Final Project

Working on the final was even more tedious than what I did for my first flash project. There were many moments while I was toiling away where I wondered...why am I putting myself through this?! I decided to use flash again and create a better version of my original cootie catcher. This one is completely interactive so the viewer can choose the colors and numbers and attain a fortune at the end. All in all, my final project has about 1800 frames each consisting of one photo, and there are 90 buttons in total. I took on a lot to accomplish this but it worked out in the end. Hooray!

Intro & Chapter 1 of Internet Art

The whole concept of "Internet Art" is difficult for me to comprehend, although it is clearer now. I find it hard to differentiate between "digital art" and "internet art," because it's hard for me to understand how some of the examples in the book are "art" and not just random websites.  I like the "RadioTaxis" piece. It turns a very useful site into a work of art...I consider of it work of art simply because its aesthetically pleasing, though I am not overly-wowed by it. "The World's First Collaborative Sentence," by Douglas Davis is fun to read and accessible by anyone, meaning it isn't pretentious or hard to grasp like a lot of the art I have seen from the digital age. However, I am not sure that I really see it as "art." It's more like a fun little game. 

Working with flash (late)

Working with flash was, well, it was tedious to say the least. Since I am less than stellar when comes to drawing and painting I decided against the sort of animation that most of my classmates were doing. I admire their talents in this way, but I am a photographer so I chose to base my project on the use of photos in flash. As a child (like many if not ALL girls) I loved to create "cootie catchers" and play with them at recess. I was surprised to find that I did not need to consult any instructions when I first attempted to fold one up. I apparently memorized the steps at the age of about 8 and never forgot them. It's funny-the things you remember...I mean, I can remember how to make a cootie catcher but I can't memorize the correct dates for my art history test! Anyway, with the help of an assistant photographer I posed for a series of shots where I was moving the cootie catcher opened and closed. When played in sequence, these images turn into a movie. I ended up with about 500 frames for this one possible outcome with the cootie catcher. Tedious!

Wow! I actually made a website. Becoming less and less computer illiterate every day!!!

check it out at http://webfiles.colorado.edu/mcwillis/www/Index.html

Virtual Self Portrait: I see myself in each member of my family

Photography Reborn Excerpt

This excerpt discusses the ways portraiture has changed in recent years. The author explains that there is "turning away from representing the individual," and a new emphasis on manipulation and transformation of an individual. The author discusses how digital photography has changed the nature of portraiture. While in regular film photography the body is often a symbol of the self, in digital photography the body is often distorted. 

One interesting point that is made os how digital photography is perfectly suited for our culture. We have a "peculiar fascination with celebrity," and the ways in which those celebrities' appearances change from day to day like a "shimmering illusion." The author claims that for this reason digital photography is deal for this age in which the body itself is an unstable and changeable object. 

I also found it interesting to think of the photograph as a storytelling device. This is mostly true for film photography, though in the digital age we can no longer look to photographs to tell us the truth. You never know when you are simply viewing a photoshop fairytale as opposed to an actual scene from an actual place in time. Digital technology has infact "changed the story," and this can be fun and whimsical, but it is not the source of truth it once was. As I am new to blogging, I also found it interesting to learn that the word "blog" comes from "web log." You learn something new every day.

Chapter 1, Digital Art by Christiane Paul

The author begins the chapter by stating the belief that digital art will eventually absorb all other artistic media. I agree that this will happen but it saddens me in a way. I suppose that, as long as some people continue to make art the "old-fashioned" hands-on way, that it isn't sad. But to think that all art will have a digital element to it is sad. I am a believer that art work that has been hand-crafted-be it photographs processed by hand in the darkroom, paintings created with actual brushes and paint, drawings with charcoal that has been smudged by real fingers, sculptures that have been molded with the palms of someone's hands, or pots that have been spun on the wheel with the kick of a foot and show indentations made by one's unique fingerprints-they all possess a certain energy that is transmitted from the artist to the piece. With mass-production and the possibility of simple digital reproduction there is something lost...the "aura" as the author refers to it. 

This is not to say that digital art itself can't be artistic and cool and have a soul all its own. I am just speaking in terms of the digital medium "absorbing" other media. Some of the artist discussed in chapter one are very intriguing. I especially like Charles Cohen's white silhouettes. By taking the actual image of the person, or people, a mysterious piece is created. If I did not know form the reading that these images were from pornographic material I would not know what to think at first. The negative space becomes the subject and I like how that plays on the idea of traditional images.