#introtomultimedia

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Posting #13

Lorena’s blog

Dylan’s blog

Dina’s blog

Lorena’s blog is very arty and yet, very funny all at the same time. She balances the two pretty well.

Dylan’s is straight up comedy, I find myself to be more pulled toward comedic type blogs.

You can tell that Dina’s blog is filled with things that she likes, but everything is also very relatable since they do not have very specific and are mainly photographs or GIFs telling a story.

For blogs, a lot of the class have a single-column blog. I think these are ideal for very specific types of blogs. I believe single-columns work well with comedic and artsy blogs because you have to let you audience take in what is trying to be conveyed.

the multimedia realm wouldn’t exist without the tech we have today. From what I understand, the multimedia realm is about appealing to a vast amount of people. It’s been made easier to create works and easier than ever to put that work out to the general public.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Post #10

1) Based on these essays, describe what to you seems like the most significant, distinctive element of internet art, and post-internet art.

what caught my eye the most from these essays was in  The Art in America’s: The Peril’s of Post-Internet Art. There was a line that goes something like: Post-internet art is art that looks good on the internet. This really struck me. Why create something that can only be well expressed on one medium? To get more views? Shouldn’t art survive trendshifts and be able to be appreciated across platforms, at least, that’s what separates the good from the great, in my opinion.

2) Compare and contrast internet and post-internet art. What are some similarities? What are some differences?

Both Internet and Post-Internet art are similar in that they are artworks that are spread over the internet. What makes each of them different is that they Post-Internet is made specifically for digital distribution and is created for and from the internet.

3) Go out into the web - and through google, or perhaps one of the links that Green cites, (or feel free to explore a resource like Rhizome.org that we looked at earlier) find an example of internet or post-internet art (not just an image of a painting on the web, but an actual artwork about or on the web).  Post a link to that example, and write a brief description of it as an art piece - do you like it?  Is it interesting, provocative, amusing, boring?

http://webenact.rhizome.org/studio-visit/20160229183537/http://awp.diaart.org/donegan/pilot.html

The only thing I can think this is, is perception is everything is everything. How you look at a corner can change how it looks. I personally don’t see anything substantial in the GIF, but that’s my viewpoint.

3) Talk a bit about these versions of internet/post-internet art as compared to more traditional art.  Do you see a place for internet art in our world, our museums, our art galleries?  How do you feel about a future where internet art could be just as important as oil paint on a canvas?

I think there will be a place for internet art in the near future. It’s interesting to see how people are using this as a medium and not just use it as publicity for their artwork.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Posting #9

Post a link to three of your favorite websites, they can be any kind of site.

YouTube 

Pinterest

Club Penguin

For each website – explain why you like it.

Youtube- This is the place where I go for my daily entertainment, news, chaos, etc.

Pinterest- I consider myself an artsy person from time to time, and Pinterest is the place I go to gain some inspiration.

Club Penguin- I needed to have this site here because it was the ONLY site I went on as a child

For each website – examine how each looks.  Pay attention to colors (bright or muted?  Monochromatic (only one color used) or full of a variety of colors? Is it a particular color palette, earth-tones, neon, pastels, etc.), graphics (logos, repeating design elements), text/font choice (serif or sans-serif, large or small, colors), composition (just a few items or lots of images and text?, lots of white/blank space or very little?)  Anything else you wish to examine in terms of the appearance is welcome.

Youtube and Pinterest are very monochrome. They stick to similar color pallets and keep it minimal, leaving the color to only be seen in smaller areas where the thumbnail or the preview for a picture is. And they are both similar in that they have everything in columns and the previews for videos/pictures are always surrounded by a lot of white.

As for Club Penguin it is the complete opposite. There’s bright colors everywhere that just pop! This site, everything is all over place, but is still organized. 

For each website – think about and write about how the content of the site relates to its appearance and function.  For instance, if you picked craigslist – how does that minimal, simple design work with the content of it, in terms of essentially classified ads?  If you picked a site like sportsillustrated.com, how does its more hectic, compact design work with its subject matter of sports reporting?  Do the form/design and function/content work well together?  Or do they seem incongruous?

Youtube- The column design works, because it lays out the thumbnails, on the homepage, in a neat manner that recommends videos to you in a manner that isn’t quite so obnoxious, in my opinion.

Pinterest- its layout works because it is a site for artsy ideas. It allows you to see multiple creations at a given time.

Club Penguin- This works because it’s made for kids. The bright colors and the site’s ease of use if perfect for children.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Posting #8: Gamergate and Gender Politics on the Web

1) Do you play video games of any kind? What are your thoughts in response to both of these pieces?

I love to play action/adventure games like Uncharted, and The Last of Us.I’m a huge fan of the BioShock and Kingdom Hearts franchises. But also, I’m a huge fan of MMOs like World of Warcraft and Destiny. If I can play a game to be someone I’m not, I’m all for it. I find gaming to be a cathartic experience that allows me to delve into the mind of someone else and try and understand the notions of others. Do I personally care how women are depicted in games? Not really. It’s a form of artwork, and with that being said, I don’t recall any one person ever telling be that Boticelli’s Birth of Venus needed to be covered up.What about the statue of David? I don’t hear this about any painting, so why games specifically? 

These pieces haven’t really struck me in the way I thought they would. I thought I’d be more flabbergasted as I was reading/listening to what was being portrayed. But all I felt was this feeling of someone just preaching to the choir. Video games were originally made to be family friendly, like Pong, Asteroids, E.T., Frogger, things of that nature. As soon as the popularity of video games started to rise again, they were being produced as a niche market item, for the male gender as a whole. Do I have a problem with this?- No. You should find your market and go with it. Only recently a market has been made that opens up the gaming community to young girls.

One of the articles made me remember a segment on Philip DeFranco’s news show on YouTube. In short, Alanah Pearce is game reviewer and she received a rape threat from teenaged boy. She decided not to speak back to him, but instead inform his mother of what he has said to her. This is what really struck a chord with me: before DeFranco went on to explain the story he says something along the lines of: Like any other woman who is known on the internet she receives rape/death threats on a daily basis from her younger male viewers. This is sad, but too true. 

2) One of the interesting elements of Anita Sarkeesian’s video series on youtube is that it traces the histories of these constructions, showing that they don’t just appear out of thin air. Can you think of other ways that previous trends or technologies have influenced the way we use current digital technologies?

I think everything has to be an idea that stems from something. It’s hard to come up with an idea out of the blue nowadays. For instance, the newer fashion trends these days are clothes straight out of the 70s. We’re traveling back in time to the days of high waisted pants and oversized, raggedy band tee shirts with round glasses and flower crowns. 

3) Are there other examples of gender construction that you witness on other means of digital technology - such as the internet, social media, art, or others?

In general there’s a notion where anything artsy seems to be more feminine and anything that’s science-y is more masculine. And anyone like Warhol and Lovelace kind of break the mold a bit and become exceptions to the rule. 

My high school was originally an all girls high school and was committed to teaching a heavily devoted STEM program to the students. That program is still in existence at the school, but the fact that it’s unheard of in other schools surprises me.

Also, my brother is a dancer and decided to pursue being a ballet dancer and he was severely bullied because of his choice in after school activity.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Post #7

What is the general consensus of these articles as to why Flash is a dated and problematic form?

From the Rhizone article, it says Flash is a browser based media. This can cause problems in a browser if there are multiple loadings happening on a single page, even more so if multiple people are trying to load various pages on the same site. It’s dependent on how powerful a single browser can be.

How is Flash a (perhaps surprisingly) difficult media form to conserve and archive, in comparison to other forms of digital media?

From the same article as above, Flash is able to generate arbitrary strings of information. This can take up more memory and RAM to view.

What does this make you think about the context and permanency of the digital elements we are working with?

Everything we’re working with may just become yesterday’s technology. In this day-and-age there are many programs that are coming into light that are easier to use, or are compatible with various devices/browsers.

What are some other examples that you can think of of technologies that have become obsolete and replaced by better versions of themselves? Do old technologies ever come back?

There’s a program called Pro-Tools that is used in the recording industry and there’s a new update for it that comes out every, what seems like, 2 years or so and yes each expansion upgrades itself to a newer, better version of itself. However, with the newer expansions always coming out for the product, the user needs to take a couple hours, days even, to figure out how the product works. There may be new key strokes that were added into the software, or visually everything may have shifted. The use of plugins, various software that helps engineers morph/distort soundwaves, had to be from a particular company for a while when pro-tools first came out. But now, with many people having all kinds of equipment to use, the plugins that used to be particular for a specific program or computer type, are now compatible with various set-ups around the industry.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Posting #6

1. I liked Michael’s response because it brought to my attention something a lot of people worry about. Being constantly watched by someone out there, may it be the government or a hacker looking to rob someone of their identity. 

2. I personally like Glenn’s sketchbook as it has a mixture of highly popular events/shows that are known at this point in time. For someone who tries hard to keep up with what is happening at this moment, his blog does just that. 

3.  As I looked through the class blogs as a whole it seemed to me that everyone put a little of themselves into their each individual blog. Everyone has different views and likes, I truly believe that these are shown throughout everyone’s blogs individually. But speaking of them as a whole, well, I can definitely say we have a very diverse group of people. Some had more still photos that would catch your attention and others would be funny, where others are thought-provoking. I like the diverse-ness we have as a class.

[brianmac-kenzie-blog]

Blog Posting #1

1- I have never blogged before, this is my first experience with it.

2- I don’t follow any blogs on a regular basis.

3- Hosting a blog for the semester could benefit me in that I will be able to share things that I find with the rest of the class that I find interesting or worth noting. I will also be able to see what everyone else posts which will allow me to learn and discover new things.

[500miles-there-and-back]

Blog Posting #1

a) Have you ever blogged before?  If so, talk a bit about what you blogged about.  If not, is there a particular reason?

I have a personal Tumblr for about 5 years now and I would categorize it more on the comedic side. But I’ll reblog anything that I find to be important to me or to be really funny. 

b) Are there particular blogs that you frequent and read on a regular basis?  If so, please link to a couple or note which ones and why they are interesting to you.

I don’t really read blogs on a daily basis.

c) How do you think posting about readings, websites, and other multimedia materials on your own blog could benefit you?  Feel free to discuss any positives or negatives, excitement or anxiety about hosting your own blog throughout the semester.

I think these postings would be beneficial to me because from my own experience at blogging, blogging is a great way to let your mind go and type what you feel is important. It’s also a great way to see where others stand in a certain situation.