Tasos+Kalfas+Fall+2017

Hello, my full name is Anastasios Kalfas, but you can call me Tasos! I am a political science major, and I have little experience with computers beyond Microsoft Office and windows Movie Maker. I have a bit more experience with art that advanced computing, having taken an art history class in high school, but producing art is still new to me. Something interesting about me is that I am a philatelist; I collect stamps and know a decent amount about the Post Office. In terms of artistic interests, I love jazz music, and from the art history class, I enjoyed learning about the Dada movement. Before reading this comic/article, I had a basic understanding of copyright law. From internet videos and other sources, I knew that a person could use small pieces of another work to critique it (like in book reviews), and I knew that parodies were protected by fair use because I wrote a few of those in high school for various projects. I was under the impression that everything was not copyrighted until registered with the copyright office, but the comic informed me that all works are now copyrighted after they are completed. Plagiarism is an example of stealing work that also violates academic honesty. If using outside sources, the comic notes that you have to get permission from those creators or only use work with license allowing such use. An example of fair use is Weird Al Yankovic and his parodies of songs. He takes popular songs and rewrites the lyrics to put a humorous spin on the tunes. Another example of parodies are the skits that SNL and late night talk shows perform. Often, these skits borrow ideas from other movies, television shows, or current events (which seem to be a gray area in fair use) and spin them in a humorous way. Because these comedians change the intent of the works, their use falls under fair use. An example of bad appropriation are websites that offer pirated movies and songs. These websites do not own these works but often sell them or offer them for free. There are websites that do the same with books and textbooks, and while they may offer a “positive” experience to their users who no longer have to pay for these intellectual works, what they are doing is against the law and a violation of fair use. Fair use exists to expand upon existing works, and often fans take advantage of that. There are several alternative Star Wars and Harry Potter stories written by fans, and while the expansion of these stories by those other than the original creators can be considered unfair use, some creators embrace these extraneous stories because they promote the original creator’s ideas (Although, this does not happen all the time; some creators want nothing to do with third party content). An example of good appropriation would be a collage of magazine or newspaper clips. If an artist makes a creation using these, he/she often makes the original work (the magazines/newspapers) unrecognizable so that the artist can use them in his/her own design. Many artists pull from other sources, not to steal from those sources, but to use them to comment on something else and to create an entirely new and different message, which is often what distinguishes the two works from each other. I thought some of the lawsuits mentioned in the comic were excessive. In the cases involving $10,000 for small bits of accidentally recorded songs and television clips, I viewed the use of each of these as fair use. The creator of the documentary was not trying to resell or take credit for the Simpsons clips; his intent was to show the stagehands and their actions as stagehands. Because the Simpsons are not the main focus of the documentary nor do they fit in with the creator’s intent, FOX has no grounds on which to sue.
 * __Homework #1__**


 * __ Exercise 1: Presence Absence __**



This show has four main components: //Underscan// by Nancy Holt, //Head of Misanthropic Man// by Peter Campus, //Walking Forward-Running Past// by John Baldessari, and //Face in the Crowd// by Alex Prager. In //Underscan//, Holt contrasts images of her childhood with her aunt’s commentary on aging. This suggests that aging can change how one views the past. In //Head of Misanthropic Man//, Campus features the face of a subject, half darkened by the lighting. There is no pattern to the man’s eye movements and his stare is daunting. This piece mimics how the viewer observes the video itself. In //Walking Forward-Running Past//, Baldessari places stationary photos of himself in motion (walking/running). This juxtaposes the ideas of stationary and motion picture by combining them in one. Though Baldessari is moving in the pictures, they display still images until displayed together in a sequence. This causes one to think about how motion is just a sequence of events. In //Face in the Crowd//, Prager begins with small “interview excerpts” of people detailing different stories or problems from their lives. These represent the individualism in all people, the distinction of people from each other. Then the film cuts to a scene in which a female character views a crowd of people from behind a window before joining the crowd. Everyone in the crowd looks unhappy, but she observes with a smile, suggesting she has a sense of hope. As she joins the crowd, she continues to be the only one smiling, and she helps some people find direction. Suddenly, the crowd gets overwhelming and there is a sense of fear. As the crowd stops, the female character is able to move through it until she is off screen before the crowd begins to move again. I found this piece the most interesting because it seems that the artist is trying to convey the idea that as individuals, we only matter for a brief amount of time until we move on, but nevertheless, the crowd (human beings as a collective group) still moves on indefinitely.
 * __Museum Visit Homework__**


 * __ Progress on Borrowed Blue __**

Sources: Background Image of Supermarket (Self-Shot), Cow, Chicken, Moon, Night Sky, Man (Formerly Black and White image)

__**Krauss Homework Response**__ In her article, Krauss notes that “most of the work produced over the very short span of video art's existence has used the human body as its central instrument.” Today, she would likely argue the same thing, as most modern video uses human subjects. Yes, there are videos, and stationary art, that depict landscapes and animals, but most art depicts humans because humans tend to be the most interesting; they have more potential to tell a story. In video, the human body becomes the medium of art just as much as the physical components of the video are. Krauss digs deeper saying, “video’s real medium is a psychological situation, the very terms of which are to withdraw attention from an external object--an Other--and invest it in the Self.” Here, Krauss argues that video is a narcissistic art. It focuses on the artist as a medium instead of the video itself. She calls out video as being an “appurtenance,” or accessory to the body; whereas, the art itself consists of the body and its “psychological situation.” Today, Krauss’s argument and thesis would be different. Since the time she wrote this article, there have been several developments in video production and video art. Now, artists can play with animation and special effects, and they do not always use humans as their subjects. If writing today, Krauss would argue that video is not a narcissistic art. It is rather an altruistic art. Because it can pull from so many origins of subjects, video is a way to express art through many situations. Video can be used to help other people, as exemplified by news media and our “How To” video project. Video can also be used to shed light on evils in society by exposing people’s horrific deeds, as shown by videos of the liberated concentration camps of the holocaust and to offer solutions to these evils. Today, videos exist as a way to serve people, not glorify them. In the text, Krauss argues that video brings the performer away from his/her surroundings. She says, “By the very fact of that relationship [of interpreting a text on video], the performance ties itself to the fact of something that existed before the given moment.” She goes on to argue that video art is not tied to text because artists would not use scripts; therefore, the video is not grounded in any historical or textual context. Today, Krauss would argue the opposite. Video artists use scripts and plan out their ideas. They use storyboards to lay out these ideas and to make sure they get the shots that they need to get. The use of these tools grounds the video in textual context and historical context, as performers do use textual support when producing video. Thus, there is no narcissistic nature to video today.

__** Cinemagraph **__ 

__**Manovich Response**__

This technology can better the human experience and already betters it. As the article mentions, GPS location allows us to receive information on our phones based on our location, and applications like Snapchat make this information useful. Snapchat immerses us in our surroundings by adding augmented reality to our photos. We can place animated masks on our faces and animated figures in our surrounding. These masks augment our identities by making ourselves seem more silly or scary or sophisticated. They allow us to interact with the photograph and contribute to the photo so that it appears more interesting. Through Snapchat, we can also place geofilters on our photos, and because these geofilters are often designed to feature a landmark from our location, they allow our friends to get a better sense of our surroundings. For example, the “eagle” geofilter for DC gives Snapchats a patriotic feel whereas without the filter, the photo might have less of a DC-related meaning. For these reasons, Instagram has tried to mimic Snapchat’s features of augmented reality. Some companies employ apps that allow customers to interact with their products or advertisements through the use of augmented reality. In all, the practice and use of the technology is becoming more widespread and understood. This betters the human experience because we can use these technologies as new ways of interacting with our environments. Like in Snapchat where geofilters and “masks” make for a more pleasurable experience, these consumer-targeted uses of augmented reality also make for more pleasurable interactions with companies. For example, the United States Postal Service tailors to stamp collectors with the company’s use of virtual stamp galleries. Wearable computers are another example of augmented reality that makes for a better human experience. As people count their steps with products like Fitbit, they become more active and occasionally more competitive (as shown by GW’s step-counting competition). Through these technologies, exercise becomes an interactive experience rather than just something one does on his or her own. For another augmented reality experience, some people hook their stationary bikes up to video screens or VR headsets and can bike in other environments while staying put at the gym. This offers the viewer a renewed sense of surroundings and can transport them into a different reality while they remain in place. It offers them a new way to interact with their current environment by changing properties of it. The downside to increased use of augmented reality may be that people get dangerously unattached from their surroundings. Often, we see people using their cell phones to communicate, sometimes even when the receiver of their messages is right next to them! With augmented reality, people can interact with themselves or far-away people through the use of Snapchat filters, which sometimes distracts from one’s actual environment. Instead of just admiring the beauty of a natural scene, one may try to capture it in a photograph and overlay it with a geofilter. While this practice can be useful and interesting in moderation, because the technology has become mainstream, it may pose a risk of overuse. Nonetheless, I do not view it as a serious problem because most people have self-restraint and also express displeasure when their experience becomes too oversaturated with one artistic element (in this case augmented reality). Ultimately, the human experience benefits from a solid and balanced mix of multiple media.