End of the Year

So, this sucks. Art and Technology was hands down my favorite class this semester. Even though I had to wake up at 8:30 and it was damn near impossible to get an A in the class, I loved this class more than anything.

I'm feel so blessed that I got to have Professor Steinhardt as a teacher. She's one of my life inspirations now. I know that if she can make it through college and life with all of her struggles, I can too. Even though she is more of a nerd than I will ever be, I admire her so much.

I wish she taught more classes but she already explained why she doesn't and I respect that.

When I turn 21, I fully expect a class reunion at a bar!

-Allie Woodard 

"My Professor was a big man"

"He was like Pikachu"

Video Art Project "Do What You Want"

Definitely not excited to show this in class. It was a hard video to make. I don't like thinking about things like this. But, it's whatever. Final product.

**I uploaded it late because I didn't want anyone to watch it before class.

DONE

Done my video project!!

All I have to say after this project is, when you have kids, support them!

Founder AND President?!

I'm SCREAMING from happiness!!!! New frat Delta Kappa Alpha will be happening and on its feet by Spring semester 2014! I'm so happy!!

AND I'm almost done editing my video!

AND for once my family is proud of me!

This weekend was perfection at its finest!

Annoyed Minorities

That is all.

Audio Ripping

Audacity won't work with my webcam videos and I need them to rip audio for my project.
Does anyone recommend any other type of software?

Video Portion

So, I have the video portion down (I think).
I've been fickle throughout this entire project. I like it one minute and then I hate it and want to start over. I saved all of my draft videos though so I'll ask Professor Steinhardt what I need to do different or whatever.
Now time for audio!

Project redo

Starting my project over again with the suggestion that Professor Steinhardt gave me and I'm excited to see the outcome!!

By the way, I woke up from my nap with the desire to make paint. So, Professor, let's do that!

25 points

I got 25 extra points in class by talking about Marina Abramovic!

*the picture is a slide from class. Marina has a human skeleton on her. Gross but awesome. Such a powerful woman!

LIGHTER NOTE

I'm in class and racked up 10 points talking about Marina Abramovic and how awesome she is!

Forgot to blog this on Saturday

So as I was starting to get my concept together and plan it out, I get a call from my family (again) about how "I'm ruining my life and shouldn't major in anything that has to do with art because art isn't hard, I won't get far and it is worthless."

When Professor Steinhardt gave us the question, "what do you hate?" My answer was "unsupportive families," and this is exactly why.

Is this project pissing me off? Hell fucking yes it is because all it does is make me think about how my family is filled with unsupportive assholes.

However, this project is helping me get my anger out about this. It's helping me realize that I can do whatever the fuck I want and be what I want and do great things as long as I try hard enough.

So, thank you professor for assigning this project. It's helped me.

I'm obviously not done it yet and I'm going to get my mind going again tomorrow after class. I'm still struggling with the music portion but I'll worry about that later.

Rant/Vent over.

Marina Abramovic Rhythm 0

I found this video on YouTube about Marina Abramovic's Rhythm Zero. The piece where she was basically attacked by her audience and didn't think she would be.

Project

I have to start over for music. Luckily, I didn't get that far anyway!

This project is frustrating me though because it's so personal and I don't like thinking this much about my feelings. It legitimately pisses me off when I have to think about things that make me angry because then it just fuels my anger. Whatever. I'll get through it.

I have to think of an idea that won't make me cry though and that's starting to get harder an harder.

At least I have my music.

Class Today

Started out rough but for good reason. Saw some pretty sick art. And all I can think about is that Marina Abramovic piece. I can't believe she's so nonchalant about putting her life into other people's hands.

She's such a boss. And so is that Art Foundation that took out the stairwell, ceiling and wall of art in a building!

"And you're as shallow as a puddle so hmm I wonder why..."

#ThingsMyProfessorSays

PJ told me to put it on the blog when I saw him

So here it is. What I did with my Saturday night is.......

"Peace, Love and Faith.. Peace is my word, Love is my sister’s and Faith is my mom’s. The reason we have these words is because they are all things we need to work on. I love my tattoo and it has so much meaning to me. It reminds me that no matter how bad I fight with my family, there will always be peace because they love me unconditionally. ❤"

Last Try During Class

Alright.

I have absolutely no idea why my video isn't posting. I will bring in my laptop tomorrow to class. 

For my project, I went up to random people in Vaughn's common room and pretended to have a mental disorder. I did this because I wanted to know what people's reactions would be to someone who obviously cannot control their actions. Most of the people that I came in contact with were rude and inconsiderate which makes me sad mainly because they would actually react this way to someone who was mentally disabled.

This connects to technology because there are so many cures, medicines and "attitude adjusting" pills in the world but none of them really help. They either make the person worse or not like themselves at all. Then that person feels different, rejected and aware of their problem. It's 2013 and I almost feel like science and technology has gotten nowhere when it comes to mental disabilities. 

My video isn't posting

This website hates me. It'll be up soon. I hope.

1912 Ford

Coming out of Art and Tech and we all saw this 1912 Ford. This is so awesome!

Lol PJ

Quiz

I've been stuck on this Vacuum Tube for an hour.

Finished product

Cubism inspired

Some prints

My project is based around how much I love music and art and the music and art lifestyle. My favorite print is the middle fingers because so many people have told me that I won't make it so it's a nice fuck you to the discouragers (:

DONE

That was stressful but I love the outcome. Once again, I will never use round objects for a project like this, especially not round objects with holes. I'm so glad my friends helped me paint or I would have been dying. All in all, I enjoyed the project

Background

Background is done. Just have to color in the holes. Leaving the cup for tomorrow!

Alright

It awkwardly fixed itself.. But I haven't painted yet and that's what I'm worried about.

The Bead Grid

All glued down. A little awkward in some spots. I pray to God it doesn't look that awkward after I paint it. I will never use circular objects for a project like this again.

DAMMIT

One bead. JUST ONE. Screwed up the grid. Hopefully I can fix this.

Grid Project

Ran into some difficulties but hopefully this works out. I'll upload pictures. But I'm really hoping I don't have to switch to color pencil because I really like my bead idea!

Ugh

Editing posts is annoying because they don't save in the same spot.

Sorry for the random rant.

Class today Feb. 28, 2013

We watched a video called "Triumph of The Nerds" and I'm sorry to say but that was the most boring thing I have ever watched. Usually when we watch videos, I end up appreciating things more but watching this just put me to sleep. I was literally fighting to stay awake.

I think it's cool how we even HAVE computers but I don't know, this video just annoyed me.

Playing the video game was fun though. I want to get to level 10 on all of the workers!

*saying goodbye to my social life*

Grid Picture

I decided to use this picture I took of my hot chocolate from Oxford Exchange. I love this picture so much mainly because it looks professional to me when in reality, it was taken with an iPhone and shopped on Instagram.

Any thoughts? Or if I should change the picture?

This made me think of Dr. Steinhardt.

Not sure why. It just did haha

Class today Feb. 26, 2013

I learned the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web. Also, we looked at grid pictures.

I have a new found respect for people who do grid art. I don't think I've ever seen or learned about a more difficult art concept. My mind was blown all during class.

Maybe one day I'll make a complex grid piece but I'm just trying to get through the one that's due on Tuesday.

Blogger app

Now that I have the blogger app, I can update more because I barely use my computer and that's why I didn't really update. If anyone has the same problem or laziness, just download the app (:

Hopefully it won't send out information or porn or stuff like that...

The Grid

Like I said in class, I can't walk in a straight line except this time when I was with my friends I said, "sorry, I can't walk in the grid." My friends looked at me like I had two heads. Thanks, Professor Steinhardt haha.

Flip Book

I'm guessing this worked. Making my flip book was actually way easier than I thought it would be. It took me about two hours. I've made flip books before but they were the dinky little bouncing ball flip books but for Art and Technology, I wanted to push my limits a little further.

I enjoyed how my flip book came out. It gave me a little trouble when it came to passing the ball between players but other than that, it was pretty simple.

If I could change anything, I would use different paper because as you can see, this paper doesn't flip too well. Also, I think I would do something harder. I wanted to do a duel between people but I didn't have enough room on the page to. A lot of people made their flip books on the long side of the book but unfortunately, I was pushed to the corner of the page.

I liked this assignment a lot. I thought it was one of the more fun assignments. I feel like doing a flip book is the equivalent to making a stop action video. You do it bits my bits and it makes one big creation in the end. All in all, I loved the flip book project. I would definitely change some factors but I am proud of the outcome.

A Capella Coldplay

Okay, I have to blog about this. One day in class we watched a video of a guy doing an A Capella version of Coldplay's Paradise.

By far one of the sickest things I have ever seen. When I think of A Capella, I think of someone simply singing without any music in the background and the only music is the words that they are singing. But this guy made an entire song, with background music and everything, just using his voice. I had no idea that was possible. He made a violin, piano, drums and guitar just by using his voice and recording each of them separately and bringing them all together in the end. This video was amazing. Even the editing that he did so that there were 20 of him in the video amazed me. This video alone opened my eyes to everything that you can do with your voice. Talent doesn't even begin to describe what this guy had.

I shared this video on my facebook and my friends all thought it was nuts. I love watching it. I like this version more than the actual version. I cannot wait to watch more of his videos.

Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly was weird to me. Professor Steinhardt said that the woman was raped but it didn't look like rape. I also keep in mind that they are dolls and it might have been hard to make it look like a rape scene. I don't know but it looked like she wanted it.
I wasn't expecting a lot of things that happened in this video. I didn't expect the baby to be a fish in a bowl and then turn into a baby but I thought that was pretty awesome. I liked the fact that the bowl was supposed to be a belly and that when it broke, it symbolized a water breaking. I thought the concept was interesting, just extremely strange. Also, flying the baby and the mother as kites was creepy to me. They were being flown from their umbilical cords. That was probably the creepiest thing in the video.
I felt bad for the woman when the sailor took her baby away and gave him to that other woman. I have to keep in mind that this was an old movie because I know if this was a more modern spin, there would have been a fight. I almost wish there was because the woman seemed so weak and I didn't like it.
And last but not least, I thought the suicide was amazing. I like how she didn't just stab herself or drown herself, I like how Sapegin made her take herself apart. I've never seen anything like that and I thought it was a very interesting idea and that also made me wonder, how did he even make that scene? I know it was stop action but how was this entire movie so perfect? Sapegin is obviously very talented because most stop action videos don't look that smooth or good in general.

Dubai Fireworks

I have never seen anything like this before. I thought the firework show at Epcot was amazing. I love the organization of the fireworks and the colors and I love how they are so elaborate that you can see them from a mile a way. Dubai definitely doesn't know the meaning of a recession but I am glad they don't. I can't help but think about how the people operating these fireworks feel, though. It has to be scorching hot and it can't be safe.
Even though this must be a difficult job, the people who are operating it must be extremely professionals because everything is so clean and organized and it's hard to make fireworks organized because they blow up so easily. This is very talented and very interesting.

Catching Up

I will be catching up on all the blogging I have missed. So, expect a whole bunch of posts from past assignments.

First Reaction

When I first started the class, we had a substitute. Dr. Santiago was very informative and very interactive with the class. I did not know that the class was going to be able Opera. When I found that out, I was kind of weary and did not think I would like the class very much. However, the videos we watched and talked about were interesting and I enjoyed them. Santiago explained most of the Opera in depth and I learned some things about Opera that I never thought I would care about. All in all, the first class was amazing and I enjoyed it a lot.

The second class was quieter considering our teacher was slightly sick. Even though she wasn't feeling well, Dr. Steinhardt was just as passionate as Santiago. She was just quieter which I didn't mind. I liked the fact that she has us move around every hour because learning about Opera for 3 hours is pretty boring. But because we get up to move, it helps me pay attention.

In this class I expect to learn about how technology formed through art. I learned a little bit about pulley systems in Operas which is apparently a big deal. So far this class has kept me interested in a subject that I thought I would never be interested in. Throughout the semester, I expect to learn more about Aria styles and classic plays/music. I am not sure where technology will fit into this class but I hope it makes an appearance.

I am a double major in Film & Media Arts and New Media Production with a concentration in Music and I am a French minor. I am sure that this class will help me with my majors and I am excited for what is to come throughout the year.

--Alexandria Woodard