Artist Statement and Final Image

As I sit down to begin thinking about this narrative project, I'm struck by how completely unsure I am.  The ways in which I can manipulate imagery, the images themselves that I can use, and a narrative of some form are all variables that I have yet to pin down.  My favorite projects were Micro4 and Micro5, if I could figure out some way to incorporate those then that would be excellent.  Not really sure how to turn that into a narrative though.

Finally figured out how to tell a story, although I should add that I THINK I know how to share a narrative with the class. The first way would be to tell the educational story of myself, and twist it to end up as starving college student ends up with superpower and changes the world as in Micro5.  The other would be to show the 'life' of an engine.  Take photos of a block or powertrain at various stages in the production and work cycle to portray just what it is that these man-made steel hearts are capable of.  The more I type the more I prefer this over the first option.


I found the conclusive inspiration for my final project in a rather unlikely place, the a letter adorning the side of a Yuengling can.  As the letter from Dick Yuengling (President of the company) went on to discuss the tradition and history of the company, it struck me that prior to Art252 I had no real experience with image editing whatsoever.  Therefore, all my work is a sort of history of my growth and accomplishments.... not that I will be dethroning DaVinci anytime in the near future.

Having a concrete idea of what the main thought of my final project is, I began to try and decide how to represent this 'history' that I know have.  Originally I planned on using sections and images out of each piece as links back to the piece as a whole.  However, I began to play around with GIMP and found that utilizing a whole canvas to show the pieces in their entirety looked infinitely better and didn't require any massive previous knowledge to comprehend.

To conclude, I sought to manipulate the images to show not only progression and differentiation between the images, but to also convey the journey of my work.  I began with a simple photo of my hand, followed by projects 2 and 3 which I judged to be more of a demonstration of my technical abilities.  Project 4 was where I felt like I started to feel comfortable enough with the software that I could venture in expressing myself.  This was done through to differing perspectives of my place on campus and how no one could see it like I do.  Project 5 was just plain fun.  I always wanted to make some poster like this and never had the knowledge or tools to do so.  With permission from the instructor to be as corny as I saw necessary, I attempted to be as straight up as possible and flirt with the absurd and completely nonsensical; I believe I succeeded.  The final project was in contrast to Micro5 in that I was an interpretation of a random object and was entirely personal.  Ridicule from my interpretation was impossible as no one could ever see it like I do because they are not me, even if we were to sit down and vocalize the same thoughts word for word.

The connect-a-dot overlay to this image was not at all planned.  As I leaned back and looked at the tornado in the background sort of blending into the motion blur of the images, it struck me that to anyone else there's no logical linkage or order between this images.  Thoughts of the old backseat road trip game from my child years came to mind; seemed straightforward and readily understood so I utilized it.  This was easily the most difficult project due to the lack of guidelines - aside from the order to stay out of jail - but I enjoyed it.  It has become a showcase through narrative for a full 10 weeks of my thoughts and work.

Response to Carver

This short story was layered and kinda strange at first.  Indifference and jealousy dominates the story in the beginning; told by the husband who chooses to leave the officer nameless and direct condescending comments towards the life of Robert and his initially unwelcome entry into his life.  However, the story takes a turn when the dope is brought out and his wife falls asleep.  In this drug induced stage, he and Robert become 'linked' through the explanation of the cathedral.  Here the husband is finally able to transcend his norms and biases he originally possessed and 'see' from the eyes of a blind man, as shown by his thought "But I had my eyes closed.  I thought I'd keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do." 

This story seems to have been designed to show the transformation of an individual through the catalyst of a non-desired experience.  Originally I had issues with all the what I believed to be superfluous information about his wife's life in the beginning, but I believe Carver did this to help the reader see how self-centered and indifferent the husband really was.

MicroProject 6

My action words were CHIP and ROTATE.  I will admit as the list was read aloud I really desired flying and fire so I could take a photo of a burning roll of toilet paper flying through the air.  As I tried to think of how to represent my words I went through everything from literal interpretation such as chipping off an ice block to rotating the arms on a clock. 
In the end I decided to display rotation through all 6 faces of a rubix cube.  This is not a typical everyday item for most but it is for me.  This is not from my supremely awesome intellect where I can solve it in 4 minutes, but from getting frustrated and using it as a paper weight on my office desk after I solved just the one side.
I believed the rubix cube to be unseen for the most part, outside of the short episodes of its existence where people attempt to solve the riddle, these cubes usually sit on shelves with only a limited portion facing the occupants of a room. 
As for documentation, I originally contemplated a short video clip of the cube rotating across the desk.  However, I decided against this when I felt it would look too much like 'rolling' and my lack of camera stand resulted in a one-handed video camera with shaky footage that made me slightly nauseous to watch.  The still camera images are much like how it is presented in the world.
Lastly, I attempted to sort of interpret the cube.  I left the solved, orange side of the cube the largest and brightest side in the picture with a blank background to offset it.  This orange sides represents our never ending desire to solve and do everything perfectly in life, and instead we fail to see the jumble that life really is and that this jumble is what makes it life in the first place.  The other 5 sides that I darkened out are the 'jumble' of life and darkened; despite how they maintain positions in front of the orange side, they are not the focus of the life journey/audience. 

MicroProject 5

For me the most vexing stage of this project was deciding what power I wanted to possess.  Started with wanting to fly, then read people's minds, ability to talk to inanimate objects, then I realized something; life is one big experience.  There are so many things I want to do and it hit me that one major factor stood in the way - money.  So, the ability to create a 100,000 stack of $100 bills when I strike a certain pose (as demonstrated above) seemed like the perfect ability. 

This ability allows me to cover all the necessary life expenses and, therefore, negates all reason to hold a traditional full-time job.  With all this newly realized time I intend to use the results of my power and live life to the fullest.  Each picture here represents a small segment of that life.  I would start by continuing my education (after I pay off OSU of course) through the culinary experiences of food and drink as represented by the beer mug.  Develop an appreciation for beer and eat my way around the world.  The shooting trophy in the bottom left signifies my desired goal of becoming exceedingly proficient with a broad range of firearms across all applications.  Ever since middle school my friends and I have talked about entering the Baja 1000, hence the Mopar car flying through the air top left.  My skills with my dirtbike are never enough to satisfy me, so my superpower would enable me to find the instructors necessary to elevate my skills to the desired level.  For me the snowboard is a personally irritating source of discussion.  The majority of my mates can snowboard, but as I played hockey growing up I naturally break out the skis during winter.  I don't go but two or three times a season and instead of spending them busting up my face on the snow with the board I just continue skiing.  A season long trip to Colorado would be in the cards to enable me to achieve proficiency; financed by my superpower.  I'm a fan of the old-school technology that was present for the World Wars and I love flying.  I would take my ability and purchase a P51 Mustang prop fighter to fly at my leisure.  Lastly, the truck.  As a self admitted bushwhacker (Australian equivalent to country boy), all of these life experiences follow a stop at closest dealership and truck chop shop.  I would take the above 1 ton Ford frame and body, sway in completely modified and built Cummins, bolt on an Allison transmission, and lastly install Mattracks in place of tires.

This is my superpower = the ability to live life on my own terms and enjoy it as much as possible.  Life is short.

Response to Wallace

This was easily my favorite blog assignment that I have read so far this quarter, and I say that out of sincere interest and not ass-kissing for being sick Monday and missing class.  From the very beginning Wallace is engaging with his illustrative story about the fish and water, then leads into using that required commencement component to help illustrate the 'norms' of life and how they change us as individuals.  Instead he focuses on talking to these graduates about "teaching you how to think".  He diffuses the situation by directly addressing the insult that this is typically seen as, and now with a sense of camaraderie he launches into a speech about becoming well-adjusted and viewing things as they ought to be seen and not as we see them and explains his point of view in a readily digestible format. 

For me, I loved page seven.  Leading from his early narrative about religion (I am an Atheist for all intents and purposes), he finally revealed worship. 

"This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well adjusted.  You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't.  You get to decide what to worship."

 Wallace's perspective on worship made complete sense to me, I had never thought to break it down as he had and rationalize it in that way, but I lack any argument with his positioning.  The issue with mankind as an individual is keeping this truth ever present instead of slipping into auto pilot where we become the center of our environment.  He even went so far as to call out that this worship is a subtle thing, slipping further into our being day by day, and therefore we need to be selective about what thoughts we allow to cross our consciousness. Life really is an an educational process that we don't lay the final mark with any of the letters of the alphabet, but with how we live life through or ability to be well-adjusted and open to the possibilities instead of closed off and self-centered.

MicroProject 4

For this project I chose 'my' parking spot on WC.  This picture has dual meaning as I park in the exact same spot nearly everyday and between work and leisure activities I spend a large amount of time in the truck; referred to as my second home.  I attempted to interact with the truck and parking lot through a close up of the truck's point of view and the tree I park in front of, a close up of the boundaries that are the white lines in the lot and my silent rebellion against conformity as I am parked on the lines on the other side of the spot, and a far away image as I was standing in the bus stop hut with all the other cars blurred out. Lastly, the background is the asphalt zoomed in so I as to highlight the grain, texture, and randomness of the material that we all seem to overlook.  I want the viewer to see the parking lot differently, it isn't just the purpose-driven section of earth where we've leveled the trees and ruined the environment.  The parking lot is a second home for our vehicles, an extension and part of ourselves so to speak as we depend on them for transportation, work, and play.  From a humorous perspective, maybe even think about parking your cars near the fresh grass, the flower pots, or the trees; I wouldn't want to sit in a scorching parking lot all day and stare up another car's bumper... would you?

Response to Kaprow

I'll just start off by saying it took me three re-reads to even figure out what Kaprow was saying.. and I'm still not entirely sure I have it right.  I understand the perspective he makes in regards to trying to distinguish what is art, what is life, and how one goes about deciding what goes in which category and those that are both.  His narrative about how Duchamp ironically placed a physical limit on art, the mode of self expression and personal opinion, supports his following paragraph about how the watching of his elbow in the mirror counts as a form of art.  As Kaprow continues, I found his thoughts on our attempts at differentiating ourselves and how we all appear dissimilar despite our similarities. This is shown when he proclaims "An unremarkable picture of myself was beginning to surface, an image I'd created but never examined".

I'm not sure if it's due to the lack of a creative side that has been suppressed by 4 years of business schooling and exceptionally black and white technical training in regards to engines, but I found this article to be the hardest one to effectively comprehend so far this quarter.

Micro Project 3

Cricket Ball and Collingwood footy - I chose to show both of these as they represent the interaction I had with family as a young child.  We would spend entire weekends enjoying each other's company.  When I get homesick I often sit in my office chair and roll the 7 pound leather cricket ball around my desk.

Family, Childhood
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Mission street hockey skates - For me, these skates were the sign that I had finally achieved proficiency and began playing in the varsity tournament.  I played our entire season in them and we took third in the league; an accomplishment as we were predicted as bottom of the pile at season start.

Success, Perseverance 
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 MSR dirtbike helmet - This is my newest helmet purchased this spring.  For me, dirtbikes have been around my entire life ever since my uncle propped his up against the shed so I could climb up on to it and ride off when Mum wasn't looking.  Now in the everyday bustle and hectic schedules, taking a break from the world and riding off into the woods or racing with mates is my main sanctuary. This helmet has saved my skull from getting crushed as I am unable to take a picture of my bike as she is in the shop.

Peace, Adrenaline
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Bullets - I have a rural Australian upbringing on a cattle island, and as such firearms were prolific and therefore an everyday norm.  As I grew in both size and experience, my collection has expanded and I  have to come to respect and treasure them.  They also symbolize independence and ability to provide a blanket of security for loved ones and myself. (Used bullets to represent my guns for both privacy and not disturbing the peace in class)

Protection, Manhood
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Air Impact Gun and Magnum Logo - I have been told by family that I would crawl under the trucks and tractors with my grandpas and uncles long before I would play with the plethora of toys in my crib.  There is something amazing about a relationship with a bike/car/truck.  For me, I don't see them as inanimate objects; they feel, they talk, they hurt, and they give back to those that take care of them.  This impact is my primary tool of choice and the logo is adorning my truck.

Non-rationale affection, Smiles
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This Blog - This blog shows my identity through my interests and pursuits.  In attempt to view it from a 3rd party perspective, I assume it shows how I seem to favor the tangible and definite more then abstract (this is most certainly true), no fear of becoming involved and working with my hands, yet in retrospect it is decidedly lacking in regards to my education. What this blog lacks is the 'gray' side of my nature, outside of the everythingisblackandwhite mode I seem to enter at times,  this simple JPEG can't reveal how I can spend hours on the bow of a fishing vessel in Bass Strait doing nothing more then soaking in the natural show that is the dolphins in the wake or the seagulls dancing in the air.  It can't show me laying on a ATV in the middle of an open field, watching the clouds roll by while listening to the Kookaburras in the gum trees.

Feet in Smoke

I found Sullivan's "Feet in Smoke" to be a representation of the challenges in life and the difficulties we have in communication amongst ourselves as seen in the difficulties that Worth receives and overcomes in his post microphone shock experience.  Sullivan uses humor and the ending with a positive tale of full recovery to have the reader focus on Worth's condition without openly revealing the deep and painful struggle he faces.  My favorite parts of this are the episode Worth has where he comes to life on the bed, only to fall back to the embrace of unconsciousness but not before John sees the eyes of madman.   Also, I physically started laughing as Sullivan narrated that antics of Worth in the hospital after he rejoins the land of the living.

For this story I had no storyline comprehension issues, the only minor point I had an issue with involved the medical terminology, specifically "asystole", and a little outside reading was required. 

MicroProject 2

For the map of my journey to class, I first thought of the real-world map layout.  From there I would base my work of geographic positioning and locations that accompanied my morning commute.  However, during the process of taking pictures I realized something; I don't really pay attention to what is outside the truck windows.  Consciously I am aware of 161, 270, 315, and finally Lane Ave exit ramp but as for the details I am oblivious.  Therefore I decided to construct my journey map around the two main areas of realization and their scale.  It goes Western style left to right, with the left in high opacity to represent that bleary-eyed morning perspective.  The breakfast stool, pan, and orange juice containing fridge are my AM focal points.  From there I work to the garage, where the pictures and my eyes began to come further into focus, but not yet all the way.  As I open the door I am greeted by my ever present dirtbike helmet as backseat passenger and the gauges, ready and waiting for ignition and to come to life. 

The journey itself becomes of background importance and it overtaken by the recognition of destination points; the stadium, walk up the Welcome steps, and finally the directional arrow directing the path to ArtEd252.  While I am irritated that I lack the imaging skills to create on screen what I see in mind, this picture is as best as I am able to portray my morning commute.

Micro 1

Person and surroundings

 Radial

 Person up close

 Bird's eye

 Ant perspective

 Stable

 Symmetrical

 Asymmetrical

 Unstable

My name on campus

I found that compared to the first photo assignment, there was much more conscious thought as to what I was taking photos of and how I had to utilize the surrounding environment (friend's hoodie, brother's index card pyramid, elevation, etc.) to achieve the goals outlined in the assignment.  This left the difference between the first and second photo assignment to be in the premeditated thoughts before snapping the picture while leaving the actual act of taking a photo unchanged.  My favorite parts of the process for this assignment was looking for settings that had been naturally set up without any involvement on my part, required that much more conscious effort into my work and I found myself enjoying it as a challenge.  My favorite pictures were my brother's unstable card pyramid, my friend in a non pose picture just enjoying an afternoon, and a picture of a hoodie with Ohio State on it as I feel that as students we have entered into a relationship with the university and their name and ours are now associated for life and we describe each other. 

Wexner Center

Wednesday after class I went with a classmate to tour through the exhibition of David Smith.  As a 'gearhead', I found the use of metal and the industrial nature of his works to be very interesting and pleasing for the most part.  My favorite pieces were large in nature and involved bare stainless steel where Smith had taken some sort of abrasion wheel and scoured the metal surface.  At first I thought it rather stupid, but as I walked around the piece I found that the reflections seemed to move in a non-predictable oscillating pattern and in a fashion follow my eyes around the piece. 

As a whole I enjoyed Smith's exhibition, the only things I felt were out of place involved the canvas paint-spatter works that he created.  They seemed out of place in the hard, tactile company of the metal structures but as we were informed this exhibition is by no means an inclusive display of his work and therefore I can only speculate what techniques dominated his works.  

Picture Upload

Response to Nipple Jesus

The story comes across as a summary of the changing of individual's viewpoints as decided by their involvement, or lack thereof, with a certain topic or focus and how others can affect that positioning.  I found Dave's story from big, beastly, tattooed bouncer to art gallery guard as a parallel journey for him physically as to his mental shift from the Nipple Jesus being a work of art, to a disgusting and offensive piece of pornographic media based crap, to once again being beautiful in its existence. 

My main difficulty with the story was what exactly was the main focus of Hornby.  Was it the perspective of the art for Dave, how it caused him to delve in to the consideration of his past and how family affected his life choices, or how he took a self-motivated journey away from the dangerous bouncer scene to that of a guard and the result of his actions?  I want to say that it is the culmination of each of these 'mini journeys' but I'm not entirely sure. 

Response to Walker and Barret

Walker

In Big Ideas and Art Making, Walker discusses how art is an extension of the artists themselves and how they/we use art to actually ask and unearth more questions then answers. The way in which he talked about how the questions that owe their existence to art actually go beyond the formal, technical choices that the artists make.  This was in a sense quite revealing to me in that I always looked at art as more of an example of the artists abilities and then considered why they made the decisions they did, whereas after reading this it almost makes the technical decisions be of no consequence in comparison to the message and question the artist is asking.

I found difficult his explanation of the differentiation between theme and big idea.  Using the Robert Motherwell example, Walker talks about how while he had over 100 paintings in which Motherwell depicted death, it was not death but human emotion that was his theme.  To me this seems skewed in the focus of his work.  The only explanation I can think of is that without having knowingly seen any of Motherwell's work, the paintings express the emotions felt by those after the death occurs.

Barret

Being a marketing major, I have spent days of my life going over a broad range of advertisements on a wide selection of mediums.  Barret's differentiation between denotations and connotations was an eye opener for me, instead of merely looking at and advertisement and looking for strengths/weaknesses and judging the applicability of the broadcasted message, I picked up an ad and searched for the denotations and connotations it possessed and was startled to realize things that I had never really 'seen' in them before.

I did have a problem with how the Michael Ray Charles section of the article was handled.  As Barret went on to talk about the examples and forms of denotations and connotations Charles used, it appeared that he didn't even consider the fact that not everyone is as racist and biased as he made them out to be.  This skewing of people's connotations, for me, weakened Charles' efforts at showcasing the perception of African Americans.  I did quite like the art students dissection the Rolling Stones cover, the way they pulled apart the image and broke down what was really being said without being said was excellent.

Response to Kidd, Hickey, and Weschler articles

Kidd

As a marketing major, I absolutely loved this article.  Using the template of warfare as a guide, he lays out the "battle" between the consumer and the business men in pursuit of their attention and money.  Despite what most business people believe, or more accurately claim to believe for fear of angry stares and comments, companies are in the business of making money.  There is nothing more then this goal and all are other actions, despite whatever fanciful and 'righteous' labeling they might be adorned with, are set to assist in taking as much from "the enemy" as possible and making them dependent and loyal to the business.


From a personal opinion, I saw no problems what so ever with how Kidd labeled both the students he was addressing or the consumers he was teaching them to how to manipulate.  This is business without the facade of the business' employees being mentally upstanding.  For clarification, I am not endorsing stealing, lying, or cheating the customer in any way.  It is morally wrong and the lawyers and judicial system are designed to negate that as much as possible.  I am merely stating from a Realist perspective, that Kidd's publication skips over what people want to be thought of, to what salespeople really think as they sit across the table and smile at you.

Hickey

Hickey utilizes his article to showcase how mankind triumphs and seems to find a way to break the rules while remaining inside their limitations; through the example of Julius Erving's shot against Kareem.  I especially liked how Hickey discussed how rules that are meant to be helpful and civilized eventually become governing and controlling; "the liberating rule that civilized us yesterday will, almost inevitably, seek to govern us tomorrow, by suppressing both the pleasure and the disputation".  He seems to strive to convey that as a society we need to be ever vigilant about who creates these rules and for what, and to recognize when they switch from being conducive to pleasure and instead taking a place of governing.

As Hickey talked about the development of basketball, the message became blurred to me.  Was he trying to specifically hype up the magic that he perceives as basketball, or the threats to it that are a result of rules and will eventually change it.  Yet in both the beginning and conclusion of the paper he resumes a stance of individuals and groups triumphing over these hurdles and coming out on top and 'free'.  I believe he was referring to the freedom that we can have within the guidelines and using basketball as a metaphor for his viewpoint.  His change in presentation though clouds his otherwise convincing argument for me and I feel it detracts from it.

Weschler

Weschler talks about how animators are starting to control the power of 'Him' and maintain control over the physical and emotional state of a creation and the response of the audience through the manipulation of the pixels on the computer screen. I find this interesting as he began to talk about how unsettling the animations were due to their realism and believability. It showcased how well artists and engineers were able to break down the composition of human emotions into muscle groups and bone structures along with their interaction to produce the desired results. 

I began to feel unsettled as well when he went on to talk about how faces and emotions were the "Seat of the Souls" and therefore beyond the reach of manipulation by men.  As he further progressed in his article, the exploits of the animators took on a different light for me.  While I watched animated movies in the past I always used to think that it was a sign of progress how far those such as PIXAR had come.  Now, I wonder if perhaps we have gone too far, become too clever for our own good and are beginning to cross the line of what should be done in regards to perception among society and the possible negative effects.  Technology is already accustomed to being accused daily for the downturn of society and the ever rising rich/poor differentiation and alienation amongst individuals.  Now with the future ability to watch movies solely created and acted in by pixels generated by a computer in place of a living, breathing individual, I fear we might be hastening the electronic divide that we are already dealing with.

Introduce Yourself

For lack of originality this afternoon following a full day of classes, I'm going to follow the stereotypical introduction practice.  G'day (yet another stereotype), my name is Oren Nauman.  Currently I am in my last quarter before graduation in Ohio State University's Bachelor's in Business Administration degree with a specialization in Marketing.  My plans are to never have to lift a snow shovel again by flying back home to Tasmania, Australia where I would like to follow a marketing career path that involves an industrial or automotive product base.  

When I'm not buried under due dates in the basement of Mason Hall, I work in commercial sales with an international aftermarket auto parts supplier working directly with individual accounts.  When I need to escape the crazy of the academic and corporate worlds, I literally escape.  My main interests include anything with a motor, especially my dirtbike and 4x4 where I leave the cell at home and spend all day riding/driving off road to find peace and quiet along with weekend-long backpacking trips.  Other time-consumers for me are competitive shooting, cooking, eating, and the college experience would not be complete without beer and friends.

My Top Five Favorite Reasons to Wake Up

1) So I can get back to bed faster
2) Breakfast
3) Coffee
4) School got cancelled
5) Dirtbike trip