Month: February 2018

Mobile, Smart & Cell Phone Digital Art Making

Mobile, Smart & Cell Phone Digital Art Making

Its no secret that there is a ton of potential in mobile/smart phone art making. In fact, you might be a little late to the party! (Im kidding, its never to late to join in). There are literally tons and tons of apps that are both practical, fun and objective, however, I think that the true potential in the medium is hidden in the cross testing of multiple apps combined. After that, the beauty and further discovery is in synthesizing them together for your creative output. I know, that sounds ambitious, especially if you are new to the mobile/smart phone art making game.

The output may be a series of still frames that work together as a sequence or a series dedicated to a style that you create. The output may be a series of subtle animations in the form of GIFs or micro videos (Instagram will loop them for you today). These creative experiments can surely be created from your imagination, dreams and emotions. They can also be creative ways of visually painting a picture to illustrate your response to an editorial, a news feed thread, a scholarly article, an interview, and so on. I think you follow, yes? Either way, the use of visuals are more present than ever in almost all of the media that we consume. And do we consume it! This stretches from all forms of digital and static public advertising, news feeds upon news feeds and interactive media that is user based and customizable. This includes academic publications and pedagogy. Yes, thats right, if you think that academia wont be effected by the how the media and main stream advertising plays a roll in our shaping our psychology and lives, watch what happens over the next 2-3 years. Human attention has become a commodity and a currency. More on that soon!

This week (and forward) is about experimentation and redefining how you perceive your device and what its expressive potential is! Lets get acquainted with some of the apps by visiting the links below. Some apps as we know offer a free version for the sake of testing the app. There is quite a bit that can be done today with options to both take screen-shots of still images and also capture screen-recording for creating short animations. I have a few favorites for sure and have tested the apps listed below. Make purchases only at your discretion. Lets dig in.

Where will you post your experimentation? Instagram? Twitter? Facebook? Reddit? Flickr? Tumblr, Vero? Your personal website?

Or here on the Net-Art site on the Commons! We would love to have your work and the work of your students.

Would you like to craft a project for an online exhibition? Contact me here  – rseslow (at) york.cuny.edu

**You may want to free up some space on your device before you begin. Applications take up space, and so does the work that you will create.

Mobile Apps:

Glitche’ – glitche.com

to.be camera – to.be/camera

Giphy Cam – https://giphy.com/apps

Instagram – http://Instagram.com

VHS CAM – http://rarevision.com/vhscam

Assembly Design App – http://assemblyapp.co

ImgPlay – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imgplay-gif-maker/id989843523?mt=8

Imaengine – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imaengine-vector/id599309610?mt=8

Ultra-Pop

Ultra-Pop -Infinite

GifVid (simple tool to covert GIF to Video, Video to GIF on the phone)

Glitch Wizard

iColorama S rich featured image editor that maintains full resolution of images
Decim8 – Glitch
http://royb0t.net/tagged/iOSartApps
ImgPlay – Awesome GIF maker!
Back Eraser – Great to remove background areas and make layers.
GIF Maker Create GIFs from a sequence of still images from your photo library.
Building Resources from the Web – 
Here are some websites, artists & interviews dedicated to Art making via cell phones and mobile devices. They range from old and outdated to new and very cutting edge. We will build this resource as our class evolves.

Casey Kauffmann’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/uncannysfvalley/
Interview with Casey Kauffman

Karen Divine

https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/first-look-brushes-1

Michael Manning

Feel free to leave a few comments below! Share anything you wish. Troubleshooting issues? Urls and links? Lets participate!

Screen Cindy Sherman’s short film: “Doll Clothes” from 1975.

Screen Cindy Sherman’s short film: “Doll Clothes” from 1975. Click here.

Via the Ubu.Web Film & Video Archive – (An Amazing Resource!)

“When I was in college, I made this book of doll clothes for my photography course. I was documenting a piece that I had already made for a film course, but I wanted to bring the doll to life so I shot myself doing all the poses, and it became this goofy little film. It completely ties in to everything I’m doing now because I decided that I liked the cut-out figures more than the film.” -Cindy Sherman

“One of the First Cindy Sherman’s super-8 film,”Doll Clothes” has not been viewed since 1975, the year it was made. It comically crosses Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase with animated paper dolls in a sly, funny and clever precursor to the concerns that became signature elements in Sherman’s remarkable body of photographic work.” – UBU.com

“Sherman’s 1975 animated short Doll Clothes, is among the pieces that bring Sherman’s early exploration of gender and identity into focus.” – Paul Ha and Catherine Morris

React & Respond in the comments sections below.

Questions to consider:

  1. After screening the film (is it really a film?) share your first impressions in contrast to the artist’s current work on the popular platform Instagram <– go here.
  2. What similarities do you see? What contrasts are obvious and why?
  3. How did you experience the works shared in this post? Your mobile device? Tablet? Laptop? I would like to know. How did you make this choice?
  4. What other artists do know of that share a connection with the genre of Identity exploration?

Are Internet Memes ART? Please Advise.

Are Internet Memes ART?

Screen the video above first and read the articles below. Do an internet search for “Are memes ART?” See what you discover. No matter how you cut it, memes are here to stay…is this good or bad for Art? Is this good or bad for Education? Is there context for memes and appropriate application in your course? I would like to know what you think. And by all means, share you favorites via URLs, and or create your own as a reaction..

Are Memes the Pop Culture Art of our Era? Kate Knibbs – https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/when-does-a-meme-become-art/

Another piece with some good insights – http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/34645/1/is-2017-the-year-that-memes-are-recognised-as-art

Please leave your reactions in the comments section below.