briannab19

Hi, I'm Brianna and I'm a senior double majoring in Psychology and Criminal Justice. Something kind of interesting about me is that I was studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark last semester, which is a little unusual because most people study abroad junior year. I've been using computers for most of my life and I've done a bit of video editing for school projects with Windows Media Player, but I have never used Photoshop or anything like it. I honestly don't think I have done anything considered art since high school, which is kind of embarrassing.

I'm not sure how to describe my interests in art. I think street art is really cool and I enjoyed video editing, so I appreciate both of those. Going off of street art, Banksy has some interesting stuff. I'm not usually a fan of modern art, but maybe I'll get into it one day. I really like M.C. Escher and some of Daniel Richter's work.

__Week 1 Homework__
The article focused on the difficulties of making sure an artist is abiding by fair use and not infringing on copyrighted materials when creating their artwork. I think the comic does a good job of simplifying much of the content to make it more easily accessible and understandable to individual artists or smaller companies that don’t have extensive legal teams to deal with fair use, public domain, and copyrights. One thing in particular that surprised me was the difficulty that documentary filmmakers can sometimes have trying to use historical footage in their documentaries. I wouldn’t have thought the use of short clips would be a problem because it is being used to create materials that will help preserve history. I was particularly surprised by the big market for archival clips and how expensive the comic said they could be, making it seem very difficult to create certain kinds of documentaries.

I believe that the copyright is extremely important in protecting the creator(s) from someone else using significant portions of their work and profiting off of them, but I also think that it can be quite problematic today when very large companies go after much smaller companies or individuals in expensive lawsuits over smaller uses of materials. For example, I have seen dance videos on YouTube without music because the music studio and/or YouTube has removed the audio. These videos are generally just used by choreographers or dancers teaching other people. To me, it would seem that a portion of a song being used in such a video would be almost like free advertising with all the people watching it or dancing potentially more likely to purchase the music they have discovered. In addition, I believe that you could argue, dancing is a form of commentary on the music itself. Everyone interprets it differently and when using material for teaching, it is often considered fair use. In opposition to this, if someone legitimately creates a parody of a song or video and then someone else posts that video and attempts to profit off of it by claiming it as their own, it is vital that the original creator be able to defend their work.

A recent example of copyright infringement is being resolved between a Star Trek fan films that use very similar uniforms to the real Star Trek from Paramount and CBS. They are requiring the producer to acknowledge the films were not approved by either Paramount or CBS and significantly change the project to resolve the case. Part of the issue is that the fundraising campaigns for this project raised over $1 million on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which indicates they have profited off of the other work.

I think it is important to keep certain materials copyrighted for designated periods of time, but I also believe that it is important to take into consideration when these materials will be used. If materials are copyrighted for such an extended period of time that no one within a few lifetimes would be able to use it, I think the copyright should be reevaluated. By the time the copyright would be up, no one might even be alive who remembers the work to want to use it anymore. In doing so, it could be too limiting on potential artistic expression.

__**Exercise 1 Presence/Absence**__
The picture of Nyhavn, Neuschwanstein, and the John Lennon Wall were taken by me, but the $20 bill and the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace were found via Google Images.

__**Project 1: Surrealist Composite**__
Base Images:

Progress:

Final:

__Manovich Homework:__
Question: Do you think that all forms of augmentation bring along an augmentation of space or influence our experience of the immediate surrounding space?  I believe that Manovich would agree with the idea that most forms of augmentation bring along an augmentation of space or influence in our experience of the immediate surrounding space. It is difficult to say that absolutely all forms of augmentation bring along an augmentation of space or influence an experience of the immediate surroundings, because it is always possible that one thing negates this absolute is forgotten or not thought of. In addition, Manovich says that augmentation is continually evolving and something may be invented later in the realm of augmented reality or augmented space that will negate this statement. Manovich specifically says that, “a typical AR system adds information that is directly related to the user’s immediate physical space,” (Manovich 225). When enhancing something physical by adding an additional component, you are changing the experience of the space, or at least trying to. However, that same addition would not have the same effect without the corresponding space.

 For example, Janet Cardiff’s ‘audio walks’ would not have the same effect if you are just listening to the instructions via the CD player or walking the same path as it does when they are combined. The other example of the Jewish Museum in Berlin also demonstrates that augmentation brings along an augmentation of space or influence on the experience of a space. The point of many of these pieces is to experiences the space in a specific way desired by the artists. By adding the audio component in Cardiff’s case and the irregular windows to the past in the Jewish Museum Berlin, the artist and architect change the experiences of those who view it. If you walked through the same neighborhood without the windows to the past, you might observe a nice neighborhood and not think much of it, if you do not know the history behind it. The additions of the windows to the past augment the space and influence the experiences of those in that space.

 Such augmentation has become commonplace in many spaces today. Augmentation has truly become a new cultural and aesthetic practice that is being used in so many spaces, but perhaps most interestingly in museums. The use of QR codes in public spaces to provide additional information on the sites services to enhance and shape the learning experiences of those in that space. They can be used in restaurants to enhance the dining experiences of users, particularly those with dietary restrictions, as they can scan QR codes and more easily access special menus instead of having a server relay the messages back and forth to a cook or a manager.

 Another tribute to augmentation’s pervasiveness as a new cultural and aesthetic practice is the increasing use of audio guides in museums and other historical spaces. The deliberate use of augmentation in such spaces is accompanied by the intent to augment the space and influence the experience of the space. Audio guides are much like Cardiff’s ‘audio walks’ and involve the user listening to the guide as they move throughout an exhibit or historical space. Depending on the design of the space and type of augmentation, it may attempt to bring you back in time to simulate the experience of jumping out of a plane with paratroopers in the early mornings of the D-Day landings, imagining life in Schloss Schönbrunn with the Habsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or telling the story of the Norman conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings as you view the Bayeux Tapestry. All these augmentations influence one’s experience of the space and augment the entire space to make it different than if one had just viewed it and read a placard.

__AR Final Project:__
As a senior at GWU, I wanted to use this project to take a journey and tell a story about different aspects of my four years at GW. When creating this project, I also wanted it to be pretty self-sufficient, like you have to be in college, and be able to guide the viewer with minimal outside instructions or supervision. Because of this, I included all the audio guides and instructions on the screen to attempt to provide this. I started with the walk from our classroom to the Marvin Center, which is a hub for many events, offices, and organizations. During my freshman year, it was also the home of J Street (dining hall thing), which made it an even larger part of my early college experience. By using the Marvin sign to trigger a gif of GW created out of a variety of words that describe GW, are related to the GW experience, or are part of the reason I chose GW, I tried to represent many of the commonalities that GW students have. Moving on to a guided walk to the Psychology Department building brings up another major experience in my four years, which was declaring one of my majors. Psychology was the first major that I declared, and the second was Criminal Justice, so I felt it was fitting to include it as a stop on the journey, given that it is such an important part of college. I wanted to include the finality I remember feeling when I had finally decided and saw it on DegreeMap. I eventually wanted to change, but it was too late so both majors stayed. The walk back to Gelman Library brings me to a place where I unfortunately spent many many hours over the course of four years. Weirdly enough, I think I might have spent the most time there this semester between this class and a GIS class though... Gelman is never a fun place, which is why I chose to replicate a power nap, because I always took them when studying for midterms and finals with friends. Usually I felt the desperation of wanting to sleep more, but being forced awake by an alarm or friend to do more work. The image scanned sitting outside the library was the kollegium I lived in during my time abroad in Copenhagen last semester. The time abroad, although short, was one of the highlights of my college experience, and I'm beyond glad that I ended up studying abroad. With this, I played with the idea of confusion. In particular, I focused on the language, because I didn't (and still don't really) know Danish, nor many of the other languages I heard while abroad. The languages I included were from each place I traveled to or lived in, even if I did understand them completely or just a little bit. Because of this the languages were Danish (Denmark), Swedish (Sweden), Norwegian (Norway), Dutch (the Netherlands), French (Belgium), English (Ireland), and German (Austria and Germany). The conclusion of that video leads to audio instructions bringing you to the Charles Smith Center by 22nd and G. The audio instructs you to line up and step forward with your right foot, feet together, then left foot, repeatedly. This continued until the end, where it is confirmed, you're a graduate of the Class of 2017, like I will be in just over a week.

Trigger Images: Each small picture is one, begin with Class of 2017, then Marvin Center, then Psychology Department, then the building.

Documentation: