ART 245 - Spring 2014: March 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Project # 6: Interventionist Media

Interventionist Design - Online

"Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice."
-Arnold J. Toynbee

Objective:

We are inundated with a plethora of information in our daily use of various technologies. A recent study indicated that on average, adults spend about 8 hours a day looking at screens of various types, including computer monitors. On average we see an estimated 3000 advertisements per day.

This assignment asks you to generate a digital art 'intervention'.

You will make a creative re-design, with new content of a political or satirical nature, of an existing commercial web page. The objective here to is to create a work that serves as a visual, cultural critique through the appropriation and re-purposing of the design of an existing web page. Consider this project as a type of conceptual, artistic intervention - an artistic intervention is an action by an artist in a real world situation for the sake of promoting reflection and altered perceptions by the participants (or in this instance, your audience).

On first glance, the web site should look identical to the original, the changes you make will be in terms of content – you are to duplicate the formal aspects. Replace text, re-configure logos, take your own photographs as needed. Choose your web site/source carefully! You are creating a visual form that seeks to mirror a given visual reality – that upon closer examination reveals itself through the alteration of content. You can address issues of politics, race, class, the environment, peace, war, etc. Keywords: parody, satire, commentary, humor, design, art, activism.

What are you passionate about in regard to what is going on in the world? Politics, Global Warming, War? This is your chance to voice your opinion. Artists, in the modernist/post modernist millieau, have often addressed critical issues through their creative practice. Feel free to use satire and humor to critique some aspect of online and real world culture. Be prepared to talk about your work. Good satire is intelligent and pokes fun while encouraging thoughtful critique. It can certainly be irreverent but please do so in an intelligent manner!

Timeline:

3/24 - Project #6 Interventionist Media, Demo, Studio, Reading #4 Posted

3/26 - Project #5 Critique

3/31 - Group One Presentations

4/2 - Group Two Presentations

4/7 - Discuss Reading #4

4/9 - Project #6 Critique

Reading #4: Rita Raley "Tactical Media"

BROWSE THROUGH ALL THE LINKS BELOW PLEASE!

Here are some links that will be of interest as you develop your ideas for the re-design of an existing website:

The Yes Men: http://theyesmen.org/

http://www.yelp.com/topic/portland-best-parody-websites

http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Humor/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Web_Site_Parodies/

http://www.philb.com/fakesites2.htm

A spoof website of the George Bush Whitehouse site:

http://whitehouse.georgewbush.org/index.asp

A spoof website of the Barack Obama Whitehouse site:

http://whitehouse.gov1.info/

Some curious corporate logo spoofs and such:

http://indiacorporatewatch.blogspot.com/2005/10/subvertized-part-i-brilliant-spoofs-of.html

http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/imitating-logos/

The NYtimes "Special Edition" an amazing, elaborate parody that involved the creation of an entire website identical to the NYtimes and a print edition that was freely distributed on the streets of NYC. The Yes Men were involved in this project along with many other artists and activists (including your professor - see story "America's Army Game Cancelled!"):

-watch this first- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvPvaDkIUo

http://www.nytimes-se.com/

And finally, not a spoof website but The Onion - some of the best satire online and in print:

http://www.theonion.com/content/index

Tactical Media Links!

Some links related to the reading:

http://angelawashko.com/section/304188_In_Game_Video_Documentation.html
http://www.critical-art.net/
http://delappe.net/project/dead-in-iraq-for-projection/
http://www.theyrule.net/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1487185
http://turbulence.org/Works/oilstandard/
http://www.molleindustria.org/en/tuboflex
http://www.antiwargame.org/
http://www.0100101110101101.org/projects.html
http://www.tmcrew.org/enghome.htm
http://www.appliedautonomy.com/projects.html
http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html
http://www.revbilly.com/
http://www.cityarts.com/colorado/release/index.html

Some Formatting Suggestions for the Website:

1) After choosing your website, take a full screen grab or manually select your website using Snapz Pro X or any method of your choosing. Look this up on the internet if you are using a PC and you will find instructions.

2) You will grab a larger screen image if you are working on a larger monitor - feel free to take advantage of the ginormous monitors in the lab! I would not recommend grabbing your image on a laptop. Although this will work you will have a smaller image to work with - always better to start with the best possible source/background image!

3) Open your screen grab in Photoshop. I recommend immediately going to "Image - Image Size" and upping your resolution to 200-250 dpi. When you are finished with the re-design, save a separate version at 72 dpi to upload to your blog. Screen sizes will vary depending on your source monitor.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

New Media/Art Opportunities

Art Opportunities Monthly - some good new media things but great for traditional art and residencies.

http://rhizome.org - everything you need.

http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/ - for all your moving image needs!!

Happy Hunting!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Project #5: Video Cover

VIDEO ART

1) Visit the website ubuweb and explore the many experimental films and videos available on this site: http://www.ubu.com/film/

Choose a video/film of your liking. Shoot and edit your own version of the chosen video/film preserving the soundtrack from the original source to be added to your video creation. This is an interpretive experiment. Be creative in how you approach this project! You can attempt to recreate or copy the point of view, camera angles, timing, subject matter and such in your original or creatively re-interpret. Your video creation should somehow reflect your chosen work. There are many hundreds of choices on this site - take some time to explore these many varied historical and contemporary works! (You cannot pick Fatboy Slim, its too easy.)

The minimum length of your video should be two minutes with a minimum of three cuts.

In our critique we will be viewing your original source video and your reenactment, please be sure BOTH works are embedded or linked to your blog post as well as your Artist Statement! UBU Web doesn't provide the HTML to embed videos so simple add a link in your blog.

Equipment and techniques: You may use anything from a cell phone video camera, laptop webcam to a high end HD camcorder. This is up to you! I recommend you use Adobe Premiere to edit your work after capturing the audio with Snapz Pro X (This program is only available in the lab)

Your video is due, posted to your blog (embed through Youtube or Vimeo) by the start of class on March 24.

2) Read "Chapter 2 Video Art" for March 10 and post two questions on your blog prior to class time. Research artists mentioned in the reading - find videos of their work where possible online as this will greatly enhance your understanding and appreciation of their works!

3/5 - Project #5: Video Cover, Demo

3/10 - Discuss Reading #3, Video Screenings

3/12 - Studio

3/17 - Spring Break

3/19 - Spring Break

3/24 - Project #5 Critique, Reading #4 Posted

Snapz Pro X and Adobe Premiere

Once you have chosen you video, open up the video player in your web browser.

Open Snapz Pro X (usually CMD-SHIFT-5 or just click on the icon) and select the Movie button.

Move the selection box over you video. (It doesn't have to be perfect as we will be deleting the video track later.)

Make sure the "Capture Mac Audio" button is selected.

Open Premiere and Click "New Project

The New Project interface will open. Name your file and choose the location in which you want to save your file. (Mine will look a bit different because I am using older software, but the process is the same.)

Next, you are given the "New Sequence" options. You want to choose "DV-NTSC" (Digital-Video National Television System Committee) as either Standard48kHz (4:3) or Widescreen48kHz (16:9), whichever one you prefer. The 48kHz is the audio sampling rate.

Go to File > Import, and select your file.

This will import your file to the project window. Drag you file to the timeline and you will separate video and audio tracks. This is how you import your own video to the project window as well.

To delete the original video track, RIGHT click on the video track in the timeline and select "UNLINK."

Now all you have to do is hit delete and the video is gone. Drag your new video to the timeline and use the same process to remove the audio.

After you video is put together, go to File > Export > Media.

This will bring up your CODEC interface. Make sure your settings match this image completely, then hit OK.

Use H.264 (MPEG4), Quicktime, or MPEG2 as your CODED/Compressor so it doesn't take 9 years to load to YouTube or Vimeo.

This will bring up Adobe Media Encoder. This program allows you to make any final changes to your video settings before rendering you file. If you followed the directions you won't have to make any changes except where you want the file to render to (as indicated in the image.) Click "Save Queue" and CONGRATULATIONS, you are a Video Artist!!!

Monday, March 3, 2014

1840s GIF Party

1840s GIF Party

These works were created in response to an open call from the TATE Britain Museum to create GIF animations from artworks in the museum's 1840's room. The students were allowed to select any piece from the collection to animate. The GIFs were projected next to the original pieces in the museum on Friday, February 7 as part of Late at Tate. All the students' works were exhibited.