jana christine pfenning
January 3, 2018 at 11:35 am
My name is Jana, I am 22 years old and I am from Germany. Back there I studied Media and Communications at Free University of Berlin in my third year. Here at UBC I am enrolled in the Media Studies program as an exchange student.
jana christine pfenning
January 3, 2018 at 11:44 am
At VISA 210 I want to learn about the conception of modern, digital art. I expect, we will discuss future developments and possible challenges of digital design. I hope, we can look at futuristic, groundbreaking artwork as an example.
jana christine pfenning
January 3, 2018 at 11:56 am
This is my first course at UBC, so I did not know what to expect at all. Still, this introduction made me look forward to our discussions about the role of digital art and technology in the future.
ANTHROPOCENE:
Technology (like Phones f.e.) have changed our lifes. We are dependent on technology.
IBM VIDEO:
4 Steps > oldfashioned human thinking, but Artificial Intelligence changes everything! (chance and danger!)
VIRTUAL REALITY: (social media included)
– We are in many places at the same time.
– We are everywhere.
– We dont know where we actually are.
– We split.
–> Post Human
FURTURE OF EMPLOYMENT:
– technology can replace humans
– higher productivity
– possibly a future without any jobs (?)
–> noone knows what will happen without jobs
My image has a very special meaning to me. It is a photograph made by my father when I was eight months old. He took it on my very first vacation in southern Germany. The photo shows my mother, my father and me in the middle, while all of us are looking in the hotel bathroom’s mirror. My parents stand very close to each other: My mum is holding me in her arms and my father is holding the camera, which you can assume because of the flash’s reflection close to his shoulder. He is smiling, while my mother and I look rather surprised, as if we did not know, that he would take this picture so early. The flash highlights all the dirt and stains on the mirror, like there were glowing particles around us. Furthermore, you can see two toothbrushes and one toothpaste on the board in front of the mirror. As the focus is rather on the mirror’s stains, we are underexposed.
Even if the picture at first sight looks as if it went all wrong, I really like the atmosphere of it: no fake smiling or posing. A happy, young family, standing close together and caring for their baby. The bathroom’s atmosphere and the three of us being so close together, creates a feeling of intimacy. The image captures a love, I have barely ever seen between my parents. On the one hand the picture shows an old love, on the other hand it looks so modern, as if it was taken yesterday. Out of the many hundrets of photos my parents took of me when I was a kid, there is not any other picture in a mirror. Back then, when they only had an analog camera, a mirror picture seems like a waste of film. In my opinion, a mirror-selfie is something very modern. Taking as many pictures as you want on digital cameras made it possible.
So, for me, the image depicts an old reality in a modern setting. Therefore this image feels incredibly real and evokes many feelings – like love and family support – in me.
WHAT IS AN IMAGE?
• Powerful
• Simple to produce and share with todays technology (f.e. with smartphone camera / snapchat)
• An image is a representation of something
• Connection between A and B
• Backstory behind picture (we never fully know)
–> new language
EXAMPLE: H2O WATER
• Image /word for something real
• Image is a language
• Physical, chemical or mathematical meanings
• Image of reality / of the world
• Multitude of images
• Problem: everyone sees world differently > difficult to find a common image of the world
WHAT IS AN “APPLE”?
• “apple” is a representation of something else
• No connection between word and reality (every language is different)
still, we agree that it is called apple
• Allows us to communicate
—>WORDS ARE IMAGES!
MICHEL FOCAULT
• Relationship between two realities
POETRY:
• “I love you” cannot represent the emotion
• Love songs are always different
• Poem: way of describing reality of love
• Biologist/doctor would describe it another way
A CHIEN ANDALOU – LUIS BANUEL & SALVADOR DALÍ
• Sequence of images
• Without plot
• pictures/sequences that arouse emotions
MEDIEVAL PAINTING:
• Showing a “better place” than reality
• saints centre of picture
RENAISSANCE PAINTING:
• Realistic painting
• Humans are the centre of picture
• Humanism
TECHNICAL IMAGES: (FOTOGRAPHY)
• Writing and technical images are turning points in human beings
• Writing made sharing of experiences possible
• Different places or tie
• First time image could be equal to truth
• Capture! > “taking” a reality
• No special skill necessary for taking an image
DIGITAL IMAGE:
• Small units: pixels
• Data is information
• Converting information into image
• Clone (exact replica)
• Created by human and technology
• Internet environment created by images
• Tumblr picture culture vs. Instagram picture culture (different images (=languages) in both platforms)
• A B (A can be memory, apple, experiences, emotions, imagined, conception, culture // B is image)
• IS “A” REAL?
– NO CONCLUSION
– It is real if it comes from nature (?)
– REPRESENTATION = something standing for something else
– Neuroscientist: A is also imagined (combined with experiences) > brain communicates it
– CONVENTIONS (=objectives)
CONNECTION BETWEEN IMAGES AND TECHNOLOGIES
• Medieval image:
– Saints are in centre
• Renaissance image:
– Humans are in centre
– Humanism (main agents in world)
> Drawn pictures have a very exclusive, magical situation
> only “gifted person” can represent the world
PHOTOGRAPHY
• EVERYBODY can create an image
• “Democratic art”
• Captures something out there
• Sharable > makes world smaller
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES OUR VIEW ON WORLD
• Etienne Jules-Marey (scientific images)
> Art and science
WHAT IS AN IMAGE TODAY? WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT OUR WORLD?
• Sharing
• Different possibilities!
BEFORE:
• Less images
• No own choice (before it was tv, newspapers, politics, who chose, what we see)
TODAY:
• WE choose in the internet!
• WE CHOOSE HOW WE SEE REALITY!
> WHAT IS REAL TODAY?
“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.”
– In my opinion photography is a stronger language, than verbal or written language. An image can arouse many different emotions at a glance. Since the attention span in social/digital media is usually very small, images are an easy and fast way to communicate.
“We trade our existence in images, and we shape ourselves through them.”
– For me, this development in todays culture is very dangerous. We should not let images dominate our lives.
“Instead of assuming that photography is a mechanism that transforms reality into images, we can invert the terms and see the photographer as a translator, as a facilitator of narratives.”
– No words needed.
I spent time on the image sharing platform, which I currently use most: Instagram. On my home timeline (the channel I use most), I saw many photographs of friends and other people I know. In every case, it was a photo of their leisure time, e.g. holiday pictures, sports or food. The reality shown is a “perfect world”, in which everyone always has “awesome times”.
Browsing through the discovery part of Instagram, I mostly saw animated gifs or short videos from many different pages or stars. These images are also based on photos, but animations and captions in capital letters were added. Strong colors and shapes attract a lot of attention and they either present funny or political/philosophical content. It is difficult for me to link a “real” to these images, especially as they are very diverse.
– Translate established definitions
– Define us (social media)
– Translation vs. Narratives
– A – B – C
○ A – experience/idea/story/song/…
○ B – photo (narrative or translation)
– Narrative (telling something) > time
– Translation
Photographer
– Autonomous – detached from function
○ Function: scientific, news, wedding, …
○ Today: using old function for new meaning
– DISSEMINATION!
Photo vs. Images
– (art + technical) -> historical
– Media
Ancient writing
– Pictures were sounds > sounds combined = words > letters being created
What makes an image art?
– You can never fully “speak” art
– E.g. between “what I see and what I say”
> always a gap/difference between actions> poetry is inbetween
> poetry can never fully touch it
Real?
– Paradox!
– Information Art
– Feelings have no information (what is hate, love, …?)
– Images can be art or information
Peotry and art
– Divine
– Infinite
– Andrei Tarkovski:
○ What is meaning of life?
– Art helps to know world
– Explans goal and reason of human life
– Knowledge distracts us from purpose in life
Burrows:
○ Art can liberate us
○ What is connection between art and freedom?
Notion of the real:
– Real of now
– Essence is hidden im images
– Images as association
– It is not objective -> subjective
Sigmund Freud:
– Using his theories to controll the masses
– Burneys: PR Council
– Convinced women to smoke > changed public opinion about smoking women
– We create our own images
○ We look similar to others by clothing and style
○ Silarities between humas
○ Images create living in society
○ Social media today is a perfect example for self presentation through images
– Images are liberators Control/Opress
○ Think things differently!
○ How is BEAUTY connected to it?
Oskar Wilde: “All art is useless”
– We do not need art to survive
– Still, we need it! -> art is surrounding us
– Progressive beginning of 1920: New kind of arts and creativity
– more progressive and abstract artworks
> Futurismo: a reconstruction of the universe
> Russian Cubo Futurism (political)
– Improvements in technology changed art
– Through photography and filming everyone could do art
> Fluxus (kind of abstract way of self-expression)
Dylan Thomas: “images create our world”
– Whoever controles images, has the power
– Propganada in autocratic counties
Differences in images:
– Artistic:
– Images to Inform: Very clear message
Can images change the world:
– Companies convinced women to smoke
– No power against natural impacts (e.g. climate change) but can change human perception
– Pictures can change politics
What is technology:
– Invented to improve living conditions of humans
– INVENTED or DISCOVERED?
○ Evolution of technology
○ For my more discovery. We had to go through multiple stages to come to progress of discovery.
○ PROGRESSION
My name is Jana, I am 22 years old and I am from Germany. Back there I studied Media and Communications at Free University of Berlin in my third year. Here at UBC I am enrolled in the Media Studies program as an exchange student.
At VISA 210 I want to learn about the conception of modern, digital art. I expect, we will discuss future developments and possible challenges of digital design. I hope, we can look at futuristic, groundbreaking artwork as an example.
This is my first course at UBC, so I did not know what to expect at all. Still, this introduction made me look forward to our discussions about the role of digital art and technology in the future.
Class Notes of January 3, 2018:
ANTHROPOCENE:
Technology (like Phones f.e.) have changed our lifes. We are dependent on technology.
IBM VIDEO:
4 Steps > oldfashioned human thinking, but Artificial Intelligence changes everything! (chance and danger!)
VIRTUAL REALITY: (social media included)
– We are in many places at the same time.
– We are everywhere.
– We dont know where we actually are.
– We split.
–> Post Human
FURTURE OF EMPLOYMENT:
– technology can replace humans
– higher productivity
– possibly a future without any jobs (?)
–> noone knows what will happen without jobs
My image has a very special meaning to me. It is a photograph made by my father when I was eight months old. He took it on my very first vacation in southern Germany. The photo shows my mother, my father and me in the middle, while all of us are looking in the hotel bathroom’s mirror. My parents stand very close to each other: My mum is holding me in her arms and my father is holding the camera, which you can assume because of the flash’s reflection close to his shoulder. He is smiling, while my mother and I look rather surprised, as if we did not know, that he would take this picture so early. The flash highlights all the dirt and stains on the mirror, like there were glowing particles around us. Furthermore, you can see two toothbrushes and one toothpaste on the board in front of the mirror. As the focus is rather on the mirror’s stains, we are underexposed.
Even if the picture at first sight looks as if it went all wrong, I really like the atmosphere of it: no fake smiling or posing. A happy, young family, standing close together and caring for their baby. The bathroom’s atmosphere and the three of us being so close together, creates a feeling of intimacy. The image captures a love, I have barely ever seen between my parents. On the one hand the picture shows an old love, on the other hand it looks so modern, as if it was taken yesterday. Out of the many hundrets of photos my parents took of me when I was a kid, there is not any other picture in a mirror. Back then, when they only had an analog camera, a mirror picture seems like a waste of film. In my opinion, a mirror-selfie is something very modern. Taking as many pictures as you want on digital cameras made it possible.
So, for me, the image depicts an old reality in a modern setting. Therefore this image feels incredibly real and evokes many feelings – like love and family support – in me.
WHAT IS AN IMAGE?
• Powerful
• Simple to produce and share with todays technology (f.e. with smartphone camera / snapchat)
• An image is a representation of something
• Connection between A and B
• Backstory behind picture (we never fully know)
–> new language
EXAMPLE: H2O WATER
• Image /word for something real
• Image is a language
• Physical, chemical or mathematical meanings
• Image of reality / of the world
• Multitude of images
• Problem: everyone sees world differently > difficult to find a common image of the world
WHAT IS AN “APPLE”?
• “apple” is a representation of something else
• No connection between word and reality (every language is different)
still, we agree that it is called apple
• Allows us to communicate
—>WORDS ARE IMAGES!
MICHEL FOCAULT
• Relationship between two realities
POETRY:
• “I love you” cannot represent the emotion
• Love songs are always different
• Poem: way of describing reality of love
• Biologist/doctor would describe it another way
A CHIEN ANDALOU – LUIS BANUEL & SALVADOR DALÍ
• Sequence of images
• Without plot
• pictures/sequences that arouse emotions
MEDIEVAL PAINTING:
• Showing a “better place” than reality
• saints centre of picture
RENAISSANCE PAINTING:
• Realistic painting
• Humans are the centre of picture
• Humanism
TECHNICAL IMAGES: (FOTOGRAPHY)
• Writing and technical images are turning points in human beings
• Writing made sharing of experiences possible
• Different places or tie
• First time image could be equal to truth
• Capture! > “taking” a reality
• No special skill necessary for taking an image
DIGITAL IMAGE:
• Small units: pixels
• Data is information
• Converting information into image
• Clone (exact replica)
• Created by human and technology
MY IMAGE OF AN APPLE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Wuyu_yOGVRHJhXcqb-z1VRIBP9RV8Dky
I am allergic to apples. The process of rotting represents my feelings after eating an apple.
Class Notes of January 17, 2018
• Internet environment created by images
• Tumblr picture culture vs. Instagram picture culture (different images (=languages) in both platforms)
• A B (A can be memory, apple, experiences, emotions, imagined, conception, culture // B is image)
• IS “A” REAL?
– NO CONCLUSION
– It is real if it comes from nature (?)
– REPRESENTATION = something standing for something else
– Neuroscientist: A is also imagined (combined with experiences) > brain communicates it
– CONVENTIONS (=objectives)
Week 3 challenge: Visual image of the image in my mind.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z-57FJKTcEZ0C1liR2WfwvjgEUufQioH/view?usp=sharing
Class notes of January 24, 2018:
CONNECTION BETWEEN IMAGES AND TECHNOLOGIES
• Medieval image:
– Saints are in centre
• Renaissance image:
– Humans are in centre
– Humanism (main agents in world)
> Drawn pictures have a very exclusive, magical situation
> only “gifted person” can represent the world
PHOTOGRAPHY
• EVERYBODY can create an image
• “Democratic art”
• Captures something out there
• Sharable > makes world smaller
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES OUR VIEW ON WORLD
• Etienne Jules-Marey (scientific images)
> Art and science
WHAT IS AN IMAGE TODAY? WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT OUR WORLD?
• Sharing
• Different possibilities!
BEFORE:
• Less images
• No own choice (before it was tv, newspapers, politics, who chose, what we see)
TODAY:
• WE choose in the internet!
• WE CHOOSE HOW WE SEE REALITY!
> WHAT IS REAL TODAY?
WHAT IS AN IMAGE TODAY? WHAT IS REAL?
“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.”
– In my opinion photography is a stronger language, than verbal or written language. An image can arouse many different emotions at a glance. Since the attention span in social/digital media is usually very small, images are an easy and fast way to communicate.
“We trade our existence in images, and we shape ourselves through them.”
– For me, this development in todays culture is very dangerous. We should not let images dominate our lives.
“Instead of assuming that photography is a mechanism that transforms reality into images, we can invert the terms and see the photographer as a translator, as a facilitator of narratives.”
– No words needed.
I spent time on the image sharing platform, which I currently use most: Instagram. On my home timeline (the channel I use most), I saw many photographs of friends and other people I know. In every case, it was a photo of their leisure time, e.g. holiday pictures, sports or food. The reality shown is a “perfect world”, in which everyone always has “awesome times”.
Browsing through the discovery part of Instagram, I mostly saw animated gifs or short videos from many different pages or stars. These images are also based on photos, but animations and captions in capital letters were added. Strong colors and shapes attract a lot of attention and they either present funny or political/philosophical content. It is difficult for me to link a “real” to these images, especially as they are very diverse.
Class Notes January 31th, 2018:
– Translate established definitions
– Define us (social media)
– Translation vs. Narratives
– A – B – C
○ A – experience/idea/story/song/…
○ B – photo (narrative or translation)
– Narrative (telling something) > time
– Translation
Photographer
– Autonomous – detached from function
○ Function: scientific, news, wedding, …
○ Today: using old function for new meaning
– DISSEMINATION!
Photo vs. Images
– (art + technical) -> historical
– Media
Ancient writing
– Pictures were sounds > sounds combined = words > letters being created
What makes an image art?
– You can never fully “speak” art
– E.g. between “what I see and what I say”
> always a gap/difference between actions> poetry is inbetween
> poetry can never fully touch it
Real?
– Paradox!
– Information Art
– Feelings have no information (what is hate, love, …?)
– Images can be art or information
Peotry and art
– Divine
– Infinite
– Andrei Tarkovski:
○ What is meaning of life?
– Art helps to know world
– Explans goal and reason of human life
– Knowledge distracts us from purpose in life
Burrows:
○ Art can liberate us
○ What is connection between art and freedom?
Notion of the real:
– Real of now
– Essence is hidden im images
Clair de Lune:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l0voMNGhfmmWVfS9uBZRmS6WpN0pBB5c/view?usp=sharing
Class Notes February 7, 2018:
– Images as association
– It is not objective -> subjective
Sigmund Freud:
– Using his theories to controll the masses
– Burneys: PR Council
– Convinced women to smoke > changed public opinion about smoking women
– We create our own images
○ We look similar to others by clothing and style
○ Silarities between humas
○ Images create living in society
○ Social media today is a perfect example for self presentation through images
– Images are liberators Control/Opress
○ Think things differently!
○ How is BEAUTY connected to it?
Oskar Wilde: “All art is useless”
– We do not need art to survive
– Still, we need it! -> art is surrounding us
MIDTERM REFLECTIONS (with Ali Nosek)
We worked on the relationship between world, society, art and images.
Our OneNote page focuses on the question: Can art change the world?
https://1drv.ms/f/s!Atg7QKo01aBFgmbGCfzWU7-zYjZm
This is my portrait of Ali:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13xgXncCZLtiqVe6aoxPoQb4vGO9a7gc5/view?usp=sharing
Class notes March 7, 2018:
ART // TECHNOLOGY // FREEDOM
– Progressive beginning of 1920: New kind of arts and creativity
– more progressive and abstract artworks
> Futurismo: a reconstruction of the universe
> Russian Cubo Futurism (political)
– Improvements in technology changed art
– Through photography and filming everyone could do art
> Fluxus (kind of abstract way of self-expression)
ARTWORK TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Please use a devise with a Gyro Sensor (Smartphone, Tablet, …) to open this image.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=378856939249819&id=302849850183862
NEW WAYS OF LIFE
A self reflecting work on what my smartphone knows about me.
https://youtu.be/A1Q_2GSpW7I
Class Notes March 28, 2018:
Dylan Thomas: “images create our world”
– Whoever controles images, has the power
– Propganada in autocratic counties
Differences in images:
– Artistic:
– Images to Inform: Very clear message
Can images change the world:
– Companies convinced women to smoke
– No power against natural impacts (e.g. climate change) but can change human perception
– Pictures can change politics
What is technology:
– Invented to improve living conditions of humans
– INVENTED or DISCOVERED?
○ Evolution of technology
○ For my more discovery. We had to go through multiple stages to come to progress of discovery.
○ PROGRESSION
FINAL DISCUSSION
In this video I summarize a lot of aspects we were talking about this term.
https://youtu.be/rOpamBaVyDQ