A bit of my own artwork!

I did these paintings a few years ago, but thought I would share. While they aren't digital they were created using the help of digital tools. Enjoy!

Digital Advertisements and WOM

While I have been focusing on Art in the Digital medium, I would also like to focus my attention on the exciting advertising opportunities available due to social networks, bloggers, websites with the power of WOM. Most recently I was particularly impressed by Stella Artois Black's campaign called the Midnight Chaffeur on Facebook. In addition, this exciting campaign was also covered on sites like Le Cool here in London.

I also found this Heineken campaign to be similar and as exciting as the previous campaign that went from the Digital to the Real World seamlessly causing interest and WOM with that ever popular young adult crowd that all advertisers seem to be keen on discovering how they work and how they use the digital. Heineken had a password "leaked" online for a real life recreation of their popular ad as a pop up for 3 days in Duke of York Square. Heineken's walk in fridge was also successful in creating buzz online through sites like InFormed and through bloggers "in the know". Not to mention they gave free beer!

I am excited by these new advertising strategies and creative real life applications that make even me want to go out and have a beer!

Dissertation Graded! Graduation from LSE in sight...

After all the hard work, I will be graduating from the LSE with a smile on my face. Now, on to exploring the art world on my own terms and as one of my favorite past times.

To begin with I have gone to my favorite museum, the Tate Modern, to check out their most recent and one of their most popular exhibitions Gaughin. It was a wonderful surprise, not just for the paintings, but also as a way to learn about one of the great Impressionists personal life and interests. I especially enjoyed his carvings, in particular the Head with Horns.

I will continue to enjoy London's amazing art scene, as I will be staying on to work here after my graduation! More to come...

Interactive Advertisements!

There seems to be a plethora of creative interactive advertisements on Youtube today... I really enjoyed the following:

NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!

Expendables

Samsung3devent

More to come!

Dissertation finished! The world of interactivity just keeps getting better...

After officially handing in my Dissertation last week, I just discovered Arcade Fire's interactive film, that was released yesterday! It is a fascinating Chrome Experiment and highlights some of the amazing possibilities to combine the arts with new interactive media.

Please enjoy it yourself The Wilderness Downtown !

Re-thinking architecture and art

It has been awhile since my last post, as I approach my deadline for this dissertation... However, I must comment on my most recent interview with Argentinian artist, Chino Soria. He was a pleasure to speak with and gave me a new perspective on the world of architecture and the visual arts. Trained as an architect and now a practicing artist in London, Chino, has a unique vision on working with materials.

Chino has been focusing his body of work on creating models of slums he has been inspired by throughout the world, giving all materials a purpose and leaving nothing to waste. I think this article on Chino summarizes his work the best Life is more important than Art. One of the few artists' I have interviewed without a website, Chino seems unfazed by trends or marketing techniques of any kind. I would characterize him as a classic artist with the innate ability to work in almost any artistic medium, as well as inspiring humanitarian sensibilities.

His latest installation will be shown in the Argentinian ambassadors home this autumn.

The online world of the selling and networking artists

I had an enlightening interview today with Esther Gutstein. A Houston native, Esther, has been a traditional painter for some years now, but has a passion for the digital and is an active facebook member. In addition Esther introduced me to an artist specific networking platform, akin to LinkedIn for artists, called brooklynartproject.

Esther also clued me into the "sweatshop" art that is going on in China, where a team of factory workers churn out thousands of oil paintings that project instructions for the workers to follow. This seemed to be the epitome of Warhol's theory on the commodification of art.

Esther also introduced me to websites such as etsy, that she believes have changed the art world and for up and coming artists the website deviantART.

It has been an educational evening and I look forward to my last few interviews before the transcription begins!

Some Interesting References...

Interaction in Art and Technology

Alternative Reality Gaming

Van Dijk's The Network Society

Explorations in Art and Technology

Youtube and the Guggenheim collaborate

The Play Biennale, a collaboration between Youtube and the Guggenheim, is an extremely exciting opportunity for digital art to be a part of a such a well-known museum. The project also illustrates the global potential of Internet platforms and the arts. I am excited to see the results. Watch this video to learn more.

INTERACTIVE

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Bruges. Jason started Jason Bruges Studios in 2001 and has been creating exciting interactive pieces all over London and the world. I was particularly impressed with Jason's recent work at the Victoria and Albert Museum Mirror, Mirror. Jason's work combines his background in architecture with his past career as an interaction designer at the innovative Communications Company Imagination to create truly innovative and discussion worthy pieces.

The Jason Bruges Studio is also a part of the annual Kinetica Art Fair and was a part of the Milan Furniture Fair.

Downloadable Everything

Imin Yeh, an artist based in San Francisco, has a good sense of humor and a handle on a wide variety of mediums. I interviewed Imin last night and was impressed by her knowledge and passion for print making as well as her technological literacy and wit! She has successfully created beautiful prints, while also including a store function on her website and creating downloadable art pieces.

Her downloadable Mahjong set is a must see! She also has introduced me to the world of downloadable art work among famous artists such as Jake and Deno Chapman and Gilbert & George.

The interview was delightful and has showed me the ongoing overlap between the commercial world and the digital art world.

Keep an eye out for Imin as a finalist in the Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Art competition!

More on the digital arts!

As I have been researching and continuing to interview artists I have also come across some interesting institutions, individuals and events I would like to share:

Hype Williams

Digital Art Festival Tokyo

Disqo

NYU ITP

Top Ten Artist Installations of Second Life

More interviews and updates to come!

Architecture, Visual arts and the Digital

I have now finished my second interview! Despite the fact that I still need around 8 more interviews for my analysis, I am in good spirits and really enjoying the experience. I recently interviewed Jesse Seegers, an up and coming artist, architect and writer, who gave me an interesting perspective on architecture, the visual arts, and digital technologies.

He also suggested some artists/organizations to check out in the field including Rhizome, Cory Arcangel, and his friends behind the website double happiness.

Jesse, a recent NYU graduate, also recently finished working on the architecture book Agenda with JDS Architects in Belgium.

Interviews!

So, I finally had my first interview yesterday. I spoke with Andy Gouveia, a talented artist from California, who gave me some really interesting insight into the world of illustration and the digital. The key themes that seemed to come up in our conversation centered around globalization, the artists adoption of technology, the influences of digital technology on artists work, and interaction between the viewer and the artist.

The interview overall was a success! Andy was easy to talk to and the conversation flowed well... I look forward to continuing to interview artists and learning from their perspective how the digital has effected their work. Andy also referred me to one of his friends in the Bay area Imin, who has a website for downloadable mahjong sets as part of her work. Today I will be continuing my interviews, so stay tuned!

Some of my other research interests...

While this blog is dedicated to my work on my dissertation I also wanted to highlight some other research that I recently finished for the BBC World Service Trust this past spring. While interning at the BBC WST for Dr. Gerry Power I was able to help him with a presentation for the Cultural Voices Conference in New Orleans. The topic was on "the challenges and difficulties opportunities of creating a drama for development in Nigeria" focusing on the BBC WST drama series 'Wetin Dey'. This was an exciting opportunity for me to learn about Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. I have had a great deal of past internship experience in Hollywood and it was fascinating to hear about another flourishing film industry that spends about a tenth of the cost on production and only distributes films in DVD or VCD form.

Anyway, before I say too much about Nollywood I would like to point out that I will have another blog post on this research on the Norman Lear Center website... so stay tuned for a link in case you are interested in this less known film industry in an emerging market!

Research, Research, Research

Reading, reading and more reading... My research has been enlightening and a struggle at times, but with the help of Frederik Lesage, at the LSE, things are starting to become clearer. I have begun to focus on the artist's perspective of technology. Essentially, looking back historically to see how technology has influenced and been an essential part of the process for artists as early as the photograph... Moving forward to the works of Duchamp and finally touching on new media related theory with the writings of Manuell Castells on the Network Society.

I have been in the process of organizing my dissertations outline to highlight the central topics to use in my interview guide. I look forward to actually interviewing working artists and putting my research to use!

I will also be helping Frederik Lesage's with the LSE-MARCEL upcoming symposium on July 7th! It should be an interesting perspective on artists who collaborate with researchers.

More to come as I begin my skype interviews this week!

To begin my dissertation research I went to the wonderful Victoria and Albert Museums exhibit "Decode". Here is where things started to come together for me. The exhibit had three categories Code, Interactivity and Network. The exhibit really put into perspective the global scale of digital artists and the diversity of backgrounds in programming to more traditional artists.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode//

To say the least this exhibit gave me a starting point for my dissertation and some artists to investigate.

The start of My Dissertation...

I have been fascinated by the visual arts since age 6 when I decided my favorite artist was David Hockney. At first I attributed this liking to the fact he put a great deal of swimming pools in his paintings, at the time I was starting my competitive swimming career, but after seeing his exhibition at the National Portrait gallery a few years ago my appreciation grew based on his stunning portrayal of Southern California. He still remains one of my favorite artists today and while I could say I have become more sophisticated since age 6 I still do enjoy the swimming pools.

I decided to write my dissertation on visual culture in order to explore my appreciation for the arts and my new found passion for all things digital! Once I began exploring this juncture between the arts and the digital things got a lot more interesting. I began to question "who can be an artist" and look historically at the connection between technology and the creation of art. This all has lead me to my dissertation topic, entitled "Visual Culture, Technology and Interactivity", which I hope to explore and help research through this blog.