Project 6 - Visualizing the Invisible: Traffic in Quantities

Project 5: Close/Far

Kristin Schimik's "Quiet Fires of All Degrees" - Response

I find it interesting on how Kristin Schimik makes use of the concept of scale and time in her narrative to not only be aware of the iron ores and mining companies, but everything beyond that like the mountains, the metal machines, and the stars. It provides a better "light" or view on iron and those related to it, like the hot fires with the Big Bang in terms of burning into metals. Personally, the only comparison I had made back when I was young was with the moon and how it acted as something as a nightlight (or was it the stars with lightbulbs?).

Project 4: Algorithmic Image

1. Take a pen/pencil and a piece of paper.
2. Draw out something what comes to mind that represents how you feel in cold weather.
3. Cut out the drawing.
4. Place the cut-out drawing somewhere that you think fits its “meaning” (a tree, a door, the ground, building, etc.) and take a picture of it in that scenario.

Trevor Paglen's "Seeing Machines" and Ed Lake's "The Machine Gaze" - Response

Not sure what to say when it comes to photography and the technology - cameras - used to make it possible. Saying that cameras/photography are becoming a minor contributor is a bit of a stretch to me since they still play a part to creating art, documenting events, and other sorts. Although, on a side note, seeing that Bridle's New Aesthetic brought a better viewpoint on (or it changed) the visual culture, like it brought in the use of pixelation in photography and artwork.

I cannot name specific pictures, but I have seen some pictures where I couldn't identify the author of them. In my case, I can sometimes determine who made the pictures based on the style of the them, from the kind of angle/perspective they are in, the colors utilized in the pictures, the positioning of the subjects in the frame, and so on; however, one would alter their style, which would deviate from what I would be used to. There are other cases when an author can have a similar style like another author, which makes it confusing to know which author made a specific picture.

As for a perspective for a picture in terms of representation (if I understand the question on this correctly), the only thing I can say for that is on how it can give a better "light" for a subject in hand (or frame, to be more exact).

Miwon Kwon's "One Place After Another" - Response

From what I can understand from Miwon Kwon's "One Place After Another", it states (in context) on how identity and site can merge to become a "place"; with identity being the representation of a town, city, or park and the community within it, as in what the "place" really is. Art pieces/sculptures are one of the few things that play the part of providing an identity for a site, and some artists like John Ahearn help contribute with making them for that purpose. Speaking of Ahearn, what he did for the South Bronx of New York was that he made sculptures to give the place a "better look" - to embody the “South Bronx attitude”; although, after many years after the sculptures were displayed in the public streets, they were taken down due to some criticism of artworks not representing the town/community that well (or at all).

Of a personal experience, I can remember when I was in my Junior High school years where there were plenty of students there that were, I would say, iffy - like jerks and bullies, though there were not many. It was like that for a while all the way up to my Freshman year at the Mahomet-Seymour High School, but that changed on the start of my Sophomore year when the high school began to be more strict on bullying to keep the school "clean"; so I rarely see (or hear about) bullying ever since then.

The closest thing I had of a defense for a site is when my parents used to rearrange furniture in my home every two years to change the look of some rooms, which normally annoyed me since I tend to get used to a certain position for furniture. There was one time when my mother wanted to rearrange my bedroom, but I suggested that I want to keep my room as it is since I already liked how my room looks.

Disinformation Visualization: How to lie with datavis - Response

Mushon Zer-Aviv's Disinformation Visualization: How to lie with datavis brought my attention on how some people could alter data for a result (in terms of their own purposes). To be more specific, those people would create a "lie" in the data, either for legibility for the sake of (I would say) "balanced" information, or for one's bias that can lead to the misrepresentation of information from the data; this applies to anything that can end up fooling someone, including in photography (or identification), since Erol Morris stated in "What's in a Name" that some people falsified their information about themselves in the 1800's when photographs weren't used at the time for identification. Falifying information is something I can't stand these days since altering information in data can be easy, while people who would look at the altered data take it as it is, without any second thoughts. If we have more conscience over the data we see, we can be more judgmental if there's any false information (although, this is my thought on this).

Errol Morris' "What's in a Name (part 2)" - Response

In Errol Morris' "What's in a Name (part 2)", he goes in-depth on how a photograph of a person became important (or easier) for identification. In the 1800's, identification was done with words (and only words) on paper, the identifiers would have to take the person's identification as it is; although, those kind of identifications can be "forged" by just lying about what the person is. The photography was later used (along with measurements and traits of a person's body) in the 1840's or so for better identification; it was helpful for police departments when they need to document/find a criminal. However, on May 1, 1903, a young man named Will West, who was changed for manslaughter, shared the same name of a Fort Leavenworth prisoner; but what's surprising is that they also share the same look and expression, and they both (almost) have the same measurements. The only difference the two Will's have are their fingerprints; because of that, fingerprinting became more common (with measuring being less used) for sake that this situation will never happen again.

Pioneering Images

Trevor Paglen's "One Hundred Pictures, Frozen in Time" & Errol Morris's "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" - Response

Starting off with Trevor Paglen's One Hundred Pictures, Frozen in Time, Paglen states about a discovery of cave paintings in the Lascaux cave in France during the 1940's, and presents his fascination of what's depicted in the paintings themselves. Whenever he look at the paintings, he goes back and forth on what's being depicted in them; he thinks it could be about a hunt, a ritual, relationship between human and nature, a murder confession, or a visual joke. There was a point Paglen though it might be an artwork made to be shown to those in the far future, to showcase what happen in the artist's timeline (or to think how early humanity would work in the future). Inspired by this concept, Paglen began a project called The Last Pictures, which is having communication satellites to be like "time capsule" filled with picture of his choice; the "time capsules" would then be left for those in the further future to look at the pictures - as if they were "cave paintings" (in context) - and have them learn about what happened to our Earth many years ago.

In Errol Morris's Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire, Morris provides his thoughts on how pictures are important, but can be meaningless if they don't have captions for them (even for old pictures). To be more specific, he states that one would be clueless of what are truly (going on) in the pictures, but one can guess on what/who they are; captions help broaden on what are in the pictures, but one would question if they're true. For example, in the article, there's an old picture of a ship, but by looking at it you can't tell what ship it is. With the caption stating that the ship is the "Lusitania", people will think the ship IS the "Lusitania", but other would think it's something else. The thing is, based on Morris' insight on his topic, context is needed for pictures to better understand what are in the pictures themselves; although, he does state that pictures can never have a "true" or "false" to them.

WJT Mitchell's "Word and Image" - Response

In Mitchell's "Word and Image" article, it states, at the beginning, that "words" are important by their meaning, not just by their "construct" of wording or how it sounds when pronounced; words can be considered as "objects of visual or aural attention". The same would go for images, but by what the images could represent; and we gain that knowledge through eyesight (or what philosopher George Berkeley of 1709 would state as the "visual language"). According to modern neuropsychologists like Oliver Sacks, they did confirm that the gaining of knowledge through eyesight is true when they found out that those who were temporary blind for a certain amount of time had to relearn the techniques of "seeing", even if the eyes fully recovered.

Based on what Mitchell described, many of literature scholars like Norman Bryson and Woody Steiner decided to enter the studies of art so they can provide their own ideology towards/on/in art, but art scholars like Thomas Crow didn't want the literature scholars to (I would per say) "change" art since the art scholars think that art is (and this is in context, just to say) in a different "league" than words. However, images can benefit from words to present meaning or what it represents (though it may vary). For example, Mitchell states (in context) that a word can alter even a simple image, like an image of what looks like an arrow to be presented (from a word) as a tree. Although, one would question on the specifics, like what kind of tree is the image. There are other cases that the image could represent something else.

Best Mario Game So Far: Super Mario 3D World

I recently got Super Mario 3D World for my Wii U last week, and dang, it's best Mario game by far. Just like Super Mario 3D Land, it's basically a combination of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World where you try to reach each flagpoles as you travel through 3D levels. The game was also interesting that the creators of the game put in Co-op in it; can't have a game without your friends and family playing along! The one thing that surprised me the most is how the game looked. The level design was great, but the graphics made it whole. I mean, these graphics looked so vibrant and colorful that it just fits the Mario atmosphere. All together, Super Mario 3D World is the best Mario game so far. Now, I wonder when Nintendo will come out with the next Super Mario Galaxy...

Mario in Space (Super Mario Galaxy)

Super Mario Galaxy was one of the best Mario games I've played in a long time (after Super Mario Sunshine). It's gameplay controls feels somewhat the same (but you use the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, however), but the game in general was fantastic. The worlds within the game were just beautiful, and the graphics just fits for this Mario game. I almost forgot about the music; it was the best. I would say the sequel was good as well, but personally, I favor the first one a little more.

Graphics in Video Games: Dragon's Crown

Dragon's Crown, an co-op action role-playing game made by Vanillaware and Atlus (the ones who also made Odin Sphere), was so far a great game. You basically play as one of the six characters, and you go through different levels in the game (through quests), either alone or with CPUs or other players. And to compare, it's similar to the gameplay style of Dungeon & Dragons and Golden Axe, with some differences. The thing I liked about the game, besides the gameplay, was the paint-like look of the entire game. Just like Odin Sphere, everything looked vibrant (and sometimes ominous), from how the scenery looked to how the graphics were animated. I wonder how long it took the designers to design all of the things in this game? Another question to be unanswered, until later...

How NES Box Art Were (In my Opinion)

From what I saw (through the internet), most NES box art look realistic, or, in other words, bad-ass. It looks like the art would be for a cover of some "epic", action-packed movie, but probably back then, it was a way to represent what the game is (or to mainly get consumers to buy the specific game). To contrast, Super Mario Bros. had a simple box art showing Mario's sprite in it, which gives the idea of what the game will look and might be like. For Ninja Gaiden, however, its box art shows a ninja with a burning city in the background, representing how awesome the game will be, but not what it will look like in the game. So basically, Super Mario Bros.'s box art sticks with the spirit of the graphics itself, while Ninja Gaiden's box art went to more of a movie look  to make itself more appealing to the consumers. I'm not saying they're bad, just that some bad-ass box art were too emphasized. But, I do like them though. I guess it was a way to get them on the market.

Graphics in Video Games: Rayman

Rayman (PS1 | Sega Saturn | Atari Jaguar | PC | GBC | GBA | DS

Ah, Rayman. Loved the first game that came out for the PlayStation One, but I hated it for being  pretty hard (in my opinion). Besides the difficulty, the stages and characters were designed pretty well for a 2D Platform game, consisting of cartoon-y sprites and fantasy-cartoon stages. Later,  Rayman 2: The Great Escape came out, but the game went to more of a 3D platform style with fantasy-cartoon looking graphics like before, but little "darker" at points of the game. This use of graphics and models  had continued in games like Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, and it stayed for a while with other games of the franchise, but Ubisoft, the original studio that made the games, went back to what was originally, well, Rayman. So, we got ourselves Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, and both are great games. They both brought back the original gameplay from the first game, but with more features in it. The graphics looks awesome; Rayman Origins took on a cartoon look with "painted" worlds (not painted, but close enough to be), while Rayman Legends took on a paint-like look entirely, making both games appealing to a wider audience. I can say, it was a good choice. It's a good thing Rayman's back.

*Sorry again for how the images are placed

Rayman 2 (PS1 | PS2 | N64 | Dreamcast | Windows | GBC | DS | 3DS | iOS

Rayman 3 (PS2 | PS3 | Xbox | Xbox 360 | Gamecube | PC | N-Gage | Java ME)

Rayman Origins (PS3 | Xbox 360 | Wii | PC | PS Vita | 3DS)

Rayman Legends (PS3 | Xbox 360 | Wii U | PC | PS Vita)

Evolution and Reincarnation of Video Game Design

Super Mario Bros. (NES)

As we all know, when the video game home consoles came to existence (somewhere inbetween 1970-1989), they had 8-bit graphics; all coded for everything character-like, enemy-like, and stage-like. Not much color can be embedded within these 8-bit games for like Atari and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but it made what those games are to this day. When time had passed, the SNES came out, and it had more memory capacity then the past consoles before it, meaning that more colors can be used, resulting in what is called 16-bit Graphics. This was also the time when game designers were able to draw out their work in the games instead of coding it. More years has passed, and more consoles came in with more memory capacity, making it possible for 3D models and slightly better graphics. And so on so forth, we see what we see today: full-on animated 3D models with high definition graphics. You might think the 8-bit and 16-bit graphics extinct from video games, but they didn't, actually. Some people these days bring back these kind of graphics in their games in a way to bring back the good old days, and as a result, worked great. It's a surprise to still see these graphics back to life, and hopefully they will stay for a while longer.

*Sorry how the images were place

Earthbound (SNES)

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

Portal 2 (PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC)

Terraria (PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC | iOS)