Daniel Rozin- Wooden mirrors

"This piece explores the line between digital and physical"
The wooden mirrors that Daniel Rozin created seem impossible at first; a viewer stands in front of the piece and their image becomes reflected on a generally non-reflective surface. The pieces, not all made out of wood, use hundreds of tiny rotating squares that spin according to a computer program receiving information from a tiny camera. The tiny squares then function as pixels to create the image. I am not sure exactly how the squares change color; it could be with carefully engineered shadows, or perhaps each one has several sides with different shades. Either way, this is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Jon Haddock- RGB Grid

Jon Haddock's work with the RGB grid is a really cool concept. Basically, he takes an image and takes each pixel and changes to it's literal RBG value, which can range from 0 to 255. What's really interesting is that with each value spelled out, an image still comes out, since the numbers themselves actually vary in their size. You can see the result above, the source being the cover of Disney's "The Air Pirates." It's a clever process that I think is definitely worth taking a look at.

Thoughts on Digital Pictionary

I liked how this project worked out. It was thought provoking and interactive and just fun in general. I really enjoyed it for several reasons, the first being that it was done pretty much all in photoshop. I'm am not even close to knowing the ins and outs of photoshop, but I do have a lot of experience using it and other imaging software for many projects, so this was cool to use it in another way. I've always enjoyed doing photo-manipulations, but they have almost always been more for fun rather than a specific purpose. Where my original intention usually gets warped and twisted to come out completely different in it's meaning, this project forced me to stick to a definite plan: express my word.

When I first got my word, I was a little overwhelmed. I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to communicate "bold" effectively to the class. I thought about it and started getting ideas. As I did, I became a little more comfortable and realized that I didn't need to make everybody absolutely "get it," but rather express it somehow. I think that I did this effectively. I wanted to put in a few literal examples of the word bold, but more so I wanted to communicate the feeling. I think I did both of these effectively.

I thought it was interesting that Adam interpreted my word as "danger" or something similar. I didn't really have that in mind at all when creating the images, but now that I think about it, I can see a possible "danger" theme running through all my images. What I like about that assertion is that even though the images could be interpreted as danger, the way that the message is communicated is through use of "boldness." The hand communicates danger or "stop" because it is bold. Mozart's expression looks scary or intense possibly because of the bold contrast in his face. The meteorite stands out and is glowing red. Obviously it is potentially dangerous, but what really accentuates it's level of intensity is how it stands out against the black-and-white (and mostly boring) town in the background. Also he said at the beginning that there wasn't much going, at least initially; I'm glad he mentioned this, because I knew from the start I didn't want my images to be too busy. If there were too many things going on at once, it would be more difficult to make a single image really stand out.

I was also happy when somebody commented that all of images fit together really well and worked as scenes. That was a big thing I wanted to go for. It wasn't absolutely crucial for the meaning of the work, but I did want my images to have at least a somewhat polished look to them. I feel proud of how all my images turned out.

As for everyone else's projects, I enjoyed picking apart and analyzing their work just about as much as I enjoyed working on mine. I made sure to look at each picture and maybe take a few stabs at what the word could be, but I didn't really delve too deep into analyzing any of the images except for mine. I wish I had looked more closely at each one before the discussion, because I feel like finding out things about an image for yourself is a lot more enjoyable than having them described to you.

My favorite sets were Mike Virga's and Jackson's. I think that they communicated their meaning very well without blatantly expressing their literal meanings. It might be that the nature of the word dictates somewhat how it could be presented- some words of the words are inherently literal while others are inherently abstract- but I think that they had a clear vision of what they wanted to do when they started instead of just making it up along the way. If they didn't know exactly what they wanted to put into the collages, then I think that they at least had a clear sense of their words and their meanings and connotations.

What I like about Mike's pictures, especially the first one, is the sense of a story. Even in the last one, where a lot of the images are unrelated in their content, everything was coherent; The images flow and fit together nicely.

Jackson's collages are great because, like Pat mentioned, they convey a clear sense of a message. Although the actual meaning may be hidden somewhat, there is without a doubt something being said. The fact that the viewer has to dig into the work is not a bad thing- in fact I think it ultimately makes te message more effective. If he had just put up the declaration of independence or something kind of obvious like that, then, sure, the viewer would "get" it more quickly, but probably wouldn't care about it a whole lot. With these images, the time spent analyzing and picking apart the work builds more of an emotional connection to the content, thus making the image, ultimately, more effective. I also really liked, in the third collage, how the figures holding hands and Che's face were used as a mask for the background image.

Looking at some of the other works, I prefer the ones that aren't so literal and obvious. A lot of people just took a bunch of images that define, or are definitions, of their word and kind of threw them together. Some of them, like inorganic, are kind of forced to do this, but I think some of the other one's could have done more to really convey a meaning. One of the sets that shows a lot of literal images, yet manages to use the word in it's overall composition and form is Michelle's. In the top one, all of the images are pretty much obtuse shapes, but I like how they mostly all interact with each other and form a bit of a bigger picture. I also thought it was really cool how in the second one, she used a different meaning of "obtuse," as in something that is unclear. I didn't know of the meaning for obtuse, but when I first saw the picture, one of my first thoughts was something along the lines of "most of this one is really unclear."

I am interested how Sam's collages get analyzed. I know her word, so I can see how all of her images work well, but to someone who doesn't know the word, a lot of different things could be being communicated.
I am also excited to see Koko's work get presented. I used to know her word, but I forgot it and can't figure it out. I read Allison's analysis and she takes a guess that the word might be "uniqueness," which I think is a good guess. They seem very expressive of something, like Jackson's collages, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Either way, I really like them.

Overall, this was a really fun project. I hope that we have more projects similar to this. Not similar really in what we actually make, but similar in the process. I really liked being able to get inside my classmate's heads and see how they interpret things similarly yet also in a unique way.

Scrapbook 12

I took this picture not too long ago, when one of the little rivers that branches off from the St. Mary's River was still covered in ice. I was out taking pictures and I saw these three boats that were all ashore, stuck in the ice. It seemed really interesting and almost funny in a way that these boats, meant to traverse the water, were now trapped by the river's current state.

Scrapbook 11

The first image I took a while ago when me and my friends went to junkyard to go get some seatbelts that we could make into things like belts and backpack straps. I was amazed by the amount of damage that some of the cars had sustained, and while I'm sure a substantial amount of damage came from the actual process of being in a junkyard, I can't imaging that a lot of the accidents that these cars were in could have been pleasant. The second one is from when my car got totaled on my way home for thanksgiving break. I think the two images fit together.

Cars are something that we take for granted most of the time, at least when we have them. They, like so many other things, become a crucial part of our lives and we usually don't realize this until we, for one reason or another, have to get along without them. They are also, obviously, really dangerous, yet we depend on them so much that we are are willing to take the risk of either driving them or being in them. After a while, it is easy to forget that you're actually speeding down the highway in a giant hunk of metal at eighty (ninety, one hundred?) miles an hour surrounded by may people doing the same who may or may not have a clue what they are doing.

Scrapbook 10

I took this one at Henryton, an abandoned insane asylum (I'm skeptical to call it that; "insane asylum" seems to be used to often only for it's shock value. Maybe I should call it just a mental hospital), which is, not surprisingly, a great place to take pictures. The halls are dark, the paint everywhere is peeling, mirrors are broken, beds are strewn across the rooms. None of it is art (except for maybe the graffiti everywhere), but it's all very cool to experience.

Scrapbook 9

This was out in a small field with some old farmhouses and other decrepit structures that me and some friends were filming a movie in. I thought that some of the buildings looked really awesome, so after filming stopped, I ran to my car to get my camera and took a bunch of photos. Old things are, in general, really cool.

Scrapbook 8

These were three little branches protruding from a tree in my backyard that had been attempted, on numerous occasions, to be cut down. I thought that these tiny branches looked neat, almost like tiny tree people living on a stump. I don't really have a whole lot tmore to say about them, but they caught my eye.

Scrapbook 7

During numerous ventures through the woods, my friends and I came across a clearing with a bunch of power lines inside. On one the structures, this sign was hanging. I think it's funny that this sign, obviously meant to keep people off, was hanging upside down by a flimsy piece of metal, and also, that it was beat up and had a lot of holes (bullet holes?) in it. Obviously we climbed the crap out of the tower. Not the whole thing, just a little bit. But still.

Scrapbook 6

This picture is from the church that is near the car I featured for another scrapbook post. It's also near the power towers that are in a later scrapbook post. A lot of outer walls and doorways are still somewhat intact, but there is no roof or anything. It is a cool place to go and think, if you're willing to make the hike to get there. There was, I don't know if there still is, a small journal in a plastic box for people to either write in or stamp (letterboxing.org). It's neat to imagine what the place might have been like when it was built.

Scrapbook 5

This car, along with like five others, was just sitting in the woods that my friends and I were out exploring. We had no idea why a bunch of old rusty cars were just sitting there in the middle of the woods, but there is a really old ruinous church not too far up a hill nearby. We found out that there used to be some kind of roadway in the area, but everything got washed away in a hurricane or some kind of nasty storm. I just looked up hurricanes that happened in the Maryland area, and I think it may have been the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944.

Scrapbook 4

Cigarettes are really weird/interesting. So many people choose to smoke when it is obviously so unhealthy. I'm not saying smokers are bad or anything like that, I've smoked a few myself, but I don't think there is any overwhelming evidence, even from any conspiracy theorists, that smoking is good for you. So why do so many people do it? Because it's cool? Addiction? Just because? I don't think the answer is simple. I know many smokers who acknowledge smoking's harmful effects, yet have no desire to quit. They shrug it off with something like "If I want to die young, let me." This seems more like being unwilling, or even afraid, to admit that they need to stop. But who am I to say?

After Life

The whole concept of After Life is really interesting. I thought it was cool how used a seemingly "real world" setting to present the after life as opposed to trying to make it seem heavenly or something of the sort.
I most liked the character who decided not to choose a memory; I think he said something along the lines of "creating a future would be more meaningful than living in the past." This made me question the whole memory re-creation process. For one, I don't think that any of the memories could be accurate because our memories get so skewed and idealized over time. I think about how two people can argue over something that happened years ago because they both believe that it happened their way and the others. Even if the memories could be recreated perfectly, the memories still wouldn't match the moment.
I also think that I wouldn't want to live in a single memory, even if it was a great one. It may be a happy moment, but it seems like being trapped in a cage that you can't leave.

Another character that I was really drawn to was the man ( I believe his name was Wanatabe) who had a difficult time choosing his memory. He says he had many great memories "of course," but couldn't remember any. I felt sorry for him because he said his life hadn't gone as planned. In the videos when he was younger, he was so enthusiastic to leave evidence of his life and not lead a so-so life, but a so-so life is exactly what he led.

Overall, I thought the movie was good. There were elements that I didn't quite agree with, but that isn't a reason for me not to like the movie, it's just another perspective to think about.