Interventionist Design Assignment

I took the page off of McDonalds' website that is devoted to the return arrival of the infamous McRib sandwich. This web page was created around the slogan "The Quest for the Golden McRib", complete with animation and audio to make it even more exciting. McDonald's had done a good job at making this sandwich look like the most satisfying and wonderful meal a human could put in their body, as well as advertising the rest of the assets of the company by taking an angle that shows the variety, strengths, and positive things about McDonald's. I chose McDonald's for this project because I know how influential McDonald's is over our nation and how brilliant the company is at persuading American's to continuously indulge in their products with fun and creative advertising tactics. I thought this specific web page was unique because they made the return of the McRib into a mysterious and playful adventure. I wanted to show that just because the background images, animations, and electrifying audio on this page with cute little cherubs holding up a banner full of juicy adjectives describing how amazing the McRib is, is not really advertising the sandwich in a realistic way, at all. There is no where on this page where it lists any health information about the sandwich or pricing of the sandwich. Instead, it offers a link to a Facebook gaming site where the 'true McRib lover' can prove their dedication to the sandwich America longs for year in and year out.

I used my re-creation to point out the obvious negative factors that come along with fast food chains, especially and most specifically McDonald's. Such as weight gain, health issues, food quality, etc, and I tried to do it in a fun and playful manner.

Link to Youtube mixer

http://www.unr.edu/art/site/areas_of_emphasis/digital_media/projects/Haleigh_Hoff.html

For my YouTube mixer I decided to film 15 videos of a familiar subject shown in an unfamiliar light. As a dance teacher at Nevada Dance Academy, my job entitles me to work in a field that I am passionate about and I hold much interest in the subject, dance. I began filming segments of my classes that were obscure to film, I was never filming the students during a 'performance' time, and most of the time, they had no idea that they were being filmed. I had the camera at strange angles and at unusual times, I wanted this to be candid, nothing prepared or posed. I chose to to edit each video and put them all into a similar 'theme' or 'filter' so they would all somewhat eery and dark. Each video was also altered in different ways, I sped some up, slowed some down, reversed a few, dubbed the audio by putting a different song over the  original footage or playing with the pitches of the different videos. I chose to do this because I wanted my mixer to come together to create a different outlook of dancing, or perspectives of dance through the classroom, or through my role as a teacher. Using young children in a dark and mysterious way is haunting and made me think of the ways I could use this project to show the alternative side of my job, the side that people don't usually think of when they think of being a teacher to young, cute, and 'innocent' children. I mixed in footage of myself tapping to create an audio and visual deterrence, and by framing only my feet and lower part of my legs in the shots made it less personal. Enjoy. 

Questions for reading 2

Manovich states that "New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object." This idea is broad to me, I have a hard time strictly clarifying what is considered old media versus new media. If new media is interactive, is he referring to computer programming and technology such as photo editing programs and technology that allows you to alter art, or is he referring to art work that requires audience participation in galleries and such. My question would be, how does one clarify the "interactiveness" of a new media project compared to an old media project, and what is important about interactiveness that distincts old from new media?

My second question is based off of his statement, "..new media technologies externalize and objectify reasoning, and that they can be used to augment or control it, are based on the assumption of the ismorphism of mental representation.." if new media externalizes reasoning, does this mean that there is no definite purpose in the artwork, or objectivity behind the creation? OR does this statement mean that because of new technology and programs that can alter and help produce artwork and digital media, the product is less meaningful and internal purposes and intentions are out the window?

sound file for animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NWNXxuEWc0

EMBEDDED VIDEO ASSIGNMENT

link to original-----http://www.ubu.com/film/wegman_deodorant.html


I chose this video because as I was looking through the hundreds of videos my brother happened to be sitting next to me on the couch and I looked at him and was like, take your shirt off, we are filming this just for fun, let's see how it goes. And surprisingly it worked out pretty well. I chose to do this video even before we watched it in class, and when we did watch it in class I was slightly disappointed because I didn't want everyone to think I just copied it after class because it looked simple and quick. I chose this prior to the viewing in class because of it's irregular humor and approach by focusing on his armpit rather than his face. I am familiar with William Wegmen's other works and I really enjoy his style and approach with film and abstract visual art. He tends to focus more on the object than the human, and I think that is so unique and unusual because in nearly all of his works there is a person in the film speaking or acting, yet they are rarely the focus of the piece. In this particular film the deodorant is the focus and the camera is directed at the armpit and the deodorant spraying onto the armpit rather than the man's face who is speaking.

Due to the small amount of time I had my brother for, and his negative physical reaction to the unpleasant effect the cheap body spray we used had on his armpit (basically that spray was not meant to go on the body as much as he did...whoops) Overall, I tried to make the angle and approach the exact same as that of William Wegman's and creating the video effect of "old film".

Video Assignment

http://youtu.be/fdqK6avYqd0