20 lions

The project was really interesting. It definitely made me pay attention to a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have on another piece of art. Because we were so restrained in our tools, every little detail that might be ignored in a larger-scale artwork took on a huge role in the line's "meaning." I tried to give each of my lines a distinctive personality; some were shy, others were loud and obnoxious, and others were excited. The first few lines I drew did not really have these personalities, but rather were drawn to look cool. As I drew more, I realized that my lines all looked kind of the same and had no meaning to them. So I started over and attempted to give each one a life of it's own. It was fairly easy at first, but as I continued, it became more difficult to make each one different.

The 20 lines changed my perspective on detail and meaning, and I think that it will help me pay more attention to these things in the future. Seeing others' projects was also really interesting. I think the most interesting were the ones who took the project in a completely different direction than I did yet still put meaning into the work.

Scrapbook 3

I didn't really notice this tree stump until one day when I was out unicycling (don't judge me) and saw it as something to ride over. After that, I realized that all of the tree roots and stumps coming out of the ground were actually really cool looking. I am not sure why this tree was cut down, but I feel like the stump remains almost a part of nature's defiance and unwillingness to just go away. Completely remving the tree would have cost a lot of time and money, not to mention how much it would disturb the surrounding area, so they just left it as a stump.

It seems like it was a nice tree, a friendly kind of tree that would be easy to talk to and wouldn't judge you. Maybe that's kind of weird, but I think that it is interesting to think about what the area was like before this tree and another one nearby were cut down. A tree has an effect on it's surroundings, but this effect might not be too noticable until the tree is cut down.

Google Earth

Scapbook 2

People don't generally pay attention to rocks. They aren't the most interesting or unusual things that we encounter in our daily lives, so it makes sense that they should go mostly unnoticed. However, like most things, rocks can be truly fascinating upon a closer inspection. Rocks by the water are especially interesting, like this one here, which I saw while taking pictures by the river. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I weren't consciously trying to find things that I wouldn't usually notice.

The bold contrast between the rock and the moss is what caught my eye, and unless somebody placed the moss on the rock by hand, then I think it is safe to assume that this is probably not art.

Google Earth

Growing Up Online

The Frontline documentary was interesting, to say the least. I did not like how it seemed to propose such a negative view to the internet world, making those who use it regularly seem like they would be basically useless without it. Perhaps this is true, but I feel like a lot of the documentary was a bit "sensational" at times.

1) Before Facebook and MySpace, how do you think 'social networking' differed from today?

I am not sure the exact definition of "social networking," but it seems to me to act like a social web which we use to interact with one another, where the actual medium of the web varies. I think before Facebook and MySpace, social networking probably took place between much smaller groups of people. With the internet, it is extremely simple to be able to communicate with a large number of people at once. Before the internet, it was surely not so easy to be able to connect with such a large number.

2) In your own words, how would you describe something like Facebook to:
a) your friends (pretend they've never seen it!)
b) your parents
c) a grandparent
d) a teenager living in 1950

This is an interesting question. I feel like for a, b, and c I would give a similar answer; that Facebook provides a way to communicate and interact over the internet. Given that all three of the groups know how to use the internet (they actually use facebook, too), I don't think this would be too difficult to comprehend. As for the 50's teenager, I am not sure how I would describe it. I guess I would try to relate a computer to a television, but rather one that you control. Facebook then, would be a means to communicate with other friends' "televisions."



3)Find a random person on facebok.
I found Jack P.
I think thing to note about this guy is that he hasn't given out a whole lot of information about himself. He doesn't give his full name or any photos of himself. He does, however, give his birthday, where he goes to school, and his hometown. He listens to mostly rock and likes video games. It's interesting that his only two pictures are on that says "Jack" and another of a chloroform bottle.

The design of the page is pretty basic and doesn't do much to reveal anything about Jack P. I wouldn't really want to add this person as a friend or find more info on him. It doesn't seem like we have a lot in common and he doesn't seem like a terribly interesting person.



4)Does Facebook compartmentalize?

I think that Facebook definitely compartmentalizes the way we broadcast our info, but I don't necessarily think that this is a bad thing.

5)The medium is the message.

With facebook, we seem to be saying that we need to be in constant communication with one another, and also that privacy is not a big deal (or maybe that we don't quite understand it). While our entire lives might not be contained within facebook, we certainly give enough information about ourselves for strangers to find out things about us that we probably shouldn't want them to know, but apparently we don't care too much.

Scrapbook 1

I found this bottle not too long ago when I ventured out to take pictures. It was on one of the small beaches on the side of Route 5 and thought it was so intriguing; somebody just threw away this bottle and the earth transformed it into something different. I think it shows an example of the earth's resilience. I took the picture just a little before the scrapbook project started, so the picture itself is somewhat intended to be art, but the bottle itself definitely isn't. It's just a bottle that somebody threw out.

Google Earth

in other news...

I thought it was really cool that we all have our own web space and I've been thinking lately about how I would like to get a website back up and running (I had one called thesitewiththestuff.com for four or five years but I stopped paying for it so it vanished into cyber-limbo) so I spent a few hours making a small online portfolio-type thing. Once I have enough money, I want to buy a domain for it. Maybe nickhughes.net or something.

anyways, every time you visit the page, the photo randomly changes, giving it a little variety.


ALSO, making the site made me realize how weird the word "sight" looks. Or at least it looked really strange to me for around 10 seconds.

What is the purpose of art?

It is interesting that something so seemingly universal as art can be so difficult to define. Einstein considered his theories to be great works of art, but could this really be true? I think so. It seems to me that at its very core, the purpose of art is to express something. Be it complex or simple, common or absurd, an expression of any sort could probably be considered art. I think that Einstein considered his theories to be art because to him, behind the complex mass of numbers and equations, the elegance of the universe is revealed. I suppose another way of putting it would be to say that the purpose of art is to present a way to look at our world. Or another world, for that matter. I know that my answer doesn’t offer any profound insight, but I don’t really have any deep insight to offer. I do like how Januszczak puts it: “its job is to change your weather.” But maybe art actually is a cat like Saltz says.