Video Projection

       For this video projection project I wanted to create something that could work with and be displayed in pretty much any space.  Because of this detail I knew that I had to chose a design or picture that was relatively simple, and yet it would still add to the space.  I love the Mehndi (henna) cultural designs that are used in India for ceremonial purposes, but it has become popular as a form of a temporary tattoo here in the States, so there are many different types of designs to choose from.  The three designs that I chose for this projected video were found on the internet and hand drawn by me, as well as being slightly altered from the original.  It is a stop-motion video, meaning each time something appears it is a new photo, each being created in Adobe Photoshop and put together in Adobe Premiere.  Although I created something that I knew could be put almost anywhere, the spot that I did choose was a more secluded area, but I knew that people still went by and through that area all the time, so even though this may not be a place that is out in the open for everyone to see and notice, I knew that it would still be seen because of how many people actually walk through this secluded area.

Haunted Audio Tour

This Haunted Audio Tour will begin on campus next to Morrill Hall on the opposite side of the Sarah Fleischmann building and end in front of Lincoln Hall after walking along the east side of the campus.  This tour will take about 10-12 minutes.

Before we begin:

Take a look at the map in order to learn the route of this Haunted Audio Tour.  We will be beginning this tour on the west side of Morrill Hall near the Honor Court on campus.  Listen to to the audio to learn where to go next, when to stop (and listen), and where the tour will end. Specific directions will not always be given as to where to go next, so it is best to learn the route well in order to know where to go when you are told to continue moving. This tour is meant to be walking, at a normal pace, most of the time with only a few stops before reaching the end destination.

There is a round of screams at at the end of the tour in order to signal that the tour is over.

Diptych Video

        For this diptych video project my final soundtrack ended up having more of an up-beat sound to it, as well as every day sounds.  So for the video to match the audio I took snippets of my life in which I listen to music the most and put that in the video, this mostly included listening to music in the car and in my room doing daily chores and other activities.

Mixed Sound Piece

This is the complete audio mix that I created using the found sound audio loop, voice sound, Marclay cut up pieces of vinyl record and my homemade musical instrument.   Unlike others I didn't want to distort the sounds too much to where they couldn't be made out as individual pieces that still work as a whole.  The voice sound was distorted the most in a sense of changing each quote to have either a higher or lower pitched sound as well as being slowed down or sped up.

Marclay Cut-Up Records

     My Marclay cut-up records consist of one off-balanced played record and one cut-up and glued/taped back together in order to create my own mix of the songs from two vinyl records.  This mix only consists of two vinyl records that were cut up and then put back together in a different order and intermixed.

Musical Instrument

       The musical instrument that I created is a thumb piano, or a Kalimba.  This homemade instrument is made out of half a shoe box and popsicle sticks hot glued to the top.  At first I wanted to be able to tune the instrument but due to the popsicle sticks not being flexible enough and possible because of how thick they are, it became to complicated and I had to simply glue them on at different lengths.  It also became hard to tune them in any way because when plucked the note shown on the tuner wasn't consistent enough to say that that was the note. or pitch, being played.  So there is a noticeable change in tone on each stick when plucked, but it isn't tuned to any specific note.

       After watching multiple tutorials on how to make this instrument i finally decided to follow one and do the best that I could with the materials that I had.   Most people would make their thumb pianos out wood for a base and small pieces of metal from an old rake and tune them to specific notes, there were some people who had also used popsicle sticks, which are the ones that i paid attention to the most because I knew that they were what I wanted to use. 
       This project at first seemed like it would be difficult, but once I knew what I wanted to make and what materials I wanted to use, it became pretty simple to do.  I do think that there could have been some changes made to how I prepared the box before gluing on the popsicle sticks in order to give it a better sound and possibly more volume when played.

Found Sound

       These found sounds are just a few examples of what I hear every morning once I leave for school. You'll notice the car making noise once the key is in the ignition and keys on a key chain being rustled around, as well as a couple other recognizable sounds.  I was able to record and put these sounds together by using the app Musaico for IPhone.

Photoshop

I really like the idea of using many words/phrases to create a single image, whether it be a simple outline, or it includes some shading and definition.  I decided to try it by creating a simple outline of Bugs Bunny's face.

Graphic Design Class

These are some examples of works that I created in a Graphic Design class that I took in high school.  Many of these were created by finding tutorials online and then we would be graded for how well we followed and executed the tutorial (I believe).  These tutorials could be of typography or how to digitally paint something using Adobe Illustrator.

Final Paper Assignment

Jacklyn Yamine

Clint Sleeper

Digital Media- Art 245

December 15, 2014

Living Artist Compare and Contrast

Robot musician Jeff Lieberman and installation artist Don Ritter are only two of the many well know digital media artists in today’s world.  Both artists are well known for their works and other groups of artists that they have worked with from time to time.

Jeff Lieberman is an artist who explores the connections between arts, sciences, education, creativity, and consciousness. Lieberman is from Miami, Florida and has a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics and Math, and a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering and Media Arts and Sciences.  Today he is best known as the host of Discovery Channel’s show “Time Warp”.  He has done many projects that relate to the human conscious, and is continuously exploring how the evolution of consciousness can cease human suffering (bea.st).  He is a part of the group Hypersonic, Plebian Design, and Knolls in which he composes music with Eric Gunther.  He has built multiple sculptures internationally in order to explore our “unseen interconnectedness and interdependence” (bea.st).  Breaking Wave is one of his collaboration projects with his group Hypersonic that have helped to further explore this unseen interconnectedness by showing how people search for some sort of meaning in most things, in this case patterns.  Breaking Wave is an anamorphic kinetic sculpture of 804 suspended spheres that move in a wave-like formation (Hypersonic).  These suspended spheres hang from a large rotating motor with 36 rollers sliding on a linear track in order to create the different forms with the spheres.  For the most part if one were to stand in the same room as this cloud of spheres there seems to be no point to the project, but there are two hidden points, one within the room and one outside in which two different images can be seen, a floral design and a maze.  This shows how when someone changes their perspective on something they can find and discover new things, such as the hidden patterns in these spheres.

Don Ritter is a Canadian installation artist and writer who is currently living in Hong Kong. He works mostly with large interactive video and sound installations that is controlled by the audience’s body position, body movement, or voice.  Many of these installations are meant to show human behavior when one is put into an aesthetically experienced situation (“Don Ritter”).  Ritter is best known for his installation of Intersection from 1993, which is an interactive sound installation installed within a large dark room.  It contains the sounds of car traffic on a four lane highway that seem to be rushing across the dark space and the only light comes from a dimly lit exit sign on the other side of the room.  When a visitor steps into a lane and a car comes the sound of the car screeching to a halt will be heard.  The longer one stands in the lane more cars will come and can be heard smashing into each other.  When the visitor steps out of the lane the car can be heard accelerating as it drives away.  Ritter’s message behind this project is to show what technology is doing to us every day.  He’s making visible the invisible force-field of technology (“Intersection by Don Ritter”).  As McLuhan states that the “medium is the message” as well as an extension of the human being itself, Ritter is sort of reemphasizing this statement because his installation is meant to show us that all this new technology is coming at us so fast that it is literally crashing into us.  The setup consists of eight speakers that sit across from each other in order to create four “lanes” of traffic.  The installation is entirely computer controlled and is setup at random intervals for when a car will be driving in the lane.  Inferred beams sit on top of the speakers in order to detect when someone is standing in the lane and reports back to the computer.  This installation has been show at multiple exhibitions, including an outside installation of Intersection.

These two projects of Breaking Wave by Jeff Lieberman and Intersection by Don Ritter are similar in the sense that they are both meant to show and tell us something about ourselves and the world around us.  Breaking Wave shows how changing perspective can open new doors and allow us to learn something new.  The hidden patterns that can be seen each have a different meaning behind them.  The maze shows for a search for knowledge and the flower reminds us of the natural order and patterns found in nature (Hypersonic).  Intersection shows how technology is hitting us fast and hard, as cars would do if we were to stand on a highway with speeding cars.  Although in his installation the cars don’t make the sound of crashing into people, technology of the real world is crashing into us and we can’t always keep up with it so we become fearful of the unknown that comes with using high technology.  Jeff Lieberman has made some very interactive pieces of art but Breaking Wave isn’t one of them.  This particular piece of art runs on a motor and requires no sort of movement or interaction from the viewer.  However, for Ritter the entire purpose of the project is for it to be interacted with.  While Breaking Wave does help to show how people look at things this particular project doesn't have quite the same meaning and purpose behind it as Ritter’s installation.  Breaking Wave is meant to change one’s perspective, but Intersection is meant to make people become aware of something altogether.  People aren't necessarily aware of how all the new technology is affecting them.

Lieberman and Ritter are both well-known artists in the digital art world and when researching them I have also learned of many other great artists who continue to enhance the meaning of art and what is does to and for the world, as well as to us as a society.  I liked both of these works and how they are meant to show something to society as well as teaching us that we can learn something new when we really take the time to look and notice the things around us.

Works Cited

"Don Ritter." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ritter>.

Hypersonic. "Breaking Wave for Biogen- IDEC, Inc." Breaking Wave. Hypersonic, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.hypersonic.cc/projects/breakingwave>.

"Intersection by Don Ritter." Intersection by Don Ritter. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://aesthetic-machinery.com/intersection.html>.

Jeff Lieberman. n.d. Web. <http://bea.st>

Nifty Fifty. "Exploring the Mystery of Human Consciousness With Roboticist and 'Time Warp' Host Jeff Lieberman. USA Science Festival. One Web Company, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <www.usasciencefestival.org/schoolprograms/niftyfifty/771-dr-jeff.html>.