Final Project - Cut Up Method

The Westboro Baptist Church, and one of its leaders Shirley Phelps, are known to spread the hate of God. They believe that everyone is going to hell and that it is their duty to bring God's message of hate to the people. This church is not open to other religions, lifestyles, or ways of life. In this mashup I created, I decided to give Shirley Phelps a more positive view on life. I gave her the message of love instead of hate. Using her own words, she will now preach her new thoughts and views.

Watch on Youtube

Mashups

After using the cut up method for a project, it got me thinking of what else this method is used for. The use of mashups is in every day life. Here are just a few examples of what I found

Speech Mashup

Global Mashup

Pla(y)giarism

If you were to create a piece of art work and tell your friends that you got the base of your creation from another artist they would tell you you stole someones idea and that your work is crap. If you were to tell another artist the same thing, they might call it appropriation. My belief is that if you change something great enough, it's not stealing. If you were to give the art work enough of a change that it gives the piece a whole new meaning it seems appropriate that you can call this work your own. If the art work is available to you, then the original artist is almost giving you free range to do what you please. I know I would be upset if someone took my work and presented it as their own, but that seems almost silly to say that your work is your work only. If you don't want to create art for others to see and be inspired by, don't put it out there. Just keep art a hobby. We've talked about in class before how no creation is truly original. Ideas have been repeated over and over again throughout time. It's hard to say that your one idea is the only one that will ever be so grand that it doesn't inspire others. To me if there wasn't appropriation, then there would be no inspiration.

Cut Up Method

After reading about the Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin I learned that the cut up method is practically everywhere. It talks mainly about film and writing. Film for example can have many different interpretations depending on how the film is shown. If you cut it up and rearrange it it can have a completely different message. It can go from advising teens not to smoke to showing that all teens grow up to be smokers. There is a point made that all works of writing are made from the cut up method. A writer doesn't sit down and instantly have a 300 page book in his head. Writing is just a collage of words. The cut up method is seen in everyday life. It ranges from movies, to commercials, to shows, to anything on the internet, books. It is everywhere and we are all influenced by it.

critique

Creating a website was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Since I turned my project in I was unable to receive any criticism. Clearly not having my project turned in on time effects my grade, but it also effects how I create work and hoe people perceive it. I can't just assume that people will understand my message. It greatly helps to have an outside opinion. Critiques are an important part of creating work and I missed out since I didn't turn my project in on time. I did however learn a few things through other students projects and understand different things about hyperlinks. The direction I can take my work now has more options.

project proposal

For our final project we have been asked to create a remix. I've done one of these before and was completely interested in it. I mixed together two of my favorite songs as well as about five music videos. This time the project is a little different. This isn't just learning about how a program works and creating an entertainment piece. We have been asked to use the "Cut Up Method" to create a video or still image that has a completely different meaning. Since I am a lesbian and embrace the homosexual culture I've decided to take bits and pieces of videos from members of the Westboro Baptist Church and piece them together to give them a new message of embracing homosexuals, all religions, and all people. The message that they claim to bring is love and warning, even though it is full of hate and ignorance. I plan on giving them the message of love and acceptance. I'm going to gather as any videos as I can to edit them together instead of just two or three videos. The end result I hope to show them in a good light with a message they should have been bringing all along.

Can we change the future?

As We May Think

The article As We May Think, written by Vannevar Bush is about his view of technology, resources, and science. He is almost predicting the future in this article through some of the things he is talking about. He takes a long time to get across that with the needed resources provided along with mass knowledge, there can be a way to improve the technology that we have. Bush speaks a lot on photography. He is predicting that there might be a way somehow that to gain photographs, there will no longer be the need for wet photography. He states that it started out that way. You would start with a wet print, then follow through with dry process, so there must be a way to eliminate the wet process all together. I found this to be the most interesting part of the article because I, myself enjoy digital photography. This article shows that with a knowledgeable thought process, we too can predict the future, or have a part in creating technology to help man kind.

Motion text - critique

This video was made in Adobe After Effects. This was my first time using After Effects and I found it difficult to put into motion what I would have like to see my text do. The point I was trying to make through my text is that as I approach graduation I feel like I'm being bombarded with many questions about my future that I'm not ready to answer yet. These questions feel like pressure that I have to succeed right away and I'm not sure how I want to approach my life yet.

The critique that we had in class was very helpful. I saw my project as being nothing close to where I wanted it to be, but was informed that even though it does need some work, it's not as bad as I thought it was in my mind. I have taken the criticism well and have ideas how I want to change this video. I'd like to slow the whole video down some; it went much faster than I wanted it to be. I'll add more questions, maintain some pressing speed, and change the color to a more brighter true red. I would also correct a few motion mistakes. I found the critique very helpful in seeing where this project could go.



The video ends around 30 seconds, NOT 1:30

Art and Design

To have art without design is almost impossible. Design is everywhere including composition, theme, pattern, ect. Obviously in a text class design is important; it helps the viewer to decide where to direct their eye. Design can determine if your work is comprehensive to others or a big ball of confusion. Other than a text artist I think Kehinde Wiley does a great job with design. He takes a person that he meets on the street and asks them if they want to be a model for his work. He then has them pose as a figure that they find in history books. He creates these contemporary images with an influence of period pieces. His work would not be as creative without his design. Luckily enough for the students in the text and publishing class Wiley is featured in the Toledo Museum of Art collection.

Deborah Bright: Artist Talk

Being able to hear such an accomplished artist speak about her work was a very pleasurable and great opportunity. Since Deborah Bright was giving two presentations at the University of Toledo she decided to share on Thursday more of her earlier work rather than the work in the CVA gallery. Her theme was landscape and reclamation. At first I didn't really know much about her work and how it could relate to our Text and Publishing class. Since she is a photographer you would think that unless there are words written on the photo there really is no relation to our class. As she presented her work and explained how it is displayed you realize that text is a large part of her pieces. She talked about how some of her photos were paired with the name of who first owned the land deed of the location she was shooting. She also spoke of her new work briefly and that it is presented with a paragraph or so explaining history behind it. In all her work was very interesting, I just wish we would have been able to see in more detail some of her later work.

OMG MAP

The base of this assignment was to make a word map using the technology of today to link together paths. I've noticed the past few years that social networking sites have started a new type of language mainly throughout the age group of teenagers. This is a shame to the English language, however interesting in the way that this language becomes a way for some to communicate together and feel more apart of something. If an outsider looks at these abbreviations they may have no clue what it's saying unless they ask someone.
The map I created links together these abbreviations, and becomes somewhat of a translator through its design.

Reading 3

All three of the readings we had to review were different in many ways. The only one i was drawn to was the Rhythm Science. Obviously the layout is supposed to resemble a record with the hole in the middle and the music theme of the layout was interesting and brought you more to the point to what it was about. As i was reading it I found that as i was going through the pdf file that as I went to the next page it was almost like a beat was going with me. The pages went from an awesome colored design to print then from print to the awesome design. It had a beat as i turned the page. There is a phrase that became apparent to me as I was just typing that last sentence "Is it live or is it a sample?" and to me the beat felt live.
Moving on to the other readings... I don't even know how Matthew Fuller could stand working and writing with every application open in word. The work was hard to read, however the more that I read it I felt like I knew what he was trying to say. There are too many options for the average computer user and they can be taken way out of proportion to the person who doesn't know any better. He was proving a point with his obnoxious typing.
As for Professor VJ's blog, I have a feeling mine looks the same way almost. Type that is a little too boring to care to read and set up in a way to make you uninterested in the topic.

Critique

Having a critique in an art class is possibly the most essential part in finalizing your work. You could have all of these ideas floating in your head about how you think other people will perceive your work and you think you know how they will feel when they see it. From my experience that never happens the way you want it to. Unless you have an outside opinion telling you how they feel or what they think of your work you would never know. It's always helpful to hear the teacher give you the most feedback on your work because they are the ones grading it. Obviously since we all would like to get good grades you might focus your work on more of what the instructor says. The instructors opinion is just one opinion. If there is even one more person who comments on what they think, that might influence the graders perception. You have to take into account everyone's opinions because everyone could have a great idea that makes your work complete.

I find that when it comes to me to give an opinion in a critique I don't have much to say because I don't know more about the work. I would like to know more behind what the artist is going for so I could give an opinion on what I first reacted to when I didn't know anything about it, then again on what I think after they explain it. Critiques are essential in a class setting and a good idea for when you're stumped.

Just My Type

Reading an excerpt from Just My Type had me reflect on our upcoming projects. From the little bit we read I realize that text really is everywhere and influential on our lives. Each text for any product or advertisement has an influential effect on that product. The creator of these ads and logos has to decipher what kind of image they want to give out to the public. Since text has been around for so long some fonts have very different meanings to them. Steve Jobs created fonts that meant different things to the cities he was in and reflected his feelings into text. Jobs said that the fonts he created, especially the ones based off of cities reflect that cities personality. If you take a font that is meant to reflect New York and apply it to something that is supposed to have a calm relaxing meaning, the feeling is going to be awkward. Putting text into an art form will clearly have this same effect. Font choice is just about as important as the original message you are trying to give with your idea. Now as I reflect on my projects and try to decide which font to use I'll put into thought what kind of reflection I would like my text to make.

Garden of Forking Paths

As I was reading Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges I found it to be confusing and random as to why this reading was assigned. As I continued through the work I discovered that the person I was reading about was some sort of spy or agent with information and was trying to escape the capture of another man. Through series of events to get him there, the character ends up at a garden/labyrinth and is led to a book. Told to be written by his ancestors he is told that this book in infinite. He tries to figure out on his own how a book can be infinite and cannot come up with the correct response. He is guided to find out that what makes this book infinite is a riddle. Different paths taken in the book provide different outcomes. After finishing the reading I was unsure still how this was related to class in any way. After looking it up on the internet I finally realized that the book written can take you one way then another, just like the internet. If you read the book one way you can be shown beauty, if read another, horror. If you click on a hyperlink it can take you to a website about education, if you click on another it can take you to a website about world destruction. This The Garden of Forking paths represents the choices we have and make every day.

ART 4010

THIS BLOG WILL TEMPORARILY BE DEDICATED TO ART 4010 *DIGITAL TEXT AND PUBLISHING