Xerox Project

This is my xerox project titled Hangman (Pieces of Me).  It was inspired by the Billie Holiday song Strange Fruit and the performance art piece with the same title with the man suspended in a tree.  It was made with paper mache wrapped around balloons.  I tried different types of paste starting with flour and water which worked but was very messy.  After making a mess with that paste, I switched to a mixture of Elmer's glue and water which worked much better and wasn't as messy. 

Grid Art

This is my self-portrait grid art project made from 10,836 hole punches.  The size is 24"x36".

Dada Mainfesto

The Dada Manifesto is a great representation of Dada because it is five pages about nothing.  Dada is nothing!  The manifesto is nothing!  As soon as it starts to make a little sense, it makes no sense.  The manifesto reads like it was written by a mentally disturbed person.  Some sentences are complete but some have many random words inserted which make no sense.  There were a few words that stood out.  The manifesto mentioned excrement, chicken manure and diarrhea.  Those words were appropriate because this was literally a piece of shit.

Persuasive Games

I like the idea of using games for education and corporate learning.  I hate the idea of using them for anything related to politics or advertising.  As an education tool, I would play a game but would not even consider playing if I knew it was advertising or politics.  This site had some games that I would consider playing.  I like the ideas behind the games Planet in Peril: Animal Rescue and Windfall - Wind Farms.  Unfortunately, Animal Rescue was no longer available to play and I lost interest in Windfall after about a minute of playing it.  I wanted to try Colorfall but the link did not work and I could not find it in the App Store.  Persuasive Games really needs to update their website to fix the broken links and delete the games no longer available.  It is a great idea but I am not impressed with their website.  I would not visit it again.

Video Game Revolution

This video provided an interesting and very informative history of video games.  It was fascinating to see how video games have evolved from one blip moving on a screen to games like Grand Theft Auto in a short period of time.  I have only been a fan of video games a couple times in my life.  I have been addicted to Galaga and Super Mario Brothers which really shows my age.  The technology is interesting but I try to avoid them because they can become too time consuming.   

The guy at the end of the video was correct when he said the next big thing is total immersion into the game.  That is happening today with devices like the Oculus Rift.  I read a news story this week that the Oculus Rift was a big hit at SXSW in Austin.  The story said people waited for many hours for a chance to try the Oculus Rift.  Even though I'm not a gamer, this is a device I would love to experience.

Triumph of the Nerds

There were two great quotes in these videos.  The first one was by a ten-year old boy who said you can't have other people stop your dreams.  The other was when Steve Jobs said he never did it for the money and money wasn't important. Steve Jobs was a visionary and his death makes you wonder what technology the world will miss out on.  Hopefully he shared  his vision with others before he died.

This was a very informative history of the computer.  It is amazing how we rely on something on a daily basis and it all started in a garage 40+ years ago.  Something that started out as a crude device has evolved into devices we can use in the palm of our hand to do thousands of tasks.  The videos also caused me to have flashbacks because I remember using some of those IBM computers when I first joined the military.  There have been drastic changes since the Triumph of the Nerds was filmed in 1996.  The videos showed the large monitors and CPUs.  Everything keeps getting smaller and thinner.

Flip Books

The class' flip books were all very creative and well done.  Bryan had a great concept with the gladiators, Roman circus and opera.  It tied together all the things that had been discussed in class.  Gina's was nicely done, especially the fish jumping out of the water.  Leah's was very creative with the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.  Holly's dragon animation was one of my favorites.  Andrea had the best flip book in the class.  It was well-drawn and had a great story.  Katelyn did an excellent job with her guy climbing down the rope.  Kyle did a great tribute to the city of Boston.  Kirby and Spencer both had awesome animation with their skateboarders flipping. 

Mark Snyder - Electroacoustic Music & Multimedia

I enjoyed this concert with the combination of music and videos.  It isn't the type of music I normally listen to but it was very entertaining.  The music and images ranged from haunting to energetic.  Here is the set list with my thoughts about each arrangement:
1.  "Copenhagen" - The music and images were very eerie and haunting.
2.  "Butterfly" - This one was very relaxing and serene with amazing butterfly images.
3.  "Messy" -  This was one of my favorites.  He combined the music with a friend's abstract painting images. It started out slow but emerged into a climax of high-speed images flashing on the screen.  It was almost hypnotic as the images flashed faster and faster.
4.  "Harvey" - This one was somber and very sad because it was about the murder of a friend and his family.
5.  "Alluvium" - The music was very energetic and spooky.  He switched from clarinet to accordion for this arrangement. 
6.  "Qwee" - He stopped the video for "Qwee" and it was all about the music as he was joined by Becky Brown on harp.  The harp is one of my favorite instruments so I really enjoyed this song.  It was beautiful with an energetic ending.
7.  "Cancion i" - This was the finale and was also performed with no video.  He was joined again by Becky Brown on harp and Paige Naylor on vocals.  Mark played guitar for this arrangement.  This was my favorite of the show.  It had an Enya vibe and was performed beautifully. 

"Messy"

"Harvey"

"Cancion i"

Ralph and Mark

Mark Snyder - "Messy"