14.3 - S.E.L.F.I.E. / Self-Assessment / Final Reflections

At the end of the class, I'd like to take some time to reflect. While my time management could obviously have been way better throughout this class this semester, I really got a lot out of this class. I actively participated, and really engaged with the different media. I found new ways to use and expand upon technology I was already familiar with. I learned a variety of new media. I connected these media, both familiar and new, to the classroom through lesson planning, and materials exploration in the studio.  I engaged with new ways of documenting my works - GIF, and video format.  I have some new knowledge of free apps, and open source programs to use in the classroom. I will be in the habit of continuing to look for more. I would still like to become more familiar with coding, creative coding, and website development. These are long-term goals of mine.

I really enjoyed our conversations in class about the assignments, how everyone approached the technology and assignments, and how we each use technology in our lives. An aspect of this course that I really enjoyed was the broadening of my view of technology - what constitutes technology, and how it can be used by educators and integrated into classrooms. I looked at technology in new ways, and tried to find connections between physical media and digital media. I feel like technology can deepen the experience of physical media, and physical media can lead to technology also. The combination of high-tech and low-tech or no-tech is such a fruitful place to make work and inspire students. This all felt like such an expansion for me, such an opening up of possibilities, and that is such an exciting thing to take away from a course.


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My Personal Learning Objectives

Learning Objective 1: Reframing - to begin to look for more possibilities in the technology I already use and own - to see them through a new and exciting lens of creative possibility

Learning Objective 2: Lessons - to begin ideating lesson plans based on the technology used in class, and the ideas shared in conversation to build a portfolio of these for later use in the classroom

Learning Objective 3: Barrier Breaking - to break down any perceived barriers I have to working with a particular kind of technology, and to use as many free or open source softwares as I can, in order to be able to share these without cost to future students

Learning Objective 4: Branching Out - to gain familiarity with creative coding, and website building

Learning Objective 5: Documentation - to think about and start making strides towards better and more robust ways of documenting my offline artwork in digital ways - interactive websites, trailer types of videos, ways other than just photographs with descriptions.

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S. showed my process
E. explained my outcome
L. linked to my vocabulary
F. found multiple possibilities
I. I perservered through the work
 E. eliminated carelessness

HW 13.4 - Blog Redesign

I picked the "Simple" theme the first day of class when I designed my blog. Throughout the semester I have made small changes to this design and layout. I have changed how many posts appear on one page, changed the widths of different parts of the template.

My latest revamp of my blog was to choose a new theme, with a tidier layout, change all of the theme colours, and to add a background image. I added a background of a scanned piece of notebook paper. I have used notebook paper before in my practice - often scanned at high resolutions, and then printed large, or animated.

I really like the new look of my blog - it is more personalized, and better reflects my personal art practice.

HW 13.2 - Collaborative Maker Art Project - Mondo Spider

MONDO SPIDER is a collaborative maker art project from Vancouver, BC.  There is a huge crew of artists who have made this work: The Creators of Mondo Spider are Leigh Christie,  Jonathan Tippett, Charlie Brinson, Ryan Johnston, Sam Meyer, Alex Mossman, Dillard Brinson. This work was primarily done at the EatArt maker space in Vancouver, BC.





The Mondo Spider is a massive electric walking machine in the form of a spider. The first version was commissioned by the 2010 Olympic committee. The final project received funding from the Burningman Festival. Its artists, engineers, and designers were able to create this art piece to have zero emissions - no gasoline, no disposable batteries, it is a totally eco friendly art work, and spreads the message of environmental awareness.

HW 12.4 Revised Lesson Plans

HW 12.2 Artist Working With Physical Computing

Andres Wanner (Swiss) is an artist, designer, and educator I met while living in Vancouver. He attended the masters program at Emily Carr University of Art + Design at the same time as I did. During this time he was working on drawing robots.



His work with drawbots took many different forms. They were on the walls, they were on the floor. They worked slowly over many, many hours, or they worked more quickly in front of you. Their physical form and aesthetic changed, as did their robotic components. Sometimes the drawbots were in the gallery working, and sometimes only the finished drawing was in the gallery. I love their little repurposed Lego wheels.

Their final form Robot Quartet is seen in the video above, and shows 4 drawing robots working at the same time. It looks like an orchestra, like synchronized swimming, and like a time lapse of a drawing being created.

HW 12.3 - Idea for Final Project

The dice rolled the following for me:

Scanography

Painting

Nature

At first this cast seemed like less of an adventure than other options - like robotics and fabtronics, and themes like justice or voice. I then obsessively rolled the dice enough times to come up with an option for each of the possibilities.

When I thought more about my dice selections, I tried to find my entry point into painting and nature. Scanography is a really beloved part of my art practice, since I got my first all-in-one printer/scanner/copier in Vermont in 2004. Painting, however, I haven't engaged with in my personal practice in a significant way in some time, since I quit oil painting when I grew bored with the medium, and never really looked back to formal painting for a way for me to express myself. The die cast of painting loomed over me a bit, when I kept thinking about painting on canvas, and expected conventions. I found my entry point when I decided to paint miniatures on dead leaves, using gouache, and depicting and environmental parable. It all coalesced for me in my mind and I became really excited about the project. The idea of scanning the paintings and then animating them into a high-res GIF was a really exciting prospect for me, and tied my 3 components together very nicely in my mind. The act of painting the miniatures in gouache was meditative and labourious and detailed, and I really enjoyed it. Learning how to make a GIF within Photoshop, rather than using an online GIF making service was really empowering.

I really loved the act of rolling the dice to figure out a final project assignment, the parameters of the assignment being provided to work against, and the lively discussions we as a class had regarding our rolls and who got a roll they were excited about and who was nervous about theirs.

HW 11.4 - Lesson Plan for 3D Printing

2 lesson sequence for Tinkercad and 3D printing

Middle school class of 25 students

Lesson 1 - materials exploration with Tinkercad

Students will learn basic 3D modeling through Tinkercad, through the welcome tutorial, additional help videos, and making various shapes using the existing options in Tinkercad. 

Lesson 2 - 3D modeling and 3D printing

Students will create 3D models of objects of their choice, inspired by letters of the alphabet. If the school has access to a 3D printer, students will print their projects on site. If the school does not have access to a 3D printer, students' work will be printed by a service like Shapeways.

HW 11.5 Student Teachers Class Visit

We had a visit from current student teachers in their second year at TC. They were each in a different school setting - private/public - large/small. The student teachers also talked about the technology available in their schools (7 laptops for 35 students in one school) and how much they are used (not at all in the private elementary school with lots of resources.) Much of this confirmed what I had heard about the use of technology in many schools. One student teacher, however,  said something that really opened up how I might think about working with technology in schools. She talked about helping her cooperating teacher to update their systems and technological aids in the classroom - from google apps like drive and scholar, and filing or organization systems for administrative tasks. This made me reconsider how I might think about and talk about technology in the classroom - how it is already so integrated in how I do my work. That student teacher talked about helping her cooperating teacher to become more comfortable with the technology available and make better use of it. I think that is such a useful and helpful thing to do, and if the opportunity arose in my student teaching, I'd love to be able to help out in a similar way.

HW 11.2 - Artists working with 3D printing

I'd like to showcase two artists working with 3D printing and cultivating opposite interactions with their audiences.

Mysterabbit is an international public artwork, in which tiny 3D printed rabbits are left in public places, to be enjoyed by strangers. This work offers something to the viewer, or potential new owner of the small rabbit, and provides a moment of joy, or wonder, or connection. The template of the rabbit and its ability to be 3D printed anywhere scaled up the project internationally, and beyond the bounds of the original team of artists and designers, led by Ji Lee. This appeals to me because I love the idea of spreading joy through artwork and little moments, and also the idea of surreptitiously giving gifts to strangers. I have downloaded the file, and will go and print this at the ThingSpace and then find a good spot to share this rabbit with my neighbourhood in Harlem or around TC. When I lived in Toronto in 2010, part of my art practice was leaving small sculptures I made in nooks and spaces on subway platforms for strangers to enjoy and have.

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Stranger Visions is an artwork by Heather Dewey-Hagborg (b. 1982, USA). I went to Bennington College at the same time as Heather. For this art project, she has collected discarded items from strangers on New York City streets (cigarette butts, gum, hair) and has processed these in a community lab to extract their DNA. She used a custom program to use the DNA sequencing to create 3D renderings of what these strangers' faces would look like, based on their DNA sequence. The renderings are then 3D printed and come out kind of like masks. In this work, the artist is taking from strangers, taking from the public to make the work, and then offer these back to the public for viewing. I'm interested in harvesting material and subject matter for artwork from strangers, and the degree of speculation that comes from this - how much does our DNA determine how we look? How much agency do we have in how we look? I am also interested in this work because I made an animation in my undergrad in which I tried to show what it would be like if all the DNA you leave behind in your daily routine would collect and form a dead clone on the spot whenever enough had collected. What would that uncanny moment of facing the dead clone be like? Would it be like a different version of a golem, made of what you leave behind, but dying instead of you, instead of doing your bidding? 

HW 10.4 - Return to One Digital Medium - Creative Coding

The digital medium I'd like to revisit is creative coding - using Scratch, or potentially one of the other free online coding programs online (many were mentioned at the Creative Technologies Symposium, and I took a lot of notes). I'd like to turn the brief, low-interactive Yeti Game I made into a more robust game that can really be interacted with. I'd like the player to feel more agency and involvement, to choose what the Yeti will give advice on by clicking various parts of the screen. I'd also like to vary the look of the Yeti as well by showing a close up of its face when it is finished dispensing the advice. The game would still likely have the same three categories of advice, maybe one or two more, but many more answers for each category. I'd like to user of the game to be able to spend more time within the game, and build up the tension between and experience that is fun and funny, with an uncanny or sort of creepy experience, and actually useful advice told in the language of talk therapy.

HW 9.3 Code Artist - Hunter Jonakin

One of the strangest artworks I have heard of in recent years involves a lot of creative coding. Artist Hunter Jonakin created a piece called JKMD!!! (Jeff Koons Must Die) (2011.) The piece is a video game, in the style of "first person shooter" in which the goal is to destroy as much of Jeff Koons' artwork inside a gallery as possible, however, the game is un-winnable, as security guards/gallery attendants come out to protect the work. 

Video preview here: https://vimeo.com/21404544

Download available here: http://hunterjonakin.com/koons.php#

The artist has said in interviews that he admires the work of Koons, and does not hate him or his work, but rather that he was the subject of the piece because he is "at the top of the art food-chain." The work is typical of video games in some ways - depictions of violence, fast-paced, but atypical in its depiction of art works and the art world. The work is pixelated and uses the aesthetics of early 1980s/1990s video games. The coding used in this game is to achieve retro results, and also to be quite destructive. The work also takes a unique form as art piece because it has been shown internationally in galleries, housed in a 1980s style arcade game console, but the game is also available as a free download on the artist's website. It has been shown, and can be available for free. It is part of the gallery system, but also open-source. This work is paradoxical and intriguing, and received a great deal of online attention several years ago. The artist does not work exclusively in video games as art works, but has created other video game based artworks before. The funniest part of the press on this work, was a quote from the artist, Jonakin, regarding his work -- that he hoped Jeff Koons might play this game at home to blow off steam sometimes. (Observer, 2013.)

HW 9.2 My Scratch Experience

While I understand the limitations of Scratch, and can see the potential for frustration with the program, I had a lot of fun working with Scratch both in class and outside of it for my project! Having no previous experience in coding whatsoever, using the program Scratch offered such a low barrier to entry for creative coding for me. Using the pieces (which really resemble Legos!) made the basic functionalities really easy to achieve. Other movements and functionalities might be harder to achieve, but looking through the community and their projects on Scratch, and even being able to copy their code blocks would make that easier. The best part was the ability to import your own Sprites. Without this customization, my engagement would have been much lower.

During the process of working with Scratch, I immediately thought about introducing it to children. It's a program designed for children, it's got a child-friendly design, and lends itself to experiments through play. To introduce scratch to children, given the resources (computers or laptops - enough for every child, potentially a scanner, or a mobile phone camera) I would propose a 2-lesson sequence - the first lesson would be a materials exploration of Scratch, using the provided blocks and sprites, so explore what is possible within the program. The second lesson would ask the children to draw a character to use as their own sprite and then scan or photograph this image to upload it to Scratch, and to portray a narrative for their character/Sprite through the the movements and functions of Sprite, looking to community projects to harvest their code if they would like to use it.

I also see the possibility to use Scratch to make an exquisite corpse animation. A class could work one at a time to make a longer animation using one or several sprites, and different directions for them, to make one longer work, which though not cohesive - has the fingerprints of every artist in the class on it.

HW 8.3 - Sound in my life

I talked in an earlier post about the sounds of my apartment, of my environment. I'd like to talk now about other sounds in my life, and how both I experience them and employ them.

Music:

Music is a really important part of my everyday life, and a very important part of my studio practice.  A pin-drop quiet studio frankly makes me kind of sad, and I am always happy to DJ a shared studio space, find out what music other people like, and even introduce them to new music. Music in a shared studio can spark conversation and getting to know one another better, and music in a solo studio can make it less lonely. Music provided a refuge for me as a teenager - the punk scene, its politics and freedom really helped me feel comfortable in forming my young identity. I then went on to work in music - I was a college radio station manager, and then a booking agent for a club and a promoter for live concerts, and eventually in public relations and radio promotion for records. Music has always had a prime place in my life, and often matches up with life events or even phases in my life. It also plays an important role in my artwork, in making my work. For me, music provides momentum, something to keep time to, and actually keeps me from getting distracted. I've always had a large and diverse record collection, and I like to listen to different styles of music when I'm in different moods, at different times of the day or night, and also depending on what sort of project I'm working on. I can listen to music to match my mood, or change my mood.

Artwork:

When I make animations, I employ a sort of unusual technique, and I choose to present them silently. I have never included a soundtrack of music, dialogue, or even ambient noise. I also choose to employ a slower frame rate for my animations. All of this slows the viewer, and the experience down. I feel like the silence is somewhat unexpected and necessitates paying really close attention. Silence can help uncanny moments come to light. Silence asks more of a viewer, and it can be uncomfortable, but it can facilitate a kind of intimacy with the work. The only sounds a viewer will hear could be their own breathing, their heartbeat, and any sounds from their environment. I think there's a power in this. Though, with my newfound Audacity/Hokusai skills, I may experiment with adding my own ambient sounds - whether they match the subject matter, or if they mimic the viewing experience (breathing, heartbeat, etc.) 

HW 8.2 - John Cage

I first heard about John Cage when I was in college, and a friend and music student gave an incredible musical performance on a prepared piano and then told me about prepared pianos (pianos which have been altered with found objects to change their sounds) and John Cage. Sometime later, in another class, someone mentioned John Cage's piece 4'33" (4 minutes and 33 seconds) (1952). As soon as I heard about this piece, it blew up what music could be, how I could interact with sound, and I was intrigued, impressed, and I never forgot it. In this piece, the performers, of any instrument, are not to play any sounds for the duration of the piece. The sounds of the piece are then the ambient sounds of the room, the sounds of the audience, or potentially, silence. This piece is rooted in philosophy and theory, and also the relationship with the audience. This artwork, this piece of music, challenged what was considered music, and the audience's place in a performance and the creation of a work of art. This work is smart, challenging, and I happen to think, funny as well. I feel like it has had similar reactions and legacies to Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917). I found it so interesting that Cage mentions Duchamp in his interview on silence (below). 4'33" also transcended the confines of high art to become part of popular culture, often in the form of a joke. I love these moments where innovative and challenging works can move into different spheres, and this happens most insidiously when there is some humour or a punchline - the work can be referenced more frequently, and can find itself referred to in more places.

Here is a performance of the piece:

4'33"

John Cage on silence

Duchamp Fountain

HW 7.3 - Potential of Video

Video, due to recent advances in technology, mobile phone technology, free/open source software, and online programs - is now accessible than ever. While there are still wildly expensive cameras, like RED cameras for 3D and more expensive software - like FinalCutPro - there are so many free and available programs and equipment built in, the barrier to access for video making is wonderfully low. Several decades ago, the only people with video cameras who could make home movies were very wealthy, or very interested in technology - early adopters. Now, every family with a basic mobile phone, or better yet, a smart phone has access to video to make home movies. Since the cameras are now so good on smart phones, people can also use this technology to experiment with video art through these means. There is so much potential now that there is so much access. So many people can now tell their stories, in so many different ways. These stories can now be shared more than ever with so many different social media and video watching platforms. There is so much agency in this access.

I also think the teaching of video in schools is an incredible tool for media literacy. For children to film their own content, and then engage in the editing of their content to create a particular story or to showcase a particular view, they will have experience with the process which all media use - including movies, tv, and news. Children can see firsthand the editing process, and they can make the decisions of what stays and what gets cut. This will help hone their critical eye to mainstream media - the understanding that every 1 min movie scene they see was cut from hours of footage, or that each interview they see on television was cut from a much longer piece, to be more succinct and have a particular slant. Media literacy helps children be more aware of how the political process works in the United States during campaigns, and how advertising works in general. An early understanding of media bias, the techniques of advertising, and the development of a story through editing will help children feel empowered to ask real questions of what they are watching, and will make them excited to share what they have to say.

For children, working with video in an artistic way will help them to harness the powers of the narrative and tell their own stories, and disseminate them on a wide scale. For children, working with video will also empower them as consumers of media - to be engaged but to have a critical eye for the media they are taking in. Media literacy for children is so important, as they intake so much media from such an early age. To give them the tools to ask questions, analyze, and even know how it's made, is a great kindness.

OA #3 Digital Drawing Lesson

If a school is equipped with enough computers for students to use, Adobe Photoshop, and Wacom tablets, digital drawing lessons can easily be implemented. (Or, if a school is equipped with iPads, paid or free drawing or painting applications, digital drawing lessons can easily be implemented.) Students can work over the course of two class periods, the first of which would be spent getting to know the program/app and the possible line work and shading. The students would be tasked with creating a digital drawing which conveys a relationship. Then the second class period would be spent editing this image and then creating frames for an animation from the layers of the image in Photoshop. The animation would then be saved as a gif, easily shared online.

OA #2 - Where to go in your digital collage?

I think the next step for a future digital collage, or this current collaborative piece with Leying would be to push it forward into animation. We could separate out the layers and make a gif animation of them, or we could make new iterations the collage and then animate these. A gif animation would be the best way to present this.

OA #8 - Creative Photographer - Rodney Graham

Conceptual Photography is all over Vancouver. There are a lot of museum exhibitions, gallery shows, conversations about conceptual photography. I felt immersed in this when I lived there. I had some great opportunities to some really amazing photographic art work.

One of the Vancouver photography art stars is Rodney Graham (1949, Canada.) Graham's work spans photography, video, sculpture, and a punk rock band. His work is layered, references art history and intellectual history, is smart, creates personas, and is very, very funny.

One work which has really stuck with me was Rodney Graham's "Millennial Time Machine" (2003) - a camera obscura. I was teaching a summer intensive course for incoming first year students, and I brought them to see Rodney Graham's camera obscura at the Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia. This piece is housed in a converted 19th century horse-drawn carriage, and is highly immersive and interactive, as groups of 4 enter and sit in the carriage, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness to see the ghostly and beautiful camera obscura image of a tree, upside down, projected in front of them. This piece is often outside the Belkin Gallery at UBC, but I was lucky enough to catch this piece inside during Rodney Graham's retrospective at the gallery. The piece showcases old photographic technology and techniques, and showcases it in a new way for a new crowd.

OA #9 Digital Photography/Drawing Lesson For Children

Children nowadays tend to be very familiar with digital photography, via mobile phones. There is much taking photos of children by parents with mobile phones, and also quite a bit of parents allowing their young children to take photos with their mobile phones. This is an early exercise for young children into composition,  I think that photography can be an incredible way for children to practice looking closely, and play with ideas of composition. Photography can be an introduction to a drawing practice, and a way to deepen that practice also. This is a way to integrate digital media and physical media seamlessly into one lesson sequence.

I propose a two-lesson arc: 

The first lesson is spent looking through different photographic equipment - cardboard viewfinders for grades k-2, and different types of cameras (mobile phones of different eras, slr, polaroid, disposable film) for grades 3-5. Students will share their views with one another and discuss their decision making.  (Students will learn that what they can see is altered by where they are standing and that views can be cropped and edited.)

The second lesson would be to make a drawing based on observation of a scene in the classroom as seen through the cardboard viewfinder, or the viewfinder of the camera. Depending on the grade, the drawing might focus on shapes, respond to the principles of design, tell a story, or describe a relationship. (Students will learn that they can recognize, recreate, and arrange the shapes found in their everyday surroundings, and use them to tell a story.)

3.4 Artist Who Uses Social Media Creatively - Adam JK

Adam J. Kurtz a.k.a. Adam JK is a commercial artist working primarily online, and also imbuing his work with the slang and self-deprecating humour typically found online. 

His drawings are often about his interactions online, his social anxiety, and current internet memes.

His drawings often involve text, and that text is generally phrased in a social media specific, or social media ready way. The text takes the form of a confessional caption - personal, witty, self-deprecating, and brief. Adam JK gained much popularity through Instagram and Tumblr, and has since collaborated with Strand Books and Urban Outfitters on commercial projects. 

What I find most intriguing about his work is his use of the internet and internet culture as a subject matter for his drawings, which are then mostly disseminating via the internet. It's a very a self-referential practice, even a meta-practice.

3.3 Artist Who Works With Digital Painting and Drawing - Julian Opie

The first artist I can remember seeing working in digital drawing and painting is Julian Opie (1958, UK). His Blur album cover is very famous, and his work was all over London when I lived there, even in Heathrow Airport. Opie's ultra-clean and very simple lines are unmistakable, and lend themselves to the gallery, public art, graphic design, billboards, and books. Opie works in digital media, and also in traditional media (acrylic paint, sculpture) and even combines these media sometimes.

Blur: Best Of (Album Cover), 2000

Julian Opie Gallery Installation Video

Something unexpected that I discovered while searching for Julian Opie on YouTube was the prevalence of tutorials to emulate his style - many, many videos for this came up in my search. I think this is first and foremost because he works digitally, so his tools are accessible to others, but also because he has such a signature style. His clean lines and clear communication are things which people want to emulate or recreate, and so these videos exist in high numbers and have high view counts. Here is one such video tutorial, for illustrator:

Julian Opie Illustrator Portrait Tutorial

HW 12.1 Light Up Yeti Card

The Yeti makes another appearance here! This is a birthday card for my good friend from college, Stephen. The card is made of layers of construction paper, lovingly cut with xacto knife. The heart lights up via a basic circuit made of conductive fabric tape, LED light, and coin cell battery. The light turns on when the card is pressed in the appropriate spot. 

I really enjoyed being able to make a more polished version of what I learned in class. The basic version I made in class worked, but wasn't finished looking. For this card, I set up all the circuitry on one piece of paper, with a small hole cut to see the LED. I allowed some space between this page, and the page on top and marked the spot to press to complete the circuit. 

This is a more finished looking, and exciting greeting card than I've ever made before. My friend Stephen was sufficiently impressed to make me feel proud - he played with his card out at the bar all night and showed all our other friends. 

15.1 FINAL PROJECT

HW 14.4 Monster Racer (instead of brush bot)