Media Arts: History and Theory

      This lecture was about electronic media and performances. It starts out with the history of Experimental Filmmaking, which I actually knew a lot about because I took an Experimental Filmmaking course last fall. Experimental is difficult to define, but it refers to anything that defies the conventions of traditional narrative and documentary cinema. Experimental films do not have to tell a story, include characters, or have to have a message. I found that my projects in Experimental played with overlays, audio and time manipulations, color theory, etc. It was honestly quite refreshing to make films that were completely opposite structure of what I was used to. I found a new appreciation for filmmakers by taking that class. The lecture also talks about Nam June Paik, and Andy Warhol, who's artwork is similar to Experimental filmmaking, as they both challenge/push the boundaries to their work. Nam June Paik creates art installations, and is considered to be the founder...

  For the class we had on Halloween, my group decided to dress up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The show's main characters are all named after famous Renaissance Painters, so we decided to each pick a turtle, and then present to the class on our specific painter. I dressed as Leonardo, also known as Leonardo Davinci, who was most famous for his Mona Lisa Painting. Below are notes of the presentation to the class. Teenage mutant ninja turtles- all named after the celebrity painters from the renaissance era  - developed new techniques in painting, sculpture, and architecture - refined many techniques from previous periods - michaelangelo, leonardo, and raphael- not mentioned donatello Leonardo Davinci- -  April 15, 1452,-  May 2, 1519 - the ultimate "renaissance man"- studied a wide range of topics- from science to art to math - most famous for mona lisa painting- which you can see in the louvre in paris -believed that sight was mankind’s most important sense an...

 General Reading Questions 1. Camera Obscura, Camera Obscura 2. Light Sensitive Chemistry 3. Daguerrotype 4. Negative/Positive System 5. "Aura" 6. Commodity Value 7. Exhibition Value 8. Cult Value, Cult Value 9. Photomontage 10. Appropriated Elements 11. Cinematography 12. Photomechanical Reproduction 13. Eadweard Muybridge 14. Jules-Etienne Marey 15. The Dadaists 16. Russian Constructivists Rodchenko and El Lissitsky 17. The Surrealist Max Ernst      This reading goes into detail about using the camera as an artificial eye, as a new form of representation. One thing that is super fascinating to look back on are old photographs or other media in which we can remember and memorialize the past. It is super important to capture these moments in order to better our society, and to look back for personal reasons. The article mentions how art is seen in contexts different from its original periods and settings, so as a result artwork acquires meanings that diverge from tho...

    This lecture is about photography and printed material. The lecture first started off by talking about cave paintings from 40,000 years ago. I find it so fascinating that art was even a thing back then, considering how long ago it was. I never knew that people from all aspects/periods of life use art to communicate with others. The lecture then teaches about the Printing Press, which was a very useful invention as not only newspapers were invented, but media was produced greatly starting with the printing press. As more people got access to newspapers, more people learned to read and write, which grew the boundaries of mass media. The Printing Press lead to other inventions like the Gutenberg printing press, the offset press, and digital printing. Before the printing press was invented, media was difficult to spread, and therefore less people had access to written works, leading to a lack of knowledge on how to read or write.     The lecture also goes into detail...

 For my final panel discussion, my group and I chose the Transit Bar and A Bar At The Folies. Here is the link to the slideshow we created. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SBDqcWfo8FZ13BUe0tDCQwq9vQEDxpF4EYzU0MkCFzY/edit?usp=sharing  Here's my part of the slideshow: SHOWN ON SLIDESHOW: Description of the Period when it was created In order to learn about the kind of art the Transit Bar is, here’s a little bit more background : There’s different versions of the transit bar but the first version was made public right after the fall of the Berlin Wall This installation was created in 1992- when global migration was at record numbers The Transit Bar is Considered a Contemporary Interactive Art Piece Combination of video, sculpture, architecture, readymade material, and a fully functioning bar Themes of exile, cultural migration, and translation are throughout the installation What is interactive art? NOT SHOWN ON SLIDESHOW BUT WILL TALK ABOUT: Transit Bar: background There...

Week One of Lecture:     This week we learned about the renaissance era as paintings and development. Paintings in the Byzantine era started out flat with no dimension. This gave a non realistic impression, and little creativity. When it comes to the Renaissance era, the paintings are darker in color because they add black for depth (chiaroscuro). The paintings all are religious contexts, and they are more realistic because of Brunelleschi's theory on multi point perspectives, which allows the subjects of the paintings to have more movement. Additionally, other artists such as Ghiberti, made other rules of this era regarding sculptures, and splitting them into two to create more realistic sculptures. This era also had set up celebrity painters, such as Michaelangelo, DaVinci, Donatello, and Raphael, for lifelong (and posthumous) fame. Their work created the Renaissance era for what it was, and can still be viewed in places like the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre. Week Two ...