Video Art Project | 12.12.17

https://vimeo.com/247041072

For my video art project I decided to focus on the cast members at Walt Disney World. Disney is known for their excellent guest service and amazing cast members. However, guests only see the outside of course.

For 6 months, I worked for the Walt Disney Company and know what it is really like. We are expected to be happy, welcoming, and always smiling, but sometimes this isn't always an easy task. I worked in retail and we would get some of the stupidest questions I've ever heard. All of the adjectives and words I used for the second half of the video are true. Cast members don't always want to do their job. They're not always happy to be there. 

They may be working at the "happiest place on earth", but at the end of the day it is still a job and can be hard to keep up the "Disney look". It can still be fun of course, but some days aren't and can be difficult to work as expected.

Performance Art | 11.28.17

Jessica and I chose to do a country themed duet and be a farmer and her cow and stroll through downtown Tampa on the Riverwalk. We thought this would be really good and could get some good reactions, as we do live in the city and there aren't really any cows and/or farmers around here. 

I think we got some really good reactions at times. I tried to say "Howdy!" to almost every person that walked by and made eye contact. A couple people said hello or hi, some ignored me, some laughed. The one man stated "I hope this is for a fundraiser", I thought that was pretty funny. 

The best reaction was probably the dog. Jessica was mooing as we were walking and this dog was not having it and started to try and sniff her and when she mooed at him, he immediately started barking. I was having a lot of trouble with not laughing.  

My three favorite performance artists are probably bands: The Script, Coldplay, and OneRepublic. I have seen two out of the three perform live (The Script and OneRepublic) and they are some of my favorite people to watch. They are all somewhat similar because they are in the same genre of music and do not necessarily sound the same, but all have the same sort of vibes. Technology is very essential in their work as they are producing music and being in the genre of "pop rock", some of the music is produced not only by instruments, but other technologies as well. Even for concerts, they are using technology for almost everything: music, lights, sound, etc. In their field of performing arts, they are singers, which they often do in front of live audiences (concerts). 

Music Movements | 11.16.17

Punk: Green Day
I chose Green Day because not only were they a band I listened to in my childhood, but they are also an icon to punk music. They fit with technology because they not only do they obviously use it to produce their music, but it is very evident in their music video for Boulevard of Broken Dreams (link below) in the special effects and camera use for the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c

Dubstep: Flux Pavilion 
I chose Flux Pavilion because technology is very evident in their music (in all dubstep to be frank). Dubstep is made purely by computers and different technology, with little vocals, so it obviously uses technology in all of their productions. Linked below is Flux Pavilion's I Can't Stop. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzExWz7KP5M

Disco: Donna Summer
I chose Donna Summer's Hot Stuff because it is very evidently in the disco era. Clearly using technology in all of the sounds, background noises, and musical instruments, she fits in. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IdEhvuNxV8

Electronic/DJ: Calvin Harris
I chose Calvin Harris for the DJ category because he has very popular music, Summer linked below, and very evidently uses technology. Like dubstep, DJs use computers and tons of different kinds of technology to generate a majority of their music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXbLfLACGM

Latin: Selena 
I chose Selena for Latin because I know her music from Spanish class in high school and I've seen her movie many times and she's very obviously in the Latin genre. In Bidi Bidi Bom Bom (link below) technology is used from the instruments and generated sounds, as well as technology to create the video itself. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKGbjJarMeA

Xerox Project | 11.14.17

This project was definitely an interesting one to do to say the least. Scanning and printing parts of my body, my face and hands to be exact, was weird to do. However, this project really made me think in a different way.

I used the Dada movement as my inspiration for this piece. The randomness and scattered elements of Dada are what I went for. While it is scattered and random, there is of course a method to the madness.

As you can see, my face is the middle of the poster with a hand covering the mouth and all different kinds of hand gestures forming around the center (my face). These are to resemble the chaos, stress, and busy times that comes with being a college student. There is always so much going on, so much to do, too many places to be at once, that we don't always get to say what we are feeling. The hand gestures resemble different things that could be going on. For example, the middle finger could be something I'm angry about in the moment, the #1 finger could be resembling me doing good in a class, or the peace sign could represent the fun times and friends. All of it is up for interpretation by the viewer of course, but overall it is supposed to represent the chaotic life of a college student. It ended up being 2x3 feet. 

Grid Art | 11.2.17

This project was definitely a time consuming thing, but also pretty fun to plan and do. I chose a pop art image of Mickey Mouse to use for my project. First, I took the image and converted it into a pixelated version in Photoshop to be my reference.

After that I went through and used the eye drop tool to narrow down the colors that I would end up using for the actual paining. However, once I actually got started I removed some of the colors because some of the colors ended up being very similar. 

Once I narrowed down my colors, I assigned each color a number and went through each square and gave it a number for the color that would go there; basically a paint by number system. For the final product I painted each square to form the image of Mickey Mouse!  It ended up being 12 in by 12 in, and 30 by 30 units.

 

ASCII Art | 10.17.17

After looking over the ASCII Art website and at several different examples, I have decided it is definitely a unique type of art. I did not really know what to expect when I first heard "ASCII", I had never heard the term before, nor did I know this was even an art form.

This definitely probably would not be an art form that I would take up, however it is pretty interesting. They are using different character (@#$%&*) to make designs, graphics, and pictures. I think we see a simple form of this used on social media and messaging at times, for example the "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" that people often use as a shrug. 

This art form would definitely be challenging and take some thought as to how to position the different characters. Some of the designs were very complex and some were fairly simple, which is pretty cool because you can take this to extremes or keep it as simple as you want. I find it intriguing, but it is not a favorite art form of mine. 

Technology Statement | 10.17.17

21st Century Smartphones