Synethesia

What I intended to achieve with my project was provoke or generate thought concerning the phenomenon of assigning humanistic characteristics to things such as graphics, text, shapes; things that may not necessarily seem to invoke such thoughts at first glance. The choice of format, an informational graphic, seemed like the logical way to represent information concerning such visually associated information. I also hoped to present a great deal of information in an accessible way, which is what informational graphics seem to be designed for. In relation to caricature I felt the most obvious and interesting association was the personification of numbers, letters, even general images in the context of things such as advertisement and entertainment. That relates to a less obvious and more focused association to caricature, that being the specific gender marketing of advertisement and media. The overall, but often obvious manner in which a product's packaging, design, textual graphics and context conform and attempt to appeal to the specific gender demographic.

Mural

To write a statement about this mural seems, kind repetitive. Also I think the mural was met to speak for itself. It started out as a misrepresentation of Luz and I and how we are different from the cultures that we look like. However by the end of the project it became more about how we personify ourselves, the grotesque and caricature. In the end I wish it was more about misrepresentation, because I do not like the idea of having how I see myself plastered about eight feet by about six feet up on a wall. Try as I might it did become personal and my understanding of the meaning of caricature makes a whole lot more sense. Especially since I know now that it does not need to be funny, but that a caricature can convey stronger meaning.

let them eat cake

This image was intended to speak about the gluttonous behavior of the upper class in America. There has been the issue of the trickle down system not working to help the lower classes. There are many people in the upper class that feel they deserve what they have as do the poor. The starving children in this picture are not just from Africa, but Romania, South America and the various countries afflicted by the Holocaust. There could have been more references in regards to this issue, but I didn't find it nessasary to beat a dead horse. I feel that this is very clear in it's meaning. I don't know exactly how others feel about it because my crit was not very constructive. At the risk of going off on a tangent, I don't think I will talk about the underlying history of this piece. It is obvious that it talks about gluttony and the dispersal of wealth. That is why there are many starving people and only one fat guy. There is no need to know where these children come from to know that this is real and that it is a monstrosity that this is allowed to happen. I guess to some people it may be old news that this happens, but I don't thin k many people understand the magnitude that this happens because not many look up pictures of starving people to realize just how bad it really is, and some just don't care. This is addressing the issue by using the grotesqueness of reality.

political mugs

My original intent of this project was to create a political cartoon. After many failed attempts at trying to create one, I decided to go forth with creating a mug for those who like to show off their political side. A mug is a personal drinking utensil that can be used to express a person's views. I intended that the political animal that had mounted the other to portray that animal's power over other. For example, the cup on the right portrays the republicans getting fucked over by the democrats. However, I have learned from the critique of others that one mug can be viewed to represent both political sides.. it all depends on how you read it. The mugs were a humorous and crude and even almost grotesque way to go about showing your political side.

This class has made me appreciate political cartoons and caricatures in a way that I never have before. This project has done that too. I never really understood until learning the history of caricatures that they really do have a large effect on society. I now look at a caricature much more conceptually and try to read it to it more, which is something i never used to do.

Is English Your First Language?

Mine and Rachels final came together based off of our situations as Americans. Living a dual life, and having to represent who we are in society. The truth in this situation is that we are all going to die, once we are stripped down, not matter what material status we may have we are made up of a structure so simple- so ephemeral. That after life we transcend and become bones the only sure thing in life. While we have chosen symbols which represent our cultural backgrounds, we have also simplified the main images so that it can be interpreted as any one. We are framed in the American flag, because it represents our interpretation of "American Life." We must fit within this paradigm while still trying to retain some of where we come from.

This was not meant to be a prideful image, or an image of anger, but rather a informative mural about the irony of being "American" these days. Maybe it could be grotesque in a sense that skulls and bones are being used, but the over all subject is one of the underlying influence of many cultures within society nowadays.

I found that after the in progress critiques I understood my own project in a different way. The feedback that was given allowed me to broaden the topic of being a minority, and the rephrasing of my question was given. David, made me understand my mural from an outsiders perspective and gave me a way to incorporate them in an introspective way. By asking the viewer " Is english your first language" the mural opens the doors to the audience and implies that the mural was created by someone of a different culture. This project has given me a bigger view on how I am seen and how the world can be so closed minded and ignorant.

This class has opened my mind into what is considered art and what can be left open to interpretation. This class has also broadened my understanding of cartoons, caricatures and what fine art can really be. I look into the caricatures now for a deeper meaning and even in propaganda- I see the reasoning and try to understand the underlying meaning.

With my caricature I tried to capture a piece of everyday life- stress and restlessness of the end of the semester, and the awareness of summer being almost here. Not sure I managed to get that. I feel like I keep getting pieces of ideas that never quite fall into place.

Alfred, New York, Valley of the Insane

Basically, my project was intened to be a caricature of Alfred, having a laugh at the different stereo types and quirks that make up this town (example: the trashed keystone boxes, art studetns, frat guys...)

I wanted to use sarcasm and irony to connect and pull in the audience and have them relate to the caricature like I did drawing it, in the fact that we all live in this town and understand the various jokes that people from outside Alfred may not.

This class has change my perspective on caricatures and actually value them more that other art that i've studied. I feel like there's so muc thought and meaning submereged in caricature that gets over looked by the public, but I see that now and appreciate the brilliance in caricature.

Internet Posters

My goal of creating these posters was to show the ways in which the Internet has negatively impacted our society, and the ways in which our values have changed due to its affect. The Internet is recognized for all the advantages it brings to us, but we have become so dependent on it that its advantages have in turn made us lazy, and incapable of communicating and socializing in a normal setting. In my posters, I decided to focus on the shift in the ways we value relationships, communication, and education, and how these values have been affected/influenced by our Internet use. In the relationship poster, I presented the question of whether or not an online relationship holds the same value as being with some one in person. In my communication poster, I presented the idea of interpersonal communication, and the lack of one on one or face to face contact with someone. In the poster concentrating on education, I focused on the idea of the great amount of miss information you can receive from Internet sources, and the fact that it could lead you in many different directions, rattling off a bunch of nonsense facts. Through this project and class I have learned that caricature can take on so many different forms, and styles. Some are valued for their complexity, and others for their lack of detail or information. It is interesting to see how caricature can be applied to various concepts.

(image on the right is one of BP's real advertisements)

Caricature and advertisement have been sitting side by side on the printed pages of magazines and newspapers for centuries. Both forms of print media borrowing from each other to create a rubric for success. Each requiring that a single image be loaded enough to push an agenda for political and social views, as well as product lines. My intentions of utilizing BP’s new logo and advertisement campaign of “beyond petroleum”, which is intended by the company to show off its new efforts in going “green”, is in fact anything but that. That said, while ads suggest their endeavors in alternative and renewable energy, today alone they have another 200,000 gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. While they spent 45 million dollars merely buying out a solar company called Solarex which can power 1,600 homes with renewable energy, they have done very little else. In 2007 they built a gas station with solar panels on the roof, so that consumers can happily and confidently gas up their SUV’s using eco-friendly pumps, three years later the solar panels are still not operational. Advertisements have long been using any means necessary to misinform, and misrepresent, information hoping to drill brand imagery into the consumer’s minds that their products will in fact enhance your way of life. It is funny to think that examples from past advertisements encourage starting your children on soda at an early age, that doctors “recommend” Camel cigarettes, and mothers should drink Blatz beer as a source of nourishment while nursing their children. Perhaps we will one day see the ridiculousness of oil and gas exploration and excavation companies touting a “green” theme. While they spout off about renewable energy sources, oil is spouting off into our water- damaging reefs, wildlife, coastlines…I find it hard to believe that these things are renewable, and the lives lost by the their last two oilrig explosions certainly are not. This project was a way for me to differentiate between the use of “truthful misrepresentation” and just plain superficial and dishonest modes of imagery.

Texting texting texting

I also worked on the sound video piece with Nadine which was intended to show the impersonal nature of texting as a form of communication and the misunderstandings that can result from that. We created the sound score by recording people repeating a list of words giving each word three different inflections. We also asked each person to contribute a story of a miscommunication they experienced via text messaging. The video we created to match this score would generally show a visual representation of the score in white words across a black background.

There where two points where I found the film to be interesting. One was the delay between the visual word and then the spoken word which gave the audience a chance to say the word in their head before it was spoken which created a distinction (and surprise element) in how the viewer perceived the word and how the word was actually said. This aspect of the film eludes to how a text can easily be misinterpreted even in a situation as simple as one correspondent is in a sarcastic mood, and the other is in a positive one.

The second point that intrigued me was were there was an unexpected correlation between the story and the repeated words. For instance when one of the speakers was telling a story about how this guy sent her a text that he loved her and she didn't know whether to take him seriously or not the story was interrupted by a male voice saying "mwah "( the sound that we sometimes use to represent a kiss). I felt these layerings added an unintentional complexity to the viewing of the film.

HAHA     can we talk  SORRY

      LOL   BUSY   Sure! 

This project was a great opportunity to study how people relate to texts and texting. How our society can be conversing but at the same time carry with it a heavy undertone which is not even present in the first place through an emotionless text.  Interesting how something so emotionless can create so much emotion.  Our project was a commercial video sound piece which framed this problem surrounding texting and these kinds of communications or miscommunications.