"Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice."
-Arnold J. Toynbee
Objective:
We are inundated with a plethora of information in our daily use of various technologies. A recent study indicated that on average, adults spend an average of 8 hours a day looking at screens of various types, including computer monitors. Most of the information we experience is developed by others – we are the consumers – or are we consumed? On average we see an estimated 3000 advertisements per day.
This assignment asks you to generate two artistic 'interventions'.
1) The first involves the creative re-design with new content of a political or satirical nature to an existing commercial web page. The objective here to is to create a work that serves as a visual, cultural critique through the appropriation and re-purposing of the design of an existing web page. Consider this project as a type of conceptual, artistic intervention - an artistic intervention is an action by an artist in a real world situation for the sake of promoting reflection and altered perceptions by the participants (or in this instance, your audience).
On first glance, the web site should look identical to the original, the changes you make will be in terms of content – you are to duplicate the formal aspects. Replace text, re-configure logos, take your own photographs as needed. Choose your web site/source carefully! You are creating a visual form that seeks to mirror a given visual reality – that upon closer examination reveals itself through the alteration of content. You can address issues of politics, race, class, the environment, peace, war, etc. Keywords: parody, satire, commentary, humor, design, art, activism.
2) Secondly, develop a concept for an artistic intervention in real life. This is a much broader assignment - the only requirement is that you consider carefully the choice of your proposed intervention, take pictures of your location and utilize photoshop to simulate or visualize in graphic form your proposal. The world is your stage with this assignment. Develop a speculative approach to how you might intervene in our everyday spaces to communicate a message or idea that, similar to the website design, promotes "reflection and altered perceptions by the participants". Possibilities include but are not limited to: performance art, projected video or interactive media, sound and sound, flyers/posters, Augmented Reality, billboard advertising alterations, creative graffiti, etc. This assignment takes research on your part. Please be sure to carefully read every link on this page.
Other references:
http://wallstreetoccupennial.tumblr.com/
http://www169.pair.com/klucas/before_after/
https://risd.digication.com/rachelle/Cheer_Shorts
http://confluxfestival.org/2009/events/workshops/tianna-kennedy/
Take a stance! What are you passionate about in regard to what is going on in the world? Politics, Global Warming, War? This is your chance to “stick it to the man!” Artists, in the modernist/post modernist millieau have often addressed critical issues through their creative practice. Feel free to use satire and humor to critique some aspect of online and real world culture. Be prepared to talk about your work. Good satire is intelligent and pokes fun while encouraging thoughtful critique. It can certainly be irreverent but please do so in an intelligent manner!
DUE: Monday, July 2
Some Formatting Suggestions for the Website:
1) After choosing your website, take a full screen grab or manually select your website using the following keyboard combinations for the Mac - Full Screen "command-shift-5" manually select specific screen area "command-shift-4". Look this up on the internet if you are using a PC and you will find instructions.
2) You will grab a larger screen image if you are working on a larger monitor - feel free to take advantage of the ginormous monitors in the lab! I would not recommend grabbing your image on a laptop although this will work you will have a smaller image to work with - always better to start with the best possible source/background image!
3) Open your screen grab in Photoshop. I recommend immediately going to "Image - Image Size" and upping your resolution to 200-250 dpi. This will insure that the work that you are doing is at print resolution during your production phase (we may also print these out for exhibition). When you are finished with the re-design, save a separate version at 72 dpi to upload to your blog. Screen sizes will vary depending upon your source monitor - on my 23" monitor I managed to get a good sized screen grab of 993x996 of Salon.com for example.
BROWSE THROUGH ALL THE LINKS BELOW PLEASE!
Here are some links that will be of interest as you develop your ideas for the re-design of an existing website:
The Yes Men: http://theyesmen.org/
http://www.yelp.com/topic/portland-best-parody-websites
http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Humor/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Web_Site_Parodies/
http://www.philb.com/fakesites2.htm
A spoof website of the George Bush Whitehouse site:
http://whitehouse.georgewbush.org/index.asp
A spoof website of the Barack Obama Whitehouse site:
http://whitehouse.gov1.info/
Some curious corporate logo spoofs and such:
http://indiacorporatewatch.blogspot.com/2005/10/subvertized-part-i-brilliant-spoofs-of.html
http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/imitating-logos/
The NYtimes "Special Edition" an amazing, elaborate parody that involved the creation of an entire website identical to the NYtimes and a print edition that was freely distributed on the streets of NYC. The Yes Men were involved in this project along with many other artists and activists (including your professor - see story "America's Army Game Cancelled!"):
-watch this first- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvPvaDkIUo
http://www.nytimes-se.com/
And finally, not a spoof website but The Onion - some of the best satire online and in print:
http://www.theonion.com/content/index
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