Orwasher+Review+of+Presence+Absence+Projects

__Sam Giagtzoglou__
 * Review of Presence Absence Projects **

My first reaction to this piece is how well executed the technical work is. The use of Photoshop is so flawless that it looks like each set of pictures was actually two separate photos and nothing was manually removed from each. I also think that the choices of what objects to remove made the piece more powerful in that it creates meaning by removing a blind person’s walking stick, the person from a moving motorcycle, cigarette, and umbrella.

__Daniel Wright__

I liked how the presence/absence portion of this piece was so subtle; rather than removing a large, prominent object, each small light was removed one at a time which I think made a greater impact. I also like how once all the lights were “turned off” rather than having them turn on individually, all came back at once, which I think made for a more drastic impact.

__Julianne Barto__

This piece was very intriguing to me as both the technical work as well as though behind the project was very thought provoking and interesting. I think the idea of asking the viewing “what were to happen/what would it be like if the Mexican-American border did not exist” is a very poignant question that is clearly evident in this piece. I also likes the way it was executed in the fact that it blurred so slowly it seemed as though your eyes were manually removing the border, simulating an optical illusion of sorts.

__Evan Honor__

I liked this piece a lot as I think it called into question a technology that we now have come to take for granted, the iPod and juxtaposed it against the other facets that make up music. Another subtlety that I think greatly added to the piece was the appearance of the fast forward button as the pictures shifted. It wasn’t until after watching the piece a second time, did I realize this feature.

__Jenna Helfman__

I thought this project was very visually appealing and I really enjoyed the choice of object that was used, as many viewers might not have even recognized the objects original use. Additionally, I thought the use of scale and blurred transition made the impact of the piece more powerful.

__Alexander Tan__

I found this project particularly interesting to watch because it was so drastically different from the others in that it did not use photos, but rather called upon language to send a message and play around with the idea of presence and absence. Another aspect I liked about the project is that each pairing did not necessarily make sense to every viewer. For example, someone who does not speak Spanish might interpret the first pairing differently than someone who does. Similarly, someone who does not know Visual Basic, might not completely understand the two code pairings.

__Alexander Wright__ __Hannah Jacobs__ __Nicholas Rice__