Lecture 6 - 18.02.13

READING IMAGES in a Tech Savvy Society

What is visual literacy? - Being able to read images and make sense of what we see.

Run Lola Run (1998) looks at 3 alternative endings.

READING IMAGES. READING CULTURES:

People nowadays are all equipped with gadgets that allow us to photograph and document all that we see around us. When we go to museums, rather than watching the image, we are more concerned about taking photo of that as proof that we were there. Thus the value of the image is lost, and the orginality also destroyed by the camera.

The crowd around the Mona Lisa

What counts as reality may be very blur. Example - The clown fish is now only known as memo. (In terms of reading narrative language used to describe images)

The cottingley fairies, 1917 - manipulation of photography - the images are actually fake and not authentic (New Media). 

How does technology shape the way we see images? Who sees it and who is authorized to see?

Technology can be viewed as an activity that changes culture. Technology is situated in different contexts.

It is only about power in the social, cultural, political, economic aspects.

Issues of age, wealth, race, education, region. gender etc are the different factors to be considered.

Idea of new technology - everyone asks about what the new technology will do? instead of what it will undo. Who are thw winners and losers in this new technology?

WAYS OF SEEING, WAYS OF BEING:

The role of Facebook, how information is disseminated today, the idea of communities.

New media and cyber culture transforms certain aspects of life and the way people think and act.

"Disasters lie in wait for writers on new media". Ideas are written, but become outdated very soon and does not remain new. This is because of the rapid pace of new ideas coming up everyday. So, what is NEW media?

Cyberspace as a disruptive technology.

William Gibson says "The future's already here. Its just not evenly distributed" (idea of privilege and access) 

Does Virtual space recreates the same dominant (powerful) ideas or creates a different idea?

Cao Fei - her work reflects a world in which cultures have been mixed and diverged as result of rapid evolution. Online is more intense than the real world.

Lynn Hershman, Lorna (1970) - First video work to release on laser disks - Ideas of identity in consumerism, capitalism - Idea of privacy - Relationship between real and virtual world .

We are not shocked by what we see. Every view is obsolete because new views come up. So what now? is what we often ask.

T.J. Clark's The Sight of Death - what do we hope to achieve when we are looking at pictures.

Do we have the patience to just stare at any image for 10 minutes?
I have realized from observing people around me, that the public is like a child. They do not have a large attention span of staring at an image which they pass by. One glance is good enough to register in their minds and they move on. Images are hence manipulated in a way to catch the audience's attention. If they like any image, they photograph it in their smartphones or cameras and move on. Nobody has the want to just stare at an image for 10 minutes and appreciate the beauty of it/ understand the meaning behind it. The value of artworks & images have changed by the years and have been viewed by the audience differently in modern day.

Tutorial 14.02.2013

OUR LEARNING ACTIVITY FOR THE CLASS:

OUTCOMES OF THE LECTURE:

Understanding the concept of Cyber Art.
Understand how technology has made art more accessible to a mass audience.
To make students aware of how cyber technology is being used worldwide.
To show the relationship between artists, designers and cyber technology.
AIMS OF THE LECTURE:
To broaden the student's understanding of Art & Technology.
To show different possibilities of art in Cyber Technology.
ACTIVITY:
4 students will be doing the activity at one time. 2 students will get a laptop while the other 2 will get a paper. within a set time, both students have to create an artwork on the given topic. The difference in the artworks will be discussed.

MEDIUM :

• Crayons, colour pencils, markers for manual
• Digital softwares like photoshop and illustrator for digital

TIME LIMIT:

10 minutes

TOPIC:

Our Environment

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What we realized was that every medium has several advantages and disadvantages. Digital works were done faster, in lesser time, and were more appealing due to the access to the available resources such as images from the Internet. However, it does not maintain the authenticity of the artwork as images used from the Internet are not our own. Moreover, handmade artworks encourage creativity of the mind and also result in expressive strokes by the hand which the computer cannot give. A mixture of both the mediums is best suited to create any artwork to achieve a good balance.

TUTORIAL - 07.02.2013

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Three domains of learning outcomes:

• cognitive : thinking and understanding
• psychomotor : ability to do some things
• affective : attitude of students towards learning

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OUTCOME & AIMS :

OUTCOMES : The final product in the end must fulfill a certain criteria. It just related to that single project. Certain specific guidelines are given to follow. THEY ARE LEARNER CENTRED (what dthe student will be able to do after that study)

AIM : To show development of certain skills and techniques in that area. These skills are developed during the course of that specific project but can be applied elsewhere. THEY ARE TEACHER CENTRED (what the teacher hopes to do)

EXAMPLE : 3D PROJECT (WIRE HEAD)

Learning Aim ·       To develop understanding of form through linear formation ·       To develop construction skill

Learning Outcomes ·       To analyze, explore and understanding of 3-dimensional form through linear configuration ·       To develop hands-on construction ability

DRAWING PROJECT (LAYERING OF TONES):

LAYERING OF TONES - CHROMATIC GREY
AIMS:

• To introduce the layering technique in Chromatic Greys with coloured pencils
• To further train observational skills by identifying the subtle change in tones on an object
  To CONNECT what was taught in class to their Specialist Area

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students should be able to:

• Create warm and cool tones using colours
  
• Apply the layering technique in Chromatic Greys with coloured pencils
  
• Identify Highlights, Midtones and Shadows 

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THE LECTURE

SUSAN KARE - Designed graphical icons. She keeps updating herself.

CYBER SPACE -  It is a dead space. Every person owns accounts and thus they end up taking a lot of space, and some do not use it.

VIRTUAL CHOIR - Cyber Technology made choir easily accessible to one and all. Art becomes more approachable and not an exclusive thing just for a certain group of people who formal dress up and perform a code of conduct in the choir.

OUTCOMES OF THE LECTURE:

Understanding the concept of Cyber Art.

Understand how technology has made art more accessible to a mass audience.

To make students aware of how cyber technology is being used worldwide.

To show the relationship between artists, designers and cyber technology.

AIMS OF THE LECTURE:

To broaden the student's understanding of Art & Technology.

To show different possibilities of art in Cyber Technology.

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CREATE A LEARNING ACTIVITY FOR THE CLASS:

AIMS:

TO MAKE STUDENTS AWARE OF HOW MINDS WORK USING & ITHOUT USING TECHNOLOGY.

OUTCOMES:

UNDERSTAND PROS AND CONS OF TECHNOLOGY

REALIZING THE DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY OF WORK WITH & WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY

Lecture - 04.02.2013

CYBER ART:

Talematic Art : Science & Technology- transmit long distances - Data, Info, Images, Videos stay in cyber space for a long time in any distance
It is a different way of looking at works - the real work is not in front of us (like in a museum) bur it is a different way of interaction.
Cyber Art is invented from tools in computer hardware and software:

• The PC (personal computer)
• Internet
• Graphical User Interface

Cyber Art, archives, presents and disseminates

WITCH (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computation) 1951 - Computer that reads information using dots (oldest digital computer) :

FROM THE FIRST -  IMB PORTABLE PC 5100 - 1975

TO NOW - APPLE MACINTOSH - 18

GUI - Icons - Graphical art - Susan Kare created many of the interfaces - known as the Mother of the Mac Trash can.

She created the sketches on graph paper - simple and understandable.

Some of the icons designed by Susan Kare

Internet was initially called ARPANET - concept of "packet switching"

NO. 1 in the world - fastest network - HONG KONG 

NO. 2 - SINGAPORE

GOOGLE DATA CENTRE - PEOPLE SEND DATA ONLINE, IT IS TSORED IN THAT CENTRE AND THEN TRANSMITTED EVERYWHERE :

CYBER SPACE - as a real dimension not a virtual one - allows us to enter the gallery and interact with the art work. Using our finger, we scroll and explore the gallery space.

FBI listed the type of cyber crime - hacking, fraud etc (Mostly in Europe and USA)

Since cyber art is so open, it is being abused.

Internet traffic slots around the world have been archived for many years.

ZHANGA GA - People's Portrait (SAM, 2004) - Used cameras to capture pictures of people passing by and these were displayed on billboards in various countries together:

MASHUP - Nowadays the concept of extracting parts from existing artworks to create your own.

"GOOD ARTISTS COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL"

(COPYRIGHT allows to use work)

ERIC WHITACRE - VIRTUAL CHOIR - The world's largest online choir - he got everyone to post videos on YouTube of them singing in a loud shrill voice. Then he compiled all of these to form one final song.

Now, the concept of Cyber Art is developing and spreading across the world, and is a very new and interesting media of communicating art to the audience, in my opinion. Artworks like the People's portrait and the Virtual choir is interactive, brings all the common masses together and makes them an integral part of the production. Cyber art gives such opportunities to explore various techniques and mediums of art and brings the non - art background people together, which widens the scope and knowledge of art.

Tutorial - 31.1.13

Brain in a vat theory? - how scientists do experiments when they insert a specimen into a container. Here, the brain is inserted into the container. Humans can feel things, all because of the brain. The sensations are all in the brains. If the brains are taken out, we are as good as dead. The brain is like a hard disk of the computer.
Hard disk = brain
Computer = human body
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1. According to the survey conducted by us, we found out that most people are heavily dependent on technology to carry out their daily activities - work, entertainment, social networking and communicating. Technology has increased efficiency and most of the work is done using technology.

We used technology (website survey) to reach the target audience but did not realize that we are not considering those people who are not tech savy and do not like to use technology. That was one flaw in our survey task.

2. According to the survey conducted by our friends, (open ended questions) results were : (personal experiences of people)

• Emails & mobile phones are most preferred to communicate - whatsapp, bbm, skype, Facebook
• face to face communication is more real - seeing expressions and body languages of people, technology is distracting 
• Booking air tickets online using technology - traveling immediately
• Reading newspapers online
• Education is easier - communication

Queue to buy the Iphone 5 on its launch

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WRITING THE ESSAY

Main question -  

How have developments in digital media and cyber technologies over the past three decades, affected the way you participate in and perceive: The Everyday

What do i need to know? - break it down into sub questions.

OR

How do I categorize my finding in the survey? Does it answer the main question?

OR

Tackle the main question directly?

CONTENT OF THE ESSAY:

• What do I mean by digital media and cyber technologies?
• What are the developments in these two for the past 30 years?
• What is included in Everyday?
• Has it affected lives?
• Does it have pros/cons?
• Branch out the different aspects of everyday in different paragraphs :

1. Communication - connecting with people
2. Entertainment & Movies - 3d, animation, games
3. Work - softwares
4. Social networking - facebook, twitter
5. Medicine - diagnose diseases and treat cancer, people can live more
6. Education - online learning, reading books online, research
7. Traveling - transport, air tickets
8. Daily Chores - cooking, eco friendly technologies

• In the second last para, include the cons of technology to see the reality, and accept the limitations of technology.
• Conclude with technology being of great advantage to mankind

Tutorial - 24.1.13

We played an activity. I was paired with Daniel and he was sent to another room. We had to communicate using technology and know everything about each other. We used facebook chat to talk and exchange information about ourselves and later we were questioned.

We realized that face to face interaction is more effective as reactions can be instant, the body language can be seen, conversations are faster. Technology being faulty or not functioning in between disrupts the flow of conversation between two people but face to face conversation will not.

Thus, though technology has improved lifestyle, the old style of communication seems to be better.

Lecture 3 - Creating ourselves - 21.1.13

CREATING OURSELVES

Creating a facebook account - Social networking. 

Creating an Identity?

IDENTITY:

• The way in which the self is viewed in the community. 
• May have tangible/intangible qualiities.

@ KINDS OF DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY:

• Disrupts the basic forms of technology - for ex , thumb drive replaced the floppy disk
• Technology that changes the status quo - cell phone (disrupts our daily routine by creating more demand)
• Technology creates a market, a necessity that does not exist, and fulfills it itself.

HOW IS IDENTITY SHAPED BY TECHNOLOGY?

1. Disintegration of communal activity:

Enjoyment of music and games - gadgets are improved to do this. But we do not wonder about the change in community.

1950's - Music was a communal activity - concerts, occasion. Digital technology has completely changed this concept now. Same with the function of games. Earlier people has the culture of sitting down with family and play board games - commitment of time. In the digital world, games are played using applications on technology. This can isolate someone even in a crowd. This requires minimal thought and fills small spaces of time. 

2. Image as Identity:

Valerie Lukyanova - She went through a couple of surgeries to make herself look like Barbie.

3. Issues of Anonymity:

Being identity-less

One can freely express views/opinions on social networking sites

4. Alternate modes of communication:

Language is a part of person's identity

Acronyms reflect internet culture - wtf, omg, lol and so on..

Value placed on efficiency rather than quality.

Nothing is really private on the internet.

We don't have the ability to communicate with strangers face to face but we can do it via the internet.

5. Mediated perception of space and time:

The way in which we work and play, we use our time has all been altered.

6. Human as cyborg:

Pop culture

Cyborg is someone who interacts with technology.

Mechanical Technology - is a physical extension of us that helps us the move faster between two destinations.

Digital Technology - cyber / mental extension of technology.

Its a part of our routine and we don't realise it.

6. Technology as status symbol:

Society has created its own demands for cell phones.

Technology has the ability to become makers of class, gender, age and culture.