Monday, September 23, 2013

Jason Salavon


Jason Salavon is a digital artist from Indianapolis,  Indiana. He studied Fine Art at the Art Institute of Chicago where he obtained his MFA and the University of Texas where he obtained his BA. Salavon uses software that he designed to create his art work. A main trend in Salavon's work is the reconfiguration of familiar things in order to present new ideas on the subjects. Salavon's art work has been shown in exhibitions across the United States. He has also had solo exhibitions across the world in cities such as Paris, Seoul, London and Geneva.

Jason Salavon's work is characterized mostly by collaging several different pictures to create a completely new image.  This is demonstrated in the <Color> Wheel where Salavon combined thousands of different pictures and sorted them by their main color to create a color wheel.
Another interesting work by this artist is The Top Grossing Film of All Time, 1 x 1 (pictured below). In this work, Salavon has digitized the movie The Titanic. He then split the movie into all of its frames and averaged out the color for each frame. He then sequenced these frames in order to form a collage that represents The Titanic in its color entirety.
 
Salavon also created an image using the film Star Wars III (shown below). Here, he used techniques from both images shown above. The work, The Grand Unification Theory (Part One: Every Second of Star Wars) was made by collecting each second-long frame from the movie and sequencing them into a visually interesting collage. If zoomed in, you can recognize many of the pictures that comprise this image.
 
 
 
Overall, I think Jason Salavon's work is quite interesting. I really enjoy how he can transform the familiar into the completely unfamiliar. I especially liked the piece made from the scenes from The Titanic. The composition of this piece largely resembles a glitched image, but the background story makes the work very interesting. The colors representing the scenes in the movie make complete sense when viewed in chronological sequence. The viewer can see that the colors near the top of the image are brighter and have slightly more variation in hue and vibrancy. Also, the colors toward the bottom of the picture are darker, with less variation in hue and vibrancy. These sequenced colors are easy to relate to the film because the first half of the film is happy and cheerful while the second half is obviously tragic and sad. Jason Salavon's work is unique because it makes the viewer think: what could this possibly represent? With a background story, these images present us with new perspectives on familiar subjects.
 
 
Sources:

Animal Mash-up

Giraffe-Zebra

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Before and After: Photo Corrections

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Monday, September 16, 2013

24-Hour Technology Log


Friday, September 13, 2013
 
7:20am - Turned off alarm on phone
8:00am - Checked email on Ipad
8:10am - Took notes from power point
9:03am- Checked time on phone
9:30am- Checked email on computer
9:40am- Printed document
10:40am- Used Ipad to take notes
12:00pm- Made phone call
12:15pm- Turned on TV
1:30pm- Made phone call
1:31pm- Turned off TV
2:30pm- Listened to radio in car
3:15pm- Used computer to do homework
4:21pm- Edited friend's essay on computer
4:30pm- Used oven
4:33pm- Checked email on computer
4:57pm- Played games on phone
6:36pm-Used sewing machine
6:50pm- Watched TV
7:28pm- Charged phone
8:18pm- Watched movie
10:43pm- Played games on phone


Collage of Scans


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

William Latham

William Latham is a computer scientist and digital media artist from the United Kingdom. He studied fine art at the Royal College of Art and Oxford University. While working for the Advanced Computer Graphics Division of IBM, Latham started working on his "Organic Art." This type of digital media art consists of making 3-Dimensional virtual sculptures using several "organic" shapes and altering their "genetic code" to produce "mutations" in the sculptures. During his employment at IBM, Latham helped develop the "Mutator" program, which allowed users to produce their own "organic" art. Along with Stephen Todd, Latham co-wrote the book Evolutionary Art and Computers.  After his career with IBM, Latham helped produce several video games and other technical programs. Latham is currently a professor of computing at the University of London.

Latham's work utilizes natural shapes and colors, but incorporates them in a way that creates an entirely new "organism." These pieces are reminiscent of prehistoric creatures or futuristic microorganisms. His work draws the eye because of the visual interest the "artificial" nature creates. Latham also creates relationships between his pieces through the evolution and natural selection of their "genes." To me, this is quite interesting because Latham's program shows that the evolution of "artificial" nature can be predicted, so why couldn't we predict the evolution of actual organisms with future computer programs?

Latham's Organic Art is not necessarily something that I'd like to hang in my living room, but it effectively engages the eye and the interest of the viewer. The colors of his work stay within the "natural" range with mostly browns, blues, and other earth tones. What is most interesting about the Organic Art is the highly detailed shapes and many 3-Dimensional twists and turns that these shapes make. Combined, these keep the viewer's eye interested. Furthermore, the overall shape that is formed using smaller shapes seems familiar at first, but with a closer look the viewer will realize that it is a completely new shape, or organism. Overall, Latham's work is not the most aesthetically pleasing, but is very interesting to the eye and the mind.

Source Links:
http://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/~mas01whl/bio.htm
http://www.nemeton.com/static/nemeton/axis-mutatis/latham.html