Zach's Blog for Digital Media Class

  These are some early concepts I created on Midjourney for my photoshop/midjourney assignment #1. I ultimately went with the first option, but I really like all of these for different reasons. I've been having a ton of fun with midjourney. I find myself using it in my everyday life when I have an idea or want to create something. I do feel like midjourney's AI has some work to do as a lot of the products I get are very off from what I want, but I have no doubt that as it continues to get better it's going to change the art world.

When I was younger I used to have a graphic design account on Instagram where I posted edits of different athletes and music artists. At the time I didn’t have a laptop so all of my edits were done using Superimpose as well as other apps on my phone. I felt that for what I was working with, I had some of the best app edits on Instagram. I ended up stopping because I no longer became as interested in making them, and they took a long time to make (without creating revenue). Doing these recent photoshop assignments reminded me of how much easier making these would have been if I had a laptop. 

  This is my final product for our photoshop assignment #1. I absolutely love this image and had fun putting it together. The idea for the piece came from a concept I had of an astronaut coming down from space and seeing the pyramids being built by aliens. I am super fascinated by the pyramids and all of the conspiracies that come with it, so I thought about how crazy it would be to see them being built from the eyes of somebody who has traveled to earth. I really love how there are tons of aliens around the pyramids as well as one sitting near the astronaut looking at a map of how they are going to be built.  All in all, I just love the detail and look of this whole piece. It would be something I totally would put on my wall.

  This is what I came up with for my photoshop assignment #2. This is a modern day fake inspired by Edvard Munch. I had quite a bit of fun coming up with different images on Midjourney to create this final product. I started with the astronaut screaming which I felt was a cool modern play on the original scream image. I liked the idea of a human looking into another dimension in fear, while beings from that dimension mock him. The other dimension I created was supposed to be an Edvard Munch inspired world with creepy creatures in his paint style. I also included the scream as I felt it is the staple of Edvard Munch's most famous work. Ultimately I liked how it turned out. I felt I had a better image before trying to forcefully add items to the photo, but either way it looks cool.

  I hate Adobe Illustrator. Plain and simple, this is the piece that made me absolutely hate this program. Making a landscape wasn’t too bad, but when it came to portraits I had a miserable time. This took me more time than I care to admit and it is atrocious. I really couldn’t figure out how to do a nose or skin. I just had no idea what I was doing. I watched multiple YouTube videos and I just could not get it right. I hope I never have to use illustrator again.

  This is what I made for my landscape on illustrator. For my first time working in illustrator, I wasn't mad at how this came out. My biggest complaint about it is how the sun looks like an egg, but that's something I'm sure I can fix as I continue to get better with illustrator.  I grew up making photoshop edits on my phone of famous athletes. so when I used photoshop on my laptop for the first time, I was at least a little bit familiar with what the tools did. I had no idea how to use illustrator when I started using it last week.

 This weeks assigned reading was Ted Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines", and Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg's "Personal Dynamic Media". The question we are assigned to answer is, " How have you incorporated the computer's capabilities in your own work and how has it transformed your ideas?". I find this question to be very fascinating as the computer has become a staple in everyday life for just about every human on earth. When talking about specifically this class, with our computers we are able to create AI images and pair them together to make original art. This has certainly transformed my ideas of what is possible in the art world, and what I can create. In my life, the computer has allowed me to network and express my ideas through social media. Because of this, I am now working an internship doing my dream job. 

 Over the weekend I watched the film "F is for Fake". This was Orsen Well's last film and it follows the lives of Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. Both men were famous for creating "fake" pieces. Elmyr de Hory was known for creating and selling fake artwork said to be by famous painters. Clifford Irving was known for writing a fake autobiography about Howard Hughes. What I found most fascinating about this film was the concept. We of course are following two people who are notorious for faking things, but it is through the lens of a film director. Orsen Wells certainly doesn't fake his work, but in theory the job of a director is to create movies which are fake. All three of these men are famous in their own right for creating something that could be considered fake.  This opens up a philosophical question which is whether or not something can be "fake". Every single great piece of art whether it be physical or digital, was inspired by something.