3/1

My digital collage encompasses a variety of ideas taken from an experience. The title of my oil painting that this is based on is called "Fluid Motion".  The title of this piece inspired me to go back to about two months ago where I almost drowned under a pier in Cadiz, Spain.   I blurred the painting's background to depict my focus on surviving in the five to ten minutes I struggled against the current.  The lines moving around the surface of the image remain an analog drawing. Based on Professor Sandell's recent lesson on making an analog drawing, I reimagined the feeling I had in the Bay of Cadiz and made the line without looking.  

3/2

Connection to A Personal Learning Objective

Nancy Baym commends changes in communication technologies in her article, “Personal Connections in the Digital Age”, 2010.  New technology and media allow people to connect in a variety of ways.  New media gives people the power to interact on a local and global level.  While technologies support practical procedures, I do not think they help create healthy social relationships in a local sense.

I disagree with Baym’s point concerning the importance of asking, “Whether mediated communication is as good as unmediated interaction…” (153) since people tend to use social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and other networks – besides sending text messages – as their primary form of communication. 

In regards to number one of my Learning Objectives, I would like to learn more about new media and create more art.  I do not want to lose sight of my objective and use social media to validate my progress.  Social media must remain a useful “tool” (152) for me to inform others about where my work is going.

2/3

Run more. A poster for running depicted in an old media. Colored pencil on white paper.

2/2

My on/off experiment will continue my ambivalence to take the metro.  While taking the subway is relatively easy and affordable, I try not to take it as much as I can. And instead, I usually walk.  But since this on/off experiment requires a current change in technology use, I will run instead of taking the metro. 

Since last class, I have rearranged my food shopping and exercise schedule around using the metro.  First, I take a quick two-mile run from the top of Riverside Park to 79^th St. where I then meander over to Trader Joe’s on 74^th St to get groceries.  Once I have everything, I walk up Broadway and back to Columbia campus.  All of this is done in about an hour. 

While I could just go to another grocery store close by, I prefer Trader Joe’s and like combining it with a run.

2/1

Last year, while teaching English as a second language in Prague, I taught individual lessons over Skype to students from Japan.  I always waved goodbye to a student before the end of class.  

Phones can be addictive.

While this can be overused, uppercased letters look very similar to cyrillic letters.

1/4

The MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA, exhibits a variety of new media and advances in technology.  MIT students and faculty participate in showing their kinetic sculpture, holography, robots and many other types of media on display at the museum.

Machine with 11 Scraps of Paper by Arthur Ganson 

1/3

Douglas Rushkoff makes a couple of intriguing points in chapter 2 of his book Program or Be Programmed, 2010.

I think there is more to whether or not it is "easier" (43) for people to communicate locally versus decentralized - through a phone, video chat etc.  I think it might be easier for someone to text someone else than to talk to another person in person for a number of different reasons, but am interested in learning why Rushkoff thinks otherwise.

I really like how he draws a connection between local vs. global companies and local vs. decentralized communication.  This is a topic that I would like to learn more about since it does not instantly come to mind when thinking about how technology may or may not alienate society.

1/2

I recently stumbled upon an Iris van Herpen 3D printed dress at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  As depicted in the picture below, the synthetic white form coils around a manikin.  The bottom part is made of leather.

Iris van Herpen is a fashion designer who uses technology in unison with handwork.  Since Van Herpen began using 3D printing in 2009, she has created a number of different dresses.  Unlike most fashion designers, she sketches her intended 3D dress before working on the computer.  She has created a vast range of different designs in conjunction with other artists and scientists.

Each dress compliments the female form and exhibits a sense of motion.  For example, her water dress project incorporates a 3D print of water splashing a model. Van Herpen uses photographs of the water to create and edit the 3D print.  Her use of technology and handwork creates an unusual and intriguing assortment of design.

1/1

Hi! I am from Boston, MA. I graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY, in 2015. At Union I double majored in English and Studio Arts.  I have very little experience with new media since I focussed on traditional media (such as painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, etc.) in college.  One month after graduation I moved to Prague, Czech Republic, to teach English, travel, and complete independent artwork. Within the first couple of months I began teaching art to a six-year-old boy diagnosed with autism.

Despite my lack of experience with new media, I am excited to learn about all of these different art forms and prepare to use them in the classroom.  I am very interested in teaching new media and learning about how it encourages creative thinking amongst students.