World Building

Julian Bleecker in his article Design Fiction states, “When something is “designed” it suggests that there is some thoughtful exploration going on.” He goes on to emphasize how imagination can expand when one seeks to physically design that world. In order to create a new world, we were forced to explore and define much more than we originally thought. Just by changing one event in history, we were required to project numerous differences socially, economically, politically, and so on in order to make the world seem authentic. Thus, we had source material from which we could truly make our imagined world come to life. Our new culture was born out of the ashes of a nuclear war in which Egyptian society survived and mixed aspects of modern technology with classical Egyptian ideology and culture.

Map of New Cairo

We as a group thought a descriptive and authentic-feeling artifact of this new culture would be some sort of damaged, rough copy of the new civilization’s city plans. As mentioned, the new Egyptians would be able to reverse engineer some technologies and retain certain skills, but we felt that (due to lack of resources) the new culture would revert back to papyrus and inaccurate drafting techniques. Thus, the map models itself after modern Cairo’s city structure, but presents certain changes and modern buildings in a rough style seen in early city plans. Logically, we used the outside sources of modern satellite images and older city plans for inspiration in creating the piece. Finally, we decided to maintain a sense of authenticity and label areas in a rough and corrupted form of Arabic as such a style would be more realistic.

New Cairo Original Plans

18th Century Novgorod Plan Style    

Modern Cairo  

Desert Wear

We wanted to incorporate clothing into our project because of the unique perspective it would bring. This society, a dystopian world that decides to model its government after the inspiring success of the Egyptian empire, would have a very distinct blend of wasteland survivor and ancient religion. Pulling from the costume design of such films as Mad Max, Star Wars, and the animated short The Oceanmaker, as well as iconic tropes of Egyptian fashion, we created a mask that incorporates both worlds. It is practical in its use of keeping sand out of your mouth, but is adorned with Egyptian design made from broken pieces of lost technology.

Made From A Computer Motherboard and Linen

Model Wearing Mask

Prayer to Pharaoh

As we decided on the history and details of our fictional culture, we had to focus on creating items that properly represented this society. This particular creation is cross between the Islamic call to prayer and a fascist propaganda program. New Cairo’s self-proclaimed Pharaoh has commanded the universal worship of the Egyptian Pantheon, a theology that reveres the Pharaoh as deity himself. Spreading a gospel of quiet subjection and unquestioning devotion, the Pharaoh perverts the established order of Islam into a hybrid pseudo-religion that combines the form of the Islamic faith with the content of ancient belief. Navigating the slippery slope of religious and political correctness was challenging, but the involved process of design pushed all of us to create unique and thoughtful pieces that not only represent our fictional world but the aspects of reality that inspired us in the first place.

Painting

Every time human being have inhabited a place, they feel the necessity to create art. This forms of art are usually related to the religious beliefs, history and the social environment.

The first piece illustrates what happened before new Cairo was established, and combines Egyptian symbology and modern technology, the snake representing Apep, the evil spirit of destruction and darkness.The snake is placed right next to the image of a nuclear explosion which as we know is also a symbol of destruction and death.

Both paintings are a representation of the most important aspects of this society, both religious, political and ideological.

Some of the inspiration behind the paintings are the Marsh scene tomb of menna and the facsimile of the Egyptian book of the dead.

Webspinna Battle

In our preparation for our Webspinna battle, we found in our reading the following segment that broadened our understanding of this assignment:

“Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

Overall, what Jonathan Lethem means is that our artistic process is merely a remix of what has been created before, but in a way that reflects our own individual interpretation. Given this knowledge, we realized that we needed to glean from the collective chaos of the internet those clips that reflected some ideals that not only embody our existence, but also our observations regarding current circumstances. Additionally, we wanted our battle to not only reflect a certain element of our identity, but also open up social criticism as well. As such, we began with identifying certain aspects of our personal backgrounds that could be stereotyped into creating a sense of conflict. Inspired by the bombastic nature of the recent political primaries, we decided to leverage both of our national identities (Jake being American and Juan being Canadian/Latino) to poke fun at American patriotism and its effect on foreign relations. We found inspiration from personal experience with stereotypes, but also looked towards the art form of the political cartoon to get a better impression of what stereotypes came up most frequently. We boiled down these stereotypes regarding other nations into two categories: pride due to excess wealth and proficiency in war. (Cartoons below stand as an example)

Although we recognize (and do not totally agree with) these stereotypes, we wanted to display how fruitless such notions of American supremacy are in the context of other nations. Thus, we came up with ideas on how Juan (representing foreign countries) could reverse my over-the-top American strategies to put Canada/Latinos/the World into “their place.”

First, it was important for us to come up with an easy concept to understand. With that in mind, we concluded that a round-based battle would be best. Second, we decided to have America start each round because of its past history on striving to be the first at everything.

In order to have a sort of exposition for our respective characters, the Webspinna duel starts with a clash of our respective national anthems, which also quickly sets the rivalry tone of our presentation. Next, we decided to touch on America's pride by having her defend herself with something that she is proud of. With that in mind, we opted for the "Pursuit of the Happiness" song and a "Make Money, Money" audio clip to highlight how America prides itself as the land of opportunity (and you could say wealth as well).  Meanwhile, Canada replies with a song by Drake, a famous Canadian artist in the United States, to point out that America's opportunities also extend to other nations. Feeling mocked, America takes the next round to the next level by bringing its powerful and incontestable military arsenal into the mix. The exchange of bullets and nuclear bomb audio clips is an attempt by America to wipe Canada only to realize that the whole operation was unsuccessful (which also hints at some of the weaknesses of a military-based foreign policy). Facing such failure, America switches gears and pulls out his ultimate weapon; finding a bombastic voice that can attack on a more personal level. We recognize that kind of attitude has manifested itself in the recent political debates. As such, we included an audio clip from republican candidate Donald J. Trump (a very strong voice many Americans are backing) attacking Juan's hispanic nationality. Shocked by Trump's intentions to build a wall, Juan rallies a group of friends, chases the Trump, and claims victory as a final declaration that such verbal attacks only harm America’s standing.

However, our presentation ends then on a more hopeful note. While Juan is celebrating his victory, he invites Jake to join him. This is our attempt to show that we believe in a future where nations can still come together despite their differences and/or previous conflicts. On an even more personal note, although Juan and Jake have different backgrounds, we can still look beyond those backgrounds to find similar ground in building up the inherent good that the United States offers to all here at BYU.

Textual Poaching

American Modernist
American Modernist                                                                American Gothic

In Jenkins “How Texts Become Real,” the author relates a classic children’s story titled the “Velveteen Rabbit” in order to shed further light on a concept called textual poaching. In this story, the toy rabbit comes alive only through its interaction with a child who received the rabbit as a gift. On a deeper level, the rabbit becomes real only because the boy actively gives the inanimate toy significance through his adoration of the rabbit. We too in modern culture continue to do the same with the art that has preceded us. Movies, games, stories, and all media arts come to life through an intermixing of our own schemas and the denotation of the referent itself. Because of our individuality, each work of art makes it own impact as we interact with it. Taking this idea to heart, I chose to interact on a deeper level with some sort of art piece that represents American society as a means of better understanding my role in the ongoing American legacy.

I first thought of recreating a historical painting and replacing those aspects of the art piece with personally significant meaning. I wanted my poaching to not only shed light on my association and respect for those events and their influence on laying the groundwork for my society, but also make a commentary on how American culture has shifted. As I looked through various historical events, I began to realize how important cultural context played into the historical events I was observing and I wanted to emphasize that point further in my work. This realization led me to think about how I am currently participating in dynamic cultural and historical events that define what it means to be American in the 21^st century. Thus, rather than looking for famous images of historical events, I began to look for iconic American images that presented a sort of past microcosm of American life from which I could recreate my experience with American culture in the same form. Although there are many images that idealize certain “American” themes, I fell upon “American Gothic” by Grant Wood. This simple painting grew to fame due to its unique manner of highlighting the classic, small-town American virtues of self-reliance and rugged individualism.  For many, the painting is even seen as an embodiment of American society in general and an homage to those who laid the foundation for our current society. Because of these social connotations, magazines and many others have made parodies of the painting in order to highlight changes in American society and give individualistic as well as cultural significance to their modifications.

 Artists using parody in order to play on the connotation of “American Gothic” to make social commentary on how they perceive the stereotypical American.

Inspired by some of these parodies, I chose to play on this same connotation of “American Gothic” by replacing certain aspects with my own cultural experiences. Certain changes are inherent; such as hairstyle and clothing. However, I did include a few other changes that emphasize aspects of my American experience.

First, I realized the pitchfork represented the farmer’s occupation and manner of livelihood. As a student and a “millennial,” I realize that the computer embodies the new manner of “earning your daily bread.” Manual labor continues to make a less significant mark on our lives as society continues to progress and innovate. In many ways, the computer has impacted my way of working just as much as the pitchfork has for the old farmer, thus giving me reason for the switch. The second switch has to do with the original painting’s depiction of the woman and her dismissive, unfocused demeanor. While the wife gives off a sense of stern superiority in the original, my experience with people who seem disconnected with the world has to do with mobile technology. Finally, I flipped the profiles so that my role was reversed with my female friend. This was a subtle (probably too subtle) attempt at displaying how gender roles have drastically changed in my America, insomuch at times that we literally have “switch places.” I thought about replacing the iconic farm house background with a modern cityscape or a shot of campus, but I wanted the fact that I poached “American Gothic” to be evident given the changes I made.

If I could take this art piece further, I would set up in a high foot traffic area the same farm house background and allow people to recreate “American Gothic” using their own experiences with modern American culture to change the subject matter. I would photograph each one and display them together as a means of showing how diverse American society has become and how difficult it is to pinpoint “ideal” American values. At the same time, however; the photos together give the impression that such diversity, freedom to express one’s individuality, and technological changes are the hallmarks of modern America. Additionally, much like how hardworking farmer legacy of “American Gothic” laid the foundations for our modern society, we are also laying down our own history and legacy. Above all, awareness of the never-ending creation of history both individually and collectively might be the most important insight we glean when poaching historical pieces.

Medium Specificity

Instructions to see webpage - IMPORTANT OR ELSE IT WON"T WORK!
Follow this link to my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B75koEPcA2_oRTRzLVl5SkJPQlE

Upon finding the drive, you will encounter a zip file, right click (or click on the file and then click on the download arrow above) on the file and select "download."

Once you have the zip file, click on it and a box will appear with multiple options... click the button that says "Extract." This will separate the files so that the code can work. Then click on the "index.html" file. Select the google web browser and you will have access to the webpage!

Artist Statement - The Virtual Reality

The world is dynamically shifting in the way it communicates due to the development of the computer. The computer, which actually was conceptualized as early as the nineteenth century, help streamline many tasks and increase personal productivity. With the advent of the Internet, however; the computer’s potential was truly unlocked. Now people across the world can have look into a window that transcends borders and learn about others in a manner of seconds. It allows people to share ideas and artistic mediums with one another instantly. However, we often fail to see how computer technology can be an art in itself. Through programming a number of ones and zeroes, a skillful person can augment the pixels of any screen in order to create dynamic masterpieces that are not possible with other artistic mediums. As such, I wanted to dig into HTML/CSS coding in order to highlight what the medium truly means in an artistic sense.

In our reading, Scott McCloud sought to find the essence of what a “comic” is as an artistic medium. He began with a broad categorization (a sequence of pictures in a deliberate order), and slowly added additional features to his definition in order to make it more specific, as his original definition began to include what other people might see as separate mediums (cave paintings, sequence art, etc.). I tried to follow the same process by thinking about what goes into an internet website. Here are the features that I uncovered:

·      Websites possess

o   Connection to Internet so that they are universally accessible

o   Seen through a screen that is connected to a processor and can augment pixels through a series of code

o   Has an element of user-machine interaction—in order words, the computer responds to certain prompts and usually the website is dynamic

With this definition, I choose to highlight the importance of coding in the medium. I do not have a lot of skill in HTML as you might see in my website. However, I thought about how webpages are merely lines of code that are able to augment screen pixels in an organized fashion. I also thought about the importance of user interaction with the medium to provide a unique experience. The power of webpages comes from the give and take between man and machine, making the machine almost human-like in appearance. Taking those two aspects, I decided I wanted to have the webpage be dynamic in a way that exposed the coding that went into the site itself.

I originally just put in a link that displayed the code, but I also wanted the user to have the ability to just hover over pictures and have those pictures change upon the mouse touching them. In this aspect, I drew inspiration from a website called codeology, which is a crowdsourced project where the website’s code is able create 3-D designs entirely out of other codes. The artistic thesis behind this is that the coders wanted to show how coding itself can be an art form just as much as what the code does to manipulate screen pixels. In order to gain a similar effect, I used a tool that coded the pixels in my photos into matrix form. As such, I was able to achieve an effect of visually displaying the coding much like in the link below.

http://codeology.braintreepayments.com/featured/spacex/kernel-centos7

In addition to exposing the importance and art of coding in my piece, I also wanted the webpage to have a deeper meaning in regards to its content. We often take what we see online as reality instead of realizing that such interactions are presented through simple lines of code. Often, we tend to believe far too much that what we are seeing on the screen is reality rather than an illusion of reality. In order to clarify that point, I decided to codify several images from my Facebook page (if I was skilled enough to recreate a Facebook page I would have), as I feel that social media is the pinnacle of augmented reality in many regards. We often see each other at their best due to each individual’s ability to augment what content goes into the page and how it is presented digitally. Although websites and cyber interactions help lower barriers and are convenient, we must remember that what we are looking at is merely code and a shadow of reality.