Digital Divide Reading Questions

After Videogames by Miltos Manetas

X-Ray Portraits by Ayako Kanda and Mayuka Hayashi 

1. In the article, Bishop says, "While many artists use digital technology, how many really confront the question of what it means to think, see, and filter affect through the digital? How many thematize this, or reflect deeply on how we experience, and are altered by, the digitization of our existance?" (p.2)
Do you agree with this statement? Also, do you agree that contemporary art largely ignores the digital? If so, why do you believe it is so often ignored?

3. What do you believe the 'divide' Bishop is talking about? Is the gap the amount of specialization? Or the alienation of terms? Or the lack of feeling in digital work?
How does this work for digital mediums like code in which it is an 'alien' concept but requires hours of anguish and tons of specialization in order to produce a desired art piece. For those of us working with glitch art or study glitch artists, what are your personal feelings on this 'divide.'

Note: About the one thing I agreed with was her opinion on the current retro fashion for analog media and that no exhibit is 'complete' without something old clunking as background noise. However, I don't believe she finds it beautiful like I do.

Project 6.2: 3D The Sequel

I was definitely taken by surprise with the amount of time this project would take. I took me at least two days of messing around with Blender before I really contemplated giving up. I went through a few forums asking desperate questions and watching tutorials until someone suggested I look a program called SketchUp (because I thought Blender and Maya were too difficult). If I could describe how different SketchUp is from Blender I would say it's the same different as using Paint instead of Photoshop. There are A LOT less tools, shortcuts, and methods to memorize. The only thing that was somewhat difficult with SketchUp was not having objects like cubes and spheres provided and each object you create has to be drawn together by different points. Luckily, I have a Wacom Tablet so that was not too much of a concern as I got used to it. The flowers were as easy as making one petal and then mass producing it. The origami cranes were about the only thing I got used to thanks to Blender and I was able to upload that origami paper pattern to the "materials" section and paint it onto each crane. The bottom of the pot was easy and the soil was just a duplicate of the pot with random geometric shapes on top to close it up. I am embarrassed that I was not able to put on the paper fan… or the sand dollar… or the om pendant… But I did something! And it was WAY tough. It seems like this program is popular amongst architects and engineers because it is practically drafting an object. Anyway, I enjoyed the challenge of trying something completely new. 

Final Writing Assignment

Yayoi Kusama and Olafur Eliasson Presentation

For this assignment I chose two artists that work in a wide variety of media but both find their strengths in environmental installations that challenge the audiences' sense of reality. Although they are not defined by the single medium of electronic art, both artists have experimented with the medium and use a great deal of digital work in their installations and videos. The two are not completely different but do not define space or reality the same. In the representative works I have chosen, both artists tackle the concept of infinity in their own ways which I will describe.



Yayoi Kusama, Fireflies on the Water, 2002

Olafur Eliasson, Feelings are Facts, 2010

Works Cited

1. "Olafur Eliasson." Olafur Eliasson. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
2. "Information | Yayoi Kusama." Information | Yayoi Kusama. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
3. "Yayoi Kusama." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.
4. O'Reilly. Basic Animation Aesthetics. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
5. Benjamin, Walter, and J. A. Underwood. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
6. Raley, Rita. Tactical Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009. Print.