Visual Lecture #1

Bret Holmes

Digital Media ART 245

Visual Lecture #1

3/6/12

            For my first lecture I attended a visual one by a University of Nevada, Reno graduate of 2003 named Ariana Page Russell. This lecture was extremely interesting for it brought new aspects of thought into my life. The entire presentation is about her artwork, which is done on no ordinary canvas/medium but rather her very own skin. Ariana has been diagnosed with an extremely severe skin disease called Dermatographia in which the skin is highly sensitive and red, swollen lines appear at minor injury. Most cases of the disease are very minor but her condition is of the top severities. Since the pain is not an issue Ariana decided to play around with the disease and as an artist combine the two. Use her skin to make art. Some of the work was fascinating but others I did not like at all. She began by first writing texts on her skin and on all areas. Her disease spread all over making the possibilities of what her skin can do infinite, I personally enjoyed the texts she wrote. Out of her 40-picture slideshow two of them were of texts and close to my favorites. She also began by connecting certain points on her skin to create what looked like mimic constellations. I was intrigued by her skin, amazed at the fact that she can draw and scratch such an irritated skin condition without any pain. I thought that the idea of her work was marvelous but something was missing. I believe it was color. She used every shade of skin color possible and all tints of red that skin color can appear. However, during the presentation I thought of an idea. For the ending to the lecture she portrayed a movie in which she took a sharp object and made designs on her body showing the audience how fast her skin swells up. I thought to myself, it would be extremely interesting if a professional painter painted her body first, leaving areas alone that, when aroused, would create the perfect shade of red to complete the piece. The parts I enjoyed the most were her wallpapers that she created from skin and pigments of skin. Plus I truly enjoyed her making of temporary tattoos with her artwork. In the pictures she displayed the artwork looked well done, with much effort and time put in. The part I enjoyed least were the videos she put up. They were both rather boring and seemed to me quite meaningless. I thought the ideas she put onto her stomach were creative, but overall some parts are missing to her artwork.

Disc. q's 3/26

1) - Why is relating war and tactical media so important? WHat tactics can be used to exploit tactical media in warfare, and if so, how are they utilized to be "successful?"

2) - How do certain tactical media techniques relate to war as a whole, or to individual frames and aspects of warfare itself? What role and how big is the role that tactical media represents in such warfare in the wave of technology driven by our era?

First Video project 2nd Edition

After the creation of the first video (in a previous blog below) i wanted to tweak some things and make it better to my satisfaction. While this version is not the completed one i intend to create it is still a solid reference point in the overall process of the project. Enjoy

First video yee 2nd ED

Intervention Website

I Chose to remake "The Dirty.com" I hate this website and everything it stands for. So i took the time to make the complete oppoisite and what i believe it should be, "The Truth.com"

I am not very satisfied with the finished product for the simple fact there are countless tricks i could've used but am unaware of so this is the best of my abilities. I am unhappy that i am given such an assignment and not taught the tricks and accessories to Photoshop.


Original website :   The Dirty

Art is Art as Art

Pre- I was extremely nervous for this project. I had no idea what i was doing and how/if this would work. I have to admit i was pretty excited to finally be able to create a video of some sort completely on my own.

Post- I am very satisfied with the work that resulted. i was able to do almost everything i wanted too, except for a few video transitions and filters. In the future i would love to edit the video and fix/adjust these minor obstacles and make my first video work exceptional to my standards and expectations. I hope you enjoy!

-For the audio i used Robert Irwin's documentary called "Primaries and Secondaries." It was the first 1:27 seconds of the video.

http://www.ubu.com/film/irwin_primaries.html


"I feel that Art is everything, art can be created on anything, and art is why everything is here. Art is art as Art and everything else, is everything else... But those two are 2 closely related in my eyes for this statement to be 100% true."

Discussion Questions #2

With so much emphasis on the mediums artist must be faced with, does the fact that the forcing of having to use these new mediums jeopardize an artist work? and if so, how can this be conquered? i see that the use of painting can be much different if needed to travel through television.