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.

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.

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

LIST OF ALL FILES

Please remember to TAKE A SCREENSHOT OF THE RESPONSES YOU GOT FOR YOUR “SOCIAL MEDIA” IN_CLASS ASSIGNMENT TODAY - and bring those screenshots to the final.

Also, bring all your files from the semester for me to collect. Collect them all in one folder with your name on it.

Please follow this naming convention:

You should give them filenames like this:

"(2-digit project number)-(your last name)-(project title).fileextension"

So if your name is Jane Smith, and the project was the self portrait, you would name the file:

01-smith-selfportrait.jpg

If you have more than one image for the project, append letters (A,B, C):

01-smith-selfportrait-A.jpg

01-smith-selfportrait-B.jpg

All the files should be flattened files.

And here are the project titles I'd like you to use.

1. Digital self-portrait, from three scans:

01-lastname-selfportrait

2. Text/image combo project (at least two versions)

02-lastname-textimage-A

02-lastname-textimage-B

3. The response to the collage artist

03-lastname-collageresponse

4. The "composite" project (something small made large, or something large made small)

04-lastname-composite

5. The "fake news" project

05-lastname-fakenews

6. The "multiple me" project

06-lastname-multiple

7. The Fair Use Project

07-lastname-fairuse

8. The Illustrator Landscape or Portrait Project

08-lastname-illustrator

9. The Brushes Project

09-lastname-brushes

10. Lulu Book Project (six interior pages)

10-lastname-lulu-A

10-lastname-lulu-B

10-lastname-lulu-C

10-lastname-lulu-D

10-lastname-lulu-E

10-lastname-lulu-F

11. Lulu Book Cover

11-lastname-lulucover

12. Animated GIF

12-lastname-GIF

13. Social Media

13-lastname-social

Instragram pixel dimensions

1080x1080

72dpi

For the final, bring all your completed work.

Course Eval link and Final Time

Here's the link for the course evaluation - written comments are particularly helpful:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Lanier_Christian_DART_230_Fall_15

And the final is:
Dec 9th
Wednesday
9am-11am

In the usual classroom.

Work for Today: Tues 9/17

Hi everybody. I'm too sick to make it in today – I do feel better than yesterday, and am planning on being at school wednesday and thursday.

This is my agenda for today – I was going to orchestrate looking over your six pages, and coming up with a title and cover image for the book. Let's see if you guys can can wrangle that yourselves today, with a little bit of written instruction. Extra credit for anyone who takes the lead on this.

Here's the drill – everyone pull up their six pages on screen, and just go around the room showing off the pictures, just so everyone can get an idea about the content of the book. It doesn't have to be an in-depth critique, just a look at what everyone's cooked up. Maybe there's some "theme" that sort of emerges from all the work that might suggest a title - but probably not.

Have somebody go to the small whiteboard in the room (you can erase what's on there), and brainstorm some potential titles. They can be completely off the wall - you can look at the past books, on the bookshelf by the window, to see what other classes came up with. The best titles, I think, are the somewhat random ones. The worst title was definitely "Moobs." I tried to talk them out of that. But failed.

So - someone should stand at the whiteboard with a marker, everyone should stand in a circle, and just run clockwise around the circle, with each person calling out their idea for a title. This is just brainstorming, no one gets to opt out because they think their idea is lame. The person at the whiteboard writes down the title options. Once everyone has given out a title, you can open it up for people to call out a few other suggestions, or possible combos of the titles that are already up.

Then it comes to a vote. One thing to keep in mind is that a good title isn't just something that sounds good - it should also lend itself to a good, strong cover image. Whichever title gets the most votes wins - and then, spend the remainder of the class having each person create their own version of what the cover should look like, including the title. Same dimensions as the interior – 7.75" square, 300 dpi, with and eighth-inch bleed.

On Thursday, we'll take a look at all the covers, and take a vote on the one we'll use. Second place winner gets the back cover.

Hope that all makes sense. If not, feel free to have someone call me at 415-845-5670. I'll sound like a dying muppet, but can still talk.