Art Response #8

bananarama 2000 (1999)
Artist: Tracey Benson
Collage

I found this animation to be quite interesting. It's a virtual book of collage that keeps moving and flowing, displaying imagery that speaks about culture and tourism in Australia. I think however, that despite being geared towards one cultural group that it is something that can be easily understood by most cultures throughout the world. In that sense also, I really enjoy the piece because I can understand (more or less) what it is trying to say.

Art Response #7

Bewitched (1997)
Artist: Martin Wattenberg
Abstraction

The following site has many interesting ideas and imagery. One of my favorites on the site was a piece called "Thinking Machine". In this piece if the viewer were at the actual exhibit they would be able to play a game of chess and see the invisible thought process of the computer through use of line. The imagery is and use of line showing the thought process is quite beautiful but the idea behind is also just as appealing.

Art Response #6

Artist: Decellus Coleman
Intro to Web Art Mandala Projects

The following piece is another art piece done for the class-wide Mandala inspired project. While similar to the earlier piece featured, I feel this piece presents a different message. It is very mechanical in the way it is presented especially, through the use of sound in the image. I'm drawn to the center part of the image... it's almost like watching a clock's hands rotate (waiting for a certain to strike), because I want to get to the point where the rectangle in the center finally connects with the outer rectangular wand.

Flash Webproject: Site Map

Art Response #5

Artist: Dawna Walther
Intro to Web Art Mandala Projects

The following piece was done for the class-wide Mandala inspired project. I find this piece to be particularly interesting because it reflects so well the idea of a true mandala. I love the range of green tones throughout, as well as, the simple and clean shapes. I think one of the things that really adds to the piece is the sound. It is complimentary to the animation rather than being detracting or so removed from it that it is hard to see a relation between the image and the sound. That nice relationship between sound and image in this piece, I think, really helps to make it successful.

Art Response #4

World of Awe (1995)
Artist: Yael Kanarek
3D Graphics

In this piece the viewer is allowed to take a journey. It is piece that is concerned with digital culture, storytelling, and languages. As the viewer was are invited to see a traveler's journal that tells us of the journey we are about to embark on:

"Through a portal on 419 East 6th street in Manhattan, a traveler crosses into the parallel world called Sunset/Sunrise, to search for a lost treasure. But the treasure keeps relocating. How do you nail a moving target? What is the treasure? Read the travelogs and love letters in the traveler's laptop.

Every world has its physical properties: Sunset/Sunrise is a desert terrain. It's a world but not necessarily a planet. Possibly round or flat or both, or neither. Time is suspended at dawn or dusk. Death is undefined. Sometimes, long shadows travel around, as the main light source (perhaps a sun) glides below the horizon, but never across it. Gravity is optional. Water is optional and an algorithm replaces thirst. Eating is minimal. Like a graveyard for all the hardware and software ever created, objects from Earth end up in Sunset/Sunrise. The traveler steps into a minefield, explodes and reconstructs oneself. No mail system. No wireless. Love letters are written and left behind."

We then follow through from "forever" to "destruction and mending", and finally to "Object of Desire". On the site we are also allowed to view a collection of selected works from the artist that I think are a good example of what the artist is trying to get through with the created world and journey. The different images all speak of a place that is not our own, physically. They are digital works that take us to the digital realm in all of it's glory.

Art Response #3

Nine (2001)
Artist: Jason Lewis
Game

The following piece is an interactive puzzle where the viewer slides the images to reveal bits of poetry and blurbs about the artist's life. I find this piece to be interesting in that it mimics, in a sense, real life interaction. I would like to clarify my point by saying that, we get bits and pieces of the artist's life as we go along. Everything is not given to us at once and we must work through the puzzle, only getting glimpses, like we work to get to know a person in real life... Only getting glimpses...Until we reveal the full picture but there is no guarantee that we will get there.

Art Response #2

Color Balance (1997)

Artist: John F. Simon
Abstraction

The following piece asks the question, "What does color weigh?" With this idea in mind, the artist creates a piece that acts as a virtual scale. The viewer is also the maker in a sense, because they drag bars of colors on the scales to create different levels or weights of colors. I find this idea to be particularly interesting as a student of graphic art because working with color on the computer is slightly different from working with color in traditional art elements. Colors are measured or classified in hex codes rather then mushing paint together on a palette.

Art Response #1

Vectorial Elevation, Relational Architecture 4 (1999)

Artist: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
3D Graphics

In the following piece we as the viewer are introduced to several ideas. Among these ideas are that of collaboration, interacting through the use of the net to reach across space and time to create something truly magnificent. In this piece people were allowed to sign up to virtually go through a city and turn on search lights. These searchlights were then turned on in that city with their various designs to create a beautiful 3d line drawing in the sky that was broadcast through video. The images created are a beautiful example of embracing what technology has to offer.