Farewell

This is my last post I will be conducting on the blog address, and I just wanted to take the time to thank Peter Christenson, our DTC professor, for what an amazing class we had, and I have always enjoyed taking classes with Peter. Thanks for everything, teaching me a lot more about Adobe products, and most importantly, a lot more about myself as an artist. I remember the very first DTC class I ever taken at WSU I told myself, "I am not an artist" and now look where I am at creating my own websites and starring in my own videos. I have learned an incredible about of information from Peter through education and as a person, and I hope to continue to stay in touch with him as my future endeavors blossom. Thank you for everything Peter!

My best wishes,
James Garza

Website Critique

Last week on Thursday was the day we finished and uploaded our Dreamweaver Website projects and presented them quickly to the class. I was able to get mine uploaded on time, and get some critique from some of my peers in class on Thursday. A couple things that was recommended to me was changing the font to become visibly on my different website pages, as well as having a maybe more distinct home page button instead of it being at the bottom of the page. Those are two well given errors that can be easy fixes next time I conduct a project like this one. I really enjoyed doing this project and with being only my second time working with Dreamweaver, I have definitely learned a lot more on how to efficiently utilize Dreamweaver.

Galois Field

The Galois Field is a computer-controlled light and sound installation that was named for mathematician Evariste Galois. Being inspired by Galois was an amazing attribute to bring such a dynamic panel of relief structure composed of 1,024 light fields in 16 different colors. Vladimir Bonacic created this project from 1969 to 1971 with the help of three generators interacting with other generators to control light and sound from four loud speakers and the use of a remote to the viewer. The entire composition of this audio-visual piece is incredible, consisting of over a million different visual patterns, 64 sound oscillators playing over a duration of a full day. That is just amazing.

Signal Lumineux

This 1958 project was conducted by a man named, Panayiotis "Takis" Vassilakis in London not too long after he took up sculpting. This self-taught artist started a 'Signals' series which would become one of the most influential projects he ever did. Four years in the making, Takis would sculpt together some tall, wiry metal objects, combined with found metal objects, making them responsive to even the slightest change in the surround environment including, gust or winds. So in doing so, Takis would also sometimes add lights or vibrating rods to make chimes as these sculptures swayed back and forth. The 'Signals' series finished in 1958 and first exhibited in the Hanover Gallery in London. It was one of the first pieces of art to incorporate music into visual art.

Black Friday

Black Friday as you may all already know is a BIG day where tons of sales hit the stores all across the globe with unbeatable deals. Now, although these killer deals only come once in a lifetime, so does all the madness and unthinkable as well. I have learned to stay away from Black Friday because it just blows my mind how one day we can all sit around a table and say what we are thankful for and the next day we are trampling over people and getting into fights just for a $20 discount. It's crazy. I read something on Facebook yesterday where someone posted saying, "Black Friday is the closest thing to a real life purge." That is pretty accurate too. I have seen multiple NEW videos of people fighting over products in stores, grown ass adults taking products from other people's kids hands. That just all blows my mind. It is disappointing what this world has come to, and how far people will go just to save a dollar. Thank you for reading.

Electric Light

Electric light is a light mural that was designed by the artist, Gyorgy Kepes back in 1959. This mural/project that Kepes designed was an excellent use of light in art and visual pattern awareness. What he did was stencil shapes in light emulate to make it look like a view you would see from an airplane getting ready to touch down on a city. It looks incredible now, I couldn't imagine how much respect and interest he got back in the 1950's. According to the book, he displayed it at the Smithsonian Institution in 1970 and was very liked there. I think this is a very good example f Illumination and for an artist to be this creative back over 50 years ago is just incredible and if I had tons of money I would definitely look into purchasing this piece!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays of the year for the reason being that it is a time we give thanks for what we have and what we don't. What I mean when I say that is that we, all of us, tend to be a little selfish at times in our lives, maybe some more than others, and we tend to overlook the good in our lives and what we actually DO have rather than what we want or wishing we had. I know myself, I catch myself doing this at times and I think about the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the ones fighting for our country with 40 pounds of gear on their back, taking shifts sleeping at night, sharing their powder milk from their MRE with their partner, not knowing if they will make it back onto U.S. soil to see their newborn baby and wife of 3 years. At that moment is when I realize how fortunate I am in the life I live and not JUST Thanksgiving, but everyday, we should be thankful for the lives we have.. That's what I am thankful for.