Digital Imaging – Doo-Sung Yoo Little Prince by Alexandria Bright — For this project I decided to focus on the future of biotechnology advancements. I focused my research on what the future of gardening will look like and also the current studies taking place with NASA where they are studying soil on Mars. After I discovered that the future of gardening and agriculture on earth will most likely be in green houses and in smaller spaces, I decided to combine that idea with what agriculture will look like on Mars. Because global warming is currently such a huge topic, the idea of life on another planet doesn’t seem so far-fetched. In my work I decided to depict this idea of agriculture on Mars in an illustrator-perspective and very playful. We talked a lot about the illustrations in the book titled “Little Prince,” so I found a lot of inspiration in simple and fun doodles of gardens and plants.In my final product I had Mars as the focal point of my work with Earth in the background. Earth is shown wearing a mask and band aids, representing the abuse it has faced and how unfit it is for human life. Mars is shown with an abundance of plants and greenhouses as well as an astronaut farmer and a land rover. I liked the contrast that these two plants have when placed next to each other and also how colorful my piece ended up becoming. I had a lot of fun creating this piece and really enjoyed drawing on my iPad to add to my work! MotherEarth: Water by Mary Matrisciano MotherEarth: Wildfire by Mary Matrisciano — For my final project, I decided to create something new that I am passionate about. Even though I enjoyed my other projects, I wanted to shy away from them and focus on a topic that means a lot to me. I’m very environmentally conscious and try to do my part every single day.Climate change is a huge problem today, and I believe that so many people are still oblivious to how their simple everyday actions contribute to hurting our environment. To bring this into my art, I wanted to create portraits of mother earth. I enjoy doing creative/fantasy makeup, so I’d love to use that to create a mother earth persona and take pictures with a camera for the portrait.After that, I will import into photoshop and edit the photos based on a few forms of climate change problems (a series of two or three photos). I wanted to focus on the California wildfires,deforestation, and the melting of glaciers because I thought they were within my skill level tomake into art. Also, I’m fascinated by Greek and Roman Art, specifically sculptures and busts(and greek mythology) so I wanted to create that same aesthetic in my portraits. Lastly, I want to play around with “glitching” the photos if I have time. Other than it looks cool, I think it could add to the idea that nature is “glitching” by us destroying it. All in all, I want to make aesthetic art within my skill level while showing how our actions are affecting our home. I want to personify the Earth and visualize the pain we are causing. By bringing a face to the receiver of our environmental destruction, maybe the audience can see themselves, their mothers, daughters,sisters, and friends in our planet’s place. Mapping Clouds by Yuxin Chen — The movement of clouds is a natural phenomenon.The final project takes the inspiration from project 3 and introduces a more direct view of cloud movements to the audience.The height of the 11thfloor in Thompson Library builds an interesting point to watch objects moving from a higher angle. By recording the movement of clouds and capturing sunset, this project observes the change of clouds from time to time. The abstract green line is applied to mimic the motion of clouds from ground to sky. The process of mapping the clouds from 2-dimensionallines to 3-dimensional space creates the experience of glancing the change of clouds. Watching the natural movement of clouds can reduce stress and builds more awareness towards an individuals’ experiences with nature and their own mental process. TRAP OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Yuxin Chen — If a human’s consciousness and memories can be transforms into a digital platform and implant into another object, this individual will be immortal. But what is the meaning of death then? It might be boring for an individual’s conscious to trap in this environment for such a long time. My art image explores the consciousness of an individual that trap in an object. Their emotional fluctuation and sense of death.The application of surrealism shows the view of an individual from a museum setting. The combination of multiple images creates a sense of randomness. In the front there is a mechanical hand, which is featured as green color. The transparent outlook is the result of technology, which is a hybrid of plants and machine. As the hand reaching the piano, there are animals gazing at audience. The inspiration of a fox and a bird is from Little Prince, symbolized sign of warning from future technologies. The cactus, origins from desert, represents sadness and isolation. The sound of piano underwater is another perspective of surrealism. The trap of human consciousness touches impact that how technology transforms our experience as a human and our emotions. Dashing Dualism by Victoria Piper — Nearly 400 years have passed since Descartes first reasoned that all things must be either made of the physical or the mental.Since these were two distinct substances, this philosophy simplified into mind-body separation. Despite overwhelming contrary evidence from a broad range of scientific fields, Cartesian dualism persists.The notion appears time and again in our culture and politics. Humans are predisposed to categorize, and dualism poses a convenient system by which to do so. For instance, even today physical and mental health are viewed as separate systems though this notion could not be more wrong. Like Descartes we can continue to guess at what substance thought is made of,but modern scientists do know the medium through which it is conducted. Our brain–and that which resides within it–is physical, measurable, and in conversation with all other bodily organs. The brain is not isolated;electrical signals, chemicals, cells, and nutrients are constantly coming and going. Shared are the substances of the body and mind. An example to bring this all together relates to our Ohio opioid crisis.Chronic stress –be it from health, care giving, poverty, discrimination, or other the challenges of a modern life –increases cytokine circulation. Cytokines, part of the immune system, are directly correlated to depression. One thing depression is known for is a lack of pleasure. This is not only experienced mentally; depressed states can decrease the number of dopamine 2 receptors. Dopamine, often called the “feel-good”neurotransmitter, is tied to pleasure (and as we’ll later see, addiction). In turn, studies have found changes in D2 receptors to be a risk factor for substance use. Paired with stress, this use can turn into addiction, which also has distinct physical correlates. It is impossible to talk about opioids, which target this dopamine pathway,without recognizing the intricate interplay between physical, psychological, and sociological factors. My piece is designed to highlight this connectivity through imagery. As a flower cannot survive without its stem, the brain cannot be separated from the body. I chose the poppy for its relationship to opioids. My figure is represented in a goddess like fashion, atop her pedestal, adorned by solar flares and with a glowing heart to honor those who were lost. They are beautiful souls no more corrupt than you or I. Having lost one such this year, I sought to create an image that is glowing and inviting, both hopeful and as cloying as relief.The peace is dashed by tendrils snaking around the figure, bones hidden in the roots, and rolling storm clouds. Family by Matthew Mileski — Our final project in the class was an open-ended assignment. I chose to use a photograph of my family taken at the top of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I wanted to choose something that I cared about for my final, and what’s more important to me than my family? I chose the picture of my family in Arizona because it is a nice memory for me. I chose to cover my family in monochromatic shapes that fit over the outlines of their clothes/bodies. I then chose different aspects of the landscape to blend in with each member of my family to show something about their characteristics. I chose the trees for my brother because he is a very naturalistic person, the canyon for my mom to reflect her beauty, boulders for my dad because he is the “rock” of the family, and clouds for me because I can “go with the flow.” The goal of my final was to reflect on the characteristics of my family members that I adore, rather than to focus on each persons’ physical aspects. Social Bubble by Olivia Malloy — For my second project focused on the theme of Technoscape, I thought of the use of cell phones and technology as a bubble. It is so much a part of everyone’s day to day lives, especially teens, who have grown up surrounded by the culture of social media and communication through text smartphones. It has also shown to create a feeling of isolation. While it is nice to communicate through cell phones, it is consuming the lives of so many people in this day in age. Having constant stimulation and interaction can create a feeling of isolation in many ways.When shutting off a phone or device at night, one goes from having connection with friends,family, and strangers on social media, to nothing, it can make a very lonely feeling. On top of this, people tend to advertise the highlights of their life on social media, particularly social gatherings, that often makes people their age feel left out. Even when in a social situation,phones create a crutch for people to lean on when they don’t want to talk to others, or sometimes when hanging out with friends, everyone ends up consumed with their phones,rather than talking and making memories together. Technology is creating a social bubble at the touch of fingertips, while there are many benefits to this, the bubble can easily be popped,leaving users feeling isolated and alone. Home by Olivia Malloy — The center map image is a close up map I created of the area where I grew up. I drew stars on locations that have places that are important to me, restaurants, houses of friends, or other locations I frequent when I am home. I illustrated each place, or something that reminds me of the place, and then I did some writing for each. I haven’t been able to go home at all this year because of COVID-19, so this was a nice way to remember some details of home as I look forward to going back to MA in a couple weeks. SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP by Celeste Carpenter — My piece is a digital drawing that brings to light controversy and double standards when it comes to the censorship of women’s bodies. My drawing features two realistic female bodies standing, facing the viewer—as if they are mannequins. The women’s breasts and genitals, however, have been “sliced off” and placed on the ground to the side, revealing that the women are hollow inside. This is meant to shock the viewer as I hope for my audience to realize that women’s bodies are unfairly and ridiculously censored in media. While the human body is not inherently sexual, nudity (especially female breasts and genitals) is taboo and not deemed appropriate to be shown in the public sphere. In many contexts a female body is covered, except, in our consumeristic world, women’s bodies are sexualized and displayed openly for advertising purposes. This turns women’s bodies into props to be used in order to sell products. I wanted this piece to show how absurd it is that we control women’s bodies (we mainly being company marketing teams and Hollywood—rulers of popular media). Revamp by Victoria Piper — The Collective Unconscious, as first proposed by psychologist Carl Jung, is fundamentally based upon the idea of innate, universal knowledge. However, the availability of information has been vastly expanded since the conception of the Internet. Sharing in the unspoken meaning made available by tech has never been easier. My digital art piece was developed to generate a sense of both peace and foreboding to represent both how comfortable we are living in this landscape while being unaware of its effects. Research has shown people to be poor judges of truth. They fall prey to unconscious biases, and wrap themselves in a ‘media bubble.’ I hope my work will raise awareness to our individual involvement in this much larger world so to question the pervasiveness of media and technology, against the backdrop of passivity. To do this I depicted a person floating in a glass light bulb(representing their thoughts and bubble). The oxygen mask is to show how they live and breathe through the medium of the world at large, the environment made up of tech and social networks. EchoChamber by Annie Pan — An echo chamber is an environment where an individual‘s thoughts and beliefs are echoed back towards them, and opposing thoughts and beliefs are never seen. Social media has made this exacerbated this problem with their platforms designed to keep users on the site for as long as possible. My picture shows a world where people are constantly listening to their phones telling them that they are right, and their opinion overshadows others. The astronaut helmets represent the dependency we have on our phones and technology because astronauts are dependent on their helmets to live. The phones are telling their respective owners that they are right and everyone else is wrong, but then if everyone is being told they are right, who is really right and who is really wrong? Dreamscape by Annie Pan –– I wanted to create a piece of artwork out of my sleeping habits and dreams. I consume a lot of media in my free time and a lot more in recent months. I feel like my dreams are very reflective of my thoughts, wishes, and insecurities. With a more flexible schedule and remote classes, I have more time to sleep and I feel like my dreams have become more vivid and memorable than usual which I thought would make for an interesting piece. From October 17th to October 25 I recorded whenever I went to sleep and when I woke up, as well as what I dreamt of. I illustrated this information as a night sky with clouds that represent each period I slept for. My dreams are represented in various forms I felt adequately embodied the dream. I put mini representations of my bed and my physical sleeping habits on the left-hand side to put more of my personality into the piece, as well as a thought bubble to emphasize that the sky is representing my personal experiences. Escapism by Joshua Memmelaar — For the final project I chose the subject of escapism. Escapism is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy”. While researching the topic, I found a quote from a therapist that stuck with me saying “The ultimate goal of escapism is the destruction of the self”, and I used this quote as a basis for my project. The noose represents the ultimate form of escapism and the most literal example of the destruction of the self, that being suicide. Within the noose is an idyllic scene representing the elysian fields of Greek mythology as a symbol of the paradise the person is trying to escape to. The castle in the clouds is there to show that while the person may be entering their perceived paradise, their ultimate goal is still unattainable.The door behind the noose contains a similarly idyllic scene, however it is blurry and out of focus as while it is still an option, the person is focused on the decision in front of them. Pink Birthday by Sterling — The central purpose of this concentration series was the digital deconstructing and digital dereconstructing of my self-portrait photographs. The formalistic and abstract approach to the break-down and build up of design is a visual result of my own self-reflection, recognition & acceptance the woman I am and the woman I plan to be. Self-Reflected by Shuyi Li — Dr. Greg Dunn, an artist and neuroscientist, inspired me in this project. He used a technique called micro-etching to show the movement of neurons in human brains. For example, the brainstem and cerebellum, regions that control basic body and motor functions.So brains are places which can help people map their ideas. The movements and structures of neurons remind me of trees, so I think I can combine profile of a woman and picture of a tree that I took to demonstrate that this subtle idea.I changed quite a bit from the proposal. Due to limitation of my technique skills, I can’t let me imagination fly. So I used double exposure as my overall idea of creating this image. Say No by Adriana Jurich — Women are less likely to be assertive compared to men due to the culture they are immersed in and how they were raised. One way one learning to be more assertive is saying “No” when you do not want to do something. This may seem simple, but its suggested that people who are people pleasers have a hard time saying, “no” and end up doing things they do not want to do. I will be recording all the moments I say “yes” or “no” and recording them on separate day vs. time charts to create 2 unique point graphs. This way, I will be able to visualize the data and manipulate it in an artistic way much like pixel art. Purpose: Women struggle with being assertive. This is a societal problem.societal problem; Behavior adjustments can help teach women to understand how to be more assertive; Women deserve the same respect that men do and should be permitted the same ambitions; The end goal is that people will be able to visualize the number of yes or no decisions I make in a day and how the time of day impacts the count. Neurosexism by Victoria Piper — Male has been seen as the default sex throughout time and place. This privilege manifests itself in many ways, with my project focusing on that of male-oriented medicine. More often than not, at all steps of the drug development process, there appears a bias towards the male. At the earliest stages of neuroscientific research, rat models are used. These rats are typically, and unnecessarily, male. At the level of human clinical testing, there is also an over representation of men, but this issue is not always resolved with detailed analyses. Thus, even when women are present, as now required by the NIH, results may still be averaged across sex. When drugs are developed using male-typical neural pathways, this methodology can overlook the side effects female subjects experience. The outcome is a growing number of news articles reporting women getting the wrong dose, adverse effects, and so on: I created my art piece to raise awareness to this phenomenon. Neurosexism isn’t benign. Working to correct this issue isn’t a petty step on the march to equality, it has very real health consequences. To do this, I created a metaphor using the male-patterned key and male-symbol only keyholes to show that amid other combinations, only they have the ability to open all doors to the research and medicine that lies behind. My goal has always been to make art on complex topics that is accessible to the non-scientific community. Moncorps by Ramneet Kaur — My initial concept for this project involved depicting the different types of clothing that can come about depending on what the specific components of a region were. I was advised to use a specific data point to analyze, and from here, I decided to take some time and rethink what I originally wanted to do. At first, I pinpointed temperature as a concept I would like to explore, and from there, I decided to personalize the data a bit more. Personally, I have a strange relationship with colder temperatures as I have Raynaud’s Phenomenon, a condition that causes me to become easily cold and my fingernails and extremities to turn blue rather easily. So, I recorded the general temperature I felt throughout a day (nonnumerically), and created a fictional country called “Moncorps”, or mon corps which translates to “my body” in French. I separated the country into four regions: freezing, cold, warm, and hot. From there, I sized the regions according to which temperature I felt the most during the day.I’ve added additions to the initial piece: mainly, I swapped out the designs within the regions for articles of clothing I would wear when I’m feeling those particular temperatures. I’ve also removed the explanatory text at the bottom right, centered the title text, and added ice and islands in the appropriate places to fill the space. This allows for a more detailed and interesting piece. Technoscape by Jess Rappaport — Technology is such an important part of the current time period and is something that absolutely everyone is affected by in some way. A technology that is really important to me is music. I have always found the recording and listening to of music interesting and I decided to research the past, present, and future of the act of listening to music. I created three pieces, one for each past, present, and future. I tried to describe the ways that people listen. For the past, I have included a phonograph, a vinyl record, and a cassette tape background pattern. For the present, I have included digital sound waves, a person silhouette with headphones, and a wifi symbol to represent streaming music from the internet. For the future, I researched mostly the idea of biometric music, which is music selection based on your personal habits, listening choices, movements, etc. It would be a specially created playlist unique to each person. For the piece, I included earbuds, sound waves, and a fingerprint motif to represent the personal listening aspect. I played a lot with translucency in my pieces, which is something I use in all my art. I think translucency illudes to honesty and lets the viewer see more dimensions in the piece. Irene by Jess Rappaport