Catch Up Research

Vector Art

This piece is by Ann Paidrick, an American Vector artist. If you follow the link to her website, you will see the most convincing vector art I have ever seen. I think it is absolutely amazing how real her images appear, and yet there's this eery feeling of them being "too perfect". I cannot even imagine how she made these. I think this type of vector art would work perfectly for advertising, also they make me very hungry.

http://www.ebypaidrick.com/Home.html

Typography

This piece is by digital artist Theo Aartsma. I love this piece because it combines the feel of graffiti with sculpture and even dance. Being rendered digitally allows for this flexible type. This, like a lot of graffiti, transcends even the idea of the text and becomes both a meaningful statement and an abstract piece of art. I think the idea of digitally executed graffiti is a very interesting idea and is very popular right now, also it's not illegal.

http://cargocollective.com/theoaartsma/Economy

Feminist slumber party!!!

Kristina Ricci Week 10 MMI Research

JODI: SK8MONKEYS ON TWITTER (2009)

Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98nK-Fybks0

Article found on MMI- http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2012/03/31/detail/jodi-street-digital/

*Further reading- http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/corroding-the-machine-20120406

This group created a skateboard that is made out of a keyboard.  I choose this because it relates to my work where I am also using a keyboard in my art.  I liked this because it is interactive for the viewers and its also a commentary about how people can post anything on the internet and how half of it is gibberish.  When the viewer rides the skateboard anything his foot touches will be posted to the twitter account.  Below is a quote that I found the most interesting about the piece.

"Twitter presents itself as the ultimate live feed: your life, updated. Tweets are meant to be, or at least seem, more persistent in their impulsiveness and indexicality than more traditional forms of writing. SK8Monkeys on Twitter (2009/2012) takes Twitter's self-presentation and skewers it by rearranging the terms involved. The SK8Monkey account, determined by the patterns of feet on a keyboard, becomes not a record of stray thoughts but stray actions; not an index of consciousness moving through the world but of the body in time."

Krystal Aguilar Week 10 Museum of the Moving Image

The Research:

I browsed through the various links and sections. Watched videos. Looked up artists. Used the in-site search feature. Watched more videos and various art. Sorry for the dryness but research certainly is an organized way to get lost into learning.

Overall, the artist that most caught my eye and inspired me was Eiko Ishioka. The brief mention of her name and the fact that some costumes would be featured in an exhibit did not really illustrate her talents. Through Youtube videos and IMDb. I learned that Eiko had the ability to balance and weave imagination with costume fashion. Her approach was very inclusive with communication with actors, make-up artists, directors and more. I even watched Mirror Mirror just to see her work.

The Inspiration:

I observed how fashion is a crucial tool for an actor to do their job - become another person or character. So I began to ponder "How can I make a stop motion animation video inspired by an impossible reality and fashion?" I played with the idea of being a character, being in a immersed reality, of becoming and transforming. I wanted to maintain the reality that we sometimes long or are curious how it would be like to be someone else or to have an easy life with a different situation.

The Brainstorm:

Teresa Shannon - Museum of the Moving Image

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1956

While browsing the website I discovered an area called The Living Room Candidate.  In this section you can watch every political ad starting from 1952 and ending with the last election in 2012.  One interesting thing I noted was that only in the years 1968, 1980, and 1992 was the independent party represented in television advertisements according to this website.  Watching the early videos provides a peek into the times so to speak.  The commercials use individual citizens who present their opinion on both candidates and then tell the audience who their preference is and why. They are very simple and perhaps a little biased but they dont seem to attack the candidates. Example: College Girl  On the other hand the most current advertisements attack candidates on a more personal level. An example is this clip in which John McCain is called out for his visibility in Hollywood circles.  John McCain. Other interesting  observations include the decrease in length of the videos  as time progresses but the increase in the amount of videos produced.  And lastly its a useful tool in cataloging the lies that ALL politicians have told in order to get elected.  It would be a really interesting topic for a research paper if I were not graduating....

Kristina Ricci Week 9 Stop Motion Animation

Bedshaped - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JugGmkvhsKQ

Butterfly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFTNNj9F56E

Bedshaped is a song preformed by Kean with a visual presentation created by Corin Hardy.  The music video has always been one that I kept going back to over time but have only started doing research on it because of this project.  The music video is a reinterpretation of a stop motion animation created by Corin Hardy called Butterfly. Both are about a man living a troubled life with alcoholism fueled by unfortunate past events.  Both videos emphasize isolation and an inward struggle with the main character that seeks to find meaning in life. 

He finds comfort within the confinement of a bathroom where he begins to have a dialog with himself, questioning god.  He believes he is having a conversation with another, only to find out that he has actually been building a friendship with himself.  It is at this moment that he realizes that his whole life he has been “living to exist” and what he needed to do is “exist to live.”  At the end of Butterfly he has an epiphany when he reads the words “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls the butterfly.”  He makes his way out into the world again into a new direction looking for fulfillment leaving behind his despair. 

I chose to show the music video because it is it is a shorter version of the full-length animation.  I believe that full 30minute video should be watched all at once in order for it to really make the impact is deserves.  I feel the animations are so successful because he uses a combination of clay, object and drawing techniques with close attention to camera angles, transitions and perspectives. 

Krystal Aguilar - Week 9 - Stop Motion Animation Video

Krystal Aguilar - Week 9 - Stop Motion Video
Artist: Daniel Ojanlatva
Link: http://vinebox.co/u/wydVdVo6Jzu/wsqseCkIzPl
Other videos: http://vinebox.co/u/wydVdVo6Jzu

For this Internet research, I chose a popular Internet and mobile tool that enables its users, even brands, to inspire, create and share stop motion animation. “What is this revolutionary and technological tool?” you may ask. My friends, you may or may not be surprised, the tool is Vine. Yes, the latest and hippest social media craze where people can “Follow” accounts, similarly to Twitter. If you haven’t heard about it let me briefly explain.

Vine is accessed through an app that is downloaded on a mobile device. The user is allowed a maximum of six seconds to record. Although, CNET’s videographer argues that it is really six and a half seconds, “Vine works out to six seconds and 14 frames, played at 28.77 frames per second.” The recording of the Vine, or 6-second video, is simply done by pointing the cell phone at what is wished to be recorded, and pressing the touch-sensitive record button. Then the person taps “Done” then the “Share” button on their cell phone and it is posted onto their profile.

I love that because of Vine’s entrance as an innovative marketing platform, brands were and are, forced to become goal-oriented artists. Also, Vine has given everyday people from various backgrounds and professions, from comedians to scientists, the freedom to create entertaining and informative videos. Since Vine has a time limit, the usage of stop motion animation techniques and forms are prominent. I have witnessed cut-paper, puppet, clay, object and pixilation animation. I even see Vines that use a combination and new kinds of animation that I don’t even know what to call. Such is the case with Daniel Ojanlatva. I was most impressed for his ability to think out-of-the-iPhone. He incorporates and collaborates different kinds of animation so cohesively; all while, delivering entertainment value and even call-to-action messages within the lapse of a few seconds. You must watch his Vine titled, “Continue from last save Y/N?”. Take a breath, this is going to get complicated: he records a video recording that is on a cell phone which looks like it’s interacting with inanimate objects, a string and the cell phone itself. These come to life and move according to the actions of the person, (most likely Daniel himself) within the video recording. It is object animation (the in-class example of the Weismann’s picnic) because the cell phone and string seem to move. I argue and inquire, is it pixilation animation (where people look like they are moving) as well? The man in the video looks like he is moving but in reality, Daniel has to perfectly synchronize pressing and un-pressing the recording button. Also I don't know exactly how he adds audio into the Vine. Perhaps the video is just a video, not a person. I also highly recommend watching his drawing and object animation video called, “I dunno, a fish I guess.”

Teresa Shannon Stop motion video

Out of a Forest

Out of the 30 or so videos that I watched, Out of a Forest was diffidently the BEST.  Many of the other videos I watched were slightly annoying to me in several ways.  First the introduction was too long and drawn out. Second the stories was underdeveloped, characters were un-relatable and the actions seemed pointless. Finally most of them were extremely boring, I found myself not even watching most of them all the way through but skipping to the end to see if they had a point.... most did not.  On the other hand Out of a Forest is the perfect mixture of heartfelt, sad, scary, mysterious and the unexpected. Even without words the artist portrays love and acceptance, as well as fear, hunger, surprise and joy, and the ending was rather surprising. 

Kristina Ricci
Typeface Research:  Week 7

http://www.flickr.com/photos/headead/3445997508/in/photostream/
http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/33-epic-works-of-typography-art

I chose this image of “Polka Core” because it uses text in a way that breaks from its traditional boundaries.  Unlike normal flat looking text, this has a sense of depth because the design continues to recede into the background.  The positive space is illuminated by the readable text and the negative space is filled with continued tubes of the same look only darker.  I am currently in a neon class and am learning how to bend and weld glass tubes.  I was drawn to this design because the trumpet tubes look like glass neon tubes and the curves and bends mimic the same techniques used in neon bending with some difference.

Teresa Shannon- Typeface- 10/9/13

http://ilovetypography.com/2013/09/25/harir-reducing-noise-in-arabic-script/

This typeface was designed to increase the negative white space in Arabic and Persian writing.   As a student of Arabic one of the hardest things for me is to go from reading textbooks made specifically for beginning students to the incredibly complex looking newspapers, published books, and magazines.  The typeface shown above is described in the accompanying article as "emphasizing the black zones and creates two parallel white zones, leading the eye smoothly across the text. Noise around word shapes is reduced, letter combinations are more consistent, and the essential structure of the conventional letterforms is preserved." Because this concept might be hard to understand for someone who is not familiar with the Arabic language I have also included a picture of more complex script below.  The difference is in how clearly the lines of text are delineated, how much space there is between sentences, and how close the letters are set to each other. 

Krystal Aguilar - Typeface Art - Week 7

Krystal Aguilar -Typeface Art
Mestizo Font by Johannes Konig
http://creativeroots.org/2012/08/mestizo-typeface/

                      

                     

The "Mestizo" font illustrated by Johannes Konig particularly appealed to me due to its representation of culture through typographic elements. I was curious how artists could portray culture through typeface and if it was done successfully. Overall, his use of white space within and around the letters makes the form legible, aesthetically pleasing, and incorporates enough balance of the Spaniard and Latin influences. I searched for Mexican typefaces and Konig's work was executed the most, what I felt, truthfully. "Mestizo" is a term used to categorize people of mixed race from Latin American and Spanish parents. I chose Konig's typeface because I recognize myself as Mestiza. I have both Mexican-Native and Spanish ancestors. 

In my findings, I observed how other artists used Native-American patterns and colors. I felt their interpretation was a poor representation of the Mexican culture. On the other hand, Konig's typeface, both in caps lock and lower case, shows exactly what the concept of Mestizo is. If one really thinks about it, it can be offensive, being lumped into an inferior category due to the blood in one's veins. The Spanish were and are, whether subconsciously or deliberately, thought to have finer blood and superior physical features. This can be seen with the bold white lines, forming the letter, just as the Spanish tried forming the government and conquering Mexico. The more flavorful, artistic, wild-yet-ordered shapes that make the other half of the letter are supposed to represent the Latin American blood. Konig chose to use English words of things or ideas that have been infused into the American culture like "Tequila". In his other pieces, he also chose to use the font he created with a backdrop of classic photographs. Those photographs are what he perceived to be ideal-looking Mestizos - his reality.