Abundance, Asia, and Automation....and HTML

After reading through the second chapter I found it fascinating that the self storage business is larger than motion pictures! It interesting to see how our economy has become so obsessed with their "things" and stuff. Also I did not realise how much of our software production was in India, and the vast differences in salaries are very mind boggling as well. I also knew that Americans are payed better however to see the exact differences is amazing, and sad. It is scary to think how much our society is becoming dependent on machines and computers. I don't like it. Everything has become a software program, and everything needs to be compatible with the computer now days. Its even influences doctors and people's health now. I hope that more R-Directed thinking overcomes this era, and more attention is payed to beauty, and design. However i find that less likely, but still it would be nice.


HTML----

I have tried to create the document for our websites, and save in under the "text part" in Word....however I am not sure how I can actually view it on the web. I have tried to place an image and link but I don't know how to see if I'm actually doing this correctly. Also I am not sure exactly what to place on my website, so I've just started with something simple and for our Seminar II class.

Learning to Love you More- Video

After figuring out the topic we decided to go with for our "Advice Video", we began planning out exactly how we were going to film our video. We had to plan down to each minute how long we would film each clip and think of the transitions and so on. We even had to pay attention to the frame in which the viewer would focus on. It was hard to eliminate and simplify our images. We knew we did not want to make our video to complex with symbols but it was hard not too. I have a lot of respect for those who create videos from planning in great detail the angel of the camera, what will be in each scene, when the right time to cut the filming is and if that accurately gets your point across, without being completely obvious. It took a while to only film 4minutes, I dont want to know how long it could possibly take to film a whole movie.

After reading part one- Right Brain Rising, I thought it was interesting the view and the twist the author had while discussing the two sides or our brain. I liked how he addressed the fact that both of our hemispheres work together, simply when one side of your body moves areas in the opposite side of the brain simply have more areas in action. I like also how he states that times are changing and the right hemispheres are going to rise up.

New Media Artists

Two New Media Artists that interest me are Eric Ehlenberger, and Can Altay.

Eric Ehlenberger is a contemporary sculptor working with neon lights, metal, and glass, resulting in beautiful luminous three dimensional sculptures. Today he is based out of the French Quarter in New Orleans, where he has his own studio. Eric Ehlenberger’s interest in these materials began when he was a child, when he was fascinated with prisms, rainbows, and colored light. In 1983, he began to take his interests to the next level. He attended various New Orleans universities, where he developed skills in glassblowing, welding, and glass castings.

His inspirations came from the Impressionist’s use of color and light to develop mood. Such as the Abstract Expressionist who focused on non-objective interpretations and emphasis on the elegance of simplicity. He also found inspiration through the form in Asian culture. “His approach presents sculptures as meditations of form and color”- Profile. He explores the visual impact of luminous color and simple form by combining neon lights with glass and brushed metal. He also has inspirations from landscapes, where he creates environments in his sculptures. His work has been featured in the New Orleans Magazine, the Times Picayune, the Sun Herald, and on HGTV’s Extreme Homes.

I choose Eric Ehlenberger because I really enjoyed seeing that through his complex inspirations he was able to break it down, into an elegant simplistic form, focusing on geometric shapes and lights and shadows. The process of eliminating and creating beauty through simplicity is something I think takes a lot of talent, and I look up too. I also enjoyed on his profile seeing what others have said about his work. Such as- “Light belongs to the heart and spirit. Light attracts people, it shows the way, and when we see it in the distance, we follow it.”
Ricardo Legorreta – architect
“Reflecting on the relationships between color and form, Ehlenberger creates a dynamic tension
between the action suggested by the arcs and the stability represented by the geometric forms.”-Profile

Can Altay is an artist who combines both architecture and installations. It deals with spatial appropriations, social encounters and forms of human improvisation within urban structures. He researches and records the daily life of urban dwellers primarily in his home city of Ankara and Istanbul. He focuses on ordinary routines and social trends compared to the confines of official architectural spaces and their designated uses. He creates multi-media installations from a collection of projected images, photos, sound and text. He does little to direct the viewer, allowing he or she to find his or her own way through. The interactive works asks the viewer to spend time, watch, listen, and dwell within them.

In 2001 he produced a series called the Minibar, which was shown in Istanbul. He examines groups of young people gathering in outdoor spaces between residential and commercail buildings at night to socialize. The slide projections show blurry action night shots and sound recordings and then contrasting images of the same spaces in their “official” daylight hours. I really liked his concept about studying the design of spaces and how people navigate through them and how people actually use the spaces. This is something I am constantly trying to be aware of and I thought it was interesting his technique on portraying what he found to the public.

http://www.ehlenberger.com/Portfolio%202007v-comp.pdf

http://www.freewaves.org/artists/c_altay/

New Media Art---

When I think of New Media Art, the first images that come to mind are glimpses of videos and technical visual creation pieces. I think of the “New Age” of technology advancements and people experimenting with new ways creating images and showing them to the public. I do not have very much personal experience with New Media, however the small amount I have tried have been complicated for me, but the results are fun to watch.
After watching some of the videos from class, it opened my eyes to realize New Media isn’t only video and computer stuff but it can be a combination with performance pieces and interactions. I liked this idea a lot, especially in the “Text Rain” piece by Camille Utterback, and Ravi Jain’s piece, which I think was called “3 Power 2000”. Also from the videos I learned that New Media can play with people’s perceptions and is a combination of both art and science in a way.