Wiki Page Assignment for 11/19

Here is the wiki page I edited for my assignment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbury,_Minnesota It is my home town and I updated it and made some (correct) changes! For example, they built a new high school in 2009 and the page said the school was scheduled to open in September 2009 and I changed it to say that it did open in 2009, ect. I also edited some information in the Recreation section. If you go to the 'view history' tab at the top my changes are the ones from todays date by 'Tworthing5525'

Hybrid Art Assignment

What is hybrid art? What makes it special or different than ‘regular’ art, that is; paintings, sculptures, photography?  These are the questions that popped into my head when I read the description for the assignment.  I had never heard of hybrid art, so I looked it up on everyone’s favorite website… Wikipedia!! Wikipedia described Hybrid Arts as “a contemporary art movement in which artists work with frontier areas of science and emerging technologies.” Wiki also directed me to look up ‘computer art’ which is “any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork.”  I decided to focus my search for a subject on this area of Hybrid art because it seemed like it would be the best visual display of this concept.  Searching the internet for one example of computer art to use I found a very broad spectrum the use of computers in creating computer art.  The piece I chose to focus on uses computers in several distinct ways.  The use of computers in the creation of this piece of art evokes an emotion to the painting while also creating an intriguing and thought provoking visual display. 

            The woman’s face in this picture is not a photograph, as it may appear, but an image created by vectors.  Using vectors to create an image is a very precise and technological procedure.  It is something that can only be done using a computer.  The images created by vectors are very realistic, and can be used to create 3D images and animation.  When used in art these images can also be very powerful.  The realistic qualities to this woman’s face make the viewer feel as if they are looking at a photograph, but the actual picture itself is clearly digitally created.  This creates an abstract quality that helps bring emotion into the picture.  The eyes in this picture, for example, are very life like and evoke a sense of longing.  This feeling is strong in the picture because of the fact that the eyes are so realistic.  If this picture was drawn or painted this emotion might not be so strong because the eyes would not be as clear and detailed. 

            Another way emotion is conveyed in this picture is through the images on the woman’s face.  The face itself is very life-like, but these images are more obviously digitally created.  This creates a sense of entrapment because the images look like a part of the woman, but the viewer knows this is not a normal face.  The woman looks as if she is trying to see beyond this digital mask, but is trapped behind it.  Perhaps the artist was trying to show how technology is captivating, beautiful and intriguing, but confining at the same time. 

            One intriguing aspect of this picture is the mixture of the familiar with the unfamiliar.  If this was just a vector image of a woman’s face it would still be art, but the combination of the vector image with the digital pictures makes it much more fascinating.  It is easy to say that this picture is realistic, but at the same time it is so unlike anything the viewer has ever seen in the ‘real world.’  For me the most interesting part about this work of art is that it looks like a photograph, but at the same time I know it cannot be real.   Because I know it is not a naturally occurring thing, I also know it must have been created by technology.  When I consider this I also consider why the artist created it in exactly the way that he or she did.  This makes me look more closely at the way the image was created and put together.  

10/15 Assignment

Here are some interesting websites I found for our assignment.  I tried to pick websites we haven’t talked about in class and ones that even I hadn’t heard of before! I came across some interesting stuff that I wish I would have known about earlier, it could have added to some discussions we’ve had in class!  Oh well, hopefully it will relate to something else later.

FOURSQUARE.COM: An interesting website and Smartphone app which connects people with their communities and local businesses.  The app actually claims that it “makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore.” I thought this site/app was really interesting because it could really change someone’s perspective on a city!  I think it would be especially useful to someone who moved to a new city.  It seems like this concept is widely available on the Internet already... getting coupons for or reviews of restaurants isn’t that difficult to do on the Internet.  However, this app definitely makes that easier and more interactive. The article relates this website to a specific community and business and how the website was used to promote business.

Foursquare Article

WHYVILLE.COM: This is a website I have explored and talked about for another class of mine, Educational Psychology.  We talked about how using the internet and technology is emerging in the classroom and what effect that has on education.  Whyville is an interactive website aimed toward Elementary school aged kids.  Many of the games are learning-based and the website is used in schools as a learning activity.  The article discusses how video games are useful to learning in more ways than just being a learning activity.  I used whyville as an example because I assumed it was a site most people were not already familiar with but we could also talk about this article in terms of other video games. 

Whyville Article

SWIPELY.COM: (I recommend watching the short video tutorial) I had never heard of swipely before this assignment.  I was actually looking up an article about e-bay when I found an article about this site.  I read the article before checking out the site and at first I thought it was really strange!  The article made it sound like this was something automatic that happened every time you swiped your card... the tutorial then said that you get to choose which ‘swipes’ you share so I’m still a little confused about exactly how you share.  Another thing I wondered about the site... what about those of us who still value cash??? Sounds like we can’t join in on the fun on this one!  Interesting site connecting the Internet to everyday life...  I also thought it was interesting to compare and contrast this site to online retailers like EBAY.COM and AMAZON.COM.  The article also has some interesting perspective on how the site is being used/ can be used and some interesting features of the site:

Swipely Article

Cyberporn!

            For our presentation we decided to explore the effects of cyberporn on other digital media sources.  The article we read, Toward a Symptomatology of Cyberporn by Michael Uebel, discussed the possibilities of these effects, but did not go into any sort of detail about specific aspects of digital media that had branched off of the cyberporn industry.   Once we took a close look at it, we discovered many of these branches of cyberporn that we experience in our day to day lives.  We determined that cyberporn has expanded the industry- as well as the overall societal view- of porn into realms such as TV, advertising, and new internet possibilities.

            The first digital media source of cyberporn we looked at was the TV show, To Catch a Predator.  If you have not seen this show, its premise is attempting to catch internet predators in action by setting them up with an actress and filming their face to face encounters.  We saw this show as relevant to the article when it stated:

As socio and psychopathology, all porn functions in this view as a mirror of the dark side of power relations, for porn sets in motion fantasies whose virtual support is found in virtualized practices and fixations, primarily of sadistic sort. (Uebel)

We related the idea of fantasy to the show because it deals with relationships that start online, a fantasy of meeting someone young and good looking, but then branch out to the ‘real world.’  This show takes the idea of fantasy one step further than cyberporn because it takes a virtual fantasy and brings it to life. It is an excellent representation of the possibilities, and potential dangers created by cyberporn.

            The next area we studied was advertising and more specifically, suggestive ads produced by the makers of Axe Body Spray.  The specific ad we looked at was an ad for a body soap powerful enough to clean even the dirtiest of balls.  In the ad they are showing two women cleaning sports balls but there are obvious sexual undertones to the script and actions in the commercial.  We thought this suggestive advertising was a great example of the “disruptive cultural appearance” cyberporn has made and the ways in which it is “radically altering the ways men consume porn” (Uebel).  Cyberporn is so widely consumed that it has normalized the idea of sex in media to the general public.  Sexual advertising such as this shows just how much cyberporn truly has changed the way people view and consume porn.

            The last digital media source we decided to talk about was the website Chat Roulette.  This is a website where anyone can sign on and video chat with other people using the website.  It is a widely known fact, however, that many people use this site for purposes other than “face-to-face chat.”  By that we mean it is almost impossible to go onto the site without seeing some form of genitalia or other sexual reference.  The article talks about the “’unexpected, unheard-of universes of possibility’ that the encounter of man and machine generates” (Uebel).  Chat Roulette can very easily be seen as one of these possibilities.  Not only does this site open the possibilities of porn, it also introduces new people to porn because it is not specifically a “porn site.”  It completely redefines cyberporn because it creates a brand new encounter between man and machine, one in which the man is actually engaged in the pornographic encounter with the machine, and another person using another machine. 

            After learning about all of these new uses of digital media in the porn industry we completely agreed with Uebel when he stated, “There are pleasure values...that have not yet been discovered.” Considering all of these new ways people use and consume porn it is safe to say the industry is definitely expanding.  In some ways it is frightening to consider just what ‘discoveries’ will be made, but  these examples gave us a general idea as to the direction in which the industry is going- which is basically in every direction.  

Avatar

So when I read this assignment I had no idea what an 'avatar' even was. I saw the movie, but apparently this wasn't the same thing... After some searching on the internet I figured out its kind of like a cartoon picture of yourself? It says on the description of the assignment that we're supposed to use photoshop or dreamweaver but I definitely don't have either of those on my computer... hopefully that's not going to be an issue in this class! I tried a few sites where you can make up a little cartoon person but most of them were really weird looking and I could never really figure out how to save the picture once I made it. One site actually wanted me to play some kind of virtual game like the sims or something with this little cartoon of myself... umm no thanks! Finally I found a site where I could put in a picture of myself and 'cartoonize' it. Doesn't really look like a cartoon but its as good as I'm gonna get! 


The second part of this assignment is to critique another avatar I found online... Well considering I didn't even know these things existed until about an hour ago I'm not 100% sure where to find another one. I had enough trouble making one myself! But I guess in my first part I kind of did this already. This whole idea of creating an online version of yourself could definitely relate back to what we were talking about in class on Wednesday- Lacan's theory of the 'mirror stage' and the 'Ideal-I'. For people who 'Blog' a lot this character is like an alter ego (Freud is kind of like a theorist...) because it is an image they identify with, but its not actually them. One reason I didn't want to use some of the avatars I attempted to make was because I didn't think they were an accurate depiction of myself. The internet is supposed to let me get closer to my Ideal-I, not further away!! I didn't like some of the sites I tried because they had such limited options for creating my avatar. With only three different kinds of eyes and four hairstyles how am I supposed to make something that looks like me?? It all ended up looking like a character from a tv show no one watches... 


So I know this was supposed to be two pages but I don't have much more to say about avatars! I may add more after the discussion in class tomorrow :)

First post

This class seems like it might be interesting but I also have some hesitations about it.  It is much more technological than any other "English" class I have taken before and I am not exactly tech savy... Hopefully I'll learn some things about computers and Digital Media!