Final Project

To view my final project please visit:

http://bananamanandthegorilla.blogspot.com/

Final Project

The Chronicles of Banana Man and The Gorilla:
The First Four Episodes

**Please be patient these flash files may take a second to load**

Please: Play this audio file while scrolling through the comics. I know it is not my own and is a movie, but it is funny and adds to the comics in my mind.

Comic 1: Banana Split?- Who wants a Sunday

Comic 2: Store Run-Ironic No

Comic 3: Popin' That Cherry-The Lonely Gorilla

Comic 4: Walking the Cheetah- Gorilla Funny

This whole semester I have been looking into the creative and goofy side of art. This project uses two full sized Banana and Gorilla costumes with both Photoshop editing, Flash Animating, and Music Splicing to create my final project. It is a series of comics and all you have to do it click, read, and enjoy. Hours and Hours of work went into this project and I really like they way the funny one liners are delivered in the end. I hope you all enjoy.

Drew

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Final Writing Assignment

Banksy

Ken Tin-Kin Hung

The Yes Men

If there is one thing I have learned from digital media, I have learned that no one artist can change the world, but every artist can contribute to it. Margot Lovejoy in her text Digital Currents says, “There are real risks in using technology for making art…(but), with increasing access to the Internet, artists are able to create “homepages”…opening higher levels of communication and perception in the arts (Lovejoy, 282).” I decided to look at three artists, all of which share a similar transmission medium, the internet, to share a message. But, each artist has chosen their own original medium to share a very similar political message. I choose to look at The Yes Men, Banksy, and Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung. All of these artists have a incredibly viral and unique approach to spreading their social/political message. The Yes Men who infiltrate corporations and use their own presentations to mock the current corporate climate, Banksy who uses gorilla graffiti tactics to portrait his view on society, and Ken Tin-Kin who uses viral media and POP art with his computer skills to create political animations and artwork animating his political views of protest. They contribute to the counter culture in their own form of retaliation against the conformity of man to politics and society in the 21st century. Their medium may be different, but all of these artists depend upon one critical source, the Internet, to get their message, their views, and their art out on the public stage. All of these men are not out to make a profit or sell their work. They are self-motivated and unique artists, ready to speak out, expose, and protest the downfalls of the society we live in and take for granted.




The Yes Men are a group of individuals who expose the corporate world by setting up fake websites for large corporate giants, and use their contacts to infiltrate corporations. The Yes Men say in their identity correction piece, “when trying to understand how a machine works, it helps to expose its guts.” Their work is a multi-level performance piece. A combination of website development, blog posts, corporate and media presentations all of which conclude in a series of full length videos exposing the true identities of corporate America, an showing as they call it an “Identity Correction”. How corporations should act to be more ethically responsible for their mistakes and skeletons. I choose to look at their Acceptable Risk™ Launch, April 28 piece seen below. This piece was presented on April 28th, 2005 at the International Payments 2005 conference in London, while acting as Dow’s VP for Acceptable Risk. They were invited to this conference in response to their fake Dow website www.dowethics.com.

Acceptable Risk Presentation:



Link to the Yes Men's Project: To view the Acceptable Risk full blog and presentation summary.

Click Here to View the Yes Men's Home Page

When looking at this specific presentation and blog piece you notice the unique perspective taken by these men. This piece is a giant performance satire used to mimic the ill-informed masses of corporate America. While watching this clip you notice a very formal and well spoken and presented piece, explaining how corporations can change the perceptions of society to see risk as acceptable according to their “Acceptable Risk Calculator”. However, when we take a step deeper to look at the actual piece we notice it is plagued with ironic icons, such as cartoon comics as PowerPoint slides and a funny gilded human size skeleton. Icons depicting how corporations hide of cover their skeletons with gold. A counter-culture presentation piece used to infiltrate the society we live in and by to show the dirty and emotionless nature of business, yet in a very funny and humorous manner. From the Power-Point images, to the hidden loaded words in the presentation, to the golden skeleton, this piece encompasses so many minute details, which at the time may not seem relevant, but afterwards in collaboration prove such a big counter-social point. Personally, I find this piece a fantastic satire of the system. It not only has a very prudent message against corporate ethics and ideals, but gives us, the public audience, access to the reality of the system, and their message about corporate America and how, “profit is the reason we (corporations) do everything that we do.” The Yes Men in their Acceptable Risk™ Launch are creative, dedicated, and effective in conveying their message and ideals.



The artist known as Banksy is one of the most well-known, yet hidden, graffiti artists of the 21st century. His politically motivate satirical stenciled graffiti work is viral in nature. His work exposes, in public setting, what everyone thinks and no one says about the world. His work is presented in both outside and inside graffiti works poking fun at the cops, at British Legislators, tourists, and many more.

Here is an example of his outside work:


He shows us the true faces of society, how corrupt, how blind and how naïve we are as a society to our own actions and lifestyles. I choose to look at Banksy’s piece Monkey Parliament created in 2009, one of his inside creations. Banksy keeps his identity a secret in his attempt to stay unrecognized and a man of the public. Not a famous artist and because his outside line of work is not exactly legal.

Link to Bankys Site: To view his home page and links to his artwork.

Monkey Parliament: Click here to view a larger Monkey Parliament image




His piece Monkey Business, a canvas/poster paint piece, comes off first as a simple satire of the government. This piece is pointing a finger at British politics in an artistic slander of Parliament. The humor of the piece makes the audience laugh and find humor in the art. Banksy, by creating a surreal environment plays with the audience’s perception in a very realistic environment and realistic art. After looking at the piece and its realism you begin to visualize that apes really could be sitting in Parliament, arguing about political nothingness. The realism of the art helps the political message to jump through humor of the piece and make the audience really think. Not only is this image full of arguing ape, but who really are our world leaders? What kind of men and women really run the governments and societies we live in? It is not just the nature of piece, but the realism, the attention to detail, and the style that make this artwork different and fantastic.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung is a digital graphic artist who creates very controversial yet politically motivated pieces concentrated around current political actions. His art is another viral media form, to be freely distributed, as a form of political protest. His whole mentality is explained by “Create, Don’t Consume”. He calls all artists in to participate and be the artists, the culture, the change we want to see in America. His POP art is extremely bold and has a call to action not seen by most digital media artists. I choose to look into Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s compellation called Artivist Popaganda politically motivated graphic pieces he created through the years. These are open source graphics in which asks us to not only download, but also distribute in protest of the Iraq War and Bushanomics. These graphics also come in coordination with his arrest for civil disobedience while protesting the Iraq War in San Francisco.

Artivist Popaganda: Click Here to view his full compilation

Click on the "No Bush" Image Below to see the animation loop

Link to Ken Tin-Kin Hung's Site: To view his home site.

His animation and digital POP compellation is a politically raging piece in direct protest of both the Bush presidency, but also the whole happening of the Iraq War. This compellation is violent in nature and uses chaos as a tool to convey its message and tone. A violent protest of the US regime is the first image used to gain the viewers attention. Once the eye gets use to the over bearing images, the viewer starts to notice the complexity and detailed used in these images and animations. The use of widely recognizable images captures the audience, bringing political actions into question. When you conceptualize the whole piece you realize the chaos, the bright red colors, and visually stimulating images draw the political tone wanted by Tin-Kin. He wants the viewer to realize this is a protest to chaos of the system and how unneeded it is. The creative and artistic nature of the collection clearly presents the tone of protest and shows the emotions felt by those who oppose the war and violence. The creative yet chaotic protest piece does a great job of creating the tone Tin-Kin wants us to experience, a wild, but extremely stimulating piece that pulls emotions of love and hate towards the Iraq War and the Bush administration.

Each of these artists has a unique approach to protest. Each artist is looking to catch the attention of the viewer and make him or her think and critically analyze their perception of the society they take for granted. People are naïve in nature and would rather live with blinders on than think. To understand each of these artists and their styles you must understand their medium, their message, and their style of presentation. The three artists and pieces use very different mediums to create their art. The Yes Men use falsified presentations and convey their message and experiences through video, Banksy uses an older gorilla graffiti tactics to spread his message, and Tin-Kin uses his Photoshop skills to portrait their own takes on the world. Of the three they are hard to compare on a base level. The Yes Men have great presentation skills and objectify corporations to harassment. Their use of props, internet sites, PowerPoint’s and movies are phenomenal challenges to the corporate world. Banksy with his hidden identity and use of both guerilla graffiti tactics and canvas works objectify society and the government to scrutiny. His piece uses such realism of images to play with the inner consciousness of what the viewer knows society and government to be. Tin-Kin, the only true digital media artist, uses his digital media skills to violently protest the Bush administration and the Iraq War, creating a chaos that enthralls the viewer to questions their own political stance, but despite contrasting styles we see a similarity and eventual similar digital media used to expose all of these different artists’ works.

These three artists have such contradicting styles. None of them play with the same media, yet the Internet brings all of the artists to the same spot. What is art if it is never experienced by anyone else? The medium for presentation is very important in the case of political or social activism. Artist want their art and their message delivered to the whole world, and what better way than the largest growing public open source ever experienced, the Internet. All of these artists have chosen the Internet as the most responsive way to share their message and artwork. They each have a political message, but use very different means to create an end result. Artists bring their own different media to life. Internet brings each piece to a new level of involvement and meaning. The Yes Men would be non-existent if they could not share their stories, their videos, or their pranks with the world. They would have no affect on corporate societies. Banksy is a great artists who creates very stimulating pieces like Monkey Parliament that question political standings, but, without the availability to post this work on the internet and allow other artists and the public to view his piece. Only a few thousand could or would ever see his talent. Tin-Kin’s work is so political and protests the political order of the U.S., but, without the internet he would probably never gain gallery space and his art and political activism would never be experienced. The open and free sources and availability of anyone to land upon their art, their views, and their messages portrait in each piece are what brings these three different artists together and allow them to spread their creativity and help us to question the society we have become so complacent in.

The art world is changing and no longer are gallery spaces the best medium to view art. Digital media has so many different areas be it gaming, animation, machinama, video, or photography, the art world is changing and all different styles of artist have found new light in the Internet. Each artist discussed in their own styles makes us question our sociopolitical viewpoints. Be it a mockery of politics like Banksy’s Monkey Parliament, or a questioning of corporate America by the Acceptable Risk presentation by the Yes Men, or the direct political protests through Tin-Kin’s Artivist Popaganda artists of different mediums are allowed to spread their messages on a even playing field of creativity. Digital Media is risky and difficult, but the availability of the Internet has allowed artists like these men to create a homepage and online identity, bigger than their old mediums. Art is changing and the art world is growing in new ways and these three pieces show great creativity, skill, and talent. It is not the pure essence or context of each piece in its original format, but the allowance of these mediums to be posted on a context as big as the internet that make each artist and each piece to really speak their intended creative message.

Work Cited:

Lovejoy, Margot, and Margot Lovejoy. Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

All images are taken directly from website links directly above each image.

Drew

Lucy Raven- Animation Exhibit

Lucy Ravens: China Town Animation

After attending Lucy Ravens lecture on her history and her animation displayed in the Nevada Museum of art, I went and watched her animation play. Having just gone to her lecture and having seen the entire behind the scenes photography and work put into the piece, I had a predetermined bias coming into it. I felt with all of the work put into the piece and all of the time spent traveling and the emotions put into the animation that it was going to be phenomenal, a recreation of the process of one of our most vital resources in the electronic age, copper wire.

As I walked into her gallery space at the Nevada Museum of Art, I went straight to the viewing area. The viewing area is a few modern benches sitting in a screened off room, with white and red images, playing to the China Town theme. Her animation was an repeat, as is transitioned through different sequences of photographs of both her journey and the journey of the copper product as it transitions from dirt, to refined dirt, to Vancouver to be transported, then packaged on a ship and sent to China where the copper is smelted and turned to wire which then is transported to a hydroelectric plant in China. The whole time ambient noises to add to the aesthetic feel, like you are there experiencing each one of these snapshots in time. The room, the colors, the projections, the sounds all adds to how elaborate this process is. A good denotation, an essential production of a valuable resource and the transformation the copper industry has gone through.

Regrettably, the way in which the animation was put together was almost sickening, literally. The stop frame animation was a great idea to explain the process in an artsy way, without using video. Her previous hand drawn animations where fantastic as they pulled you through the emotions of the dust bowl of the 1930’s. But, the manner in which this was captured, freehand photography, without a stand and some of the time while on moving objects made me sick to my stomach. The images were often blurry and laced with jolting camera angles, it couldn’t pull the viewer in. It was hard to sit through more than five or ten minutes of the twenty seven minute piece without feeling ill. The greatest part about the whole viewing process was getting to see the pictures of the grand size of the operations it takes to make such a seemingly simple wire. This left me wanting more, simply because she had put so much work into capturing this process.

At that time I stood up to walk around the gallery space to look at the other photographs and notes and other object she included to explain the history and the magnitude of this project. That was when it clicked in my head. This piece did not have as much to do with the artistic visualization or creation of the copper process as much as it has a message and a meaning behind it. A message to me showing how much we take for granted our society where everything is provided to us, but what really happens, what waste is really created, what companies are really doing to get that wire in my hands. This animation was not about the artsy photography and it didn’t matter that it was hard to watch. It was the magnitude, the whole process and explanation of the copper process that was the art. To get something small one must understand the steps it takes to simply get that one object, and that is why I respect and enjoyed her art.

Questions: I want to know why did you choose to sequence and scroll through the pictures so fast, why not do more of a slideshow with the ambient noises to make it easier to view from the audience’s perspective? Out of the 65,000 different pictures you took, why did you only choose 7000 and what made those 7000 pictures make the cut, and to continue now that it is done would you have changed your images and if yes, why?

Lucy Ravens- Lecture

Lucy Ravens: China Town Lecture

Lucy Ravens had a unique idea and a determined attitude to create a stop animation piece that goes beyond just art. Ravens in lecture explained the process, the time it took, her luck, and the determination it took to make this art/ environmental project work. Her trials and tribulations in finishing this project sing praises of her fortitude and commitment to the project. The idea and eventual finished product of stop frame animation with ambient noises plays with the perception of the piece.

Lucy began her lecture by outlining her history in the art world along with a short example of her past political pieces depicting the hardships of the dust bowl in the 1930’s depression. Her work at first seems simple, yet explanatory. The simplicity of the animation draws the viewer’s attention in at the hardships of the time. The quiet of the room and the buildup of the piece show you the artistic talent and time Raven’s take in creating a piece, for more than art, but to explain a hardship in America’s past.

Her style of art went through a major evolution when she transitioned from art stop frame animation, to shutter speed digital photographic animation. Her artistic eye did help her in explaining the story and evolution of the copper process. But, it was not about her photographic skill or about the capturing of one artistic photograph; the art was the journey, the art explaining the evolutionary circle of the copper process. It is hard for someone to understand the magnitude and the time it took to make this animation, and that time she spent traveling and uncovering the whole history is intriguing.

To understand her animation and understand the process, one must understand her journey. She had to wait most places up to thirty days just to take a few hours of photography. She had to convince the mines and the factories she was not an environmentalist, so she could get in. She had to travel to multiple factories and facilities just to understand the transition from the old copper mining industry to today’s. She showed us the Colorado mine that is trying to create a livable area out of the copper mining waste depository. She showed us the ghost towns resulting from the boom and bust of the copper industry. She showed us pictures of the last standing American smelting facility. The behind the screens photography and stories, that one could never understand without first had experience. Without the understanding of the process, without the knowledge of the amount of work she had to do, or where the inspiration came from. The viewer never really understands this artwork.

To make a piece of this magnitude, she recorded over 65,000 photos and put in hours of editing and processing to create a final artwork. But, her lecture was less about the data and more about the adventure and thought that went into this animation, and I believe this is where we find the true hart of this artist, Lucy Ravens. The art work is beautiful, and tells a story through carefully taken photographs and audio recording. However, one must understand that it is not the actual process not the actual photo sequences, but the idea behind the work and determination it took to make this animation. Chinese labor was the foundation and beginning of the copper industry in the United States, and now we (Nevada) provide the raw materials for the industrialization of China itself. Her art showing the manufacturing of copper from earth to light bulb, the real meaning behind the piece and why it is called China Town. Her lecture was not to explain the piece as much as it explained the journey and how that created her piece of art.

Questions: Why did you want to use stop frame animation so much, was it your history with hand drawn stop frame animation that drew you to it or some other factor? In your journeys and all of the time spent fighting people to see the processes you wanted to see and going behind the scene, according to you what environmental changes need to be made to make this process easier on the worlds environment ?

Eddo Stern Lecture

Eddo Stern

I enjoyed Eddo Sterns view on the world of art and digital gaming. He was quite hard to follow as a lecturer and seemed timid about his work, but had an overall sense of art in the gaming world we do not see often. His view/perception of the gaming world and of art is not the way a normal human would envision gaming. He is outside the box and it seems like a step ahead of the rest of the gaming world. I was confused in the beginning where his mind was going in the world of art, but it became clear later. He has a different perspective of gaming technology and gaming art than most people. His use of computer mod’s, World of Warcraft art and technology in gaming is fantastic, but a little outside the box for most art connoisseurs.

The computer case mod’s intrigued me the least, I had never envisioned a computer gaming system or computer as art, or that the art of the computer mod could then correlate to the game it was running and then actually playing. It was no great AI experiment; simply code telling a computer how to act like a robot, but it was art and it did have a meaning. However, I simply did not like the majority of the programs being run. The dragons taking off of an aircraft carrier was cute, but had no depth to it. The sculpture was fantastic and creative, but the dragons taking off and flying around the screen was too much of a shock to really enjoy the piece. The best computer mod he did was his first one of the castle where his character in the game ran around gathering information and talking like a robot out in the real internet gaming world, that with a mod like the air craft carrier would have been phenomenal.

The WoW time in Mr. Stern’s life seemed to have a great effect on his life. The shadow art and two ton virtual tunnel that came out of his year and a half of WoW was interesting. The virtual tunnel is one of a kind. A collection of codes and programming put into one to be presented and view both in and outside a gallery space, breaches the formal art environment. It is a connection of how technology is art and how much progression has been made from the days of painting to photography to digital media to and artwork bigger than one man. It is the conceptualization of pulling in internet resources and years of gathering information, and long with actual sculpture art, to be put together and realized as art. He should see that as a revolution and advancement in his field.

Lastly, and probably his most impressive work is that of his video gaming work. To incorporate political activism, visual gaming, code writing, creation of audio and sensory feelers all into one game, is not only erratic, but simply crazy. He is making the game of the future. It is the WII, but a strategy game to be played by all people blind, deaf, and so much more. I do not see the art side of the project as much as the emotion and creativity he has for the game. I think he is light-years beyond actual gamming, but with the right graphics, a good price and changing of the mind frame of gamers everywhere, his sensory game could work, and could be the future, even if he doesn’t intend for it to be. From his lecture I learned that an individual, torn by passions for art and video gaming can come together to make some unique and very futuristic art projects that are obscure but fantastic.

Question: Out of the year and a half you spent playing WoW along with your art background, how well do gamers conceptualize and relish in more than the game, but the art that is in games? You have a funny view on putting politics and real world event into games, do you think games need that extra edge today to pull in the high educated and more able gamers of the future?

My Final Project

My proposition for my final project is the life comic strip I will call: The Chronicles of Banana Man and The Gorilla. It will be the story line of the complications a human banana and a gorilla would have if they were best friends. I am going to also animate this project to add a little extra difficulty and make it more of a story board. I think it will come out great especially because of the awesome banana and gorilla costumes I have.
-Drew out

Second Life

Here is a visual representation of me in second life. I had to do it away from the lab, but here is my best shot.

The Fight Against Myself

This Is a representation of my life and the continuous fight I have every day against myself along with my goofy demeanor.

Enjoy

Movie Links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlMYoRW6ygc
Link to youtube

Photoshop Movie

This is a photoshop movie of my If a monkey ran the ski world.




I enjoyed this project because it gave me the availability to make a crazy picture come to life. This movie animated what happens in a gorillas mind who has been stuck in the mountains for too long.

I had a hard time trying to find the right format, 1280-720, but i tried publishing it in two different ways.

Hope you enjoy,




Drew

Assignment #1 Triptych

What if a Gorilla on acid ran the ski world?

This montage is a combination of skiing; stickers, photo's, clothes, thoughts,magazines, newspapers, and other files depicting what the world would look like and what thoughts a monkey would have if he happened to be on heavy drugs. It is a depiction of the new age jib/ steez ski world coming in contact complete chaos run by a gorilla.

The ski world has changed from being a sport for the old and the rich. Kids in the park are filled with bright colors, gangsta attitudes, and expression. This montage is inspired by thoughts I have while skiing in the park come to life.

Triptych by Andrew Herr