Dear Sophie

Google Chrome came out with a new commercial to promote their software. With all the talk of technology and the way if effects lives in class tonight it reminded me of some commercials that I've seen recently. What intrigued me the most about this was how it was basically making a digital scrapbook of a child's life.  The use of Google Chrome in replace of a traditional aspect of recording events, such as scrapbooking and old-school VHS home videos, is just another way that technology is taking over. Part of this that really interests me is how with having so much invested digitally does that devalue physical media like actual photos, a scrapbook, and hand written letters or does it place more of a worth on putting the time in to actually create an object outside of digital technology?

For me I find that hand made items have more of a value since so much is online and in the digital world. There is something "homey" in a hand made item that has associations of caring and love that gets lost with how technical and inhumane digital items can be found.

Self Portrait

If you've ever heard the saying, "you can take the girl out of the _________, but you can't take the _________ out of the girl" then you will understand the concept of even though you change something about the place your in or what you do it never really changes your true nature. With aspects of identity I choose to depict that very saying within the image. No matter how far away I go from the northern Adirondacks I don't lose what I've learned from growing up on the shores of the lakes and in the mountains. Our lives are changing all the time, graduating from high school, then college, going on to start something new, all of these milestones change where we are and what were doing but they don't change who a person is. Some people, like myself, really care about where they came from and grew up, how it effected their family life and continues to effect who they are now. To go back to my version of that popular saying; you can take the girl out of the mountains, but you can't take the mountains out of the girl.

Composite Photo

The concept of secrecy in relationships brings in the idea of privacy. Privacy is a problem that pops up constantly within the use of social networks, the question of how much to share, whats appropriate to share, whats safe to share... Secrets and social networking sites have become coexisting concepts. People share things over the internet that they would never express face to face. This comfort of over-sharing can cause many problems in a persons social and professional life. However, this is just one aspect of the problem with secrets and social networking. The assumption of everything being true that is being posted or created on a site has a sense of naivety, people keep secrets and sometimes use the cover of the internet site to mask who they truly can be. All of these aspects of the internet have created a completely different relationship between friends and acquaintances than the one that would be present in the physical world.

Post Modern Themes and Middle School Curriculum

I found that I was more interested in the articles concerning Post Modern Principles than I was in the ideas brought forth in the Middle School Curriculum article. However I do understand the importance of the concerns that were addressed in the M.S.C. article. From these ideas I thought the most influential was making the curriculum more focused on what students are interested in personally in an effort to get them to understand how those interests can branch out into a more active interest in similar themed social issues. This idea of curriculum can most certainly extend beyond that of the middle school environment and be used as a basis in other grade levels. Using this aspect of a personally planned curriculum pairs nicely to the themes that were presented in the Post Modern Principles article. Working from the basic concept of the elements and principles of design that were implemented so long ago it makes sense that in such a visually stimulated society we can address more complex themes to create an understanding of visual culture. I think it might also be interesting to think of ways that the elements and principles of design that included; line, space, color, texture, and value, can be examined in a more interesting way by associating these ideas with more complex concepts. The following video expands on this idea and gives visual examples of how this could work to modify the elements and principles of design.

 

Art Education after Art Education: A Postmodern Look at Elements of Design

Cinderella Intertextuality Magazing Cover

I choose to use the Grimm Brothers fairytale Cinderella as my subject to create the magazine cover. I wanted to focus on a concept of the story instead of an image of Cinderella because since it is such an old story that has been re-done over and over again there are so many different remakes, from books, to musicals, to operas, to movies and tv shows. With each of these versions there are some basic concepts that are consistently used throughout each version. The concept I decided to focus on is the "Rags to Riches" concept. Cinderella is the ultimate "Rags to Riches" story and this concept has gone on to be used throughout many different media. In my magazine I used Pretty Woman and Pursuit of Happiness and the Harry Potter series as movie reference, Chris Gardiner, Kelly Clarkson and J.K. Rowling as real life examples and also the Harry Potter series as a book reference. I felt these works and stories were best connected to the kind of "Rags to Riches" story that I believe relates to where the classic concept came from with Cinderella.

Cloud Visuality

I started my search with the idea from Sweeney's article based on Social Networking. My first word was Network from which I branched off in an interesting way that can be seen in the clouds that I came up with:

Network

With Network I found built networks as well as networks through telephones and the internet paired with also something as natural as the network of veins on a leaf. From here I moved onto Friendship.

Friendship

Directly following what I think of the social networks that I use daily, like Facebook, friendship came to me as an incorporated idea with network. From friendship I branched off to Intimacy.

Intimacy

There is an intimacy that comes from creating a friendship. I am interested in this connection that people make between one-another through different kinds of relationships. Something that comes out of creating an intimate connection is the sharing of secrets.

Secrets

Coming to the idea of secrecy in relationships brings in the idea of privacy. Privacy is a problem that pops up constantly within the use of social networks. How many people will you allow to see your profile? What kinds of things will you post on your profile? I was surprised at how through the connecting words I was able to come at a conclusion that I am interested in human nature and relationships but also relates directly to issues concerning the original Big Idea.

Sweeney Article

In the Sweeney article a concept that stuck out to me has important to understanding the overall ideas of the article is the section about the lines of sight in a digital visual culture, which include the cyborg, the clone, and the parasite. I found this article was making an argument for the use of technology as more of a tool for art education and really integrating a visual technological culture into the everyday lives of students and teachers. Sweeney touched on many types of technology and ways to understand relationships with digital networks, in these ideas the one that stands out the most as a big idea of the article was his concept of fostering relationships with technological networks in a school setting. I understand this to be Sweeney's attempt at showing the importance of technology in classrooms and how students and teachers alike can benefit from becoming more fluent in the language of the digital world.

Themes of more specific ways that technology can be used in the classroom can emerge from this big idea in Sweeney's article. I think that Sweeney has already given us some basic concepts in this department as the "lines of sight" which include; Cyborg Vision, Cloned Perception, and Parasitic Double-Vision. With the idea of the cyborg people and machines are becoming connected. This is directly referencing how individuals and others interact on the internet. Social networking sites are an example of the idea of cyborg and how individuals can have their identity simulated online.

 

 

 

 

 

I am mostly interested in this idea of the cyborg and how with the easily attainable nature of the internet people are becoming more and more attached or "plugged in" as some people call it. We now have the ability to access internet through mobile devices and through wifi hot-spots where anyone can connect to the internet and therefore millions of others. I focused on social networking sites because they have become the most used and maybe even effective way of staying in contact with people. Through anyone of the sites listed on the 2010 Social Networking Map there are ways for individuals to post their opinions, share cool things they've discovered or made and comment on anyone's posts. Social Networking did start out as a more simple concept which is easily explained through this video:

I think social networking sites are something that should be considered an advantageous part of the classroom. For instance, just with the way that our Art Ed. program has begun using blogs as a way to post homework and let teachers know that students are being active with readings by posting their responses. It also makes it much easier for students to share interesting visual media with classrooms. I think they could be considered a start off point for integrating more types of technology into the school setting. 

Exquisite Rorschach Game

Within the variety of art historical Surrealist games I find that I am most drawn to the visual aspects of the games; Exquisite Corpse and Decalomania (with reference to Rorschach ink blots). I think it would be interesting to combine these games together. Combining the games there is direct play with chance as well as automating drawing created from the ink images. The reason I believe this would be beneficial as a game is that when chance is used to create an image as it is with the concept of Rorschach tests many parts of that image will spark new ideas and we are able to find familiar shapes within the ink.

For example within a common Rorschach ink blot:

Specific to this image various people would find completely different shapes created in the ink. I see two sea horses and a puppy just to point out a few images I am deciphering in the ink.

The images that can be found or parts of shapes that are started are what I find so interesting about Rorschach tests. With this in mind I think pairing this exercise with the basic concept of the exquisite corpse game will create an especially interesting outcome.

Visual Exquisite Corpse Examples

The way I would use the two Surrealist games together would be to begin with the ink image. After the image has be created students will spend time deciphering the shapes they can find within the ink image. The use of the exquisite corpse concept comes into play with the students begin to draw or outline the shapes they find within the ink images. These drawings of the chance shapes that occur will be kept private so other students will not influence what their peers see within the ink. After students have exhausted the amount of images they can find within the ink blots, presenting what they have found will be extremely interesting for students to see what their peers have seen in the images of the ink.

This is an example of finding and image within the ink:

Using chance in the surrealist play alongside drawing of deciphered images will make this game more than just an individual experience, being able to show each other in a fun informal setting can open other students up to seeing things in new ways and become more comfortable with sharing work.

Images created in this process can be used to pursue larger work with examining a specific part of the ink image and what was deciphered within it.

Reproductions

            Of the readings for this week I was most interested in the article, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I found the ideas in this article to be interesting points to think about in how authenticity and a work being unique come into conflict with the ability to create reproductions are introduced. This reminded me of a part of a movie I watched called Mona Lisa Smile in which the teacher is explaining how a unique work of art has been mass produced and made available to the common man in different objects, postcards, calendars, etc. She goes on to comment that reproduction has also offered the option of anyone being able to paint like Van Gogh through a paint by number. Follow the link to the video to see what I am referring too;

Mona Lisa Smile; Van Gogh Paint By Number Clip


I thought this clip offered up a pretty spot on example of what the article is talking about, that yes mechanical reproduction has allowed us to invent ways of creating art that can be made in duplicate and can still be considered unique in the form of lithography and printing. However, there is an issue with how far to take this technology and at what point does it matter that creating reproductions takes away the authenticity of the work, authenticity being the quality becomes depreciated and the historical testimony of the art doesn't exist in a reproduction.

I think that it is interesting to consider such ideas especially within the masses of technology available at our fingertips today. Anyone can go online and find a picture of a famous artwork, download it, print it out and have their own reproduction of the work. I believe trips to museums and galleries to see the actual work in person holds more merit now because of the readiness of reproductions today.