Desktop Art Atrist's Statment

We’re gradually moving to a virtual and entirely electric world. Computers are a large part of our world and lives. We spend hours in front of them for work and entertainment and we forget that we remove ourselves from the physical world more and more. The desktop is a space taken for granted and not realized as an environment that we interact with. In order to draw attention to an object or in this case a space that is commonly over looked I will have to reconstruct it in a manor that’ll make it more literal so that an individual that is more used to looking over it will see it in a new light which might be interpreted for what it really is. I see a desktop as an environment we interact with and a mirror that reflects who we are.
The desktop is an environment we interact with. We are spending a larger and larger amount of time on a computer doing things such as web browsing, talking online, listening to music, writing, and playing games. We spend our time not as much in room with a computer but more so in a virtual environment that we create, something comfortable for us. I sometimes think about how I can spend hours upon hours in a lab or at my desk and why do I not get bored. I hardly move or change position but yet I stay comfortable in the same place for hours. It has occurred to me that im not spending my time in a computer chair but rather a virtual world. Not a fictional world from a book or perhaps from a movie but rather a world that we created for our self to our own liking. In Vincent Ward’s film, “What Dreams May Come,” the main character, Chris dies and goes to his own personal heaven. His heaven is a world that he created, an environment to which he chooses and creates. This is a place he can spend an eternity in bliss. I, as like many others can spend such a long time in a virtual world because it is a world that we created, an ever-changing heaven. The computer desktop is a place we live in, play in, a virtual environment. We are represented by a cursor, an arrow and we open and close windows in order to explore the world we live in. Cursor is to us as desktop is to environment. One of my videos shows a cursor creating a world, exploring, and experiencing it. Windows and icons are objects in the world that the cursor interacts with. Other people represented by an icon, text, or image of their own choice enters the Cursors world via the Internet. This video will help people to realize the world that they emirs themselves in is a full environment that’s to be interacted with.
The Desktop is a mirror. A window holding a job resume can sit side by side to a window holding a song by Metallic. What’s on our computer screen can be a representation of our thought, it can reflect who we are, and what we do. Any given screenshot in time of someone’s screen is a self-portrait. It’s a collage of websites they visit, people they talk to, and music they listen to. A video will illustrate how a desktop becomes a self-portrait. The video will start with a clean non defying desktop. Things will be added piece by piece window by window until what on the screen defines a whole person. Every now and then during the course of the movie a piece of a face will appear in windows, backgrounds, game icons, in a video, on a website. By the end of the video not only will a person be represented by what’s on the screen, by also a visual representation of them will appear to re enforce the idea of a self-portrait. Shown after are fifty other self portraits, fifty desktops varying in operating system, programs, backgrounds, and icons. Each image has a name. The name for each is the name of the unknowing creator.
Desktops and computers have an increasingly bigger role in the world we live in. these pieces can be a prominent and poignant look at the world we are creating for ourselves. If we’re going to pick and move into an electric world we should be full aware of the environment that we choose. What we experience and how we experience it should be realized. The desktop seems to become more of a backdrop or a set to act in front of rather then a world we effect, control, and interact with.

Work #1, Colorwheel

ok, ive been slacking a bit but this is my first work in my "Desktop Art." if i want to be able to use the desktop as a canvas i have to learn the properties of it in order to master the medium. this pice is a color wheel only using preset icons. i learned a lot more then i anticipated on only the 1st piece. 1: there is no apple-Z on desktop 2: each icon has a different structure. there not as much a colored pixel as they are an entire work in themselves. 3: icon size matters. and changing such setting resets a desktop (refer back to lesson learn #1). 4: there is a lot more research, testing, and trial&error involved then anticipated. 5: i dont know what i got myself into.

i hope to have 5 more up by friday testing different aspects of desktops such as only using windows, or building a visual based on structure rather then color. should be fun. please leave comments. i need feedback!!

5 Artisit's works that interest me

(in no particular order)

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1. Joseph Hyde's Remember Me

Remember Me is a photobooth. inside the booth lingers a picture on the moniter of the last visitor. that image fades and you take your picture. The booth then asks you to rememeber a face it shows you in the moniter. that face is a picture of someone else thats been in the booth. that face changes to another confusing the user. the booth then displays differant people thatve been in the booth before. they ask you 2 question about the orginal strangers face you saw. the booth then asks the user to create a quesion. Your picture is used as a late face to remmeber and then you question is asked to later users. the user then walks out and a strip of photos from his visit prints out. This work greatly mimics my ideas of personal photo recognition. a photo being not as much used as a picture but more so as a link to a memory. the work also bring up concepts of facial recognition. i've often wondered if id recognize myself in the photo so quickly if i didnt remember the moment the photo was taken

2. Kevin Seifert's Model of Harmony

This is a work done in flash. it's a visual representation of sound. Each sphere is assigned a note. Different aspects can be changed such as type of sound and visualization. One consistency are the notes. there are always 12 notes. This piece "can be a visualization tool for songwriters or students of music. Or it can simply be a stress-reduction toy." My interest in this piece directly comes from my introduction into the sound program "Logic" this semester. i find the relationship that such programs draw between audio and visual fascinating. the range and scope of how sounds are visually represented are rather broad. I was curious to hear what a musician had to say about the piece. me being musically inclined myself i asked my roommate who is presently in the local rock band "Marion." (guitar, vocals, keyboard, songwriter)He found that the 3D layout was rather confusing and complicated and found no correlation between the 3D layout and the notes. "I don't know why anyone would want it." He preferred the 2D layout much more so. This inspired my own thought on creating a real 3D space in which each ball creates a different note correlating to their placement in that space. I feel this specific work is more effective as a "stress-reduction toy."

3. Maurice Benayoun's Crossing Talks

Crossings Talks is a virtual plane that consists of square rooms set up as a grid. The manner in which people talk dictates the slide of the grid and the tilt. in order to stabilize their virtual world the users must communicate. Alot of my own intrests in art deal with digital representation of ones self and how others preceive that. this piece caters to that but also brings to mind the use of unstable communication devices such as my cell phone. My cell phone is used to help me communicate, but my phone is old and service is poor therefore i spend most of my communication time trying to hear others, yelling into the phone, or repeating "what?" i spend more time trying to stabilize my environment then i do using it as a form of communication.


4. Ga Zhang's People's Portrait

In this work Ga Zhang project a persons face in a highly populated and visible area, for example Times Square. I feel this invites people to consider a strangers face. first people try to recognize the face and relate to it, relate to features and perhaps compare it to others they may know personally. Then people might consider what that stranger might think seeing their face projected in times square followed by relating to their own face and then considering their face being projected. Finally people will reflect upon their own face and what they look like to themselves and what they look like to others. This piece can work on many levels. that is one that i found that might relate to my own work and i feel inspires some new work.


5. Masaki Fujihata's Global Interiors

Global Interiors bring to mind fascinating concepts of virtual reality and digital self representation. One thing that has intrigued me in the last year or so has been Avatars. A sort of icon for an entire person. As i've mentioned more then once in this blog entry, i have a great fascination with digital representation. Masaki Fujihata's work takes place in a virtual environment. users are assigned an object that becomes their avatar. The users face is mapped on from a video taken at the booth they're situated in. they can control said avatar via a trackball. The works purpose seems to work as almost a reminder of what virtual space is. virtual worlds bring about alot of inspiration and questions to mind. questions such as; "how do we choose to represent ourselves if the possibilities are endless?"(SNs, icon, avatars, colors, patches on bags) "how do we act in an environment that we 'exsist' in but are virtual?" and finally "how do we interact with others in a virtual space knowing others are also avatars living in a virtual world?".

Tell me about your self.

1) Title of recent book your read, why you chose it.
I havnt read much recently, which I don’t like to admit. The last book that I read was “Five People You Meet in Heaven,” by Mitch Albom. I found the book to be remarkable due to the complete sense of this one persons life with in the span of 250 pages. The book reminds one that everyones life has a reason and point. My reason for me initially reading it is nothing more then its popularity.
2) Recent album,(MP3 archive, I mix) you bought/downloaded, why you chose it.
Last CD I acquired is the soundtrack to a movie called Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind. [(irrelevant-‡)A truly amazing movie about the good and bad of a relationship told in a truly creative and original manor. The special effects are a marriage of trick editing, camera tricks, and CG graphics. The movie runs backwards in the main characters mind as other aspects of totally different relationships are represented outside his mind and chronologically. The chronological story line goes back wards and forwards at the same time and the stories meet at the end of the film. i‘ve never been one to watch a movie more then once or twice. I watch this movie religiously.] The score is phenomenal.
The last song I downloaded was “Its Still Rock and Roll to Me,” by Billy Joel. I recently saw a Billy Joel cover band. They mimicked the sound perfectly and it reminded me of a song I forgot he sang.
3) Top 3 media artists who interest you.
One contemporary artist that interests me is Marc Horowitz. A lot of his work concerns social interactions and art on how we may act with complete strangers. The reason this media artist interests me so much is mostly due to what he deems art. His blogsite is filled with borderline silly experiments that include commentary concepts and ideas. He is my blog hero. Marc Horowitz inspires me to document anything I find remotely interesting. A lot of what he’s documented has inspired a lot of my own thought which is a lot like what I hope to stumble upon inspiring in others.
Two other artists that inspire me are Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris(phrased as one b/c of their frequent colaberations ) and Genndy Tartakovsky. Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris were directors for music videos that’ve inspired me such as Korn’s “Freak on a Leash”, Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight, Tonight,” Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Otherside,” and Offspring’s “She’s Got Issues.” Each video has a sharp combination of animation and live action. All of which have had a profound effect on what I deem to be interesting visually. Speaking of which I also greatly respect Genndy Tartakovsky who has created the TV shows Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. The visuals in both astound me in the way that they are super simplistic and still manage to convey quick a bit of action and depth. I’ve always been a strong believer that simplicity can hold a great range of complexity, Tartakovsky being a perfect example.
4) How familiar are you with Macintosh computers
My dad used to have to old Mac. The one where the screen is black w/ green text. I printed out large printshop/dot matrix printer banne…which is all just trivial. My dad switched to Windows. Ive used macs on a regular basis since I graduated high school. Before then I used a bit of photoshop and illustrator. I know minimal OS9 and im pretty proficient in OSX(like most). I plan to teach myself applescripts in the near future. I see a lot of potential in it.

Respond to these terms, use full sentences and be descriptive. Do not define the term.

1) Simulation: my personal definition of simulation is becoming rather vague. Concepts of telepresents and the digital world we live in has effected my opinion on what I consider a simulation and what I consider reality. Reality to me is now defined by the limitations of the human body. If all my senses can be fooled, what can I know to be real. I need to clean myself and excrete waste. I get hungry, tired, horney, and find loading bars a wonderful time out for breathing.
“The world of the mind is just as real and follows just as rigorous rules as the world of the external reality.” – Michael Crichton, Sphere
2) Postmodernism: Postmodernism is an exciting stage of the evolution of art that’s more relevant to our time period. Postmodernism allows the concept of using computers as art as well as many other mediums that might not’ve been initially conceived as tools for artist. It is type of art that leads to the art of the near future which I want greatly to be a part of.
3) Symbolism: something simplistic that can help represent something complex. My digital photos of me represents whole moments in my life.
4) Propaganda: Propaganda is used to force personal ideas and concepts into someone else’s mind. Art I do may be considered propaganda. A lot of it might be rather clear but after viewing or participating in a work of my own I want my audience to walk away with a belief or understanding that was my own. You can say that I use my art to instill ideas in others. I want someone to look at something common and after seeing my art think of that thing in a new light. Is art propaganda? Is that personal or specific to the piece?
5) Franchise: a limb of government or corporate America that allows them to touch if not then pick up an individual. Example being the corporation of Apple may not effect me much but their franchise does. The Mac I use and the stores I interact with and spend my credit in.
6) Truth: Truth is what an individual knows to be fact. When confirmed and undisputed by others truth becomes fact. “I believe something to be true.” That phrase expresses opinion, truth with in ones self. “everyone finds that to be true.” That phrase turned truth into fact. (god that was tricky to word)