Xerox Project

        I spent a lot of time thinking about what part of my body I wanted to scan.  Since there was no censorship and I did want to go out of the box, I decided to do my vagina.  So I scanned it and then distorted it a little and made it extremely dark so you could barely see anything.  I didn't really want the whole world to see my vagina up close and personal.  I was inspired by the dada movement, and all the collages so I did a collage of words out of a magazine I thought reminded me of sex and the body in media.    I kind of placed the words so they appear like teeth on the lips I made out of a folder and FedEx box pieces.  I used the top of my desk, I was supposed to build months ago and I know I will never build it so I tiled the scanned pictures of myself and then wrote out what is the value on the bottom.  I finally made the lips pop off the board.  I think it looks pretty sweet.

Bahaus!

     Bahaus seemed like a fabulous institute! Bahaus literally means "house for building."  It featured most avant garde art of its time!  Bahaus was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919.  Gropius was a famous architect who wanted to bring people together through art.  Bahaus originally started in Weimar, then Dessau and ended in Berlin in 1933.  Each time the location changed, so did the directors.  Each director focused on a different concept.

Monochrome in Lincoln, Massachusetts built by Walter Gropius

      The schools focused on students ability to experiment and thing out of the box.  There were many different types of classes available as well such as pottery, carpentry, sculpting, weaving, printing and varieties of painting.  Architecture classes were also available but not initially, which I thought was ironic considering Gropius is an architect mastermind.
  










          Many art movements erupted from the institute.  One of the artists who taught at Bahaus was Wassily Kandinsky.  He was an art theorist who created completely original modern designs.  I attached one of his works called, On White II.  I really liked all the different figures and shapes combined together.  

(1923, Wassily Kandinsky)
I did not realize how influential Bahaus really is.  A lot of the modern furniture I have recently been viewing, has been influenced by Bahaus.  Also many buildings have been influenced by Bahaus architecture. Bahaus was much more than a school.  It was a community where artists could experiment with new ideas.  

Andalusion of A Dog?

      

 Whoa, I did not expect that movie to be so weird.  "Andalusion of a Dog" is a sixteen minute, black and white film produced by Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dali.  It emerged from the Dada movement around 1929. The movie is totally silent and in black and white so you have to concentrate more.  The music was not anything to pry about.  Fun Fact: This movie was also financed by Luis' mother.  The actors throughout the film were naturally extremely corny and over dramatic. It was cool to see what innovative technique would be used to change the scene.    

      I appreciated the constant fluidity within the film, it worked extremely well.  The film was very creative and had many unusual transformations.  One of the transformations I thought was cool was how the ants in the man's hand changed into armpit hair, then something that looked like a tumbleweed and finally a hand.    The scenes were pretty random, especially when the man was pulling two pianos with dead horses on them.  Check out the first part for yourself!  

Grid Art

I really did not know what type of piece I wanted to do for this project. I probably spent what seemed like an eternity at Home Depot looking up and down the aisles for the perfect grid.  I finally concluded I wanted to take a tile and make it look glamourous!  I wanted to add some color so I spray painted some of the tile hot pink.   I was going to glue Swavroski crystals on the tile, but it would be expensive so I just used beads I remembered I had.  All the bright colors from the beads reminded me of New York so I figured it would be cool if I spelled out I <3 New York in different color beads.  It did not come out as clean or as lined as wanted to.  There were a lot of beads and I wanted to add another layer or addition to it, so I thought it would be cool to spell out "The City That Never Sleeps," in magazine letters.  I hope you all liked it!

The Perfect Escape

       I went to the Tetris website and it is actually really cool!  I have always loved Tetris, I play it on my phone all the time.  It is kind of funny, my dad was actually addicted to it...i'm not kidding......ok perhaps I am exagerating.  He used to steal my "Gameboy" when I was younger and play Tetris for hours.  It made me so  furious!

       Tetris was born in Moscow!  In 1984 the first edition was created in Moscow by a man of the name of Alexey Pajitnov.  It was then ported to IBM and spread all over Soviet Union.  Tetris started to appear on IBMS in North America and Europe in 1987.  A mere year later, Henk Rogers discovered Tetris in Las Vegas at a Consumer Electronic Show.  Rogers had his own publishing company called Bullet Proof Software where he published his first Nintendo game.

   Rogers went to Moscow to get the rights to Tetris, and when he received the rights he sold it over to Nintendo.  Pajitnov and Rogers became friends.  In 1989 over 35 million copies were sold.  In 1996, Rogers gave the rights back to Pajitnov.   He moved to Hawaii where he established Blue Planet Software.  Hawaii does not sound too shabby.  When the rights were back to Pajitnov, he got Roger Dean to create a fresh look for the game.
 
      In 2000, Tetris became the most popular mobile game in Japan. After the success in Japan, Rogers founded Blue Lava Wireless to see how the game would work on cell phones in North America.  Two years later Jamdat bought Blue Lava Wireless and a 15 year license to buy Tetris through mobile devices.  In 2006, EA bought Jamdat and launched Tetris to iphones making it the number one game downloaded.
      
       I think movie studios started to realease video games because when someone sees a movie, the viewer escapes and can practically envision themselves on the screen.  Just imagine, in a video game you are in control and you become the character.  Movie studios are absolute genuises and make a killing from these games.  Video games like Harry Potter, James Bond, Saving Private Ryan and Batman are all extremely popular.  The gamer can be the hero, that he or she usually views on the screen.  Video games are the perfect escape.
     
       The future of video games is questionable, because of technology advancing into smaller and more accessible means.  Iphone games are hugely popular, as well as computer games.  According to market research firm NPD Group video games were down eight percent from a year ago.  Who knows what will happen next.

Flip book Comments

Rob Pollock-Whoa I totally thought it was a cross. it really does change things.
I really liked your contrast of dark and bright colors. I thought it was cool that your influence was the Space Odyssey.You can also tell that you spent a lot of time on each one of the pages, there are lots of little details I noticed. I enjoyed flipping through your book a lot, and liked the story line, it was planned out extremely well.

Julia Ponzek-Oh my goodness, one-the book you used was so "vintagely" awesome! It went along so well with your illustrations. It looked like the animation just happen to be in there. 

Your artwork was beautiful too, I loved your clever story. I liked that you didn't use color, but that is just my opinion. :) Your drawings were extremely unique. Keep up the good work!

Thuy Pham-Aww your book was adorable. I loved the use of color, that probably took a very long time. Your story line was cute and clever. It really tells a lot that you went over 400 pages, you were definitely dedicated to the project. Haha and its funny Rob said it too about stick figures, but they really do rock. I feel like they make a big difference, and it your story would not have been the same if it was "real" people. FABULOUS job! Keep up the good work.

John O'Neil-Unusual story, your pictures were neat. I liked the one with Gumbi because Gumbi is the cats pajamas. You used a lot of color which definitely shows your dedication to the flip book. It was fun to watch :) Good job!!

Alaina Malarkey- Your caterpillar was super cute.  I liked your theme of nature throughout the book.  It was fun to flip through, and the story made up for the fact that it was under 400 pages! I loved your use of color too. Great work.

Taylor Lane- Taylor! I loved yours! It was super dark and cool. I liked the sharpie idea too. It kind of reminded me of the book, The GIving Tree"-which is like my favorite book by the way. You had a cool concept and story. 

Phenomenal job!

Natasha Kipper-Your drawings were really cute. I liked your story, it was entertaining to flip through. It was cool watching the lives of each fish go by.

Cayla Birkestrand- I loved that you totally took over the book, your concept was really unique.  I liked the light use of color in the light bulb.  It seems like you had some fun with it!  Your work was amazing.  Keep it up!!  


Maureen Horan- I absolutely loved your idea of the ballerina dancing along the pages.  It was really smart of you to use tissue paper too.  I loved your brilliant use of color, and the design towards the end was beautiful.  You can definitely tell you spent a lot of time on the pages.  I can't wait to see more of your work!


Matyia Hamilton- Your flipbook was adorable.  I loved your use of color.  Your story was funny too! Good job!


Nathan Green-All things start small was a cool concept. It was unique and it seemed like you had fun playing with the idea. Your pages had a lot of detail too. Your story flowed well. Great work.

Jessica Delasnueces-Yours was definitely one of my favorites! Your idea was really original, I loved that you used Tetris. That was super smart. The bright colors you used were brilliant. Great work!!

Bianca Burrows-Wow, great idea! Your concept was really fun, and I liked your use of color. Your flipbook flowed really well. It was fun to flip through and you planned out the pages very well. Good job!

Musuem Of Television

       

  This museum almost humors me.  On its mission statement page it says that the museum concentrates on the history of television and the sets.  The statement makes is pretty clear that it is unlike any other NORTH AMERICAN store in the fact that it is exposing history and not just showing televisions (like some United States commercial one would).  Oh Canada, I feel like they totally hate Americans....but then again who doesn't?
        I did think the museum seemed pretty cool.  I liked the Marilyn Monroe exhibit.  The graphics and linkage techniques were really neat to experiment with.   The timeline was super awesome too.  Each time I scrolled to a new year new links instantly appeared, and the image changed immediately! It was like a powerpoint I could control myself.  I was very impressed with the technology used in this website.