Progress

My project was originally supposed to be about parodied advertisements. When I started, however, I played with images of myself and turned them into cell-shaded-esque version of themeselves. I really like the way they look, so I think I'll keep doing them that way. The backgrounds and color palette are really bright, simple, offset by dark shading.

I've completed 3 images that I'll use. These deal more with the individual, identity, and the way we see ourselves. My main inspiration is the Obama ad campaigns, something I may try to do with the next few images, with a different take on it. All of these images are very simple, very clean, and have a semi-real feel to them.

Category

My project will be on the social level, specifically targeting what culture deems as controversial or cool. I will be blending some popular advertisements, such as Coco-Cola, with drugs, such as Coke. It will be a parody, but my main goal is to make people want to buy what I'm selling. If it looks enticing, then I've done my job. I've done a mock up of a "Go DJ" poster that I did, which is very pop-culturey, and in the direction I want to go in.

What Should I Do

I've decided to focus on 2-D images for my final project. The content of which, however, is still up in the air. I have two solid ideas that I think will work, and I could go either way. My first idea deals with smiles and clowns, something that has always interested me. I would take a stock photo of myself, and apply common smiles over my face, such as the Smiley smile, or the Joker's glasow smile. This would give an odd look as to how we as a society view joy, since the effects would undoubtly look kind of creepy.

My other idea deals with advertisements. I've always found it odd that most advertisements preach the "Use us and get laid" approach, and I think it would be funny to parody this. I'd use modern jobs (DJ's, plumbers, this sort of thing) and make them look epic. Another idea for this is to use designer drugs, such as meth ("It'll blow your mind!"), and glorify them sarcastically. Again, my style will be very bright, very happy, and very pop art.

Art Thoughts

For the past few weeks, we’ve utilized a variety of CS3 applications to achieve an array of artistic displays and sounds. Photoshop (my personal favorite) offers the ability to alter images, or enhance them. I used it to blend various pop-culture items together. With its relatively simple interface, and wide margin of options, Photoshop is able to achieve any possibility.

During the Sound Art demo, we utilized Garage Band, a very simple application. It allowed me to overlay various synths and loops, but in the end I went for a very straightforward parody of common commercials. Next, we worked with Flash, with moderate success. Personally, I found it difficult to understand the coding aspect, and was really only able to produce simple drawn images, and make them move very little. With Net Art, the coding aspect returned, which again provided a less-than-satisfactory experience. The difference, however, is that Net Art allows me to send a message through writing, as well as style. By providing different links and images from other applications, I was able to create a mini-Joel-world, which I feel came across very well.

With the final project coming up, I am leaning towards either Photoshop, or furthering my web-world with Photoshop enhancements. I’ve always leaned more toward simple 2-D images that don’t rely on flashy gimmicks or sound, but it is nice to have experience with those things.

Web Page-UPDATED

I think I'll change the format of the site away from facebook, and more towards a wikipedia format. The only subject, however, will be myself, with various link branching out to various aspects of my life, and achievements. Granted, the vast majority of these won't actually be true, and will be exaggerated comically. The structure will be almost exactly like wikipedia, but with my own symbols, pictures, etc.

With the advent of all these wiki's based on needless things (tv shows, for example), I think it'd be funny to have a site where someone can get to know the "real" me. Every aspect of my life will be written out, such as my triumphant defeat against the womb, and my brief, yet memorable appearance on The Jeffersons. I want to exploit the weakness of society's dependence on "useless" facts, and compulsion-like need to relate to the source material.

RE: Movie
I saved it as a quicktime, .mov, and something, but every time it says there's a "critical error." Even though these words frighten me, I think I'll try to shrink it, and see where that gets me.

I can web it all day long

For my web project, I'm going to parody typical teen websites, such as facebook and myspace. I think it's funny how much "truth and honesty" people put on these things, and I'm going to exploit that. It'll look like my homepage, with friend updates and the like. Depending on the time, I'll write fictional notes and backgrounds to some of the characters, and have an inbox with these things. I'll have a picture folder, which will probably end up being the same as my facebook one, just because I already have those on hand.

I'll need to come up with a parody-esque title, but that'll come during development. I think that exploring the more "embarrassing" aspects of life will be the primary focus--I once took all the responses to Obama's victory and published it as a note. Quite a few people apologized to me personally, not realizing that I was just making fun of them and their beliefs. This sort of thing will serve as the base of my project, and I'll build up from there.

Also, I still can't upload my flash project. Still working on it though.

I watch the Watchmen

For the past week and a half, I've been using flash to make a poorly drawn cartoon. After four days of trying to make something look awesome based off of my original concept, I've decided to abandon that entirely. My new project revolves around the pivotal scene in Watchmen, in which the Comedian's smiley button falls several stories. It is a very prominent scene, and I wanted to try my hand at it.

My version will be very cartoony, since that's kind of what I do. It's a fairly simple animation, and I'm not sure what I can add aside from the obvious blood drips, and falling schematic. Most of my efforts in class will revolve around making the background fairly detailed, so that it can at least have a nice visual aesthetic to it. I also intend to add some sound to it, so that the whole thing isn't horribly boring to those who don't know where it came from.

I made a bear DISAPPEAR!!!

For my Flash project, I'm going to try my best to make a short film revolving around my Wabash Cartoon character. He's probably just going to walk around, see some girls, and get rejected. Because I'm a cartoonist, I'll probably end up scanning every pose I can think of--it's easier this way for me. After failing miserably at the draw function of Flash, I think I'll be much more proud of this project if I do it this way.


Flash is much more fun than sound art, and is a little bit easier to understand. I don't think that I'm going to have any dialogue in my video; I think the character should be able to speak for himself. Besides, if I wanted humorous dialogue, then I would record myself speaking for 12 minutes, and call it a day. I'm shooting for a very small length, but I'm not positive how long it will be. If I can get the whole thing done in 35 seconds, awesome. If not, then I may have to leave it incomplete, and finish it on my own time. That's all I got for now, so for my New Jersey readers: Remember to shake the Turkey before you spill it.

I TRIED

I'd rather just scan stuff and stuff.

I'm listening...

“Times Square” is an interesting piece, regardless of how I feel about sound art. This is a great way to look at how sound resonates, and how placement effects the ear. In terms of how this affects the listener (viewer?), this is much more superior than a woman who magically discovered the distortion button on her Mac book.

I still question the relevancy of such a piece, though. Yes, we’ve established that sounds can resonate, and that when we walk, things become distorted and such. Does this affect the general outlook on life? Is there any reason other than to say “Look, I can play with sound, while you’re off working at a desk job.” This is why I chose to do a straight parody for my sound project. The goal and message are straight and obvious, with a side bonus of humor dashed in there. As far as sound-art goes, “Times Square” is probably one of the more intriguing pieces, but I still have a hard time saying “Man, this is really innovative and moving.”

SoundWave

For my sound project, I'm going to focus on the over-commercialization of religion, probably by doing a commercial with God in it. I've also had this idea of a rap DJ on am radio, simply because it seems ridiculous to have such a thing. I don't think that'll actually come to fruition, but we'll see. Garage Band will probably factor into this project at some point, but it'll most likely just be background noise to help fill in the dead space. Since I'm very anti-sound art, I don't really care where this is heard, or if anybody listens to it at all.
In other news, I honestly think that sound art is a huge waste of time, even when it is accompanied with "real" art (pictures, etc.). Music itself is an art, and I believe that, but what is the point of creating incessant noise and pretending it's something special? Performance art needs a new name, one that is not related to art, but still kind of is. All I can get from it is a bunch of annoying sounds derived from ridiculous means, and arranged in really ridiculous ways, or accompanied by by cheap 80's style music videos. I'm sure that the intent and heart of the whole thing is there (they're more than likely challenging some common ideal that I overlook daily, because it's simply not that important in the grand scheme of things), but I fail to see any real need for this to exist.

Rhizome Articles

Barack Obama's presidency will naturally change the face of America, and interestingly, the way that face is viewed. Rhizome displays several sites that reveal how we as a nation can look at the inauguration, just by clicking on a word. The New York Times features silhouetted people with floating thought balloons-a simple and effective image that captures America's hopes and desires for the presidency. By selecting any one of the balloons, an audio file plays how various people feel about the topic at hand, such as the Middle Class, Anti-Abortion, and Hope in general.

This is very interesting because it allows for a person to get a generally broad spectrum of the nation's opinion, as well as "Hope for this too" (an option that tallies a yay or nay consensus). I think the whole idea is spectacular, since a newspaper serves as the voice of the people, and is actually letting the people literally speak their minds. With an aesthetic design,and easy to use navigation, it's easy to see how Digital Art is influencing the way we look at history, as well as day-to-day events.

Room

It had a lot of "Internal Errors" that wouldn't let me load it earlier.

Masking

What they're making us kids do these days

I am an English/Spanish major, but that's only what I say when pressured.

I'm taking this class to expand my horizons, and see if I can use it to show off to my friends at a later point in time.

I'm very comfortable with Macs, mainly because I want to seem sophisticated to other people. I can use all of the basic features, and love safari so much that I downloaded it to my pc.

I've only used photoshop once or twice to erase some stray marks on my cartoons.

I'm not terribly good at taking photos, but I know where the flash button and settings are.

I, like the majority of america, own an iPod, and have taken advantage of many of its features.

I'm a big fan of pop art, and anything that's cartoon/comic based.

I've watched a lot of video, and can edit a little bit with iMovie.

There is no corner of the internet I cannot reach.

I've never made a website, or anything like that. I'm probably one of the top 10 facebook-ers ever, though.

I've downloaded a lot of digital music, and burned a lot of it, too.

There are a series of webtoons that I watch, but I have no idea how to make them or anything like that.

I can draw. Very well. I do the cartoons for the school paper, and for whenever I get bored.

First time blogger, long time jokester of people who do make blogs. 

I play baseball, and love cartoons and cartoon related things. I'm also the editor of my college's humor magazine, The Caveman. I believe that life is funny, and that not enough people take the time to acknowledge that. Therefore, I try to highlight the humorous aspects of life so that other people may profit for my labor.