so my final project changed...

What I want people to get out of this project now is that we can all be consumed by our imaginations and fade into this other world which is utopic to us.  In this case, the alternate world is one where everyone shares, and can change into lush forest landscapes.  When woken up from this, reality is a brutal, unfair mess that can make you depressed and wish you were back in that other world.  I also wanted to play with irony as well.  When in the utopia, the boy gets a tomato from his clone, and thanks him.  The clone responds by saying "have a nice day".  This phrase is also seen at the end when the guy in the business suit tells him his house is foreclosed, ending with a formal "have a nice day" that is just a closer for his visit.  By paralleling these two moments it suggests a sort of omen to the boy's downfall, which is completely unfair, but portrays what life can really be like.

Thinking about Final Project

1. What I would like to remember from conversations with classmates about the final project are some ideas that they brought up to incorporate in their own projects.  For example, I learned how to put video clips from the internet into my flash animation.  Also, I got some compliments for the idea that I had for my animation which also helped.
2. I want my piece to be important in the sense that I will show how a state of mind can transform into its own reality or be implemented in the real world, but that drugs can hinder real beneficial change in the world.  People that actively pursue their dreams can make a difference, unlike taking too many drugs and burning out.
3.  By doing this animation I am pushing past just the animation of words, and creating an actual meaning.  I am pushing the boundaries by showing that a state of mind can represent an actual state, with its own flag and currency.

"Drum" analysis

1.  What I learned from animating the sentence, "Emotions tear this drum apart", is that I could actually capture a sort of emotion from the moving words and pictures.  From having different kinds of emotions move in specific ways around the word "emotion" I was able to show how these words have characteristics of themselves.  By animating "tear" I get across the word tearing in half, and by the word "drum" flashing on the screen it encapsulates the beat of the drum.  By showing the drum tearing apart and tweening into a beating heart, I could capture what I meant without using words. 
2.     If I were to polish or modify this, I would make the words "emotions" bigger, and bring in "tear" with it so I could be more clear to the reader.
3.     If I were to start over, I would use less white space, and show a drummer passionately ripping the drums apart by pounding on them, while words spray from the drum.

Functions of the self and art

In some ways I agree with Biggs that a function of art is to confound what we make of things so we can see things in a new way we haven't considered before.  By doing this, one sees the relationship between the object and his or her self, and how this relates to other objects.  I can see this sort of art being experimental art, using different techniques to experiment with perceptions of objects.  However, this isn't something that is seen in all art.  Some art takes an object and portrays it in the same way it is actually seen, showing the skill of replication or representation.
Creativity and communication work together by defining a sense of self.  By using novelty and creativity we give ourselves uniqueness and a chance to express ourselves in a new way.  By communicating, we share these ideas with others to form even better ideas, creating a stronger sense of self.  By communicating  in a creative way through text, this can show a sense of who is speaking through the text, showing the reader what the identity of the author is without distinguishing the author from the work.

"Drum" Short Animation

Short Animation Comments

After the feedback I got, I realized that the statement I'm trying to make may confuse the reader a bit.  I need to make a clearer distinction between tear (as in crying) and tear (as in rip), and why this is important to understanding what I'm trying to say.  I will add a shape tween to the picture of the drum turning into the word, a picture of a drumhead ripping, and the last part will be a beating heart.  Another possibility is to show someone actually playing the drums passionately, but that may be a little too hard to do.  Also, more motions will get my point across, for instance words "beating" like a heart or drum.

The Many Faces of Albert Porta (Rough First Draft)

Albert Porta is known by many names, for instance, Evru and Zush, different personalities created by this psychomanual digital artist and artsciemyst.  Porta has stretched the boundaries of art by combining mysticism, digital art, and psychology to create new worlds of his own.  Albert Porta has come a long way from his first sculptures that he created in the 60's.  From moving past sculptures into the digital realm, he has created new identities for himself in the process.  A constant theme in Albert Porta's work is the claiming of personal space mentally or physically, and showing various ways to portray the human body.  What I find most interesting is that this artist gives a sort of autobiography through his art by using a variety of characters based on people in his life, as well as revealing experimental self portraits.  Also, through his creation of new worlds, such as Evrugo Mental State, we get deeper in his mind.  Albert Porta uses many interesting colors in his work, for instance green and pink, to capture a sort of neon, digitalized world with psychedelic figures.  There is a sense of darkness in his work as well.
             Evrugo Mental State is a creation of Albert Porta's that defines the space inside his mind.  He uses a new alphabet, currency, and even a flag to represent this mental state.  By using digital media and tangible props, it seems to get at a universal state which reveals a mystical establishment that awakens a personal reality to who we are.  He provides a complex and confusing map which cannot be read without understanding his alphabet which he also provides.  This map consists of a large brain in the middle, with eyes and several craters in it.  The flag is a brain with an eye in the middle.  Although these symbols don't explain much, it is up to your mind to comprehend what this state is getting at. 
            Another creation of Albert Porta's is Tecura, a digital painting device in which images and tools made by Porta can be used by the user to create he or she's own work of art.  This is interesting because it shows that Albert Porta really understands the creative potential in everyone to become their own artist, that art can be seen and developed within all people.  Albert Porta shares his art with people in an interactive way, giving them the chance to express themselves as well.
             The content and way that Albert Porta shows his work are essential in understanding who he is.  By saying he is a artsciemyst, that is, an artist scientist mystic, we can see that he is interested in science and mystical spirituality, much which is portrayed in his art.  There is no other way for Albert Porta to get across his artwork in another medium.  He has gone from paper and sculpture to digital technology, which he now resides.  His earlier works with sculpture are interesting because it shows tangible objects using standard tools which people are familiar with.  But, realizing that his artwork needed something more than this to define itself, he changed to digital creations which emphasize the mysticism and science that his work took on. 
              The content is most specifically seen as the human body, and creations done with the human body to show the interactions we have, and what makes us unique.  For instance, the umbilical cord is prominently seen in some of his works, which show a connection with birth, or a connection with what makes us whole and nourished.  In my work, I want to come up with unique ideas that symbolize a deeper meaning to them.  For instance, by trying to make my own, personal world within the animations I create, people will look at them with different viewpoints and come up with a conclusion on how I or others look at the world. 
         

www.artreview.com/profile/EVRU
http://www.evru.org/

"Between the Academy and a Hard Drive" Response

"…writing can be seen, not as an individual personalized achievement, but as a series of strands in a larger social-spatial textual fabric (the network).” (175)

This quote reveals how the network, containing various works from many people in itself, changes the way one percieves writing as a personal acheivement done by the individual.  This draws lines between what we talked about in class with networking, and how there is no specific author or linear path in this kind of writing.  Many ideas and different texts get thrown together into a conglomeration of spatial writing, making it impossible for their to be one sole writer responsible.

Glazier compares this "large social-spatial textual fabric" to jazz by saying "it points to a sometimes jazz-like cacophony that sets the stage for the outburst of material properties to illuminate the site of the text." (175)  What he might mean by this is that the tools used aren't methods to realize a project but expand the imagination to become part of the project itself.  These tools such as morphing programs or animation formats help form a new intelligence to be born. 

Plan for the Final Project

Something new that I want to try and explore in this final project is the concept of creating a sort of new world with animated text and pictures.  By this I mean that if I were to create a world called for instance, "Delirium", I would show the effects of being in a hazy, drugged out mental state through pictures, motion, and strong words that vividly portray this other world.  I could even create new words that are formed only in this mental state.  The inspiration for this would be Albert Porta who created his own world called "Evrugo Mental State".  Another inspiration would be William Burroughs.

The main reason why I want to try this is because it would challenge me to think outside the boundaries of what is thought of as animated writing, and stretch it to fit my own original version of experimental writing.  I don't exactly know what I'm going to do yet, but I have disconnected floating ideas thus far.  In doing this project, I don't want the animation itself to be too technical, but I do want to put much thought into the actual ideas that will make up the project.  I am not very good at animating text and pictures, so I may need help on some of the basic tweening involved. 

By doing this project I will learn how to think outside the boundaries of animated writing and create something more original.

Conversation

"Aesthetics of Digital Poetry"

While reading "Aesthetics of Digital Poetry" I pondered the idea of networking and how "the death of the author" is now actually happening in the postmodern world.  From writing on this blog, and looking at other blogs, I see how networking changes the way text is presented.  It is nonlinear, redirecting to comments people make on wall posts.  When reading a book, there is a distinction between the author and the reader.  The author has a more specific role of presenting their work while the reader takes it in.  In networking, there is no specific author.  People can write back and forth, both taking turns of presenting ideas and critiquing them.  In blogging, for example, work is presented in a less formal way, spitting out ideas that have accumulated in the course of time beginning with a certain topic.  I agree with the author that there are still such things as authors in the digital writing realm.  She says, "nevertheless, I think authorship definitely still exists, albeit in a multiple form: initiators who open up the project frame, programmers, e.g of text generators, open author groups without individual assignment of authorship, etc, as well as the continued existence of individual authors and identifiable author groups."(51)
Not only is the one who writes the blog posts responsible for writing ideas, but the ones who post comments are as well.  With networking, anyone, it doesn't matter who you are, can post writings and comments.  In writing on paper, there is more of a process involved.  For example, to get published one must be educated and write what publishers are looking for.  Publishers pick and choose what the best works are.
Writing on paper is more of a personal experience, where only the reader who has acquired the book can read it and comment in the margins of the pages.  With networking, anyone can read blogs, and their comments can be posted for all to see as well.  The article also talks about how digital writing is now "free game", by copying, pasting, and manipulating.  This deems copyright laws insignificant in the digital culture.

Thinking about my short animation

Right now, I am thinking about a drum, and all the visual qualities of it.  I am thinking to my self, if a drum were to morph into words, what would they be? I want to capture different kinds of music and different tones within showing images of different drums.  At the end of this animation I want the beat from a drum to transform into the beat from a heart.

Independent Research Project

The artist that I find most interesting is Albert Porta, who creates his work through two alternative entities.  These two entities are Zush, a psychomanualdigital artist, and Evru an artsciemyst, creating very new ways of looking at art.  Alot of what he focuses on are ways to represent the human body, and using disturbing or experimetal psychedelic images to tap into the mind.  One of his most interesting works is "Evrugo Mental State" where he creates an entire state with its own currency, emblem, and language using different pictures of the brain and eyes as symbols.  What I like most is how Albert Porta can create new worlds and ways of looking at art through his experiments with it, for instance he even put on a tattoo performance where someone tattooed a line from the base of his skull down his spine.  The movements of some of his digital art create a sense of ominous darkness, and his pictures are mainly of humans and their connections with others.  He uses alot of imagery with the umbilical cord as well. 
What I want to learn from Albert Porta is his thought process of how he comes up with such interesting ways to create art.  My goal is to start creating my own world in an animation that is based off of something real such as the mind or pleasure. 
For this project, my goal is to spend alot of time researching, and not waiting until a few days before the project is due to get started. 
I will continue to look at why Albert Porta creates art under different entities, and how he makes different stylistic choices.  From reading a bit about him, he considers himself a mystic, which is interesting to see how this influences his work. 

Response to comments on "Drift"

The most surprising things in the feedback I got were suggestions on how I could make it better.  For instance, one person said that I could make the ocean part like a dream, transforming into a person falling asleep at the wheel.  Many people liked my hand drawn pictures as well as the movement, which was good. 

If I had more time, I would add more of a plot or storyline to the animation, maybe even putting a poem in there with the word "drift" in it.  I also wanted to put more action regarding drift in as well.


What I want to learn about flash is how to be more effective with tweens, and portray movement in a more realistic way.  I also want to express more metaphorically about the words I use in the animation.

Drift

Tangible Art

The most important concept that I grasped from Johanna Drucker's "Visual and Literary Materiality on Modern Art" was that the poem is autonomous, no longer dependent and representing something but is its own reality, its own thought.  She starts out by talking about the importance of Symbolism in the development of art, making it no longer a representation of thought on paper, but a visual experiment that challenges the way it is portrayed.  It challenges this by becoming its own thought by the way it uses space on a page.  A very important example of this is Mellarme's A Throw of the Dice by challenging the poetic form of the poem, making it Symbolist art. 
When we talk about "poetry" we have to gain an understanding of what makes it "real" as well as how it relates to other forms of art.  One of my favorite quotes from Johanna Drucker's essay is "Differentiation and negation, a sense that poetry was in part defined by a contrast with what it was not: this harbingers the typically modern definition of artistic practices as self consciously situated within the cultural contexts where they gain their identity through contrast.  Such a definition marks out the activity of resistance as a fundamental task for aesthetics (Drucker 51)."  In this quote we see the inherent personality of poetry no longer representing but becoming a tangible idea; the idea of resistance. 
It was hard to follow Drucker's analyzation of Mellarme's A Throw of the Dice, but I think the main point to be taken out from this was that it was a great example of how the form and visual outlook of the poem plays a large role in its tangibility, and transformation from imitation of thought to thought itself.
Personally, I agree that poems have now taken on a tangible form of no longer being representation.  By displaying something that visually enhances the outlook of the poem, this brings it into a new realm of being, by no longer trying to be.  By this I mean that it gives less of a representation of thought, and more of the idea that it is actually thought itself.  This is very difficult to explain, but in sum, I feel that the way words are experimentally presented change the writing into something real.

A new way of counting as I watch the moon

When I first read the poem, "Counting" I thought it was just another cheap way along with other experimental poems to try and gain recognition from nonsensical pairings of words without any deep poetic meditation on life, and pass it of as art.   As I read it several times, I got to thinking, a poem doesn't need to have a stanza form with long lines expressing life.  It can be a clever new way to look at words as well.  What I think Alastair Reed was trying to do with his poem "counting" was to display words with similar endings in a list to represent counting.  When I read it, it was as if I was counting myself.  It was as if I was counting in another language like French or Spanish. "Ounce, Dice, Trice" has a similar ring to it, reminding me of Un, Deux, Trois.  It was interesting how various words that semantically don't make sense together work well in syntax.  When you read the beginning, the words sound simple with one syllable, but when you get towards the end it works its way to three syllables, becoming more complex.  The words he chose flowed very nicely like how counting or the alphabet flows well.  The main reason why this poem works well is the form of having it be in a list.  In this way, it not only sounds more like counting without being rushed, and it visually looks like how numbers or letters should be displayed like in the numerical system or alphabet.  I feel like this poem would have more of an effect if the words in the poem all made sense together semantically as well.  Tell me what you think.
               I really love how "Ask Me for the Moon ::  Working Nights in Waikiki" was presented.  After the title, the poem starts with darkness, and fades into what I see as a horizon of ocean and red lights flashing back and forth resembling towers.  The words flow into each other, reading, "step out to look at the moon, this is what you see".  At that moment it flows into the Waikiki skyline, showing a horizon of buildings at night.  The poem then unravels, words fading out and connecting into new lines of words, expressing life in a city of exhaustion.  As we get deeper into the poem, the buildings fade out and leave us with a small turquoise box with what resembles a person in it, and then it fades to a sign that reads "Waikiki", a palm tree background, and words at the bottom of the screen that you can click on.  This poem is completely interactive, taking you into new worlds with each click on the screen.  Each part of "Waikiki" has something you can click on, bring you into new realms of information about parts of the poem or reveals new parts of the poem itself.  The words flow so beautifully together and express working the night shifts in Waikiki as well as how sad he is that his homeland is being exploited by corporate tourism and capital wealth.   I think the reason why John Zuern presented this poem in this interactive way is to bring you into the world that he is in while meditating on this poem.  It makes the poem so much more emotional presented in this way rather than just words on a document.  Also, he is able to explain why he used some of the lines or words that he did while citing other sources or people in the process.  I would really like to hold onto the sort of visual way he presents his work to you, making the reader, not the author, choose the navigation through his poem.

Transformation of Writing

When I think of writing I think of the written page, the novel being the ultimate end to what writing is.  When I write I keep in mind a plot and a setting, along with form.  However, Bernstein points out the fact that writing did not always exist for the purpose of being documented and kept permanently.  Writing was once an aid in memory that was intended for a larger end.  Bernstein shows a different way of interpreting writing by focusing on the production and transformation of writing rather than the storage of the written word. For example, Bernstein says, "the means of language and cultural reproduction always become a means of production and variance, as what is "stored" is transformed by the means of its imagined storage--so that it is a matter of morphing more than storing"(508).  However, the fact that one form of technology of writing changes dramatically or replaces another is false.  Rather it does "shift the balance and writing registers the change"(508).  By technology of writing I mean alphabetic, oral, and even digital which have changed the shapes of writing over the centuries.

Drift

Analyzing "Blue Velvet"

"Blue Velvet: Re-dressing New Orleans in Katrina's wake" explores in every direction the complicated set up of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  The way the project is set up is nonlinear, combining music, maps, and an array of information shown through a display of words breaking apart and combing with new words taking you deeper into new realms of information.  It is important how complex and nonlinear this project is shown to us because the authors want to convey a mood of chaos and darkness to the reader, showing the growing rates of structural racism in New Orleans as well as how the tragic events that took place could be traced back to neo-liberal practices in the United States. 
The authors of this piece hoped that people would leave with a better understanding of what is happening in New Orleans, as well as leave with a dark mood, a sense of shock at how America works and what was at stake for New Orleans.  The fact that words like melancholic and neoconservative fall from the top of the screen suggest the sad state that New Orleans has fallen into.  The dark gray background and floating words on the waves seen on the main page suggest a dark mood and the haunting of Hurricane Katrina.   Charts on the Bush tax cuts and percentages of the social class of Hurricane Katrina victims drift by, evoking a haunting message as well as a scholarly view of struggle in New Orleans. 
A traditional approach to this outline of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina would not be as beneficial as a nonlinear, more chaotic approach because a nonlinear approach serves as metaphorical and more interesting than just words on paper without movement and music.  For example, the structural racism in New Orleans seems to come in and out of view, mostly hidden by the news just as words seem to disappear on the screen.  Words and charts flow by to give a visualization of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 
The most intriguing parts of this work were the falling and disappearing words, as well as the nonlinear path that the information takes.  I could be exploring the project all day, finding new realms of information at each click and turn.  The drifting charts make the information more scholarly and real rather than claimed evidence in rhetoric.   The moving background with various shades of green and blue capture a sense of motion on water very well.  The whole presentation captures your eye with words falling and drifting every which way.  In my own work I would like to capture the eye with various motion techniques as well as invisible words that pop out after being within sight of the computer mouse. 

Fly

I really enjoyed the animation of the cursive f turning into a butterfly, flying around and spelling "fly".  I found it clever to spell a word that resembles the letter at the end.  Also, turning the f into a butterfly was clever, knowing that a cursive f looks like half of a butterfly.  What I want to learn on Flash is how to make my letter move around even more.

the Power of S

I made my short animation resemble an S turning into a snake because the personality of a snake is similar to the letter S.  For example, both seem to sneak around silently.  I made the S grow into a snake instead of flow into a snake to show the power of the letter.  The letter S grows to engulf most words in the English language. 

Planning for the Project

For my first project, I plan to show a small "s" growing into a large snake who eventually screams or regurgitates something in the end.  My reason for this is to show how it defies the label of being the silent letter by showing up more than any other letter in our alphabet.  It turns into a snake because i associate snakes with a silent, sly personality which also can be attributed to the letter S.  I feel that even though the pronunciation of the letter seems almost silent, it can be forceful in some situations where words begin with S such as Sun. 

S is for Silence

Tracing back the history of the letter S, I found that it first came about through the letter sigma in the Greek alphabet.  S is known as the symbol of silence by the Romans from the sound that comes from S when spoken.  First resembling the letter W by the Phoenicians, and the letter f in Old English, the letter S transformed its shape throughout time to resemble our modern day letter.  It is now one of our most frequently used letters in English. 
What interests me about this letter is the way it is shaped.  It has curves which are opposite of each other yet symmetrical.  Also, I find it interesting that it is called "the silent letter" when it is one of the most commonly used letters in the English language.  The S resembles a snake, whose personality is silent but deadly.  By showing an animation of an S turning into a snake, I feel like it could help others realize the potentiality of this letter.  
http://www.alphabetandletter.com/S.html
http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/Letterseries/index.htm
http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2006/07/long-and-short-of-letter-s.html

the Sly Slithering State of the letter S

The first thing that pops into my head when I think of the letter S is a snake.  Snakes fascinate me with their mysterious and intense state of being, causing me to imagine that letter itself as a slithering, creepy thing sliding across the page with its coils.  It doesn't matter if it's uppercase or lower case, both have two curves that are exactly the same yet facing away from each other.  The letter S is ready to strike while it still retains its composure, a symmetrical masterpiece sticking out on the page through its smooth personality.  The letter S can be forceful if it has to, but mostly spends its time calmly making words flow.  I've never seen S extremely happy, it usually rolls around in sadness and a placid state of peace.  It is the most human letter I know, seeping out of mouths as it's spoken and is constantly around words to add a sense of plurality and peace. 

Wrestling with Words

As a writer, I am deeply interested in the psychological and philosophical aspects of the mind, expressing dark imagery and life questioning messages in my poetry.  Most of my poetry is free verse or in sonnet form, basically unraveling my thoughts onto paper as I sit and think.  I play in a band as a drummer, so much of my writing deals with beats, whether it is poetry with rhythm in each line or actual images of beats(a beating heart, beating a drum, etc.).  I am a very passionate person, so when I write, I use strong imagery to portray the emotions I am feeling at the time.  I think hard about each word I write on paper, which makes writing a complex yet fascinating art for me.Writing is my only way of really expressing intense emotion and description.