RoboCat Surrealism

This is the culminating activity we did for tech CyberARTS class. The assignment was to make a photo-realistic surrealism picture by merging photos we took.

















I find the most powerful thing about computer graphics is the ability to merge many things and make it still seem realistic, so I decided to merge lot's of complicated parts and challenge myself. Computers have many interesting parts and are evolving everyday, so I chose to merge a bunch of microprocessor chips to make a modern contraption. Once settling with that, I knew I wanted to merge the contraption with something from nature to create somewhat ironically humorous juxtaposition. My original plan was to merge it with a tree or plant and throw in an outlet as a mock green power ad, but after a quick google search I realized how overdone that idea already was. I was surprised to find the idea wasn't done with animals much before, so I went with the idea of merging a modern technological contraption with a cat. I spent a while finding the perfect cat, I ended up going with a humble orange tabby cat to make it even more ironic. I ended up taking out it's collar with Photoshop too to increase the 'wow' factor of a natural animal being ripped open and full of mechanical and computerized parts.


Almost all the pictures were taken by me, with the exception of the cat because I don't actually have one. I used my Nikon D5000 for all the shots. I took a total of 47 pictures, most of which included old parts from things I didn't use any more and places in my house that I thought would make a good background. This part of the project was really fun, I got to take apart my old computer, a bunch of old guitar processors, some old routers, and a keyboard and tinker around. After getting them uploaded onto my computer I cut out most of them because I wanted to keep it highly with contrasting parts, not just 20 green mother boards beside each other. The most time consuming part was probably extracting the parts from their backgrounds and retouching everything to make sure the lighting matched and shadows made sense, it took about 6 hours over a few days. Once I had all the computer parts and the background chosen, it was time to do some work on the cat. I'm really happy with my results, I used almost every adjustment, blending type, tool and filter Photoshop had to offer to make the cat look a lot deeper and less washed out. Here is a before and after of the cat.




























The most challenging part was making the hole in the cat for the parts to go in, I think I really pushed the boundaries with this. I had to get a bunch of gore and autopsy pictures and merge them to make the hole in the cat, my classmates were pretty grossed out by me doing that in class, except Graeme, he was happy to help. This was really hard, I'm glad I didn't have to get organs and bones to paste in because the computer parts would be covering it, but I still ended up using about 10 pictures to make the skin peeling up and the gore in the hole. I scrapped the hole and started over about three times due to low image quality. After all this was done, the only thing left to do was merge and mask all the pictures. This part was pretty easy, I just resized the microchips and organized them in the hole, I also made colored wires connecting them. I used layer masks to only show the part in the hole. The end result was a total of 14 layers, this project was a great learning experience because, I hate to admit it, but I almost never name or group my layers. So when working with so many layers I had no choice but to organize things. I grouped the chips and interlinked layer masks, I'm glad I learned to do this and got in the habit of it.

























I'm quite pleased with my final product. This project was a great learning experience and challenge. It really pushed me to far lengths and tested my photography and digital editing skills. It was also really fun conceptually, I've always loved surrealism. I learned lot's, had fun, got to use great new tools and ended up with a very satisfying result. If I could redo the project, the one thing I would do differently is take more time to find higher quality source images and take more myself.

Today our assignment was to find a PSA on racism that was really effective in getting it's point across, then analyze it.

This video is a compilation of fast cutting interviews. All shots are the same zoom, showing people interviewed from the waist up. This video is about stereotyping. It works because the people in it all have the laid back and dismissive attitude about stereotypes, instead of making a big deal over them just make them seem silly. It's original because it doesn't try too hard to demonize racism, it's just a bunch of average people talking about stereotypes and making the mere idea of stereotypes seem preposterous. Lot's of videos have a stereotypical minority being bullied, which only perpetuates the stereotype. I also thought it was really effective having the man with the strong stereotypical Indian accent during his interview saying "do I have to talk like this" with no accent, breaking the third wall and making Indians seem more individual. The video ending is also really memorable, it cuts to an interview of a what appears to be the stereotypical North American named Josh, but he ends up having all the stereotypical traits that are assigned to minorities.

The only sound effect used was the beep between scenes, and only in the out cuts.
There is a slow mellow song in the background. It also highly contrasts with the sound track during the out cuts. There is little in terms of effects, music, sound etc. Also the the final interview seems very conclusive and powerful when he says "My name is Josh, and I'm from Earth" in contrast to all the other interviews where the people say what country they are from. This video is very effective dismissing stereotypes and individualizing people that might be stereotyped.

Rhythm Assignment part A

This part of the assignment was particularly hard for me because I dislike working with straight lines and absolutes. I started off with equally spaced lines going horizontally across the page, and to neutralize the boring effect that horizontal lines might create, I divided them up into three sections. The lines in each section were similar length, relative to each other, but still random enough to break the gridded and boring effect of stacked lines. Then, to add rhythm to the drawing I, again, chose a smooth amd non-absolute technique. I created the illusion of a gradient by having the line boldness pulse thicker and thinner.

The Scream

"The Scream"

by Edvard Munch

Critique from an imitationalist's point of view.

Edvard Munch's art is generally known for being full of emotions like fear, isolation, and anxiety, its imitationalist qualities, however, are quite lacking. The Scream is very emotionally expressive, yet still unsatisfying from an imitationalist's point of view because it is unrealistic. The proportions of the person in the foreground are really exaggerated and inaccurately sized, the colors are bland and unrealistic and the background scene is lacking depth and perspective. As an imitationalist artist, I think this painting is horrible.


Critique from an emotionalist's point of view.

This piece of art was obviously made to invoke negative emotions such as the aforementioned fear, isolation, and anxiety. This is the kind of art work that gives you a panic attack when you look at it. Munch did an amazing job at capturing the key facial features of panic and displaying them on the subject. The man has widely open eyes and mouth, long clenching hands gripping his head, and a curving frail body. The two figures in the left middle ground are also quite emotionally inflictive, they lack detail and are hard to examine, yet you still find your eyes repeatedly drawn towards them, invoking paranoia. As an emotionalist artist, I found this work of art spectacular.

Critique from a formalist's point of view.

This picture has great flow, although simplistic, it gets you to follow the water and then land and focus on the two mysterious figures in the far left. The balance is also very good yet simplistic; the right land mass with the bridge balances well with the more weighted left land mass, horizontally, and with the sky, vertically. Due to it's simplicity there is not much rhythm in this picture but it is very even and well laid out. The perspective on the bridge made with the line flow is also amazing, but line flow in the land and water are really messy. I think the movement could have been made even better, had Munch made the lines better -- mainly in the right land mass. The colors work well with each other but are very bland and uninteresting. I think this picture is very good mostly because of its amazing movement and balance.