Digital Pictionary Project Response

The Digital Pictionary Project was very intriguing and showed us our own ingenuity potential. I enjoyed making the collages but it was even more amusing evaluating others. While evaluating others’ projects, you could also analyze the artists. Through the works, you could guess the word that the collages were designed to represent but in totality you could see how the artist thinks. It is odd to see how each artist thinks on their own scale despite limitations. So all in all, this was a great project.

The Voronoi (Artist 7)

In the Voronoi, Daniel Shiffman uses a software program that computes a Voronoi colored diagram via a video camera. In regards to the camera’s perception, the Voronoi diagram program will translate the real life image into pixels and then into tiles that reshape themselves and move accordingly to real life movements. From my understanding, the Voronoi diagram program sorts real space into certain compositions or sections based on the distance away from a specified set of points and then displays them as their own tile and by moving a certain section of the image will move to a different tile. In a way the program uses its audience as its content, and furthermore, the program transforms and then foregrounds its audience using some sort of relative scale. What really is interesting about this piece of art is that the image starts off very distorted and skewed but then transforms into something that is recognizable. At times, the work creates suspense by making you think how the image will turn out and by doing so it also evokes a sense of curiosity. Personally, this is my favorite piece of work I have reviewed up to now. The Voronoi is certainly a masterpiece which all can enjoy. Oddly enough, the software program that computes the moving tiles of the Voronoi diagram was based off principles that have been applied since 1644 ( through applications of Rene Descartes). However, the Voronoi diagram was actually conceived by Georgy Voronoy in 1908. If you want to check out a video click here.

Finally, A Nice Day (Scrapbook 12)

Even though it’s still winter (I think the season ends on the 22nd of this month), St. Mary’s County finally received some good weather. I saw some people tanning out in the sun, others biking around, people reading in the shade, and this fellow skateboarding. This picture was taken right outside of Dorchester and was the only shot I was able to get of him jumping over the bench. I just thought that he had some wicked talent; the picture itself was not designed to be art. The photograph just shows us that it was a good enough day to do anything that we wanted to. Well until six o’clock or so when the temperature dropped around twenty degrees. At least there is only four more days till Spring Break and hopefully by then, it will have warmed up.

google earth link

Baldies for Boobies (Scrapbook 11)

Our college was quite successful at raising money for cancer research and cultivating enough hair for wigs for the people who need them. Even though we are all poor college students, we were able to raise over $400 dollars and cut off 373 inches of hair. This was all done in one day (March 7, 200) in front of the campus center. Here is a picture of one couple who helped make “Baldies for Boobies” a huge success (the name of the fund raising campaign). Overall though, we should thank GJL for getting everything organized and hope they keep up the good work. This picture is not art because one- it’s a picture of my brother and his girlfriend (just joking), and two- it is only meant to signify the achievement GJL made in supporting a good cause.

(the picture was taken inside a dorm room, but this link shows where “Baldies for Boobies” was held)

Google earth link

The Word Trial 1

The Word Trial 2

The Word Trial 3

The Word Trial 4

Uli Franke- The Hektor (Artist 6)

Uli Franke developed the Hektor for his diploma project (at école cantonale d'art de Lausanne) way back in 2002. In theory the Hektor is a large printer capable making any design; however, this printer uses only a spray-can to apply its toner instead of using LEDs, lasers, or inkjets. The spray-can is put in the can-holder that uses two motors and toothed belts to move the can in any direction in one plane. The Hektor is linked to a laptop and runs off the software program known as Scriptographer (Adobe Iluustrator). The Hektor foregrounds an artist’s own content on its given form. However, the Hektor itself is its own unique individual piece of art. The Hektor was created to evoke people’s interest and allow other artists to experiment with a newly conceived tool. This forces people to go outside the realm of displaying images on computers to create abstract geometries displayed the almost the same way the average day printers do. Unlike, the tiny printers we have, the Hektor shakes and quivers to produce a low-tech aspect to the high-tech applications used to design the preliminary image on the laptop. This overall though, evokes gentle and soothing sensations, and creates distinctiveness in all the art it creates. Personally, I wish I had one of these; I would be able to create art anywhere. I would probably decorate my own dorm room with it. Thanks to Uli Franke’s masterpiece, we can make masterpieces of our own. I may download Scriptographer offline, supposedly it’s free; I just wonder how much the Hektor costs. (Watch Videos)

Ben Hansen and Ben Rubin, The Listening Post (Artist 5)

Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin have created a very astounding and magnificent piece of art using the Internet as their content. Unlike their most common predecessors, Mark and Ben transferred the outside people’s words into their own. So their picture, actually their artwork, definitely consists over a 1000 words, which is cumulatively called the Listening Post. The Listening Post uses segments of text which were written by people in unrestricted Internet chat rooms, blogs, and a variety of other internet public forums, as their content. The content is formed and foregrounded into a suspended grid of 200 plus small electronic screens. With the use of a voice synthesizer, the content is sung while being displayed across the screens. There are content is displayed through six movements like pieces of a symphony. Each movement has different: visual arrangements, audio enhancements, music elements, and data processing logic; each movement evoking a separate emotion. Initially, I thought Ben and Mark’s work is handicapped by the lack of innovation because they couldn’t create their own content and instead used the Internet as a crutch to find their content. However, after youtubing their work, I thought their work was a unique marvel. “I am”…amazed.

Crazy Ducks (its snowing still) (Scrapbook 10)

Originally I took this picture not thinking much of it, but when I examined it today, I thought those ducks must be crazy. This water must have been close to freezing the day they were swimming in it because the next day it was frozen over. You always imagine all the ducks migrating south for the winter or at least flying away from storms because their instincts kick in. Well these ducks have been here all year long (well at least every day I have been on campus). So I tried to see why these ducks do not migrate. I assume that they probably don’t because they don’t need to. But personally, I would rather go where it is warm than stay in the cold even if I could survive through the cold conditions. I assume that these are ducks must be one of the following: American Black Duck, Gadwall, or a Mallard. I am not so sure though.

google earth link

Blizzard of March 1-2, 2009 (Scrapbook 9)

Two weeks from Spring Break and we got a whole 10 inches of snow. This is St. Mary’s County too! I can hardly believe it. It was almost a new record low for the amount of snow we received in a given “winter” until today. So I spent today trying to build an igloo which only turned out to be a cruddy 4ft high fort (with a radius of 4ft from the center). I spent four or five hours on it before I had to go to dinner. But before that I took this picture; I haven’t seen a statue like this since I have been up to Rome, New York. Pretty cool if you ask me. How does the snow stick to the guy’s stomach anyways because that is an approximate 85 degree angle? Just lots of tough bonds between all the molecules I suppose.

google earth link

Boathouse's Finest Look (Scrapbook 8)

A lot of the locals and teachers of St. Mary’s complained about building a boat house on the river’s shoreline claiming how it would obscure the gorgeous view of the water. Well, if you don’t think this picture shows the beauty of the environment despite the boathouse, you’re crazy (in the most positive way of course). The reflection of the boathouse in St. John’s Pond is actually quite outstanding, the sunset is amazing, and how the snow creates a soft white blanket on everything it lays on top of is really eloquent. So in totality, I took this picture to show how beautiful our campus is and to show how insignificantly the boathouse’s presence affects us.

google earth link

The Frozen Bicicle (Scrapbook 7)

This bike was found right outside of Dorchester. I am pretty sure this bike won’t be going far anytime soon. It just shows how much some people care about their valuable possessions. Even if the storage bike room inside Dorchester was full, they could have at least brought their bike in their own room before the storm. My roommate had to bring their bike in our room several occasions and it wasn’t really that bothersome. But really, this dilemma drew my attention because all the icicles hanging off of the bike made it look really neat and because the bike was stuck in place made the situation funny.

google earth link