Culture Jam 2.0

I decided to redo my culture jam project. I felt that it was the weakest of the projects that were assigned and I felt that the idea I was trying to project didn't show based on feedback from my piers. I kept the theme of keeping the earth clean and healthy. This time, I drew my original character and scanned it into the software. I went with a "sad stump" to show that a former tree is depressed because of the new life he lives. I added the symbol for recycling to show that if more recycling were to happen less trees would have to suffer his fate.

I jammed this in the cafeteria at SFSU. In the upper cafe and lower cafe seating areas. I placed these flyers that I printed out onto tables in the morning and handed them to people who were getting coffee or breakfast. Though this was my second culture jam I was still hesitant and anxious to carry out the jam. Taking photos was the hardest part. I was even more scared to the point of being in panic, to take a picture of people. I wasn't comfortable with people looking at me. I think this is because I didn't know if they were okay with my art, or with the idea of the jam, or something similar. Something inside me is ashamed or embarrassed to share things without the permission of other people taking it in. It reminded me of proselytizing one's faith.

The Augmented Body - Plugging In

As a human species, we have used technology to learn, adapt, and grow, but we continue to pollute the Earth with harmful chemicals, slaughter animals to extinction, and allow criminals to terrorize the innocent without justice, the once beautiful land is now barren and extremely dangerous. It is not ideal for you or your loved ones to live in such a hospitable environment. Fortunately for you there is an alternative. With the new marriage of hightech electronics and body preservation, it is now possible to live in paradise, forever. You will live in a virtual paradigm. Your brain will be plugged in and your thoughts, memories, and consciousness uploaded to our database. In our virtual world you will be as perfect as you can imagine. A strong, healthy copy of your physical self. Let go of reality and embrace virtuality as we augment your brain with our technology.

Mitchell Baker

April 27, 2015

E.A.T. -- Experiments in Art and Technology

Experiments in Art and Technology was founded in 1966 by engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. The non-profit organization brought together engineers and artists to work on performances that incorporated new technology. E.A.T. Became an essential catalyst in stimulating the involvement of technology into the art world. It worked together with engineers and contemporary artists.

Artists and the art community responded enthusiastically to E.A.T. By 1969, given early efforts to attract engineers, the group had over 2,000 artist members as well as 2,000 engineer members willing to work with artists. Expressions of interest and requests for technical assistance came from all over the United States and Canada and from Europe, Japan, South America and elsewhere. People were encouraged to start local E.A.T. groups and about 15 to 20 were formed. Artists involved with 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering include: John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor, and Robert Whitman. Notable engineers involved include: Bela Julesz, Billy Klüver, Max Mathews, John Pierce, Manfred Schroeder, and Fred Waldhauer.

Video projection, wireless sound transmission, and Doppler sonar resonate from the 1960's. Never before had any used these tools to artistically display a piece. This merging of science, technology, and art broke down the barriers for decades to come.

The pinnacle of E.A.T. was at the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo '70 at Osaka Japan where E.A.T. artists and engineers designed an immersive dome that included a fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya. The project included 75 artists and engineers from the US and Japan- the original structure consisted of a geodesic dome covered by a water vapor cloud. A Mylar mirror (spherical) produced real images depicting that of a hologram. Because of the size of the mirror, the spectator could walk around the image and view it from all sides. Surrounding Pepsi Pavilion were seven of Robert Breer's “Floats.” These six foot high sculptures paroled around the pavilion at no more than two feet per minute. They emitted sounds. When the float hit an obstacle or was pushed, it would reverse direction and float in the opposite direction. Those who experienced this Expo first hand would be able to experience what has come to be known as the most important and influential art and technology projects of the 20th Century.

http://experimentsinartandtechnology.net/E.A.T..html

Technology and the Body

Tony Quan is a graffiti artist who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He lost all ability to draw and became an inspiration for Zach Lieberman, James Powderly, Evan Roth, Chris Sugure, and Theo Watson to create "EyeWriter." This device tracks the movement of the eye and translates that movement into marks onto a digital screen. Now people with degenerative nerve disorders like Tony still can have the pleaser of drawing through the device: EyeWriter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AztH_YVQN-k

A team called Eidos has build Sensory Augmentation Equipment. One part covers your eyes and another, your mouth and ears. The equipment blocks all sight and sound that you might observe while wearing it, but on the equipment are sensors that pick up the world around you just like your eyes and ears would. The equipment processes these through a computer and gives them back at you in the best quality that you can ever receive. The software even allows you to isolate on what you are interested in and mute out everything else. Check the link for a video for a full explanation.

https://vimeo.com/58771063

Culture Jam

My culture jam project is focused on pollution and the harmful effects that arise from it. I went to different areas in the city and planted this image to remind the public that they are breathing in harmful chemicals. I jammed a particular street near my house that I walk by everyday, down the M line and BART railways, and into Chinatown in San Francisco. I used the "Breathe Easy" logo, a pharmaceutical program that promotes healthy breathing and helps patients that suffer from asthma and the like. I manipulated its image to ironically represent a different ideal. I changed the text to "Breathe Deep," suggesting breathing in heavily the deadly icons circling around it. The skulls and biohazard images were found using a simple google search.

The creation process of my logo was no problem for me, but the jamming part gave me some psychological issues. I wasn't embarrassed to place my logo, rather concerned for what laws I was breaking around public posters. If there were any. I have had my run in with the law and I have turned over new leaves because of the prices I had to pay. I did not enjoy seeing myself shamed in the past and I don't wish to repeat it. If I were to do something like this again. I would more thoroughly research the law about public posting and keep to them. One may argue that, "That's the man keeping you down." or "We must take back our pubic space!" to that I just have to say that I'm not that kind of artist. I'll express my ideals in another fashion. Whether it be a different kind of culture jam or not at all.

I do enjoy the expression of culture jamming. Like most things I don't like the "in your face" style, but a subtle, thought provoking approach that might make you ponder the rest of your walk home.

My logo.

My culture jam on a transformer box door.

Breathe Easy logo

One of the skull images

Adobe Illustrator

Doctor Peppa- Just some practice with Illustrator. I'm using image tracing, layering, text and drop shadow effects. I'm not going to jam this anywhere because I don't have any emotional energy in this piece. I just put it together real fast for the experience. Some things that I found that were difficult in the Adobe Illustrator process was getting fonts to install properly on my machine. I tried to download a font from the internet and install it, but my PC wouldn't allow it. Therefor, I was restricted to using a offset font for the letter 'a.' I got it the closest I could, but it still looks noticeable.

Chance Operations Art

While learning about Chance and Randomness, I got to experience my own chance operation art form. I teamed up with a classmate and we swapped our chance operations that could be used to create art.

This was my chance operation. It simply used different die rolls to complete different tasks that you would systematically do in the painting. I chose to use watercolor as my medium. I used die rolls for everything from choosing the paper size (5x7") to where rolling where I would paint on the paper. I had a operation to stop painting. If I rolled 1-1-1 or high-high-high, I would stop, but I never got those rolls. So, after Filling the page I just stopped.

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

Next Is the random operation I used from Tina:

The instructions got a little beat up and painted on, but they are still readable. Basically it calls for dipping a gummy snack into paint and stamping it onto a page. I'm using gouache here. First the instructions call to stamp horizontally and then vertically. Randomness comes in the gummy you choose from the big pile of gummy snacks that I have now. Like pulling from a hat. Also from the instructions there are randomness from when it says, "the color of the shoes you wore today."

Here are the works that my partners produced using the chance operations that we shared:

 Lance Kramer

 Tina Kashiwagi

Tina Kashiwagi