How Did It Come To This?

The purpose of my digital art remix was to take the commercial image of beauty and link it to addiction, but from a male perspective. We often hear about the damaging effects of commercialized beauty on women, but commercialized beauty hurts men as well. It encourages unreachable fantasies that while in small doses can be tolerable, in large doses can cause men to develop unrealistic expectations and cause men to disconnect from the actual women in their lives. But more to the point, I believe that the sensations and reactions that go off in the brain can be so pleasurable to the male mind that it can actually become addicted, and although the male may not look like the woman addicted to heroin, it can cause this to happen to the man’s livelihood. As more and more of the world’s population uses the internet and images of commercialized beauty become more and more prolific, the reality of more and more people spending more and more time on the internet becomes a bigger and bigger problem. In my digital remix, I also show men, boys, and a grown woman oblivious to space and time and spending their lives in virtual reality. And the last image of my remix shows a man suffering a fate similar to that of Narcissus, except that it is not his own image that paralyzes him, but the virtual reality that paralyzes him. And with many men already spending so many hours on their computers, on internet pornography, and on video games, the paralysis that ensues because of addiction to images of commercialized beauty could become much more common.

Let the Truth be Shown

(Original advertisement)

(Remixed Advertisment)

Many cigarette ads still don't tell you right away that their product is harmful eventhough it is common knowledge. They still choose to advertise it as a "hip" thing to do. In my remix, I took the truth and made the young woman in the ad look as she would look if she continued on the path of smoking. Burning and scarring her face, changing the color of her complexion. The ad was originally 2 pages in the magazine. The Surgeon General's Warning was originally on the second page. I copied it and pasted it 4 times on the first page. I just felt that the warning should be on the first page and duplicated many times for readers to get the picture. I created smoke like words, "cancer", "death" and "pain" to blend in with the smoke.

I had picked a couple of other advertisements along with this one, but I really felt a connection to this one. Not only because I was surprised that there were still cigarette advertisements, but because it still depicts a “love” and “carefree” lifestyle. I was never drawn in by advertisements. In fact, the advertisements have always drawn me away from cigarettes. This is an addiction. It’s not supposed to be wonderful or smooth. It kills and destroys families. My best friend lost her father to lung cancer a couple of years ago. Her family has been turned upside down ever since. I was there when she brought her father to chemo treatments. I was there when he went through surges of good days and bad days. I was there to experience it all. I wanted this remix to be an awakening to others and to myself the horror of smoking.

"Artsy" Remix

The advertisement I choose to remix and alter is an advertisement for a fashion company, Dolce & Gabbana, a high end Italian Fashion Company. I felt that they misrepresented the women in the advertisement.They appear to be artists in a studio space; they are pencil thin, have sexual expressions on their faces and are wearing what is possibly advertised as “artsy apparel.” They are untouched in there presence they look like fabricated manikins; the falsehood is not only harbored in their appearance but in their unnatural posture as well. I feel this ad not only misrepresents woman but the artist as well. I know of course it’s just an unrealistic image that is trying to attract the classy and hip consumer but it does misrepresent “the woman” and “the artist”. I used magazines, paint and fabric scraps to recreate meaning. I covered the text with the name of the company at the bottom of the image with the phrase “MAKE IT” I decided to use this as the phrase to encourage creating and creation instead of filling your needs with thoughtless purchases of things that make you feel as sense of belonging or to feel beautiful. The other phrase I included is, “You can’t tag me” I thought of this in regarsds to clothing labels. To bring forth an awareness that when you buy into these name brands and the labels are visible you are not paying for something for yourself but in actually you are paying to advertise for the company when in fact they should be paying you! I tried to use many colors and textures to create a playful backdrop for the woman artist in the photo. My intention was to recreate the ad with spontaneous, colorful, and sloppy artzy fun approach because woman artist in a studio are not polished. I tried to also alter the woman’s bodies to create a more realistic body type.

Injecting Thoughts

While thumbing through a beauty magazine, I came across an advertisement for a hair product marketed specifically towards brunette women. I was struck by not only the content of the ad, but the message as well. In the original piece, a young woman injects herself with hair conditioner from an instrument resembling an IV, while in the lower right-hand corner, a blond woman lies on the ground, crushed beneath a bottle of the very same hair product.

In my remix of the advertisement, I wanted to create a visual which showed a young woman injecting herself with global knowledge instead of hair conditioner. In the remix, the woman stands at the bottom of the ad, directly below a series of pictures depicting the realities of today's modern world. By placing the woman below an array of visuals and text, I was able to transform the woman's image from sexy, as seen in the original ad, into a sensitive individual who is concerned with the lives, challenges and struggles of people in all corners of the globe.
 

The woman in the remixed advertisement no longer appears to be concerned by her image alone nor is she engaged in a "blond vs brunette" battle. Instead, she represents a self-aware, worldly person concerned with issues affecting both men and women across the globe reaching beyond one's hair color.

Melissa Brescini

SAVING FACE

Lunching on injectables and lasers is not my reality, or most women I know. I have too much on my plate for that. Instead of fine restaurants, I dine desktop. My eating is unconscious and buried under a sea of post-its--today's lists. (To prepare for this remix I also consulted with my mother about her working days). Saving Face is not about rescuing myself from the signs of aging, but about clearing my plate and being prepared. Losing Face is the risk of discovery that I do not have it ALL together!
This ad is another example of how the media indirectly harnesses the energy of women towards obsessing on physical perfection. Now, not only should women surrender their power to diets and scales, but also to lasers and other high tech injectables. Second, this is one more ad that recommends denial of the sensual, natural body by skipping lunch and, instead, replacing it with the latest "rejuvenation procedures." This led me to wondering about the class of individuals "who lunch" on china, white linen and wine. Have they nowhere else to be, no other priorities? Saving face seems not how something could have been done better, but about rescuing your face "before it is too late." As stated in another ad, "To hide my real age and to get away with it."
The irony is not lost on me. Stress is the wear and tear of living, and the same magazine is full of dos and don'ts for women such as "Bake it. Decorate it.
Hang it. Give it. Watch it." At the same time, women are expected to do all that and more and still look dewy and rested. Just inject those cares away!
I like that the new scene, even in its chaotic state, is warm, with an injection of humor. This is not to be insensitive to the issues of women, but to represent how I typically save face--relationally and through humor! I also stuck on a post-it passed down
from my mother--go for a walk....
Nancy Jo

Sexuality is an aspect of media that grabs the attention of audience’s. This image definitely grabs attention but for any other reason than a meaningless television show? No. Although I do not agree with this form of advertisement and its representation of women, it made me think if I were to use this image to get attention what kind of message would I want to send to audiences? I decided as a spoof on the original image I would change its meaning, not by changing the women (which was my original intention) but by changing the words and using the image of women to sell something different and completely unexpected.
I used the iconic image of Uncle Sam in the background to bring to mind the nearing presidential election and the text “DECISION 2008” to frame the image. Uncle Sam peaks through the women as a reminder that through all the distractions “Your vote is your future”. Using sex appeal to grab attention for a more worthy statement, and to motivate people to do something important like vote is still not offering a positive portrayal of women. But the opposing meaning the image of Uncle Sam creates is through his pointed finger and scowled brow, which appears to be a sense of disapproval as the half-naked women dance around the pole in front of him.

Jordan Byrne

Exercise Your Mind

When I saw the photo on the left in a fitness magazine at the gym, I felt that this is not a realistic representation of women, or those who exercise. She is almost too thin too represent exercise authentically. Magazines and the media seem to always show a thin woman in exercise photos. Why is that? Is that what you're really going to look like after doing their 5 "simple steps?"
So I decided to add some meat to this model, and make her seem a bit more realistic. I changed the caption from "show it" to "stretch it" to play on words in the exercise world, but to make a statement that by stretching her I am producing a more realistic body size.
I think if magazines showed real women in a variety of sizes for articles like this, it can work just the same if not better to reach out to the diverse population of body types who read these articles. And maybe showing photos women can better relate too might even inspire some.

-Carrie P.

Tacori Advertisement - Remix

 

When I first saw this advertisement, I was instantly repelled. There was nothing about it that made me want to consider purchasing this product or any other from this company.  Clearly this company is choosing to advertise to a specific economic group, those that are very wealthy and can afford the extravagant things in life.  I took this opportunity to transform this one-sided message and alter it o something that could be seen as something that can benefit our society as a whole.  Using the outline of the forms that I considered to be useless, I filled them with images of the environment.  My intention was to promote a message of both conservation and awareness.

- Jennifer

Triscuit

This woman is experiencing a state of synesthesia, where the real information experienced through the senses effect how other senses are perceived. At times it is evident that our senses can improve our ability to evoke experiences from our past or can provide a link between information that is only understood cognitively. In this case the sense of smell and taste inform what is being seen in the surrounding environment. The mix of feta and olive flavors in the crackers can be associated with traditional Greek cuisine, which I find reminiscent of classical Greece. After tasting the product the woman is relocated to a field where fierce Spartan warriors are about to engage in battle. Her gaze remains focused on the cracker as she sits posed like a statue at her marble table, unaware of the danger that lurks behind her. I guess you never know where you’re going to end up.

Christina Delaney

Isn't life more than just a Visa card?

I wanted to change the meaning of my advertisement to make it represent artistic culture instead of female vanity. I took the first step by cutting the paintbrush out of the girl’s mouth, which I came to see as dog-like and suggestive. I began to trim her perfectly styled hair and color it, so that she became more hip and alternative. Then I stared at the text and saw the words that truly represented my vision. Instead of “Life Takes Visa: So many colors, so little time”, I pasted “Life is so many colors”. With these words, I not only was making a statement about artistry, I was acknowledging art as part of multiculturalism.

-Deb Eskie

D&G?

I chose to remix a Dolce & Gabbana advertisement for a purse. Pictured in the ad, there is a woman reclining on a couch with her D&G bag in hand, as though she doesn't have a care in the world. In my remix, I used Photoshop to reposition her in  a swamp-like area, still lying on her couch. In the background I added a polluting factory and some explosions. I chose to remix this advertisement in this way as a comment on the frivolous fashion industry. In my opinion, there are so many things going on in the world to be concerned about instead of which label is on your over-priced purse. The fashion industry creates these items, charges way too much money for them and what contribution do they make towards the good of society? Instead of using their popularity to benefit those less fortunate, or helping with bigger issues like pollution, global warming, disease research, etc, the industry is concerned with selling expensive things.

Amy Sheaffer

Is Big Mac a Big Mistake??

  

The ReMix advertisement that I decided to do was a Big Mac advertisement that I saw in a magazine, which interestingly enough also had adds on how to lose weight throughout its pages. To me, this ad represented the opposite of my own eating habits and in general encourages an unhealthy lifestyle. 

The idea behind my ReMix was to force people to question whether or not what they are putting in their bodies is a good choice or not. There are many studies that show how harmful fast foods, such as the Big Mac can have on your body over time. 

The heading was changed from "NOTHING EATS LIKE A BIG MAC", to "ARE YOU BEING GOOD TO YOUR BODY".  On the bottom, next to the McDonald Golden Arch, I changed it from, "i'm lovin' it", to "r u lovin' it?". Being a health nut, I really encourage people to think more about what they put into their bodies.

-Venus Corriveau

For more information on McDonald's food nutrition, search the websites below. You will find it interesting that the McDonald website makes it difficult for you to understand the facts.

REMIX of a Wal-Mart Ad.

The ad that I remixed was a Wal-Mart advertisement that I found in the March edition of Essence Magazine. The ad was the hands of an African American man whose hands are folded and on his veins are 5 lines that are snippets of black history. The lines were very safe, Million Man March, Brown vs Board of Ed, Pro Baseball Integrated, MLK Birthday becomes a national holiday, and the Wiley Debaters. This image sparked an interest for me because my make-up is part African American. I decided to remix this image to show aspects of Black History that are not highlighted but are very existent in the fabric of my history.

~Melissa Ratliff~

Articles from Advocate and Newsweek

Ladies and gentleman, the first pregnant man! This is a fascinating firt-person account about being a pregnant transgender FTM (female to male). When Thomas Beatie and his wife decided to have kids, Thomas went off testoserone to get pregnant due to the fact that his wife was incapable of bearing the child. The image of a man with child is so stunning and captivating, and the story itself is a new take on queer identity and a new challenge for the common gender-rigid American household.




http://advocate.com/issue_story.asp?id=52664&page=1

Also, I wanted to share this article about the documentation of today's adolescent generation, and how camera phones, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, and Livejournal have affected the intimate connections between young people. Identity over-exposure is a common trend these days, and the current youth now thrives on having their every life moment recorded for the public eye.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/123484/page/1

Deb Eskie

BREAKING the MOLD: Re-imaging Dance and Disability

In 1996, I attended a performance by AXIS Dance Company at the Boston Cyclorama. Their mission, since 1987, has been “to create and perform high quality contemporary dance that is developed through the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities (retrieved 3/2/08). My interest in attending their “physically integrated dance” performance and, later, master-class was prior work with adults in rehabilitation for spinal chord injuries and children with disabilities in the Boston public schools…and a love of dance.

The excitement for me is in the artistry of Axis Dance Company. They are not looking to choreograph movement that matches the desires and images of dance, grace and virtuosity that an audience might expect in a dance performance. They seek movement that is expressive, authentic and thrilling to their bodies. For my work as artist educator and dance therapist, they gave me the priceless gift of possibility: they redefined the definitions of dance, disability and what it means to be in the body. They also confirmed a belief I held in the power of performance to heal and reformulate body image (dissimilar to many of the messages I was receiving at the time, both in the media and in my professional training).

Last spring, I was invited to a benefit performance by local interdisciplinary artist, Lisa Bufano, before her journey west to join Axis. Recalling the expressive image on the brochure, of this young woman with multiple amputations, I was motivated to see what AXIS was up to these days:
On the website, under “what’s new” you will be introduced to Lisa and her story, under “performances” you will find an Image Gallery and under “education” a comprehensive list of books, articles, fiction, nonfiction, resources for teachers and children, videos and websites on dance and disability. There is a link to Ways to Dance, an essay by dancer Uli Schmitz, written for the 1998 Internet Conference on Art and Disability. Upon seeing AXIS perform for the first time, he, himself disabled from polio, “…realize[d] and appreciate[d] the different qualities of their movement; the fluidity, the effortlessness and the power that can be unleashed by an electric wheelchair…this particular image of power, for example, becomes emotionally gripping because it contradicts the usual stereotypes of the helpless disabled person” (Schmitz, 1998, p.3).
Visit the website and see if you agree!
Nancy Jo

http://www.axisdance.org
http://www.axisdance.org/education_resources_articles.php for Schmitz essay and links to websites such as Disability Arts Online

The collage work of Deborah F. Lawrence

Introducing the work with Deborah F. Lawrence. This work is called Teenage American Service Tray and is Acrylic, collage and varnish on tin TV tray. In her own words, "I consider it my job to enhance a picture's original meaning as I use it to report on social, emotional, historic and current events."

Her work can be found at http://www.deedeeworks.com/ She will be conducting a workshop at Lesley University, on March 18. Contact Pricilla Harmel (pharmel at lesley dot edu) to reserve.

-sam smiley

Sita Sings the Blues

Check this out! a soon to be feature length feminist and genre bending musical feature length Flash Animation by Nina Paley. The subject is the Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic which is an important part of the Hindu canon.
Check her site at http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
or read her blog at http://blog.ninapaley.com/.
Or check a review at the Sepia Mutiny blog

-sam smiley

Emergency Broadcast Network

Emergency Broadcast Network was a performance art and video group who did work in the 1990's. Now with Youtube, their work is coming back online. You can do a search for EBN on Youtube, and find dozens of videos.

The original EBN folks met at Rhode Island School of Design. They were Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post and Brian Kane. Later on, others joined, include Greg Deocampo (founder of Company of Science and Art (CoSA). Incidentally, CoSA Effects later on turned into After Effects, a well known image processing software currently owned by Adobe.

More detailed information can be found on the group on Wikipedia and you can see samples from Telecommunication Breakdown at http://emn-usa.com/ebn

EBN's work was "culture jamming" in media culture. Culture jamming (in the words of Wikipedia's definition "...often entails transforming mass media to produce ironic or satirical commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method." One of EBN's clear influences was Fluxus media artist Nam Jun Paik, who was culture jamming with analog television before TV had really come of age.

I could say more, but here's an intro look at EBN.
-sam smiley

A Broke Down Melody

Recently, I sat down to view the film, A Broke Down Melody, a beautiful surfing documentary recommended by a friend at home in California. A Brokedown Melody was directed in 2004 by professional surfer and filmmaker Chris Malloy and features the surfing of some of the world’s best surfers. The film's stunning imagery, and shared stories documents the journey of a group of surfers as they ride the waves of South America, Polynesia and Jamaica.

The film captures the beauty of the locations, the talent of the surfers and the power of the ocean with amazing cinematography, and underwater, in-water camera shots. Flavor is added to the scenes with the help of inspiring music from many artists including former pro surfer, Jack Johnson. Overall, I was impressed by the visual imagery and touched by the stories and experiences revealed in the film. A Brokedown Melody is an enchanting film and the perfect escape from a cold New England winter.

More information and a trailer for A Brokedown melody can be found at, http://www.abrokedownmelody.com

Enjoy the film!

Melissa Brescini

Inhabiting an Image...

I took a trip to the MassMoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) this weekend and had the opportunity to experience the Jenny Holzer PROJECTIONS installation.  

You begin by entering the blacked-out doors of the football field-sized gallery space and are immediately greeted by the bright lights of duel-mounted projectors and the fast moving words that they cast on the floor ceiling and walls.  As you walk down the stairs into the vast area, you are next confronted  by couch sized bean bags that serve as obstacles for the images to gently wash over along with the human inhabitants.  As you recline to enjoy the extraordinary scene, you begin to notice the calm serenity of silence as you and those around you begin to explore the meaning of the text.  

While the intentions of the projected poems (View with a Grain of Sand Poems New and Collected: 1957-1997, copyright 1993, 1998 by Wislawa Szymborska) for this particular work were unclear to me at first, I began to realize that the experience would have different meaning for each person who inhabits the space.  I found this idea particularly interesting because of my participation in this course, The Power of the Image.  In this case you not only take in the image visually, but you add to it and alter it depending on how, when, and where you view it.  This exhibit not only asks you to rely on sight or sound to connect with it but encourages you to notice how your immediate environment affects your interpretation of the piece and to inhabit the image at that moment in time.  

 

To learn more about this exhibit click here: http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?=339

To view a webcam of this exhibit click here: http://www.massmoca.org/projections.php   

-Jennifer