JK! Final Forrealz

without swirls.

final portrait...

Not what I originally thought it would look like, but i am relatively happy with it!

The real one doesn't have white around it. I dunno whats going on here...

Mirta Kupferminc

Mirta Kupferminc was the second artist to visit SMCM during artweek. She joined the photo-drawing-digital round robin and debated the philosophy and theory behind art during the discussion portion. For the last hour or so of class, she showed some pieces from her portfolio and went about explaining the process of creation that she follows. Later, she gave a lecture on the art she has created in response to the Holocaust-related experiences that she has had to deal with through the stories of her parents. Her talk in Cole Cinema focused mainly on her work with yarn, film, and installation.  

From the lecture and discussion portion of the round robin, she described, sometimes in detail, the process behind some of her work, which is primarily digital. Several of her final digital works have other mediums included. For example, she showed us several final works that had grown from other mediums along the way. She would start with a sculpture then paint a painting. From there she would do some etchwork. After completing all of these steps, she would either scan or photograph each piece to transfer it into a digital format. Once in the digital format, she would combine each piece – etching, sculpture and painting – to make a completely new and different work of art with each element. I particularly admired this technique, etc. because I have an interest in many different mediums and the combination of multiple ones. The crossing of the mediums adds a lot of interest to the work.

In her formal lecture, she discussed a particular showing she had at a college recently. She took a winged chair and based an entire exhibit off of the chair and the meaning behind tattoos. She had a young, very tattooed man sit in the chair while she photographed him. His entire body was covered in ink, by choice. In juxtaposition, she placed her mother. Her mother only has one tattoo and that is the number that she was given while living in Auschwitz. She made a point at the beginning of her exhibition by having each attendee receive an ornamental tattoo. If the person was wearing something red, they received a number and if not, a design of their choice. She had two very interesting parts to her installation. One part was with a projection she had on the wall that was text. When someone walked in front of the projection, casting their shadow on the wall, “invisible” text was revealed. Another interesting part of the installation was a mirror tunnel-creation. There was a hole in the wall that people could stick their head into. On each end of the tube-like structure were mirrors, so that it appeared endless. She had text on the inside of that structure as well.

Mirta had a lot of great ideas and projects that she presented while she was here, that I cannot include them all in this paper. She is such a multi-dimensional, charming artist that her work never fails to impress. Her presentation of her work, in her words, in her way certainly helped my impression of it as well. 

Sean Heisler and Brett Layton

Sean Heisler is a graphic artist who specializes in logos and "brand identity." He has been working in graphic design for approximately 13 years. His work is defined by the simple colors and lines that he uses. Visually, they have more of an impact then they would if they were more complex. I could find very little history on his work or his background and what I did find, I paraphrased for above.

Sean's logos work because they are clever and take ordinary images and ideas to be combined into something completely different. I have found that through art and poetry, etc. my favorite work is that which makes us think about things in different ways. Sean creates logos that appear to be one thing when they are looked at as a whole and another when focusing on the details. He makes up the main image with related images that connect to the main concept.

This image, like many of Sean's work, is a very strong logo. It is essentially monochromatic, but it works because of the different in value. Also, it is clearing read and recognized as the word "killed" but it is changed in a way that would make one pause and chuckle because in the overall context of the work, it makes sense. Oftentimes the letter "i" can be equated to a person. The fact that this is the letter that is knocked over is not an accident. It would have made less sense for him to knock over an l or twist the e. This clever yet subtle manipulation of meaning is what makes Sean's work fabulous, creative and noteworthy (though there is not much history about him).

Once again, the logo sticks to two main colors. This refrains from distracting the viewer with colors and directing the focus to the actual visual image. A beer bottle and a flower are two images that could very easily be (and have been) placed in juxtaposition to each other. It gives the words and name more weight by placing emphasis on their taken-for-granted irony. I would say that Sean's body of work as a whole relies on his play on words and clever way of approaching the written word and its relationship to an image that makes his work so fantastic.

 

Again with the two main colors, and again with the simple imagery. Whether the colors are in the same family or not, he sticks to two colors. In this image the words play directly into the image. A rocket is the first image that you see and then the golf tees are the second. In this image and the last, he directly correlates the words to the image. The first word you read is the first image you see and likewise with the second word and image. Sean Heisler's work is not so much about the complexity of the process in making the graphic, but about the cleverness it takes to support such work as logo design.

I think that the same concepts emphasized in this analysis of Sean Heisler's work can apply very easily to our projects now and the creative process as a whole. As reiterated again and again, it is not necessarily the complexity or difficulty of the project that makes it significant. Sometimes a work can be simple, but it must be supported with a solid underpinning idea. In Sean Heisler's work it is his creative cleverness and revealing of irony.

1. http://creattica.com/creatives/ethereal-sean-heisler/14871
2.http://logopond.com/members/profile/showcase/22632&page=1
3. http://www.etherealbrands.com/
4. http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/02/illustrated-logos-bringing-a-brand-to-life/


Brett Layton is also super cool: http://www.behance.net/blayton

also sean heisler!!!

self portrait... rough!

the real one does not have the white around it!

critiques and comments requested please! this is a rough of my entire image, including background.

 lemme know what you think!

David Constable... Blek

Visiting artist, David Constable received his BA in Fine Art from Grays School of Art, in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1989. After graduating, he immediately went into construction work with his father. For several year he worked in construction, while thirsting after a career etc. in art. Several years later, he went back to school for his Masters of Fine Art from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois where he met his wife. He lives in Norton, Virginia, with his wife and daughter and is an Adjunct instructor at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Constable’s approach to his talk was focused on his history. He discussed in great detail the history of his life and behind his works. In some cases it shed great light on rationale behind his work but this was not so in every case. Some of his paintings and drawings depicted the bleakness of the land where he now lives, and that bleakness he connected to his time in construction in Scotland. He now lives near coal mines and expressed that that has had a major impact on his work. He has been impressed by how the land is so torn up and the landscape appears grayer because of the work the miners do below the surface.

Another of his works that Constable discussed in depth was his study in architecture. The Chemistry department at the college was moving their files to digital and getting rid of dozens upon dozens of large tomes. Constable requested to receive all of them and once he had, made a sculpture out of them. He talked about how he had to remove pages from some of the books in order to have an even and level top to his sculpture. He experimented at first, building a castle for his daughter and scattering the books around in random columns, before deciding that he was going to make a wall. He stacked the books in a long horizontal wall-like structure.

One thing that greatly annoyed me about this artist was his attitude. I did not feel that his work warranted the attitude that he had concerning it. He was very cocky and, after showing badly exposed photographic prints, claimed that he meant to send a message about the deteriorating landscape. None of the work that he showed during the talk made me think of a medium in a different way nor did it impress me. I may have been more open to his work had he not seemed so arrogant, but since I did not have this chance, I do not have a high opinion of him as an artist. His work seemed rather unoriginal, especially in comparison to the artist, Mirta Kupferminc, who spoke later in the week.

Illustrator... How I have missed you..

 

I often use purple, as pointed out by Billy.  I just added the above image after changing the color.

What is its effect on you?

feelings...

Response to "Digital Self-Portrait"

I picked a photo of myself that, while not the most interesting, has the most potential to be the most interesting. My approach is to separate the different values in the picture depending on how dark it is. While this may appear to mean that I will have to limit myself to a monochromatic theme, I am not sure if this is the direction I will pursue. While this is one direction I could go - changing my face to a different hue altogether - i feel that eventually i will probably separate the different parts of the face, regardless of whether they are the same value and make sure that the different hues are of the same value. Simply, I plan on starting with a monochromatic theme and moving from there... I think it is important to approach projects through a different outlook. I feel that many people would expect one to follow more of a realistic route, while I am heading in a more surrealistic direction. We will have to see how this ends up.


Just as a side note, I have been using the mouse for this, and it is taking me about 2738905983749852x longer then it would have with the pen tool! AGH!

Pen Tool

dear adobe. you stink!

Sketches!

Brooke Singer

I found Brooke Singer on eyebeam.org. She is the co-founder of Preemptive Media, an art, technology and activist organization. She is an art professor at Purchase College in NY. Her artwork can be found in several different mediums including websites, digital photography, installations and performances. 

Brooke Singer is an artist who believes in sharing herself with the world, via the internet. Her blog is full of links of things that she finds interesting and every one of her sites is full of more links to projects she has either worked on or will be working on in the future. If you start on eyebeam, you can go to her blog, which then links you back to eyebeam and also to one of the projects she is working on. The eyebeam page you reach from her blog describes in more detail the organization she co-founded. From eyebeam, you can actually reach the original website. I found it very astonishing how much of an internet presence she had. 

According to eyebeam.org, Preemptive Media is a group of artists, activists, etc. that are interested in creating new venues for public discussion and "alternative outcomes." This group is very much interested in the dynamic between the person as an individual and the person as a user and learner of technology. With such a rapid technology boom, it is very interesting to consider the interaction and changes that people will undergo as newer, faster and more encompassing technology emerges. Preemptive Media, however, does work with different side groups that look into the use of technology against its user. For example, "Zapped! investigates new technology used for product tracking and border control; Swipe exposes information encoded on drivers' licenses and shared without consent; and Moport is an online tool for generating and sharing mobile phone reports." More information then we expect is shared online and with groups or individuals that we would rather not have access to our personal information.

It is rather difficult to find some of her work online, although she has shown in great museums such as Warhol Museum of Art, The Banff Centre, Neuberger Museum of Art, Diverseworks, Exit Art, FILE Electronic Festival, Sonar Music and Multimedia Festival and The Whitney Artport. She explains on her blog that she is currently working on a "large-format photography project based on her Superfund365 website." Most of Brooke Singer's work that I could find were the somewhat practical elements in her website design and photos she has taken of contaminated sites. She briefly discusses the function of the different colors and sections on her website, "superfund.365.org." While I think it is nice to have the variation and changing elements on the screen, I feel as though, content-wise, most of the material is somewhat more in-depth then what the general populace would be interested in. However, if one were knowledgeable, they would probably find the site very, very helpful and the colors and design elements would really help to enhance the interest and usability of the site as a whole. 

I am still on a hunt for a visual, tangible representation of her artwork (say, her photography) but for now, this lovely youtube video interview with her about her website (mostly the content and such) will have to suffice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yfsFkC78zE

Other sources: http://eyebeam.org/people/brooke-singer

http://www.bsing.net/blog/

http://eyebeam.org/people/preemptive-media

http://www.superfund365.org/

http://digitallabor.org/speakers1/chris_barr1

Self Portraits.... Ugh

5 self portraits. I hate taking pictures of myself, so i had a very limited selection...

Vito Acconci

drawing of ‘mur’ island, graz, austria
courtesy acconci studio © vito acconci.
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html

Vito Acconci
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html

Vito Acconci is a landscape architect and installation artist based in Brooklyn. He started as a poet in the 1960s and by the end of the decade had moved to video and performance art, using his body, rather then words, to present metaphors commenting on society and his surroundings. His work often explores, in depth, what he perceives to be issues subconsciously faced by those in the world each day. Some of his work "demonstrat[ed] the paradoxical situation of the artist confounded by two desires: to reveal oneself for the sake of pleasing the audience, and the conflicting desire to protect one's own ego."

While his work is well-executed and he conveys the thoughts that he wishes to, at least to me, I find the lack of cohesiveness in his work disrupting. He focuses less on the progression on the visualization and more on the progression of his thoughts and ideas. He has a somewhat disregard for his viewer... His goal is to present and express his ideas the way that he wants to with disregard, though not completely, to how the viewer will interact with and interpret his work. The theory and message behind the work is what is most important to him. This is both admirable and distasteful. I really admire the fact that he is so true to his vision and that admiration is what I am going to focus on here.


While I appreciate and respect the work that he has done, it is more the philosophy behind his work that attracts me.


In reference to "Remote Control": "The tying up is an occasion for me to get into wrapping you up in a more generalized way." The rope represents Acconci's will in the woman's space, binding her physically and mentally, as she stops resisting and acquiesces to his demands. As a study of consent and control, an underlying theme of the work is the manipulative potential of media technology, which reaches isolated viewers and subjects them to its organizing control."


In reference to Claim Excerpts: "In this record of a live performance, Acconci gives physical manifestation to the subterranean regions of the artist's mind and will, revealing the effort he must make as an artist to simultaneously convince himself and his audience. Perhaps no other piece from the early 1970s more thoroughly spells out the psychologized drama engendered by performance-based video.... Blindfolded, seated in a basement at the end of a long flight of stairs, armed with metal pipes and a crowbar, threatening to swing at anyone who tried to come near, Acconci simultaneously invited and prohibited every visitor to the 93 Grand Street loft to descend into the world of the unconscious."
—Kathy O'Dell




From an interview (http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html): 

do you read for pleasure rather than for work? 
it's all the same. I don't separate them.

because you are an artist...

well, me and the people here at the studio think of ourselves as
designers. we're not artists. my work comes from a background
in art. I realized that I wasn't interested in viewers, I was interested
in users and participants, so it made sense that my work had to
move to design or architecture. though it took a long time for me
to see this..


This expression of his philosophy is why I both admire and dislike his work....


I was unable to view  his videos because of streaming quality, but I viewed many still shots.

'City of Words', lithograph by Vito Acconci, 1999

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci
http://www.acconci.com/
http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?ACCONCIV
http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci.html
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html
http://www.mediatecaonline.net/mediatecaonline/SConsultaAutor?ope=2&ID_IDIOMA=en&criteri=Acconci,+Vito
http://weblab.uni-lueneburg.de/socialsoftware/paradise/index.php/Vito_Acconci
OTHeR SoUrce:
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2008/04/art-space-talk-vito-acconci.html

Finished project and Self-critique

 

New version!

Process:

Four years ago, I took a semester-long graphic design course with a teacher who knew nothing about Photoshop or Illustrator herself. We did things exactly from the book, and experimented ourselves through trial-and-error, since she was of no help. By the end of the course, most of the students were moderately experienced in the basic tools of Photoshop and Illustrator. Experimentation and trial-and-error were fundamental to learning in the class. However it was limiting, as without guidance, we often did not delve into the more complex creative elements of either program.

Loosely guided experimentation was fundamental in this project. Studio time in class consisted of constant work. When I hit a road block, however, I did not have to rely on ambiguous youtube videos or unclear instructional sites. It helped to have someone circulating the room seeing if we needed help. It also helped to be surrounded by opinionated, creative peers who could give an honest critique of my work.

I started out with a vision of what I wanted. Not all of the details were in focus, but I knew, to an extent, how I wanted my final project to appear. Throughout the whole process, however, I gradually became receptive to the fact that not everything was going to work exactly how I had imagined. However, this did not mean that the element I had created did not work in any capacity. Just as with another studio art, some elements of a work will turn out differently then expected, but this does not always mean that the elements did not work. I had to become more accommodating and more able to take a step back and objectify my work.

It was very important for me to be able to step back from my project, to take a walk around or work on other projects, and then go back to the original work with fresh eyes. When studying an image for a while, one becomes adjusted to the slight changes and nuances and, in a sense, loses touch with the work as a whole. I often find that I will become fixated on a particular detail and will work to make the detail appear “right” or “correct” in relation to the rest of the work without taking a break to really consider the project as a whole.

When I began this project, I struggled with this fixation, I know that I have improved greatly by the end. While I improved greatly, one thing that I need to improve on is working on an appreciation for distance. I find that I get too involved in the small picture, rather then the large, and in the long run it can really mess me up. Regardless, with consistent work and effort, the image came to fruition eventually. It is difficult, when immersed in a project, to force oneself to take a break and come back to it. I find that I have to think of it as mixing oil paint. Sometimes the more you work the medium, the muddier and grayer it becomes.

For this particular project, I focused completely on perspective. I found that I really had to push myself to consider new ways to show perspective. Even in the past few days, I changed my approach. I added further elements to the water, such as the lighthouse, and many more to the sand, such as the turtle and rocks. I started with many more elements, but found that the image looked far too busy and so scaled back.

Finished Project:

            The final image certainly has its strengths and weaknesses. I think the image as a whole comes together pretty well, with the exception of the lighthouse, which I find to be somewhat awkward, perhaps because of the color. I managed to add depth and perspective to the waves and sky through hue of the waves and sky and size of the waves, boats, and clouds. The concept of my work was inspired by the illustrations of Eric Carle. I wanted the viewer to recognize that it was created from everyday objects. It was to be surreal and childlike, with the twisted element of depth and perspective. I think that this objective was achieved. This particular idea was an interesting question to deal with while in the process of creating the image. While I wanted the image to remain childish and simple, I had to add perspective, which added a certain element of sophistication to the image, taking away from what I wanted the original feel to be. It was a fine line to walk and it was difficult to balance each texture to make sure that one did not appear too real, or real in a way that threw the rest of the image off. As a piece overall, each texture works together to communicate the idea as whole. It is when the viewer looks closer that they realize that each individual element is something unrelated in any way. I think it presents an interesting metaphor about life.

All of the elements of the work are cohesive, in that each element as an idea comes together to create a scene. Stylistically though it was not as cohesive as it could have been. One of the problems I struggled with in this project since the very beginning was the texture and coloring of the sand. I had the texture the way I wanted it in the beginning of the project, but after trying to add a gradient for perspective purposes, it lost its grainy feeling.  I attempted to fix it to look more natural, by adding elements such as darkness along the water (to represent where the waves had washed up) and another layer with the original texture, but I am not sure it helped in the way that I wanted. The darkening of the sand to appear wet worked to create more believable scene, however, and I later added another layer with a texture of real sand blended in. While it was one of my most frustrating problems, I managed to fix it by the end of the time we had to work.

I became very familiar with the different Photoshop tools during this project. I worked with many different layers and adjusted each layer to fit the picture’s visual needs overall. I blended many layers together to create elements such as the moon, the sky, and the sand by using opacity and layer style. The moon and the sky are a combination of three different images each. I used four or five different textures for the waves and adjusted the color through layer style in order to make sure that the progression of hue worked for the perspective. I used drop shadow and global lighting to get a cohesive shadow in the image. I used the vector mask tool, quick selection and marquee to make and select the shapes that I created for the image. These shapes included each layer of waves, the moon, the clouds, the boat, the mast, the sail, the turtle and the turtle’s eggs. I used the vector mask tool the most often for free form selection purposes as I had a lot more freedom and control with the shape. I used the burn tool to add depth to the turtle’s nest and I made the lighthouse out of a pen and some paper, playing with the shadows and erasing nonessential lines to make it look more believable.

Communication with an Audience:

             The entire idea behind my project was to bring awareness to how ordinary textures and objects in our life can be put together to create something new and cohesive. Each element of the work contributes to a story and, together, tells that story. By taking two common elements of life and combining them in a different and unexpected way, the viewer is forced to reconcile their view of the two separate entities by putting them together as one. In this specific case, I employed the use of everyday, common objects and texture, and an easily identifiable scene.

            A flannel shirt, textured cardboard, lotion, layered paper, a wrinkled inner tube, a rubber band ball, pen and a marker drawing are things that one would encounter and take advantage of seeing in everyday life. A seascape is something fairly common and identifiable, even to those that have never been in person. When a night seascape is made of every objects such as those mentioned above, however, it plays the part of stopping the viewer and forcing them to consider the object or texture in a different way then it would be found in normal life. Fading clouds, shrinking waves, different sized boats and a small lighthouse help to add perspective. That was the purpose of this work and I think that this combination of images and textures does just that.

           

 

Collage now... Wait til later

This is my collage currently... After the weekend, I should have added more things to help the perspective along...

Scanning pen

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/AkqAp1/dornob.com/creative-scan-and-draw-color-changing-pen-design/

What is they had one of these that worked straight to the computer?!

Editted Images, Oh Boy!

Editted!!!

Original

Original

Editted!!!

Original

Editted!

 

 

New Media Art

The reading for today explores the in-depth development of new media art, starting with the beginning of the internet, also known as the "dot com boom." It moves through the advancement of digital art, mostly focusing on the realm of internet art. The internet, although we take advantage of it and rely upon it heavily today, was a new concept for many different people during its emergence. For entrepreneurs, it meant a new venue for sale; for media sources, it was another outlet, etc. For artists, it quickly became a way to share images and works and made remixing works even easier. An artist could easily find a well-known image from decades before and mix it into his work, creating something new while incorporating something from art's history. The internet also made the inclusion of sound and video possible.

One artist I found in the reading that I wanted to learn more about was McKenzie Wark. He is the author of "A Hacker Manifesto" and several other books and has completely changed today's view of "hacking." Hacking, by his definition, is knowing and understanding computers - having programming as a hobby and believing in the sharing of information with many people. Hacking is really just "getting a computer to do anything." This is not the traditional view of a hacker, but the understood definition within the hacking world. (Tribe) Wark continues on and includes other domains in his definition. He says, "Whatever code we hack, be it programming language, poetic language, math or music, curves or colourings, we create the possibility of new things entering the world.... In art, in science, in philosophy and culture, in any production of knowledge where data can be gathered, where information can be extracted from it, and where in that information new possibilities for the world are produced, there are hackers hacking the new out of the old" (Tribe).

While Wark, as an artist fascinates me, I could not find many visual works that he had done. He most compares and theorizes about hacking and its ultimate relation to art and the rest of the world. His main goal is to enlighten people about the true nature of hacking and to change the name that many perceive it having. For my visual artist, I picked Cornelia Sollfrank. She is know for her hacktivism (Tribe) which combines art, hacking and political activism. She has written about cultural development through hacking and worked on creating a program that mixes images from different sites, making new artworks in the process. She believes that sexism runs rampant in the art world and, through her hacking, tested her theory. Tribe says, "To expose the sexism that she believes pervades contemporary curatorial practices, she then submitted ... 200 works to an international Net art competition under false female names, thus ensuring that a majority of the entrants were women. When the jury announced the three winners, all of whom were men, Sollfrank revealed her intervention."

Although Sollfrank's specialty is not visual arts, per se, she is an artist, nonetheless and is inspiring women and revealing sexism in the art world today. She exemplifies how the internet makes a grassroots movement through the internet possible. My only critique of her work would be the scope. If not for this class, I would not have heard of her or her work. In my opinion, she raises several valid points about sexism in the digital art world and her work needs to reach a wider audience. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKenzie_Wark
https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/New+Media+Art+-+Introduction
http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warkbio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Sollfrank
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/sollfrank/biography/
http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n2/sollfrank.html






Due to the nature of my artist, there are not any photographs or images to post on this blog besides the one shown above.

MY Collage

version one 

 

version two

My original idea was to have flowers exploding out of a potato chip bag, presenting a juxtoposition between greasy food and beautiful, delicate beauty. After an hour and a half to two hours of messing around and not getting the results I wanted, I resorted to plan two.
Chaos.
I made several layers (sometimes merging them in order to clean up my layers window) using the lace, scarf, friendship bracelets, keys from the keyboard, beads and the tree from the OAR cover. I also used the heart pendent. Using blending and opacity, I combined all of the images to create a surrealistic commentary on randomness, etc. While the colors are not exactly clashing, there are many different textures and concepts all merging in this composition.

Photoshop Fiddling

Experimentation! Is! So! Fun!

Scanner Trials

This was a group effort.

Props to Nemesis (who helped to hold me up)

and Henry (who pressed the scan button)... 

Class Sketch; A Study on Pixelation

This is a quick, in-class sketch done in Photoshop. We were forced to stay within the bounds of layers and colors. Each color had to be on a different layer, regardless of shade, etc. It was difficult as I was very very tempted to use opacity, blur and other Photoshop tools! The point of this assignment, however, was to gain an appreciation for the relative simplistic elements of some pictures. You can do a lot with just a little...

Oliver Wasow: Digital Art and Photography

Each picture is from Oliver Wasow's website, http://www.oliverwasow.com/. 

This week we read about and discussed the beginnings of digital art, going back all the way to the room-sized computers. "New media art," as discussed by Christiane Paul in her introduction, is ever-changing and very dynamic. The piece that we read for class follows the progression of technology and its direct relation to art. The assignment was to choose an artist, presented in the reading, and provide specific information in relation to their work and the processes behind their art. I chose Oliver Wasow's work because his exploration of hyper-realism struck me as interesting and something akin to what I would like to explore one day. 

Oliver Wasow's website is set up to display his works digitally. He has them arranged by time period and setting. Wasow's biography is a list of the shows he has been in and offers no insight into his philosophy or process behind his finished photos. However, I feel that Christiane Paul offers excellent insight into photo manipulation when she explains, on page 43, that photo manipulation can break down the connection between the viewer, nature and its specific representation in the photo. Wasow’s work creates a sense of fantasy. His shots and manipulation are of recognizable places but he adds a surreal twist to each picture.

According to "http://members.cox.net/smallworks/wasowbio.html,"  Oliver Wasow received a Bachelor of Arts degree from   Hunter College in 1982. Much as we learned in class this past Thursday, Wasow uses various computer programs to collage photos to make "a photographic archive of the man-made and the natural, of past and future, of tranquility and disaster"4. 

This view of Wasow's work accurately describes how I feel about his pieces. His earlier works are more abstract in feel, with blocks of color and experimentations with light being the main focus. As his portfolio matures, one can see a distinct shift in his artistic view. He starts to include more recognizable forms and plays with the idea of hyper-realism as discussed by Paul in the reading. His works, such  as Paris and  Spring Green, Wisconsin, pull the viewer in through a juxtaposition of reality and disaster. I feel that Wasow could be commenting on the inseparable sides of life, how disaster and reality co-exist and cannot be separated.  Wasow could also be commenting on the dynamism of life and how it can change so quickly. With such drastic extremes shown in his work, it could easily be showing how scenes and life change without expectation, much like how one's eye travels across a painting or a picture. 

Wasow's work is very successful in conveying a sense of chaos within the calm. His work is vibrant and eye-catching. Perhaps I am bias in my evaluation, as I love works such as his, but I feel that his work could not be improved upon, individually. However, looking at his collection as a whole, I kind of wish that some of his works were a little more subtle . I think it would be interesting to explore chaos and juxtaposition in a more subdued way. All of his works are very obviously representing opposites. I am not saying that there is a problem with his works, only that I think it would be interesting to see him explore that avenue of thought.

My uncle is a photographer and has done some work similar to Wasow’s. One takes the extremes of both the lowlights and the highlights and combines them (in photoshop) to create a kind of hyper-reality. The method is known as HDR, or high dynamic range imaging, creates a surrealistic effect. I am not exactly sure of the method that Wasow used to create his works, but I know that it can be done, through the combination of lows and highs, in Photoshop. Here are some examples of my uncle’s work.

 

sources: 1. http://digitalpat.deviantart.com/

2. http://www.oliverwasow.com/

3. Christiane Paul's readings handed out in class

4.  http://members.cox.net/smallworks/wasowbio.html

5. http://beautifuldecay.com/2009/06/23/oliver-wasow/