1.) The collaborative work of "ameteurs" can create something more intellctually appealing and valid than a single artist's efforts. Is there also a route or a point where too much crowdsourcing makes the end product a bland average? Does the problem in that point relate to the amount of people contributing being too much, or rather the flaw in the crowdsourcing project itself not being able to accurately express the many individual contributions?

2.) The second reading talks about the inability for "equal conversations" with a computer because of the nature of the interactions is simply reactionary. The Digital Media world is defined by these interactions however. Is there a bit of art lost in the translation between these reactions of crowdsourcing projects? Does the fact that some forms of crowdsourcing projects require minimal reactionary involvement detract from their overall intellectual and artistic weight as a Digital Media Project?

In an attempt to remain true to the assignment I clipped the audio from the original file and then listened to it by itself attempting to picture images or scenes that would coincide with specific sounds. The timing was the hardest part to get and I shortened/ lengthened specific scenes to try to match them with the audio as best as possible. Using the same audio was a difficult task in this way but I found a clever way to cut specific sections of audio to make it match better with the scenes. Not on purpose I think this rounds out my piece much better than having a mere linear cut of sound, instead now I have 9 minutes (original length of video) clipped and merging with each other in a much shorter film which I believe to be a true tribute to the entirety of the original film. Along the same lines of representing the original video I used black and white paint on a background attempting to make the styles the same. The content of the original video was an exploration of humanities evolution and descent, in a similar way I tried to make mine about a similar descent into the pain and mixed feelings and emotions that come with depression ie. solitude, desolation, bursts of anger and tears etc. It took me a very long time with over 400 clips of video turned into jpegs to make this video.

Audio with Animation Artist statement

I struggled in my attempt to remain true to my original theme of my animation which was centered around the blending and parallel nature of old and new forms of the apocalypse due to the nature that the older more biblical version of the apocalypse did not bring to mind any immediate audio. The recorded audio was a humming sound I did leading into the final explosion, it was pretty loud and almost sounded like the background drone sound but the two work seamlessly together. I picked a unifying audio (battlefield 3 ad) to tie the scene together with a dramatic and harsh sound that built up to the final explosion. Working with the old and new apocalypse theme I also added an almost video game sound in front of the explosion that sounded very technological.

Reading #2 Questions

1.) The reading talks about how the movement toward newer age digital media ushered in a new fascination with older forms of art, even older forms of new age media. Is this process we have seen throughout history of emergence and then eventual rediscovery of older art forms doomed to happen to the very digital mediums we think of today when the word digital art comes to mind?

2.) Such as with performance art many entire art forms such as orchestras or broadway are completely reliant and fixed through their digital representations whereas in earlier times the job of recognition and the very existence of such art forms was reliant on simply word of mouth or fliers. With the inevitable emergence of newer art forms and mediums (through which they can be represented) in the future what art forms does the reader think will not be able to adapt to be represented in these new mediums? Are some so fixed through current mediums such as email and commercials that any representation otherwise would make said art something other than its original form?

Diptych animation Artist Statement

Artist statement: In keeping with the realistic and tangible theme of the apocalypse i tried to animate my image in a way that would represent the common factors in both the biblical and modern senses of the term "apocalypse." These uniting factors of destruction such as the fire, lava, crumbling buildings, etc. show that although both ideas of what an apocalypse will look like may be different in different times, the fear that arises from it is very universal.

Mason Furr Diptych Animation

 

 

 Artist statement: We both envisioned the apocalypse as a merging of both classical and modern examples of armageddon, these pictures reflect this union through the displaying of modern technological products and architecture along with older more classical architecture and mythology. In this way we have represented both types of the Apocalypse, the impending technological one and the more traditional fiery mythological one.