Digital Chaos

Exhibition Title:

Digital Chaos

Artists:

JODI

Cory Arcangel

Each artist was found in the Digital Art textbook. The theme of video games is something that interested us, and the way that these artists have taken video games and changed them into something else is most interesting. We explored the projects of each artist, and found that they both sought to strip away what we saw as the foremost elements of the games themselves (and in JODI’s case, software and operating systems), to bring out the background, and exploit the bugs and glitches underneath.

JODI: http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org

Cory Arcangel: http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/ (Portfolio is not yet available.)

Poem Visualization Concept

For my book project, I chose the poem Night Music. When I read this poem, I noticed it contained a lot of descriptive language that conjured up images in my head. The poem was also set in the past tense, and sounded as though it was telling a story. This is where I got the idea of making a photo album. Originally, I decided to make it a hard cover novel, but I abandoned that idea quickly.

I read the poem over and divided it into 8 sections. Each section painted its own picture, and I decided to put each picture on a Polaroid, since I’ve always like the Polaroid format for some reason. Using Google Images, I looked for stock pictures that I felt would work as a foundation for creating an image to describe each section of the poem I took.

I used several techniques in Photoshop, including blur filters, light overlays, blending images together (like on the last photo especially). I found black Illustration board in my room after trying to think of what to use for the pages for over a week, and decided to go with it. The cover was made in Illustrator (the image was edited in Photoshop) and the text on everything was first applied in Photoshop, then all the pictures were placed in Illustrator so that it would come out cleanly and so that all would print on the same page and save credits and paper. I then pasted all the images down on their respective pages with rubber cement. The resulting book was a 6”x6” book of 8 pages and 2 cover pieces. I couldn’t find something sharp enough to punch the holes so I could put wire in and bind it, so it isn’t bound at the moment.

Triptych Part III

Triptych Part II

DISTORT

Font: Eurostile LT Std Bold

Triptych Idea

For my triptych, I wanted to create three panels that showed things that interest me. All the panels would have a similar design method, being compiled out of different pictures from stock photos and photos I found using Google Image Search, along with various effects applied in Photoshop, to create scenes. Music is the first panel, and it has one of my favorite bands on the television, a number of amplifiers, a guitar similar to the one I own, and a british flag representing my love for British rock music. This all eclipses a scene in the background which is a photograph of a MUSE concert. The words all over the picture are all choruses from my favorite songs.

The second panel will be a sort of adventure/fantasy scene set on the water. The picture places the viewer inside an old, run-down ship, missing many of its windows, and the viewer is peering out at a scene unfolding in the distance before the sunset. Two armadas converge for a battle. I love the water, so this touches on that, and also touches on my interest in both video games and movies that involve a sort of adventurous plot.

The third panel is about text and loud color. I love text. Ever since I first got Photoshop 7 the year it came out, I’ve loved making banners and signature pictures for forums and making logos and such, and an important element of all of these is text. I often see others’ works on forums, and the first thing I notice is whether the text works or not. So many times have I seen a decent picture ruined by poorly placed and/or ugly text. People use generic fonts and basic and kitschy effects like glow and bevel. It’s just something I’m particular about. Recently I’ve become more interested in color than I used to be. I used to work generally in monochrome or two-toned color schemes, but now I’ve expanded to all kinds of colors. I decided to use loud colors in this panel to demonstrate my embracing of colors I once avoided.

Triptych Part I