Kelly Bryan art

The Problem Solverz is an animated series created by Ben Jones...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:12:12 -0500

Ben Jones of Paper Rad

"The Problem Solverz"

DVD - "Talking Trash"

The Problem Solverz is an animated series created by Ben Jones and picked up by Cartoon Network.

Paper Rad - final paper

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:03:00 -0500

PAPER RAD –

What the hell is it? Well the basic information is Paper Rad is a collective group of artists who make comics, zines (small, self-published work usually made by photocopier and circulated in no more than 5,000 copies) videos, net art, MIDI files, paintings, instillations, movies, books, and are involved in various bands. The three main members include Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci, and Ben Jones who live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island. They have had shows in major galleries such as Pace Wildenstein, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Deitch Projects.

STYLE -

The made-up style unique to Paper Rad and Wyld File (an American Multimedia collaboration that produces music videos for DVD-ROMs, interweb, and TVs) is called Dogman 99, a play on Dogme 95 (a Danish film movement started in 1995 that was based on traditional values of story, acting, and theme while avoiding the use of complex special effects or technology). Dogman 99 encompasses some of the same ideals of Dogme 95, but Paper Rad expresses them in more ways than film. The rules of Dogman 99 include “no Wacom tablet, no scanning, pure RGB colors only, only fake tweening, as many alpha tricks as possible.” The basic concept here is to get back to the basics of digital media before technology developed to the point it is today. Maybe they’re saying that technology has changed society, and they want to get back to the time when technologies were new. Overall Paper Rad’s work uses MIDI audio (poor quality recordings or original sounds) and extreme pixelazation to recall pieces of cultural history that were not popular or well-remembered.

INFLLUENCES -

Paper Rad’s style has influences that include Pop, Punk, and Collage Art. Like Pop Art, Paper Rad has a focus on the past, but its focus is on the obscure pieces of cultural history instead of on the over-produced experiences. Paper Rad uses a lot of cultural images and symbols, much like Punk art, but it displays them in a bombardment-like digital form. Collage art in general is the compilation of items that originally do not have a connection, and Paper Rad does this in a rough, haphazard way, calling to mind the artist’s process and hand actually creating the piece.

MY THOUGHTS –

This is what I observed by watching videos about Paper Rad:

- Simple, child-like color schemes of pure, florescent colors

- Random combination of clearly animated and clearly realistic photographs

- Bombardment of color and movement and sound (much like the way we’re bombarded with information everyday)

- Statements about the way people live / influence of the government

- Basically sarcastic approach on criticisms

- A lot of their work looks a lot like something seen on Adult Swim and in the bumps they do

It takes a few minutes to get used to Paper Rad’s work, but overall I find it entertaining and fun to watch. I think their style is unique, and I appreciate that it’s different from the animations that look like it could be real life. I wish it would have been easier to find information on Paper Rad; their website is confusing (and not the good kind). I think Paper Rad wants people to use google to find works they’ve done (but that’s annoying as hell.) In any case, I like their message and what their style says about them.

Links:

http://www.ubu.com/film/paperrad_trash.html (talking trash full video)

http://www.arthurmag.com/tags/paper-rad/

http://retardriot.com/reviews/2006/12/21/paper-rad-trash-talking-dvd/

http://www.wyldfile.org/

http://jacobciocci.org/just-another-wordpress-site/

http://www.paperrad.org/

Final Project - Booklet that goes with The Art of Ballet Website

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:34:10 -0500

Final Project - Booklet that goes with The Art of Ballet Website

Project C - Animation

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:29:13 -0500

Project C - Animation

Ps and Ai HW

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:24:30 -0500

Ps and Ai HW

Project D - Multimedia Collage

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:13:15 -0500

Project D - Multimedia Collage

Project A - Surrealist Self Portrait

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:04:20 -0500

Project A - Surrealist Self Portrait

The Art of Ballet Website

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:41:09 -0500

The Art of Ballet Website

animation

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:42:49 -0500

animation

Public Art Project When I started this project I was totally...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:17:18 -0400

My poster

first place I posted the picture

2nd place I posted it

3rd place I posted it

Public Art Project

When I started this project I was totally confused as to what topic I wanted to cover. I really hate to make things that I feel are cliché, and I feel like any type of poster is an automatic one. Therefore, I decided to include that idea in my project because I couldn’t stop thinking about how much this irked me. After coming up with about 3 different ideas, I finally arrived at the one I used. I thought about what the most cliché poster or picture I’ve seen was, and I came to an inspirational poster, every one having a beautiful landscape with a slightly ambiguous quotation from some famous person written in flourishing type. I made a poster following the same equation using a picture from the Grand Canyon– only my quotation was from the famous Cliché himself. I decided that the most common place to find an inspirational poster would be places that sell them – either mixed in with others or advertised in the window. I picked 3 different locations with varying degrees of exposure for the images. I picked Goodwill, AC More, and Life Way Christian Store. At Goodwill I knew that my photo would blend in with all the other pictures and posters sold there since it’s a compilation of used items. I picked AC More because they sell posters there, and I mixed it in with other stuff. I picked Life Way Christian store because I couldn’t think of a better place to have a fake cliché poster than a place that sells real ones. I posted this one outside of the store because it fit with the other décor, and I wanted to have a place with one poster outside the store.

I expected the poster at Goodwill to be the only one to not be taken down, but the ones at Life Way and Goodwill survived. Maybe that’s because they blended the best with their surroundings. I posted all of these posters on Monday October 17 and checked back on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Tuesday the poster in AC More was gone. The two others are still there as far as I know.

If I had all the time in the world, I would really like to develop this idea – maybe go so far as to make a calendar with cliché images and sayings or print a ton of other posters based on other clichés and put them up everywhere. Maybe make stickers and pass them out to people and just get them everywhere.

Digital Nation

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:38:05 -0400

Firstly I have to say that I really don’t know how I feel about technology being such an integral part of life for the human species today. Technology is often-times referred to as something that is a functioning being, capable of making decisions or having a conscious thought; it is thought of in the modern human’s definition as being synonymous with “digital,” but that is not all that the word technology expresses. The use of digital media has become so second nature to most all humans today that I’m not sure some people would be able to survive without it (or with it.) This is a concern for many reasons: What would American society do if another country wiped out all our current digital technology? Would life as we know it fall to ruin? Have members of our society become addicted to virtual worlds and online gaming in a way that creates a new psychological disorder? If the answer is yes, how would any of us go about fixing that – since everywhere you turn, you are face-to-face with something “new and improved” that you feel compelled to buy?

Most all human beings, it seems, are distracted by shiny, flashy, sleek items that one can use to impress friends with, but when does the line become drawn in the sand? When do people begin to question something that the media tells them they “have to have?” And why isn’t this done with digital technology hardly at all – Why is it that people can’t seem to resist buying the latest and greatest in all things electronic?

While watching the movie Digital Nation (that I happen to think that all people should watch), two quotes really stuck with me that I feel describe it as a whole.

The first is from the chapter titled “Teaching with Technology.” A man who teaches at a school that uses games on the computer and internet blogs to teach the students said, “Technology is like oxygen – no one would ask you to live without oxygen.” What exactly makes technology the same as oxygen? Oxygen is literally a gas that every land species with lungs needs to breathe and therefore survive. Without Oxygen gas, the atmosphere of Earth would be forever changed and all living things would die. Oxygen was pivotal in the creation of this planet and the reason why life exists here and not on any other planet (that we know of). Is this man honestly suggesting that not only American society but the entire world would die without the technology of today? Perhaps some people who are so addicted to social networking and using the internet as a place to live instead of a place to use in life would agree with this extremist view point. There is a dependence on modern technology that is frightening to behold in many ways because placing that much emphasis on one aspect of life could result in tragedy should we ever lose it. Using these computer games and internet blogs to teach an elementary school class creates a generation that expects instant gratification like no other generation has. This could be catastrophic for society as a whole when these children grow up, not understanding the meaning of patience or the tangible result of a day’s hard work.

The other quote comes from the chapter titled, “Where are we Headed?” A woman who teaches at MIT said that, “Technology challenges us to assert our human values, and to figure out what they are. Technology isn’t good or bad, it’s about slowly finding a balance.” Just like anything else in life we all have to find the balance between excess and nonparticipation.

The chapter titled “The Dumbest Generation” talked about things that I think about on a daily basis. I think that our current digital technology has created a society that cannot think for itself and new generations of people who require instant gratification, living in the short term only. As a society, humans have always been more than happy to accept new things without questioning what it will do to their futures. Until a person is about the age of 25, the prefrontal cortex of the brain (which controls impulsive decisions and decisions) hasn’t developed fully. If we are letting the media and every single new technology influence the younger generations, who aren’t biologically able to make good decisions yet, whose fault is it?

In any case, technology is constantly evolving and all of us have to deal with it in our own way. Just like anything else in life, when tough situations arise, it’s not about the situation itself but how we react to it. Should we all be looking the other way, not questioning every single thing the media throws at us? No doubt the evolving technology has brought tremendous benefits, but at what cost?