LAST BLOG!!!

This class has been pretty great to be honest. I really feel like I was connected with my major, and all the aspects it has to offer. This class dealt with social media, recent film, the history of technology, and much more. I really liked this class because I felt like it dealt with our world today, and not the past. All my classes have been about how we got to where we are now, but it was never where we were going in the future, until this class. I had fun with all the projects, especially the Pinterest one. I really like how this project was over the course of a month and I got to do something I really have an interest in, which is baking. I also really like the app Pinterest so it was fun to utilize what is actually on app, rather than just repin things to my different boards. I'm glad I was able to take this class because I learned a lot that goes on around the world, as well as on our campus. I'm excited to utilize the skills I've learned in this class in the future, and my career. I do take a huge interest in social media and I think working or interning for a company such as Instagram or anything in that realm would be really cool and interesting. This class was very fun and challenged me to think outside the box. Thanks for a great semester!

DIY PART 4/GIVEBACK

I cannot believe that the last weekend for this project is already here...and gone since I am done with my instructables project for good :) For my giveback I decided to make a christmas sign. Now it doesn't seem like much but I was really in the spirit of christmas, and I love arts and crafts. I have made a few before, but never christmas themed, so here are the steps in making a DIY Christmas Sign. The amount of time it look me to do this was over the course of 3 days, and a total of 5 hours.

1.) Google sayings for the sign/examples
2.) Write down all the supplies you will need so you don't have to go to the store more than once
3.) Budget yourself. You never want to spend too much money on a DIY project
4.) Go to the store and get supplies. Supplies for this project are, square piece of wood, sponge brushes, regular paint brushes/paint pens, paint, snowflake stickers, paper towels, cup of water, and newspaper.
5.) Start by painting the piece of wood your base color. Mine in this case is red.
6.) Do a double coat so there are no streaks, or blank spaces.
7.) Paint the borders of the piece of wood. In this case my border color is gold.
8.) Let it dry for 20-30 mins
9.) Write with a pencil over the paint what you chose your saying to be
10.) Take your paint brush/paint pens and paint over the letters. (TAKE YOUR TIME)
11.) Let the paint dry again (same amount of time)
12.) Place stickers and YOU'RE DONE!

This Pinterest/Instructables project was quite challenging, yet very enjoyable. My first three projects consisted of baking with two of the same ingredients, but different recipes. I thought this turned out way better than I thought because I am not a very patient person, and to bake it takes patience. I managed to pull it off, and the recipes all tasted very good, according to my boyfriend and his friends who ate them all every week. (Reason why I didn't have anything to bring to class, sorry guys). I learned that having all the right ingredients, and timing is everything in baking. When you miss an ingredient the texture, taste, or volume of the recipe could be off, and if you over bake or under bake, that's never good either. I feel as if I achieved a lot with this project. One thing being that I completed all the hours needed for this project, and another being that I know how to bake. I've always liked to bake things, but I feel as if I got a lot better at it over the past few weekends. My baking products were normally given to my boyfriend and his friends for a sunday night football dessert.

For my christmas sign give back, I am planning on hanging that in my apartment for a holiday decoration, and from that project I learned to also have patience, and be very steady when painting. I am not the best artist, so this did come out a little messier than I thought it would, but I'm still proud of my artwork and might make another one. I think I will do more creative projects that I find on the internet because they're fun, and always include the steps for success. I feel as if the internet has some of the most amazing recipes, and DIY projects. I'm glad we did this project because for one I love Pinterest, and two it was a great learning experience.
Here are pictures of my christmas sign!

Anonymous. Expect Us.

Okay I just have to start off by saying that that video was the most intimidating thing I've ever seen, and I am happy that they uploaded that for the world to see. ISIS needs to be exposed for the terrorists that they are such as any other group including the KKK and Al Queda. These attacks were just so unnecessary, and I hope ISIS gets what's coming to them. Anonymous is no joke when it comes to exposing people, as we all know from the government hacks. My response to this video is simply to find these people and do onto them as they do onto others, which is nothing but terror. I believe these people need to be punished for their actions, and I hope Anonymous wins the battle. I think they are doing the right thing by "hunting them down like they did to those who carried out the attacks on Charlie Hebdo." I feel as if ISIS thinks they are invincible and can never be stopped, however I think by Anonymous exposing them, they will crumble little by little until they are nothing but a terroristic group of the past.

Paris Attacks

The Paris Attacks are nothing short of devastating. This is the second time Paris has been attacked in a year, and I mourn for them. After reading these articles, I understand point view points. I think in the first one it is more of what happened while the attacks were going on, and to show the rest of the world what had been going on. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing because the rest of the world should know when another country is being attacked, especially by a terrorist group like ISIS who has harmed and put out several threats towards America and other countries. I also think without social media it would be harder to get the story, and having live footage can help identify the people who did this, and how dangerous they really are. On the other hand, social media does do the unnecessary, such as the french flag Facebook filter. I think it had the right intentions, however it isn't helping them in the least bit. These people of Paris are in mourning, and suffering. We shouldn't disturb that by trying to over step our boundaries with hashtags and Facebook posts. I do agree there is some self-centerdness within people's posts/tweets. I feel as if when something happens in another country America is the first to try to give their blessings, but are we really doing it for the mourning country, or are we posting just to post about it? I don't ever know because someone could have a direct relation to the attacks, and others not so much. It's hard to say whether I disagree or agree if this is slacktivism, however I do think social media can be overwhelming with unnecessary hashtags/posts when it comes to tragedies such as this one.

Lesson Learned

In class this week, the topic I found most interesting in our lesson is the selling of the body on EBAY. Ebay is a site on the internet that you can sell things on, buy things, bid on things, etc. See how I'm stating "things" as what you can buy, however I guess it's a thing to sell your body/sex as well. Now I personally think this is horrific and disgusting, however I guess someone didn't when they paid 780,000 dollars for a girl's virginity. I mean really are you that desperate that your paying that amount of money to have sex?? Anyways, this auction of "selling virgins" was created in Australia. The girl's name that being auctioned off was Catarina Migliorini, 20 years of age. That is literally my age so that's just disturbing. The winner was a japanese male, named Natsu, who's age goes unknown. Although Catarina was going to give a portion of her funds to the poor of her city, the question still remained as to what this girl was thinking by doing this. The way this happened was she was to board a plane with her buyer between Australia and the U.S. so it was legal, and she claimed "if you only do it once in your life than you are not a prostitute, just like if you take one amazing photograph it does not automatically make you a photographer"...whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. According to the huffingtonpost website, it said the deal was never complete, but she did try to auction off her virginity a second time. She did it through her own website and stated "well after being featured by so many media outlets in so many countries, I decided to actually auction off my virginity." This was back in 2013, but she told one brazilian website that she was hoping to raise 1.5 million. This story is just absolutely nuts to me and I just don't understand it.

DIY WEEKEND PART 3

WOW this project has been so time consuming, yet so fun. I truly have a passion for baking and cooking, and this project gave me all the more reason to try some new recipes out utilizing my favorite ingredients, chocolate and peanut butter. This week's recipe I decided to do chocolate fudge brownies with layers of peanut butter semi-sweet chips. Making brownies seems easy, however if you put more oil or water than your supposed to, it turns out awful. That didn't happen to me though, THANK GOD. Anyways my ingredients this week included, chocolate fudge brownie mix, vegetable oil, water, 1 egg, peanut butter chips, and chocolate fudge frosting. The steps for this recipe were to mix the brownie mix, add the fudge packet, put half the mix in a baking pan, add a layer of peanut butter chips, add the other half on mix on top and then put another layer of the chips on top of that. Next was preheating the oven, and baking them for about 28-30 minutes. I always do 28 minutes because I like them to be moist and not over baked. Next was taking them out of the oven and letting them cool down till they were ready to be frosted. The cool down took about 15-20 minutes. I applied the frosting, and then added another layer of peanut butter chips because why not. Overall with going to get the ingredients to making the brownies, it was just over 2 hours. I've completed my 6 hours and  I couldn't be more happy!! Can't wait for next weekend to show everyone my give back project, but here are some pictures of my chocolate fudge brownies with peanut butter chips :) sorry again that they were eaten within 20 minutes and I couldn't bring any into class...

GPS Artist

Stephen's GPS art is actually amazing. He is so skilled in what he does, and I believe it takes true talent to create art just using a GPS. Stephen has created works for miles, and it's so shocking to me how they can come out the way they do. I really enjoyed the one that was a tribute to the soldiers and service members whom have risked their lives everyday. I also really liked the birthday ones. I thought they were very creative and GPSed perfectly (if that's even a term). I think this relates to the Data Visualization lesson we learned in class because he is using a simple application for something to big and creative. He utilizes all the application's features and turns it into these art pieces that are just astounding. To me, the digital world is taking over in a huge way, and GPS art is just one piece of the puzzle in creating a whole new world for Data Visualization.

Vine by Daniella, Jessica, and Yayvenia

For our vine, we decided to do something that relates to real life which is, forgetting a backpack with homework inside. This is a common thing for college students to forget things such as homework, bags, student ids, etc. We also tried to make the vine somewhat humorous when looking around for the backpack. We tried to use animation at first, however that didn't go as smoothly as we thought, therefore we decided to act it out. It starts out as a girl walking to her class, and sitting down in the classroom. She then realizes that she forgot her backpack, and starts to frantically look for it inside the classroom, and bathroom stall. After that clip, she decides to call her friend and asks her to bring her backpack to the classroom. When the friend arrives, she is very thankful and proceeds to break out into her happy dance. It was fun making this vine because using stop motion made the video feel and look like a real narrative. Also this video didn't take as long as predicted (took 15 minutes). Vine is a really fun app to use when trying to create these type of projects, so overall the time spent making the video was enjoyable.

Forgetful student: Daniella
Friend of forgetful student: Yayvenia
Director and vine recorder: Jessica


https://vine.co/v/elXh1L2mK5t (rising action)

https://vine.co/v/elXMAEI71iB (rising action/climax)

https://vine.co/v/elXMlTXxYID (climax)

https://vine.co/v/elXOhF9LDK9 (falling action/resolution)

Internet Art Chapter 4

The first person that stuck out to me while reading this chapter was actually on the first page of this chapter. He goes by the name of Wolfgang Staehle. Wolfgang Staehle was born in Stuggart, Germany in 1950. In 1976 he moved to New York City to attend the school of Visual Arts where he studied closely with conceptual artists. He had a successful career in New York City, however he wound up in many European galleries until 1991, he created "The Thing." "The Thing, was an online innovative online forum for artists and cultural workers. The Thing began as a Bulletin Board System, a form of online community dialogue used before the advent World Wide Web" (lacan.com). In 1996, Staehle, began to produce an ongoing series of live online video streams. The first of the works was Empire 24/7, which was an online video stream of the Empire State Building in New York City. He then created ones that captured streams of Berlin's Fernsehturm, and the Comburg Monastery in Germany. In 2001, the cameras documented the terrorist attacks on Lower Manhattan, the installation suddenly became clear, if unintentional, articulation of the role mass media images could potentially take on. According to the book over, "an era in which surveillance, controlled media environments and individual freedoms became heightened topics for debate" (173). Here is his documentation of the event.

The next person that stuck out to me while reading is Michael Mandiberg. Michael Mandiberg is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and educator. His work traces the lines of political and social power online, working the internet in order to comment or intercede in the real and poetic flows of information. Interesting facts about him is that he "sold all of his possessions online on Shop Mandiberg, created Firefox plugins that highlight the real environmental costs of global economy and transformed all of Wikipedia into books for Print Wikipedia" (mandiberg.com). His works have been in the New York Times, ARTnews, and The Washington Post. He is currently an associate professor at the College of Staten Island and lives in Brooklyn. 

Below are pictures of Staehle's documentation of 9/11 and Mandiberg's works. 

DIY WEEKEND 2

For my DIY/Pinterest weekend 2 I decided to make another recipe using peanut butter and chocolate. My recipe this weekend was peanut butter truffles. Fancy name for, peanut butter balls rolled in melted chocolate. It was very fun to make, yet took longer than I thought. The steps I took in realizing the project's completion again is having the right ingredients, timing everything, and mixing everything well enough that it holds together. This recipe involved a lot of time for formation, and perfection. The way these were made is by the use of powdered sugar, melted butter, peanut butter, and semi sweet chocolate chips. The first step was to combine the peanut butter, and butter. Next the recipe called for stirring in the powdered sugar gradually until one big dough ball formed. Once the ball was formed I had to cover it and let it sit for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes was up I rolled the dough into 1 inch balls, then put them in the fridge for 20 minutes to form and harden. While they were in the fridge I melted the chocolate in a sauce pan, which took about 6 minutes. Once the 20 minutes was up I then began to dunk the peanut butter balls in the chocolate. Once that was completed I put the tray of truffles back into the fridge for about 20-30 minutes. The end result turned out great and they were delicious! The time it took to make these including the shopping for ingredients was about 2 hours and 15 minutes. I am pleased with how this project is going. Here are pictures of my process for this weekend!

Exposing the KKK

When reading this article, I was very curious as to what was going to be exposed. I remember learning about the KKK and always disagreeing with their behavior and group as a whole. The way they handle things is so unjust, and needs to be put to an end. I haven't heard much about the group in a very long time, I actually didn't know they still existed, which is very scary. I think the Anonymous group is doing right by exposing members because they can get what they deserve regarding punishments made by the police, and people of authority. However, I do think anonymous has a personal vendetta for these people since it states within the article, "you made a clear and ever present enemy of Anonymous when you threatened the lives of the protestors and the men and women representing Anonymous on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri, in November of 2014." This shows that they have it out for the KKK group, even though they are saying they are trying to expose them for the "dangerous terroristic cells" they really are. I believe they are trying to expose them for America's sake, and the sake of revenge. KKK is a hate group that has been around for 200+ years, and it would put America somewhat at peace if the people Anonymous is going to expose are behind bars. I'm unsure as to what will go on in America once these names are exposed, however I think a good outcome can come from this. Do I agree with Anonymous's ways of going about this? Absolutely not, however I know they would never work with the government or FBI in handling this situation, therefore this is the only way according to Anonymous on how to handle this. I wish they would hand over the list of names to people of authority, but that's a far stretch.

Hacktivists

Well to start, I thought this film was terrifying...not in a scary way but an eye opening way. I believe our government being exposed for what is it is quite intriguing, however some things are better left unsaid. The government is what governs our country, and obviously has very high security standards at all time. I think Anonymous is very dangerous considering they hacked into private servers and exposed secrets to the American people. I do agree that our government is corrupt, however I don't think it's right to expose what is supposed to be confidential. I agreed with all their points about how they need to expose things, and how we all need to have the right to speak out what we believe in, but I think the way they handled the situation was unnecessary. There are so many different ways in which people can speak out in a non threatening and violent way. Peaceful protests is an example of one, blogs, videos, etc. By hacking into private servers, taking people's information, and exposing secrets is not a way to get what you want and won't accomplish anything. A part I thoroughly disagreed with is when they hacked into Sony, and exposed personal information about account holders. THIS IS NOT OKAY. I've actually experienced my information being taken from my debit/credit card and actually lost money that I had earned. It was a very scary experience because the credit card company couldn't find out how my account was hacked, and where it was coming from. This could happen to anyone, and the fact that it can happen to a huge company like Sony is very frightening. I just believe that hacking in general is wrong, because it is illegal in several ways, and if it effects innocent people, than the hackers deserved to be punished. Overall I didn't like this movie, I don't agree with the group, Anonymous, however it was very eye opening towards our government, and security.

DIY PART 1

For my DIY/Pinterest project I decided to choose different recipes to make with the ingredients of chocolate and peanut butter in each one. What I aim to accomplish in each one is to learn how to bake better and understand how different ingredients can be utilized in different recipes. The steps I realized towards the projects completion is going ingredient shopping (takes forever), making sure you have all the utensils needed to bake such as mixing bowl, whisks, measuring cups, etc, and then getting the temp and time just right. Here are some pictures from my first baking experience which is, no flour peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. This recipe included, peanut butter, granulated sugar, 2 eggs, salt, baking soda, vanilla extract, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Some of the difficulties I ran into was finding the right ingredients, for a cheap price. Also mixing without flour and water is actually very straining because it doesn't come out as smooth so that requires more time mixing. Another issue I ran into is that the cookies came out flatter than I thought, however they were still so good! And for that I am proud of myself :) Total time spent on this: 2 hours and 7 minutes (I actually timed myself LOL).

Glitch vs Lindsay Lohan

For my glitch art I chose to glitch pictures of Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan had a positive affect on children once upon a time, and I used to look up to her. One of my favorite movies of all time is Parent Trap. Lindsay made me want to act, be successful at a young age, and follow my dreams. Lindsay Lohan captured America's hearts and had a very bright future, until she got into drugs, alcohol, and theft at her peak of success. I believe the fame and fortune at a young age made her go crazy, and because she was under the spotlight in everything she did. I think at one point she could have been positively embraced, however ever since she started doing drugs, becoming an alcoholic, and committing crimes she broke her positive streak and is now looked upon as a negative influence.

Lindsay Lohan can relate to glitch because she broke convention in a positive light, and negative light. She was once a child star, and now she's a washed up "where is she now?" I believe glitch represents this because a glitch is some type of error, or change in a picture/video. It distorts an image, just as Lindsay Lohan distorted her life. She is a scattered person nowadays, and glitch art represents that very clearly. People may have different opinions on her than I do, however I don't think of her as a totally negative person because she was once a positive influence. I tried to glitch these images to represent her downfall, so my three images are in order from least glitched, to most glitched. My reflections on this assignment is that it was quite hard to glitch images. I tried using the image glitch experiment, but I couldn't get them to look how I wanted so I downloaded the app for iPhone. I really enjoyed this app because I felt as if it knew how I wanted my images to look. I also think it was easier to use, and very convenient for a person like me who always has their phone, and not their laptop.

Here are my original images, and my glitched ones.

Free to Play

While watching this movie I kept an open mind about gaming. My true opinion on gaming is that I don't think it's healthy for someone to play everyday, however I understand that it's a hobby for some people. I didn't enjoy the movie because I believe playing a video game all day everyday for your occupation is quite absurd. I understand playing video games in your spare time is fine, however when you sit at a computer or television screen for the whole day without even getting up for meals, or sleep is a bit much. To me, the kids in the movie can be doing way better things in life than devoting all their time and energy into playing a video game to win money, that they might not end up winning in the end. It just seems like a waste of time to me, and not to mention unhealthy. If you take a look at the people in this film, they are all scrawny, have bad posture, and bad hygiene. That isn't attractive or appealing whatsoever, definitely makes me want to go outside and do activities so I don't ever look like that in my lifetime. I HOPE that gaming doesn't ever get bigger than televised sports because the people playing sports are a good inspiration for children to want to grow up and be like them. Sports players are active, fit, and have good hygiene, therefore it's a good example for children and teenagers to be watching televised sports, and also playing sports rather than video games. I would definitely see video games as a problematic direction for our future because it is an unhealthy lifestyle to be playing video games all the time. You are stationary when playing, it can be addictive, and very unhealthy for someone's well being. No matter what playing sports and being active is always the better choice than sitting on the couch or chair playing video games 24/7.

Removed

The removed series of photographs by Eric Pickersgill, is very accurate as to how people are in today's society. This series shows how two people can be right next to each other, but be so disconnected because of the distraction of technology. These photos capture real life situations very accurately and to be honest, it's kind of sad that this is what we look like when on our cellphones or hand held devices. Even though the actual technological device isn't pictured, you can immediately see that this is what Pickersgill was trying to make our eyes see. I can definitely point out pictures that I can relate to because I am one to be easily distracted by my cellphone. One picture in particular is where the man and woman are on the couch together, and both on their cellphones not paying attention to each other. There's been times I've been just hanging out with my boyfriend and we just happen to both be on our phones not really talking to each other and scrolling on instagram or twitter. Does this happen a lot? Absolutely not, however I know that if someone were to photograph when it did happen, it would look exactly like that. In today's society everyone is into media, texting, taking pictures, and just being on their phones, but this is such a bad thing. For example, we could be at a concert taking pictures and videos, however when taking those pictures and videos you're looking at your phone instead of watching the live performance. If you didn't take pictures, were you really there? This shouldn't matter because we should always be living in the moment and not looking at life through a six inch screen. These photographs depict reality, and how technology can make people closed off and distracted. I'm not saying technology is a bad thing, because to be honest it's one of our world's best creations, however we should only utilize it at the right moments instead of all day, everyday. Trust me I'm not one to talk because I know I'm on my phone a lot, however looking at these pictures makes me feel as if I should try to stay off my phone less and see the world for what it really is.

Fav video game

My favorite video game that I like to play is Mario Kart. This game was released back in 1992, however since I wasn't even alive then I didn't get to start playing this game until 2008. I wouldn't say this game influenced me in any way, but it was fun to play with friends and we would have tournaments. I played this game mostly on the wii because you could have an actual steering wheel which was kind of cool. I also wish that driving was actually like the driving in mario kart, and that rainbow road actually existed. LOL. I'm not sure if this game had any impact on the culture necessarily, but to young kids and teenagers, this game was so much fun and didn't really involve any violence. I say if anything this game had a more positive impact on children then games such as GTA or Call of Duty. No matter what this game will always be around, and it will continue to sell because it can be a game for all ages that doesn't involve violence, cursing, weapons, and so on like a lot of the games today have.

Internet Art 2&3

The first person I took notice of in the reading is Victoria Vesna. Victoria Vesna is an artist and professor at the UCLA Department of Design as well as Media Arts and Director of the Arts and Science center at the school of Arts and California Nanosystems Institute. She was trained as a painter when she was young, however her creative mind took her on the path of experimental research between "disciplines and technologies" (victoriavesna.com). Her work mainly involves long-term collaborations with composers, nano-scientists, neuro-scientists, biologists, and works with students. Victoria has exhibited her work in over 20 solo exhibitions, 70 group shows, and has been published for her works in many newspapers. One project that I viewed of hers out of a few is NANO. This project is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Boone Children's Gallery. This project "seeks to provide a greater understanding of how art, science, culture, and technology influence each other. The various components of "nano" are designed to immerse the visitor in the radical shifts of scale and sensory modes that characterize science" (victoriavesna.com). For more information on her works, you can visit her website: victoriavesna.com

The second person I took notice of while reading is Natalie Bookchin. Natalie Bookchin received her degree of fine arts at the state University of New York in 1984. She also has her masters in photography from the school of art institute in Chicago. She now resides in L.A. where she works at the California Institute for the Arts. She works collaboratively and independently and exhibits, performs, and lectures, widely in the United States, and Europe on the Internet. Currently she is working on a project with "®™ark (RTMark) for DNAid, an initiative developed by Creative Time and dedicated to exploring the cultural and social implications of genetic research" (fondation-langlois .org). She also has many publications and articles on Internet Art, culture and theory. She is also very well known for her contributions and creations of "The Intruder." 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn account: www.linkedin.com/in/daniellajaconelli

REMIX

This remix project was by far the most difficult project ever and I mean EVER. I found it hard one because it was hard to think of an idea, two I had no idea how to work premiere, three it crashed on me three times and I lost my work, and four did I mention this project was difficult? ANYWAYS... it was also really fun and I'm glad I got to work with cutting videos and mashing them up to create something on youtube. The fact that a video of mine is on youtube is UNREAL. Okay so let me tell you about my video now. I happen to think Kanye West is an actual genius...of saying crazy shit, so I thought to myself why not get a bunch of videos and put them together to show just how bizarre some of the stuff he says really is. Oh and needed to throw in that he is running for president in 2020!! YA! Personally I think my remix falls under the category of a supercut because it's a bunch of videos of Kanye saying what he thinks of himself, and who he is, which apparently is a GOD, Warhol, Walt Disney, Nike, and Google all combined plus more. A supercut is a compilation of a large number of short video clips, typically showing examples of a repeated or clichéd action or phrase in films or broadcasts.I think my video definitely follows this definition because there is a lot of repeated ideas that Kanye says about himself and thinks of himself as a few different people, but apparently better!! So without further ado here is my supercut called "I AM....Yeezus." https://youtu.be/HiLzw2ZUVOw

RiP! A Remix Manifesto

RiP! A Remix Manifesto, is a documentary on copyright, and the fight between being creative, and following the rules of "copyright." Brett Gaylor, the writer and director of this film, breaks this manifesto down into four points. 1.) Culture always builds on the past 2.) The past always tries to control the future 3.) Our future is becoming less free and 4.) To build free societies, you must limit the control of the past.

My interpretation of this film is that Gaylor is against old ways (copyright) and wants people to have the freedom to use, download, and view content in whichever way they choose. He uploaded this film through Creative Commons because he isn't concerned with the fact that his video will probably be downloaded, shared, and remixed for free. To me this is notable, because a lot of artists who create music for instance want people to buy their music, and not just be able to listen to it for free, however Brett Gaylor, seems to think differently. America will always find a way to download, watch, and listen to content for free however, doing it legally is another story. Copyright holds the world back from experiencing works of art such as music and films, and to me that does hurt America's future. I feel as if we aren't experiencing some things we should be because of copyright laws. This film provides America and the rest of the world with ideas of reform against copyright, which I think is genius. We need change! Artists who are trying to share content such as, Elisa Kreisinger, can't upload some of her content on youtube for people to see because that goes against what "copyright laws" says is okay. Well how about it's not okay for you to delete a video that probably could teach the world something??? Take that copyright!! There are so many laws against who can upload what, what viewer can see this and what viewer can't, that it's almost ridiculous at some points. We are supposed to have freedom of speech, and expression... so why are there laws against that? VERY contradicting.

My overall thoughts on the film is that it had a well portrayed message, and it actually gives the viewer hope for our future becoming more free. I think this is a step in the right direction for reform against copyright and an advocacy for "copyLEFT." His points in the film are thorough, and if others had a mindset like this, our world on and off the internet would be more free and less constricting.

MEME

The word "meme" originated from a biologist, Richard Dawkins, in his book, The Selfish Gene. In it he states, "we need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." The french word même that he references inside the book means "same" or "alike" and the greek word "mimeme, means something that is imitated (todayifoundout.com). Dawkins was hoping the word meme would be used as a type of human communication using melodies, and catch phrases. From this memes were used to promote products, provide laughter, and convey messages to the global market. Memes have become very popular on social media, and by retweeting, reposting, or sharing on personal account pages, they went viral.

Here are some of my favorites that I found humorous, accurate, and memorable.

This one describes a college student's life. We learn very quickly how to manage money when we are at school, and try to save just enough to go out on the weekends with our friends. There's times where we literally have to go through our change to see if we have enough for that chipotle bowl, or glass of wine.

This I found hysterical because back in my childhood pokemon was popular, however nowadays kids don't even know what this is so I found that I could relate to it, but at the same time if someone were to actually drive around in this it would be quite strange. It's funny how the times change.

I found this picture on twitter and I wish I could retweet it an endless amount of times. This stuck out to me because normally when a cop asks you to pop your trunk this is not what they find, however if I were in a situation like this, there would be puppies in my trunk. I love any kind of dog, and this also reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Bridesmaids, when Melissa McCarthy steals all the dogs and has them in her minivan. LOL.

Lastly, I just found this so funny because whenever there is a new trend, such as these gladiator sandals, everyone needs to have them. Personally I don't love these shoes, I do think it looks like you're about to play a part in the movie 300 or something so this just made me laugh.

TOP 5

In class we've seen a few remixes, there have been some funny ones, but also weird ones in my personal opinion. While I was doing some research I came across ones I truly enjoyed and was inspired by. Here are my top 5

1.) This one is the Donald Trump vs Mexico Supercut. This was by far my favorite one thus far we've seen in class. It had me laughing, however it was so well edited and put together that it inspired me to want to maybe remix the debates and make my remix something along the lines of what this one does. It is funny, however it still gets the message across by expressing the political views of a certain candidate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCrWIeb74MI&feature=youtu.be

2.) This remix is a Taylor Swift mashup between her two chart toppers "Bad Blood" and "We are Never Getting back Together." I really thought this edit was epic. It mashed up two songs that have nothing to do with each other into one song that made sense together. It also represented Taylor Swift as who she was around the "We are Never Getting Back Together" release time, into who she is now with "Bad Blood." There are several changes in her look, lyrics, and videos. This is a really cool remix that also inspired me to want to mashup her videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dZZKxxHPjE

3.) Here is another one that has to do with a classic song and our very own president. I thought this was cool because it seems so simple, however it is so complex to match up word for word to the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrB718F3LeI

4.) The fourth one is The evolution of Peggy Olsen by Elisa Kreisinger. After I read the article about her and wrote a response I wanted to look up her videos and see what they actually were. I think this one is clever. You can tell what the message is behind all the cuts, however it leave a bit of mystery so it makes you pay attention more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1QdZgVTIB0

5.) Last but not least we have a Bachelorette Remix. I thought this was pretty funny in a way and very well put together. It basically makes the two bachelorettes in love with each other instead of being in love with the guys of the show. This is one of my favorite reality shows to watch, and this was actually my favorite season so watching this and remembering all the scenes while watching this remix made me laugh, and think to myself how did this person create this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=126&v=XA93dVxp2j8

brainstorming

I think the remix project is going to be very fun once I get the hang of premiere and all its uses. In class I was kind of confused on what all the controls were and how to add music, and mute things however by the end I was cutting and moving video. I think a few ideas that I've had while looking up different remixes online were going a mashup of music videos by the same artist, or something having to do with politics, such as mashing up the republican debate with the democratic debate. I'm not sure if these ideas will become to hard for me to handle, but it's definitely worth a shot. The way I've been gathering my samples mostly from youtube. I feel as if their videos have the best quality, especially music videos because of "Vevo." I have saved Taylor Swift's bad blood video as well as her blank space one. I think those two would be good to remix together!

Remixing or Copyrighting?

After reading "How a Video Artist Made a Don Draper a Gay Rights Mouthpiece," I believe it is okay to remix things, as long as your following the rules and giving credit where it is needed. Her remixes go from Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw, to Jay-Z and Taylor Swift in sync between songs. She says, "People like to see their identity represented in the stuff they put online." I agree with this statement because people express all different kinds of aspects of themselves on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook nowadays. More and more people are on social media each day posting, liking, tweeting, and everything else under the sun. You can tell a lot about a person from their social media accounts.

This article is mainly about her working towards not getting her videos removed from Youtube for copyrighting. For six months she worked with Eye-Beam Art and Technology as well as Public Knowledge to create "Fair Use(r), which is "an exhibit that explores fair use law and documents her efforts to protect her art from takedown notices on YouTube." She uses a lot of pop culture in her work because it's a common language we all can relate to. So technically her videos are not piracy because under the fair use law artists are permitted to "repurpose excerpts of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder so long as the material is being used for commentary, criticism or parody." I believe this is appropriate because she's taking something and making it into something new and fresh. Remixes are a really cool way to express yourself, and your views on certain things. 

I think remixing is okay to do as long as you are obeying the fair use law because otherwise you are copyrighting, and shouldn't be able to post it on the internet for people to see. If you want to get the word out, and have people view what you've created, just follow the law and don't break it. It may be hard to avoid when doing these remixes, just as Kreisinger says, however she is a perfect example of what not to do and what to do when making these videos. She says, "if you don't use a right, you lose it," so everyone should keep that in mind when making these videos. 

Internet art: Chapter 1

After reading chapter 1 of our textbook Internet Art, I decided to look further into two of the figures mentioned in the reading. The first is Heath Bunting, and the second is Natalie Jeremijenko.

Heath Bunting, is a British Artist out of Bristol, UK. His work is based on the development of open democratic and communication systems and social structures on the internet and in the public. He started out in the streets with graffiti and performance than went on to pirate radio and now is an active person in blowing up the internet. He is the creator of net.art and his work is exhibited in museums all over New York, London, Germany, Berlin, England, and Moscow. He has his own website as well called http://www.irational.org/heath. On his website it states that, "he is banned for life from entering the USA for his anti genetic and border crossing work." He has had multiple works of art permanently deleted from the internet by the UK security services. Also on the website it says he has been, "detained, arrested multiple times and classified as a terrorist by the UK security services for his art projects." Here are a few examples of his works.

Natalie Jeremijenko, is an artist and engineer who studies biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the "net.art" movement, cofounded by Heath Bunting. Her work primarily deals with society, environment, and technology. According to inspirtationgreen.com she works at NYU and is a director of the "xDesign Environmental Health Clinic." What this clinic does is allow "people to come in with their environmental concerns and get prescriptions for environmental health solutions and advice. One of the prescriptions was to create more greenery in NYC." Also, in our textbook it talks about her creation of Live Wire. Live Wire is "a formal element vitalized and composed by network activity, creating an association between minimalist sculpture and the internet." The work also leaves the door open for an "increasing focus on formal expression." With Live Wire, Jeremijenko's intent is to emphasize the representation of internet concepts and to expand the foundation of net art that followed. Here are a few of her works as well.

Triumph of the Nerds

So I'm going to start off by saying this video was longer than I expected, however it was very educational. I learned more about how computers and PC's became so advanced, and why GUI and personal computing is so important.

Xerox started something called a think tank, called PARC. PARC was to think ahead into the future of personal computing and how it could take over the market. The first computer worked on was called "Alto" since it was created in Palo Alto, CA. This is the first computer that had GUI which is, a type of interface that allows the user to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators. However the GUI on Alto allowed the user to drag things to a floppy disk and drop it in; this was very advanced at the time. The Alto was also able to connect to other computer via ethernet which was also advanced.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, then took it upon himself to view PARC and check out Alto. He then got the idea to create a GUI for the personal computer. He made it his goal to create a GUI that did not use "text-based" interface like DOS. Jobs called this computer the "Lisa" which included the new GUI, however that upped the price. The Lisa was not a success because of increase in price, so Jobs teamed up with a man, Jeff Raskin, who began exploring the idea of a lower priced computer that later turned out to be, Macintosh. Macintosh, was the first affordable PC with a unique GUI interface. Sales skyrocketed in 1984, however that was the only year they were up. Sales started to slow, so they decided to team up with Microsoft to come up with software to be sold only for MACs. This software was called laser printing, however from the title you can already assume the word "expensive." This resulted in Apple taking another plummet in the market, and shortly after Steve Jobs was out of a job.

Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft, saw the future of GUI and decided to expand it and create his own. This GUI became a huge success because it was linked with DOS OS. Mac tried suing for "looking too much like MAC" however, they lost the battle. Microsoft continued to be created, and was soon called Microsoft 3. Because of the unique GUI, and abundant amount of programs, Microsoft 3 blew up the market leaving all it's competitors in the dust.

I thought this video was cool because learning about how computers and laptops evolved and the history of them was very interesting, and comparing that to today's market is kind of crazy.

Pictures are worth a thousand words

When I think of me, I think of what makes me, me. When starting this project I was unsure of how I was going to just pick 20 things, because throughout my life there has been a lot of things, people, etc who made me the person I am today. However, I wanted to just have fun with this project and show everyone in the class some of the important people in my life, what I like to do, and some of my favorite things in this world. To show you a little bit about me, I pieced together a collage in the shape of a heart. The heart represents what makes my world go round, and represents who I am.

The pictures you see in this collage may give you a different idea, if you had any idea at all of who I am. As you all know already I like dessert, so no worries that is represented on here. Other pictures include family, friendships and relationships while others represent my daily eats and favorite locations. A picture is worth a thousand words, which is a saying I most definitely agree on. You can tell who a person is and what their interests are from the tiniest amount of photos. There is so much more I could have put, but here are 20 pictures that I think depict me best! Welcome to my life :)