‘Tis the Season to go Crazy

There is one time of the year that many peopole, normally ignorant of the art world, becomes artists. Many gun for awards, recognition, to create the most spectacular thing anyone has ever seen. What am I talking about? Christmas decorations, of course! Ah, yes, the age old tradition of spiking your electric bill to extraordinary heights for the sake of beating the Joneses. One of my favorite displays involves lights that are programmed to blink in time with a song. It got so popular that the town put the music looping on a local radio station so that visitors could watch and listen as they drove past. The display was even used as a Miller Lite commercial. Take a look:

Due to the sheer awesomeness of this display, a rumor went around that this was created via stop-motion, but this is the brain child of Carson Williams, an electrical engineer in Mason, Ohio. If you are interested in recreating this display, want to see other awesome creations, or want to share your own visit his website.

I love looking at Christmas lights. Especially when it snows- there’s just something magical about it, like it should be in a Norman Rockwell painting. But there are definitely some displays that take it a little too far. Take a look- what do you think?

Look, as if Parking did Suck Enough Already

I recently visited the site Parking Day, about one day event in which a collective group of artists and volunteers transform all of the metered parking spots in San Francisco into temporary public parks, otherwise known as PARK(ing) spots.

This is in response to the fact that 70% of the city’s outdoor space is for the car while only a small amount is for public use. Anyone is allowed to participate; anyone interested can join a group or start their own by emailing participate@parkingday.org.

While I find this project adorable and inspiring, I hope they don’t come to Newark- as is parking isn’t lousy enough without them setting up lawn chairs.

I’m Dying! (The internet told me so)

I’m sick. I’ve been sick since Sunday night. It sucks. I finally went to the health center (at the urge of my mom). The doctor diagnosed me with pharyngitis and bronchitis. He gave me a prescription, I got it filled, and after two doses and a full day in bed, I’m feeling a little better.

But what if I hadn’t gone to the doctor? Many people are choosing to do the diagnosing themselves with the help of medical websites such as WebMD. But how accurate are these diagnostic tools? I entered my symptoms into the symptom checker and, sure enough, it did come up with pharyngitis. But it also came up with lyme disease, scarlet fever, anthrax (inhaled), thalassemia, and tuberculosis.

So I could have something that could go away in a week with a $10 prescription, or I may have a blood disease? I could stop coughing soon, or I could start coughing up blood? Am I temporarily miserable because I’ll be better soon or is it  because I’ll be dead soon?

People place far too much trust in WebMD. Go see a doctor people.

I Paid for it, I’ll use it How I Want!

Copyrights and Copy Wrongs, a reading from earlier in the semester talks about the expansions in copyright laws, and how they have restricted public access to arts, ideas and technology. The author expresses that copyright law is important, as it does provide protection. However, he does believe that they law has gotten a little out of hand, and that he preferred the laws in place prior to 1976. In 1976, Congress changed the copyright law from a protection renewable every 28 years, to the author’s life plus 50 years. By making the law so highly specific, it opened it up to much scrutiny and debate, allowing the government to regulate everything we read and see.

Generally, I agree about copyright protections. I don’t pretend to know everything or every little detail that entails copyright law, but generally speaking, I believe the original authors deserve to be compensated for the use of their works. I agree that Napster was a little out of line, allowing people to download music for free. But one thing I don’t understand is the restrictions placed on dvds. We are allowed to add music from cds to our itunes libraries, and then add them to our ipods for listening to anytime. That makes sense, right? With a cd we could listen to the music on them at anytime using a cd player, so adding them to your ipod to listen to at anytime isn’t that much different, right? Then why can’t we do the same with a dvd? I already paid $20 for the movie, why should I have to pay an extra 10 bucks to download it to itunes? I honestly don’t see the difference between cds and dvds. A handful of movies are overcoming this roadblock by including a digital copy with the dvd, but not all, and as far as I’ve seen, most are with children’s movies. Not to say I don’t appreciate being able to watch Wall-e wherever I go, (I really don’t- I love that movie), but I would also like to be able to enjoy some of my more mature and age-appropriate movies on the go. To top it off, most of the digital copies are only allowed to be downloaded 5 times. I suppose that this restriction is to limit people from sharing it with everyone they know, but what about the people who paid for the dvd? My parents each have an ipod and their own itunes libraries. That’s 3 downloads to start. I got a new computer, so that’s another time it will need to be downloaded. They’re going to need new computers at some point, so who gets it?

I don’t get it. I paid for the dvd, I should be able to watch it whenever I want. I neither confirm nor deny my use, ownership, or approval of this, but there are a lot of safe and free programs you can download out there that will get past the encryption on a dvd and let you add them to your ipod. Just saying.

Digital Art

Earlier in the semester we did a reading entitled Digital Art. The author defines digital art as “art that employs digital technologies as its own medium”. While other forms of art may use clay, paint, wood, metal, or other mediums, digital art uses digital technologies such as a computer program, to create art. This is a relatively new form of art, allowing for many new opportunities for artists.

But how far does this extend? There are plenty of people who use photoshop to manipulate immages-does this count as art? People have doctored photos of celebrities, faked ufo sightings, and more, usually for profit or for attention. Does this count as art? Asside from that, there are plenty of horrible photoshop jobs out there in the professional world There are many trainwrecks out there. Plenty of some of the worst examples of photoshop are printed in magazines, newspapers, and even on covers. For more of this, check out Photoshop Disasters.

 

Look at this one on the left. It seems pretty normal, right? Take a closer look.

Still don’t see it? One more try.

Nothing? Alright I’ll tell you. Look between her legs. Shouldn’t a sweater have a back to it?

How about the second one? How could such obvious mistakes make it through? Peruse the website- there are far more horrible mistakes. Back in the day, photos and videos were pretty trustworthy- seeing was believing.

Now I’m not so sure.

Second Life- seriously, get a real one first

Have you ever heard of second life? Until relatively recently, me neither. If you have not heard of them, congratulations, you are not one of the 68,000 sad people who do. (Yes, 68,000. 15 million are registered, but only that many people are active users.)  It allows you to do what you want! Work where you want! Be who you want! Live! Laugh! Love! Live out the life you’ve always wanted through an avatar you create!

….Yea…sounds kinda like the Sims but you control one person and interact with other users. To be perfectly honest, it seems really pathetic and lonely to me. No friends? That’s alright, have the illusion of popularityby interacting with people you don’t know online! Find the love of your life online! She might secretly be a fat, balding 37-year old man living in his mom’s basement, but in Second Life she’s a babe!

Thought some people were obsessed with Facebook? At least that’s really them; some messed up things have happened when people confuse Second Life with real life. Check it out: http://loot-ninja.com/tag/second-life/.

Seriously people- before you get a Second Life, please have a real one first.

Cabspotting

Yellow Cab has more taxis on the streets of San Francisco than the next four cab companies combined. Even further, when some one calls in for a cab, your GPS location is automatically sent to nearby cabs so that they can reach you in the smallest amount of time. Talk about convenience! So between sheer numbers and fast service, there’s a good chance that if visit San Francisco, you’ll be riding in a Yellow Cab. But where do these taxis go? How often?

To look into the secret life of cabs, we look to Cabspotting, the multiple-year project of Amy Balkin, commissioned by the Exploratorium. (If you are ever in San Francisco, I highly recommend going.) Using GPS, cabs were tracked around the city. The places they stopped, speeds they were going, common routes, all were combined to create a beautiful map on the city. Cab Speeds

Maybe she can go to New York and help us find the Cash Cab.

The Things People will do for Attention

Humans are social creatures- we need contact with others to sustain a healthy life; solitary confinement is an effective punishment because of this. Contact with others reaches beyond communicating face to face, and goes so far as to be admired from afar, from people you have never even met. But how far are people willing to go to get this much-craved attention?

Blogging’s popularity exits on different ends of the spectrum; some people do it incessantly, constantly updating the world on their activities and feelings. Others find it a waste of time, uninteresting, or just don’t care or know about it. The article Reports of my Death features the former, people obsessed with gaining the love and attention of an invisible audience, unnamed fellow bloggers. So obsessed, that they are willing to lie, blogging stories about a dying baby, or their losing battle with a terminal illness that in actuality, don’t exist.  Over the weeks that these people chronicled their tales of woe, people hung on their every word, offering support, love, sharing their own stories. When their stories ultimately ended in death, their audiences wept as though it were their own friend or child who had died. When the stories were revealed to be hoaxes, the audiences were in disbelief. But when the truth was accepted, the audiences were outraged at having their emotions toyed with.

Ok, so these people made up some stories online. No one would do something like that in real life? Sad thing is, there is no limit to the stupid things people will do for attention. Take into account reality tv shows, most YouTube videos, and let’s not forget the Jackass movies. People really do crave attention, and will do what it takes to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Telling a Story with No Words

A picture is worth a thousand words. But how many words is a thousand pictures worth? Jonathon Harris attempts to do through is project, Whale Hunt.  On a whale hunting trip, he took a picture every 30 seconds, even at night. By doing this, he chronicles his journey through the use of photograp`hy.

I did something following the same concept of chronicling a story through the use of photography. But rather than capturing my own story, I told the story of love over your life, the different loves you experience at different ages. As you work from the center, you journey from young love, to teenage love, to adult love and marriage, to the start of a family, to the love you experience as an older person, reflecting on the life you have spent with another.

Speech and writing are the two most common forms of communication. But a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

A Whole New Respect for Tim Burton’s Peons

Everyone is familiar with the work of Tim Burton.  He has directed dozens of films, including 2 animated films, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Corpse Bride. As opposed to traditional animation, these two films feature stop-motion animation, which utilizes taking many photos of figures, moving each a little each time and stringing them together to give the illusion of motion. Each of have won multiple awards and Tim Burton has gained much recognition and accolades. But does he deserve it?

Recently I made my own stop-motion film (along with my partners Drake and Michele). The film came out beautifully and I am very proud of what we accomplished.  But let me tell you- it took a LOT of work. The initial filming was tedious and time-consuming. Between designing the characters and background, setting up each scene, figuring out transitions, and physically moving the characters and shooting the film, we spent many long nights in the library studio. Editing, recording sound effects and adding music took at least another 12 hours alone. And this was a film that in the end only lasted 2 minutes. So after all that, I have to wonder- why should the man who sits behind the camera get all the credit?

I mean, I’m sure directing is no picnic. It must be hard being in charge, choosing which direction the movie is supposed to move, and all those other responsibilities go with the directing position. But in the end, he is not the one who sets up all the scenes, or the one who does the very tedious task of moving each tiny little movement of each character. That is performed by an unnamed (except for the credits but no one really reads those) and unappreciated team of artists. I love Tim Burton’s movies, but I feel like more credit is due to the people who actually bring the films to life.