I’m Elspeth, but I go by Elsy most of the time. I’m from Seattle, and I’m hoping to major in Visual Arts. I enjoy working digitally in my art, so I decided to take this class in order to better my abilities and understanding in the digital arts and the technology used to create it. To comment on what we talked about in this class, it bothers me when people bring up how robots are going to take over our jobs or whatever because, personally, I don’t think that’s a problem. It’ll just create more reason for people to go into engineering/computer science/etc because someone has to program/make/fix the robots. And even if it gets to the point where more people become unemployed, maybe that’ll spur people into finally fixing the unemployment problem and people won’t have to have jobs to survive anymore.
The image I chose is a photo I took when I was a Freshman in High School. It is of my brother and my cat in my backyard. My brother is holding the cat up to his face, smiling, while my cat stares straight at the camera, wide-eyed. The picture is also in black and white, and was taken with my mother’s old manual film camera.
I keep this picture on my wall by my bed as it reminds me of home. My cat is very important to me in my life, as I got him when I was very young, and I often pick him up (as my brother is doing in the photo), pet, or play with him to relieve stress. Being away from home, I miss my cat a lot. I like this picture of him particularly because of his wide-eyed expression; it makes me feel more like he is there, not just depicted in the photo, and so far away from me.
My brother is also in the photo, so the pic also helps remind me of my family. As I mentioned before, though not depicted in the picture, I took the photo with my mother’s old camera. In addition, my dad was the one who taught me how to operate the camera properly. So even if not all members of my family are depicted in the photo, they are present in it in some way or another.
The reason I took this picture was for a photography class I was taking at school. It was basically the first actual art class I took. I was already in love with drawing, but taking this class, I began my journey with learning about art, especially that there are many ways to create it. I keep this picture on my wall, not only to remind me of my family, but because it is a work, that I, with my own hands, took and then developed and printed. It’s not digital at all, but it helped open my eyes to the many different processes of art that aren’t just doodling in notebooks.
I definitely agree with a lot of what the article talked about, especially the part where it talked about photographs becoming more of a “visual language” as photographs, and by extension, images become increasingly involved in our everyday lives. The article states, “We are all, more than ever, ‘implicated’ in photography whether we like it or not. We constitute ourselves both as individuals and communities through this visual alphabet and database, a language that is neither written nor verbal, but visual.” I definitely think that in our modern society, we have started to use pictures more and more to convey meaning to those around us. One main example that comes to mind is Snapchat, which is specifically meant for people to easily “snap” pictures and quickly send them to their friends whenever they feel like they need to share what they are doing. You can add text over these pics, but most of the ones I see on there don’t have them. Some one could, for example, send me a pic of their breakfast. They could’ve written in text something like, “for breakfast I am eating toast with jam and a side of eggs,” but instead they have just sent a picture of what that sentence describes, and I, the receiver, instantly know this is what they meant, and am not just confused as to why my friend sent me a picture of toast. If not for this “visual language” that the article describes that I have grown up with and come to learn, I probably would be very confused at this seemingly random picture of toast.
This also bleeds into how the article defines images as also “becoming a commodity. We trade our existence in images, and we shape ourselves through them.” As I stated before, because of this constant sharing of images, I, and others, have now been able to interpret them at a moment’s notice.
The article also states, “We trade our existence in images,” which I think is really interesting. Going off of my previous example, by my friend sending me a picture of their breakfast, they have shared a moment in time of their own experiences with me. While I did not eat the toast, I too, am now involved with my friend’s breakfast time, as I have visually experienced it as well.
I also like the article’s focus that “today the important element is not ‘what’ information but ‘how’ information is delivered.” I hadn’t really thought about this as much as the other two points that I already brought up. Thinking about it now, depending on where an image has been shown, or how it has been created, or possibly altered, I would probably have a different experience with it each time. Going back to that wonderful toast example, if my friend posted it on other platforms, or other mediums, I’d probably get a different message from it, assuming there is no text accompanying it. On snapchat, they are simply sharing a moment of their everyday life. On tumblr, I’d probably think they were making some joke post. On Facebook; some important memory, event, and not just your average breakfast. If they printed it out; for a photography project. If they drew it; a drawing project they’re working on.
This example also shows the ways I experience images on the different websites I frequent. I’m going to go on each and describe the first pictures that come up on my various feeds. Tumblr: first few picture posts were screen shots of text or videos. The second one in particular was making a joke about the video. Some art people had posted, and another screen shot joke post, this time of a movie. The ones that weren’t art were using images from other sources re-arranged and juxtaposed in order to make the viewer laugh. This is what I mainly encounter on tumblr, thus the earlier reaction. “Reality” here seems to be mainly contained entirely within the site; many of these pictures are only understandable by having been on the site and seeing these jokes done over and over again, while being slightly altered each time (I speak here of memes).
Instagram: a picture of a cat, cake, someone’s outfit they wore that day, someone cosplaying, a makeup tutorial. On tumblr, the images were more of other sources, or art that people had drawn digitally. Here, it’s simple pictures people have taken of their everyday, real, life. This may sound like snapchat, except Instagram differs in one crucial way: a lot of these pictures have been altered slightly in order to heighten and improve the “reality” contained within. For example, the outfit picture has a filter on it, along with several sparkles and hearts around the person’s body. This is their ideal “reality” of the way they wish for others to perceive them.
Facebook: As I said before, the toast received special treatment on Facebook. This is because the first few images I get are: someone’s memories post from something they did 4 years ago, someone talking about their anniversary with their boyfriend (accompanied by a picture of him), and someone’s photos from a concert they went too. Most of the images I see on Facebook seem to be people sharing important events or memories in their lives. As far as I know, their lives only consist of these important moments, and the mundane is nonexistent.
Last but not least, let’s return to Snapchat: my friend has sent me a picture of her hand in a thumbs up in front of her laptop keyboard. That’s it. Just a thumbs up. Visual language at its finest.
I’m Elspeth, but I go by Elsy most of the time. I’m from Seattle, and I’m hoping to major in Visual Arts. I enjoy working digitally in my art, so I decided to take this class in order to better my abilities and understanding in the digital arts and the technology used to create it. To comment on what we talked about in this class, it bothers me when people bring up how robots are going to take over our jobs or whatever because, personally, I don’t think that’s a problem. It’ll just create more reason for people to go into engineering/computer science/etc because someone has to program/make/fix the robots. And even if it gets to the point where more people become unemployed, maybe that’ll spur people into finally fixing the unemployment problem and people won’t have to have jobs to survive anymore.
Notes for 1/3/18
file:///Users/elspethmilton/Downloads/Notes%201%252F3%252F18.pdf
notes for 1/10/18
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C56pngHauWUTIwjdLy0ilEmBJGPXalwBToEMPqQGePw/edit?usp=sharing
The image I chose is a photo I took when I was a Freshman in High School. It is of my brother and my cat in my backyard. My brother is holding the cat up to his face, smiling, while my cat stares straight at the camera, wide-eyed. The picture is also in black and white, and was taken with my mother’s old manual film camera.
I keep this picture on my wall by my bed as it reminds me of home. My cat is very important to me in my life, as I got him when I was very young, and I often pick him up (as my brother is doing in the photo), pet, or play with him to relieve stress. Being away from home, I miss my cat a lot. I like this picture of him particularly because of his wide-eyed expression; it makes me feel more like he is there, not just depicted in the photo, and so far away from me.
My brother is also in the photo, so the pic also helps remind me of my family. As I mentioned before, though not depicted in the picture, I took the photo with my mother’s old camera. In addition, my dad was the one who taught me how to operate the camera properly. So even if not all members of my family are depicted in the photo, they are present in it in some way or another.
The reason I took this picture was for a photography class I was taking at school. It was basically the first actual art class I took. I was already in love with drawing, but taking this class, I began my journey with learning about art, especially that there are many ways to create it. I keep this picture on my wall, not only to remind me of my family, but because it is a work, that I, with my own hands, took and then developed and printed. It’s not digital at all, but it helped open my eyes to the many different processes of art that aren’t just doodling in notebooks.
what is an apple?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tXl0WajGq6nr9LULvsPoIG1AiMKLO1fsHqgPFVEVNIo/edit
an image of an image
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VYckPuNtydt9Bw1So9H6STT-vxZSylXhxD9xBSggxHs/edit
Image of today
I definitely agree with a lot of what the article talked about, especially the part where it talked about photographs becoming more of a “visual language” as photographs, and by extension, images become increasingly involved in our everyday lives. The article states, “We are all, more than ever, ‘implicated’ in photography whether we like it or not. We constitute ourselves both as individuals and communities through this visual alphabet and database, a language that is neither written nor verbal, but visual.” I definitely think that in our modern society, we have started to use pictures more and more to convey meaning to those around us. One main example that comes to mind is Snapchat, which is specifically meant for people to easily “snap” pictures and quickly send them to their friends whenever they feel like they need to share what they are doing. You can add text over these pics, but most of the ones I see on there don’t have them. Some one could, for example, send me a pic of their breakfast. They could’ve written in text something like, “for breakfast I am eating toast with jam and a side of eggs,” but instead they have just sent a picture of what that sentence describes, and I, the receiver, instantly know this is what they meant, and am not just confused as to why my friend sent me a picture of toast. If not for this “visual language” that the article describes that I have grown up with and come to learn, I probably would be very confused at this seemingly random picture of toast.
This also bleeds into how the article defines images as also “becoming a commodity. We trade our existence in images, and we shape ourselves through them.” As I stated before, because of this constant sharing of images, I, and others, have now been able to interpret them at a moment’s notice.
The article also states, “We trade our existence in images,” which I think is really interesting. Going off of my previous example, by my friend sending me a picture of their breakfast, they have shared a moment in time of their own experiences with me. While I did not eat the toast, I too, am now involved with my friend’s breakfast time, as I have visually experienced it as well.
I also like the article’s focus that “today the important element is not ‘what’ information but ‘how’ information is delivered.” I hadn’t really thought about this as much as the other two points that I already brought up. Thinking about it now, depending on where an image has been shown, or how it has been created, or possibly altered, I would probably have a different experience with it each time. Going back to that wonderful toast example, if my friend posted it on other platforms, or other mediums, I’d probably get a different message from it, assuming there is no text accompanying it. On snapchat, they are simply sharing a moment of their everyday life. On tumblr, I’d probably think they were making some joke post. On Facebook; some important memory, event, and not just your average breakfast. If they printed it out; for a photography project. If they drew it; a drawing project they’re working on.
This example also shows the ways I experience images on the different websites I frequent. I’m going to go on each and describe the first pictures that come up on my various feeds. Tumblr: first few picture posts were screen shots of text or videos. The second one in particular was making a joke about the video. Some art people had posted, and another screen shot joke post, this time of a movie. The ones that weren’t art were using images from other sources re-arranged and juxtaposed in order to make the viewer laugh. This is what I mainly encounter on tumblr, thus the earlier reaction. “Reality” here seems to be mainly contained entirely within the site; many of these pictures are only understandable by having been on the site and seeing these jokes done over and over again, while being slightly altered each time (I speak here of memes).
Instagram: a picture of a cat, cake, someone’s outfit they wore that day, someone cosplaying, a makeup tutorial. On tumblr, the images were more of other sources, or art that people had drawn digitally. Here, it’s simple pictures people have taken of their everyday, real, life. This may sound like snapchat, except Instagram differs in one crucial way: a lot of these pictures have been altered slightly in order to heighten and improve the “reality” contained within. For example, the outfit picture has a filter on it, along with several sparkles and hearts around the person’s body. This is their ideal “reality” of the way they wish for others to perceive them.
Facebook: As I said before, the toast received special treatment on Facebook. This is because the first few images I get are: someone’s memories post from something they did 4 years ago, someone talking about their anniversary with their boyfriend (accompanied by a picture of him), and someone’s photos from a concert they went too. Most of the images I see on Facebook seem to be people sharing important events or memories in their lives. As far as I know, their lives only consist of these important moments, and the mundane is nonexistent.
Last but not least, let’s return to Snapchat: my friend has sent me a picture of her hand in a thumbs up in front of her laptop keyboard. That’s it. Just a thumbs up. Visual language at its finest.
Claire de Lune
https://imusingthisforanartproject.tumblr.com/post/170599968228
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQZi5XpDW6M
Forgot to post the other weekly challenges, so here they are now.
Midterm reflections:
chart: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14ljjsA0fzOePzzfzKkUaE296yq4N8gS4iQUSdP80Pfg/edit?usp=sharing
portrait of heloise: (pause clair de lune at the bottom please) https://imusingthisforanartproject.tumblr.com/post/172580623813
tech & humans: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K-aCES6Yme57I9RFNg0AGtVKXeyHlbwDkMcMREHNaR0/edit?usp=sharing
(new ways of life is the video above this post)
Final Discussion Chart:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AgvsbRvefRZnaXgmnthLaDlmHJY
Forgot to post the other weekly challenges, so here they are now.
Midterm reflections:
chart: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14ljjsA0fzOePzzfzKkUaE296yq4N8gS4iQUSdP80Pfg/edit?usp=sharing
portrait of heloise: (pause clair de lune at the bottom please) https://imusingthisforanartproject.tumblr.com/post/172580623813
tech & humans: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K-aCES6Yme57I9RFNg0AGtVKXeyHlbwDkMcMREHNaR0/edit?usp=sharing
(new ways of life is the video above this post)