In this blog entry, you will select and post your favourite example of light graffiti and your favourite example of street graffiti (street art using spray paint). Write a brief description of each image using the language of the Elements and Principles of Design. Finally, you will compare and contrast light graffiti with traditional graffiti. How are they different and similar?
FYI: It's now possible to look like a real graffiti artist using a spray paint can that emits light.Check it!
As personal computing and access to audio and video editing software became popularized in the 1990s, so too did the phenomena of mashups.Mashupsare, in the words of journalist LiliAna Andreano, the “digital lovechildren of two or more songs.” Over time, the meaning of mashup has expanded to include digitally manipulated creations resulting from two or more pre-existing works. In short, a mashup is the creative recombination of text, music, or video to make a new work of art. We see and hear mashups on the web, on TV, and on the radio. Mashups can be considered multimedia collages, which repurpose content to create a new media art work for art's sake, for parody, or for a political or social purpose. They are an emerging form of media art that has been made possible by the accessibility of digital technology. Take a look at the list below of mashup examples:
1. The widely popular television show Glee brought mashups to the mainstream in its Vitamin C and Mashup episodes, which featured the musical melding of Bon Jovi and Usher, along with Sisqo's Thong Song and a tune from the musical My Fair Lady.
2. A Fair(y) Use Tale, a video created by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University, is a mashup of various Disney cartoons used to illuminate American copyright law in a comedic and ironic way.
3. In 2004, DJ Danger Mouse released The Grey Album, a mashup of vocals from Jay-Z's The Black Album and instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album (if you know your colour theory, the album's name makes perfect sense!). The album gained notoriety and popularity when EMI (the music label that holds copyright for The Beatles) threatened DJ Danger Mouse with legal action for the unauthorized use of the Fab Four's music. This controversy spurred a debate about the current state of copyright law and contemporary creative culture. In your blog entry, choose one of the three examples above and answer the following questions as they apply to your example: 1. What is this mashup trying to communicate? Is it technical experiment, social or political commentary, a comedic parody, or an abstract work of media art? 2. Did its creator follow or break copyright laws in its production? 3. Do you think that mashup like this requires copyright permission? Why or why not.
In 1979, the English New Wave band The Buggles released their chart topping hit, Video Killed the Radio Star. The song laments the fall of a radio singer's career caused by the rise of television. The video for this epic song was the first to be broadcast by MTV (Music Television) on August 1, 1981 at midnight, securing this song and video's place in pop music history. Without a doubt, the lyrics of the song foreshadow the new age of music videos.
With the dawn of MTV, audiences were able to appreciate the song, not only for its melody and lyricism, but also for its visuals. From that moment on, music was no longer simply an auditory experience, but also a multi-sensory one.
You will use the critical analysis process to formulate your assessment of your chosen music video. Ensure that your choice is appropriate for a high school audience. When in doubt, consult. The Critical analysis process involves:
Initial reaction: What are your immediate thoughts and observations when you view the music video?
Analysis and interpretation: Describe the Principles of Media Arts as they appear in the music video. Why do you think the musician, musical group, or director created this music video? What themes are promoted in this video? Are they aligned with Gospel Values, or do they counter them?
Consideration of cultural context: What events may have influenced the musician, musical group, and director to create this music video?
Expression of aesthetic judgment: How does the cinematography, acting and performance, choreography, storyline, special effects, lyrics, and musicality work together in the music video? How do the visuals affect your admiration or disdain for the song?
Ongoing reflection: How has your chosen music video influenced your reception of the song?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Blog Entry #1 Facebook on the Big Screen
The new movie, The Social Network, is a drama based on the founding of the popular social networking site, Facebook. The movie chronicles the early struggles of founder Mark Zuckerberg as he and his colleagues were establishing the billion-dollar business that we know today.
We often don't think about how Facebook is a business. Have you ever noticed how the advertising along the sides of your profile page somehow relate to your hobbies, education, or interests? There is sophisticated programming that picks up on personal information and matches it with advertisers. Although Facebook may seem like a playful social networking tool, there are BIG corporate interests in your profile, not for your social calendar and friends' list, but as a consumer to whom to sell! Earlier this year, Facebook instituted new privacy setting which gave uninvited people, including advertisers, privy to personal information and photos. This was worrisome to many users and caused the formation of groups in protest to this breech in personal privacy.
In a 200 to 300 word blog entry, discuss the ways in which you protect your privacy on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Why is it important to protect your information from uninvited eyes and advertisers? Create an image that illustrates your response.
Here is a list of blogging safety tips adapted from Microsoft's Online Safety tips:
- Don't divulge personal information: use your FIRST NAME ONLY, don't give any details with regards to contact information, home address, phone numbers, last names of friends or relatives, instant messaging names, age, or birth date.
- No questionable photos of you or anything else: If you wouldn't show it to your grandma, don't post it on the web! Avoid posting photos of yourself.
- Remember the internet is permanent! Anyone on the Internet can easily print out a blog or save it to a computer.
- Use blogging provider sites with clearly stated terms of use, and make sure they can protect the actual blogs, not just the user accounts, with password protection. (Even so, it's better to assume anyone can see it.)
- Avoid trying to "out-do" or compete with other bloggers.
- Keep it clean and positive: Our blogs are reflective of our Catholic values. Sexist, racist, homophobic, or any type of oppressive and offensive language will not be tolerated!
Hello all you media and comm tech students! Welcome back to another wonderful year here at Mary Ward! I am already excited about this upcoming year! I am certain that it is going to be a great one! We have lots of exciting days to look forward to and I am sure that you will be as excited as I am!
As part of your media arts / communcations technology course you will be required to create and maintain your own media arts / communications blog. Blogging has quickly become a very popular form of communication and online journaling.
Through this course your will be required to reply to reply to six different media / technology issues or topics that will be posted here for you to respond to on your own blog. Each response must be no less than 300 words and should have discussions relevant to media arts and communication technology. You will also be required to respond to 6 other people's blogs with thoughtful ideas and comments. The evaluation for this unit is found in your unit guide. Once you have completed all tasks (which will take you several months) you will submit your unit guide, with a list of the six blogs that you responded to, for evaluation.
Over the course of the last few years - we have seen a new initiative coming from many different sources - where their goal is to get everyone healthy. We have seen it in movies, like Super Size Me - where the main character sets out to eat nothing but McDonalds for a whole month. Of course in the end there were many healthy repercussions from doing this and it probably turned many people off from eating at McDonald's ever again. From there - we see a lot of these fast food chains start to introduce healthy menu choices - like salads and apples and oranges instead of french fries. Now don't get me wrong - all of these are good steps towards becoming a healthier nation - but is it enough?
Then we started to see this initiative coming through in the schools. Elementary schools starting instituting a regular physical activity time and in the high schools they stopped stocking pops and chips and candies in all but one place in the school. In the United States some schools don't even have vending machines. Even this year our own cafeteria has started to cook in a healthier way as they have a mandate to meet that was set out by our school board. And have you noticed the vending machine on the first floor - most of the chocolate bars and chips have been replaced with granola bars and crackers.
Recently I was listening to the radio and came across a news segment that was reporting how the state of New York wants to impose a new tax on pop. Their reason - pop is extremely unhealthy and causes so many health issues that then result in high health care costs. You can read the article from the New York Times here. Here are a few other articles that may be of interest as well:
Now although this tax isn't for sure, in the meantime - the New York Health Department has started a campaign against pop. They even produced a video that has many people turning away in disgust:
Now you tell me. Is this kind of scare campaign effective? Does it make you want to become a healthier person? Do you think that the growing obesity in our nation is an epidemic of large proportions? Tell us how you responded to the video above? If the new tax goes through in America - what's to say that it won't happen here? If it does - would you continue to pay a large sum of money for something like pop or chips?
