MEDI 323: Individual: Googling Unrealestate

My tutor said that I should Google the term Unrealestate to see if I really was being original and also to see what other people thought it was.

It ranges from a cool name for an estate agents to something actually a bit more relevant in this article about online worlds and the wacky way that they effect the worlds economy. Most notably for me I am the fifth hit down!

From the article in wired this paragraph stands out most to me:

"These little economies raise big questions, therefore, and by no coincidence, they tend to be the big questions of the economic age. How, for instance, do we assign value to immaterial goods? What defines ownership when property becomes as fluid as thought? What defines productivity when work becomes a game and games become work?" -Julian Dibbell

The article case studies a man that works as a carpenter and also makes money selling the virtual houses he makes with the use of his blacksmith character in the game 'Ultima Online'. To me this article is exactly what i mean when I talk about Unrealestate. More and more due to a combination of the internet, consumerist culture and brand selling is this phenomenon becoming more apparent, prevalent and with it much more run-of-the-mill.

"For if it's true that economies are in many ways like games, and that the world's economy is getting more gamelike everyday, there remains one defining difference between the two: Games attract us with their very lack of consequence, whereas economies confront us with the least trivial pursuit of all, the pursuit of happiness. And while not even Dugger himself can say precisely how much happiness he bought when he bought that imaginary house, one thing was certain from the moment Troy Stolle put it up for auction. The game was over, and something as real as life was suddenly in play." -Julian Dibbell

This is very indicative of just how absorbed we are in the 'Hyper-real' the fact that the economies of game worlds are more and more interlinking with our real world economy, thinking about it I have purchased online goods for real money in games and online community's alike.

MEDI 317: Dissertation: More on Memes

So like the famous band Weezer made a song full of memes there is now anouther compilation!

MEDI 323: Individual: Initial Proposal

For this module I'm exploring the nature and relationship of the inner workings of the human psyche through image. I want to explore the nature of how human experience interlaces to create places in our minds eye. I have studied psychology in the past and I feel that it makes my ideas on these subjects somewhat informed, having said that however I also think that there is a very artistic and creative element to the human subconscious as most memories tend to work by linking 'pictures' of our world to other 'pictures' that are also stored in the brain relating to the first 'picture' these then link on and on eventually forming the web of own conscious and subconscious mind.

The work I'm doing builds upon images created in a module from last year which I termed 'Dreamscapes' because I wanted these to convey what humans saw when they dream and the random fusion of thoughts, memories and feelings blur to create a space that sums up something yet isn't actually that object or place etc. Dreamscapes used to be a landscape image all of my memories of a place but in this project have now evolved far beyond the original concept, with one of the new dream images I have mad actually being about a dream. This image 'Orca Dream' is essentially a picture of my dream, looking somewhat like a photograph of the unreal. 

This project also pertains to my idea of 'unreal estate', which is anything you feel some ownership over, but isn't actually real, for example  on-line games, on-line communities, or even popular franchises such as The Lion King. This idea I feel is relevant, as people often feel a sense of ownership over things such as a certain song, describing it as theirs, even though they have not written or recorded it. It is also becoming more and more prevalent in an internet obsessed, consumerism fuelled culture where sometimes the 'hyper real' is more important or valued than the 'real' and people view themselves more and more through their computer game based achievements and express themselves more and more using online avatars. 

I want my images to convey a sense liminality, of how reality and the imaginary can blur and smudge together where the thresholds cross and fuse. In some of the images I have already made I try to achieve this by havening no solid background or foreground and rather there are just layers and hidden things that 'move' when you view the images again or from a different angle.

 

My influences for this module in essence is everything, in so far as what I have seen, done and experienced in my life.  Artistically the surrealist movement and in particular Dali has been a huge inspiration to me.  Also video gaming has played a massive role in my life in all aspects including artistically and in a smaller way the same can be said for comics. I am also influenced by literature especially slightly surreal authors such as C.S. Lewis and Edgar Allen Poe.  I also like nonsense poetry since I am very much an escapist. I also think that children's or a child like style art is also very relevant to this project because children think a lot freer and faster than adults and also have a very different view point. I would like to explore what children think about when they create art or how it feels to create art in a childish way, this also relates to memories and psychology but it would be interesting to research if a 'childish' Dreamscape would be very different and how much 'Unrealestate' children accumulate.
   

The subject matter is at present quite personal to me, and I would the work to continue to evolve and steer itself, branching into any mediums I feel are relevant but I do intend for the end result to be image-based. So far the process has been very organic and it flows when I am making computer based images but it is so absorbing I will not stop until the image is (at least to me) finished or perfect.

MEDI 322: Collabroative: Cupcake Graphics

I have worked on some graphics for the website. I have made a custom 'favicon' and a Giff and picture that can be used as place holders or fillers or adapted to make buttons. I am waiting for my collaborator to respond.

MEDI 322: Collaborative Practise: Intermediate Proposal

Initially my plan was to make a website to both advertise and sell my friend`s custom/ bespoke cake shop. This idea has evolved into making other promotional items such as business cards and also doing the professional photography for the gallery that she would like on her site.

As this is her business she is obviously involved very heavily in the creative side of things in terms of the actual style of the website and has agreed to feed back on a regular basis about how she thinks the website should look. This will be discussed between the two of us since I also would like some creative input. Technically I will also be collaborating with her father who is providing the domain and server space so I will have to communicate with him mainly via emails.

A major change is that my collaborator also would like me to design some graphics for the website in the form of cupcakes to be used as buttons etc. I aim to have the basic coding done before Christmas break and also to have a selection of graphics for my collaborator to feed back on. I would like to use one of these for a place holder so that I can actually get something in the domain space as quickly as possible because time is money and in the retail world it's smart to not waste either, even if the products are to be custom order. Also my collaborator has mentioned that she wanted a blog that tied into her site as she feels this would be a good idea both personally and for her business. This I would need to set up for her, theme, link in and show her how to operate and maintain.

It has been a both a challenge and enjoyable working with a friend, as it makes it difficult to know where the boundaries are and how professional to be. I do think that this will get easier overtime and as the project develops. Also sometime contact issues can arise since organising around two people is always harder than organising around one person, I think this is part of the process though. 

I have a very strong foundation now in terms of the artistic direction of the website so I feel confident that me and my collaborator know where we both stand but obviously we will need to constantly feedback to one another as the project grows and develops. The theme of the site will be very much 50's kitsch as well as obviously cakes. I am looking forward to creating the graphics as well as the actual website but this will be an added challenge. It will need to be fairly closely collaborated on but it also gives massive artistic responsibility for the company so I am effectively helping in the general branding of the business which is fairly huge! 

I also think that is important that we focus on a few photo shoots so that I have a nice selection of images to work with in terms of building a gallery into the site. Also it would be nice to showcase the items in the layout of the actual site itself. I have actually done food photography before so I am actually fairly confident about this area of the work because food photography is enjoyable and I have researched the psychology of how to market the images well. I have just purchased a Canon PowerShot compact camera to complete the photography required. As it shoots in film, my collaborator will have the option to 'vlog' about the creative process of anything relevant to her site.

I am thinking it may be smart to do a bit of market research so that I can really make the website effective. Although in principle the website advertises food, so uses some of the same 'retail psychology' it has to function and look good as the figurehead of a business.