Stereograms.. the visual MIND GAMES!

ALSO...

Take a look at these!!!!!!!!! 

These are called Sterograms..........

As a kid, I would get dozens of books of these

 and I would sit there and look at them for hours...

They are a computer generated image that, if you can focus on them you will see a 3D image within the picture 

..........

(I will add links to these since it is much easier to find the 3D image with a larger picture)

CLICK HERE

^^^This one above is a cow^^^

CLICK HERE

^^^This one is a spring/coil^^

CLICK HERE

^^^ This one is two birds of some sort standing

 next to each other with mountains

 in the background and a sun in the top left corner^^^

CLICK HERE

^^^ This one is a butterfly flying away^^^

CHALLENGE!!!

See if you can figure out what these are!!

Comment below if you wanna see if you're right..

#1 CLICK HERE

#2 CLICK HERE

(Hint: Its a word.)

#3 CLICK HERE

#4 CLICK HERE

This is one of my FAVORITES!

And NO, I'm not crazy, there really are pictures there that you don't just see.... 

Its a Visual Life, and We... are Visual Beings

(I found this video that I thought was just very well done, its beautiful, has meaning and a lesson, and its about what and how we visualize things.. I must say its pretty cool... CLICK HERE AND CHOOSE "The Invitation"

Journalism

So normally I wouldn't do this, but this assignment is to talk about journalism and what we think it is. So thats what Im going to write about. However I'm not going by what most are thinking of when they think of journalism. 

When I think of journalism I think of the people that throw themselves out there,  that fly across the world to get the things they want. Being an art major i think of more of an artistic journalism rather than english journalism, more specifically, Photo journalism. I find photo journalism particularly appealing to me since i do a lot of photography. I feel that it truly captures the emotions in the story, it brings life to it. 

The beauty in photo journalism is that the photos have a story in themselves, they carry the emotions that were meant to be portrayed, in these particular pictures above for most you probably felt sorrow for these people, it takes a good photojournalist to be able to capture that raw emotion for their story. These photojournalists want you to see their story as they go out there into the world exploring the cultures and stories of places and people 

Photojournalism can capture parts of life that other people have no choice but to live that people like us just don't want to think exists, we'd all like to think our world is perfect, that people don't go hungry, that families don't have to give up their children to pay off their debts, that so many people die every day from poor water quality, that there are families that don't even name their children till they are about 6 for the fact that they assume they'll die. things like this happen around the world every day but photojournalism can bring this into reality and change our perspective on things.

Pictures have the ability to make people feel emotions that would not necessarily be there without a visual. Many people can read about abortion and they don't care, but when you see a fetus the size of  a dime.....
  ..... It changes things.

The Roommate

Just saw The Roommate with my roommate last night, great movie (blog about movie will come later)

Valentines Day =]

Love me and the world is mine.  ~David Reed


Love is being stupid together.  ~Paul Valery


True love stories never have endings.  ~Richard Bach

Love, and a cough, cannot be hid.  ~George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 165


Valentine hearts beat more passionately than everyday hearts.  ~Anonymous

I've fallen in love many times... always with you.  ~Author Unknown


Kisses are a better fate than wisdom. ~ E.E. Cummings


Trip over love, you can get up.  Fall in love and you fall forever.  ~Author Unknown


When love is not madness, it is not love.  ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca


For you see, each day I love you more
Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.
~Rosemonde Gerard


I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day.  When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon.  ~Author Unknown




I thought since it is Valentines Day ill give you a bit of history on how this day came about.

Jersey Shore ≠ REALITY

             "Mass media's function as constructor of reality is a widely researched problem in communications. This research identifies three types of events: genuine events that would happen without any media attention; media events that take on specific characteristics as media coverage is expected; and pseudo events that happen only because media initiates or broadcasts them."

            These days what media is calling "reality" is a lie.. Lets look at some of the reality tv we are currently watching: American Idol, Celebrity Apprentice, Dancing With The Stars, Hell’s Kitchen, Kate Plus 8, Project Runway, Real Housewives of Atlanta, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Survivor, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Jersey Shore, The Real World, etc. Now i want to know.. do any of your mothers act like this...

I really doubt it...



The thing is, this ISN'T REAL!!! Media has been taking the ACTUAL life of people and skewing them into a way emphasizing the drama that may only have been slight to begin with but are blow out of proportions on the television. Not only are the clips that are filmed edited but they can be cut together to create "franken-bytes" like he talks about here in this next video where they put together things said and forms them into sentences even though these sentences that may not have actually been said.

In this "reality", the limelight will also change people, they LIVE for the camera and thats all, they want to be the center of attention, and since what the camera wants is drama... well thats exactly what they'll bring.....

One very popular reality tv show fight that happened was seen on Jersey Shore: SNOOKI VS ANGELA (video embedding disabled) And here are some other videos from reality shows where these girls(and guys) try to grab the spotlight...

Earlier this weekend i was watching TV with my younger sisters and they were watching this TV show called "Victorious" although it is not a reality TV show, the setting of the show is in Hollywood where they film the lives of these teens at "Hollywood Arts", a performing arts school where talented students learn how to become real artists/actors. On this particular episode they were watching, it was about these teens being featured on a new reality TV show called, "The Wood". On this clip, displayed is a "franken-byte" where they take a clip of 'Victoria', played by Tori Vega, talking to her aunt and her aunts new puppy. In another clip you see Beck, played by Avan Jogia ordering a pizza. This reality show they are in then take the clips and put them together to cause this:



Cited:

Scherer, Helmut., Arnold, Anne-Katrin. and Schlütz, Daniela. "Media’s Creating Reality: Construction as a Social Process" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton New York, New York City, NY, <Not Available>. 2009-05-25<http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p12700_index.html>

My Love of Art

For my speech class here at RU, i had to write an informative speech, so i decided to write it on how i grew up with art and my love for it.  so, ENJOY!

As a little girl I always loved crafts and things to make and build. By the age of about 10 I was making beaded barrettes, drawing, making beaded creatures and people, jewelry, mosaics, origami, and the usual coloring of course.  My ideas always came from various places. Sometimes I would see something maybe in a store or in a magazine, an art book, or other places and I’d find my own way to replicate it. Even to this day I find my ideas in places like these. 

More recently I have gained a larger variation of things I can do, such as metal smithing, acrylic painting, watercolor painting, drawing, photography, graphic design, jewelry design including wire-working, some small woodworking, some ceramics.

One medium that I particularly enjoy is photography. There’s this quote that I love by Burton Silverman, that says, “I love how the fact that art might somehow affect the way people see and thus open a window on the world.” This quote reminds me of something my mom always tells me, that she does not have the ability to even see how I see, that I see from angles that others wouldn’t normally consider when taking a picture. I think the reason that this is one of my favorite medium is that others can see what I see through my eyes. 

Another medium that I favor would be jewelry design. I have been making jewelry  ever since I was little, even though, my designs have much improved over the years. My dad would some days come home from work and tell me about things his patients would tell him about things that they would make. from what he would tell me i would make different things, this always gave me a larger variety of ideas to use, which is how my love of jewelry making began. Making jewelry has been of great use to me over the past few years In order to raise the last bit of money, in order to go to Ecuador last spring, I sold bracelets I had made for 4 dollars a piece, making the last hundred dollars necessary to go. 

One day I hope to own my own studio/shop and also do graphic designing for corporate offices and companies, designing logos, letterheads, and other items for businesses on the side. This i think would give me the ability to do what i want with my art and to make it a bigger part of my life. So far I’m on track for my goal, studying as an art major here at Reinhardt University. I hope that one day my dreams for my art will come true and i become a great artist.

Heres a demonstration of some of my work:

Paintings:

THis one was unfinished when i took this pic

Photography:

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

When given the topic of ” Concentration of media ownership” and “media conglomerates,” I really didn’t know what they were. Before I looked it up I decided to test myself and try to figure out what meaning these things could hold. I took each apart and word for word thought, “What does this word mean to me?.’ I ended up with definitions such as this: “Concentration of media ownership” -- ‘The focus on the companies who are in control of massive amounts of the media put out today,' and for “media conglomerates” I was slightly stumped since I do not know what conglomerates means. However, I remembered a word that closely resembles it, conglobulate, I took the meaning of this and substituted it for conglomerate, after that I came up with ‘media that is bundled together as a group under one division.’
Turns out I wasn’t all that wrong, with concentration of media actually being “progressively fewer organizations control increasing share of the mass media,” and Media conglomerates being, “companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.” Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney, The Walt Disney Company, as of 2010, is the largest media conglomerate in the entire world.
With 8 divisions Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Disney Music Group, Disney-ABC Television Group, Walt Disney Theatrical, Radio Disney, Disney Interactive Media Group, Disney Consumer Products, and Walt Disney Parks and ResortsI believe it to be a very successful company. It also owns many subsidiaries: Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment, LLC, Playdom, Tapulous, ESPN (80%), ABC Inc., A&E Television Networks (42.5%) as well as numerous others.

The Walt Disney Company, I would say has done a fabulous job on the focus of its media concentration with it mainly focusing on what principles Walt Disney originally started on, which I believe to be purely entertainment for the masses. The success of their media concentration is very clearly reflected on its revenue of 38.8 billion dollars this past year!!However, this company not only focuses on entertainment through orated and visual entertainment, but it also has many branches of resorts and cruise lines such as Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, Euro Disney S.C.A., Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Disney Vacation Club and Disney Cruise Line.
With all the diverse views available in this company there leaves no doubt that it would come in first as a media conglomerate across the globe. From its radio theres certainly more than enough to be said about its success in its growth and expertise.

Semiotics

Semiotics according to my dictionary is "the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation." I almost see this as a word or a label of something that creates an instant visual in your head to where you automatically know what the person is talking about.  Like when you think "Goth"

You can or have probably already visualized and interpreted that to think this:

or

There is part of out mind that will interpret words such as "goth" into pictures. Some are more visual than others when it comes to interpretation, I would definitely say that I am one of those visual people. When I listen to others tell a story I visualize what is happening, however, it is up to them to be able to give the details to give me a full picture in my mind. But there remain those things that we hear the word and immediately interpret them into visuals... such as "Stop Sign", "Firetruck", even"Anger", or a "U-Turn sign"

We will see a stop sign like this and the meaning is apparent. We interpret it as we were all taught to in drivers ed and I'm sure most everyone understood what this meant even before that, it means we should do the obvious thing and STOP.  So we have translated this picture of a sign into meaning and turn that meaning into action.

I don't known about you... but when my parents faces look like this ^^^^ It is NOT a good sign and it would be a good idea to be as nice as you can to them.  We are capable of reading faces, like it shows on the picture we can take those three signs and put them together and from that we can drawl a conclusion that this person is full of anger.  

Signs like these are however, different from a stop sign, they have no words. So we cannot draw meaning from them the same way, but yet we still know what they mean. They each carry a specific meaning and it is vital tat we understand them. For instance you are getting on the highway and you see this yellow sign with an arrow, if we did not know that this sign meant merging lanes ahead than we are going to be very confused when your lane is getting smaller and then ends. so we know by seeing this sigh we are to merge into the lane next to you before the lane ends by completely merging. The sign on the right side we see often at intersections, is a "No U-turn" sign. Signs like these we must understand and if we disobey them we are in trouble with the police... its a violation to complete a U-turn when you see one of these signs. So what these signs mean are vital. How we interpret them is very important. So no matter if it is a style, a sign, a facial expression, or an object, we use semiotics when we interpret meaning to them all the same. And that my friend, is Semiotics.

And here is an additional video that helps to demonstrate the topic of semiotics: