Two Part Blog Posting

Key Concepts for this week:
Video: CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics

• Human aesthetics and perceptions have evolved over time
• Perceptions can be altered based off of cultural or emotional factors
• Different parts of the brain are making connections constantly while in the process of making it, that there is more than simply seeing and redistributing information

Article: CNN- What the Brain Draws From: Art and neuroscience

• How the brain processes different functions of art such as light and contrast
• Ways in which artists stimulate a viewers brain
• The brain naturally has picked up certain visual cues over the ages

What do you think about Changeux and Ramachandran’s scientific view of aesthetics and art? What was the most interesting fact you discovered from each speakers lecture?
I loved Ramachandran’s talk the most as he looks at the laws of aesthetics as a way to unravel the possibility of there being a science behind the arts. It built upon Changeux’s lecture that aesthetics are a by-product of evolution. But Ramachandran’s ideas dabbles beyond the human aesthetic and looks at other species such as butterflies that evolved in their aesthetic. One fact that I found to be the most interesting was that “...there are thirty visual areas in the human brain that are concerned primarily with visual processing...” It reinforces that there is more to making artwork than simply seeing an image and copying it. Evolution enables us to perceive, distort, and reconstruct ideas into making new artwork.

Interesting Fact:
Changeux’s talk was insightful as he took a strong stance about how our aesthetic choices are a by product of evolution. I never thought about there being art before cave paintings. So I found it fascinating that humans started making tools 2.5 million years ago, and took so long to evolve to where humans developed the ability to make cave paintings (demonstrate artistic composition) only 100,000 years ago.

Relating it all back to visual culture:
They all speak about how aesthetics are natural within our society. We as humans overtime have gained this knowledge and built up what we find to be visually appealing. Never did I realize this potentially came from an evolutionary standpoint. We all process information different and there are different ways we process things based off of light and contrast.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART2:
Most interesting discovery made while watching the video:
That some of the most early forms of art discovered are of women. I thought it was cave animals.

What do you think of Vilayanur's Ramachandran's theory with the chicks?
Weird thing with beaks and that color being more attractive being a natural evolution becoming a desired thing.

Connections between images of females today as opposed to modern day portrayals?
The main difference is that in the past we looked to fertilityand being naturally more curvy as the desired look. This having to do with a bigger women was most likely a more well off and wealthy women being from a better background they could eat more and this was then desired for looking more natural and having better fertility. The modern day look is to over exadurate certain features without notice whether that be a more curvy woman to be seen as more curvy without notice as well as a skinny girl editing to make her look more skinny for the desired look of the company. Deliberate over exaggeration of the past versus modern hidden exaduration.

In Design Videos

Interesting fact from each video:
1. I thought all of this stuff about designing logos on placing them on multiple projects in a professional way was done on photoshop not indesign.
2. In design opens the same way illustrator does.
3. REMEMBER FILL WITH PLACE HOLDER TEXT. If you want the image to be click and dragged you can redefine the size of the frame.
4. Editing Text in In design: based on the amount of text you click selects more and more text for you rather than having to click and drag.
5. When choosing character styles go to type and then character styles
6. "If you import styles into linked content, new styles are added to the In Design document when the content is updated, and any style with a name conflict is overridden by the InDesign style with the same name."

Drawn Illustrator Self Portrait

Image of inspiration #1
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/obey-shepard-fairey-obama-portrait-obey-shepard-fairey/RwERadz8ZnfhGw?hl=en
I was fascinated by the way the artist had defined shapes for shading, light, and color.

Image of Inspiration #2
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/henri-matisse/m0gct_?hl=en
I wanted to look to matisse and his collage work to make my elongated shapes.

This project ended up being very much figure out by accident due to one of the main idea that I had lead me to making a mistake in the essentials area, leading to the image that you now See

3
How. I went about the image
Pasted image: Changed RGB color to be
Ussing essentials tool I changed up the colors and realigned where the actors made making the crazy image you see before you
Selecting tool to elect the whole piece
Using the gradient tool to create color
Grouped and ungrouped shapes to move pieces around.


I ENJOYED THESE TWO PROJECTS!!!!! I felt that typography one was very tedious! However, it helped me so much with making the painting self portrait to make shaded and colored geometric shapes.

Marc Prensky

1. What do you think of the term: Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants?

I find this silly, the immigrant shouldn't be ther term to distinguish between before computer and after computers in 1980.. you are just old and technology was still around just more simple so I find this just dumb as we soon will be the lesser technology...

2. Where do you fit in?

I'm born after 1980 and therefore a digital native.

3. In regards to the Digital Divide, how do you see it impacting education?

It's not really a big deal since the divide will always be there it's just if you are willing to look it up and learn it. Also, many teachers before this time are now retiring so it shouldn't be an issue. 

4. What are the most interesting concepts Prensky presents? Why?

a) I'm baffled by digital natives vs digital immigrants... its an interesting concept because he just added a fancy term that just confuses people.....

b) 

c)

5. Is there anything Prensky presents that you are skeptical about? What is it and why do you think so?

6. Do you think technology is important in an art classroom? Why or Why not?

7. How do you imagine you will (or will not)  incorporate technology in your classroom? 

Kevin Tavin Video

1) Three things of interest. Why were they interesting to you
a)"Visual culture: Suggests a cultural condition where human experience is profoundly affected one way or another by new technology, for looking, and various practices of seeing, showing, and picturing." I enjoyed his definition of visual culture and wanted to make note of it.
b) "Visual culture revolves around everyday life, and the relationships we have with screens and our own identity." I liked his analogy and understanding of visual culture and our relationships with our screens. Think about it, can you really go anywhere without a screen in your face?
c) "Learning perspective as a foundation for art." Why do we have people sitting outside in the hallway, or why does one student say" Because my teacher told me to." versus. "My teacher told us to so that we could better understand how to draw." Thinking about the importance of explaining the importance of each step taken within an art classroom is imperative for them to understand and grow rather reject and say "I did it because my teacher told me to."
2)Discuss the role of an art educator in regards to visual culture. is it important why or why not
As an art educator, it is possible to not be a teacher of everything. We are scientists, the hitorians, the English teachers, the math teachers, and the artists. It is so important for us to teach other subjects and in-turn visual culture. We cannot teach without the context of history and the knowledge and practices that come to form other subjects. As we have so many images thrown at us on a daily basis it is important to realize we have to be an educator of all subjects and to teach kids to approach ar through other forms of media and subjects in order to come to a better understanding about what artwork can be.

3) what did you take away from this lecture and how can you apply it to your classroom as an art educator
I found when he was talking about the half and half painting to be fascinating. His perspective on how media culture and artists have this invisible divide that could be easily crossed yet there is always this push-pull on both topics meeting. I hope to do further research on incorporating modern media technologies into my classroom other than for research purposes. (As that is already the common way to incorporate technology into the classroom). Maybe being inspired by artists who use sound to make work or videos would be the next way to go!

Adobe Illustrator Videos

#1 That there is a difference Between Vector Images-resolution and paths defined mathematically and Raster Images-fixed resolution.

#2 No video but it was nice to learn that there were so many options for page sizes that are meant to automatically fit commonly used sizes such as letter paper versus a youtube background.

#3 Art boards is convenient for understanding and having multiple images up at one time.

#4 I found it interesting how they were able to cut a piece out of the circle without distorting the image.

#5 You can have so much fun casually drawing. Just clicking and dragging.

#6 I found it cool how you can edit the black outline around an image.

#7 Found it interesting how you could put words around a vector line that is already created.

#8 Free transform Toolis interesting have perspective angle changed! I love that!

#9 You can create fun and original filters and opacity between your image and shapes.

#10 This one seemed confusing... but it was interesting that you could create a complete compositional piece using various buttons and components.
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/viewing-artwork.html?set=illustrator--fundamentals--illustrator-workspace

#11 I couldn't find the layer section so that was the most important thing for me as it was a struggle to not have it.

Week 2: Digital Images

Part 1
1. You see digital images on the advertisements you pass by, the fliers detailing when the next club event, anything visual that has been printed has most lily gone throughs one form of digital editing and therefore is a digital image.

2. It's a place where you can easily create images that use common everyday images and combine them into something new that can be used for entertainment.

3. Digital imaging gives me an outlet to make the fantasy real and make the comical possible visually.

4. I believe that artists have always had artistic licensing when capturing the world around them. You are aware that a painter is potentially romanticizing the women in the image, as there is no photograph for us to know if it's accurate. However in modern society digital imagery and modern photoshop aesthetics alter your version of reality. How are you to know what is and isn't recolored and retouched? The fact is we don't, and in doings creates a false sense of reality, and creating visual social standards that are not achieved without great strife.

5. Its comical and not surprising seeing how photos have been edited throughout the ages. From subtle things that one wouldn't notice such as color changes, or blatantly putting another famous persons head on another persons body shamelessly.

6. The one that stood out the most was the Huffpost altering the photo to show Mubarak in front of Obama. This was a subtle yet powerful difference hat we are at a point in society where we cannot trust the very evidence that proves our history existence. That we have to factcheck the very images that gives us proof that an event accused could be altered. 100's of years to come if a photo was found out to be altered that was mass produced into history books, we are subtly creating a false history for future generations.