Valedictory Final

My project focuses on evolution and the connectivity of life. For me, eyes are the connection to everything. All humans and animals have them, they do not age, and they are the window to the soul. For my project, I wanted to portray eyes along with other items that look like eyes. I was inspired by the six steps of separation theory. Shown are eyes, lights, and beads. My goal was to pair eyes with the idea of eyes. Everything is connected. 

I only have a few pieces because they actually took me a long time to edit. The eye photos were extremely difficult for me, and I had to work with what I had. After I got a few good photographs of different models, I tried my best to make them look nice. I did different combinations of the photos so that I could see how they would look. The quad of photos is my favorite, because I think the lights really give the suggestion of vision. I am considering them all separate pieces, and if I printed them or hung them, they would be all separate. I edited them together for the purpose of the blog post, so that they all can be seen together as they should be seen. 

Ultimately, I think that I successfully portrayed my idea. The connectivity of life and evolution is something that I have used for my 3D works in the past, and am most likely using as my concentration next year. I am excited to add this to my collection of pieces inspired by this. 

If I could change anything, I would definitely give more practice on taking eye photography. My shots were kind of hit or miss, and if they were a little more successful, I think my project would have been amazing.

Valedictory Progress Check

Shrinking world[edit]

Theories on optimal design of cities, city traffic flows, neighborhoods and demographics were in vogue after World War I. These^{[citation needed]} conjectures were expanded in 1929 by Hungarianauthor Frigyes Karinthy, who published a volume of short stories titled Everything is Different. One of these pieces was titled "Chains," or "Chain-Links." The story investigated in abstract, conceptual, and fictional terms many of the problems that would captivate future generations of mathematicians, sociologists, and physicists within the field of network theory.^[1][2] Due to technological advances in communications and travel, friendship networks could grow larger and span greater distances. In particular, Karinthy believed that the modern world was 'shrinking' due to this ever-increasing connectedness of human beings. He posited that despite great physical distances between the globe's individuals, the growing density of human networks made the actual social distance far smaller.

As a result of this hypothesis, Karinthy's characters believed that any two individuals could be connected through at most five acquaintances. In his story, the characters create a game out of this notion. He writes:

A fascinating game grew out of this discussion. One of us suggested performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth is closer together now than they have ever been before. We should select any person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth – anyone, anywhere at all. He bet us that, using no more than five individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances.^[3]

This idea both directly and indirectly influenced a great deal of early thought on social networks. Karinthy has been regarded as the originator of the notion of six degrees of separation.^[2] A related theory deals with the quality of connections, rather than their existence. The theory of three degrees of influence was created by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler.

Small world[edit]

Main article: Small-world experiment

Michael Gurevich conducted seminal work in his empirical study of the structure of social networks in his 1961 Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD dissertation under Ithiel de Sola Pool.^[4]Mathematician Manfred Kochen, an Austrian who had been involved in urban design, extrapolated these empirical results in a mathematical manuscript, Contacts and Influences,^[5] concluding that in a U.S.-sized population without social structure, "it is practically certain that any two individuals can contact one another by means of at most two intermediaries. In a [socially] structured population it is less likely but still seems probable. And perhaps for the whole world's population, probably only one more bridging individual should be needed." They subsequently constructedMonte Carlo simulations based on Gurevich's data, which recognized that both weak and strong acquaintance links are needed to model social structure. The simulations, carried out on the relatively limited computers of 1973, were nonetheless able to predict that a more realistic three degrees of separation existed across the U.S. population, foreshadowing the findings of American psychologist Stanley Milgram.

Milgram continued Gurevich's experiments in acquaintanceship networks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. Kochen and de Sola Pool's manuscript, Contacts and Influences,^[6] was conceived while both were working at the University of Paris in the early 1950s, during a time when Milgram visited and collaborated in their research. Their unpublished manuscript circulated among academics for over 20 years before publication in 1978. It formally articulated the mechanics of social networks, and explored the mathematical consequences of these (including the degree of connectedness). The manuscript left many significant questions about networks unresolved, and one of these was the number of degrees of separation in actual social networks. Milgram took up the challenge on his return from Paris, leading to the experiments reported in The Small World Problem ^[7] in popular science journal Psychology Today, with a more rigorous version of the paper appearing in Sociometry two years later.^[8] The Psychology Today article generated enormous publicity for the experiments, which are well known today, long after much of the formative work has been forgotten.

Milgram's article made famous ^[7] his 1967 set of experiments to investigate de Sola Pool and Kochen's "small world problem." Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, born in Warsaw, growing up inPoland then France,was aware of the Statist rule of thumb, and was also a colleague of de Sola Pool, Kochen and Milgram at the University of Paris during the early 1950s (Kochen brought Mandelbrot to work at the Institute for Advanced Study and later IBM in the U.S.). This circle of researchers was fascinated by the interconnectedness and "social capital" of human networks. Milgram's study results showed that people in the United States seemed to be connected by approximately three friendship links, on average, without speculating on global linkages; he never actually used the term "six degrees of separation." Since the Psychology Today article gave the experiments wide publicity, Milgram, Kochen, and Karinthy all had been incorrectly attributed as the origin of the notion of six degrees; the most likely popularizer of the term "six degrees of separation" would be John Guare, who attributed the value 'six' to Marconi.^[9]

Continued research: Small World Project[edit]

In 2003, Columbia University conducted an analogous experiment on social connectedness amongst Internet email users. Their effort was named the Columbia Small World Project, and included 24,163 e-mail chains, aimed at 18 targets from 13 different countries around the world.^[10] Almost 100,000 people registered, but only 384 (3%) reached the final target. Amongst the successful chains, while shorter lengths were more common some only reached their target after 7, 8, 9 or 10 steps. Dodds et al. noted that participants (all of whom volunteers) were strongly biased towards existing models of Internet users^{[Note 1]} and that connectedness based on professional ties was much stronger than those within families or friendships. The authors cite "lack of interest" as the predominating factor in the high attrition rate,^{[Note 2]} a finding consistent with earlier studies.^[11]

Surrealism Final

For this photograph, I represented Elena as how I see her. I made the background gray because she is very dark, but I still chose this photo to be in color because it is much "brighter" than the other one. I chose a horizon line for this shot. Elena has depression and anxiety but I always like to remind her that there is absolutely a brighter future on the horizon. She does not always believe me, and this photo is basically the face she gives me when I tell her, so under the seriousness, it has a little bit of humor.

 I did this photo of myself, because I am seen as pretty happy, according to my friends. The photo is pretty bubbly, and I like to smile so this is represented here. There is more to me, however, so this is represented by the map. As much as I just like maps and collect them, I really enjoy the symbolism behind them and I think it also symbolizes me. Maps show that there is always something more, and looking at a map and really learning about it can open many doors.

 This photograph represents more how Elena sees herself. Her inner-self can best be represented by the black and white. This really reflects her nature as an individual. She took the secondary photograph at night time, which not only is symbolic, but also adds really cool depth and lighting to the photo.

For me, this photograph is another side of my personality, inside and out. When you don't know me that well, I can be seen as quiet an sheltered, which is why I covered up a lot of my face. However, I do have a big personality when I am with people I am comfortable with. This is why I chose to have my body take up a lot of the frame. This one is in black and white, which also represents this side of me. 

To be honest, I did not like this project. This is not really the type of thing that I enjoy, so I struggled to make them look good. I am not really happy with how any of them turned out, even after spending a lot of time of them. The process and concept behind the project is nice, but it just wasn't for me.

Inward Self Shots

Rene Magritte & Surrealism

What is surrealism?

surrealism is the making of art based on the ideas seen in dream, juxtaposing unrelated objects

What motif did Magritte use in many of his works? Why was this significant?

the man in the bowler hat is Margritte's main motif, and many people think that he is a self portrait, because in his first painting he was

In his work Golconda, why is it important that Magritte varied the image of the man in the bowler hat?  How does it add depth to the work?

repetition of the exact same figure would have made the painting boring, but the slight variation keeps the eye moving around the piece

Why did surreal artists choose to create strange worlds with their art?

since they were basing their art on dreams, they wanted to mimic this in the worlds they created. If a dream count be a new world, why can't art?

Explain how the techniques of juxtaposition, altered scale, and language help Magritte explore Surrealism. 
Magritte believed that juxtaposing unrelated objects can cause a response just as strong as waking up from a strange dream. The altered scale gives the pieces a sense of background, middle ground and foreground. He liked to make his art relatively unexplainable.

What would be a few reasons why Magritte would cover the faces of his subjects?
many critics believe that Magritte covers his subjects' faces because of his mothers death as a child. Her nightgown was covering her face when she was found. However, he denies that this is why he covers the faces.
Why did Magritte strive for realism & precision in his paintings?
Magritte believed that if painting have realism and precision, the viewer will focus more on what the painting is saying and less on the techniques used to create it.

These pieces display Magritte's use of covering the faces, which I like. They are very surreal. I like the shot on the left the best, because it has a very lucid dreamlike quality. The juxtaposition in the pieces adds to the sense of surrealism, despite the realist technique. 

Inspring Photographs

 

 

Studio Assignment- Outward Appearance