Chris Basmajian is a self-proclaimed 'video artist'. He was born and currently lives in California. He got his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA from George Washington University. He has exhibited his work around the world since 2006.
Basmajian's works focus on the themes of social interaction and self-image. His creates interactive video installations with real time cameras that respond to the viewer's actions. Many of his works are commentaries about specific themes, phenomena, or news events.
On a technical level Basmajian's work combines digital art/photo editing, programming, and the elusive interactivity that is not frequently found in art. Aside from cameras and a projector/screen, he also employs additional props such as mirrors and even balloons.
I find Basmajian's projects to be very cool. Some of his works are more obvious in meaning than others; others are downright abstract. The interactivity of his installations add an additional dimension and engage the viewer effectively. Several of his projects are available for download and can be viewed with a webcam.
He has also created a little flash game entitled Attention Hog as a commentary on the uses and motivations behind social media networking. You play as a pig that stands in front of people to gain points/approval. It is a cute game but also bears a striking resemblance to the behaviors seen on sites like Facebook and tumblr.
Visit Chris Basmajian's site here.
Original entry from Rhizome artbase.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Website Post: Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2
The GW2 website is what I would consider to be an example of good website design. The entire website has a very cohesive and artistic theme. It is pretty to look at, but minimalist and easy to navigate. The nav bars make good use of mouseover effects and in the case of the dropdown menus, transparency. Pretty much every element on the page, from the hr (horizontal rule) tag to the slight gradient background behind the date on the news posts, has been customized to tie the site theme together. The site also resizes itself (to an extent) to fit the viewer's browser window. Unlike many game websites, GW2 does not make heavy use of flash applications. I consider this to be a huge bonus because flash embeds can quickly become overdone and a resource drain. Even the fading mouseover effects found on the character info pages is done entirely with HTML/CSS.
The GW2 website is what I would consider to be an example of good website design. The entire website has a very cohesive and artistic theme. It is pretty to look at, but minimalist and easy to navigate. The nav bars make good use of mouseover effects and in the case of the dropdown menus, transparency. Pretty much every element on the page, from the hr (horizontal rule) tag to the slight gradient background behind the date on the news posts, has been customized to tie the site theme together. The site also resizes itself (to an extent) to fit the viewer's browser window. Unlike many game websites, GW2 does not make heavy use of flash applications. I consider this to be a huge bonus because flash embeds can quickly become overdone and a resource drain. Even the fading mouseover effects found on the character info pages is done entirely with HTML/CSS.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Getting Lost
For the 'Get Lost' activity I chose to explore the world of Guild Wars 2. I
logged on one of my lower level characters, hid the UI/map with Ctrl+Shift+H,
and started running around with only visual cues to guide me.
I began at the northern entrance to Black Citadel, the racial city of the charr. My own character is an asura elementalist.
Watching a squadron of charr patrol through the city.
On the bridge leading to the Black Citadel asura gate, which are long-distance fast travel teleporters that connect the cities.
Taking the gate.. (EVE pun not intended)
Entering Lion's Arch
Lots of asura gates
Took another gate into Hoelbrak, racial city of the norn.
Looking at the center of the city from the edge of a cliff.
Going up the central flight of stairs. The norn are a big people. Asura are the tiniest race, being half the height of a normal human. Norn make humans look tiny. Go figure!
This is what greeted me at the top of the stairs.
Even warrior guys appreciate concept art
The tooth of Jormag, an elder dragon.
Zone portal leading out of Hoelbrak, to places where there be monsters!
Wayfarer Foothills
Super random minotaur attack!
The norn like bears.
Bear Shrine
Entrance to another part of the same zone.
Snowball fight with the local kids
Birds.. I love birds.
Bonus: This is where my human character is currently located.
This was an interesting experience. With the music and UI turned off, I was free from many of the distractions that would usually be commanding my attention as I moved through the game world. I paid a lot more attention to the little background things such as birds chirping and the rustle of wind through the trees. It felt quite different.
I began at the northern entrance to Black Citadel, the racial city of the charr. My own character is an asura elementalist.
Watching a squadron of charr patrol through the city.
On the bridge leading to the Black Citadel asura gate, which are long-distance fast travel teleporters that connect the cities.
Taking the gate.. (EVE pun not intended)
Entering Lion's Arch
Lots of asura gates
Took another gate into Hoelbrak, racial city of the norn.
Looking at the center of the city from the edge of a cliff.
Going up the central flight of stairs. The norn are a big people. Asura are the tiniest race, being half the height of a normal human. Norn make humans look tiny. Go figure!
This is what greeted me at the top of the stairs.
Even warrior guys appreciate concept art
The tooth of Jormag, an elder dragon.
Zone portal leading out of Hoelbrak, to places where there be monsters!
Wayfarer Foothills
Super random minotaur attack!
The norn like bears.
Bear Shrine
Entrance to another part of the same zone.
Snowball fight with the local kids
Birds.. I love birds.
Bonus: This is where my human character is currently located.
This was an interesting experience. With the music and UI turned off, I was free from many of the distractions that would usually be commanding my attention as I moved through the game world. I paid a lot more attention to the little background things such as birds chirping and the rustle of wind through the trees. It felt quite different.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Butterfly Effect
Thanks to ART214, I now know how to (sort of) use illustrator! I had the opportunity to put my new illustrator skills to use by designing a logo for my EVE Online alliance. \o/
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Artist Post: Harold Cohen
This artist was selected from the Paul Herz reading.
Harold Cohen (b. 1928) is an English-born painter and programmer. He graduated from the University of London with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1951 and has since then gone on to teach in a variety of academic positions. He has also displayed his art in a huge number of exhibitions, written many essays, presented many lectures, and published 4 books.
Cohen is known for being the creator of AARON, a computer program capable of physically controlling a pen and creating line drawings. These drawings follow specific algorithms that mimic the cognitive aspects of drawing and can output either abstract art or representational art, including figures such as plants and people. AARON is not capable of self learning and all of the themes and figures, called 'styles,' are manually written by Cohen before being added into the code. He started working on AARON in 1973, while he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University. In 1995 Cohen expanded on his software, enabling AARON to color the images that it had created. (Previously he would take generated line drawings and color/paint them manually.) AARON can now also create entirely digital images. To this date he is still modifying AARON's code and generating new images every year.
As of late (the past few years) Cohen/AARON's art has taken a distinctively abstract, floral turn. While the human figures in tropical/beach scenes are probably his most classic works, I find his new art to also be very interesting. The colors are pleasing to look at and although there are lines and squiggles going all over the place, there is a method to the madness that shines through. Cohen's work bridges the fields of art, computer programming, and cognitive science with creations (created by a creation) that are highly technical and symbolic, but can still be appreciated at the visual level.
Visit Harold Cohen's site here.
Harold Cohen (b. 1928) is an English-born painter and programmer. He graduated from the University of London with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1951 and has since then gone on to teach in a variety of academic positions. He has also displayed his art in a huge number of exhibitions, written many essays, presented many lectures, and published 4 books.
Visit Harold Cohen's site here.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Project 2 Progress
I started with this portrait but over the weekend I got a family member to help take a photo, so now I'm doing a self-portrait instead. I like the progress I had already made on the initial portrait though, so I will post it here as well.
I would prefer not to post my original photo online for personal reasons. This is what I have of the vector so far, though. The green blob in my (currently missing) hand is my pet parrot. Illustrator is a very foreign and confusing program to me. My brush tool is not working (I'm sure there is some reason why) so I am only able to create shapes with the pen and pencil tools.
Music Art
I went with a creepy tropical tribal theme. Rather than focusing on the structure of the music, I attempted to express the vibe I was getting from the music.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Portraits
Portraits from deviantArt.
http://fav.me/d361ri2
http://fav.me/d4evxvx
http://fav.me/d4bo909
http://fav.me/d5gjz6d
http://fav.me/d5gjutp
http://fav.me/d5gllry
http://fav.me/d2jbtxx
bonus: this is actually a photo of a doll, but I thought the hair and angle looked very neat.
http://fav.me/d361ri2
http://fav.me/d4evxvx
http://fav.me/d4bo909
http://fav.me/d5gjz6d
http://fav.me/d5gjutp
http://fav.me/d5gllry
http://fav.me/d2jbtxx
bonus: this is actually a photo of a doll, but I thought the hair and angle looked very neat.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Artist Post: Jody Zellen
Jody Zellen is a Los Angeles-based mixed media artist. She graduated with a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She has created a very diverse range of art, ranging from websites to traditional drawings and public art installments, and has an active history of participating in art exhibitions. The theme of the urban environment is prominent in her works. Although she is such a diverse artist, for this art blog I will be focusing specifically on her All The News Thats Fit To Print interactive website.
http://allthenewsthatsfittoprint.net/frame.html
ATNTFTP is a multi-media, multi-sensory website that juxtaposes printed New York Times front pages with the full-color photos from the online version of the Times. In addition, an interactive flash application plays audio clips of news reports when moused over (multiple clips can begin playing at once if you move your mouse a lot) while a second flash image contains figures depicting everyday urban life and drawn versions of news photos that move back and forth. The background is composed of partially overlapping images of newspaper pages, with the images removed.
My first reaction to this website was a sense of being overwhelmed. I did not expect the audio component--a form of sensory input that is often overlooked in (non-musical) art. Once I started focusing on the non-animated part of the website, I was quite surprised at the sheer difference of the print versus electronic front page news. Some were silly, some were random, and others came off as insensitive or morbid.
This art website really made me reflect on the news and communication of today. News, and the depiction thereof, can vary widely based on the reporting agency. Even within the same newspaper, online vs offline editors find different topics to be worthy of the front page. There are so many news articles published every day that perhaps the most important ones are becoming drowned out, or dumbed down, by all the other articles available for consumption. In addition, it is sad to see what kind of trivial 'first world' news makes it onto the front page whilst people are walking armed through the streets or recovering from disaster elsewhere in the world.
Conceptually I think this is a very strong artwork. Zellen really gets a point across, while leaving the finer points up to viewer interpretation. The simple yet somewhat cluttered and overlapping website design combined with audio clips effectively represents the sensory overload that we experience in modern living.
Rhizome artbase entry
Visit Jody Zellen's site here.
http://allthenewsthatsfittoprint.net/frame.html
ATNTFTP is a multi-media, multi-sensory website that juxtaposes printed New York Times front pages with the full-color photos from the online version of the Times. In addition, an interactive flash application plays audio clips of news reports when moused over (multiple clips can begin playing at once if you move your mouse a lot) while a second flash image contains figures depicting everyday urban life and drawn versions of news photos that move back and forth. The background is composed of partially overlapping images of newspaper pages, with the images removed.
My first reaction to this website was a sense of being overwhelmed. I did not expect the audio component--a form of sensory input that is often overlooked in (non-musical) art. Once I started focusing on the non-animated part of the website, I was quite surprised at the sheer difference of the print versus electronic front page news. Some were silly, some were random, and others came off as insensitive or morbid.
This art website really made me reflect on the news and communication of today. News, and the depiction thereof, can vary widely based on the reporting agency. Even within the same newspaper, online vs offline editors find different topics to be worthy of the front page. There are so many news articles published every day that perhaps the most important ones are becoming drowned out, or dumbed down, by all the other articles available for consumption. In addition, it is sad to see what kind of trivial 'first world' news makes it onto the front page whilst people are walking armed through the streets or recovering from disaster elsewhere in the world.
Conceptually I think this is a very strong artwork. Zellen really gets a point across, while leaving the finer points up to viewer interpretation. The simple yet somewhat cluttered and overlapping website design combined with audio clips effectively represents the sensory overload that we experience in modern living.
Rhizome artbase entry
Visit Jody Zellen's site here.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Artist Post : Edward Tang
Edward is an artist from Seattle. He was born in 1979. His original focus was music performance/composition, but he later took an interest in digital art that combines music and technology. He graduated from the Interactive Telecommunications program at New York University and is currently both a musician and artist.
I found Edward's Trails #1 #2 on rhizome.org. I was immediately captivated by the soft rainbow colors, three-dimensionality, and feeling of movement. Edward created these neat artworks by using a webcam to record a person on-screen and then mapping it out on the computer using 3D cubes in real-time. He has self-entitled the technique "3D Video Sculpture." The namesake 'trails,' which create the feeling of movement on still frames of this project, are a representation of network lag.
With this project Edward explores the importance of the Internet in social networking, and the technical difficulties (lag) that arise when using such forms of communication. He also explores the objectification and anonymity that occurs when communicating to strangers over the Internet. You can tell that the figure is human, but you can't identify any facial details. . .
Trails is a strong piece both in video form and as individual screen shots. The digital/cyberspace theme is definitely there, but further thought evokes themes that most of us, in this technological age, can definitely relate to.
Rhizome artbase
Visit Edward Tang's blog here.
I found Edward's Trails #1 #2 on rhizome.org. I was immediately captivated by the soft rainbow colors, three-dimensionality, and feeling of movement. Edward created these neat artworks by using a webcam to record a person on-screen and then mapping it out on the computer using 3D cubes in real-time. He has self-entitled the technique "3D Video Sculpture." The namesake 'trails,' which create the feeling of movement on still frames of this project, are a representation of network lag.
With this project Edward explores the importance of the Internet in social networking, and the technical difficulties (lag) that arise when using such forms of communication. He also explores the objectification and anonymity that occurs when communicating to strangers over the Internet. You can tell that the figure is human, but you can't identify any facial details. . .
Trails is a strong piece both in video form and as individual screen shots. The digital/cyberspace theme is definitely there, but further thought evokes themes that most of us, in this technological age, can definitely relate to.
Rhizome artbase
Visit Edward Tang's blog here.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
24 Hours of Technology
9/11/12
08:00 PM - Choir (afk)
09:30 PM
09:30 PM - At the keyboard
11:30 PM
11:30 PM - Shower (afk)
12:00 AM
9/12/12
12:00 AM - At the keyboard
12:20 AM - Phone call from mom
12:30 AM
04:00 AM - Sleep (afk)
10:00 AM
10:40 AM - Class (afk)
11:50 AM
12:00 PM - Lunch (afk)
12:30 PM
12:40 PM - At the keyboard
02:30 PM
02:40 PM - Class (afk)
04:30 PM
04:40 PM - At the keyboard
05:30 PM
05:40 PM - Dinner (afk)
05:50 PM
06:00 PM - Class
07:50 PM
08:00 PM - At the keyboard
Technology and the digital space play an integral role in my everyday life. I do just about everything on the computer, from entertainment and socializing to homework and studying. I keep in touch with my parents with my cell phone, which also doubles as an alarm clock in the morning. To me, digital space is many things. Aside from being a very useful and resource-rich tool, it allows me to connect with users from around the world and is the gateway to many virtual game worlds.
Celebrity Mashup: Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Jennifer Lawrence
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