Artist Talk: Rebecca Phillips "Women, Machine and Gendered Cross-Currents in photography 1850-1925"

Amelia Van Buren, Woman draped in veil, 1900

The art talk by Rebecca Phillips focused mainly on the role of women in photography's history. The main argument of the talk was that women's role in photography from 1850 to 1925 was a very small one but a very powerful one. Women's role in photography was mainly based on portraying the stereotypical activities of women through photography. Women were not aloud to use photography the with the same freedom as men. There were restrictions on what women were able to produce as photography. Also it was hard for women to have their photograph seen as art. 

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936 

The talk began with Dr. Phillips introducing the invention of photography. She introduced the Daguerreotype and the Calotype as the first forms of photograph. After introducing the basics about the invention of photography, she introduced each of the major woman photographers from 1850 to 1925. Some of the more influential woman photographers were Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, Lady Clementina Hawarden, Julia Margret Cameron, Dorothea Lange, Frances Benjamen Johnston, and Amela Van Buren. 

View from the Window at Le Gras, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, ca. 1826

I enjoyed going to this talk because I was able to learn a lot about the role of women in photography. I was also able to learn about the struggles that women had getting people to take them seriously and to look at their work as equal to a photograph taken by a man. This talk opened my eyes to what life was like for women and how hard it was for them to be taken serious as artist. 

Artist Post: Charles Cohen

Charles Cohen is a digital artist from New York. He was born in 1968 in New York, New York. In

1990 Cohen received his BA from the University of Chicago. In 1994  Cohen traveled as an exchange Student to London, Uk, to attend the Royal College of Art. In 1995 Cohen finally received his MFA, with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design. From 1997 to 1999 Cohen was in a Core Fellowship Program at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Cohen creates art using photographs and removing the subjects from the photographs. The artworks he makes have an implied eroticism to them. You are not able to see what the subjects are doing or even what they look like, but the viewer is able to imply what is happening. The photographs are typically of strange places. these places are either strange in themselves or strange compared to the acts of the subjects in the images.   

The images interest me because of they way that they play on the viewers "dirty mind". The same image shown to a young child would not evoke the same emotion or even be read in the same way. This same principle may be true if one were to show these images to a person from another culture. The image above could be read as a woman simply sitting on a couch. The entire idea behind the images that Cohen creates is that they are culturally influenced. There are many different ways to read the artworks that he creates. 

Blog Post: Reaction to "Identify Yourself"(Language of LOL)

  This post is about the new "internet language" that has come to be in the new technological age. The invention of these many different acronyms has become a new way of speech. The author of the article believes that this new way of speech is vital to the evolution of language. She uses the example of old english as a way to show that language can change to become more accessible and easy to use. 

  I agree with most of what the posts talks about. I think that the new internet language has created a new language that is easy to use. This new language is something that gives us new ways of communicating emotions. There is not word to describe the emotion you feel when laughing but the new word LOL is able to capture that emotion in a single term.  over all i believe that internet language is an advantage to society and a new emotional way to express feeling that we were not able to express before.

Vector Project 

Artist Post: Helen Huang (Vector Artist)

Helen Huang, Also known as CQcat is a digital artist born in china. Huang was always interested in art and design. Growing up in china, Huang was told that artist or designer would not be a good occupation to invest in. This idea led Huang to pursue a career in law instead of art. Huang quickly realized that this career was not for her and moved to the US to get a masters degree in Advertising. Huang always knew she wanted to be in a creative field. This desire led her to make the switch from lawyer to designer. 

Huang's experience with digital design came when she and a friend decided to create a Chinese language learning Flash site. When creating this site Huang had to begin learning all the design software that she needed to create graphics for the project. Huang taught her self how to use the software and tools used in the design process. Huang is now a full time designer at an interactive ad agency.

Huang starts with a pencil sketch on paper and then scans her sketch on to her computer. She uses dual monitors to work from because they are more convenient for working on complicated projects. Once the pictures are scanned she uses illustrator to create her image. All of Huang's images have to do with woman and fashion. Huang wanted to be a fashion designer when she was younger and carries that passion on into her work. She is currently working on a children's book. In the future Huang would like to become a professional fashion illustrator for magazines. 

Rose Line Drawing 

Musical Interpretation Drawing 

6 Portrait Photographs 

Artist Post: Charles Csuri 

    Charles Csuri is a digital artist and professor at Ohio State University. Csuri was an "All- American" football player for Ohio State. He was on the path to becoming a professional football player. Csuri turned down offers to become a professional football player so he could study art at the graduate level. After school, Csuri went back to teach at Ohio State University. Csuri's interest in digital art push his to create groups that worked to study and learn more about this new and growing art form. Csuri founded the Computer Graphics Research Group, the Ohio Super Computer Graphics Project, and the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design.

         Csuri began his digital career as a researcher. This research has been applied to flight simulators, computer-aided design, architecture, magnetic resonance imaging, visualization of scientific phenomena and special effects for T.V. and film. creating a massive influence in the field, he moved to computer animated films. He made several computer animated films and even won an award for his work if animations. Csuri's work is know around the world because of his interviews on the Today Show and CNN. He also was interviewed in Sweden, England, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, and Japan. Csuri's first recognized pieced was made in 1964. Csuri originally had an interest in painting. Many of his works reflect his painterly style. Csuri used digital art as a way to challenge the way the world thinks about art and it purpose. 

Illustrator Practice

Project #1

Artist Post: Nam June Paik

  Nam June Paik is a digital Artist originally from Seoul, Korea.  Paik was one of the first video artists to enter the art scene in the 1960's. Named "The Father of Video Art" Paik had his first one-artist exhibition at the Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, Germany. The exhibition featured prepared television sets that altered the look and presentation of the television sets. Paik was one of the first artist to use a portable video camcorder. Paik is famous for many of his interesting television manipulations such as, his sculptures TV Buddha, and TV Cello; and his installations TV Garden, Video Fish.

  Nam June Paik was born in 1932 in Seoul, Korea. His family was a very wealthy industrial family. The Korean war forced Paik and his family to leave Korea in 1950. He and his family first moved to Hong Kong then Japan. Paik Graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956. After graduation Paik moved to Germany in pursuit of his musical career. It was there that Paik first met John Cage and George Maciunas and became a member of the neo-dada Fluxus movement. After his first successful exhibition in 1963, Paik moved to the United States and landed in New York where he continued his career in Video Art. 

  The work that interests me the most of Num June Paik is his Art that involves music. I have always believed that music and art have the same principles behind them. When art and music are combined they create a piece that is even more powerful than either could be on there own. Paik did a lot of work involving music. His very first exhibition was a show called Exposition of Music – Electronic Television. In this exhibition he had four ‘prepared’ pianos, mechanical sound objects, several record and tape installations, twelve modified TV sets, and the head of a freshly slaughtered ox above the entrance awaited visitors. Another musically inspired piece he did was called TV Cello. This work used three television sets that displayed the performance and other professional cello performances. Charlotte Moorman played the one stringed cello as it displayed the performance. 

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3670

https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/tag/nam-june-paik/

https://rewired09.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/nam-june-paik-exposition-of-music.pdf

http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/91669/tv-cello

Photo Corrections 

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Scanned Photo Collage

Different Types of Scanned Images

Pixel Project GIF

Technology Log- 1/24/15- 1/25/15

  For my technology log I kept track of the different electronics I used over the weekend and how many hours I used each of the devices. I will order this log by the device I used the most to the device I used the least. Keep in mind the hours are rounded to the nearest whole number. Also I typically use more than one device at a time. 

• Cell Phone- 23 Hours 
• Laptop- 10 Hours 
• T.V.- 6 Hours
• Ipad- 4 Hours 
• Lab Computer 2 Hours 
• Blow Dryer- 1 Hour
• Straightener- 1 Hour 
• Microwave- 3 Min.

  For a typical weekend I use 57 hours worth of technology. My cell phone being the number one advocator for my technology usage, helps me to realize the real impact technology has on my life. I can not go anywhere without my phone and I am not able to do the majority of my school work without my laptop. This dependence on technology has really encouraged me to try a weekend with out any kind of electronics. This would be nearly impossible considering the impact technology has on modern life. Another factor to consider is that I have not included the devices we overlook every day such as, lights, heat, running water and all the other simple devices that we use everyday. Technology is a huge part of everyones life in this modern culture. 

Artist post: Heather Phillipson

   Heather Phillipson is an artist from London, UK. Phillipson attended UWIC and Central St. Martins where she studied Middlesex-art and aesthetics, drawing, and fine art. Phillipson is an accomplished artist whose work includes sculptures, moving images, text and sound that all work together to create a visual phenomenon new to the artistic world. Phillipson is also an accomplished poet. Phillipson keeps busy with poetry readings at universities and cafes all over the UK. Her artwork has been displayed in many different venues in the UK and here in the USA.

  Her artwork uses many different kinds of media to deliver different messages to her viewers. Phillipson created an art form that transcends the viewer into a whole new world. Her work involves the viewer by inviting them to use multiple senses to experience the work. Her scenes involve sounds and music, large areas and objects that the viewer must travel through and around, and also invites the viewer to feel the objects and interact with them. The following link will direct you to a site where her pieces are explored and experienced though the lens of a camera.  http://vimeo.com/user2806103/videos

   My interest in the artist came from the whimsical transcending quality of the scenes she creates. looking at one of her art works is like falling down the rabbit hole into wonderland. The artwork uses a multitude of different ways to intrigue the viewer, such as sound, video, and sculpture. The way Phillipson uses sculpture in her work is very unique. Most of the objects in her piece have an objective quality to them, but at second glance none of the objects are exactly as they seem. This adds a subjective quality to the artwork. The projected video also adds to the subjectiveness of the piece. The projections that are used in her piece, the flavour of cooling enormities, add to the idea that each object could mean exactly what it appears to mean or have a hidden deeper meaning. Phillipson is able to draw the viewer into her new world and capture their mind and imagination in a whimsical garden of objects, sounds, and projections.

 Sources:

• http://rhizome.org/editorial/2014/jul/29/artist-profile-heather-phillipson/?ref=journal_p8_post_readbtn
• http://www.heatherphillipson.co.uk/
• http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/park-nights-2014-heather-phillipson-flavour-cooling-enormities
• http://vimeo.com/user2806103/videos