Media Arts I – Fall 2017

Articles and Sites to look at!

http://taperedthrone.com/

http://time.com/4275521/gif-photography/

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/nov/20/gifability/

Nat Castañeda (video or gif?)

https://vimeo.com/161659056?from=outro-embed

 

 

For this glitch assignment I pulled three different pictures three different friends of mine posted on three different social media platforms, but they all were pictures of nature. All of these pictures were edited and framed however the picture taker wanted it to be. I want the glitches to represent the appropriation and the manipulation that goes down behind the scenes of every photograph, especially nature/landscape photos. The viewer of the photo will never embrace the true experience that that photographer went through in that exact place and time. Now society is very into taking photographs of everything, but sometimes the copious amount of photographs capturing beautiful views, memorials, historical places, are all getting too manipulated and appropriated that the actual experience isn’t appreciated as much as it was once before. Photographs are amazing, don’t get me wrong I am always taking photos, however I think people should become aware that the photos don’t do justice. My father has always said that photography of landscapes and nature are all just borrowed views from mother nature, and we need to remember/appreciate that.

 

 

These images are from Williamsburg in Brooklyn. I grew up around this area, and my house is about 15 minutes away from Bedford Avenue. I was able to fade out the image and make the photo into black & white.

http://datamoshing.com/2016/06/15/how-to-glitch-images-using-audio-editing-software/

 

This is the APP: https://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/

It came from a story at The Verge http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/13/4726098/glitch-art-generator-snorpey-github

And these glitches can be made manually.

Tutorial on Databending and Glitch Art

 

For this assignment I wanted to involve photoshop and an iconic photograph so naturally I chose our lovely quad, and placed it in a different context by editing in a UFO. Unfortunately, this week I was not able to be active on my social media so I asked my friend Alyssa who goes to James Madison University and my friend from Lafayette, Will, to post it on social media. I told Alyssa to post it on Instagram, and Will to post it on Facebook. Although this photoshop is obviously unrealistic, I really wanted to see who’s attention it would grab and analyze the peoples’ reactions while also comparing the two  social media platforms.

When analyzing the reaction of this photo, I was able to express an argument about social media that has been an ongoing issue. In class we have already talked about how easy it is to edit your photos so much so that the final product is extremely unrealistic. Going off of this argument, I have also realized how easy it is to comment whatever is on your mind almost instantaneously. This is a very dangerous thing, and has gotten many people in trouble.  On Instagram, the comments were unnecessary such as “Hm?” or “hahahah wtf.” These comments were written only just moments after the photo was released, and then after about an hour the photo was forgotten and replaced by new posts.

Although the photo was a bit too unrealistic, the comments replicated the sad fact that the majority of the generation on social media will abuse what is being posted, and not think more into the images than needed to be. I did find a slight difference between Facebook and Instagram comments. On Instagram it was a bunch of static comments that felt like primary thoughts in ones’ mind when looking at the photo. On Facebook, the comments were a little more thought out and crafted.

I believe this seems to reflect the case between the two social platforms overall. On Instagram, comments are just another number. On Facebook, I believe that the comments and posts are becoming more thoughtful and meaningful. People are able to express their beliefs and decisions through Facebook, accepting criticism or growing supporters for whatever you post. I got out of this assignment that although there may be the same photo posted on Instagram and Facebook, the reactions and comments between the two social media platforms differ, the usage of the two social media platforms differ, and the seriousness one may view the photo on Instagram versus Facebook may differ as well

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I posted a picture comprised of three different photos onto snapchat. The three photos consisted of a beach-goer enjoying a nice day, a brick wall, and people walking during the flooding of Hurricane Harvey. The mixing of these three photos together was supposed to symbolize how while there are these horrible natural disasters occurring people are still able to live within themselves and can choose not to acknowledge what is happening in the world around them. The brick wall is supposed to symbolize the dichotomy between the two images. From this post I have heard a mix of responses back varying from “Privilege”, “Nature at its Finest”, and “The water coming to us”. The person who replied “Nature at its Finest” went on to explain it meant that nature was beautiful at its most calm and at its roughest. In all respects though, this picture is up for interpretation through how the viewer sees it.

For my homework assignment I chose an image of Olympic hammer thrower Amanda Bigson from ESPN magazine. The reason I decided to pick this picture was because I believe the media has continually promoted female athletes as thin and objects of sex despite their athletic accomplishments. Because of this many female athletes struggle with body image because they cannot conform to the perfect female body due to their muscular structure. The media portrays sexism in female athletes because men are the primary target audience for sports publications. Female athletes are criticized for their physiques if they look to manly, and this does not send the correct message to female athletes that they need to be their best physically to compete. I sent this out to a few of my Snapchat friends and this confirmed the stereotype. Many gave rude remarks despite Amanda Bigson being a well respected athlete. These remarks were mainly about her body image.

The image I chose was of three children. Two of the children happen to be Caucasian, while the one child in the middle is Latino. I posted this picture on my instagram account and in a matter of minutes I had the attention of so many people. In one perspective this picture displays how society has a stereotype based on skin color of individuals. The child has not even been the world for more than a few hours and the future of them has already been picked. But in another perspective the photograph displays how individuals of certain backgrounds and races have progressed into certain job fields. Historically, people of color have not always have the same amount of opportunities as other individuals in society so they started to commonly work at certain jobs that were easier for them to get hired for. Thus, in the picture the maid outfit is a display of how people of color have placed themselves into certain categories of the jobs they are more than common to work at.