I'm Surrounded By Idiots

Voila! The animated montage I've made using the triptych I uploaded last time! It's 12 seconds, and it was trickier than I thought (and than it looks). I'm pretty happy with it.

New Media Presentation Outline

Topic: New Media Art in Video Games

• Video Games can be art
• Art doesn't have to only serve itself, it can have meaning and be a storytelling device
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-art-of-video-games-101131359/?no-ist
• Chris Melissinos reached that opinion some 30 years earlier, as a teenager plugging away at King’s Quest on a neighbor’s PC. 
• The game’s hand-drawn animation and two-word typed commands seem crude now, but “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, this is a fairy tale come to life,’” Melissinos says. He still gets goose bumps remembering hidden warp zones in the first Super Mario Brothers.
• Now Melissinos is the guest curator of “The Art of Video Games,” an exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that celebrates 40 years of the genre, from Pac-Man to Minecraft. The show will include video-game screen shots, videotaped interviews with game designers, vintage consoles from Melissinos’ personal collection (“I’m having a bit of separation anxiety,” he says) and several opportunities for visitors to seize the arcade joystick or PlayStation controls themselves.
• Critics say that art can't be a video game, and that video games can't be art. I think they're wrong.
• Artists either incorporate their art into the game, or make the game their art form
• Mark Essen, creator of  Nidhogg uses video games to carry a story to the viewer
• http://messhof.com
• The definition of art is very open to interpretation. Most art critics say that video games can’t be and are not art.
• The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones wrote an article saying that video games are a playground where you can pretend, but nothing is real there.
• Both the Smithsonian and the New York Museum of Modern Art both have had exhibits depicting video games as art.
• The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that video games are indeed a form of art.
• If we look at Lev Manovich’s definition and criteria of what New Media art is: Represented numerically, modular, variable, automated, and transcoded.
• What happens in a video game is created and caused by algorithms, so that’s correct.
• Some video games are modular, where there is no set way for something to happen, so some games are truly modular.
• Video games are almost always variable. you can change what happens in it by changing the actions taken. It isn’t as fully variable as Manovich defines it, because there’s only so much you can change in a game.
• Again, parts of video games are automated. Some actions happen regardless of if you trigger them or interact with them. This is perhaps the weakest link in the connection between video games and New Media.
• All video games contain transcoded information. This includes sounds, pictures, and physical elements.
• It sure seems like video games share a lot of the attributes of New Media Art…
• Even if video games aren’t art, they definitely contain elements of art and are created with artistic methods.
• Concept art to actual assets are an artistic creation.
• Creation of soundscapes are also artistic.
• The creation of a story is also art.
• Cory Arcangel
• His Super Mario Clouds is an example of art and video games merging.
• While it is hacked, it is using the assets of the game itself to create art and to provoke thoughts an emotions of the people viewing them.

An unexpected update...

Ok, so it has been a while since I've posted last. In the space of this time, I've done quite a few things, some of which I have pictures of others I do not. For example, I have no images of me actually submitting my BFA application, but I do have images I used in it!

As you can see, they are nice and big pictures! They are just two of the ten I submitted for review.

I also worked on a few more class projects, specifically for my current digital media class. The current "big" project was a triptych of photoshopped images to create a narrative or to convey a specific message. I'm sorry to say that if you don't know Star Wars, or don't know characters, this may result in you getting a little lost...

Basically, the overall message is that even fictional characters (Obi Wan Kenobi), can't fathom how we got here, while we are forced to lament that these two are the best both sides could come up with. The stormtroopers represent the electorate, because we are all Americans, the only thing that (ideally) separates us are the badges we wear.

I'll try to post more often. Keep you all updated soon!

Project 1: Play!

Project 1: Play!

Prompt: The project should respond to the theme of Play. It can be frivolous, fun, serious, competitive, cooperative, didactic, interactive, maddening, imaginative, mythic, epic, poetic, scientific, or ecstatic. It can be an invented game, a game in which the rules have been subverted, a performance, or another idea that you propose.

So I am a nerd, I can admit it, and I’m completely ok with it. Thus, when we were told that we would be making something along the lines and the idea of “Play,” I immediately thought about the kinds of games I played when I was younger. Many of these games would revolve around the idea of playing pretend or board games, and there is one game that is a mix of the both of these topics: Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a game that revolves around the idea of pretending to be someone/something else in a world that doesn’t exist, and there is only one required thing to truly play the game, a set of six dice. This set includes a four sided die, a six sided die, an eight sided die, a ten sided die, a twelve sided die, and a twenty sided die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 as they are referred to in the player’s guide). Seeing as they are what essentially allows the game to be played in its simplest form, I thought it would be perfect for this project.

Part of the assignment’s requirements was that we had to make our objects using some form of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) programming. The examples we were shown and the ideas we had seemed to focus around the laser cutter, and that seemed to be the smartest way to make it. Each die was designed off of a simple paper net template i found for the dice, and I spent a long time trying to make sure that all the sizes on each piece were the same. Once that was done, and the designs for each side were finished and I was happy with them, I had to decide how to to join them together. I had initially thought about doing the pieces in some form of wood or acrylic, because they were sturdy materials that could take a beating. But as I worked on the files and the patterns, it became harder and harder to find a way to join the sides together. It’s easy for the d6, because it’s just a cube, but when you get to the other dice with eight plus sides, you can’t create those smooth joints because the laser cutter can’t cut bevels. I wound up sacrificing the thickness of material by switching to a heavy pressed cardboard. This would allow me to create living joints by simply scoring and gluing the sides together. This lets me create a smoother seam, and allows me to have a more simplified construction. I decided to add a coffee stain to the dice because simply having white paper is boring, and I am a coffee addict, so it seemed fitting. All in all, it has the feeling of being practical and functional, whilst still being aesthetically pleasing.

So, here you can see an example of how the pen tool was used to create a vector image, then exported as a JPEG.

And here is my version of the "Side Slice" logo from the exercise "Design a Logo" from the Adobe TV exercises. My version has some darker colors.

Digital Media & New Media Art (Response)

Digital media is the now primary way to consume information in our society. You look at news publications, movies, television, games, and social interaction, and there is a definite trend towards it being solely on a digital platform. In our society the role of physical media, such as newspapers, books, board games, and now art (to a degree) are presented in a digital form, either displayed as such or presented in a way where you can interact with them. The best definitions/examples I can give to "digital media" are video games, Netflix original shows, and news sites like Politico. Using them as a base, "digital media" is a way to get information and entertainment presented directly to you, in the instant you want them.

Digital Media requires technology, and as to what I would consider my favorite piece of digital technology, it's tough. I like my phone, I like my computer, and I like my gaming set ups. If I had to pick only one to keep though, I would go with my computer. It simply gives me the best mix of everything. It allows to me to talk to people, I can consume art and entertainment through it, and I get news from it. Computers are the best all round digital technologies, because they can do just about everything.

Living in our digital society isn't all cookies, rainbows, and kittens (despite what the internet would have you think; it really does love cats). My greatest frustration with living in a digital world is that you can't get away from it now. I used to go on complete disconnects during the summer, cutting myself out of the Social Networking... well, "nets." Now, it's impossible to get away from it all. You can't have a life without being a part of the digital media, unless you're willing to have very sporadic contact with other people. My mother is the only person in the family aside from her own mother that doesn't use Facebook, but even she needs me and my siblings to check on people for her. She's indirectly connected.