ASSIGNMENTS

CryptoPunks

self portrait

The CryptoPunk that I created reflects myself while also altering and simplifying what I look like using pixels. With using the online software Pixilart I tried recreating a basic profile image while using the originals are as inspiration. I tried to keep the three-quarters style with a simple face, using similar techniques like the nose, and lips I tried to mimic some of the other portraits. I think my eyes are different and that’s because I wanted to mix the eyes with eyebrows in the sense that it’s different with a full head of hair that takes up a lot of space on the grid.

Using simple colors that don’t pop too much was to try and create a more pastel color scheme instead of using super bold colors. Larva Labs states that “The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters” and I wonder what that algorithm looks like. I think that while many of them look similar, there also is a lot of room for growth. But having that guide and looking at them as inspiration was very helpful with my process.

With creating this self-portrait I think that the two words I kept thinking about were how attainable these are and why they are so valuable when it was so easy for me to make my own, I understand that artists make money, and then if its popular piece, then there are renditions and other merch printed. But because there are so many of these about 1,000 why is the value still so high? The youtube video by the WSJ focuses on educating the audience on why and how to view NFTs and but also the way they work. While making renditions of them is not allowed because they are one of a kind they cannot be resold as a token but on other online platforms. And so our class discussion about the value, their worth, and also what assets and contracts they hold can differ. I think that’s what amazed me is that every NFT can have different agreements within that selective artwork.

The article Is The Internet Good Or Bad it concluded with the topic about technology and how the “Internet technology lets us peel away layers of divisions and distractions and interact with one another, human to human” (Tufekci, 9). We can look at cryptocurrencies and how this allows us to profit but also get into uncharted territory where ideas of what is right and wrong are not as clear. What happens if you have money and cannot use it? What happens if you are in debt and what is this business really like? Whereas It’s Just the Internet! Appropriation in Postinternet Art states that “Hacking, copying, appropriating, and sharing are common artistic practices…” and so while you cannot respot or create artwork that is similar to an already existing NFT, you can resell items that are not the digital file.

So now that I have a better understanding of what an NFT is and how cryptocurrencies work, will I invest or get into this online platform. Probably not, but it’s super interesting how many artists do sell their work online and how to create renditions of their work while still remaining under the strict agreements that some of the NFTs have.

Artist Report

Olia Lialina

While we are just a small part of the universe, a blip in time and making a small impact in our world, we have the ability to impact what happens in the future. In our world today many people have access to technology and the internet. Some idea and thing that man kind has created. The world wide web is a place where we don’t know what quiet happens, many people just end up using it for pleasure and fun. A place to post and research work, search and look up answers to people’s questions and explore what we actually have access to. But what is that, we aren’t really sure. But one artist is known for co-founding Geocities Research Insittude in 2013 and her name is Olia Lialina. Lialina also founded the first web gallery in 1998 and is known for her internet art browser piece called My Boyfriend Came Back From The War (1988). This black and white broswer is filled with different layout of shapes comprised of images and text. While there are different ways to explore this story you end up a the same page no matter how many different ways you navigate the site. This story is about a couple shown through gifs and how the male returned from war. The female brings up the topics aobut cheating, marriage and how she brings light to how we might perceive this ingormaiton and what point of view we look at their relationship at. It seems the most of her work encompases the viewers emotions and their reflection of her work. Being able to view her work as a whole, the two projects that stood out to me were Some Universe in spring 2002 and Gravity created in 2003. I think looking at these two shows together creates this idea about our world, space, and the place we inhabit as humans. Our universe is large and each individual person makes up a small part of it.

Some Universe finished in spring of 2002 is created with one of the most common themes in art and photography which is stars. We see that the multiple images including stary night backgrouds are used and explored in different ways creating shapes, movement and a story. Russel says “Remixing is an act of self-determination; it is a technology of survival.” (Russel, 98). And we see that though similar design choices in how some images are presented. But this piece was also created to inform people that internet art is possible, and how others should explore this medium. I do admire that this piece is a favorite to many even through its so simple, its one of my favorites because of the fluidity and simipliticyt of the art. I admire her work especially this piece because she was so new to this medium and no one before her had explored the world wide web like she did.

I also chose another piece called Gravity created in 2003 a year later to create a dialogue between how similar yet different they are. Since the topic about space is so intriguing to her I thought this would be a piece where we can still see that she is exploring how browsers work, what can be accomplished with them and what you can put on the web but also how does a viewer interact with it and respond. This piece is simple and straight to the point where there is a rocket and its able to move with a user moving a cursor up and down. The effect is that the rocket is able to take off and my perception is that there is a message about when teh rocket is in space, there is data being transmitted back to Earth to the moving satellite.

The artist that I want to compare Lialina’s work with is Penelope Umbrico. I found that her recent art is based on planets and the sun using different mediums like websites, digital media and imagery to interact with her audiences. Her process includes taking images from online databases and creating a collection of work and a conversation between different photographers and what they have captured. Two pieces that I throught would respond well to Lialina’s work is Sun/Screen (2014) and Everyone’s Photos Any License (2015-2016) because they reference the universe and how the sun and moon are a small part of the vast galaxies out there. Sun/Screen focuses on showing us a 25 minute video about how a single channel video can show us images of the sun from a computer screen. And how does someone view that screen, what do we pay attention to and does the screen change the way we look at the sun. With a screen we see pixelation and a variety of colors to produce an image. In It’s Just the Internet! Appropriation in Post internet Art it says that “Net art and internet art cannot of course be defined simply by the technical changes in internet technology throughout time. Art is part of social structure and as internet art forms keep changing, their historical context is continually re-evaluated.” (Christou and Hazas, 128). So how does that change our view of the sun through a screen, I’m not quite sure myself. The next piece Everyone’s Photos Any License is Umbrico’s signature style of creating a collection of images, this time its the moon. Using a photo sharing website called Flickr she took images from 654 different photographers and addressed how someone might achieve an image of the moon. How does technology change out bow of the moon, how do we take photos using gear, and how deos the moon’s color influence our reaction of seeing an image the moon.

Overall we see that both artists particular pieces are about space, time and what is not really tangible in the sense that we don’t have a whole lot of information about whats in the universe. While these artists come from different backgrounds these four works of art allow a viewer to look at them from a similar stance and point of view of our world. Being able to look at similar content and forming questions about the world we live in.

Glitch

three before and after glitched images

Project: While choosing these three images I wanted to create a conversation between the images talking about how we see other people in the world. Where we might see people we don’t know, what does people watching mean, and how do we perceive others in a public setting?

Paris Couple Eating

This was the first image that I decided to glitch and it was the inspiration for this small series of images. I use my own photos in a lot of my work so this is where it all started. I was drawn to the intimate conversation between the two people. Two years ago I was able to travel to London and Paris through DU as an interm program. While walking around the city we stumbled upon this secluded and quiet restaurant. At the time I just wanted to capture the scene and the greenery of the patio seating area, but then realized that I wanted to capture this loaciton and it would be an intresting image to change and develop. With the pink and green tones, we can see that the pink is replicated in the alteration at the bottom. Once I started glitching this image I started to get an array of lines that were making intresting connections. The smaller frames that are created make the viewer clue into certain sections of the overall image. Personally this change makes me think of how I did change the memes in the previous assignment but also tried to keep the essence off the origional. I think this glitch does enhance the original image in a way where you thoughts are able to expand off of the unusual images crating new thoughts of what is happening and how these two people lives have changed due to the alteration of the image.

Barcelona Street Scene

Looking at this second image we can see there are many more people walking the streets in Spain. I was interested in which people were taken away or put into a different location when altering this piece. With both iterations of the scene, we can see that I was replicating small sections of the image. Small sections are copied and pasted vertically changing the sidewalks and streets but also where trees are cut off. This image was taken in Barcelona looking down from one of Guadi’s famous architectural buildings. I took the image to capture the life of people in Barcelona. What are they doing? Where are they going and in this sense I was watching a scene from a movie. Observing from above but never had contact with them. So when I was modifyling the image I think that replicating parts of the building was part of my process of watching certain people pass through the area, looking at another group, but then still focused on the peoples progress of where they might have gone. I think that change is intresting in this sense because its not like we are looking at a video game or a glitch in the system of creating avatars like our last reading stated. We are human and not living in a virtual world where a 2D image represents us. These people were actually walking around in the city but we know very little about their day.

Venice People Watching

The last image that I chose is a photo that I look when I was ren years old in the city of Venice in Italy. I was sitting at a cafe with my family for a snack and I had my camera. I decided that capturing the city was my goal and that people watching is more intresting in other places. The first iteration of this image is broken up by the sky, yet the buildings are in the same place. The people are cut off and cannot be depicted anymore. The second iteration of this image focuses on breaking up the image but adding the sky horizontally while layering where the people end and the sky starts. For me this is the only image that I glitched that is horizontal and it does create a different emotion/reaction. We are able to see people is a timeline sense, they are walking off the page into another story. But in this one their bodies and the landscape is kind of unrecognizable. With this change these particular people are anonymous to the world, we cannot recogine them and they leave a small trace for us to follow and infer what they will do next. So with that it relates to our writing piece part two during week three where the first part of the article talks about a digital remix of people without them being known. And how in a sense these people are not real because there is no emotion of further part where we know who they are and they are just bodies in this image. Nothing more and nothign less because we don’t know who they are.

Meme

A conversation between three images.

Meme (commentary & contexts)

Over the course of the past five years memes have been prominent in my lifetime. While I learned what they were, how they were used and then what I use them for, it's a new way of expressing an emotion, reaction or how I feel to others. That is what I use memes for and I’m not sure that will change moving forward. The two memes that I have chosen were first, one I recently found out about and discovered in around the fall. It’s the “this is fine'' meme with the dog with a burning fire inside the house. Not only did I relate to this meme I also played the What Do You Meme game and our answers were hilarious. The second meme that I also learned about in the fall not from the game, but from a group of friends was the shef meme. I think that in college it's surprising how many small daily things you complete like cooking that makes you feel like you’re doing well in life. So these are the two memes that I will be analyzing and diving deeper into why they are my favorites and how I use them in my daily life.

While these two memes are not the most popular I feel like they are well known and relatable to people around my age. That is why I chose them not only to show my thoughts but also allow others to feel what I am feeling and maybe share the same emotions as a college student. They are so similar in the fact that many people in their 20’s are going through a stage of their lives where there is uncertainty and growth where you have to accept certain paths and choices you are given. The “this is fine” meme really has caught my eye due to the emotion and deeper meaning that you are in a situation and you have accepted the outcome. There is nothing you can do but to accept it, move forward and know that there is little you can do about the situation. For instance this dog is in the kitchen I presume. Drinking coffee in the morning and the house is burning down. The dog just wants to enjoy the morning but the fire has ruined it and there is nothing to do but sit there and contemplate the situation. For me situations like friendships, homework, working a job, even things in your life that just happen you have to just sit there and be like well this is happening so let’s move on with it. While that is not my thought for everything there are things where I feel like I am the dog in the meme. The shef meme is similar in the fact that I am in college and at the point in my life where I’ve been cooking for myself for the last few years and it feels like an accomplishment. Especially after a long day of classes I start to cut vegetables and make a meal and I feel like a chef even though it’s a simple meal. In my perspective I feel like it's the emotion and accomplishment factor to where people do simple things and they are like “I’m a chef” or “I did it!” kind of aspect.

Lastly, bringing some readings into perspective with the topic about memes when Shifman said “...is the meme concept useful for understanding digital culture?” (Shifman, 363) I think that yes, we are able to understand a lot about the generation using these memes. Not only can we get a perspective of how they feel, how they make light of things, how humor is used, but we can try and understand where they are coming from not with text but also with images. And because we are able to see images the “... memes’ impact is on the macro: They shape the mindsets, forms of behavior, and actions of social groups…” (Shifman, 365) we are allowed to see how different groups of people use memes, how they differ from other parts of the world and if there is a relationship between the same meme used in different cultures. By looking at the billions of memes created in this century we can see how memes progress over time, if the humor and emotions change but also what they are used for and how in our daily lives context. And we will look at that so that down the road we can see the “Misconception of what's really going on? We think that the only personal information they have about us is.” (VPRO, 2019, 02:13) and thinking bigger to how we think about a certain meme versus someone else. By someone's background and past how does their brain process and use this meme versus someone else? And that quote from the Youtube video where Zuboff talks about surveillance in our lives, what data does the sharing of a meme create? And how might data collectors take that into consideration when creating an ad? For example if we look at the shef meme will someone's phone produce kitchen appliances or cooking ads? There are so many questions but these two memes are used frequently in my life to express my feelings to friends and family.

Meme Remix

With these memes I wanted to create a cohesive conversion between the two. Where before they were just two memes that I enjoyed to see and talk about with my friends or reference because of events that have taken place in my life. These not only are funny and still relatable, but feed off one another.

Both the remixed memes address trying new things in life and doing activities on your own, in this case making food or a drink. The dog meme “This Is Fine” not only addresses and comes from a stance that you wake up in the morning. Your day is just about to get started and so you want to make coffee. So then you use a keurig for example, and it all backfires to the point where you are trying to enjoy this cup of coffee but turns out not working and you’ve burnt your house down. Then you sit there in the dining room and accept the fact that this is now your life and you were just trying to do something positive in your life but this is the end result.

With the shef meme I just wanted to alter the text instead of adding on more text like the previous meme. This is because it's more of a stand alone where this kitchen can be used to create many sentences. Altering the content wasn’t a big choice that I wanted to go through with, it was more about what context this chef would be in and how the viewer would respond. So instead of the water building, I decided to say from my point of view as the creator that as a college student cooking is not always fun. Sometimes you end up being so tired from activities and school that you just want a fast and easy dinner. And so you might come to the conclusion making frozen food. But this meme shows that for once you actually made a meal from scratch.