final blog post.

The piece that I chose to look at for a final blog post is the work of Heather Delacruz Stevens, Danielle Johnson,Nathaniel Johnston, and Caitlin Peacher. In their work in the final project they explore retelling the story of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and W.W. Denslow. The quartet engage in updating the tired tale through the use of newer mediums such as digital mixed media and flash movie animations. The use of a time line by heather was something I found particularly interesting and stood out against the rest of the group. By interjecting a time line and allowing ore interaction with the audience the piece becomes more successful and has a few ore corelations to the history of web based art such as Olia Lialina's 1996 piece "My boyfriend came back from the war" a certain ammount of exploration is required to reach the full breadth of this website as well link

Ezra Johnson's Wrestling the blob Beast (1995-2009) link
holds a spot of recognition with works like Danielle's "dorothy"
the bold colors and distortion of shape (almost mannerist in nature) have a sort of kinship in the idea process as well as jeanne Dunning's Tom Thumb, Notes toward a case history link

this project I think relates to the Oz project as far as it's interaction and devices of narrative are concerned.


All in all the "Oz Project captured mt attention and was well executed. it engaged the viewer what more could you ask for in the field of vidual arts , a field where clutter is our biggest competitor.

The website
All my life for sale
is a website devoted to the exploration of material possessions and the role they play in shaping who we are. the man in this particular scenario, John Freyer, invited fifty different people to his home in order to categorize and catalog every material possession in his life. The resulting list of artifacts was put on sale on ebay and thus integrated on the world wide web. All fo the items in John Freyer's life were dispensed with and sold online. The beginning idea was to liberate Freyer and to assist in his mobility. Over time the idea mutated into traveling the world reconnecting with the lost artifacts of his former life. The implication is that somehow we are shaped by our interaction with the inanimate and evolve into the people we are because of the interactions set up for us with our chance encounters with things that don't truly exist ( at least on a level of existence that equals our own.) The website is set up simply with the colors resembling the color schemes of the almighty Ebay. The site is set up much like various online shopping sites of today, except in this case the person question didn't just do some spring cleaning he got rid of everything and still held onto a modicum of his fomrer life through the visititation of the objects .

history of the nike e-mails.

shey.net takes an unusual approach to the task of internet based art. the website follows the storyline of a series of emails sent from Jonah H. Peretti to a part of the huge corporation, Nike. Apparently at some point in 2001, Nike made available a series of shoes that could be personalized by individuals by letting people print their own slogans on the shoes they ordered. Jonah H. Peretti, in the true spirit of rebellion, tried to have a series of Nike shoes processed that had the word "sweatshop" written on the side of them. The website is a series of emails resulting from Jonah H. Peretti being refused. The fact that an email could cause a global sensation is in a sense art itself. The website is a showcase for what transpired when one man told a joke. Jonah H. Peretti was refused an order and Nike politely refused is a simple and bland story on the outside but when a company is faced with a truth about it's immoral policies and is forced to bury it's head in the sand to avoid it's own follies a simple email transcends the mundane and in a fashion, becomes art.

Institute for Applied Autonomy

The Iaa, or institute for applied autonomy conducts a website devoted to usurping
the control of engineering power from the overbearing right wing community to a decidedly more anarchisit type of society. They work from grants to patent machinery of a revolutionary nature such as vans that can spraypaint subversive text straight on the street as it is driving or designing robots to handout subversive literature that would generally not be taken from a hippie. The website is presented in a decidedly corporate way, as if it was promoting the new line of super car from the automotive giant general motors. The underlying sarcasm of the group is only thinly veiled and shows a contempt for the trappings of a post-patriot act society. The rational behind the site seems to be take the power from those who abuse it and give it to those who oppose them thus leveling the playing field. The group hands technology to the ones oppressed by it like a modern day Robin Hood. The somber blue and white layout and grayed text taglines are easily recognizable as the layouts and colors of institutions everywhere. It makes you both relieved and uncomfortable to think of the information and technology being handed to Joe Schmo on the street corner, but relly is it that much worse than where it lies now?

Shu Lea Cheang

Shu Lea Changs website "Brandon" is a study in the life of Teena Brandon. Brandon was a transvestite who was raped and murdered in Lincoln, Nebraska. *Wikipedia* The initial page features a flash animation of a morphing bathroom icon, switching between man and woman. The site takes a stance on human rights and uses art as a medium for education and to incite the liberation of those hampered the lack of social progress. The link on the homepage takes you to an animation of a road in the town where Brandon was killed and includes some of the geography as well. This includes links to different places illustrating a bit of history and description of transgenders. The site lays out almost like a game in which you search out different pieces of a puzzle that leads you through a narrative. The interaction of the piece engages the viewer and makes one dive into the story. Once becoming enmeshed in the plot line of the site you start to garner some empathy for Brandon and are instilled with compassion for a subject that is still taboo for many.

Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries

Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries is a two person operation that has one person from the United States and One Person from Seoul, Korea.The Type of web art they do is done almost completely in flash and presented in the Monaco font. They use sound in their videos which usually consists solely of jazz music. The piece "Halbeath" is a reference to a factory in Scotland that was closed down.This is a link project for one dead link made by failed globalization. Halbeath is located between Glasgow and Edinburgh Scotland. There's a closed microchip plant made by South Korean Company Hyundai & LG After they left Motorola tried to run the factory. But now the factory is closed again since they left in 2001

The site consists of a touchtone phone shown in a SWF file format that shows movement without the natural motion of video. There is jazz music that punctuates the movement giving it a life of its own.There is writing centered in the middle of the page show in different sizes but still centered to itself. The words give directions to Halbeath and give the destination a palpabilty that would otherwise be forgotten by the transient nature of modern society. The piece is nothing if not simplistic, but it communicates its point very well.

Arctic Circle Log

The Arctic Circle Log is a documentation of a travel to the North Pole. The web site includes video, various photographs and written blogs to map out a trip of an extremely dangerous terrain. The authors say that the project is an exploration of the two different kinds of loneliness. The first is the loneliness of not knowing anyone and being an anchor only to yourself in this completely saturated information environment. They also try to depict the loneliness of being trapped in a vast barren wilderness with no one else around. The project resonates with success as it probes the contradictory aspects of the same affliction. This piece is something that really could not be done with traditional forms of art. The inclusion of various types of imagery and the organization of information lays out a unique exploration of the possibility of art. In a fashion it presents art as information that when compiled and assimilated in a certain fashion can be as viable as any oil painting or pattern of graphite.

My B/F came back from the war.

"My Boyfriend Came Back From the War" is Olia Lialina's net-art piece about a couple and the things that transpire after the man returns from a war. Lialina, a Moscow artist, uses images with a threshhold filter assembled in different frames to chronologically lay out the interactions of an unnamed couple. The highly dramatic piece must be sifted through like a game as you try to figure out what images to pick that lead you to the next chapter of the story. The 1996 site leads the eye around the page and by the use of frames ( tables) compartmentalizes each new aspect of the story and engages the viewer anew. This piece seems so easy now with the automated programming of newer programs but the time and investment of energy that must have gone into it 13 years(?) ago is simply amazing. The struggle for the viability that every artist strives for seems especially difficult for net artists. The medium is saturated and cluttered with pre-fabricated cut-outs that make true craftsmanship seem rare.

The Bomb Project

The Bomb Project tackles the issues of nuclear bombs and organizes them into easily digestible facts. The representation on the site of nuclear destruction is manifested is swf files and color schemes as well as various image slide shows. The color scheme is a predictable neon green, and the layout is cluttered, but this is a result of categorizing extreme amounts of information. The art is different from the traditional presentation of imagery because it spreads out in all directions like the root of a tree and finds us entangled in a maze of different pathways. The issue of time comes up as well. For someone to root through "The Bomb Project" and find EVERYTHING it takes up time. The traditional way of looking at an oil panting or photograph takes but a second to ingest and to process through. If after 2 seconds of looking you have seen enough you can move on and still have a general concept of what has transpired in the piece. The website , on the other end of the spectrum, engages a viewer and makes them interact through the use of time and the act of navigation. The Bomb Project has achieved social awareness through the art of the website and also integrated many forms into one easily digestible space.

Candy Factory

I chose the people of Candy Factory for their appreciation of the absurd. The flash videos they use to project a devilish society bent on consumption interests me. In the first page to their site we see a monstrous Snow White embracing a little girl. The picture which would look completely normal if it were static becomes abhorrent to the eye when tweaked with tiny repetitive motions. I plan on using this type of movement in my Project II. This site inspires my work by eschewing the normality we bypass and regurgitating to the viewer as a disease.




Candy Factory also has a very firm handle on the addition of sound into their web-art. The robotic voices included in their animations capture the audience and keep them held close as the repetitive motion does its job on the viewer.In summation, the use of the status quo to portray the violence inherent in the species is integral to the work of Candy Factory and also the main appeal for the viewer as well.

Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut, one of the designers featured in the movie "Helvetica" is a member of the Pentagram design firm in New York. This particular poster for Yale School of Architecture is considered a throwback to Rococo.

The way the design seeps into every area of the page and over runs it is what I like about this particular piece.

Egon Schiele

Schiele's work is interesting both in it's subject matter and it's unique apporach to the figure. He was a student of Gustav Klimt and also of the secessionist group of Vienna. His work is considered lurid and pornographic in nature by many.


I think this particular piece "Portrait of Eduard Kosmack" (1910) appeals to me because of the erratic nature of the line used in it.

Movie Poster

character logo michelin man

Bibendum,The Michelin Man is one of the oldest company character logos. He was designed by O'Galop in France in the 1890's.

Rand, Paul

Rands image for the cover of the book "The Captive Mind" by Czeslaw Milosz.

Rand is probably best known for his design of the Apple Logo and various other corporate identities.

This particular piece appeals to me because, like Rand< I am huge fan of masks.

Klimt

Gustav Klimt was a Viennese artist known for his work with gold leaf as well as his lurid depictions of nude women.


this image is from the publication Ver Sacrum, put out by the secessionist group of Vienna ( a group which Klimt was president of for a short time).
The whiplash style of brushstroke he uses is typical of Art Nouveau.

cd art for Neutral Milk Hotel's "Aeroplane Over the Sea"

























































































Bright Eyes "Lifted (or the story is in the soil)"



















Shellac "1,000 Hurts"



















Ugly Casanova "Sharpen Your Teeth"
















Built to Spill promo poster for "Ancient Melodies of the Future"

Max Ersnt

Max Ersnt was a surrealist and dadaist. Among his works The Elephant Celebes is probably my favorite. It is playful and inviting as well as enigmatic. It is credited as being the first surrealist piece in many circles. Enrst is also known for his glass scultptured chess board "immortel".

James Montgomery Flagg was an Illustrator who was famous for his drawing of the "I Want You" poster featuring Uncls Sam pointing his finger at the viewer. Flagg did a lot of work on propaganda posters for the war effort as well as cartoons for magazines and newspapers. His work is interesting becasue it iconographic. It depicts a nation buried in the mire of it's own self image. His use of muted colors in this particular piece The Shrine, "Lucius Leaps Over" (1926) is inteeresting as well his use of paneling to show different points in the story( much like the popular comics of the day).

jonathan Hoefler

Jonathan Hoefler

Jonathan Hoefler is a designer based in the United States he has designed for rolling Stone Harper's Bazaar and even one of my personal faves They might Be Giants.

I enjoy thee designs by Hoefler because of their use of fluid line while still maintaining simple readability.

stefan Sagemaister

Stefan Sagemeister

Here are a couple of older pieces by New York designer Stefan Sagemeister. He is an intense designer who went so far as to have the words carved into his skin. He demonstrates a severe loyalty to artistic integrity.

I like both of these pieces very much as well as a lot of his other work. The Lou Reed is something I have seen around for years being a big V. U. fan. The words adhering to the contour of his face are a great idea. The skin reminds of another artist who (embarrassingly enough) I can't remember the name of who shot himself in protest of the Vietnam War. The emphasis of the words is delivered through the violence of the act.

Joseph Muller Brockman

swiss designer Joseph Muller Brockman did this dairy poster in 1959. I am truly fond of the use of diagonals in the text layout. I also enjoy the dot printing (lichtenstein/ comic style) of the image of the cow. The image is not overstated and yet it is very powerful.

Saul Bass did this movie poster for Otto Preminger in 1957.

the tiled background appeals to me as does the look of the half torn weatherbeaten figure of Joan of Arc. The centered point of interest is strange when you think of the implied upper torso that is not present it gives a subliminal balance to the viewer. I am also a fan of the warm tones which i associate with the passion of the movie's main character.