eBook

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwchGOJpvD-6Wktobk51X00wVW8

HW# 5/3 Blank/Empty Assignment

            I used the pencil image, which was a collaborative piece I worked with Vanessa (through Photoshop). I manipulated the image into something else via an photo editing app on my phone. I wanted to experiment with photo editing apps that are normally for people to use to edit their selfies.  As a mental note, I noticed that I was definitely bolder when I used the app to edit this image because it's not a face. I was able to easily cover/fill up the image without leaving much of the original image.

HW# 5/2 An Artist Who Uses Scanners

       Francesco Gioia is an Italian artist who likes to use scanner to play around images. He sometimes uses objects to scan. Other times he likes to use no objects, but the shadow around him. The color of the shadow in his work is very beautiful and vibrant which one might not associate them as shadow.

Colori Latenti I

Colori Latenti II

Colori Latenti III

U-H-U-H-U-H

OA# 9: 3 Connections from Digital Photography to Children

          Digital Photography is a great way for children to learn many aspects of art as well as themselves. 

          1) Composition: because one can take almost endless photos on digital cameras and it is fast. Student can easily compare and contrast the angles they use when taking photos, resulting the sensibility of composition. 

          2) Document: Because the properties of cameras, students can use them to capture a process in motion. 

   

           3) Learning about themselves: When children are asked to take photographs, they would "randomly" take pictures of the objects/scenery around them. However, these photos reveal the subject matter that they are interested in. After a series of photos, one will find out what he/she might be interested in unconsciously when looking at all the photos. 

OA# 7: Lankshear&Knobel: New literacies and social practices of digital remixing"

               This writing piece by Lankshear and Knobel explores the concept of remix in popular culture. I agree with Lawrence Lessig who said that remix is a "necessary condition for cultural sustainability, development, enrichment, and well-being"(Lankshear and Knobel, 97).
             I see the idea of remixing as a digital form of collaging. One can mix things that's previously there to become something else. This transformative action can also challenge and relate to the idea of history (what's before the transformation).
              Read Only culture is also interesting because it's similar to the old form of viewing art. Traditionally, only a selected group of people get to see art in museums. The emphasis is on the seeing part rather than being able to participate and make a change in the art work.
              In contrast, remixing is so much more convenient than traditional art making. Artists can showcase their creativity to global citizens. In addition, online forums can be a professional development resource where people can provide feedback, share skills, create tutorials,  and exchange knowledge.

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OA #8: Ann Hamilton, photographer who uses photography creatively

Reflection

Suite of 12 Iris prints on Arches watercolor paper
Edition of 10 + 5 Artist Proofs
Image size: 24 x 24 inches, Paper size: 47 x 34 inches

                  The images" reflect the artist in the multiple layers glass that were stacked in preparation for the construction of a gridded wall across the entire facade of the United States Pavilion in Venice. Recorded at five minute intervals, the series documented the shifting weather seen through the newly uncovered pavilion skylights" (Ann Hamilton Studio).

Face to Face · 22
Pigment print
Edition of 3 with 2 Artist’s Proofs
Image size: variable x 10 inches, Paper size: 22 x 18 inches

                 Face to Face is an ongoing project. It features individuals and landscapes. "Making the orifice of language the orifice of sight, a small pinhole camera is placed within the mouth’s interior. When the mouth opens, the film is exposed. The resulting image is a trace presence of standing or sitting “face to face” with a person or landscape" (Ann Hamilton Studio). 

Oneeveryone, Untitled, 2013 Archival pigment print

In this project, Hamilton was interested in capturing the material quality of Duraflex® – a semi-opaque industrial material developed by Bayer MaterialScience as well as the emotional process behind this material. 

Reference:

 http://www.galleryintell.com/ann-hamiltons-o-n-e-e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e-adaa-art-show/

http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/

OA# 6: Social Media Feedback

I shared two images on Facebook and Instagram. The results were quite similar to the photos I normally post. Instead of making a comment, most of my friends normally "like" my photos. In this project, I only received one comment on the first image: "Did you make this? Very cool!" I noticed that more people liked the first image where there are more line marks. One reason I could think of why that is is perhaps people tend to like images that show a trace of hand drawing or some drawing aspect. 

Facebook:

Instagram:

OA# 5: 2 artistic images

Original

Creative piece#1

In this piece, I wanted to use my picture as if I were to communicate with my friends rather seeing it as an art assignment. Therefore, I edited the photo via Snapchat because I send photos to my friends via Snapchat. I used the app's "brush," where I could create these colorful marks by pressing my finger to the screen. Strangely, the action made me think about drawing although I was drawing on a screen. The touching aspect was quite fun and carefree, as if I were experimenting a new material on screen. The vibrant colors enabled me to go bold with the original image. So I started doodling and I was interested to see how these bold/neon colors would go together. 

Creative piece#2

Because I had so much fun with the first piece, I took the image to another photo editing app, Meitu. Meitu is a portrait editing app that's very popular among the Chinese. It can make one's skin darker and lighter; adjust height, and enlarge objects. I was intrigued by the idea of using an app that has been using for editing faces to edit a photograph of streets. I used "magic brush" to create whimsical marks on the buildings. Then I adjusted the image to make it taller. I also had fun adding stickers such as the plants,  "STOP", and "Put Your Hands Up". They changed how the piece looked. All of the sudden, the piece had a more playful and surreal quality.   

OA# 3: Digital Drawing/Painting Lesson Plan

When introducing collage, image making, composition, and meaning making, digital drawing/painting could be a good idea to incorporate with. 

Following are the reasons why:

1) It is more fun when students don't need to look at the traditional paintings/ artwork when talking about composition and collage.

2) it is faster when one needs to test out how one image might look with another one (collage, composition). One just needs to pull images and add layers on top instead of cutting it out with a pair of scissors.

3) It's exciting, when students could use a digital device to come up/design their own art work. Many students nowadays have already had experience with Photoshop. 

4) It's practical. Once a student learned how to manipulate an image, he/she could do that with designing posters for other purposes. He/she could also apply these skills on their social media and blogs. 

Leying Zhang

2/12/16

Students: 9th grade

Title: Digital Communication

Material

            Sketchbook, Photoshop

Learning Objective

            Through making a typographic drawing/painting using Photoshop, students will learn that they can manipulate the arrangement of font size, line- length, line-spacing, letter-spacing and style through Photoshop.

Spark

Teacher:

    1)   “Where do you mostly get your information from nowadays? Do you read from newspaper and books or do you read online?”

    2)   “When you read news, or read your textbooks online. What do you notice about the words appeared on the Internet?”

    3)   “When you type your essays, what format do you normally or like to use?”

Demonstration/Material Dialogue

Teacher: 

1  1)   “We talked about the possible fonts and sizes when typing on Word. Now if I want to make a typographic drawing that only emphasis one word, how would you do it?” 

    2)   “What if I want to have a message in my artwork, which associate with a product, what are possible ways you can relate to that product?” 

    3)   “Think about how you want your words and images to be communicated through a flat surface. What are the possible tools you can use in Photoshop that will help you archiving your goals?”

Closure

Teacher: “We discussed the ways one can use fonts, sizes, line-space and the artistic representations of words, which could incorporate images. Now please take a moment and think about what do you want to communicate through words. How would you like to represent it on the Internet so people could notice?  You can start sketching out your ideas on your sketchbooks first, when you are ready, you may start. “

OA# 4: Explore Digital Photography: What Did I Notice?

I saw this scene on my way to school. My first reaction to this tall, long, curved metal thing was "that's so cool and minimalistic." I saw it as a sculpture piece. The color of the metal seemed to match the surroundings. I was attracted by the form of it. I think it fits well in this empty area next to all the tall buildings. I wish this could be a sculpture piece in this area. 

OA# 2: Thoughts on Digital Painting Exploration

I liked Ava and Nina's collaborative piece where their drawings become moving images that constantly change.This created a great dynamic and visual effect to the piece.

In contrast to Ava and Nina's piece, Anita's landscape has a very peaceful feel to it. I liked how she used smooth color to demonstrate flatness but repeated shapes/color to demonstrate texture and shadow.

I liked how Jihyun incorporated her sketch in this piece. Both hand drawn and the digital elements created an very interest texture.  

Unlike the above, Casey used photographs to illustrate an image, where things look quite surrealistic.

These pieces are great examples of how digital paintings can be and can possible be. I would like to experiment with moving images, painterly quality images, and photographs. 

OA# 1: Homework Visits

I visited the homework regarding digital drawing/painting because this is an unfamiliar field for me. I was curious to see what digital drawing/painting could offer. I left comments on the following classmates' blog:

Gina

Anita

Ava

Casey

Hannah

Jihyun Kim

Teny

Ava: I liked how realistic these paintings are. The colors are quite playful due to the brushstroke and their quality. Some areas are very nicely blended in, which have a graffiti quality to it. 

Casey: Casey's choice made me realize that one can also use digital to create comic like illustrations. The thin lines (pencil quality) and perfectly filled in colors are a contrast to Ava's. 

 Hannah: This digital painting looks like a real painting due to the brushstroke. Some softer marks on the edge look like graffiti. This piece looks very painterly done.

Jihyun Kim: This piece blew my mind because I thought the piece was made up by objects like fruits or sth. However, the artist used emojis to create this piece. I am amazed by the three dimensionality of this piece!

Teny: I like how these pieces have some drawing elements, some digital elements (light bulbs), and realistic aspect to them. 

Anita: I was amazed by the fact that digital art could also have very painterly quality. 

Gina: I like how this piece has a very vibrant and yet metallic look. 

HW# 3/4: Social Media Artist: Man Bartlett

Man Barlett is a social media artist. In his #24hEcho (2010), a social media driven installation and performance by using multiple sites and applications. Barlett sat on his computer for 24 hours and tweeted with the hashtag #24hEcho. This was both a performance piece, where people could come to see him in person, and a social media piece, where he constantly tweeted with the hashtag #24hEcho.

People could go visit Bartlett in live

Or they could just follow the feed #24hEcho

Blog:
https://algorithmicart2015.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/man-bartletts-24hecho/

HW# 3/3 Digital Artist Yao Lu

Yao Lu is a Chinese artist who used computer manipulations to create photomontages that resemble traditional Chinese paintings to address the environmental problems in China. His paintings reveal the rampant path towards urbanization. He used the classical Chinese landscape painting aesthetics to depict fan shaped, or scroll like paintings. However, if one looks closely at the imageries, one would see construction sites, landfills, and trash. 

"His recycling of a traditional aesthetic to approach contemporary issue reveals the tension between society's past and present values. Lu's environmental message crosses borders and raises pressing questions about the hidden costs of modernization and global sustainability."

Some of his paintings are showing currently at Gottesman Library outside of room 305.



Reference: http://www.brucesilverstein.com/artists/yao-lu

HW# 3/2 Collaborative Collage with Vanessa Arnold

I had no experience using Photoshop. Vanessa Arnold introduced me the basic tools to get started using Photoshop. I learned that I can have an image as a background. Then I can add layers to change the whole image. It is also safer to have multiple layers with drawings when you want to delete some small areas (so you don't delete it all). I experimented the brush tools and the possible marks that could have. It was quite fun making it with the carefree mentality. The only thing was that I wasn't used to the Bamboo tablet so it was a bit difficult for me to manipulate the drawings.
Potential: This is great for color exploration and composition studies. It is also good for posters and advertisement because the colors are very vibrant. The fact that one can pull many images from the internet and make a collage out of it can reduce the time (instead of drawing them by hand) and it offers a more realistic look.                                                                                                                    

                                                                                         

HW# 3/1 Eetiquette

1) The reason why I chose this quote is because this is very helpful for people to know. People nowadays (at least New Yorkers) have a busy schedule everyday. It is better to make your point clear and keep the message short rather than writing a long email which would discourage the reader to read. It also helps if the subject title is concise.                                                                                                                  

2) I chose this quote is because I see many posts regarding food, one's hunger, or fatigue on social media. It is too much! If you have the time to post why don't you go and get some food? Stop sending negative energies!                                                                                                                                    

3) I chose this quote is because I have an opposite view than this. I was actually told not to tell my full name if I answer a call from an unknown number because it is unsafe. It could be a way of the other end finding out your identity.