Weekly Journals

#1 Jeanette Winterson

Extract, what is art for? The secret Life of Us, Jeanette on a thing called art.

Painting is so precious, it can be relevant to love, picture, money, and time. We live in such busy life and it is hard to spend just one minute to stand in front of painting. What can we find out viewing the painting? Time does not matter, as long as you sit in front of a painting even if it is just for a minute without distractions, you find yourself calm, and peaceful in front of the painting. Painting can be compared with a movie. A painting is always there, it will not move, it is always there but what about a movie? The image changes constantly and our eyes may get busy and distract. It is like the distraction of language. While us looking at some paintings, how about decrease distraction and increase invention and enjoyment? We can interpret the painting in different ways. We can say that what is about the painting? Is it figurative? Can I make up the story if the painting seems to offer an escape route? Instead of staring at painting, how about we make some questions related to that painting and answer that question? That sounds fun isn’t it? When people saying that some paintings cost millions of dollars and you want to see that paintings because of money, you are just viewing that painting because people saying that it is very expensive. What is the point of viewing those painting?

Modern art has become a media circus; a money-driven, prize-hungry extravaganza, dependent on marketing and spin. What is art for? Art is not like a product, it is like God which leaves us with footprints of beauty. Art provides important information and it proves it. The creativity and concentration put into the making of the artwork. Art is made out of love and imagination; a passionate reckless love of the work in its own right, an imaginative force that creates something new out of disparate material. In addition, art cannot change your life, what art can do is to prompt in us authentic desire; art can waken us to truths about ourselves and our lives. Art is not cloned objects, it is about individual vision. Individuals can work together. Art is like live theatre. The dialogue continues between object, make, owner, viewer, listener, reader. Art is like an infinity, art is potent, confrontational, difficult, it actually challenges us to identify what exact it is. Art reminds us of all the possibilities we persuaded to forget.

 

#2 Martin Creed 

A Show That Will Run and Run

Martin Creed has won the award for his work called The Lights Going On and Off.  Martin Creed’s new work No.850 is about a single athlete runner who keeps running at the Duveen galleries at Tate Britain every 30 seconds all day long.  The art work is about an athlete runner runs sprint about 12 seconds and pause for 15 seconds while the music runs. Tate Britain will be hiring more athlete runners because they need a runner for eight hours each day but Tate Britain has a lack of runner for the art work. Martin Creed’s art work make visitors to think why are they keep running? And Martin Creed Answered us that this art work is not for him, it is for visitors to enjoy it and get something out from the art work. I believe Martin Creed made this art work on purposely, instead of making it on object, Martin Creed showed us that running beautiful because it is just human being without using any materials. In some why, Martin Creed’s work No.850 have not removed from the exhibition and I think the art work gives a mystery answers to the visitors to concentrate on the human form. Martin Creed stated that Running is the opposite of being still and made comparison between the life and the death.

I totally understand Martin Creed about his work. Usually the artist presents their art work on object for the viewer such as pictures on the canvas and sculpture art work. However, instead of making the art work on object, Martin Creed got an idea when he was visiting the Catacombs of the Capuchin monks in Palermo and he shows his individual character on his art work. This is very unique compared to other art works and this is why I did like Martin Creed’s work. Some people may think is this art? What does this represent? What is the meaning of this work?  When people looking at painting art work, they try to think the purpose of the work and feel self-conscious but Martin Creed’s work has totally different view and this art work may be hard to understand for some people. In addition, Was this good idea to use stretch back 86 meters of Tate Britain? Is it worth using that much spaces?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/01/art.tatebritain1

 

#3 Mathias Jansson

Velvet Strike and Video-Game Art

I am a big fan of the video game and of course I am also the person who believes a video game as an art. Nowadays, video games use high technology to create unique visual performance to give extra enjoyment to the viewer. However while I was enjoying the video game and give my full attention to those awesome graphic and structure, I was not thinking about how the video game gets cruel and meaningless to players. In addition, I am not feeling comfortable to those of computer modifiers who use the modification to create Osama Bin Laden skins especially after the incident, 9/11 and make players to shoot at it which is very cold-blooded act and it totally take artistry away. After 9/11 a video game like Counter Strikes gets too real, it makes players mindless and makes them to act an involuntary action. I strongly agree with the statement above because after playing a video game especially violence genre, those games makes me a futile attempt and I feel like destroying myself. Why cannot a video game designer make a fantastic environment where there is more room for imaginative habitats and characters? I feel like a video game designer tends to create a video game based on what they can get most out from the game industry which is money. Moreover, I like the idea such as anime people, monsters, demon, of all genders to identify more with those characters than terrorists.

What is up with people like in that article? Why do they have to make a video game like that to buy a controversy and get them into the trouble? Why do they have to remind us that cruel, unforgettable image of 9/11?  Why do they have to mess with victims from 9/11?  Sometimes, people do not think what they are making and seem to not mind what they are going to face with. I understand that designing a video game is to give an entertainment to viewers and players but sometimes gaming designers may design the video game out of their concept. They are in the video game industry to make money which give viewer like me very disappointment. Why cannot they design the video game which contains an entertainment and artistry while it delivers great impression to viewers and players? That way they also deserve a compliment and on the other hand, they could get what they have done for physically. I like to talk about some of video games we have discussed during class with classmates. A video game like Okami gave me a great impression although I have never played before so I ended up doing a research about that game. Okami is more than a video game because it used a drawing technique which contained so many artistic temperaments from creators and also has a great story line. Okami tells the story of how the land was saved from darkness by main character who has taken the form of a white wolf. The video game like Okami gives a great imagination and creative mind to young artists and I myself have learned how to draw this and that at certain angle and using various a perspective. Nowadays, many people think of video games as art and it is also a big portion of art industry. In addition, it can be a serious cause and effect to those young people and their way of thinking. The video game gets too cruel, mindless and too real nowadays and it seems getting worse and worse. How about video game designers to make video game more effectively to young artists, so they can learn based on what they see through video game that they play? The video game is very cruel and gives vagarious ideas to viewers, what can we do to prevent that? Should not there be some kind of limitation for young buyers to buy rated mature games? Like emphasize seller to double check ids?

http://www.gamescenes.org/2010/04/interview-joan-leandres-retroyou-1999-velvet-strike-2002.html

 

 #4 Graphic Design

Deciding the concept of graphic design is very easy and simple but it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact definition. The Cambridge advanced Learner’s online dictionary defined graphic design as the art of designing pictures and text for books, magazines, advertising and so on. In addition, dictionary.com defined that graphic design is the art or profession of visual communication, which combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience.

Graphic design is not just use of nice pictures and computer skills. Effective graphic design combines images, words, and ideas into a cohesive message. Pictures alone are not enough to do that. In addition, words alone are boring and very ineffective and ideas are nothing until you put into action.

Moreover, the purpose of graphic design is not used to make something look nice. While pleasing aesthetics are certainly goal of graphic design, the true purpose of doing this is to convey a message, and to create desired effectiveness. Graphic designers are looking for inciting desired feeling within their work. Graphic design is very simple concept but it can be very complex definition and wide range of applications. In addition, it can be very hard to become a graphic designer without knowing those definitions.

 

#5 Leto2

As we are facing the 21^st century, graphic designs are rapidly developing and this is how I realize by looking at image like Leto2 by unknown graphic designer. My first impression was wow and how did he or she make an art piece like this? I have seen lots of computer generated images from everywhere but this image was unbelievable because I could not come up with concept like this. I was wondering how he or she started make this image. I am sure that the artist put lots of efforts and time on this image. The colors are evenly spread out on art piece with well balanced contrast.

In addition, the artist used various colors that buy attention from viewers.  There are about at least 10 layers on this art piece and each layer is very detailed and colorful. Especially, I really like color gradient on main unknown objects in the center of the image. The blue and red definitely compete each other on black background and white outline make objects stand out from black background too. After looking at this great art piece, I get very frustrated because it is too good. I wonder where I can get this kind of idea from and be creative?

 http://iunewind.com/2006/10/09/leto-2/

 

#6 Starbucks Logo

Starbucks has been using the company’s familiar predominantly green logo of a mermaid  encircled by the words “Starbucks Coffee.” However, because the green Starbucks logo is too pervasive, switching to the retro version was an immediate attention grabber. Starbucks is using a special brown logo to evoke the chain’s beginning and restore some of the goodwill for the brand. The change was not permanent, the retro version was being used temporaily. Brown is certainly a color that represents coffee but why change such a successful corporate symbol that everyone knows?

The image of the twin-tailed Greek mermaid was originally designed back in 1971 and the logo has evolved over the years going from brown to green in 1987. Back in 2006, the image of the twin-tailed Greek mermaid was revived to mark the chain’s 35^th anniverysary. The purpose of the logo was to restore some of the goodwill and warm feelings for the brand that have been struggled with increased coffee prices, machine-made lattes, and bad press. Sometimes, Old logo can engender a brand’s story and history.

Looking at the retro Starbucks logo seems lack of harmony because Starbucks’ iconic logo is green and the company’s familiar logo is incredibly great. Starbucks’ logo is distinctive, iconic, and recognizable. When people see a flash of green on a white coffee cup from the street, they will immediately notice it is a Starbucks. Most companies can only dream about that kind of brand visibility.

The color of the twin-tailed Greek mermaid is very muddy and almost makes the cup look like it came from another company. The color seemed so much less distinguished than the green, and the green communicates both friendlier and incresed upscale image. In my opinion, the retro version is to draw attention and the logo is somewhat disruptive. The sketched representation clearly showing the mermaid’s breasts is a little too much skin.

In the originial logo, the twin-tailed Greek mermaid showed her navel and bare breast but in 2006, when the logo was restored, the company received a lot of complaints about the decency of the logo. Therefore, the twin-tailed Greek mermaid grew her long hair to cover her indecency.