Hello everyone,
My name is Xiaodi Zhang and you can call me Hedy. I’m from Chengdu, which is the city of panda in China. As a second year student, I took major in Visual Arts with a minor in Art History. Painting, Playing the piano, visiting the galleries, and Photography can be described as my interests.
For this class, I’d like to learn how we communicate with the images. To be specific, when we look at an image, we do we interpret it by relating to our personal experiences, social phenomenon, context, and artists’ intentions. And I hope I could be more confident in providing my unique opinions after this class. Personally, I want to be a curator because I enjoy appreciating and collecting the artworks, and I used to hold the exhibitions for three times, I have to say that I really like planning, organizing and communicating. Curator for me is not only holding the exhibitions but also designing a space to reveal something new.
For today’s class, it is quite beyond my expectation. Before the class, I thought maybe we would learn some technologies about making arts. However, now I find that what the class taught is not limited to this; we aims to concentrate more on the relationship between the technology and humanity to help us have a deeper understanding towards the images. And I thought the individual website and weekly challenges are really interesting and they are the good platform for all the classmates (artists) to share their comments. What is more, the professor has a clear class objective towards the class.
Technology, Humanity, Images
Use the images to communicate (culturally)
1. Communicate
2. Images as a language
Intro:
– Technical evolution – affect economy, society and humanity as a whole.
– Decay v.s. growth
– Interrelations between images
– Imagination, dreaming, stories, speculations
Topic:
– Nature of relation between technology and humanity
– Impact of technical evolution
– Nature of technical images and their role in contemporary culture and life
– Possibilities to examine
Thesis: The ongoing changes in our relation to images brought aobut by current
technologies signals the emergence of a new, visual language
Subject: constant change new software, devices and sharing platforms dynamically
emerge, morph or disappear.
2018.1.3
– Anthropocene: earth’s most geologic…
*2.5 million smartphone users
– Virtual World Population: 50 million (..by 2011): what does that mean for us?
Social media platform, it is the notion of reality. ~ We are data.
– Artificial IntelligenceDDD: How does Watsonwork:
1.For developer & IT
2.Watson products
– Automation (and the future employment): machine do your job better than
you do. (According to 2030, USA) (5-10 yrs, 50% jobs will be losen)
– Post humanism: we are not human anymore. Human is about our feelings,
intents, but now NO MORE. ~ Transhumanism
*Planet selfie: we’re now posting a staggering 1.8 billion photos everyday.
People are constantly taking images – challenges who we are
1. Intro
2. What’s your expectation for this class and what is your dream
3. Comments for today
Questions to consider:
1. What is the relation between Technology and Humanity?
-Adv: Technology helps the humanity and shortens the distance of human. To
be specific, people start to use cellphone and computer to contact with their
family members and friends;
-Adv: Technology promotes the development in our life. We have more
channels to get info if we use the technology suitably;
-Dis: With the development of modern technology, more and more people
do not use their brain and they tend to be lazy and unhealthy due to the
dependence on technology;
-Dis: Technology makes people have less face-to-face communication and
reduces the contact in real life.
The impact of technological evolution on our everyday life and foreseeable
future?
2.
-Artificial intelligence. The machine can help people. Beat?
The nature of technical images and their role in contemporary culture and
life?
3.
-Moral impacts
The possibilities offered by contemporary images for the examination of
these questions?
4.
The possibilities offered by contemporary images for the examination of
these questions?
Learning objectives:
1) Definition of images
2) Relation to them
What is an image?
– Picture, representation, information, map of relationship, memories, emotions, 2D reality (reality?), mental, capture or not, reflection, evocation, purpose
Thesis: how can we use it and what can we do – artists
Representation: connection between A and B, partially describes what we feel
Chemical equations (process describing relation and communication) ???? image (own language and translation for particular purposes)
“APPLE”
Images are common language for us to understand but also the convention (depends on how familiar)
Michel Foucault (secret: reality of image and the sound)
“I love you” never fully conveys
Imagery (for poets) is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. Despite “image”-“picture”, images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes.
E.g. soundimage: experience – we have sth. In common to share – sth unite us
E.g. red monochrome: spark senses, evocation, direct sense
E.g. Chien Andalou: metaphor, surrealism (Dali)
Technical images: human civilization has seen two fundamental turning points since its beginnings. The first is “the invention of linear writing” (second half of the 2nd millennium, B.C.). The second is “the invention of technical images.” (we are witnessing)
-Medieval painting (not the reality we saw around)
-Renaissance (knowledge: perspective. What is real? We are the center of the picture – birth of humanism)
-Technical images: daguerreotypes (no identity but existed)
Image = Truth
It is a reality we created
Digital image: data (pixel – small unit information – clone reality)
Post human (H+)
How can they help us to define who we are?
What would be the characteristics of images?
– Pictorial representation, deliver info, visual perception with the subjects, conceive sensations
What is their function?
-Make an evocation and deliver info – representation
Feel = thinking
*Interpretation on my image of APPLE:
-Female is a fruit. Woman is tasty.
-Lose weight.
-Connection between woman and apple.
Idea: art is using a physical thing to represent the spiritual things (ideas and thoughts)
A????????B
Real or not?
(*A: apple, memory and experiences, definitions and concepts, emotions, imagined, convention, culture)
Q: Conventions may be the cultural aspects and traditional things like a word, a sentence, a concept. E.g. in western culture …
What kind of reality is an image?
How can we share?
Q: The “share” cannot be the same for different people.
I choose the photo of my little sister when she was born for few months. The photo is about I smiled at the camera and my sister is lying in the cradle. I love my sister so much and from all the photos of her, I think that her birth has the most significant meaning for me.
To begin with, it is the first time that I think I have to grow up in order to take care of her and share the burdens from my parents. Secondly, before her birth, I was worried that my parents would love her more and ignore me, so her birth is a symbol of emotional change, because I found that my parents did a great balance between us and due to her birth, I started to know how much my parents love us. Also, this photo always reminds me of the gender discrimination in my family, especially in my grandparents. In my family, there is a tradition that only the boys can have a special first name but girls cannot. Therefore, I did not have the special name; before the birth of my sister, my grandfather prayed for having a boy but it was still a girl. Although I was a kid at that time, I could still see the disappointment and discontentment from my grandparents. It is a symbol of gender discrimination and it is common in China. Finally, I left away from my hometown and it was hard to see my parents and my sister, so everytime I look at this photo, it allows me to think of my family and I miss them so much.
As you can see, this photo is a symbol of my growth, emotional change, gender discrimination and longing.
1. After reading the Truth of Experience, I have some understanding about the photography and image.
On the one hand, as author suggests, photography is more like a database, a formation. I think it is an interesting idea because when we think carefully about the relationship between the data and photography, we can figure out that every image represents something and tries to explain, to tell, to record — a way to express something for the audiences but also restore the information about the moment. In the past, photography can be regarded as a “producer” due to making and pictures; but now, it is more like an appreciator, translator and narrator due to its characteristics. Photography is more like a creative project: we add our personal experiences, emotions and intentions to form it. During this process, photography is not the result only but also the way from brainstorming to the finished picture.
On the other hand, not only the creator (narrator) makes connection between the reality and their photography, but also the audiences. The photographer tries to add personal symbols in the picture, but audiences have somewhat common emotions or feelings about the image, which means the photography connects audiences to evoke and to resonate. I really agree one sentence in the article: “If today the important element is not ‘what’ information but ‘how’ information is delivered”. Generally, the creator tries to make senses in the image, and they aim to “making of meanings” and at the same time the audiences need to feel and put the photography in context to analyze. (like culture, background, environment, political situation, society, etc.)
What is more, personally, I think the digital technology changes our life. Nowadays, digital technology promotes greater ease in editing than analog photography, because it transforms photographs from objects into data, and digital imaging technology theoretically disrupts previous notions of the indexical connection between photographic images and “reality.” Marshall McLuhan describes the impact of new media with the phrase “the medium is the message.” Digital photography recently challenges the historical belief that photography is representative of reality. But have viewers’ perceptions shifted in relation to theoretical discussions? While digital affects the theoretical notion of the photographic index, these theories overlook the appearance of the image and the social applications of transparent lens-based media. Viewers continue to read digital photographs as representative of reality, a function images maintain despite the transition
from analog to digital. The notion of the photograph as index relies on the physical and chemical processes that constitute the medium. Photography nowadays is more like what the creator wants to show instead of taking picture at the moment.
Finally, the tool and technique for photography changed from camera to mobile phone and some other technical tool. With digital technology, it is arguably easier to edit and create images of objects that never existed in reality, thus casting doubt on the reliability of photography’s connection to the real.
2. As for the image today, I think the following image is a good example to show. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pJB2Y54MFa3HMbLw_XqP1gUDRO9ZSiHD
From the image, there is a contrast between the entity and shadow – I try to express the different between the photography and reality, and to show the characteristics of images:
a) Images present information, which is like a database. From each image, we can figure out the information and story behind it;
b) Images can be deceptive. Sometimes, photography is a way for creator to “make a meaning” and show what they wanted instead of the reality. In the past, people tried to record the moment but nowadays, image can be a tool to tell something, a narrator to make a story; The perceived connection between photographs and reality has always been ideological;
c) Image evokes the emotions and feelings for both audiences and creator. Some of the emotions can be common and pervasive, but some are not due to various experiences and subconsciousness from different people.
While the process of reading photographs is influenced by the context of the image, just because a photograph is created or distributed with digital technology does not negate its indexical function. People make the image from feeling an object, and then observing, recording, adding their own thought, and finally creating it with the meaning. With the development of modern society, we need to use a new sight to evaluate the image and the function of it.
What is an image?
Visual representation, picture of language, memory, experience, evocation, etc.
*Relationship:
Experience/mental – visual/equations/poetic and literary/sounds – experience/mental
(the device sparks similar experience and emotions to somebody else)
????
Imaging technologies
Also has the connection between image and technologies – prevalent worldview
1. Medieval representation
2. Renaissance perspective (lines and vanishing points: we are the center! Renaissance perspective conveys powerful messages about the new place occupied by human in the new world)
3. Photography – industrial revolution (daguerreotype; we are simply provide to make it happen; it is reality itself)
*Photography: image = real
OBJECTIVITY! We can be certain that sth is real and existed.
-Documentary photography
-Scientific photography
-Police picture
What is an image today? And what do our images reveal about our world?
(why the image placing us in the world today?)
When we talked about the photography, there is a part suggests “image = real” which means we can be certain that sth is real and existed. However, I think sometimes the photography lies. The photographer tries to make and create something to make you believe. For instance, nowadays people like to take pictures and post them on their social websites. Sometimes, it is sth they create for others to believe, and the image is not real.
During the lecture, we discussed everyone’s “image of image” for a long time. And the interesting thing is that people response differently. Therefore, I think when an image sends the message to people, people sometimes have different emotions towards the image. THe reason may be deep subconsciousness, personal experiences, knowledge about the subject, and so on.
After seeing a lot of my classmates’ work, I can see that their interpretation use a lot of elements like “continuity” just like the elevator and ballet dance, “transparency” just like man waiting for the train, “delicate” just like the flowers, and “blue sea or water” which is the symbol of sadness.
In the beginning, we discussed the purpose of our assignments for this class, and we concluded that the assignment helps us to figure out the image can be a language to associate something (feelings, emotion, etc)
*(use the image as an language) Language – associations
e.g. Chair
Naturalness
Visual – sound
(connection, how far we wanna go and how we push it)
Illustration
Abstraction
“falling”
Guy Debord
Artists: – images: what is our power?
Image – oppression (control)
(Image can also do sth for freedom)
Freedom – images – control oppress
*Tucker Sharon
Homework: portrait of your classmate
I think blue is Ophelia’s color, because when I looked at her social media, I felt that she is a girl who likes traveling and photography. When I met her at the first time, I felt she is quite introversive but later I found that she has her own inward world. Therefore, I use the waves to represent her passion and enthusiasm.
What is Technology?
(Technology and humanity-humanity?)
In the beginning of the class, we discussed part of the midterm reflection, which is the poster and portrait we did in last two weeks.
-How photography evolved from science to art
-Images have the power on us (transportation, deception, privacy issues, expression of personal value and commodation’s, etc)
-Images in words: poetry (Poemas – David Huerta: Incurable) cannot be translated. We do not understand what he is really saying but images come into my mind
-Can images change society?
-Can art change the world?
One interesting in the lecture is that we start a debate (or discussion and idea sharing) in the idea that “what is image, can art change the world, and what is the difference between image and sound? ”
Personally, sound is a trigger of image, but it is not image. Image for me is more like a visual thing. Texts, visual (motion), and sounds can be language translated to image to express and represent, but these words themselves are not image.
Then, we discussed the multiple media (specific ways) to express art. When we want to express something, there are many ways to express like sculpture, printmaking, photography, how do we choose and which way is the best choice for the feeling and expression?
During looking at some reflections, one of them states that “Everything can be art”. I agree that everything can be art based on the understanding of “can”. It means everything has the possibility to be art, instead of “everything is art”.
“Can”?
-theory/idea/concept
-viewer?
Futurism
(Russian futurism)
Art can change the world. Using the technology to solve.
-video: “reality can be altered at will. You are what you want to be.” (The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the internet)
Remaining term
Text, sound, visual, footage – collage! to create and respond question (TECH)
ART | WORK
I really enjoyed today’s class (although I’m tried due to the jetlag) because our classmates share quite opposite but interesting opinions in art and images.
What is art, and can everything be art?
What is image, and can we include sound in image?
I tried to present two version simultaneously in class because of the two side of technology. When I created the work, firstly I consider the relationship between technology and human beings. Do we human CREATE technology, or technology is already here for us to DISCOVER? I am really interested in this topic.
Personally, I prefer the idea that there are many technologies in the world but now human just explore a small part of that. And there are many technologies will be discovered many years later. Therefore, I still think the topic of technology is still UNKNOWN for human. Therefore, I created something unknown (looks like organ maybe?) or hard to describe. The two version are same but in different color mode. From my point of view, technology benefits us but also can be very dangerous for us.
During the class, we shared everyone’s work in understanding of technology. I really like sharing the work at the same time because sometimes we have some new discovery. (e.g. sometimes the background sound of A’s artwork affects the B’s)
Human culture and technology are continually co-evolving in a dynamic relationship. All technologies develop in a particular cultural context as the result of changing needs or constraints. But once developed, a technology changes the culture that gave it birth. When a technology spreads to another culture, the cultural context affects the speed or way in which the technology is adopted and how it is used. The diffusion of technologies to other cultures changes those other cultures as well. The changes in culture that one technology creates may then influence the development of another or different technology.
I made this image because of the game in Steam called Portal, which
stimulates players to make portal to go through.
As you can see, there are two kinds of portals: yellow one and blue one. And when the girl puts her hand into this yellow portal, another yellow portal will show her hand, so does the blue portal. And the gun in the right side is a tool to make portals.
In my opinion, Portal is symbol of technology, because the sense of space. And I hope these manipulations could allow people to think of the relationship
between the reality and virtual world, just like what phone bring to us.
For today’s class, we shared the idea of how technology (especially phone for some works) affects our life both in positive and negative way. And some of the artworks caught my attention. To begin with, the text on the phone. Maybe the conversation is for the couples in long-distance relationship, and they just talk the things without listening to others. Sometimes, a hug or a meet is the best way to solve the problem instead of texting on the phone or use the technology because others cannot feel your emotions and feelings. This work explains how technology impedes us in the daily life.
Another artwork is from Ophelia — she print out all the photos on her instagram in a long strip. Really a LONG strip, about 500+ hundreds of photos during about two years.. Technology, like phone, helps us to record the daily life things, to record the moment. From this aspect, it really helps us to define ourselves.
During the class, people define technology differently. Someone said that “it is an invention by human”, and personally I think technology is existing for human to discover instead of inventing. And I regard technology as a method, a platform or skill, to help solve the problem, and to serve the goods and services. There are two points I found interesting in class.
The first one is that “when we use the phone to record the moment, it interrupts the moment”. Should we just enjoy the time instead of recording it, or just recording the moment although it may changed the feeling we got. Another thing interesting is talked through my work, about the social media. Social media allows us to decorate ourself, and people TRY to, PRETEND to, WANT to show the positive sides (or the things he/she wants to show) in the social media and public through technology, and hide the things they do not want others to see. Is it due to the raise of the technology, or it is no relation to technology?
In this class, we discussed the main questions in this semester, from image to technology and humanity. Through personal ideas and videos shown in the class, some of the questions are clear now.
-What is image? Representation, visual exp, mental imagery, mental representation, can be sound, picture, phrases, words, extending of our relationship to other things. Anything allows the access to speak to sth else. Images are very central to our understanding to world. Reach out there and within to.
-Relationship between imagery and history. Image can change through history. With the moment relates, and culture we exist. They persist, from Renaissance or old days, we know the past from images. To power. Our relationship: we can control the way people feel about world.
-World and image. The way of being the world. Image reflects our relationship to the world. Continuation to reality. The way of being the world. Image reflects our relationship to the world. Continuation to reality. How people see the world. Reflecting how we see ourselves. We shape people’s mind and social relation.
-Information vs art. Images with more artistic aim. Image like tourism picture, suggests happiness. Image of hero, the revolution, is the symbol of freedom. (E.g. Kandinsky – maybe the universe maybe the inside, maybe both. We have no ideas)
-Can we or artists change/affect the world? Image can change society (e.g. smoking) but cannot change the world (e.g. climate change). Sharing image is related to power and money. Image could be more useful for those in powers.
-Relation between image and technology? Technology allows us to make images, like camera. (e.g. invention of photography) We photography everything changes. Images depend on technology. Technology affects the way we see the world (no painting can showed). Life in relation/depending to camera. Technology changes how we create image, waiting for us to reach out. The way affects image itself and means of dealing with reality.
What is technology? A method, a technique, skill, tool to help our life easier, to produce the goods and services, or a kind of knowledge. (e.g. science fiction movie – “A space Odyssey, the dawn of man”, to reflect the humanity and life) Emerging new possibilities. Our humanity is connected with technology. We can use the technology to improve our conditions.
(e.g. Koyaanisqatsi part 6/9 use of images) We live in technology and dominated by it, in a large machine.
Hello everyone,
My name is Xiaodi Zhang and you can call me Hedy. I’m from Chengdu, which is the city of panda in China. As a second year student, I took major in Visual Arts with a minor in Art History. Painting, Playing the piano, visiting the galleries, and Photography can be described as my interests.
For this class, I’d like to learn how we communicate with the images. To be specific, when we look at an image, we do we interpret it by relating to our personal experiences, social phenomenon, context, and artists’ intentions. And I hope I could be more confident in providing my unique opinions after this class. Personally, I want to be a curator because I enjoy appreciating and collecting the artworks, and I used to hold the exhibitions for three times, I have to say that I really like planning, organizing and communicating. Curator for me is not only holding the exhibitions but also designing a space to reveal something new.
For today’s class, it is quite beyond my expectation. Before the class, I thought maybe we would learn some technologies about making arts. However, now I find that what the class taught is not limited to this; we aims to concentrate more on the relationship between the technology and humanity to help us have a deeper understanding towards the images. And I thought the individual website and weekly challenges are really interesting and they are the good platform for all the classmates (artists) to share their comments. What is more, the professor has a clear class objective towards the class.
Week 1 – notes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1idnlU_iknpK5lZDFdiRx7VDDbVi778-0/view?usp=sharing
Technology, Humanity, Images
Use the images to communicate (culturally)
1. Communicate
2. Images as a language
Intro:
– Technical evolution – affect economy, society and humanity as a whole.
– Decay v.s. growth
– Interrelations between images
– Imagination, dreaming, stories, speculations
Topic:
– Nature of relation between technology and humanity
– Impact of technical evolution
– Nature of technical images and their role in contemporary culture and life
– Possibilities to examine
Thesis: The ongoing changes in our relation to images brought aobut by current
technologies signals the emergence of a new, visual language
Subject: constant change new software, devices and sharing platforms dynamically
emerge, morph or disappear.
2018.1.3
– Anthropocene: earth’s most geologic…
*2.5 million smartphone users
– Virtual World Population: 50 million (..by 2011): what does that mean for us?
Social media platform, it is the notion of reality. ~ We are data.
– Artificial IntelligenceDDD: How does Watsonwork:
1.For developer & IT
2.Watson products
– Automation (and the future employment): machine do your job better than
you do. (According to 2030, USA) (5-10 yrs, 50% jobs will be losen)
– Post humanism: we are not human anymore. Human is about our feelings,
intents, but now NO MORE. ~ Transhumanism
*Planet selfie: we’re now posting a staggering 1.8 billion photos everyday.
People are constantly taking images – challenges who we are
1. Intro
2. What’s your expectation for this class and what is your dream
3. Comments for today
Questions to consider:
1. What is the relation between Technology and Humanity?
-Adv: Technology helps the humanity and shortens the distance of human. To
be specific, people start to use cellphone and computer to contact with their
family members and friends;
-Adv: Technology promotes the development in our life. We have more
channels to get info if we use the technology suitably;
-Dis: With the development of modern technology, more and more people
do not use their brain and they tend to be lazy and unhealthy due to the
dependence on technology;
-Dis: Technology makes people have less face-to-face communication and
reduces the contact in real life.
The impact of technological evolution on our everyday life and foreseeable
future?
2.
-Artificial intelligence. The machine can help people. Beat?
The nature of technical images and their role in contemporary culture and
life?
3.
-Moral impacts
The possibilities offered by contemporary images for the examination of
these questions?
4.
The possibilities offered by contemporary images for the examination of
these questions?
Week 2 – Class notes
What is an image?
(What is a digital image)
Learning objectives:
1) Definition of images
2) Relation to them
What is an image?
– Picture, representation, information, map of relationship, memories, emotions, 2D reality (reality?), mental, capture or not, reflection, evocation, purpose
Thesis: how can we use it and what can we do – artists
Representation: connection between A and B, partially describes what we feel
Chemical equations (process describing relation and communication) ???? image (own language and translation for particular purposes)
“APPLE”
Images are common language for us to understand but also the convention (depends on how familiar)
Michel Foucault (secret: reality of image and the sound)
“I love you” never fully conveys
Imagery (for poets) is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. Despite “image”-“picture”, images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes.
E.g. soundimage: experience – we have sth. In common to share – sth unite us
E.g. red monochrome: spark senses, evocation, direct sense
E.g. Chien Andalou: metaphor, surrealism (Dali)
Technical images: human civilization has seen two fundamental turning points since its beginnings. The first is “the invention of linear writing” (second half of the 2nd millennium, B.C.). The second is “the invention of technical images.” (we are witnessing)
-Medieval painting (not the reality we saw around)
-Renaissance (knowledge: perspective. What is real? We are the center of the picture – birth of humanism)
-Technical images: daguerreotypes (no identity but existed)
Image = Truth
It is a reality we created
Digital image: data (pixel – small unit information – clone reality)
Post human (H+)
How can they help us to define who we are?
What would be the characteristics of images?
– Pictorial representation, deliver info, visual perception with the subjects, conceive sensations
What is their function?
-Make an evocation and deliver info – representation
What do they do?
Where does the image exist?
-Mental image, memory
Homework: What is an apple?
Newhive.com
Week 3 – Class notes
What is an image?
(The image of the image)
What is an image? Language!
Feel = thinking
*Interpretation on my image of APPLE:
-Female is a fruit. Woman is tasty.
-Lose weight.
-Connection between woman and apple.
Idea: art is using a physical thing to represent the spiritual things (ideas and thoughts)
A????????B
Real or not?
(*A: apple, memory and experiences, definitions and concepts, emotions, imagined, convention, culture)
Q: Conventions may be the cultural aspects and traditional things like a word, a sentence, a concept. E.g. in western culture …
What kind of reality is an image?
How can we share?
Q: The “share” cannot be the same for different people.
Homework: image of image
Week 01 – weekly challenges – image
I choose the photo of my little sister when she was born for few months. The photo is about I smiled at the camera and my sister is lying in the cradle. I love my sister so much and from all the photos of her, I think that her birth has the most significant meaning for me.
To begin with, it is the first time that I think I have to grow up in order to take care of her and share the burdens from my parents. Secondly, before her birth, I was worried that my parents would love her more and ignore me, so her birth is a symbol of emotional change, because I found that my parents did a great balance between us and due to her birth, I started to know how much my parents love us. Also, this photo always reminds me of the gender discrimination in my family, especially in my grandparents. In my family, there is a tradition that only the boys can have a special first name but girls cannot. Therefore, I did not have the special name; before the birth of my sister, my grandfather prayed for having a boy but it was still a girl. Although I was a kid at that time, I could still see the disappointment and discontentment from my grandparents. It is a symbol of gender discrimination and it is common in China. Finally, I left away from my hometown and it was hard to see my parents and my sister, so everytime I look at this photo, it allows me to think of my family and I miss them so much.
As you can see, this photo is a symbol of my growth, emotional change, gender discrimination and longing.
Week 02 – Weekly challenges
Here is my image of “APPLE” with music on Newhive: https://newhive.com/hedy/apple (if the link does not work, you can click on this version without music: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pFP_PXm5fCYEMMawqLEaUCWgNcms_hje)
Week 02 – Weekly challenges
Here is my image of “APPLE” with music on Newhive: https://newhive.com/hedy/apple
(if the link does not work, you can click on this version without music: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pFP_PXm5fCYEMMawqLEaUCWgNcms_hje)
Week 03 Weekly challenges
Image of an image: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ivy37uOdQ1VtEzKqpIsxRrsV8uOslu7K
Week 04 – The image of today
1. After reading the Truth of Experience, I have some understanding about the photography and image.
On the one hand, as author suggests, photography is more like a database, a formation. I think it is an interesting idea because when we think carefully about the relationship between the data and photography, we can figure out that every image represents something and tries to explain, to tell, to record — a way to express something for the audiences but also restore the information about the moment. In the past, photography can be regarded as a “producer” due to making and pictures; but now, it is more like an appreciator, translator and narrator due to its characteristics. Photography is more like a creative project: we add our personal experiences, emotions and intentions to form it. During this process, photography is not the result only but also the way from brainstorming to the finished picture.
On the other hand, not only the creator (narrator) makes connection between the reality and their photography, but also the audiences. The photographer tries to add personal symbols in the picture, but audiences have somewhat common emotions or feelings about the image, which means the photography connects audiences to evoke and to resonate. I really agree one sentence in the article: “If today the important element is not ‘what’ information but ‘how’ information is delivered”. Generally, the creator tries to make senses in the image, and they aim to “making of meanings” and at the same time the audiences need to feel and put the photography in context to analyze. (like culture, background, environment, political situation, society, etc.)
What is more, personally, I think the digital technology changes our life. Nowadays, digital technology promotes greater ease in editing than analog photography, because it transforms photographs from objects into data, and digital imaging technology theoretically disrupts previous notions of the indexical connection between photographic images and “reality.” Marshall McLuhan describes the impact of new media with the phrase “the medium is the message.” Digital photography recently challenges the historical belief that photography is representative of reality. But have viewers’ perceptions shifted in relation to theoretical discussions? While digital affects the theoretical notion of the photographic index, these theories overlook the appearance of the image and the social applications of transparent lens-based media. Viewers continue to read digital photographs as representative of reality, a function images maintain despite the transition
from analog to digital. The notion of the photograph as index relies on the physical and chemical processes that constitute the medium. Photography nowadays is more like what the creator wants to show instead of taking picture at the moment.
Finally, the tool and technique for photography changed from camera to mobile phone and some other technical tool. With digital technology, it is arguably easier to edit and create images of objects that never existed in reality, thus casting doubt on the reliability of photography’s connection to the real.
2. As for the image today, I think the following image is a good example to show.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pJB2Y54MFa3HMbLw_XqP1gUDRO9ZSiHD
From the image, there is a contrast between the entity and shadow – I try to express the different between the photography and reality, and to show the characteristics of images:
a) Images present information, which is like a database. From each image, we can figure out the information and story behind it;
b) Images can be deceptive. Sometimes, photography is a way for creator to “make a meaning” and show what they wanted instead of the reality. In the past, people tried to record the moment but nowadays, image can be a tool to tell something, a narrator to make a story; The perceived connection between photographs and reality has always been ideological;
c) Image evokes the emotions and feelings for both audiences and creator. Some of the emotions can be common and pervasive, but some are not due to various experiences and subconsciousness from different people.
While the process of reading photographs is influenced by the context of the image, just because a photograph is created or distributed with digital technology does not negate its indexical function. People make the image from feeling an object, and then observing, recording, adding their own thought, and finally creating it with the meaning. With the development of modern society, we need to use a new sight to evaluate the image and the function of it.
What is an image?
(Social images)
Author!
What is an image?
Visual representation, picture of language, memory, experience, evocation, etc.
*Relationship:
Experience/mental – visual/equations/poetic and literary/sounds – experience/mental
(the device sparks similar experience and emotions to somebody else)
????
Imaging technologies
Also has the connection between image and technologies – prevalent worldview
1. Medieval representation
2. Renaissance perspective (lines and vanishing points: we are the center! Renaissance perspective conveys powerful messages about the new place occupied by human in the new world)
3. Photography – industrial revolution (daguerreotype; we are simply provide to make it happen; it is reality itself)
*Photography: image = real
OBJECTIVITY! We can be certain that sth is real and existed.
-Documentary photography
-Scientific photography
-Police picture
What is an image today? And what do our images reveal about our world?
(why the image placing us in the world today?)
Week 4 – Class notes
When we talked about the photography, there is a part suggests “image = real” which means we can be certain that sth is real and existed. However, I think sometimes the photography lies. The photographer tries to make and create something to make you believe. For instance, nowadays people like to take pictures and post them on their social websites. Sometimes, it is sth they create for others to believe, and the image is not real.
During the lecture, we discussed everyone’s “image of image” for a long time. And the interesting thing is that people response differently. Therefore, I think when an image sends the message to people, people sometimes have different emotions towards the image. THe reason may be deep subconsciousness, personal experiences, knowledge about the subject, and so on.
Weekly Challenges Week 5 – The image of the image II
Newhive is still not working for me, and I use Google doc again, here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jvAueAoEOjW0ZNp6L1SdN9KrVlF6Ik_-/view?usp=sharing
Lonely.
After seeing a lot of my classmates’ work, I can see that their interpretation use a lot of elements like “continuity” just like the elevator and ballet dance, “transparency” just like man waiting for the train, “delicate” just like the flowers, and “blue sea or water” which is the symbol of sadness.
Week 5 – Class notes
What is an image?
(Images/power)
*Established definition?
-Define us (social media)
-Translation vs Narrative
A B – C
Express mental photo (narra/trans)
*Time is important
Photo
Autonomous – detached from function
1.Scientific
2.News (rules are different, capture in time)
3.Weddm
Photo vs Image
(art + tech) historical
Media [real] ?
Dissemination
Power of image
How image can be use today?
Words – allow indea to endure through time
-Information VS Art (what makes an image Art?)
Art is about finding who we are – navigate the journey
“The recognition and rejection of new forms of control”
Week 6 – Class notes
What is an image?
(Images/power)
In the beginning, we discussed the purpose of our assignments for this class, and we concluded that the assignment helps us to figure out the image can be a language to associate something (feelings, emotion, etc)
*(use the image as an language) Language – associations
e.g. Chair
Naturalness
Visual – sound
(connection, how far we wanna go and how we push it)
Illustration
Abstraction
“falling”
Guy Debord
Artists: – images: what is our power?
Image – oppression (control)
(Image can also do sth for freedom)
Freedom – images – control oppress
*Tucker Sharon
Homework: portrait of your classmate
Week 6 – Weekly challenges (Midterm reflection)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16au7awphv630K2YwOj9PiqrKxCwh9M2g
My portrait of Ophelia (Yingqiu Zhao):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vwX9L3P3lUtXoLkAT6anOiaBg1A7S36Z
And I will modify the first part this week.
I think blue is Ophelia’s color, because when I looked at her social media, I felt that she is a girl who likes traveling and photography. When I met her at the first time, I felt she is quite introversive but later I found that she has her own inward world. Therefore, I use the waves to represent her passion and enthusiasm.
What is Technology?
(Technology and humanity-humanity?)
In the beginning of the class, we discussed part of the midterm reflection, which is the poster and portrait we did in last two weeks.
-How photography evolved from science to art
-Images have the power on us (transportation, deception, privacy issues, expression of personal value and commodation’s, etc)
-Images in words: poetry (Poemas – David Huerta: Incurable) cannot be translated. We do not understand what he is really saying but images come into my mind
-Can images change society?
-Can art change the world?
One interesting in the lecture is that we start a debate (or discussion and idea sharing) in the idea that “what is image, can art change the world, and what is the difference between image and sound? ”
Personally, sound is a trigger of image, but it is not image. Image for me is more like a visual thing. Texts, visual (motion), and sounds can be language translated to image to express and represent, but these words themselves are not image.
Then, we discussed the multiple media (specific ways) to express art. When we want to express something, there are many ways to express like sculpture, printmaking, photography, how do we choose and which way is the best choice for the feeling and expression?
During looking at some reflections, one of them states that “Everything can be art”. I agree that everything can be art based on the understanding of “can”. It means everything has the possibility to be art, instead of “everything is art”.
“Can”?
-theory/idea/concept
-viewer?
Futurism
(Russian futurism)
Art can change the world. Using the technology to solve.
-video: “reality can be altered at will. You are what you want to be.” (The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the internet)
Remaining term
Text, sound, visual, footage – collage! to create and respond question (TECH)
ART | WORK
http://newhive.com/manopb/visa210-art-tech-freedom
Week 08 – Class Notes
After the spring break.
I really enjoyed today’s class (although I’m tried due to the jetlag) because our classmates share quite opposite but interesting opinions in art and images.
What is art, and can everything be art?
What is image, and can we include sound in image?
Week 09 – Weekly Challenges
I tried to present two version simultaneously in class because of the two side of technology. When I created the work, firstly I consider the relationship between technology and human beings. Do we human CREATE technology, or technology is already here for us to DISCOVER? I am really interested in this topic.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WUGXgKO992id1fl-Ef2j4Sa1gzs7TXJP
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16Dr7iviyzioSzlvEDBuVGj9Y8_iW5gHz
Personally, I prefer the idea that there are many technologies in the world but now human just explore a small part of that. And there are many technologies will be discovered many years later. Therefore, I still think the topic of technology is still UNKNOWN for human. Therefore, I created something unknown (looks like organ maybe?) or hard to describe. The two version are same but in different color mode. From my point of view, technology benefits us but also can be very dangerous for us.
Week 09
During the class, we shared everyone’s work in understanding of technology. I really like sharing the work at the same time because sometimes we have some new discovery. (e.g. sometimes the background sound of A’s artwork affects the B’s)
Human culture and technology are continually co-evolving in a dynamic relationship. All technologies develop in a particular cultural context as the result of changing needs or constraints. But once developed, a technology changes the culture that gave it birth. When a technology spreads to another culture, the cultural context affects the speed or way in which the technology is adopted and how it is used. The diffusion of technologies to other cultures changes those other cultures as well. The changes in culture that one technology creates may then influence the development of another or different technology.
Week 10 – Weekly challenges
Relationship between technology and our life.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zxF_Uweh1l1sXNjW6VnUvDmqloVDudFr
I made this image because of the game in Steam called Portal, which
stimulates players to make portal to go through.
As you can see, there are two kinds of portals: yellow one and blue one. And when the girl puts her hand into this yellow portal, another yellow portal will show her hand, so does the blue portal. And the gun in the right side is a tool to make portals.
In my opinion, Portal is symbol of technology, because the sense of space. And I hope these manipulations could allow people to think of the relationship
between the reality and virtual world, just like what phone bring to us.
Week 10 – Class notes
For today’s class, we shared the idea of how technology (especially phone for some works) affects our life both in positive and negative way. And some of the artworks caught my attention. To begin with, the text on the phone. Maybe the conversation is for the couples in long-distance relationship, and they just talk the things without listening to others. Sometimes, a hug or a meet is the best way to solve the problem instead of texting on the phone or use the technology because others cannot feel your emotions and feelings. This work explains how technology impedes us in the daily life.
Another artwork is from Ophelia — she print out all the photos on her instagram in a long strip. Really a LONG strip, about 500+ hundreds of photos during about two years.. Technology, like phone, helps us to record the daily life things, to record the moment. From this aspect, it really helps us to define ourselves.
During the class, people define technology differently. Someone said that “it is an invention by human”, and personally I think technology is existing for human to discover instead of inventing. And I regard technology as a method, a platform or skill, to help solve the problem, and to serve the goods and services. There are two points I found interesting in class.
The first one is that “when we use the phone to record the moment, it interrupts the moment”. Should we just enjoy the time instead of recording it, or just recording the moment although it may changed the feeling we got. Another thing interesting is talked through my work, about the social media. Social media allows us to decorate ourself, and people TRY to, PRETEND to, WANT to show the positive sides (or the things he/she wants to show) in the social media and public through technology, and hide the things they do not want others to see. Is it due to the raise of the technology, or it is no relation to technology?
Week 11 – Class notes
In this class, we discussed the main questions in this semester, from image to technology and humanity. Through personal ideas and videos shown in the class, some of the questions are clear now.
-What is image? Representation, visual exp, mental imagery, mental representation, can be sound, picture, phrases, words, extending of our relationship to other things. Anything allows the access to speak to sth else. Images are very central to our understanding to world. Reach out there and within to.
-Relationship between imagery and history. Image can change through history. With the moment relates, and culture we exist. They persist, from Renaissance or old days, we know the past from images. To power. Our relationship: we can control the way people feel about world.
-World and image. The way of being the world. Image reflects our relationship to the world. Continuation to reality. The way of being the world. Image reflects our relationship to the world. Continuation to reality. How people see the world. Reflecting how we see ourselves. We shape people’s mind and social relation.
-Information vs art. Images with more artistic aim. Image like tourism picture, suggests happiness. Image of hero, the revolution, is the symbol of freedom. (E.g. Kandinsky – maybe the universe maybe the inside, maybe both. We have no ideas)
-Can we or artists change/affect the world? Image can change society (e.g. smoking) but cannot change the world (e.g. climate change). Sharing image is related to power and money. Image could be more useful for those in powers.
-Relation between image and technology? Technology allows us to make images, like camera. (e.g. invention of photography) We photography everything changes. Images depend on technology. Technology affects the way we see the world (no painting can showed). Life in relation/depending to camera. Technology changes how we create image, waiting for us to reach out. The way affects image itself and means of dealing with reality.
What is technology? A method, a technique, skill, tool to help our life easier, to produce the goods and services, or a kind of knowledge. (e.g. science fiction movie – “A space Odyssey, the dawn of man”, to reflect the humanity and life) Emerging new possibilities. Our humanity is connected with technology. We can use the technology to improve our conditions.
(e.g. Koyaanisqatsi part 6/9 use of images) We live in technology and dominated by it, in a large machine.