Design Camp: Photoshop

This semester I attended the Intermediate Photoshop design camp. I always have been very interested in the artsy world. My family grew doing arts and crafts, so I have tried to keep up with drawing and art projects. However, it is difficult to keep up with arts because of the lack of time and materials. However, I learned that many types of art can be illustrated and simulated through several digital medias.

I was first exposed to Photoshop through a class in high school called “Digital Art”. I loved Photoshop because it leaves everything to the open. You have many of the same tools that you have with the physical. Also since Photoshop is digital, the art is easily portable. I can work on my art whenever I want on my laptop or computer.

In the Intermediate Photoshop design camp we learned has to make a person disappear. We erased any trace of skins, faces and left all the clothes. I learned what some tools do and how to use them in Photoshop. There are so many features that we learned to use such as the select, burn, blur, and clone tool etc. I learned that there are unlimited uses in Photoshop. I can basically never learn all the uses of Photoshop. As I use Photoshop more, I kept discovering new things. There are always multiple ways of finding a solution to a problem.

I was actually thinking to do something with Photoshop for my capstone. Photoshop doesn’t only have to be about editing photos, but you can also create art works, paintings, or your own picture. I saw an DCC alumni that was a graphic design. She created many posters and signs illustrating an event or promotion. For her capstone, she digitally drew many art pieces in Photoshop. I would like to do something related to that.

There is not much to connect Photoshop with our DCC class. However, it was interested that Dr. Farman had us erase a person. The clothing was the only identifier of the person. The class erased the identity of the person. This was interesting in terms of our class. We studied identity of people and how people are identified through the color of their skin, their gender, and their belief. In this design camp, they were stripped of all these things. They were no long a defined by what society defines them, but the Photoshopped people were just astronauts, a singer, a dancer, or a basketball player. This is what would happen in an ideal world. People would not look at the color of skin, beauty, or gender; they would look at who they were and their personality. This is what we strive for in the world.

Project 4: Morph Suit

Pauler technology created nanobeads that when in large quantity are able to morph together. These beads are also able to sync to a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Through this sync, the nanobeads can be programmed to morph into specific shapes, colors, and texture. Originally, Pauler technology wanted these beads to be used as a go-2-everything. With these beads, people could just carry it around or keep it in their house. Whenever, they needed something like a stuff animal, a blanket, towel, etc. it is assessable to them because it could morph into many things. It was programmed to only have a dozen options of use. However, the CEO realized that people weren’t really interesting in this. Although, it was a breakthrough not enough people were attracted to this new invention. So, the CEO decided that this new nanobeads needed to go to a good use. The Pauler team went hard to work. After a few months of ideas boards, polls, surveys, and experiment, the morph suit was formed. The physical appearance is a skin-tight suit made of nanobeads. The nanobeads were initially in the form of this suit. Since the nanobeads are able to programmed and synced, the customer could select an outfit/clothing online and then download the outfit onto the suit.  Pauler technology created this suit that is able to morph into different types of clothes with different colors, textures, and thickness. Once you synced the suit with your personal electronic devices, you can download an outfit for the day. The Pauler technology branched off with a sister company for a designer outfits. The Pauler brand designed outfits that people could download. With the purchase of the morph suit, a limited clothing line would be provided for free, and would change seasonally. Since it is limited, most people would need more outfits. However, to get more outfits you would have to purchase and download into your “closet” online. For the clothes/outfits you purchased, you get to keep in your “closet” forever, however, for the free outfits with the purchase you would have to download them every time you want to use them. After you download it, use it, and “change out of it”, it would just be returned to the store. It would not return to your “closet”. After this technology came out, all the department stores slowly but surely came out with their own digital download of outfits. However, these department store online outfits would also require a purchase and download into your “closet”.

To “change out of” your clothing, you would just go to your personal electric device and turn off your suit, then it will morph back into the skin-tight suit. After a day you can change into your pajamas or never take off the suit and just morph it into a pajama. This invention saves space, material, and money.

There also can be gifting online. You can buy and “ship” people clothing. It would automatically transfer into their online closet.

This does bring up a problem of labor. There are many workers that make physical clothes. These workers would all be out of jobs and would create a large loss of jobs. There would be a larger demand for designers and programmers that can create a digital outfit. However, all the workers who manufactured physical clothing in factories do not have skills in design. They could not get these jobs even if they tried. Since all the outfits are online, people could be able to hack the website and download an unlimited amount of outfits into their “closets”. There would be a lot more shoplifting or “shophacking” from all kinds of people. There might be a black market for clothing where you could illegally download clothes. Also, one type of suit might discriminate against body types. Preferably, they morph suit would be custom made, but that would increase cost a lot more. If not, the suits may not be designed for those with larger body types or with larger waists or breasts. This problem is happening now with the physical clothes, and this morph suit would challenge and bring to light this problem. Hopefully, these suits will be better adjusted to different body types because supposedly this is the only clothing they would buy.

This might reinforce social divisions because the suit would be rather expensive and only those in the upper middle class and upper class. This puts a division between classes and reinforce this gap between the poor and wealthy. However, since the clothes that morph will look like regular clothes, people shouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This item was mostly designed geared toward women because of the need for new clothes all the time. Women are constantly shopping and buying new clothes. So typically, most of the digital outfits would be geared toward women and not as much clothing for men. It will demonstrate how the clothing industry is really geared toward women.

Although this technology will probably never exist, it puts in perspective the issues of the clothing industry and the pressure of a skinny body.

pictures:  dcc technology

Reading response to “Welcome to the Queer Rebellion”

The audience for this piece is for the queer community. The authors use the word “we” a lot because they are including the readers who are queer. Especially at the end, the authors say, “We are outsiders-and we are stronger when we create together”. The authors are inviting the queer community to stick together and work together in the queer rebellion. This article was published in ada Gender, New Media & Technology which has is a medium for women to publish articles that support a new media or technology. This article specifically addresses a new media of the queer rebellion where the queer community would create art together.

The main idea of this text is that queers are still outsiders in the world and should therefore bond together and create a company for a “space of liberation”. The authors write that people still cannot accept that queer people exist. So, they argue that the queer community needs to bond together and support each other. The authors also mention that through queerness and art, they can tackle the racial divide and other acts of racism as violence. The text was created to promote the queer rebellion.

The goal for this text is to inform and invite the queer community to join the queer rebellion. The article starts off by introducing many artworks already created by the queer rebellion. These examples help to demonstrate the capability of the queer rebellion and to inspire the readers to join them. The authors want to unite all those who are queer and create a “queer third world liberation zone”.

I appreciated this article because of it illustrated the power of unity and support in a queer community. It is hard for any community to be close and unified, but this article promoted its unity, and through art the authors believe that it is possible to unite against hate. I enjoyed the beginning of the article with the narrative and pictures of artworks already done in the queer rebellion. I like how the artwork were very different and touched on many different topics. The queer rebellion supports all its members which I appreciate. As a connection to my personal experience, I like to explore art. I have come across many artworks that are controversial and many public organizations are not allowed to show the artwork. As a person who enjoys artwork, I would want a free space for the artist community to share and collaborate on their pieces without the hate.

One question that I have is whether we should separate the queer artist community with the artist community. It goes back to the same problem in twitter we saw. The division between the black twitter community and the white twitter community somewhat promotes or relays the message that the division between black and white is fine. The same goes for the queer community and the non-queer artists. If we start to distinguish and divide the queer and non-queer artist community, does this relay the message the queer community are outsiders and will continue to be outsiders?

Sleep Dealer Response

The movie, Sleep Dealer, is a foreign film, but the language spoken in the movie is Spanish. This makes me believe that the specific audience for this movie is the Latino population. However, it was released in multiple countries including the U.S., France, Japan, and other countries. The main audience was definitely for all nationalities, but the country of origin of this film is the United States. Since the film takes place in the United States/Mexican border, it makes sense that the film targeted the Latino population in both countries especially since it brought up the issue of immigration in the United States. Since Sleep Dealer is a Sci-Fi movie, it was also geared toward those with an interest in Sci-Fi. A futuristic dystopian Mexico is depicted in the movie where there is new technological developments such as the nodes. Typically, Sci-Fi is an audience-specific genre that targets a unique audience.

The main idea that the director, Alex Rivera, wanted to get across is identity and connections or rather disconnections due to technology. Memo the main character is having an identity crisis in his home town. He doesn’t know who he is there on the Santa Ana farm and wants to get away from Santa Ana. After his father is killed, he struggles with the realization that his satellite was the reason his father was killed. He doesn’t know what to do and how to face his family, so he tries to reinvent himself in Tijuana where his dreams are supposed to come true from everything he has heard from his satellite. Again he has another crisis in his identity when the nodes/job doesn’t give him the satisfaction that he though, instead it drains his energy. The only happiness is the women in his life, Luz Martinez. Even that falls apart when Memo figures out that Luz had an ulterior motive to befriending him. Another main idea that Rivera tries to get across is the barriers due to the advancements of technology. We see how the technology causes a disconnection between people and the company and migrant workers. The first instance was the gate/fence that Memo and his father have to pay to get access to water. They talk to a robot that has a train machine gun and camera pointed at them. When they increased the price of the water, Memo’s father could not reason and present his disagreements. Another example is the wall between the border of Mexico and the United States. In this future Mexico, there is a wall put up that doesn’t allow anybody from Mexico to cross over without a good reason. The only way for people in Mexico to “get jobs in America” is to work in node factories, where they control robots doing their actual jobs in America. Again, technology has resulted in a disconnect between two countries and people. However, the truNode memory/story allowed for the Rudy Ramirez to find Memo in Tijuana. It allowed two strangers to connect which was a small benefit in the capitalism of technology in the future. Also, Rudy uses the technology against the water capitalist who built the dam in Santa Ana. He blows a hole in the dam, so everybody has free and equal access to water. At the end, Memo says that he can never return to who he was, maybe because of the nodes and barriers of technology, but he can create a future for himself. The technology may open opportunities for connectivity, but promotes a barrier and border for communication.

The goal for this movie is create a Sci-Fi movie that depicted a futuristic world that is connected by technology, but also divided by borders. Alex Rivera was inspired by the dream of a ‘Global Village’ that is on the Internet. Technology is very useful for connections, but a side effect is decreased communication. This world is like “perfect” world that people are striving for now, but it has gone horribly wrong. Rivera wanted to add real day imminent problems like the drone strikes, outsourcing of jobs, global water crisis and immigrations issues into the movie. Rivera said on his website, “In any science fiction film, you always have at least two ‘stars’—the main character of the film, and the futuristic world itself”. Rivera wanted the main character to actually be an outsider because many sci-fi films do not have main characters that are truly “outsiders”. Since this was Alex Rivera’s first film, I don’t think he had an exact goal in mind other to bring a sci-fi movie into place that addressed many issues of the barriers of technology and real life issues.

At first, I was very confused with the concept of the movie. I didn’t know what I was going into, so I had no idea what to expect. The flashes of the man connected into his nodes with the blue contacts were what mainly confused me. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the plot or storyline because I thought too many paths were trying to connect together, but just made it confusing. One thing I enjoyed was the use of present day issues that were incorporated into a sci-fi world. However, I like how it shows how if we don’t address these present day issues now, the movie shows what could be our future. Although, I don’t have many experiences that I can relate, but I understand the desire to escape your present day expectation. As a child of parents with high expectations for their child, I understand the desire to have your own passions.

A question: How did the machines behind the fence, border wall work? Was there any physical person working behind the machines, because if the rules were violated then the violator could be gunned down? If this occurred, who decided whether they were a threat and needed to be killed?

 

A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza Response

This piece addressed an audience of organizations who have adopted the term Black Lives Matter and transformed it into something different. Garza is frustrated at the people who have taken a movement for a specific race and made it about other races, with no respect to the creation of the movement. Audience is all races across the country but Garza only talks about the importance of the Black race in this context of the recent events of Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, and Michael Brown. This piece was published in a feminist news site. Garza also mentions the how Black queer women are especially underrepresented and basically invisible. This also points the audience toward the female gender. Garza does not intend for this article to be just for women, but the actual audience is probably more females.

The main idea for this article is to discuss the movement of Black Lives Matter. Garza argues that in this context of racism and oppression of the black race, only Black lives matter. She gets frustrated at the spinoffs of #BlackLivesMatter that brings to light other races. Although all races are important, Black lives have been oppressed, assaulted, manipulated, and abused. This project is to bring those to light and to change that.  All women, male, children, queer, trans whoa are Blacks have been abused and we need to do something about it. Once Black people gain complete freedom, liberation for all we ensue.

The goal for this article was to stop the evolution of #BlackLivesMatter into something other than the original project to stop the white supremacy over Black lives that plagues the nation. Garza wanted her audience to understand that the movement that she started is a call to action for the Black race because of the oppression and misrepresentation of Black lives. Even in this project, Garza saw the hetero-patriarchal effect on events and organizations who wanted to take on the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This article is supposed to stir up the audience in advocating for the injustices to stop and to reach freedom for the Black race.

I did not especially agree with this article because of the complete dismissal of other races. Bascially, Garza says that only Black lives matter at the moment. Which at an extent, it is true. With the recent events that point toward the mistreatment of Black people, there is a need for a movement. However, her frustration of organizations and other movements that followed her example of the #BlackLivesMatter is frustrating to me. #BlackLivesMatter trended for many days and became a large part of social media, so why not use this trend to bring equality to other issues. Garza is very one sided and in a way “selfish” saying that Black equality has to come first then other freedom can follow. Maybe what we need in this country is to start small and gain equality in a smaller movement and then move into a large goal of eliminating anti-Black racism. Although, I appreciated Garza’s argument of finding freedom for all gender, nationality, sexuality and disability. Typically, the argument brought up is just about the how Black males are viewed as violent and inferior. However, Garza pulled in sexuality, gender and disability into the equation of mistreatment and inferiority in the Black community. I don’t have much experience with this movement, but I do remember a hashtag that was brought up that caused controversy. The #AllLivesMatter started up after #BlackLivesMatter started to trend. I see how the new hashtag belittles the importance and effect that the Black Lives Matter movement. However, we can’t forget about other races that are facing similar oppression and abuse. Why does the equality of Black lives come before all other races, nationalities under oppression?

What happens in #Ferguson affects Ferguson: net neutrality, algorithmic filtering and Ferguson Response

This article was directed toward the general public. Most people have no idea about the use of hashtags in twitter activism. The audience in this text is for those in United States to acknowledge the use of Twitter. People don’t realize how much effect that Twitter has in daily life, trends, and popularity of a topic. The author, Zeynep Tufekci, writes in this article how Twitter uses the popularity of hashtag to create a trending national topic. This is to educate the general public about the effect algorithmic filtering, lack of net neutrality and the internet in general. This article was written on a blogging platform that gives writers a free space to write story. This blogging platform, Medium, was founded by Twitter co-founders with the purpose of creating better content for social justice. This is very easily searchable on Google and other search engines. Anyone can find this articles/blogs on Medium. This article was published on August 14, 2014 a few days after the shooting of Michael Brown. Many people around the nation wanted to know about what was happening around Ferguson. I’m sure that this article popped on many searches to people around the nation during the time of the riots and protests in Ferguson.

The algorithm filtering that causes trends on social media is partially what made the Ferguson national news. The repetitive use of #Ferguson on Twitter put the Ferguson as a national trending news. The use of hashtags of Ferguson is what put Ferguson as a trend, but the same filtering algorithm that made Ferguson trend on Twitter causes a lack of net neutrality. Some things that only trend locally will stay local and not allow for the voiceless to be heard. They will get “filtered” out. Facebook has a filtering algorithm. Tufekci said that the night that Ferguson started trending Facebook feed were pretty quiet. However in the morning, posts were discovered written last night about Ferguson. Facebook’s algorithm had filtered those post out. As the more people engaged in the topic, more posts began to show up. Overall, Tufekci’s main idea in this article is how filter algorithms can effect social media positively and negatively. These algorithms now play a large role in our lives now.

The goal of this article is to educate the public about the net neutrality and algorithmic filtering and its effect on Ferguson. This article starts out with a small introduction to net neutrality. Tufekci introduces it as “a human rights issue; a free speech issue; and an issue of the voiceless being heard”. The author partially wants those who read this article to understand and advocate for net neutrality. However, Tufekci moves along quickly to algorithmic filtering and its effect on Ferguson. Though it did not directly change the actions surrounding Ferguson, it put the spotlight on the policing and race. Ferguson became a nationwide topic for weeks, but Tufekci wants the audience to analyze and understand why that is. She wants the audience to challenge and question the use of algorithmic filtering. Though she sees the positive effects that filters can have, she knows that it does not give everybody equality, where social media can control our thoughts.

I really enjoyed this article because I am especially interested in the events in Ferguson. I had never though that Twitter could be a cause of the blowup of #Ferguson. One social media where all races align in support each other. I appreciated how Tufekci mentioned both positive and negative effects of filtering algorithms. It really does puzzle me about how racial profiling and racism still occurs. It is rooted in our culture from the history of our country, but we seems to be stuck in the past. Though I never had to go through any racial hate, I see how it affects my friends in job applications, college applications and so on. They have to struggle and prove themselves more than others. Why does race have to be an issue? What would happen if no one had a designated race?

The woman who nearly died making your iPad

Aditya Chakrabortty begins by analyzing Foxconn right away. Chakrabortty mentions right away how Foxconn is Apple’s number 1 supplier. Although Foxconn also supplies to Samsung, Sony, and Dell, the emphasis is put on the production of iPhones, iPads, and other Apple gadgets. This direct emphasis on Apple productions shows that Chakrabortty intends the article for Americans and Britons. A large portion of Americans and Britons have at least one apple product if not more, such as iPhones, iPad, and laptops. This article was published in the guardian which is a prominent Briton magazine that also circulates in the United States.

Chakrabortty wanted to illustrate the conditions of the workers in Foxconn that lead to multiple suicides and Tian Yu’s attempted suicide. The cluster of suicides together in 2010 lead to an investigation of Foxconn by reporters. Interviews of the workers revealed the bad conditions in Foxconn’s Longhua facility.

Through this article, Chakrabortty wanted to inform the readers about the horrible conditions that bring many Americans and Britons their Apple products. At the end of the article, Chakrabortty mentions how Apple could not “discuss” matters with him, giving him the run around to other offices. Even though Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said he would strive to make Foxconn improve working conditions. However, no money recorded was provided to improve conditions in Foxconn. In addition, Tian Yu received a “humanitarian payment” to help her go home, like Foxconn was “buying and selling a thing.” Chakrabortty wants to inform his audience about what they are buying and the process of how it is made. Things we have every day come at a large price to others. In a way, Chakrabortty is holding us responsible for this tragedy of Tian Yu. Although, the author does not challenge us to change these conditions, but he leaves the opportunity open.

I enjoyed how Chakrabortty analyzed the Foxconn and held the readers slightly responsible through the Apple products we own. This was a very tragic experience to Tian Yu which probably happened to hundreds and thousands of other people too. This is something we as consumers never think about or want to think about. This article forces us to confront this directly through its title, “The woman who nearly died making your iPad.” I felt partly responsible for the suicide attempts because of America’s great demand for Apple products. I currently have an iPhone and use it frequently. In college, we see many students around with iPhones and mac books.

A question I have is how much of a difference will there have to be in administration or law that caused for Foxconn to happen in China as opposed to United States. Why are there no enforcements that stop the bad conditions for happening? How does this differ in the United States?

Road to l0vE?

You can play my game Road to l0vE? here at http://philome.la/paulaw_dcc/road-to-l0ve.

I thought that this project was very interesting to make. Initially, I had a very hard time thinking of what I was going to make my game about. I heard some ideas from others in the class. I really like the idea of a reversal of genders in classic movie like the “The Lion King” that someone had mentioned before. I started brainstorming with some people, and they asked me what kind of game I would like to play. This started me thinking. I enjoy adventures which got me excited about spring break. My first spring break is coming up, so I thought that I could make this story interesting and fun. My game is about a college freshman named Alicia, who goes on a road trip from DC to California with her friend and her crush, Liam. Originally, I wanted to make the game about perceptions and how the guys and girls in the game viewed things differently. However, I was never able to make the guy’s perception because first, I don’t really know how guys think, and second because of time. After figuring this out, I wanted the main character to be girl.  Since girls often struggle with discovering their independence or their desire for love in their life, I wanted to make a game that displayed this view of women. Typically, women are viewed as fragile objects who are obsessed with boys. I emphasized this view of women in my game by making Alicia either end up in tears without Liam or with a possible relationship with him. However, Alicia is trying to find her own independence evident in the rebellious trip against her parent’s wishes. Alicia needs to make her own decisions whether to choose Liam or continue the road trip without his love.

I wouldn’t say I succeeded because I never finished everything I wanted to. However, I am satisfied with the end product. I like the story because of the fun element and the reality that Alicia faces. Most of the girls that played my game were very interested and had a lot of fun with the story. They could relate to some part of the story which I liked. I wanted to have the guys who played the game to have an insight into the struggles of a life a girl goes through. The guys who played also got very into the game, becoming happy that they got the happy ending with Liam or mortified at the ending without Liam.

Introductory Blog

Hi! My name is Paula. I am currently a general biology major. However, I am strongly considering switching to Early Childhood Development. My passion is dance specifically modern and contemporary. I enjoy looking at sunrises, pictures of cute animals, and fashion. I am obsessed with the minions from Despicable Me, especially Steve. You can find me on twitter @paulaw_dcc

Violent scenes on the streets of Ferguson as a grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11251989/Ferguson-riots-Violence-erupts-after-Michael-Brown-police-shooting-verdict.html?frame=3116889

This picture depicts the riots happening in Ferguson. There are rows of heavily armed police prepared to take down the rioters. However, in this picture the protests are peaceful and meaningful. The people in Ferguson are protesting the racism and racial profiling that white police officers have done that lead to black teenagers being killed.

I am looking forward to learning more about social movements that have sparked the country into nation-wide debate.