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.