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Activity 6: Deep "Remixability" Terms 

Based on the required readings from Module 3 and your own research, define in your own words the following terms: 

Deep remixability 

The ability to mix contents from different medias with their “fundamental techniques, working methods, and ways of representation and expression.” 

From Understanding Hybrid Media - Lev Manovich 

Variable form 

Variable form allows everything to keep changing, forms like visual, temporal, spatial, interactive 

“Everything inside the frame keeps changing: visual elements, their transparency, the texture of the image” 

From Understanding Hybrid Media - Lev Manovich 

An example would be The Yokohama International Port Terminal 

Continuity turn 

Turning everything so they would be able to change all the time. 

“All constants were substituted by variables whose values can change continuously.” 

From Understanding Hybrid Media - Lev Manovich 

Metamedium 

In developing emerging technology and new media, metamedia refers to new relationships between form and material. 

 An excellent example would be: A$AP Mob - Yamborghini High (Official Music Video) ft. Juicy J 

This music video consists of deep remixability and variable form. It showcases different medias like music and video, different artists. Different elements like colour, transparency, texture in the frames keep changing along with the use of the method of data moshing. 

A$AP Mob - Yamborghini High (Official Music Video) ft. Juicy J 

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Activity #5 - The Illusion of Control

1. Research and define (1 short paragraph each) the following concepts:

Alterity

Alterity is a philosophical and anthropological word that means "otherness." In the media, it is commonly used to express something beyond tradition or convention.

Indexicality (in relation to Digital images)

The concept “indexicality“ originated in the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. Charles Sanders Peirce refers to the physical relationship between the photographed object and the image resulting from it. According to Paul Levinson, indexicality also emphasizes photography's ability through a chemical method to capture or represent "a literal energy configuration from the real world."

Symbolism

Symbolism is the practise or art of expressing an abstract concept by using an object or a phrase. An event, person, location, word, or object may all have a meaning that is symbolic. When an author wishes to imply a certain mood or sentiment, rather than directly telling so, he might use symbolism to imply it.

Identity

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

2. Then visit your fellow classmates' blogs (A list of links can be found here) and look at the Glitch experiments and the methods they tried last week as a part of Activity #4, until you find one that you think is interesting and that you would like to try.

https://www.notion.so/Carolina-s-FINE-229-Blog-665bb91a6d2f4bddba6fb011005a80e8#5e67ea572ed14245b7709236370e4ed2

I think Carolina’s method #3 is interesting and I tried it.

3. Try their method, then post your resulting image on your blog along with the method you used to make it (make sure to reference your classmate).

Download Processing from this page: https://processing.org/download/.     I downloaded it for Mac. At the time of writing this, the current version     of Processing is 3.5.4.

Unzip Processing and open it.

Download a channel shifting script. One can be found     here: http://datamoshing.com/2016/06/29/how-to-glitch-images-using-rgb-channel-shifting/

Unzip the script by double clicking on the ZIP file.

In Processing, open the channel shifting script by     clicking File > Open and navigate to the unzipped script file. Open the     file named ChannelShiftGlitch.pde.

Choose a JPG image.

Duplicate the file to protect the original.

Edit the script to point at the JPG image. If the image     is in the same directory as the script, replace the imgFileName     variable with the name of the JPG. I had to use String imgFileName =     "../image-name"; because my file was in the parent     directory. (../ means go one level above the current directory.)

Play around with the different variables, such as recursiveIterations     and iterations. Details can be found in http://datamoshing.com/2016/06/29/how-to-glitch-images-using-rgb-channel-shifting/.

Run the script by clicking the play button at the top     left.

The image should save in the same directory as the     original image.

https://www.notion.so/Carolina-s-FINE-229-Blog-665bb91a6d2f4bddba6fb011005a80e8#5e67ea572ed14245b7709236370e4ed2

 4. Consider how the glitch art you have just made on the fly (using your classmate's method) could be interpreted by "framing" it using the concepts you defined above. Can you derive meaning from a seemingly random unrelated/unplanned process and its output? Explain what you think the image "means" now that it has been "glitched".

The Image has been glitched by the same method evenly among every part of the image. This means the image still has the same identity, its symbolic meanings remain untouched.  The indexicality is stronger, making audience more drawn to the image.

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Activity 4

For some of the following experiments I used HxD (hex editor) here are some other examples made by other people https://rivka-kopelman.tumblr.com/tagged/databend.

This is the original image.

  First Image

 1.       I tried deleting some part of the letters, numbers and symbols.

As a result, the image failed to load.

 2.       I tried to copy the entire code and multiply them a few times.

The picture stayed visually same.

Second Image

3.       I tried replacing all the T letters to S in the hex editor.

Third Image

4.       I tried to replace a more common letter. (1 into 2)

The result is like the first replacement. I expected more visual change or fail to load the image.

Fourth Image

5.       I tried replacing less common letter combinations 00 into 01

The picture stayed the same

6.       I tried adding a Shapesprean Sonnet 106 into the code.

The image failed to load.

7.       I tried cutting the last part and pasting it to the beginning.

The image failed to load.

8.       I tried to type lyrics to replace the same amount of letters.

The image failed to load.

9.       I found a website that could glitch image. https://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/

Fifth Image

10.   Another site I found that contains many interesting effects. https://photomosh.com/

 Sixth Image

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Activity 3: Glitch Methods

1.    Datamoshing – or compression artefacting. Artists using this are: Takeshi Murata, Paul B Davis {Compression Study #4 (Barney) / short version / 2007 / Paul B. Davis}, Abbe Leigh Fletcher. (http://www.datamoshing.com)

A way of damaging video clips to get a glitch effect. Having the frames that should change stay as previous.

2.    Data-bending/ image bending (Hint: Nick Briz)

The method of using a media file of one format, then use a software intended to edit files of another format.  As a result, distortions often occur.

3.    Glitch-a-like vs. “Natural glitch” (Hint: Sara Cywenars, Raymond Bolanski)

When something looks like a glitch, but it is not. Like a video filter.

Natural glitch is similar in meaning, for example, a genetic mutation.

4.    Pixel Sorting

It is a glitchy effect by selectively ordering the pixels in the rows/columns of an image. It was popularized by Kim Asendorf

5.    Hardware-Bending

Use of hardware like synths, toys, and computer to build one’s own art. An example can be TokTek (aka Tom Verbruggen).

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Haochen Shen

20785959

Adam Glover

FINE 229

9/30/2020

Unseen Threats

When making my GIFs, I think about how my parents reacted to smoking as a horrible thing to do while is okay with consuming sugar. From news articles and researches, I found that sugar is more harmful to people as it can lead to risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and many other diseases.

To link sugar with harm, I constructed a transformation of sugar into a skull, which is a symbol of death. To destroy the image of cigarettes as deadly and lethal, I used a young female (appropriate age) smoking her cigarette with satisfied expression. The link for the original video consisted of making the GIF is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5_EGuQ21A&ab_channel=LydiaObviously.

My two GIFs are meant to be played together. In my opinion, they form a very strong comparison about how the law is against underaged smokers but has no limitation about the usage of sugar, which is way more deadly compared to smoking. There also should not be any guilt for a person to enjoy a cigarette. Since sugar can be consumed by everyone, and compared to cigarettes, sugar kills more people every year. My GIFs can act both as a warning about the danger of sugar, or showing cigarettes are not too harmful compared to sugar which is allowed by the government. The setting is modern time, taking place in Canada, and where the law is against underaged smoking with no sugar control. My intended audience would be the government, confused parents and youth and anyone concerned with their personal health. This relationship is meant to both obvious. It shows the differences of cigarettes and sugar from different aspects such as the law, parent beliefs and youth beliefs. It also shows similarities, like sugar can also be harmful to people, and in a deadlier way.

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Activity #1 – The How and Why of Artist GIFs.

1.

Thinking about your own experiences with GIFs that you have encountered online, and in your own opinion, how do GIFs as a mode of visual communication compare with images and videos? Why are GIFs still so ubiquitous even though they are obsolescent?

I have been sending and receiving GIFs all the time when having an online conversation.

In my own opinion, GIFs are a very unique way of communicating with others. According to Professor Mehrabian, that communication is only 7 percent verbal and 93 percent non-verbal. Since one cannot hear the tone and body language of others, GIFs act like extended ways of delivering more accurate messages.

Although GIFs are ubiquitous, the information they contain are always evolving with modern trends. They are like a perfect combination of images and videos, they are many frames or images put together and they do not support audio.

2.

Read parts 1-4 of “A Brief History of Animated GIF Art” essay by Paddy Johnson. Again, thinking about your own experiences with GIFs and based on the Johnson essay discuss, how GIFs as a medium evolved along side the internet.

GIFs as a medium have evolved exponentially. First, from 1987 June 15th, the concept of GIFs was developed. After that, in 1997, the two-person artist collective MTAA released Simple Net Art Diagram, which is “the earliest and perhaps the most enduring animated GIF for its provocation to participate”, according to Paddy johnson. It serves the purpose as an invitation to a dialogue, pinpointing communication as the core of the art. Then, from 2006, which Paddy johnson described as “The golden era of GIF art”, group blogs, surf clubs like “Digital Media Tree”, “Computer Club”, and “Dump.fm Hall of Fame” helped with the rise of self-started social networks, hosting a lot of self-made and found GIFs. Tumblr (2007-present) also had a remarkable impact on breeding the popularity of GIFs, although at its early stages the file size limitation was only 1 megabyte, but Tumblr made it through with great social-networking and improved on file size limitation later, which partially led to Oxford Dictionaries naming GIF “The Word of the Year.” in 2012. Over the past few years, social networking sites have become more fitting to bigger GIF files, and GIF makers aren’t only from North America and Europe, but come from all over the world. Adding much more diversity and popularity towards GIFs.

 3.

What are the top three platforms for displaying and sharing GIFs in 2020? How might platforms and future technological innovations influence the GIFs we make and how we share them?

The top three platforms for displaying and sharing GIFs in 2020 are Tumblr, GIPHY and Myspace.

In the future, GIFs might have even bigger file sizes. As virtual reality is becoming more relevant, GIFs may be shown in 3D instead of 2D. To make and share 3D GIFs, different types of devices or apps are needed (like vr goggles, and illustrator).

4. 

There are several ideological relationships between the community of Fluxus Artists operating since the early 1950s and the still unnamed coalition of artists that embrace the medium of GIFs. Research Fluxus artists and give a brief description of how you think Fluxism relates to artist GIFs and artist GIF exhibitions.

Fluxus artists are active in experimental art performances, they emphasized on the artistic process over the final product. From reading parts 1-4 of “A Brief History of Animated GIF Art” essay by Paddy Johnson, I learned that many artists focused on the fluidity and continuity of the GIFs.This concept is very similar to GIFs, GIFs consist of multiple frames or pictures. The fascinating part about GIFs is how amazing the transformation is from looping those frames/images, instead of its last frame/image. They also both contain great diversity, and the work itself doesn’t need to be artistic compared to its process.