Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Before and After













Tech BLog

Monday January 28th, 2012

7:45- Barely wake up to iPhone alarm
8:03- Running late when I receive a phone call from Ben telling me school might be canceled
8:05- Check school mobile web to discover only 8 o'clock classes are cancelled
9:10- Printed homework from email for my 9:20
9:20- Teacher used PowerPoint in class
10:42- Went to Monty, found a nice spot and reading "A Dance with Dragons"on iPhone until class
11:01- Accidentally texted Sarah
11:30- Talked to my Mom on the phone
12:05- Prof. Koy also used a PowerPoint to present her lecture
13:05- Listened to music on iPhone and read more Game of Thrones while waiting for my next class
14:45- Used computers in Goodpasteur basement for Lab
15:22- Used SPSS and Excel
16:50-Used Photoshop in the Media Center to finish working on my collage
17:27-Facetimed my sister in Austria
17:45-Did a voice job for Taylor using audio equipment
20:30- Called my bud to pick me up and take me home
22:05- Played Super Smash Bros. with the housemates
23:09- Set alarm on iPhone and fell asleep watch Cloud Atlas

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Tryna Town


Shiny Things




I should mention where I found these amazing little beads both above and below. My housemates older brothers, Daniel and Ryan Eicher, have been blowing glass for years now an have recently started up a small company called Homegrown Glass. Their work is truly magnificent from any distance so I knew they would make for good subjects.

 My other housemate, Paige Burger, is responsible for the off beat necklace to the left. She takes old beer bottle tops and puts cut outs in the center and the finishes the job with varnish. It's hard to say whether they look better in this photo or real life.




 These marbles have been rolling around the floor of my house for months now and until this week I never really noticed them. Finally found a good use for them.



 Snow is really strange to see from this perspective, when scanned it simply looks like ice.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tsunami


         Don't forget to squint your eyes when you watch, its much more enjoyable that way                                                     

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Nancy Burson: Digital Pioneer


                                                                                                         Mankind, Nancy Burson, 1983-85


A digital artist of great importance is undoubtedly Nancy Burson. She was born in St. Louise, Missouri in 1948. After she finished painting in Colorado in the late 1960's she moved to New York City and went on to work through Experiments in Art and Technology. Through this program Nancy was allowed to collaborate with researchers from MIT in the development of a program that could manipulate the characteristics of peoples faces. This allowed Burson to map out how people would look throughout their lifespan and upon further work on the program it gave Burson the ability to  make composite portraits like Mankind (above) and Warhead (below). Mankind is a composite of Asian, Black and Caucasian faces while Warhead is composite of Ronald Reagan, Brezhnev and several other politicians. She continued making composites for artistic purposes but also used composites to aid in the location of missing children whose facial features may have changed through time. 




                                                                                                         Warhead, Nancy Burson, 1982

Nancy's work has changed in structure and purpose throughout the expansion of her career. Pieces like Warhead, Mankind and the Beauty Composites allowed for a unique new perspective on the classic portrait. Never before had anyone had a program such as hers. Mankind is the first of many composites that Nancy made in where it appears she attempted to use technology to overcome the boundaries of different races and ethnicities. Later on she made many human composites that combined the features of men and women to find the a composite for each gender separately and together. By combining the facial features of female actresses Nancy expresses the standards of beauty in our society. Thus, the clear focus of her work was on how the face is a symbol for many things, almost as if it were a mask.  

In regards to her medium, Nancy was truly a pioneer. The program she developed with her friends from MIT was remarkable and as was mentioned in the article it's techniques allowed for humanistic composite sketches to be made. This is an important aspect to her career because it draws heavily from the Christiane Paul's concept of using digital technologies as a tool. By aiding in the search of lost children or convicted felons Nancy Burson took the composite portrait to a new realm in which it had applicable use and purpose in society. Christiane Paul wrote about how digital media can allow the observer to see the art as a real person (e.g. a person dancing in a video). Nancy's updated portraits of lost children  force to see the artists rendition of the children as the real deal. That is to say her composite work allows the viewer to see the art as an actual portrait of someone even though it is hypothetical. Her ability to composite portraits has made her an invaluable artist of the digital age.