Video Art

Performance Art

Xerox Project

For the Xerox project I chose to place my body parts on a mirror, which resembles peoples outer appearance.  My goal was to create a new sort of organism that contains my body parts but come together in an unusual way.  This challenges the viewer to put the pieces together for themselves and interpret what kind of creature/ humanoid they see in this project.

Grid Art

It is a picture of Plant Hall with a beautiful Tampa sunset in the background.

DADA Manifesto by Hugo Ball

At first, the dada manifesto comes off as absurd, hard to follow, unconventional blabber.  But as you dive deeper into the manifesto and continue to read, it begins to shed some light on the world at the time and the urge to step out of societies pre-conceived norms of how to live. This excerpt exemplifies just that,

"I shall be reading poems that are meant to dispense with conventional language, no less, and to have done with it. Dada Johann Fuchsgang Goethe. Dada Stendhal. Dada Dalai Lama, Buddha, Bible, and Nietzsche. Dada m'dada. Dada mhm dada da. It's a question of connections, and of loosening them up a bit to start with. I don't want words that other people have invented. All the words are other people's inventions. I want my own stuff, my own rhythm, and vowels and consonants too, matching the rhythm and all my own. If this pulsation is seven yards long, I want words for it that are seven yards long. Mr Schulz's words are only two and a half centimetres long."

It is about starting something new, a manifesto that focuses largely on the role language plays in a society, and how language limits the way in which people can perceive and experience the world.  The dada movement attempts to push past the boundaries of language and to explore the world of dada, dadaism, dada life, dada this dada that ooooo ahhhh daaaaa dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Nothing is wrong in dada, it aims at decontextualizing objects and turning them into art, just like the legendary fountain piece of 1917 by Marcel Duchamp, which was a urinal turned upside down signed by the name R.Mutt.  It challenged people to abolish the ways in which language and social norms affect our every life, and unleashed the possibility to turn everything and anything into a working art piece. 

TI994A

The TI994A was released in June 1981 as an early home computer.  It was important because it was an improved version of TI-99/4 model released at a lower price that made it affordable for the average American at $525.  It came equipped with a keyboard, speech synthesizer, RF modulator, and a cartridge.  It was the first domestic computer with a 16-bit processor and allowed people to perform a wide array of functions from word processing, to playing games, to storing a good amount of data on the CPU's RAM.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing is considered the father of the computer.  He envisioned and designed the Turing machine, which was a device that could be given a certain set of rules that could be programmed to compute or solve an infinite number of problems.  He really was one of the most important people and his work with pushing the boundaries of mathematics and computers was the start of the digital revolution. 

Turing also designed the programming system of the worlds first commercially sold electronic computer, the Ferranti Mark 1. This is a huge deal because before this computers were not available commercially at the time, they were only for businesses that could afford them and had the space for them which could take up many rooms.  Turing's work also proved to be an extremely effective contribution to defeating the Nazis.

 

"Turing arguably made a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill. Thanks to Turing and his 'Ultra' colleagues at Bletchley Park, allied generals in the field were consistently, over long periods of the war, privy to detailed German plans before the German generals had time to implement them."

Richard Dawkins August 2009 

 

Despite Turing's remarkable work, he did not receive the recognition he deserved because of his sexual orientation.  When his house got broken into by a gay man that he was there with previously, he reported it to the police who then proceeded to arrest Turing because homosexuality was illegal at the time.  Because of his marvelous work they offered him "treatment" rather than imprisonment.  The hormone treatment to rid him of his homosexuality caused horrible side effects and eventually he could not focus his study on artificial intelligence anymore which eventually led to his unfortunate suicide.

 

 

My Flip Book

 

This is my flip book for Art & Technology.  I started out pretty ambitious and very creative with the dragon swooping down from above to eat the mushroom that has just grown.  I feel that the first half of my book is definitely the peak of the story but as I progress I began to run out of ideas like many others did when you get about halfway done.  Overall this project was interesting and pretty fun, although very time consuming.

The Great Depression vs. The 2008 recession

Some debate over which one was worse is in the critics mouths, however no one can undermine the severity and impact each had on the country, and the world.  During the stock market crash of 1929, the height of unemployment shot to a crazy 25%.  The 2008 recession, also coined the term "The Great Recession" displayed unemployment at 10% at its peak, which is still a huge amount of people without jobs or anyway to support themselves or their family.  This caused the economy to slow down in both the depression and the recession which then in turn had a domino effect that lowered demand, which then led to even more people being laid off. 
       Both the depression and the recession were very scary events that pointed out the consequences of all of the events leading up to each.  The biggest difference between the two would be how the government responded. During the 1929 crash, the federal government did not make any bold moves and even made policies stricter, which did not help matters improve.  During the 2008 recession, they reacted differently and enacted many bailouts of huge companies and banks, and in 2009 the stimulus package also had a positive impact on the economy, even though it might have been small it was still a step in the right direction.  Overall, both economic disasters had their fare share of differences, but both enforced the notion that the economy is a complex system that can turn from good to sour in the blink of an eye.

*Source: http://www.ketv.com/money/2008-worse-than-the-great-depression/27757236

Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly

     I found Madama Butterfly a unique animation that challenges social norms.  When the animation turned sexual I was taken by surprise and I questioned the seriousness of what I was watching.  As the story progressed, I felt the pain of the women as her child was stripped of her and the symbolic string of life that was connected to it was cut. 

   As the emotions escalated so did the music in the background which was opera and I felt this had a good impact on portraying the women's pain.  Towards the end I found it interesting how the main character seems to run out of the frame as she begins her downfall.  As she disassembled her body I  was taken back at first, but then I realized what I think Sapegin was she was so broken down about the encounter, that she actually disassemble her own physical body.  When her body is resurrected into the butterfly, I drew a connection to the beginning of the story, when the butterfly appeared as she met her former lover.

Birth and Life of Opera

     The Birth and Life of Opera showcased the evolution of opera and the impact it had on culture and nationalism.  It was interesting for me to learn about how opera was born because I previously did not know too much about the topic.  People are always striving to improve and for the next best thing, so it makes sense that they created opera as a way to blend music, poetry, art, and performance all into one.

    What surprised me was how much of a role opera played in the lives of so many people and how fast it spread.  The more emotion the opera provoked, the more people got drawn into the art of opera and became obsessed with the entertainment aspect of it all.  Opera shines as one of the original forms of multimedia and I am now beginning to understand to appreciate it more for what it truly is.

Neo-Baroque Era

     It is clearly apparent that we are living in a neo-baroque era, possibly even a rococo era, and I see it every single night.  Go out on any night of the week on South Howard and you instantly see a plethora of girls dressed head to toe in tight dresses, extensive make-up, and designer hand bags.  The men are for the majority in collared shirts and wearing shiny new watches that mommy and daddy probably bought for them. 

     I am not saying this is the entire general public, but the majority of people are very materialistic and use their own bodies as a marketing tool to show the world what they possess.  Spending hours to get ready and trying on dozens of new outfits before a simple night out for a few drinks seems the same to me as back in the baroque era women wearing those huge ridiculous wigs.

     This materialism and shallowness is also very apparent in the rap / hip-hop genre.  The music has shifted from artists story telling and the use of quality poetry like rhymes, to ignorant lyrics boasting about the possessions that they own and all the girls that they can acquire.

     All of this can be related to the Latin term 'bread and circuses, which originated when the Roman Empire began and people were only worried about 'bread and circuses' while their attention was being diverted from what was really going on.  The government would give out free food and put on huge shows in order to keep the public happy and distracted in the meantime.*   

   So many people today are still distracted and oblivious to what is happening in the world.  They wake up, flick on the t.v, go to work, not really doing anything with passion but just being stuck on auto-pilot.  As long as they get there drinks at the end of the night and t.v when they wake up they are fine, they don't question anything, they don't strive for more in life.  That is why I feel it is time to wake up and not take anything for granted. Strive to educate yourself as much as possible constantly challenging your perspective on the world, in order to grow and develop as a person.


*(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bread+and+circuses)

Deus ex Machinae

    Meaning "God out of a machine", Deus ex machinae originated in Greek and Roman drama as an improbable resolution to a plot in the theater.  A present day example of Deus ex machinae would be in the latest Batman movie, 'Dark Knight Rises'. 

    When the nuclear bomb is about to explode and all hope seems to be lost, Batman miraculously comes up with the brilliant idea to chain the bomb to his ship as the ticker gets closer and closer to detonation. Not only does he somehow have enough time to fly it far into the ocean away from the town, but he also ends up surviving the seemingly impossible task. 

RAUL CUERO's interview about Creativity

Every single person in the world can take something away from Raul Cuero.  He used all the discrimination and adversity he faced as fuel to achieve more in life. He never settled for anything less than what he deserves, which is a fair and equal opportunity to pursue his dreams.  It is not about the cards you are dealt, it is how you play the hand.
     
     So many people in this world want more for themselves, but few are willing to put in the hard work and dedication it takes to get there.  Raul encourages you to do everything with intensity and passion.  He emphasizes to enjoy the process and journey along the way, and not to rush to conclusions like many do.  In addition, he pushes the idea of a "universal consciousness", that transcends the individual and even society, and provides a perspective to look at things from above.

  Regarding everyday life tips to be more creative, he says it starts from a young age.  Kids now a days are constantly glued to screens, whether it be a t.v, computer, or tablet.  The key is to explore more of nature, to have interactions with unknown things, to explore out of your comfort zone. 

Raul Cuero is the prime example of a person who is "living smart". 

You create your own reality.

Juan Carlos Delgado'

Juan Carlos Delgado's work is multimedia because it incorporates the use of multiple mediums, including the sculpture and the ice caused by the manipulation of temperature.  It also includes the element of time, as you can see from the frost on his sculpture increasingly engulfing it until the whole thing is covered in solid ice. 

First Impression

My first impression of this class was that it is unlike any other class I have had before.  It left me excited to push myself creatively to see what I can achieve.  My name is Paul Mendes and I'm a Senior, Marketing Major at the University of Tampa.  During this class I expect to undergo a change in perspective that will ultimately leave me a more well rounded person.