technology – arts, ink.

Artist Spotlight: Zach Lieberman and New Media

February 12, 2021February 10, 2021 vle Leave a comment

After watching one of Zach Lieberman’s talks for my Creative Programming class, I was enthralled by his colorful, multidimensional, and ultimately experimental software sketches. Software sketches are made by using programs such as Processing, which enable artists to use code to create drawings and animations.

Lieberman helped create the School for Poetic Computation, an alternative school/art collective/residency program in New York that helps artists learn code, technology, and design.

I find the intersection between code and art fascinating–since they are traditionally thought of as polar opposites. However, like the SFPC mission states, it aims to promote “completely strange, whimsical, and beautiful work – not the sorts of things useful for building a portfolio for finding a job, but the sort of things that will surprise and delight people and help you to keep creating without a job.”

What attracts me most to Lieberman’s work is its noticeable curiosity–endless iterations, research, abstractions, sketches all made for the sake of creation and experimentation. In today’s hyper-aggressive art and design world, it’s not uncommon to find projects made for the sole purpose of showing off. Meanwhile, Lieberman’s plethora of sketches explore color, shape, form, texture, and light, all through the medium of code.

Head to Zach Lieberman’s Instagram for a mesmerizing look at this animated sketches. He also sells prints here.

Land Lines – a Google Chrome Interactive Art Tool

Technology in Entertainment

March 13, 2018March 11, 2018 Jordan Brown Leave a comment

New technology can change an entire industry. In the entertainment industry, the invention of the camera, and then the video camera changed the way that people consume there entertainment. The most popular form of visual entertainment used to be plays, until the video camera came along and people became fascinated by movies. Technology has changed the way that people consume media throughout time.

For a long time the most popular form of live entertainment was plays, and operas. People would go to a theater to have a day of entertainment of long plays by Shakespeare or other famous playwrights. Once the video camera was introduced, plays and operas declined. The general public was fascinated with the new medium of entertainment that the video camera brought. Plays and operas eventually found their niche audience, and have stayed in the spotlight. The niche group that plays and operas found was an elite group of people. Plays were for the highest class of people and not very accessible the general public. This stigma is still attached to plays and operas, but it is smaller than it once was. Now plays will travel around the world so that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy their work.

Video cameras were a huge development in the entertainment industry. Movies became very popular for the entire public, not just one demographic. Movies popularity grew with the number of movie theaters that were added around the world. Movies were much more accessible than plays were because people only had to travel to their local movie theater and not the nearest performance theater. Movies were also much less expensive than plays so all types of people had the opportunity to enjoy them. With the innovations of video cameras also kept movies in the limelight. From silent films to speaking films, then from black and white to color, and then the video quality continually improving, and finally with the introduction of the 3D movie. These innovations kept the movies new and exciting for everyone. The theater didn’t have as much innovations as movies, which could contribute to why its popularity did not grow like the popularity of movies did.

Mental Moments

November 24, 2013November 24, 2013 Erika Bell Leave a comment

So I just got a new phone, which only adds to the grandiosity that is my problem. I’m obsessed with this generational glitch of forgetting to live in the moment. As I walked down the street last night, I was struck by surprise at the soft yellow lights that swirled around the dried-up trees along the streets of Ann Arbor. Instead of stopping, staring, and appreciating the beauty of these decorations, my first reaction was to dig my phone out of my coat pocket, turn on my camera so I can get a good angle, snap a shot (adding a stark, yet airy filter), just so I could put it on Instagram with a simple smiley faced caption. Don’t you see something wrong with this picture…of a picture?

For me it is primarily my camera phone that is the problem, but there are so many ways to neglect the special moments that really deserve a mental snapshot. We can be glued to our laptops or phones, instead of listening to the words of a powerful speaker in class, or it could be choosing to blast our music as we walk down the street, opposed to embracing the beauty of the city we live in. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I was just mesmerized by the MUSKET’s performance of RENT, but there is something about living for today that sounds really nice.

I know that we are in a generation where technology and communication is everything, and trust me my phone will remain glued to my side for as long as possible, but I encourage you to take in the potentially inspiring moments of every day. Whether it be going to a musical theater performance or visiting a new restaurant, sniff in the air of the room first, take off your coat, laugh a little, enjoy yourself, then before you leave, take a quick photo or two!