Project 3: Web Page

The guidelines for Project 3 are simple (since we don't have very much time to work on it!):

• Create at least one web page.
• Design your page on paper first. Turn your sketches in on Wednesday for 25% of the total project grade.
• Include links
• Include Pictures
• Include text 
• Part of it must have been created in Photoshop or Illustrator
• Successful submission to Internet using FTP.
• The page must be functional and convey information. I will be assessing your design based on a written statement of intent that you will turn in Thursday when the project is due.

Project 2: Digital Self Portrait in Illustrator

The self-portrait is an age-old practice in which the artist reveals themselves to the viewer as both the author and subject of the work. We will update this process by creating digital self-portraits. Think about the significance of the portrait in the digital age. Start by creating a vector portrait. Think about how you would like to represent this concept of the digital portrait, and the type of colors and abstraction that you are utilizing as you work.

The next step will be to create a background for this image. We have looked at a variety of artists who use abstraction for different reasons. Think about how to design the background based on visual communication. How can you create additional interest or intrigue in your image? Select colors that balance off of your portrait, and strengthen the image as a whole. How can you move the viewer’s eye around the image?

This background will be where the meaning of the image is conveyed, so think hard about what you would like to communicate and how you can visually change the meaning of the portrait through setting.

You have the option to add text to your image if you would like. This can be as simple as one word or a more complex sentence. Think of the text as visual objects in themselves that relate with the images and color schemes. Utilize text to direct the viewer’s attention to certain areas of the image, and change the meaning of the artwork as a whole.

Finally, composition will be very important to make this image sing. Spend a good amount of time moving your objects around the page, increasing the size of the image if necessary.

Through all of these processes consider how you, the artist, are communicating with your viewer through the visual medium. What is the most important thing that you would like to say to your audience about the portrait in the digital age?

Examples:

AAAAND: Here is a pretty straightforward step-by-step tutorial on process: http://ndesign-studio.com/tutorials/tracing-photo

Class Site: moving forward and thinking technical

By the end of this week we'll need to have a solid idea about what our website is, and exactly who will be contributing what.

Today we need to:

• Pinpoint what we want our site to be
• Come up with a name and register a domain
• Begin deciding what each of you will do to contribute to the site. This includes choosing someone to be in charge of the site's home page, or front page.
• Set up a forum on Blackboard and begin our collaborative discussion.

Additionally, today we'll talk about some of the most foundational concepts of web design and function, including HTML and CSS. These sound like technical terms (and they are), but don't let that frighten you yet - if you are a non-technical person, you'll be able to do much of your web design in Dreamweaver, which has a graphical interface. We'll get into that next week!

In learning this material, I highly encourage you to become familiar with the site w3schools.com. It's an excellent resource for learning the basics of most aspects of site creation, and it's free. There are many sites out there that document different tools and tricks, so look around. Also, when working on the computer, Google has always been my best friend - don't ever underestimate the power of the internet to provide useful answers, because if you have a technical problem or question, there is almost always a documented instance of someone having and solving the exact same problem. In most cases (I'd say 97% of the time), I'm able to find useful solutions to my questions, no matter how specific.

Critique: Remix

As we hold our first critique, I want to lay out a few guidelines:

1. Critique requires honest and considerate feedback. Everyone here comes with a different degree of experience with the software in use and with art in general. While it is important to be understanding of these differences, it is also important to share ideas about how a work might fall short or fail. Aside from having a teacher to guide you, this is what you are paying for in an art class: the feedback of your peers in an environment where failure is OK!!!
2. Provide specific and qualified response: "I like this because" and "I don't think this works because". Sometimes these specifics are elusive, but when you learn to recognize and discuss them, then you are truly learning about art and to be an artist. You will become more able in making judgments about your own work, as you work.
3. Let's focus on several points given in the original assignment text:

• What message is conveyed?
• Discuss the work's conceptual strength - is the message interesting?
• Is there a believable sense of space?
• Discuss the visual coherence of the image.
• What works?
• What doesn't?

Digital Remix Project

"The fact that the digital medium allows for the seamless reconstruction and manipulation of reality seems to have heightened the awareness of the questionable nature of the authenticity of all images." 

 Christiane Paul

Main Idea:
We will create a visual remix by combining multiple images to build an alternate sense of reality. Use at least 3 scans at 300 ppi, combined with at least 2 of your classmates’ scans, and at least 2 appropriated images from Wikimedia Commons or some other legal image source (HIGH RESOLUTION!!). You may also include Digital Photographs in the construction of your image. You may cut up all images and manipulate them beyond recognition if it serves you purposes.

Goals: 

Create a Digital Collage that explores the Concept of Fabricated Reality in Contemporary Society.

· You must create a believable sense of space in your image. Part of developing strong image is drawing your viewer in. If the image appears falsely constructed, or flat, it looses effectiveness.

· Create a landscape, room, or other space for the background out of scanned textures.

· As you collage figures or objects into the scene make sure that they are seamlessly placed. They should be in scale, matching the lighting and hue of your background.

· The Document Size of your image is up to you, but you must make this decision early and the maximum Width is 24”.

· Think not only about what would be the most interesting visual solution to the problem, but also about what message might be conveyed by the hybridization you are attempting.

· You should start by making sketches of possible combinations (digital or drawn) in your sketchbook. Analyze the results and choose the groupings that are working best for your intentions. I will meet with you during studio time to help you with this process.

Grading:
Visual Coherence of Image 25% Conceptual Strength 25%

Sketches/Prelim. Drawings 25% In-class Work Ethic 25%

(*Including all in class activities) (*Putting in the effort to fully develop your ideas)

Example Artist Post

You will do three write-ups of digital media artists for this class. The first is due this Thursday. As per the syllabus, the following guidelines are in place:

1. Introduce the artist with background information and images/video of their work.
2. Delve deeper into what you see in their work and what it means.
3. Critique the concept and aesthetic quality of the artwork. How could it be better? 
4. Minimum 3 paragraphs; MUST include links to artworks and citations.

This is an excellent example given last semester (courtesy of Billy Friebele, who teaches Digital Media here at SMCM):

Rafael Lozano-Hemer's Vectorial Elevation

Rafael Lozano-Hemer is an artist working with digital technologies and public space. I discovered his work on the Rhizome web site a while ago and have continued to follow his work over the years. One of his earlier pieces, Vectorial Elevations was an interesting mix of interactivity, technology, and particpatory culture. Basically this piece allowed the public to design a lighting scheme through a simple interface on a web site. The designs created were then projected over the central plaza in Mexico City, the Zocalo with high powered robotic searchlights. The designs were ephemera and only lasted for several minutes, but it was photographed and the image was emailed to the participants as a jpeg. This was created in 1999-2000, which is pretty early for this type of innovative participatory digital artwork. He has since exhibited this work around the world in public spaces, most recently in Vancouver, Canada.

I believe that Lozano-Hemer is making an interesting statement about public art and it's relationship to digital technologies. Public sculpture is usually either a representation of a heroic figure or some type of abstract sculpture. This artist uses abstract imagery, lines of light in space, to create geometric designs, but the images are time-based and are only viewed for a short period of time. This changes the artwork into an event rather than a set piece of sculpture. Additionally, Lozano-Hemer includes his audience in the creation of the artwork. This is an interesting development and in a sense makes this artwork somewhat political in my eyes. He gives the viewers agency to project their designs into a public square in the middle of the city. I see this as an important part of his artwork. In reading his website, I noticed that he calls his artwork Relational Architecture, which I am assuming refers to both the spatial quality and the interaction with the public.

Overall, I feel this piece is very successful for the time it was created. It manages to expand digital art out of the computer, and even out of the gallery for that matter. The amount of technological coordination to pull this off is impressive. Also, I am interested in the visual quality of the images created by the lighting designs.

One critique I have of the piece is that it the amount of liberty granted to the audience is extremely limited. While users are given a voice to some extent, they can only create simplistic geometric patterns. In the end I feel that each design looks very similar to the others. Perhaps he could have included the additional choice of altering the colors of the lights, or the movement of the lights over time. This would provide more options for expression and tap into color associations and patterns of movement in space.

However, given the complexity of the task, and for being produced over ten years ago it is impressive and I believe it is an important step for both digital and public art. 

Pixel Drawing

Our first workshop exercise is to use Photoshop to create a tiny pixel image. Your assignment is to create a 50 by 50 pixel avatar for yourself, and it must be based on any animal or fictional creature you could bear to have represent yourself...

Here's a great website featuring art made entirely from tiny pixels: http://www.pixeljoint.com/

And here is a great graphic artist that uses only pixels: Eboy

Thinking about the Final Project from Day 1

Our final project will be a collaborative one, so we need to discuss a topic that all can agree upon. The project itself will be to produce an informational website. That sounds kind of boring, but if you think about it, all websites tend to be informational since they're a kind of functional document. Each of you will contribute to the site by producing one or more web pages that will be interlinked to the rest.

We will discuss possibilities and ideas in class. My contribution to kick things off: we could possibly create a fictional version of something in the real world, or invent something entirely. Like a corporation, travel guide, biological or ecological documentation, history, etc. Each student could contribute a page that presents one aspect of that fiction (the ecology of a fictional creature, uses of a fictional product, etc). Here is a great example of such a site by Baltimore artist Josh Haycraft: http://bhbitb.com/.

Post more ideas in the comments! Let's get a discussion going.