Final

So before this project really began I really had no idea how to start.  I've never been good with projects that were just open ended with out any real direction other than the one we take.  As I was walking home from work one night I realized the campus of OSU is almost alien at 5 in the morning.  It's crazy to see High Street completely free of cars or people.  I found this to be really cool so I took a picture of an intersection I pass regularly.  Then I took another picture of this intersection at around noon.  Then I started to compare the two.  I realized that they were different and lining them up was cool but it didn't really feel like a final project. So I took more pictures at different times and put 4 times together in one picture.  This was better but by only seeing part of any time you don't get the full experience of being at the same place at distinctly different times.   So I knew i'd have to make it move.  I decided on a rotational disk made up of 8 pieces so that any time could be represented in two places in the piece.  After some cutting of the pictures and some learning of the animation timeline tool, I was able to make my project.  While I'm pretty happy with it, I feel like after it was done I could have taken it further and done work times.  I'm not sure if it would have the same impact to have more subtle changes, but it would be interesting to try.

So Paper Tears, Who Knew?

As I started this project I wasn't really sure what to do.  My words were tear and support.  As I was cleaning through my room I came upon some old notebooks. 

These were notebooks from classes I had long since finished.  And I decided instead of just throwing them away, or tearing them up on camera, I would make something from them.  

To start I did have to do some tearing.

Next I folded and interlaced them to add some strength. 

After some stapling I was left with a strip like this one.  It seems pretty sturdy actually. 

A short time later and I have all the strips individually.  Next to fashion them together...

...and done.  A decently sized rope is formed. 

I tied and staple one end to a beam on my second story balcony..

And now to wait to see if I can climb up using this rope. 

Apparently not even a little bit. 

Footsteps in the Rain

So for the forth project I decided to take part of my route from work as video.  I usually work really late nights and I kind of enjoy how quiet and empty the city streets are at 4 in the morning. Sometimes it can be somewhat creepy and as I was examining the audio from the track I noticed an odd noise that I was able to scrub out and make into footsteps.  After I messed with the alignment I added it back in.  Since it was close to Halloween I made the video back and white to make it a little creepier.  

My Trip to the Wexner

So yesterday I tried to check out the gallery for Annie Leibovitz but found that it was closed on Mondays for some reason, so I went today before the Oval and the surrounding area became a madhouse.  So I wasn't really sure what this was going to be like going in.  I hoped it wouldn't be something too abstract that I'd struggle to get to 150 words for this post. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Also, as I toured that gallery I found myself becoming pretty jealous of this woman since she seemed to have taken pictures of so many notable people over the past 40 to 50 years.  I think my favorite part of her pictures was that they seemed to shift back and forth between these very professional looking, staged pictures and pictures that looked more like spur of the moment shots.  The pair that sticks out in my mind the most was two shots of Mick Jagger.  In one he's on stage in full outfit and makeup, and then the other is of him in a robe with a towel wrapped around his head like he just stepped out of the shower.  For some reason I find that comparison kinda funny.

Blog 6

The article I read for this blog was mostly about sound and its use as an artistic media.  One thing I liked about this article was that Miller and Cardiff were so happy with their piece "Dark Pool" that they wouldn't sell it. I just thought that was nice to have a piece you enjoyed so much you wouldn't be able to part with it. Another thing I found that was cool was that the piece of work and the environment the piece was in started to blur for some people experiencing it.

I think something that made this article difficult for me to grasp is that I have no prior experience with sound design or sound editing at all. That isn't to say that I'm too familiar with video editing but I do at least have a vague idea. When the sound project comes up it's going to be a tough time for me I think.

Project 2

So for our journey project I decided to walk to class and pay more close attention than i usually do.  Most of the time I walk to class with music going and I don't really think about the little things around me.  The first picture is of a bench out side of someone's house that I've walked by for more than a year now and have never bothered to notice.  The next part of my journey to class takes me over a bridge at the corner of Indianola and Woodruff that I've probably walked over hundreds of times, but I don't think it ever crossed my mind that people actually park cars under there. That got me wondering who are the people who park there? Where do they live that those spots are the most convenient for them? Also, it doesn't really seem like a very safe place for a car to be in my opinion.  So then walking down Woodruff a house caught my attention because out front were probably 4 different grills.  I can't imagine having such a need to grill food that I would need 4 grills.  So then as I walk down 19th avenue I've seen the motorcycles before but I never really stopped to think why so many in one place. Was it that this was the only place on campus to park?  Finally the last thing that caught my interest on my walk to work is that right across the street from our classroom there seems to be the headquarters for the groundskeeping of OSU. This was something I've noticed from time to time but I never realized where it was actually centered around. It really makes me wonder what else I miss by being so focused on myself as opposed to the world around me.   

Jesus Tap Dancing Christ

So the reading we were assigned for today had to do with the personal story of someone tasked with guarding a controversial piece of art.  What I really enjoyed about the article was that it was the story of someone who didn't have any real background in art but became extremely emotionally invested over the course of guarding the work.   I like how he said he understood the piece better than the artist herself because he doesn't just see the work, but he sees how people react to it as well.

What I didn't really understand was how the whole thing was just made to be destroyed.  The idea that the whole point of the piece was to get wrecked and then use it as an example of people's intolerance just doesn't sit well with me. I agree with the author that the piece probably had a greater effect on people while it was still on display than as a closed circuit video that may or may not even show what happened.

What's the Big Idea?

Big Ideas and Artmaking
This article was about the concept of big overarching ideas that govern an artists entire body of work.  The thing I found to be the most interesting about this article was the that they challenged students to find their own big idea.  So instead of just creating to prove mechanical skill, they urge students to find something larger to focus their work on.
I think the most difficult thing for me is going to be trying to find a big idea to focus on.  This is mostly for the fact that I don't have a lot of mechanical skill when it comes to drawing anyway, so taking my work a step farther with a big idea might be too advanced for me. If I can get a grasp of the mechanics of digital art making I may move on to this concept, but for now I'm just going to try to produce work that's technically nice.

Barrett Visual Culture
So this article dealt with the idea of denotations and connotations in a visual piece of artwork.  The idea that everything in a piece of work is meant to be done deliberately in order to elicit some kind of response.  The response doesn't even have to be a conscious one.  It was interesting to see the students pick apart the Rolling Stones cover since I've never thought about really looking at something to the point of noticing the most minute details.
The thing about the article I found most difficult was that now I'm going to be very aware of everything I do in my work. Now I'm going to have to really think about the meaning in all the nuances of a piece of work. This is something I don't really have any experience with so it may not end well. 

So Let's Talk Time

Kidd the Cheese Monkeys
So this first article we read for this assignment seemed to look at the huge consequences of seemingly small parts of a bigger picture.  Left and right, up and down, and dimensions were all talked about in this article.  I think the think I found really gripping about this article was the idea of beings who experience the world in more dimensions than we do.  The idea of higher dimensions like moving through time, all the way to moving through universes that are the result of every possible outcome to every possible situation has always been an idea that has fascinated me.

Something that this article did that i didn't really enjoy was how intimidating it made the concept of form to be.  I understand it's in no way easy, but it just seemed relentless about how you can't understand anything without first grasping how important proper direction is.

Hicky the Heresy of Zone Defense
Something I found pretty interesting in this article was the idea of rules and how they change.  The idea that first they restrict, then free, and then finally restrict in a different way was a pretty unique way to look at it. It makes me wonder how culture will have advanced in twenty years from now.

As for something that was difficult for me was getting into the mindset that basketball is essentially a perfect game when the rules are made to only change the ascetics of the game. It may just be that I'm not into sports, but the article started to lose me when he started going more in depth into his philosophy of basketball.

Wechler Uncanny Valley 
Now this article really resonated with me.  I really enjoyed the talk of video game characters, animated movie, and even robotics.  The uncanny valley is something I had previous knowledge of but it's really interesting to hear what people working with this problem feel about it.

Something that I felt was difficult to imagine is the concept of working backward to reverse engineer emotions.  The way it seems so unnatural really confounds me.  It really amazes me that people can get facial expressions that can be even close to believable when they have to go through such a roundabout way of expressing emotions.

Introduction, Otherwise known as "I have a Blogger already?"

So this is going to be the very first blog post of this first semester. I'd say it would be the first post of this blog, but apparently Blogger saves account information for much longer than I thought.  Anyway I guess I should begin describing myself.  My name is Jake McLain and I'm a senior studying biology.  My main interests include video games, animation, and some music.  More specifically, I've gotten really interested in PC games after I built a new desktop last year.  Currently I'm playing Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3DS.  In the past two years I've become really interested in the process of animation.  As long as I've remembered I've being watching cartoons and more recently I've started to think more about the techniques used to create these shows that I enjoy so much.   I think this class is going to either go really well or just become the most frustrating class I've ever taken.  On the one hand I love technology and can pick up on the mechanics of a program pretty well, but the problem is that I'm not a very talented person when it comes to art.  The worst part is that I think I have the creativity to come up with something really cool, but this disconnect between brain and hands is really killing any dream I would have had to be a starving artist one day.  Oh well I'm hoping for the former, so I guess we'll see.