Image Remix Project

              Cluster 1 - Project 2: Image Remix

                                Artist Statement

   Smartphones, tablets, and computers, our society wouldn't be able to function without them. These pieces of technology has brought us many advantages: social media, online banking, online shopping, photo sharing, almost anything you can imagine at the touch of your fingertips anytime, anywhere. Technology has had so much of an impact in the way we communicate and do things, and to me it just seems like it has become "The Now Generation".

I'm not going to quote Spider Man on this one, but with great technology comes great responsibility. Many Americans naively wonder into cyberspace and take advantage of its conveniences, but often fail to see the long term effects this behavior has on themselves and others... especially with young children. How many times have you seen parents hand a smartphone, or a tablet to their child just to calm them down, or keep them busy? It has become so convenient for parents to babysit their children with technology. In this project I chose to use a very popular smartphone brand to illustrate this exact issue with parenting.

 

After reading an article from the Huffington Post about technology and the effects they have on our daily lives (Digital Awareness) I approached my project by searching for images on the web. I found lots of images of children interacting with smartphones, but like the brand that I was remixing I had to keep it simple. I also wanted to keep it simple to comment on the convenience of handing a child a smartphone to keep them calm.

I arranged the images that I found to seat the children at a social table, and to illustrate the distance that technology creates. This deteriorates their ability to communicate in face time, limiting their development of social skills.

I used the poster edge filter in Photoshop Elements to create a comic-like approach to the children interacting with the smartphones, but then felt it wasn't effective. So I cleaned up the layers and used the burn tool to blend the subjects into the background (Image below).

                                                  Here's the final product:

Magazine Cover Project

     Cluster 1 - Project 1: Magazine Cover


                               Artist Statement 

The American dream.. most of the people in America are fed up and angry at the broken system. The outlook of the American dream is far from reach… So far, that others on the web believe that the American dream now exists in other countries across the globe… I have yet to find any concrete data that backs this assumption, but one thing is very clear as an American… The dream has faded, and our system failed to evolve with the times… It has become a vessel for political corruption. What we now have are political super bowls, in which special interest groups and lobbyist bet for/against parties that works in their favor. The news corporations, and other media outlets under their umbrellas act as sports commentators in the political arena, to build a fandom of ill-informed Americans that bandwagon agendas without question. 

            This inflated political bubble has become so enormous that very few Americans are able to focus on the real issues that exist within our own country, and if awareness is present… The news giants quickly snuff it out. The masses have been conditioned to follow the distractions of the mainstream media, often forgetting more important qualities that can help build our country stronger. There is little focus on science, and other important institutions such as education, which lacks the ability to keep up the pace because of this political bubble. In this magazine cover, I would like to portray the emotions shared by the American public… The same people who has had enough, and are tired of the corruption.

           Using google, I decided to type in a few words about America to see what searches were popular. I took a couple of screen shots of the results (Seen above ^), they echo the sentiment that is expressed by many working families and young adults. The second shot intrigued me, but I wanted to focus on the issues at home rather than venturing into the American dream in Finland. I then searched the web for tips on successful magazine covers since I'm designing a magazine based on the research I've done.

1stwebdesigner.com

After reading up on the tips I began my work on photoshop elements. I used various images that I found on the web to create a frustrated Statue of Liberty. I felt that the statue of liberty would help unify the sentiment expressed by most American across the country. I found a stock image of an angry woman, and tried to morph her into the Statue of Liberty.

     I put a lot of work into this image to form a collage-styled Statue of Liberty, but I wasn't happy with the end result. I scrapped the idea and started fresh.

         After reworking the design, I decided to approach it from a protestors' standpoint. I used two iconic images and juxtaposed them in a way to help express the raw emotions of the protestors. I also placed the title of the magazine "the BOLD" over the protest banner to help elevate the protest creating "WE the BOLD PEOPLE". I then used text to help tie the issues together (Image below).

                                     Here is the final product: