Reflection

Well this is it the last post for this class.....and I can honestly say that my attitude towards blogging has changed. I feel like it was a good tool to keep this journal and I will probably use it in the future to upload images from trips and other such activity's for friends and family. I also found our coarse blog to be extremely helpful especially with all the examples from this year and last of projects and how to do things. As for the different programs we used this semester I think that I found each and everyone quite useful. My favorite was photoshop mostly because I see myself using it a lot in the future, I really liked how we could change pictures to do almost what ever we wanted. I had a lot of fun just playing with it at home on small projects of my own. As for Dreamweaver I found that once you understood just a little it became some much easier to use, I quite enjoyed creating my website but due to time and lack of need I probably wont do much more to it in the future. The program Premier was one that I think I would actually use in the future and I found it quite easy to use....well at least for the stuff we were doing. All in all I really liked this class and the projects, I really felt that I learned things in this class that I will remember and use someday on my own and to be honest this is probably the first time I can say that about a university class I have taken. I also really enjoyed being stretched to do things that I would not have normally done on my own and to experiment with new ideas and projects. It has been fun and who knows maybe ill get more into the newmedia discipline. Thanks for a great semester, cheers.

Time Bomb

Well today me and Esther finished our last newmedia project. We entitled our video Time Bomb mostly because that is how it felt. The whole pace of the video was such that it seemed like it was running down almost like time was running out. One of our last sequences was of two images flicking back and forth rapidly and then cutting to a clip of a nuclear explosion, to me it felt like a timer going off followed by a detonation. The meaning of our video was time is running out to save our earth and if we dont do something soon it may be to late and we will have to live with the consequences. In the end I actually really enjoyed working on this project, the program Premier was not to hard to work with all thought at the end there was some things that were kind of fidgety. I wish we would have had more time to work on it and then we would have been able to really find high quality footage and really fine tune our video. One thing that would have been really nice to do would have been to sync our still shot cuts in time with the beat or certain notes in our audio, unfortunately we did not have enough time to do that kind of detailed work. It was neat to put audio music to our piece after we were finished because it seemed like the music was almost written for the video we created, it was so neat to hear how everything just came together in the end. As people view our video we hope that they will feel like there is something wrong with our attitudes towards what we are doing to our earth. The interesting thing is im not really an environmentalist or anything like that so to make a movie that seems to push an environmental agenda is not something I would normally do, it was just that we did not want people to think everything is ok. As the old saying goes ignorance is bliss we decided to see if we could erase peoples ignorance and possible evoke some sort of personal evaluation about what they are doing to our earth either directly or passively to effect it in a positive or negative way.

Cool movie

Here is a video that I really liked and we used it for some of its footage in our own movie "time bomb"

Final Project

Our last project is a video editing project, I was really worried about it all semester because I felt like it was going to be the hardest project. Once we got started on it it was actually quite straight forward. My partner and I choose to do it on environmental issues like water, air, and land pollution. Our footage was all stock footage that was taken from youtube.com and still images found using google.com. We had the idea to start out with images that were relatively calm and showed nature at its finest which would then start to turn into footage the was showing various forms of pollution. The ending was my favorite part where still images increase in speed until a nuke goes off and is faded into a scene of kids playing in a park and a sunset. All in all I was actually quite pleased with the final project.

Web Site - Finished

I finished my website today and it is now posted on the web. The address is www.uleth.ca/~phillip.plourde, I think I am really pleased with it. All of the pages worked out exactly the way I wanted them to. I felt like some of the text was not as well planned as I wanted it to be but I can always go back and change it when I have more time. I really liked working with dreamweaver, it was not to hard to learn and once you got the hang of it you could work really fast.

Great Web Idea

Today as I was working on finding a theme for my website I decided that since I was a Bio major why not give my site a bio theme. As I thought about this more I started to think it would really work. Now I am just looking for more bio pics but some of my ideas include using DNA sequences, and lost of random SEM (kind of special electron microscope) images of different cellular structures. I think I will use the SEM and DNA images for the home page and maybe even a Bio luminescent plant for the intro page. For the rest of the pages I think I am going to use Bio images that relate to each topic. For example im going to use a image of two nerve cells making contact for my Contacts page and possibly people working in a lab for the experience page.

Web Site - Intro

We have now begun to discuss web site design. There was a couple of styles we discussed in class including Information Publishing, E-Commerce and Brochureware. My favorite style is the brochureware one and a good example of it can be found at: http://www.advertisingdesign.com/index2.html. The other styles were useful but I found the Information Publishing sites annoying mostly because they tried to present so much information that I would get lost in them and not be able to find anything or I would lose my place. At the end of class we took a look at the program Dreamweaver. It was simple enough to use and I also learned that you use photoshop a lot when doing web design which is something I never knew before.

Collage - Meaning

The first thing I wanted people to notice when they viewed my work was how much light it seemed to radiate. I really tried hard to give the work this sense of electricity and light brightly coursing through all visual aspects of the piece. The various points of bright light were incorporated to signify a accumulation of knowledge in the form of digital information. My choice of color was chosen not just for its visual appeal but because of the feeling it presents the viewer with. Various hues of blue have always been associated with cooler feelings, by using blues it gives the viewer this feeling of technological professionalism, and removes much of the personal element of the piece. This is what I wanted because computers and digital codes are rather impersonal entity's doing a specific job as commanded with no understanding of consequences. I hoped that the cooler colors would help the viewer see unique individuals with personality's as impersonal entity's almost computer like.

The Silhouetted individuals I created to show that we as a human race may be all unique and different in terms of race, religion, social status, and gender but yet there is something inherently common that flows thought each of us. I used the numbering forming the individuals as a way of showing that we are all in fact not as different as we would like to think and that we are all connected. The use of numbers can also be seen as a way that we all identify ourselves. All of us have our identity recorded as various combinations of numbers and quite often those number speak to who we are. I then superimposed the silhouettes against a image of the world in an effort to further show that we are all connected no matter were we live on this planet. Finally the circling digital numbers bring the whole piece together by creating the effect of a pipe or link, the idea is that we as individuals are defined by numbers and because of this can be connected thought digital links no matter were we are in the world. The bright central point of light represents the wealth of human knowledge and our potential, it is located at the end of what could be termed the data pipe and is therefore available to be accessed or added to no matter who you are or were you are in this world. With that my over all theme is that of connection no matter who we are or were we live.

Collage Is Finished

I finished my collage today and it was a lot of fun. I worked more on this one than I did on my first assignment and I feel that this activity really helped me to understand the different ability's of photoshop. For this project I had to use so many different filters to get the right effect and this process took a lot of time and trial and error. I think this is why I really felt like I learned a lot from this project because it required so much experimentation. The other problem I had that I had to work though was only having really low resolution stock images, my pic of the earth for instance was a horrible image and I had to basically retrace the whole image twice and then resize it to be able to get it to work.

Intense Editing

These two images illustrate some of the time consuming editing I am doing to create my collage. The bottom image is the original low resolution stock image that I used and above is the finished high resolution image I created from the stock image. It probably took around one and a half hours or more to increase the resolution of the stock image.

I have an Idea

I was looking through some images today and I found this image. I think I am going to use for my main inspiration for my collage project. I really like the visual appeal it has, and to me that is extremely important but I also like its message. To me it shows how our whole world is interconnected by data links whether that is through the internet, cable, radio or some other means. I also found another image that further shows that because of this we as humans have lost our unique identity and have become numbers.

Not so Fav Collage examples

Fav collage examples

Collage - Intro

We started discussing our collage project today and it was quite interesting. I will admit that I have mixed feelings about this project, on one hand I feel that I have a better grasp of the programs needed to edit the photos but on the other hand I feel that this project is going to require me to put more meaning into the piece. I have a hard time with the concept of having to infuse meaning into every work of art. Our teacher discussed how collage is a very old art form that reflects the views of the artist. With me I am more drawn to the visual appeal of a piece and not so much to the meaning, in a nut shell if it looks cool to me I like it and it does not go much farther than that. Some of the piece that our teacher showed us were kind of silly looking or even down right ugly. I suppose that as I try to understand their meaning I will better appreciate them for what they are. I feel that I am going to really struggle creating something with meaning instead of just something that I feel looks good. I mean what can I say I really like to have fun in photoshop! Ill post some of my fav and less fav collage examples that our teacher showed us tomorrow.

Self Portrait - Meaning

I think the obvious theme of my piece is balance, or a desire to have two apposing or contrasting things meet and support each other. One of the defining elements of my piece is the general pyramid shape, just as two apposing walls leaning against each other and give each other support and strength so should technology and nature combine to do the same. The angles formed by my body and the angles that the mountain face and the computer chip makes produces this idea of stability. The whole image from body form to backgrounds produces the feeling of balance between two different worlds, on one side is electricity on the other tranquility, nature vs technology, yet there is a knife edge balance and at any moment this balance could collapse and that is why my eyes are open. I am searching to make sure that I keep things the way they need to be, and off in the distance I chose to put a background of what appears to be a storm. This was to suggest to the mind that the nature part of the balance is about to be encompass in a raging storm and chaos may ensue. The name of the piece comes from my feeling that eventually we all must come to a realization of where we stand on the divide between nature and the ever advancing wave of “stuff” the future is bringing. As the words on my shirt say “seen the future” each viewer much decide if what is portrayed as the future on the viewers right is good or bad and then decided what they are going to do about that.

Self Portrait - Done!

Well I finished my first photoshop project today. I really enjoyed working on this piece, it was hard and I really had to rush at the end but it all worked out. As I worked on it different elements came together almost on their own. For instance the pyramid shape that the mountains and computer chip form was something that I wanted but could not figure out how to do. As I was playing around with it I hid a layer and as a result noticed that the mountain and chip layer came together perfectly. Another thing that seemed to work perfectly that I did not plan was the word on my shirt. On the viewers right side on my shirt are the words "seen the future" which work really well with the whole future computer chip theme. Putting the finishing touches on the project were also rather fidgety, mostly because I did not have very much experience with photo shop.

Some more Inspiration

Here are two more images that have given me some more direction in my self portrait project. In class we have also been learning some more skill in photoshop and im really starting to love that program. We did an exercises in class where we took an image of a close up shot of a models face who was wearing bright pink lipstick and edited it. First we changed the image to a grey scale and then layered it over top of the original. Using the eraser tool we lightly erased the lips of the grey scale model so that the pink could come through. The result was a striking black and white image of a model but the lips were pink. I think I may be able to use that skill in my own project later on.

Great Idea

As I was searching for different idea's for my first photoshop project on the website http://www.photodisk.com/ I came across this image. I started thinking that it was exactly what I wanted to do for my project. I have a thing for balance and contrast that this piece exemplifies extremely well and I think with a little help I may actually be able to reproduce this same effect on my own. Now I just need to go find a few more images that can further inspire my own self portrait.

Photoshop practice

As I was working on this project I suddenly noticed that I did not have a pic of myself on this blog and I was pretty sure everyone was wondering what I look like.....so here it is!!!Now I know that everyone is feeling so much better.lol.
Coming up soon we are going to be starting our first photo shop project by doing self portraits, im am really excited about it. We have been learning a lot about photoshop the last few weeks and it will be fun to try and apply it for the first time to a project of our own. The thing that I have noticed about photoshop is that to really become good at it you need to just start playing around with it and see for yourself what each thing does. Our teacher tried showing us a bunch of different techniques but I dont think i remember much. Evey time we start up a new exercise I forget how to do everything and that is a little frustrating. The other day we did some practice work on a image our teacher gave us, it was of a bald man with a tattoo on his head looking up while in a squatting stance. It was amazing what we learned how to do, we took the man and cut him out of the background using different tools and then applied some filters and other effects. We then took a different background and placed him over it but made him more opaque than normal. It looked really cool! The more we work with photoshop the more I am starting to realize that you can really change almost anything you want about a picture and that nothing is final.

Random Info

ok so here 5 of the websites that I use the most. they are really not all that interesting but they are useful: (all of these can be found in my side list) and my 3 fav magazines.

1. Hotmail- A basic email service

2.MEC- Stands for Mountain Equipment Co-op and is basically a site which allows you to shop, or read up on new gear. They also have a page that is called the gear swap, pretty much like the news paper classifieds.

3. Google- probably the best search engine around

4. UofL website- This one allows the students here to access their email, grades, class lists and other use full info.

5.ebay- This one is for online auctions

Fav Mags

1.Climbing- Basically a rockclimbing oriented magazine.
2.National Geographic- A true classic
3.Readers Digest- what can I say it has some good reading!

Whats coming up

Now its time for me to tell everyone about my aspirations, I have for quite some time wanted to be a dentist and I cant honestly say it is not for the money. I know that money is not everything and that it does not buy happiness but I also realize that being poor does not buy happiness so I think im going to take my chances with the money thing. To be honest there are many reason I have chosen to be a Dentist the only problem standing in my way of this goal is school. I suppose I can be a bit of a pessimist sometimes and because of that I look at school not so much as an opportunity for learning but more as the great beast that is trying to destroy innocent hopefully young people trying to give the world what it wants. From my experience school is not so much about knowledge and applying that knowledge but more about fulfilling useless requirements and having unrealistic teachers thinking that their class is the be all end all of higher learning. That said I choose Biology as my major partly because it would fulfill my requirements for dental school but also because I am actually interested in it. Biology actually holds for me a glimmer of hope when it comes to learning, I see it as something that I can grasp and has practical logical application. As for the UofL being the school of choice for me...well it isn't, but im here and the reason for that is it was close and easy to get into. I really do have goals and dreams in life but most of them are more centered around family and providing a good quality of life for them. Even thought biology is my official goal right now im actually looking more into getting a Medical Lab degree from the UofA. I know that I have kind of hashed school in this post, but to be honest I am kind of encouraged by the classes im taking this semester they seem to be more about learning and helping me achieve my best instead of about just filling a requirement. The shift in attitude comes from the fact that finally I have the opportunity to interact in a creative environment with doing things that are well different from the norm and yet stimulating. From this class I expect to have my mind exercised in a way that it has so far not been.
My experience with programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver are limited but my experience with premier is non existent....but hey at least I want to learn. When it comes to photography I actually do have a fair amount of technical experience but not to much in the art department. Unfortunately most of my photography deals with film cameras and not digital ones but at least I do have access to a digital camera.

Number One

Hey All

Well here goes my first attempt at blogging but before I really begin, who came up with the word blogg???I don't know if its just me but I actually avoided doing this for so long because the word seemed so utterly retarded that I had no desire to participate. That being said I suppose I am in higher learning and by virtue of that I need to expand my horizons and experience the phenomenon of BLOGGING. I tent to get easily addicted to things involving a computer and or the Internet. MSN and email being the first followed by computer games and even worse online computer games like star craft and most recently The World of War Craft. This is another reason why I have avoided experimenting with blogging, don't get me wrong I'm not saying it isn't useful to some people, I have a friend who for instance used it to report on a trip she took to Costa Ricia. She was able to keep people updated and post pictures. I'm sure my opinion of this useful service will change dramatically for better or worse in the coming months as I have the opportunity to experiment and participate in this online sensation.