Valedictory

I decided to do my valedictory on cultural appropriation because it is a topic that my friends often discuss with me. When it came time to decide what to do, my friends asked me to do pieces on this issue because it was very important to them and something they saw talked about very little. I really loved making social issue ads earlier this year so I decided to do that with this project. I wanted to really focus on having a serious picture and show how beautiful my friends looked wearing items from their cultures. I also wanted to give the pieces more emotional depth by adding words and had them each write me a statement on cultural appropriation for me to add to the pictures. I had a lot of difficulties finding a time to shoot all of them and if I did it again I would probably not shoot at school because then they could have worn bigger items that they couldn't take to school, Overall, I enjoyed making this because I loved working with my friends and doing something they were passionate about it, but they didn't turn out quite how I wanted. 

Valedictory Progress Check

The aim of my concentration is to create a series of social issue advertisements addressing the modern day issue of cultural appropriation. Race Relations defines cultural appropriation as "typically involving members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less privileged groups — often with little understanding of the latter’s history, experience and traditions" (racerelations.about.com). Although I have not personally been affected by cultural appropriation, I have seen it and the negative effects that come with it pervade the world around me. Many of my friends have been offended and hurt by acts of cultural appropriation in their lives and I want to help them share their opinions on the subject with people who are not as educated about it. I want to create serious and visually appealing ads that confront the negative racial and ethnic connotations behind acts of cultural appropriation. I want to share my friend's stories and help people realized that this is not a harmless practice and understand the consequences these actions have on other people. 

Surrealism Final

Jess is a vibrant and outgoing person. She appears very confident on the outside and seems very comfortable with herself. On the inside she is a peaceful person who loves the outdoors. I wanted to capture the inner serenity of such a boisterous person, by having a nature scene shining through her outer self.

Jess is a huge joker and enjoys being silly and having fun. However, she can be very serious when she wants or needs to be. I chose to juxtapose these two ideals by having a a dark and grungy picture with a really silly pose. 

Although I can seem distant in person, on the inside I am a fun loving person who loves visiting the beach and bright colors. 

On the outside I appear very composed and down-to-earth but the inside me always has her head up in the clouds and is daydreaming about something or other. I liked the idea having filling my head up with clouds to show this and adding a glittery texture to give it an air of fantasy.

Perception vs Reality

Outward

-Nerdy
-Athletic
-Cat Lover
-Talkative

Inward

-Shy
-Loner
-Cat Lover

Rene Magritte & Surrealism

1.     What is surrealism?

      The juxtaposition of unrelated objects, such as real-life objects side-to-side with stuff from                   dreams put into art.

2.     What motif did Magritte use in many of his works? Why was this significant?

      A man wearing a bowler hat. Magritte, as a businessman, dressed like this and saw so many other       men dressed like this that he became inspired by the ubiquity of it.

3.     In his work Golconda, why is it important that Magritte varied the image of the man in the bowler hat?  How does it add depth to the work?

      It separates from being just dull repetition and makes it more interesting to look at and inspect on       a closer level. The subtle differences make you wonder who or what the artist is painting.

4.     Why did surreal artists choose to create strange worlds with their art?
     
       They felt the world we lived in had already been thoroughly explored and represented artistically        and it would be more interesting to direct their work to the world of dreams.

5.     Explain how the techniques of juxtaposition, altered scale, and language help Magritte explore Surrealism. 

      Magritte invites his viewers in with complicated and beautiful imagery, but leaves them confused       as to the actual meaning of his art.      

6.     What would be a few reasons why Magritte would cover the faces of his subjects?

       Many theorists say the traumatic death of his mother, who was supposedly found with her face            covered, when he was only 12 influenced him greatly.

7.     Why did Magritte strive for realism & precision in his paintings?

      The precise and miniature details in his dream-like paintings help to ground strange scenes in             reality.

8.     Google more of Magritte’s work and include 2 images that interest you.

• Explain the technique(s) used to enhance the work

Clairvoyance

   Magritte employs his motif of a man in a suit and makes his painting absurd by having the subject      paint a picture of a bird while staring at an unhatched egg. It is so impractical it is as if it came from    a dream.

The Art of Living

Here Magritte uses mismatched proportions in his painting of a suited man with a disproportionately large and round head and regular sized facial features. 

Inspiring Artists

I like how her face is colorless but the trees are green.

I like how this picture plays with the mind's eye and how we see things.

 I like the smoke coming out of his eyes, it's really mysterious and creepy.

 I like how this artist moved the facial features onto other body parts.

 I think this picture is so beautiful and I love how the arches in the bridge are where her eyes would be!

I think this picture does a really good job of showing how this girl feels invisible and worthless when she looks in the mirror. 

Dada Finals

Cut Copy and Rearrange

Halftone Screen

Color Blocks

Text Overlay

I really liked the concept of having a lot of personal autonomy with this project but I ended up feeling vaguely uncomfortable with the amount of complicated editing decisions I was required to make. I really enjoy editing but I like more simplistic editing and I felt my projects were not "Dada" enough, so I would do more editing but then I wouldn't like the image nearly as much. My favorite one was the color block because I like playing with color and I liked how simple and easy to make the shapes were. I also liked the simplicity of my cut, copy, and rearrange piece and how much negative space there was to play around with. This project made me realize I enjoy photography and editing more when I have a specific goal to achieve and not so much when I'm just working aimlessly, mainly because my sense of time and deadlines gets messed up, and I never feel satisfied with my work. I really enjoyed many of the Dada art pieces we looked at as a class, but did not enjoy making my own nearly as much.

Dada Studio Experimentation

It was really fun working in the studio trying to take interesting and dynamic photographs! We used a lot of props and did some crazy poses and really enjoyed ourselves in the studio! I liked experimenting with different color backgrounds and lighting. I can't wait to go back in the studio again!

Exquisite Corpse

Each person in the group drew a different quarter of the "corpse" randomly and without knowing what the others drew. This relates to surrealism because surrealism often employs "the irrational juxtaposition of images" such as a robot-body-builder-cat-duck. 

Questions About Art

What is a work of art?

There is no one singular definition for a work of art. Something becomes art when someone finds value or beauty in it. Art is art as long as someone thinks of it as art. To attempt to delineate art is to defeat the purpose of art. Art is a fluid concept, ever-changing and evolving.

What should an artwork provide to both the maker and the viewer? 

Art should make you feel something. If both the maker and the viewer come away from a piece, having felt love or disgust or joy then the art has achieved its purpose.

Why do people make art?

Everyone makes art for different and unique reasons which don't fall into any certain parameters. Sometimes we make art to feel something, or not to feel something, or to make others feel something. People make art because art makes us human.

Where does one encounter art?

Art can be typically found in art shows or museums or galleries but art can also be in your home or outside. Since art can be anything, art can be found anywhere.


What is the role of the artist?

The artist makes the work of art. The artist is responsible for putting their art out in the world for others to observe.

MoMA and Dada

World War I and Dada:

What is Dada and why did it come into existence? The concept of Dada art sprung from the disillusionment of World War I-era artists who wished to rebel against conventional art by questioning what makes something art. Dada did not come from a desire to create art, but rather to criticize art and the world. 

Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade:

Discuss Duchamp's notion of Readymades. What are they? Duchamp wished to question what constituted art and how it should be made by presenting typical everyday objects as works of art. 

How do they change your expectations of what art can be? Readymades defied the previously held notion that art should be beautiful and that art should be special and unique. 

Chance Creations: Collage, Photomontage, and Assemblage:

Dada artists turned to non-art making strategies...

                     What did they embrace? Chance, accident, and improvisation.

                     Why did they take this approach? A form of personal protest and a tool for critiquing the                                                                             world they lived in.

Artist Collaboration: 

What is the value of art made by Dadaists? Not the work produced, but the act of making and collaborating with others to create.

Word Play:

How and why did Dada artists work with words? To free text and speech from conventional rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, artists would turn words and letters into abstract forms.

Dadaist Poem

"Until the world explodes and there's no one left.""World left until explodes there’s one and the no."

Social Issue PSA

Billboard

Poster

The social issue I hope to bring attention to was police brutality. This is an issue that I find often occupies the news for a short period of time when a major incident occurs, but is quickly forgotten before any serious legislative action can be taken. Police brutality is caused by many things, but one of the reasons many cases are not taken seriously by courts of the law is a lack of concrete visual or auditory evidence, and that is the specific issue I wanted to discuss in my ads. Very few police departments have police cameras on their officers and their cars and even fewer have a mandatory policy on keeping the cameras on during a confrontation. This has led to guilty parties being let free and innocent officers being sent to jail and it can be fixed so easily, if someone takes the initiative, which is why I want to bring more attention to this often neglected issue.

I hope to raise awareness for the cause of ending cases of police brutality and I want to start a movement aimed at getting body cameras on police officers. It has been proven that a change as small as that can make a huge difference in saving lives and I think that is an important cause to fight for.

My target audience is people who are fairly unaware of issues of police brutality and the negative impact a lack of body cameras on police has on the public and police officers. By leaving the middle of the picture blank, it allows the viewer of the ad to imagine the possible scenarios of what could be occurring and how it can affect anyone, even them.

My Unique Selling Proposition is that my ad is not focused on the picture, but rather what is not in the picture. The audience can see that is an average street one might find anywhere but what's important about the picture isn't what is happening, and instead what isn't happening. The ad gives the audience cues for what they could be seeing, but the audience's imagination fills in the rest.

My slogan/tagline is #endpolicebrutality, because at the end of the day, that is what I am fighting for. Even bigger than putting body cameras on police for me is ending the ceaseless unnecessary violence by those in a position of power against others.

I'm proud of this assignment turned out because I think it looks like an ad I might see on the internet or on an actual billboard and that was very important to me. I had difficulty deciding if I wanted my picture to be in color or in black and white and I ended up selecting black and white because it created a higher sense of unity between the images and lent a more severe look to the ads.

Some advice I'd give to someone else creating this project would be not to go too complicated. It is important to make the ad compelling and interesting to look at, but if it's too complicated the audience might not be able to comprehend it or it might become too chaotic and not aesthetically pleasing.

I like how I designed the ads, but the hardest thing was definitely taking a picture where I had to focus more on creating a photo that had interesting and nicely composed edges, but not paying nearly as much attention to the content of the center of the photograph.

Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook

• Make ad visually compelling with only minimal text

• Make people who view the ad feel the 'right' emotions- the emotions that make them become invested in the subject of the ad

• Logos are very important for brand recognition!

• Make text intriguing

• Make slogan catchy and memorable!

• Most important thing is to make consumer identify with the product and not feel estranged from it

Ad Analysis

a. This ad is targeted towards those who are frequently surrounded by bugs.
b. It uses humor to show the effectiveness of their product.
c. Comedy
d. 'No insects left.'
e. 'Will work for food.'

a. This ad is targeted towards people who like chocolate and would want to give it to someone as a s gift.
b. People can print their own messages onto the candies.
c. Hunger. The candy makes you hungry, which makes you want to buy it.
d. 'Communication just got sweeter.'
e. The letters/words printed on the candies.

a. The target audience is people who drink alcohol and/or drive vehicles.
b. They are showing a possible future of someone who drinks and drives.
c. Fear.
d. 'Don't Drink and Drive.'
e. 'Spare parts for humans are not as original as those for cars.'

a. The target audience is girls with long, easily tangled hair.
b. They over-exaggerate the scenario by making it seem larger than life.
c. Humor.
d. 'Hair power.'
e. There is no text and copy.

Ad Shots Contact Sheet

Ad Sketches