In my first artist response for this class, I discussed the quirky website www.mouchette.org. The site at first glanced appeared to be a simple page created by a 13 year old name Mouchette but as the viewer progressed through the pages, this identity crumbles and the visitor wonders who is the true author of the page.
The site "Black People Love Us" works in a similar manner. It includes pictures and text that confuse the viewer on the true identity of the site creator and even the site's purpose. "Black People Love Us" (which will now be referred in the rest of this article as BPLU) is humorous and completely politically incorrect. The site is divided in 7 parts. In each part you explore the lives of Sally and Johnny and their Black friends. The site gives different testimonials on why Sally and Johnny are their friends and how these two understand certain aspects of their lives. The pictures can seem awkward at times but nonetheless entertaining.
Like Mouchette, BPLU looks out of date but becomes timeless because of it's interactivity. Visitors can still post to the site expressing their opinions of the page. These posting vary from appraisal, condemnation, or absolute confusion. The site also provides a link to an email address. Whether or not the webmaster will email them back is unknown. Furthermore in the section, "stuff our friends care about" is a list of different site that include, the million man march, Nation of Islam, and the United Negro College Fund.
BPLU is a very unique site. It may seem out of date, and politically incorrect but that is what makes the site works. I would not want to change it any way.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Project Madrugada
Even though there is still sometime before the class gets to the final project, I have already decided that I would u se that time to focus on my art portfolio site. It will be called Project Madrugrada and I will use this entry to just collect my thoughts.
Madrugada
Opening animation
homepage
Description: Changes time of day from morning to night. Possibly flashes the words madrugada at the morning time. Or this will be the page for early morning.
About me/ background:
Description: Day, sun, clouds, light blue, birds chirping, light colors, sun rays.
Works:
Description: sunset, sun setting, translucent moon, warm colors, gradient, translucent stars Orange, reds blue, silhouette
Sub Categories: Games, Art, Design
Contact: Shooting stars, regular stars, full moon, cresent moon, moon cover in clouds, fireflies (lightning bugs) Light appear from the darkness
Description: Night
Ideas/References
www.madeforeachother.com
Kazuo Oga's work (ghibli)
Madrugada
Opening animation
homepage
Description: Changes time of day from morning to night. Possibly flashes the words madrugada at the morning time. Or this will be the page for early morning.
About me/ background:
Description: Day, sun, clouds, light blue, birds chirping, light colors, sun rays.
Works:
Description: sunset, sun setting, translucent moon, warm colors, gradient, translucent stars Orange, reds blue, silhouette
Sub Categories: Games, Art, Design
Contact: Shooting stars, regular stars, full moon, cresent moon, moon cover in clouds, fireflies (lightning bugs) Light appear from the darkness
Description: Night
Ideas/References
www.madeforeachother.com
Kazuo Oga's work (ghibli)
Art Response 7
Last class we saw a marketing tactic by GE of using art to convey an idea or product they are trying to sale. I am not saying that commercials can not be an art forms themselves, but in GE's example and the example I am about to give, these two companies push beyond the normal advertising of photographs or film and use less conventional methods.
Frito Lay's recent campaign features a series of animated shorts that end up conveying why it's brand of chips and dip are made for each other. The site, www.madeforeachother.com is completely interactive and immerses the viewer in a new and colorful world full of different characters. This strategy is successful in my opinion because it still sells the product but it makes the viewer less aware of it. They become interested in the actual artwork instead.
The site takes a while to load but it greets the viewer with an interesting loading screen in which the counting numbers greet each other then drift off to space. Depending on the speed of the computer and internet, the process can take several minutes or 30 seconds. These numbers count to 100. When that animation is finished it takes the viewer to the actual world of these characters.
The Frito Lay site really enforces the idea of "made for each other" by making the site into a game where the viewer unites the lost partners by clicking on the character and then its partner. An animations plays and then they return to their regular states most of the time. Inside of this game there are other games and even movies of the commercials often shown on TV.
It can be very hard sometimes to drag the screen but this could be mouse issues and not the fault of the website. Not all characters do what I expected them to do. I think some of them do not have partners, and if they do, it was hard to find them. Nevertheless I was entertained by this site.
This website, and the GE flash piece can show how powerful flash can be as a program.
Frito Lay's recent campaign features a series of animated shorts that end up conveying why it's brand of chips and dip are made for each other. The site, www.madeforeachother.com is completely interactive and immerses the viewer in a new and colorful world full of different characters. This strategy is successful in my opinion because it still sells the product but it makes the viewer less aware of it. They become interested in the actual artwork instead.
The site takes a while to load but it greets the viewer with an interesting loading screen in which the counting numbers greet each other then drift off to space. Depending on the speed of the computer and internet, the process can take several minutes or 30 seconds. These numbers count to 100. When that animation is finished it takes the viewer to the actual world of these characters.
The Frito Lay site really enforces the idea of "made for each other" by making the site into a game where the viewer unites the lost partners by clicking on the character and then its partner. An animations plays and then they return to their regular states most of the time. Inside of this game there are other games and even movies of the commercials often shown on TV.
It can be very hard sometimes to drag the screen but this could be mouse issues and not the fault of the website. Not all characters do what I expected them to do. I think some of them do not have partners, and if they do, it was hard to find them. Nevertheless I was entertained by this site.
This website, and the GE flash piece can show how powerful flash can be as a program.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Art Response 6
The 1952 movie Neighbors is a stop motion short that tells the story of two neighbors and their confrontation over what is and what is not their property in relation to a small flower that is settled right between the two properties. It was created by Norman McLaren and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It's an early example of new media. The use of stop motion gives the two characters the freedom to defy gravity.
I would like to discuss a bit more about the technical aspects of this film. McLaren pushed the boundaries of stop motion with this film. It becomes more than a technology trick but a conveyer of emotions. THe film does not have any dialogue. The communication of the two characters to the viewer are from sound and movement. For example, the flower cowards in fear when the two men fight. The men jump and slide around the grass after becoming completely infatuated with the flower. As humourous and as dazzling the movie is, it does have a moral: "Love thy neighbor."
I would like to discuss a bit more about the technical aspects of this film. McLaren pushed the boundaries of stop motion with this film. It becomes more than a technology trick but a conveyer of emotions. THe film does not have any dialogue. The communication of the two characters to the viewer are from sound and movement. For example, the flower cowards in fear when the two men fight. The men jump and slide around the grass after becoming completely infatuated with the flower. As humourous and as dazzling the movie is, it does have a moral: "Love thy neighbor."
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