homes are usually only that clean when someone important is coming over or a big gathering is taking place. We don't want visitors to see how messy we can be for fear of being shunned by our peers. Everything must be clean and spotless in the eyes of those around us or they might think we're secretly a slob living in shambles.
     I'm not a slob but I come pretty close at times. The above photographs are what becomes of my living quarters after a week of projects, papers, and midterms roll over me all at once. I wanted to document the mess I made to show what my place really looks like, not what I want it to look like. Sure, I wish it was the pinnacle of cleanliness but I know that isn't going to happen. This is real and unedited life shown by the most truthful device I own. My place is a mess and I want you to see it.
     I focused on a few close up photos of my desk to show how bad things have gotten. A messy bed is bad but a messy work station is worse. I wanted to show the accumulation of dust and fingerprints that came about over the week. Zooming in also immersed the viewer in the mess better than showing the entire perspective in a single picture. I used the last slide to show the entire room in order to convey a better sense of scale and impact of my lack of maintenance. There isn't much purpose behind these images other than showing you that I'm pretty far from perfect and I'm OK with it.

Project 2

     Black metal brunch. Appropriating images usually comes down to sending a message or social comment on the wrongs of the world. I just wanted to throw a bunch of black metal musicians into a nice cafe and laugh. There wasn't much of a purpose besides a little joke.
     The problems I had was most of the images were in stage lighting or from album covers. Each person had to be cut out from a dark background and the amount of hair and spikes made the process quite tedious. There was also the issue of image quality. There is an unspoken rule of black metal about always looking serious.
     Overall it was fun to do but as always I wish I had more time and a larger scope of images to pull from. I restricted myself too much by only placing black metal musicians rather than metal musicians. I was also quite bias by trying to place people from bands I like rather than all black metal in general.

Project 2 WIP

I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew with this one but it's coming along. I plan to add more people from black metal bands and add food. I'm thinking about changing some pictures to album covers but that may take away from the "fancy" atmosphere that I want.

Old News

     The Old News exhibit at the gallery really took me by surprise. I came in expecting photos that were straight on, non objective depictions of events around Ohio. Instead I got some masterfully taken photos of events from interesting perspectives and angles that showed more than just the story. One photo in particular caught my eye because of the human dynamic it displayed.
     Ohio Coal Miners was take in 1980 in a coal mine in southern Ohio. It depicted a close up shot of two men standing in a mine and not much else. The special aspect of the photo was the grins on their faces. It was similar to a child's expression after doing after playing a particularly mischievous prank. They both have their mining helmets on and are covered in dirt and grime from the labors their job entails.
     The photo goes beyond just showing the viewer two dirt covered men. It shows a comical relationship two men have while working deep under the surface of the earth. It feels like there is a special bond being show that we can understand through the unorthodox facial expressions. I would expect these men to be tired and angry from the hard and deadly work they do just to live but instead I'm faced with two faces that seem to have little understanding of where they are. It's like watching two children playing in the mud I would imagine. Covered in dirt and filth but enjoying their time making a mess of themselves.

Questions: Was photography a job or a hobby to you?
What do you think of the impact the digital images have had on the art form?
What is your most sentimental photo taken in the show and why?

Assignment 2 Proposal

     An artist is nothing if he can't poke a little fun at himself once in a while. I tend to get a little defensive about my musical tastes but this time around I want to do a little parody. Black metal is probably one of those obscure genres of music most people know because the lyrics have to do with satanic influences and the death of God. My idea is to bring some individuals from heavy black metal bands and put them together in something unexpected. I give you Black Metal Brunch with Behemoth.

Fair Use

     I believe the work does not fall under fair use. The work is not a parody nor a criticism and deprives the original owner of a large sum of income Fairy received. The Hope picture does transform the original but only in texture and color. Besides one line of text there is little change made from the original. There was nothing else added to make it his own. I don't feel it was transformed enough to consider it fair use. Something similar could be made with a Photoshop filter and color fill.

Materializing New Space

     The Materializing New Space exhibit was quite the thought provoker. I felt the main entrance piece # 17 was the most profound and interesting. It was a large framed image made through many processes such as photography sculpture and digital. It is very large and demands attention being on a center wall as the first work you see straight on walking into the gallery.
     There were mice around bird eggs on the right and birds reacting to the theft on the left. Near the center there is some sort of bird/machine contraption that looks to be confronting the mice. Under the mice and the nest there is a couple baby mice that looked almost trapped or scared. There is the great feeling of conflict and tension between all parties withing the image.
     I believe the conflict is a sort of rich vs poor kind of debate. The poor (mice) steal in order to feed their children (baby mice) while the rich (birds) keep the poor down trough use of technology and machines. In order to be successful you must have access to technology in this day and age. There is a disparity or gap that keeps everyone in their place without much chance to progress. The conflict also implies loss through the next generation if the wars continue. There is a lot of stress being pushed along in the work.

Assignment 2

Frame

Vantage Point

Detail

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Hand Held Night Photography

Night Photography with Tripod

Depth of Field f36

Depth of Field f5.6

Flash

The Thing Itself