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Walker

I liked that Walker’s article was from the perspective of guiding an instructor rather than it being written for students.  The main theme was concerned with choosing a “big idea” to guide one’s artwork.  This is really important because in the past, I have found that you can get bogged down in the details and that stunts creativity.  It is best to choose a “big idea” and see where it takes you.

This may sound contradictory, but I don’t think a “big idea” is always needed.  I took art class almost every semester in high school and most of what I made did not have some larger theme tied to it.  One could argue that I prove Walker correct and am only “problem solving” when I was mindlessly making art.  I did get stuck at times, but sometimes it’s nice to just be making something and not be thinking about its meaning.

Barrett

Barrett’s article brought up a major theme of a comparative studies class that I just took.  In semiotics, there is a signifier and signified that together form a sign.  He uses a couple different examples in his writing but an easy one for me to understand had to do with diamonds.  A diamond is the signifier and the signified can be many things, but an example could be love.  This is incredibly important with advertising because everyone knows this connection.  It’s implied that if you buy someone a diamond that you “love” them and that love is “forever,” even if it’s not stated.  It goes both ways as well since “forever” can be a signifier for diamond.  It’s a concept that is very valuable when interpreting anything present in popular culture.

I think Barrett could have done a better idea of explaining what I did above.  He gave several different examples and broke them down, but he could have gone into a more general definition of what semiotics was and then into the examples.  It could also be that I was given different terminology and “denotate” and “connotate” are synonymous with “signifier” and “signified.” 

Blog 2

Kidd

In Cheese Monkeys, Kidd talks about how artists can play with one’s perception even when only working in a two dimensional space.  I found it rather interesting because I took a psychology class on perception.  We use monoptic and dichoptic visual cues when viewing objects in space.  Painters, drawers, etc., rely upon the same cues to alter how we perceive these objects.  A good example is optical illusions.

I agreed with “Big and Small” as a way to signify figure/background and importance, but I do not necessarily agree with the order in which we view art.  It could be that I that I have never noticed myself looking at the top-left portion of an image and then working my way over and down, but I am not convinced.

Hickey

This article did not do as much for me as the previous one but then again, I’m not an avid sports fan.  I did like that “the liberating rule that civilized us yesterday will, almost inevitably, seek to govern us tomorrow.”  He compared it to Pollock and how he was told to paint to show “soul.”  I feel that idea can be superimposed over a lot of things, especially in a college setting.

As I said, I’m not a huge sports fan so the basketball analogy made it a little difficult for me to relate.  This is not to say that I am completely ignorant to the rules of the game, I just don’t find it to be too terribly interesting.

Wescler

I found this article to be the most interesting of all.  I do not game as much as I used to, but he Wescler brought up a point that I hadn’t thought of.  I assumed that when replaying a game that the graphics looked worse because I was now comparing it to a newer game that had come out.  It may be the case that since I already knew the story, the imperfections that were always present were now noticeable because I was no longer distracted.

The usage of the word “soul” doesn’t do much for me.  I understand that he and others are trying to get at the “essence” of being human but why not use that word?  Of course it is impossible to animate the immaterial or maybe I’m just jaded from the Catholic schooling…

Blog 1

My name is Elefterios Antonopoulos but I go by Tony.  I was born and raised in Columbus and have lived in pretty much every suburb of the city.  I went to St. Mary's for grade school which is located in German Village and then St. Charles for high school.  Both of these are Catholic, go figure, though I am far from being religious.  I am a "3rd" year psychology major and have no idea what I want to do post-graduation.  All I know is that I worked in the closest thing to a corporate job without a degree and hated it.  I enjoy working on  cars and playing golf in my spare time.  I would also say playing electric bass, but it has been awhile since I've picked it up.  My top five bands (not in order of importance) are Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Korn, Rammstein, and Lamb of God. I loved art class in high school, especially drawing.  I have not drawn since but like messing with computers a lot, so I'm assuming that I will find this to be quite interesting.

This is old but it's a favorite of myself and a good friend getting hit "where the sun don't shine." (I'm on the left with the shaved head at the time)