Art Imitating Media Imitating Life

 See this guy? He can easily Google the information we post online . . .

Facebook is a social networking site that almost everyone I know uses. I don’t know how other people protect their profiles, but I do take certain precautions on as to who can and who can’t see certain parts of my profile.

On Facebook, my friends and I use the Wall to communicate with each other.  Right now, only my friends can see my wall through the privacy settings on Facebook. I use this feature to protect my Wall because I think that my conversations should only be viewed by people that I know.  I believe that people I don’t know should not have access to what I do and what I say to my friends.  Also, I try not to post the places that I go to on my Facebook Wall, since if any one of my friend’s profiles were hacked or compromised in anyway, I wouldn’t want the criminals to know my current location

Only my friends can see my pictures and I don’t post any inappropriate or disrespectful photos of my friends or my family.  I also make sure that the pictures that I am tagged in are appropriate for my other friends to see.

Also, I protect myself on other social networking sites but putting just my first name.  That way, people won’t know my whole information.  Also, I try not to post my location so that even though my first name is on the social networking site; my location is still private, which keeps my anonymity.

It is important to protect my information from uninvited eyes and advertisers because both can use the information against me.  Uninvited eyes, such as criminals, could use the information that I had given in my profile to impersonate me and trick the people that I know.  Advertisers could also take the information from my profile and use it to advertise their products.  Also, the information I post can easily be Googled by another person on the internet, so I have to watch what I post, so that I can ensure that I don’t end up having a bad reputation on the Internet.

Although social networking sites are ways that we can communicate with our friends and family, it is important that we take caution while using these sites.  We need to remember that anyone has access to our profiles and that they can potentially use this information against us.

Logo Parodies that Speak the Truth

Describe the logo using the Principles and Elements of Design.
This logo was created on a black background and contains various shades of green, yellow and white.  The fish in the photo is located in the centre of the photo, which creates balance.  The colours of the fish contrast against the black background, which draws the viewer's attention to the skeleton of the fish.  The fish faces the right side of the photo, which allows the logo to flow from left to right.

Describe the symbols used in the logo.  Why did the graphic artist use such imagery?
This logo shows BP's yellow and green floral logo, and the skeleton of a fish, which is also coloured in green.  The graphic artist depicted the floral logo on top of the fish's skeleton.  The graphic artist used this imagery because they wanted to show the damage that BP had done to the wildlife when the oil rig exploded.  Poison is often depicted in a green colour, and the fish was coloured in green because the artist wanted to show that the oil rig explosion had poisoned the different animals in the ocean.  The fish is depicted as a skeleton because the oil rig explosion had caused the death of many fish and other types of animals who lived in the ocean.  Also, the colours used by the graphic artists are yellow and different shades of green.  These colours are also the colours in the BP logo, so I believe that the artist still wanted to show that the logo they created is a logo for BP, while showing the problems that BP had created when the oil rig exploded.

What does this logo say of BP's corporate identity?
This logo can depict that BP can affect the lives of different wildlife, rather than to try and protect it.  It also shows that they can cause the death of different species.  I believe that this logo also shows the way that the graphic artist might have felt angry, due to the problems that occurred when the oil rig exploded in the ocean.

From Spray Can to Light: Graffiti Revised

Favourite example of Street Graffiti

This example of street graffiti shows a parody of Crayola, since the Crayola logo has been replaced with the word "Graffiti" and the tagline has been changed from "Colour your world" to "Colour your city."  The elements and principles of design that apply to this example are lines, size, colours and balance.  The lines that are featured in this example are the diagonal lines near the bottom of the graffiti.  The diagonal lines also vary in thickness and are coloured in different shades of green.  Yellow and various shades of green are the dominant colours in this example, but it also features other colours.  Lastly, the left and right side of the graffiti are balanced because there are the same number of lines on each side of the graffiti.

Favourite example of Light Graffiti

This example of light graffiti is an advertisement for the Cannes Film Festival.  The word "Cannes" is written in light graffiti.  The elements and principles that apply to this example are colour, balance and contrast.  The two colours that dominate in this example is black and blue.  A darker shade of blue is used as the background, while a lighter shade of blue is used to write the word "Cannes."  The person is wearing all black, which contrasts against the blue background.  The person also makes the picture balanced, since she is standing in the middle of the picture.

Comparing and Contrasting
These two examples of graffiti are very similar because they both feature two dominant colours.  They also show a message to the viewer.
These two examples of graffiti are different because the Cannes poster only contains three colours (blue, white, and black), while the street graffiti, although green and yellow were the dominant colours, also contained pink, red, blue and orange.  The street graffiti contained more text than the Cannes poster.  Lastly, the Cannes poster contained a signature, while the street graffiti example did not.

Digital Actors

Is this acting or animation?
I think that Avatar is a combination of both acting and animation; however, I also believe that there is more acting than animation in the movie.  Avatar contains more acting than animation because, as the article points out, the actors in the film acted out the scenes while wearing skin-tight suits. The actors still performed in each of the scenes, and digital editing was used to turn the actors into the 10-foot characters that we see on screen. Also, Avatar still contained scenes in which some of the actors performed scenes in which they were in their true human form. Since the actors still performed each scene and that they movie itself still contained scenes in which the actors acted as humans, I believe that Avatar is acting.

Do you think that animated characters should be eligible for acting awards?
I believe that animated characters should be eligible for acting awards because the people who voice them work hard to make them memorable in the movie.  Also, the facial features and gestures that actors make while they are recording the animated characters' voices are filmed by the directors and are sometimes used in the film.  I think that the animated characters deserve as much recognition as human characters because they also leave as much impact, or sometimes even more, as in the case of classic Disney movies, as human characters.  Without the hard work of the actors who voice these amazing animated characters, I don't think that we would have all of the animated films that we have today.
Do you think that human characters will ever become obsolete? Why or why not?
I don't think that human characters will ever become obsolete because there are many amazing films out there that feature human characters.  I believe that if human characters become obsolete, we would focus more on the animations that occur in the movie rather than the message that the movie is trying to show us.

Mashups and Copyright Law

The Mashup that I chose is the mashup from Glee, titled "It's My Life/Confessions." The songs mashed up together are by Bon Jovi and Usher, respectively.




1. What is this mashup trying to communicate? Is it technical experiment, social or political commentary, a comedic parody, or an abstract work of media art?
This mashup, which is by all the males in the Glee Club, is a social work of art.  This mashup was created by the males in hopes of winning the mashup competition against the ladies, who did a mashup of "Halo/Walking on Sunshine." This mashup also shows that the males are able to take control of their lives and do whatever they want, just as the mashup's title says.
2. Did its creator follow or break copyright laws in its production?
I think that the creator of Glee followed copyright laws in this mashup's production, since he asked permission to use the song on the show.  The mashup was released as a single, which means that the profits from the downloads of the songs could've been used to pay the money to the singers of the original songs. The creator did not break copyright laws because each song was still somewhat represented in the mashup. Each song had its own part before the second song was added. In this example, It's My Life was used to start the song, while the second part used Confessions. After, the song combined both It's My Life and Confessions, by using the background music from It's My Life, and using the lyrics to Confessions.
3. Do you think that mashup like this requires copyright permission? Why or why not. 
I think that a mashup like this requires copyright permission, since it combines two different songs from two different artists and makes it into one. Also, the mashup itself became a single, which means that anyone who covers this song would have to follow copyright laws, and might have to pay the Glee Cast money. I also think that this requires copyright permission because it was used on a popular television show and I believe that it has become its own popular song, rather than just a mashup that was created.