Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Assignment for Thursday, 9/1


Image and text project. You will be making two different pictures, working from the same initial image. Produce an image that can relate to text in an interesting way. Create that image either by shooting it yourself (it can be a staged image, or an image "caught on the fly"), or it can be an image that is collaged from at least three sources (if you want to make a drawing as one of your sources, that's perfectly acceptable -- otherwise you can cull images from Google images and so on).


Using that image as a base, make two seperate treatments of the image, with legible text in each.


In treatment #1, use text that has a sense of "interior monologue." It doesn't literally have to be an interior monologue, but it should have that interior quality -- as if we're listening in on the thoughts of someone -- perhaps the thoughts of someone in the picture, perhaps the thoughts of someone looking at the scene (as if we're looking at the scene through someone's eyes, and hearing their thoughts).


In treatment #2, take the same image and place text in it that has a quality of "exterior commentary" -- the type of commentary one might find in a news caption or textbook, explaining what's happening, or somehow passing judgement on the scene. It should be as if the words are coming from a source that's not participating in the scene -- but commenting upon it from some sort of remove.


Each treatment of type should be distinct, utilizing different fonts and different layout strategies. Think about how the text relates to the image both conceptually (in the manner of an idea) and formally (how it sits on the page, how the shapes of the letters relate to the imagery, etc). Try to be as radically different in your font treatments as possible. For instance, if you have one treatment where the text is all one font, horizontal, small, and in one color, the other treatment might mix different fonts, run the text vertically, large, and in various colors.


You will have class time to work on this project on Thursday. But come prepared with an idea, and with your text and images already selected.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Homework for Tuesday, 8/30

There's a short reading and response due for Tuesday's class -- "To Thine Own Selves Be True, A Review of Sherry Turkle’s Life on the Screen." Write two short paragraphs in response -- print out your response and bring it to class. We will be discussing the article. Though the article is of a book that's "old" in terms of the development of the internet, I think it brings up some insights and issues that are still relevant (and the author of the book under review, Sherry Turkle, is still writing about contemporary digital culture). The article is partly about the way people negotiate or change their identity in terms of online or "digital" culture, and since we're creating a digital self-portrait, I thought it would be interesting food for thought. There are a series of questions at the end of the article you could address yourself to; I'm most interested in your position on the "ominous" scenario and the "positive" scenario -- which do you think has come closer to the truth?

http://www.emcp.com/intro_pc/reading16.htm

Here is a scanner animation we'll look at on Tuesday's class:



Otters Making Music - Elements of Time from David C. Montgomery on Vimeo.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Welcome – fall 2016 Class

Hi there -- and welcome to the blog for the Digital Darkroom Class.

For next class :

Assemble personal materials for scanning to create a digital self-portrait -- be sure NOT to include photos or other images of your physical self. Give some thought to objects and textures that somehow say something about you, your identity, your sense of self. Make sure to bring at least three seperate things (all of them have to be able to be placed on a scanning bed, of course).

Please remember to acquire a jump drive, if you don't already have one -- it would be good to have it for Thursday.

And here are some links to some of the artists whose work I showed in class:

Jill Greenberg
Flickr "Brushes" gallery
Chris Jordan
Alberto Seveso
Andrea Innocent
Emily Eibel (Tomby Illustration)
eBoy Pixel Art
12:31 and the Visible Human project

And the online art communities I talked about:

http://www.deviantart.com
http://www.conceptart.org

Visible Human Project source:



Finding Paths through the world's photos:



The Most Photographed Barn in America



Link to syllabus:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nt40q2sfqa25sn1/16FallDART230-1Lanier.doc?dl=0