Internet Privacy in the new millennium

After this week's privacy status hoax on Facebook I thought it was a good time to speak about internet privacy specifically for artists. The nature of privacy and the importance of maintaining your rights to work as an artist has become an increasingly necessary discussion in the new millennium so we will talk about some of basics of copyright, privacy, rights, watermarks, wrongful appropriation, and digital citizenship today in class. At this point everyone should know the how to copyright your images in programs such as Adobe Photoshop but its also important to know some of the details of the agreements that we approve when using programs such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Blogs.  We will begin by reading the two articles and viewing the short video about the hoax posted below then we will have a discussion:

NY Times: Art Is Long; Copyrights Can Even Be Longer

NY Times: How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet

Newsy: Facebook Privacy Status Hoax Circulates

Here is a link to a page with some additional resources from the Art-Support group that deals with watermarking and copyright in artworks.

I Heart the Senseless Drawing Robot

I came across this video of a SENSELESS DRAWING BOT which manages to create some pretty interesting street art in a seemingly random way, I think we found our new AP Art mascot!

Studio Art: History

This week we learned about the artist Robert Rauschenberg who is in the news this week as one of his most noted pieces,“Canyon,” a combine with a Bald Eagle attached to a painting is being gifted to the MOMA.  Above is a short video interview with the artist discussing another one of his famous animal combines and here is a link to the New York Times article about the coveted gift: MoMA Gains Treasure

AP Art: The Sketchbook- Robert Dash

For the next 2 weeks AP drawing students will be working intensely in their sketchbooks with a new focus every other day and to begin we will look at East End artist and writer Robert Dash who created the Madoo Conservancy and look specifically at a work from the Heckscher Museum in Huntington entitled Sagaponack (which you can view in the link above).

Media Arts: Video Game Design

This week we will work on video game design and motion graphic in media art class and we'll be entering some of the games we create into the annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.  We will begin with a simple program that introduces the basics called Gamestar Mechanic.  A few of our alumni have found interesting and creative jobs in the field of game design so we will look at their work and see what it takes to really create an amazing video game from the art and creative side.

Also for any students that are interested in photography the Photo Forum magazine high school photography contest closes tomorrow!

Studio Art: Exiting through the Gift Shop

As we head into the Thanksgiving break we are taking a look at some clips from the Oscar nominated documentary from Banksy Exit through the Gift Shop which features Mr. Brainwash and Shepard Fairey among others.  Here's a short film with an update on Mr. Brainwash from the opening of one of his more recent shows.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Tonight

Tonight is Smithtown East's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which features a number of our art and media students in the production so come out and support your classmates and take in a little hometown Shakespeare!

AP Art: Weather

Our final assignment for the first quarter was the theme of 'weather' and while we looked at a number of images taken from our recent Hurricane and Nor'Easter I chose to spotlight Clay's image above of a West coast sunny day with palm trees because it's a gorgeous image and, well..I'd like to be there right now as I sit in our cold classroom with my jacket on!

Studio Art: Art History

Ed Ruscha, Woody, and the World's Hottest Pepper from Park Pictures on Vimeo.
The last assignment of the quarter is a research assignment based on an artist that I will assign to you.  The presentation must include:

• 1 intro page with the artists name, birth (and death) dates, and an image of the artist
• 2 pages of bulleted biography with a link to the references
• 10 pages of the artist work

Here are two short videos about Ed Ruscha, one of the artists we are studing as an inspiration

Ed Ruscha Presentation from Reginald Dankwa on Vimeo.

Media Art: Film production

This week in class we are studing how films are made and we began by screening the TED video above from producer and director James Cameron who's known for creating the two biggest moneymakers in film history Titanic and Avatar. His story is pretty remarkable and inspirational and he ends his talk with a terrific quote-

"Failure is an option but fear is not"

We will also be looking at clips from producer Lynda Obst's documentary based on her book
Hello, He Lied and Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches which gives insight into the real world of film production and what's involved.  There will be a short test on Friday on the basics so make sure you take notes!

Little Kids Rock

I had an opportunity to attend an awards presentation by the not-for-profit Little Kids Rock program which was started by former teacher David Wells 10 years ago to help restore the arts in public schools and I spoke with Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band and The Soprano’s who was being awarded the “Big Man” award (named for his band mate Clarence Clemons who passed away last year) for his charitable work in music education.  Steven had a number of interesting things to say about art and music in schools but he made one point which really stuck with me:

"We're the only country in the world which thinks art is a luxury, it's not"

I certainly have seen this thought evident as I've traveled around the country and seen the cuts in arts education nationwide but I think something that can be learned from the unfortunate reality is for artists and educators to remind the public why the arts are important and to understand the impact they have on our culture and our economy. The event featured an array of guests who I spoke with including: Elvis Costello, American Idol winner Kris Allen, Robert Randolph, The Midtown Men (the original cast of The Jersey Boys) and I was also lucky enough to photograph surprise guest Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny who joined Steven onstage for a few songs so for the complete interview check out my article on Short & Sweet NYC.

Quarter1 Ends Friday

Quarter 1 ends this Friday so make sure all of your work is in this week because we'll be discussing grades and looking over the grading rubric used for the different classes later in the week. In the Media Arts classes this means we are now at the halfway point because it is a semester class so it is especially important to make sure you are up to date with all of your assignments!

AP Art: Art History Redux

This week the two works from the art history unit are due above is an example of the first which was to take an aspect from one of the artists you studied in class and use it in your own piece this one from Gabby references Duane Michals and the second was to take a piece from one of the artists who uses a different media than you and interpret it in your media (do a famous painting using photography or a photograph as a painting).

Welcome back from the storm!

I hope everyone made it through the Hurricane and Nor'easter without too much trouble so welcome back!  The end of the quarter has been moved to next week on November 16 so there is quite a bit of work to catch up on and below is the run down for the major classes:

• AP Art- Art history visuals test tomorrow, assignment 2 due Tuesday
• Studio Art- Drawing self portraits due on Wednesday
• Media Art- Screenplays due tomorrow, montage films due Wednesday