RockBlog

The artist that I picked from the book was Oliver Wasow. His image is in chapter one on page 44. He was born in Madison Wisconsin 1960. He got his BA from Hunter College in 1982. He curretly teaches digital imaging and photo critique in New York City. He is represented by Janet Borden Gallery in NYC. He has been in many exhibitions and has won several awards. Oliver is known for photography. He likes to take parts of real landscapes and piece them together so you get this surreal feel. When you look at them you wonder if it could be real or not. You see things that should not be there but then the more you look at it you start to think it belongs. Then image example from the book is an untitled piece and is a C-print. It appears to be a landscape of a beach. The sand has water ripples like the water. There seems to be a volcano in the back. Then there is also a hot air baloon floating in the air and another one landed on the ground. Looking through all of his images on his web page I found a favorite series. I really enjoy the works form 1997-1999. The piece I like most is the Ranier Valley, Washington. It has beautiful colors and the surreal feel. I really enjoy the waterfall and then trying to figure out what type of landscapes are in the background. His work will be my inspiration for his color and creativity. I really enjoy how he pieces so many images together and really makes them look like they belong. I think that I could really gain a lot from him.

Here are three internet links to see more of Oliver Wasow's work.

www.oliverwasow.com

http://www.artnet.com/artist/24915/oliver-wasow.html

http://www.buynewart.com/buy_art/buy_conceptual_art/218/oliver_wasow.aspx

By Masha Jordan
The picture on page 122 of our book captured my attention right away. It is a work by Adriene Jenik with Lisa Brennis, titled Desktop Theater. The sole reason it captured my attention is it features photos of Trent Reznor and I love Trent Reznor. Much to my dismay, I did not get to look at photos of my handsome idol while researching the artist. Rather, I found out more about Adriene Jenik and her ongoing virtual project. Desktop Theater is supposedly a staged show done by Jenik and Brennis in an online chat room environment on the website http://www.waitingforgodot.com/ However, this website refused to open for me, so I could not get a first-hand experience. The concept does sound curious though, as the artist explores drama that happens online between cyber identities, she shocks and puzzles chat room guests. I would like to see an actual performance of this sort, but once again, I was unable to access the site, but even then I would have to catch her online to see any of the action. Adrien Jenik’s website is http://www.adrienejenik.net . She has a Master of Fine arts degree and is involved in numerous projects in areas of not only digital art, but videography and film as well. I am intrigued by her chat room project, because it operates on a different visual level than just picture-making. It plays with live emotions, incorporates people who may not suspect it and goes into notions of psychology. The artist is not producing physical work that one might view in a gallery setting, but rather is doing something else, artistically-inspired, that may connect with regular people. More about the project plus a few images on: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_drama_review/v045/45.3jenik_figures.html I would be delighted to see such a performance online, because exploring cyber identities is so much fun, now that everyone has their own web pages and myspaces and everything else. And rarely do we show our true selves when online, where no one can look at you or judge you fairly. The way this artist’s work may influence my own thinking, is it brings up questing about what can be considered as an art project and how far into psychology might an artist take her project. The most curious thing to me is that there are few images actually produced by her, involved in the project. As for the photo of Trent Reznor, my guess is that it was someone’s avatar, or cyber portrait, it just happened to be on the website and found its way into out textbook.

Name; Gearns, Timothy
Artist: Mengbo, Feng

Feng Mengbo was born in Beijing China, in 1966, during his youth he spent considerable amounts of time enjoying the blossoming video games era. However he is actually traditionally schooled, having spent 8 years in training. Feng, spent 4 years at the Beijing School of Arts and Crafts, followed by an additional 4 years at the Central Academy of the Fine Arts, in Beijing.
Feng sees the video game as an expression of free will, democracy and interaction, not just something that is based on popular culture. This probably stems from his upbringing in the fall of communist china. He feels that act of playing a video game is a foundation to interactive art. Video games allow free democratic choices, encourage the user to actively engage them selves with the work they are viewing and provide feedback as they interact. As a participant interacts with the game, they are expanding traditional linear narratives and because of the technical possibilities opened up by digital mediums, the “viewer/user” is able to experience things previously not possible.
Fengs works use digital mediums sometimes already created and then altered by him to produce the image he wants. For example he recreates traditional Opera’s but warped and twisted to fit his desired application. Many of his works at first glance do not appear to be more then just sill frames of video games, it is only upon closer inspection (gained by interaction) does one come to fully understand what it is, that one truly is viewing.

Here is a link to a color version of his Quake For You piece described in our book. In which he modeled and replaced the character of Quake 3 Arena with himself.
http://www.pushthefuture.org/mengbobio.asp

Here is a link to an oil-on-canvas painting Fend did, based on the Cultural Revolution Operas. (Unfortunately not in color)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_literary_history/v028/28.1lu_fig06b.html

Here is a link to another work of his based on the Operas.
http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag04/april04/WebSpecials/revolution98.jpg

I chose this artist mainly because I can appreciate the complexity of modeling used in games and the amount of work the artist had to put into placing himself within the game. And also, because I liked playing Quake 3 Arena a lot when UMD used to have LAN parties. So his Quake For You project is my favorite work of his. I see Feng’s work influencing me on a small scale as something to consider when I do play around with my work on levels for video games or even when I am playing them myself.

The artist I chose is Natalie Bookchin. Natalie was born in 1962 and received her bachelor of fine arts from New York State University. She later received her master of fine arts degree in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Natalie began her career as a photographer. Eventually she began experimenting with digital photography. After dabbling in this field, she started to toy with the ideas of CD-ROM and the Internet to display her art. What first drew me to her latest work is that, essentially, it’s a video game. Her first game, “The Intruder”, is her take on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. This work was the very first project of its kind. Another one of her later internet games is her project “Metapet”. In this online game the player takes control of a little worker in a fictitious corporate environment. I tried playing this but sadly it is currently offline. Here are a few websites with Natalie’s biography and some of her work:
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=289
http://www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb/phase3/nmc_intvw_bookjack.html
http://metapet.net/

Tim Marrs

By Tiffany Szerpicki




I chose Tim Marrs from Digital Illustration: A Masterclass by Lawrence Zeegan. He appears several times in the book. He graduated in 1999 from Central St.Martins, a leading art school in the UK. His illustration career spans over more than 10 years, and he has illustrated and designed for Muzic Mag, Mojo Magazine, Bizarre Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Illustrated Ape, Graphics International, Lucozade, Sprint, Saatchi & Saatchi, Redwood Publishing, and Random House. Some of his most famous work was for Nike. His art involves both traditional and digital processes, mostly screen printing, drawings, and photography combined with Photoshop. I really like the textured, colorful look that his work has, especially the way that it still looks traditional and has the quality of screen printing and ink drawings but uses digital methods to produce complex combinations of medias. My favorite works of his are: (http://www.ba-reps.com/artist/marrs/as/newmedia/portfolio/1917/image/85318) and (http://www.ba-reps.com/artist/marrs/as/newmedia/portfolio/1917/image/85306) because they look so collage-ish and combine the traditional and digital parts so well that its hard to tell what is what and the overall effect is just awesome. I really like the traditional/painterly texture and feel to the pieces. I also like the combination of flat areas of color and line-art that some of his other pieces show. I’m not sure his work could influence my digital art because I don’t know how to screen print. I could try to use more traditional elements and collage-type feeling in my digital art. I could also work on giving my digital art more texture and more non-digital feeling.

LINKS:

Tim Marr's Work [link 1]


Tim Marr's Work [link 2]


Tim Marr's Website

By Nicole Wangen

I chose to do my research on David Rokeby. His work is found on page 149 of Chapter three in the section of Artificial Life. He is a media installation artist based out of Toronto, Canada. He has worked on installations since 1982 and has focused mainly on interaction of the image and the human body. His work has been displayed in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. He has been honored twice with Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in 1991 and 1997 and has been a speaker at many events around the world.
David’s art involves artificial perception systems and the human body. Many of the videos of his work are supposed to be secondary to the audio. Several pieces of his works have involved issues of digital surveillance. Other works of his engage in a critical examination of the differences between human and artificial intelligence.
One of my favorite installations of David’s is called “Cloud.” It is a hanging monumental piece of the same sculptural elements and digital photographs. Each one is attached to a computer-controlled motor, which slowly shift and make a wave in the air. When they go completely in sync, they appear to be one large solid piece.
I like this and many of his other works because he is engaged in interaction with the viewers through each installation. I think this is very inspiring and I admire how much he has been able to think outside of the box through the years.
I think seeing how much he has grown through all this time is an influence because at this point I do not have one specific direction in my art and it seems like he developed his over time.
To learn more about David Rokeby, you can visit:
http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=80
http://www.artinliverpool.com/blog/blogarch/2007/04/david_rokeby_at_fact_soon.php

Katy Kittelson
Ruth Kedar

The artist that I chose who inspires my work is Ruth Kedar. She works with many different kinds of media, anything from monotypes to digital art. Ruth was born in Brazil, but received a Masters in Design from Stanford University. She also has her own design firm called Kedar Designs. She is an Art Director, Creative Director, and a Teacher. Kedar is probably best known for creating the Google logo. She also has many other clients like Adobe Systems and Webango. One of her best known pieces is the Analogue Deck of playing cards for Adobe. She is also one of the founders of art.net.
Ruth has four main categories in which she works. Mixed Media, Monotypes, Digital Art, and Playing Cards are where her work can be found. Her work usually consists of many layers that develop into logical structures that create new visual progressions. She is also very interested in patterns, variations, and developing new visual languages within her work. Kedar’s work is a “creative process, a dialogue between self and medium that evolves into visual languages, their grammar ever changing to encompass new avenues of thought”. The pieces of her work that inspire me the most are the digital collages of photography and digital media. The work that I really liked is her Masks series. “They take hold, mutate or fade into the eyes of the beholder”. She reveals and conceals bits of pieces of each photograph in a highly unique way. I also love the different textures that she uses for each collage. It’s interesting to see the digital aspect alongside the unaltered photograph. I also like how some collages use the same starting images and then she goes a completely different direction that the original one. She also allows her layer to be visible by showing an uneven plane of design. This offers a unique amount of depth to her work. Her choice of color scheme is also something that inspires me. It is vibrant and eerie at the same time. Her collages go from very simple compositions to very complex which allows her work to have a nice variety. I think the part that I personally enjoy the most is that she divides each image into rectangles and place them in amazing compositions in her work. Her Masks series will most likely influence my final project in this class. I have already made a series of faces that I collaged together in a warped sort of way divided up by rectangles. Her texture, color, and pieces of the face to use will definitely influence my work in the future. I also would like to try not using the entire face in a way that her series shows me. The links to find examples of her work are:
www.art.net/~kedar/
www.kedardesigns.com
www.art.net/Stuios/Visul/Kedar/Masquerads.html

Name: Nicole Bro
Artist: Vault 49: Jonathan Kenyon and John Glasgow

The artists that I chose were Jonathan Kenyon and John Glasgow. These two talented artists make up the team of Vault 49. There work has been seen in advertisements ranging from the newest Pepsi campaign, to MTV advertisements, Bacardi, as well art promoting different musicians. They have a very unique and complex style that I find compelling.

Kenyon and Glasgow first met in London, England while they were attending the London College of Printing. They met by chance in a screen-print studio and have been working together ever since. They then began to develop a style together and claim that “we developed together, we worked better together than we did when working alone, and learnt the joys of collaborating- something we’ve never lost.”
They first started their team of in South London. They came up with the name Vault 49 to label themselves. The name vault came from the cupboard under the stairs where they kept their art supplies and the number 49 was the number of their Victorian house. During their time in England they stuck to their roots of screen-printing but began to dip into other artistic pools. These included photography, digital illustration, and typography, as well as many others. Before they knew it they had many clients requesting their unique work. With this success they decided to move to New York. They claimed that it was a collaborative decision to move and they were in need of a change and more inspiration. Although they have moved, the essence of how they work has not changed one bit. They say that “a brainstorming session determines whether we will take the camera to the street, make a Google search, or start calling people to collaborate with.” Kenyon and Glasgow are still in New York City and are continuing to do wonderful work. They are currently doing the new Pepsi project, and the redesigning of the Pepsi packaging and advertisements. This is just a small example of the work that they are doing.

Their digital art is a complex combination of screen-printing, collage, digital illustration, photography, drawing, and typography. It seems as though they throw a bit of everything into their style to create a versatile and creative body of work. I guess the best way that I would describe their work would be collaged illustration and graphic art.

There are many pieces on their homepage that I find to be inspiring. I really like a lot of their print work that they did for clients as well as their apparel that appear on the site. On specific piece that I do really like is the record sleeve and cover that they did for Sasha and John Digweed, Renaissance: The Mix Collection. http://www.jess.ee/catalog/images/sasha.jpg. I also really like the design that they did for Attik, and ShyFX which are both found on their website. http://www.vault49.com/
These are just a few of their amazing designs. They have a distinctive design and a wonderful range of color in a lot of their work. The use of collage and using so many different elements is amazing to me. They have an amazing ability to combine so many elements in such a small space and have it be visually pleasing, that it makes you engage in their work to try and decipher every last detail. I think it would be fun experiment with collage in the way that they do and it inspires me to challenge myself to create something so complex.

Three sites showing their work:
http://www.vault49.com This site shows all of the work that they have done and are currently doing.
http://www.theispot.com/artist/vault49/
http://www.vault49.com/roule this site shows clothes designed by Vault 49.

Anna Mattson

Artists Name : Charlotte Davies

I am extremely fascinated with Charlotte Davies work. It has a virtual unreal feel to it. Giving the viewer a sense of a world beyond our existence. Her work is computerized in three-dimensional forms. She integrates real-time stereoscopic dimensional images. In her works she portrays nature, psyche, and perception. In her previous works she has worked with different media such as including painting, documentary filmmaking and animation, developing a symbolic language.
In one of her works called the “Osmose” she portrays a virtual environment that causes abrupt crossovers, and creates a unique experience for the viewer and makes them become aware of the surrounding space. It is a head-mounted display and real-time motion tracking based on breathing and balance. Osmose is a space for exploring the perceptual interplay between self and world, i.e., a place for facilitating awareness of one's own self as consciousness embodied in enveloping space. The overall composition, the color, the alpha, every aspect of it is intriguing. Her style is amazing, it definitely gives me the urge to experience and try to create more three-dimensional images. I found a few websites that I looked at, figured it would interest as much as it did to me. Why read about it when you can see it!! Check it out!!

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/davies/biography/

http://www.immersence.com/publications/2003-OGrau.html

http://www.immersence.com/

Kenneth Feingold

By: Jacqueline Wivinus

Kenneth Feingold began was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1952 and began his work in the early 1970’s with film and video. Feingold earned his BFA from the California Institute of Arts, School of Art in 1974, and went on to earn his MFA from California Institute of Arts, School of Art in 1976. His work ultimately deals with the concept of communication, and communication’s intricate set of rules and exceptions. Furthermore, his work deals with the meanings of failed communication, misunderstandings, and silences. Our text feature’s Feingold’s work in chapter 3, classifying his work as Artificial Life or Intelligence, or “AI Projects” Feingold’s work is often interactive with the viewer, as in his work Sinking Feeling (2001), the viewer can have conversations with the installation and their words then become part of the artwork. In addition to being able to hold a conversation with the installation, other works of his allow people to interact with the artwork through a website that he has created, and their actions then effect what is seen and heard by the viewers in the gallery, allowing these viewers at the gallery to merely view this piece of artwork. The human heads used in Feingold’s work are often modeled after his own appearance.
I particularly like his piece, Sinking Feeling, because of the fact that it is very interactive and the viewer becomes a part of the work, since their words are projected into the installation. Also, I like the idea that this inanimate object, this piece of artwork, ponders its own being and meaning of existence, just as is common for people at some points within their lives. I think that could have influence on my work, particularly my photography, as I like to have conceptual meaning but like to leave room for the viewer to project their own experiences into the work.
To learn more about his works, visit these websites:
http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=3
http://www.kenfeingold.com/
http://www.eai.org/eai/artist.jsp?artistID=426

Dylan Raph
Artist: Erwin Redl

The artist I chose to do from the book “Digital Art” by Christiane Paul was Erwin Redl. The section of the book he is featured in is Chapter 2: Digital Technologies as a Medium on pages 77 and 78. A piece of his work is also featured on the cover of the book. I have many reasons for choosing this artist, one being the magnitude of his work. He doesn’t do what most people would consider “traditional” art. His work begins as simple as a little light bulb and repetition, tone and color are only a few factors that make his work complete. Erwin Redl was born in Gföhl Austria in 1963, but has lived in and created his works in New York since 1993.
As far as goes he studied in Vienna Austria for three years and then in 1995 he earned his MFA Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Redl has won several awards, a full list of his awards can be found at http://www.paramedia.net/bio.htm . Unlike most, Redl’s work isn’t displayed in the light. His showroom is dark because his work creates the light and depending on the color of the light sets a certain mood. His work consists of planes with carefully placed lights all over the plane. For some this may sound like a simple and maybe even boring piece of work, but the pictures I have seen interest me very much and I couldn’t imagine seeing them in person.
His work gives a very futuristic feel and allows the viewer to make their own opinion about it. For a page of his some of his work visit http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=20# . Redl also has a couple of internet works of art. I was only able to find one of them that the link actually worked. The project was called “The Truth is Always a Moving Target.” If you would like to view this piece the link is http://www.paramedia.net/projects/truth/truth.html and is very interactive.

Jasper Goodall from Birmingham, England is a freelance illustrator and designer who creates very high contrast, and colorful commercial and studio pieces. His work usually contains a lot of black and white, almost posterized textures, combined with hand drawing, and digital artwork. A lot of the high contrast images, have very bright, psychedelic color gradients and patterns. The psychedelic fluidity and cleanliness of his designs, separate it from the the usual psychedlic genre, without sacrificing detail. His subject matter is sometimes quite sexualized, and he composes most of his images from shots of bodies when e begins his work. He then reworks over and over until he gets the disred effect, using illustrator, pens, and inks. One of my favorite pieces is called the "Amorous Liasons." It is a highly detailed black and white scene with multiple figures that reminds me of a new-age "Garden of Earthly Delights." The way he incorporates the morphing, fluidity, and color, while keeping the complex forms clean and not overworked, Is something that I hope I can try to incorporate in my work

Here are some sites with his work:

www.jaspergoodall.com

www.productofgod.net

www.bigactive.com

The artist I chose was Daniel Canogar. He was born in Madrid in 1964, and lives and works there still. He studied visual communications at the Complutense University, and received his Master´s in photography from NYU/ICP in 1990. He has won numerous awards and has his work displayed in many exhibitions. His art looks for ways to alter traditional photographic formats. Through photo-installations he has eliminates the photographic frame, submerging the spectator into the image. The installations investigate how identity is altered by the space of the subject. Some of his art uses fiber-optic cables to create the installations that can fool the viewer’s eye, forming an optical illusion. His artworks use many different mediums all created digitally and create a spectacle that makes the viewer, almost, part of the piece itself. He works on a large scale. In the book his work is in Chapter one under the category of Digital Technologies as a tool. The book focuses on the chapter in his life where he created composite collages that were made to reflect on relationships between body and its image. Which brings me to the art piece that I was most impressed with. His art piece called “Digital Hide 2”. Created by digital forms of only human fingerprints, the piece seems to create a new form of anatomy. The fingerprints aren’t recognizable to the untrained eye. His artwork inspires me to use digital photography in a different way. Changing the way one would view a photograph or a collage of photographs makes me wonder what I could do with my art pieces.

Here a couple of links to websites that involve Daniel Canogar

His home page
http://www.danielcanogar.com/

Various Art pieces and bio info
http://www.artnet.com/artist/3566/daniel-canogar.html

http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/ecanogar.html

[Christopher Flem]

Artists -> Jim Gasperini and Tennessee Rice Dixon

I chose the artists Jim Gasperini and Tennessee Rice Dixon. I chose them for a spectacular collage work, which contains many elements. These artists produced a work called ScruTiny, which is a hypertext collage with thousands of elements. The work is a series of collages which involve sounds and visual imagery, that when interacted with are meant to give the viewer a dreamlike tour through the mind. Elements of the collage include male and female references, cultural, poetic, symbols, religion, creating this illusion of dreaming the artwork. There are 12 scenes in the work total, sort of an interactive book.

A link to a website: http://www.thing.net/~relay/scrutiny/index.html