101 Update

Just to confirm… my Artefact and write up are on this blog, and my group project are hosted on here.

S…

Flickr Updated

I have now updated my Flickr account today with more photos and work, please use the side bar on the right to navigate to my page.

Interstices Update

Now the full and final version of our project is up and running, please visit Our Mock SkyNews.com page to view our piece, we re-created the Sky News website and edited the site with our own stories.

Artefact Essay

Artifact Project – Simon McGirr – 245666

First lets define the word “Artifact”, It has many meanings so I must clarify the meaning so that I am able to re-create a piece of art accordingly:
- An unintended, unwanted visual aberration in a image
- An object that is made, modified, altered, or transported by human agency or workmanship which cannot be confused with an accident of nature.
- Any object that was made, used, and/or transported by humans that provides information about human behavior in the past.
- An object from a particular period of time in human history.

I chose these meanings as now I can go on and research more about the definitions, firstly I will discount the first definition of Artifact as this isn’t a relevant research aim. Recently I have been getting more into photography, taking pretty pictures is a thing that I like to do in my spare ( and at the right moment of course ), by being in the right place at the right time I run around like a mad man taking my lens cap off and then faffing around with the
settings before those precious seconds pass me as the thing I’m trying to photograph has just been hit by a bus.

I came across an image by “Banksy” it is titled Napalm, in the image there is a grey canvas with Mickey Mouse on the left, Ronald McDonald on the right and in the middle is a little girl, she is Kim Phuc aka Napalm Girl, the title that was given to her as images where shown to the world as the Southern Vietnamese dropped a Napalm bomb on Trang Bang, Vietnam. Thie image was by Nick Ut, a photographer who then proceded to escort the children in the image to a hospital in Saigon.

“Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on June 12, 1972…. The picture for me and unquestionably for many others could not have been more real. The photo was as authentic as the Vietnam war itself. The horror of the Vietnam war recorded by me did not have to be fixed. That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phuc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives” (from program booklet for Humanist Art/Symbolic Sites: An Art Forum for the 21st Century).

This image would have had an effect on “Banksy”, judging by his work he likes to make the viewer look at an image and the first few seconds are delightful then you have a look around the piece and suddenly its stained with diversity, this is the perfect medium for me to base my artifact on, I will go along with the vietnamese theme but incorporate the opposite effects so that immediately the image will be horrible to look at and once you have a look around it doesnt get any nicer.

POA —-Look at Eddie Adams

Date: 24th February 2007 21:47

Now that my research has pretty much finished I have looked at Eddie Adams and his infamous image depicting General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing Viet Cong prisoner Nguyen Van Lem, I read the background behind this image, which to my surprise was absolutely fascinating, here is a quote published in Time by Eddie Adams:-

‘”The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn’t say was, ‘What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?”

When General Nguyen died, Adams praised him as a hero of a just cause.’
I have decided to use this image to manipulate, I want to use key figures in todays media to depict an image full of different emotions.

Date 26th February 2007 22:59

I have finished the final image, the image consists of David Beckham as Nguyen Van Lem, the Twin Towers are in the background, and Kim Phuc is between the two male figures. Once the image was created I used some simple photoshop effects to give the same flat colour effect as “Banksy’s” image. I feel the image is thought provoking and can represent todays media and how good ol’ Rupert Murdoch loves his media company it twisting the truth, it incorporates both Banksy and Eddie Adams ideas and work.

Update as of 5th March, 2007 22:07

Since talking to my lecturer, I was going down the wrong path even though the work was good, it wasn’t an exact replica. I then had to research a bit more, I had to look for something that I could re-create, I know a various amount of websites which host artist work from all around the world, the most popular being www.deviantart.com, this site has a whole multitude of work using different media, as I was browsing through the website I came across an image by Kayle Reverett titled ‘Spiderman’, the image is capivating to look at, the photo looks very real and the blending is immaculate. Behind all the fancy photoshop techiniques and though about how nice it would be to have six arms, I suppose this thought reflected my current mood, I have loads of things to juggle, my time is very limited I have lots to do during the day and then that continues into the evening. The image appeals to me more than the previous attempt at this project, the image is much more personal, I can relate to it.

POA —-I will recreate the image using Photoshop, and use the same methods in which the artist has used, the techniques are fairly basic which are easy to

mimic.

Date 12th March, 2007 1848

I have now completed the image, the piece will be hosted in my blog: mrmcgirr.blogspot.com There will be a link to the original image for comparison. I am very pleased with the image and I have recieved a positive feedback from other students. I will post this document onto my blog aswell.

Artifact Update

After speaking with Mike last week, I went to do a little searching for some inspiration, I came across this image
Spiderman by Kayle Reverett

This is now the basis of my artifact, the reason behind this is because when I looked at the image it reminded me of my life, I have so much to do and so little time, having extra hands would be ideal, I have loads of University work to do, My son to look after, and work in the evenings.

Here is what I have came up with.
Artifact Attempt Number Squillion.

All the work we have got to do…

Another moan about how much work we have to be doing, fisrt off the artifact project needs to be changed, the interestices project “Will get a pass” but if I do more to it all will be gravy, the ASP is slowly taking off, the mapping project should be near completion on monday, the other group work is kinda happening but its not the most important, I got my grade for my essay I mere 56, I am very happy at that because as you’ll probably notice as you read through this blog that my writing skills are as good as Mother Teresa learning how to skateboard at this present time.

New Artifact Update

After talking with Mike about my recent attempt at the artifact project, he politely described that basically it was shit, the idea is “nice” but it’s not a replica of the artists work. So…. the new image on my flikr account is a replica of an artists work.

Funky Portfolio

An excellent portfolio of illustrations:
Portfolio of Mike Dogherty.

What im doing now

well there comes a time when one must work, and for its at 00:22, now doing my ASP project, bit of a b*tch but… it’ll be worth it.

Interstices project update

Interstices background

Ghost in the Shell explores the consequences of people becoming ever more reliant on technology, and central to the theme is what happens when the human soul, or “ghost”, is all that remains inside a technologically enhanced “shell”.

This is a dystopian vision of the future – one in which cybernetic enhancement, memory prosthetics and super-human androids are part of everyday life. It provides a disturbing reflection on the nature of scientific and technological progress and, if not actually anti-science, asks some serious questions about the folly of human nature.

Marthas’ Video Presentation

I have uploaded Marthas’ video presentation to Youtube, this video was only one half or the entire presentation but I feel its an importnat piece as the message within the video is more important, I used a mixture of music and video to come up with a story about how the 3rd world is more undeveloped, and even compared to the 60’s when the space race between American and Russia the techonology was vast ( That is if you belive in the Moon Landings of course ), and yet nothing can still be done even now.

Please I am open for discussion and comments, and please please let it be constuctive!!!

Artifact Image

Interstices Project

Well, its been a rough week. The projects are certainly mounting up at a steady pace, 8 in total at present time, we just had another project “remembered” to us by Mike yesterday which was nice, it shouldn’t take long.

The Project Outline:

The Project is called Interstices, after brain storming for a minute or two with Chris and Kenny, Chris mentioned Ghost in the Shell (GITS), which is one of my favourite franchises ever! This movie is about the future and how humans can record memories, replace limbs, store vast amounts of data and live forever, all of which is done using computers.I also rattle my brain cells by reading the commoners way to learning new information, the BBC Focus magazine, its all in laymans terms so its easier to digest, rather than reading the long winded Scientific American or New Scientist. In this months issue of the Focus magazine, there is a fortunate article about memory recording, I can’t believe my luck…

As with anything mechanical, it is bound to go wrong, when for instance getting a replacement limb in GITS there is model number just like todays electrical products. Every now and again certain models malfunction. And with every computer comes a hacker, hacking is a huge part of todays online society, as I type this my Security Centre is going mad, it constantly pops up reminding me that I need to upgrade. Referring to Michael Moores acclaimed movie Bowling for Columbine “Pumping fear into everyone”, is it really necessary to have this? surely the warnings are not always imperitive to upgrade, I havent done since I had it pre-installed on my PC and i’m still fine. Anyway I digress…

My idea is going to have a screen dump of the BBC website, with an article relating to his Tonyness, the subject will be about todays current affairs, mainly about the Iraq war. By incorporateing some of the ideas from GITS like memory hacking I can paint a picture of the future as if this was to happen to his Tonyness.

Artifact Updated again

Really annoyed now that I cant get into my blog thingy, now decided with kenny that we have to list in order tomorrow or the importance of our projects for the next upcoming weeks. Just spoke to a friend of mine who is doing pretty much the same kind of couse but at Bath Spa University, I just found out that he is just learning to motion tween in flash, I laughed…. alot, going to get some food and then procrastinate a little bit more before deciding which path my frontal cortex wants to take me.

Artifact Update

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Adams_(photographer)

Been quite layed back with this blog, and no this is isnt my first blog entry Mike! I cant remember my username and password to wordpress, well at least i think it was word press, anywho…. I have just been on the blower to big Kenny we were just running over our insanely bust timetable for march I counted about 6 projects which isnt healthy, especially since we have just had about 3 months of nothing, it doesn’t make any sense but hey that’s…..no i wont break into a song.

I’ve just about finished my artifact project, I had a quick browse through the projects, musaabs again will be easy, the flash will be tough and the ASP will kill us so goodbye for now…