Homework 4

February 27, 2016

From my understanding, appropriation is the act of taking someone else's work without their permission and incorporating it into your own work. Fair Use, according to US Copyright Law, is the doctrine that briefs excerpts of copyright material and can be quoted verbatim under certain circumstances such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need of permission from the copyright owner. Naturally, Fair Use and appropriation are enemies due to the legal standings and ethics regarding each one. Fair Use is a guideline and a set of rules whereas appropriation does not follow a set standard beyond the discretion of the user.

After reading the articles regarding the 2008 lawsuit between Richard Prince and Patrick Cariou, the definition of appropriation becomes more serious within society. It seems quite easy, you rip a photograph from the internet, and truly, it isn't your own work. You didn't have to discover the idea, set up the scene, go through the precautionary measures and work to obtain the original work. Therefore, the laws of Fair Use should be perceived to be ultimately tangible.

In terms of making art, it isn't easy. It is time consuming and it is a process. Therefore, if art is going to be transformed or changed, as Richard Prince tried to do to Patrick Cariou's pieces, it should be a significant transformation. When I first originally glanced at Cariou's original photo, I admired the composition of the piece. I saw the significance within the subject and the body positioning, even the layout and the background. The different effects the photographer gave to create an allusion and feeling to the photo, that I appreciated. However, when I glanced at Prince's transformation, ultimately, I was unimpressed. I simply thought it was a quick change that didn't take nearly as much time to transform, and if anything, was rather insulting to Cariou's work. Coming from the photographer's perspective, I would be disappointed in someone using my own work and making a significant amount of money off of it but not recognizing the true artist at hand. Also, according to Fair Use, shouldn't the artist be using it for research, academic, news, or criticism purposes? How does this photograph fall into that realm of criticism?

In terms of the court system, appropriation was defined and ruled against Prince, therefore in 2011, leaving him to destroy all remaining copies and unsold paintings that incorporated Cariou's photographs. However, when this was appealed two years later, it created a new perspective within the world of copyright infringement. This redefined or reclassified ultimately the significance and difference between appropriation and Fair Use to the artist who are looking to transform digitally other artist's work, which is a growing field in art in today's society.

In regards to the tremendous profit through of Richard Prince's Instagram art, trickling in roughly $100,000, wow, that is in part, genius. However, he may have built his entire career based off appropriation, but is he ever going to have any sense of satisfaction through the use of other's work? He doesn't have anything incredibly original. It creates a debate on whether or not the meaning of his art is purposeful or not. Personally, I enjoy the aspect of originality within art opposed to the aspect of recreating another's artwork. I suppose the argument and dispute mostly falls back on what individuals do define as "purposeful" and "meaningful" within the realm of art.

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Project 2

February 27, 2016

What is a favorite? I believe that favorites are elements of life that bring people joy. They are the aspects of joy that are unlike any other. For this particular project, I chose to focus on a few of my favorites that have brought me outrageous joy in the past.

First, for the background image, this is an image from the streets of New York City. I absolutely adore this city and it is by far, one of my favorite places I have ever been. Walking across the street you will find the band members of Imagine Dragons, Dan Reynolds (Lead Singer/Guitar), Daniel Wayne Sermon (Cello), Daniel Platzman (Drums), and Ben McKee (Bass Guitar), in the background, you will also find these four men floating. I wanted to do the difference between walking across the crosswalk as a representation of obeying society and then in the back, floating between building to building to give the allusion and depiction that this band provides the feeling of being able to imagine.

I also love the idea of having a choice in which way you choose to follow life, whether you want to take the traditional route and walk across the street, or if you want to float and fly throughout your life inspiring people.

This particular band significantly inspired me to fulfill my dreams and reach forward towards the future and not hold back. On the white traffic sign by the green stop light, you will find I changed it from saying "BUSES ONLY" to "DRAGONS ONLY" to show that only believers can cross within this path.

Additionally, I changed one of the street posters within the scene to an Imagine Dragon's concert photo (bottom right corner). I really enjoyed getting used to the elements of photoshop for my first time and experimenting!

Homework 3

February 15, 2016 

Panera stated in the ArtPulse magazine article "We are witnessing the progressive sacrifice of vision, of that corporal, phenomenological relationship of the human being in the world, in favor of the "visualization" of that which has already been framed in a screen that tends to be mobile and indiscriminate." By phenomenological relationship, the author means that it is studying the structure of consciousness within a given relationship that is experienced from the first-person point of view. It's purpose and intentions is to be directed toward something, as if it is an experience of or about a particular object. I agree with Panera in the sacrifice of the relationship as a human being with the world because when a memory is captured and visualized it takes away the natural feelings of reaction, the human senses, such as the way something sounds, the surroundings, the natural effect it has on the human body and mind, is all taken away when something is visualized and viewed through a screen. It allows the reactions to be controlled and not as authentic as the original settings of a given situation. It also sacrifices the authenticity of the human memory overtime. 

Panera further states, "Human memory is too fragile and precarious for the complex world in which we live, and we have to help it along with these intermediary devices. Faced with a mnemonic memory of the image/static, a "heuristic" memory arises that "is no longer of the object, but of connectivity, and it is no longer localized inscription but rather relational and disseminated." Specifically, Panera focuses on both the heuristic memory and the mnemonic memory. A heuristic memory allows a person the ability to discover or learn something for themselves and have that develop as a memory. On the other hand, a mnemonic memory is a memory that is formed due to the assistance in remembering something, mostly by a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations. The heuristic memory is more authentically developed opposed to the mnemonic memory that has a the help of a controllable assistance. 

Lastly, Panera speaks on behalf of the younger generation having a different "visual reality" than the older generation. I believe, that each and every individual reality is different, based on the perception of the individual. The reality of the older generation is more developed and experienced since they have had more time of existence to gather their memories, therefore, their perceptions are different than the new, lesser experienced, generations. Also, older generations were founded on different morals and expectations opposed to younger generations. Technology was not a fundamental of the older generations throughout their childhood, whereas experiences of war have not been a fundamental memory and aspect of the childhood of the millennials. However, younger generations now have the resources to become as knowledgable as older generations on a variety of aspects of life, just through a different medium of receiving the information. By receiving and gathering information through technology, creates a different perception opposed to the older generations who may have first handily received and gathered those experiences for themselves. 

Homework 2

Friday February 5, 2016
Simple Net Art Diagram is the earliest and most enduring animated GIF for its provocation to participate. It was released to the public domain in 1997 by the two-person artist collective MTAA with the purpose of gesturing an invitation to join a dialogue. The GIF was an illustration of two computers with a red flashing lightning bolt between the two of them. The purpose of this GIF was to pinpoint communication as the core purpose of art. The foundation of this first GIF was the basis for hundreds of Simple Net Art Diagram GIF's to exist. 

Throughout the foundation and development of the GIF world, I particularly found it very interesting that Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds was recognized as one of the most iconic animated GIFs to this day. It was one of the best viewed when titled as a seamless page full of clouds therefore creating the GIF to be incredibly effective with it's audience. 

With the foundation of GIFs being in the late 90's, it does not restrict the formation of such art to only the millennial population. Originally, GIFs were not made with the intentions of being art, they simply provoked individuals who found an artistic interest within that form of expression. GIFs were founded before the foundation of social media rocketed, which is a huge addition to the millennial population. Social media became an expressive outlet, that allowed the GIF art to flourish through posts, eventually find their way to personal blogs, and social media sites such as Tumblr, that are highly GIF based. The millennial population greatly connected to the use and utilization of GIFs through the different forums that they would appear. However, this did not limit the other generations the capability to utilize and learn the methods of GIF making, for personal and professional outlets. 

I believe that success comes from GIFs in the sense of how popular and how many eyes have the ability to see it. Youtube, Tumblr, Blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and many more companies have the ability to reach a variety of audiences through the sharing, retweeting, or reposting of GIFs. For example, the dancing banana GIF that was inspired by a Flash music video created for the Buckwheat Boyz's song "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" has over 26 million views, even though it is a simplistic GIF. Personally, I remember hearing this song and immediately link the imagery of the dancing banana GIF to the song and that connection people can draw with the GIF images. 

On a larger scale, Saatchi is a gallery located in London, England that specializes in providing an innovative forum for contemporary art, especially by promoting unseen young artists or international artists who would rarely be featured or seen in a UK museum. Recently, Google+ teamed with Saatchi in order to promote the creation of modern technology art by producing a new prize competition. Micael Reynaud, freelance designer and stop-motion animator, was a finalist for his pigeon gif within the Saatchi Motion Photography Prize. His particular GIF brought the emotion of life to the simple bird, onto of a rooftop. He utilizes the positioning of the pigeon to create shadows and different elements that enhance the overall appearance of the artwork which drew me tremendously into this form of artwork.