What do you guys think about "This is Forever" for the title of my book? I also want to include the quote, "We live in a world where everything is disposable, THIS is permanent." Or maybe "......THIS is forever." Hmm..

Jessica Biretta's Book Title Ideas

Okay so I was thinking and researching a bit about a title and these are sort of lame but some different ideas and takes on some other choice words. Statements that sound more positive and are not typical.... I don't know just thinking out loud....just some thoughts.

My Permanent Imprints

My Permanent Marks

Societies Diminished Capacity of realizing what is Totally awesome. (Lol, just kidding)

Body Allegories

Explaination Piece

I have been working on the DDY message.  This is something that I had written in my design brief... tweeked a little since its changed since then.  I think the wording will definatly need help, what do you guys think?

A Tale of Two Joes

Here's some more of the painting of my friend, Joe Morissey.
















Aaaand enter Joe Stevens.

Too soon?

Not sure if this is too soon and/or if I'm just feeling super excited and optimistic today about the show, but do you guys think we should make a Facebook page about the show soon?? I was just looking at the Mesh page and got to thinking that we should put one together. The sooner we get the word out, the sooner people can start marking May 1st off on their calendars =]

Hope everyone's making great progress on their work! It's gonna be amazing, guys =]

AND for inspiration..

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." --Edward Everett Hale

Let's do it, guys!

Blurb!

Starting to get the hang of it. Just setting stuff up for now, waiting to get more interview responses and photos so I can really get going on this =]

Right now, the skeleton of the book is: cover (for which I still need a title! i appreciate your guys' responses about "scar stories" so far), table of contents, intro (what my project/book is about, WHY I'm doing it, etc.), interviews and photos, glossary. On each photo intro page to each individual's interview, I have been including a quote that I think is really important and poignant from each person's testimony. What do you guy's think?

Also, I'd appreciate any feedback you guys want to give about the layout, color scheme, etc..there is a pre-set number of color schemes to choose from, and most of them were either really boring or really frilly and cutesy, and I really like the color green, so I went with this one haha. But I'd still appreciate any and all comments from you awesome designer people. Thanks in advance.

Content

Here is my content spread out on the wall. 366 cards of information (content) that I will be using for my jounral/log.

Scar Stories??

I've started the very bare-bone-beginnings of my book on Blurb (such fun!! both Blurb and the alliteration I just made..tehe!) and I'm playing around with themes, layouts, filling in blanks, etc., and I realized that I hadn't chosen a name for my book yet.

For some reason, "Scar Stories" popped into my head. I googled it, and it's been used a couple times before in various things, like a tattoo artist flash exhibition and an art exhibit that literally featured scarred people telling their stories about how they acquired said scars, but it hasn't been used much more than that. I've thought of a few other potential titles, but none of them seem to grab me and really excite me like Scar Stories!

What do you guys think about this potential title?

I'm just going to stop apologizing....

...for the poor quality of my camera phone pics. Startiiiing....now. You have my word. Hey guys - if you're getting tired of seeing these sequence posts, just let me know and I'll stick to posting finalized pieces only. This is Joe, a friend of mine. It's starting to look like him, yayy! The modification that this piece will showcase is his left arm sleeve, although his two lip piercings are also visible, as well. Let me know what you guys think! =]

PS I know his arms look unproportionately small in the last shot; the canvas was at an angle when I took the pic. =]

Potential Advertisements.

I am trying to think of ways of advertising this "movement".  I am working on another one too with words of inspiration on it like "you are worth it" and "you can be who you want to be"

I also want to do one that explains what DDY is all about. But that one will have to wait.

Book Follow Up

On this, here is design number 2 I was looking at, and also would be used for idea 2, it is like a 3 ring binder. The idea 1 is for the previously posted design cover.

New Cover deisgn

After some thought, changing my dimensions to 9" x 6" and making it a awesome calendar flip book! Is a design cover idea.

Feb 15:
Due dates: CV+ Portfolio + Card and Poster ideas for the show.

Off Topic

This is a little off topic of Senior Show but I have been trying to finish my wedding invitations lately and I am not having much luck.  Kyle picked the layout and whatnot (seriously) but I am not too sure about it anymore.  Feed back please?  I think just the fonts need some help.

Tabatha

Here's another painting I did of Tabatha. Only about another week and a half until I get my normal camera back. Taking pictures with my camera phone is killing me!

Hope you guys like this. It shows KW and Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) on her right arm, her Harry Potter themed sleeve on the left arm, her chest piece, and the facial piercings, which were already shown and mentioned in the last piece I did.

Suggestions already..

Hey guys! A friend of mine already made a suggestion for our working title:

"Under the Influence: Exploring Behavior and Identity through Art and Design."

I'm just going to put all the ideas I get on here as they pour in =] All the worthwhile and constructive comments, that is.

OUR (CURRENT) WORKING TITLE

UNDER THE INFLUENCE:
art&design exploring behavior&identity

Okay these are some of the fall color schemes i was working with it. In my opinion i like the last bottom one. It's got that comforting fall feeling to it but thena gain that little touch of red sends that angry vide. thoughts?

Name ideas

Hey guys, I meant to post this way back on Friday . . . been a more hectic weekend than I expected haha.

I played with phrases, still haven't found "the one" but here are the ones I like the best.

Solutions to Problems
pretty straight forward - artist and designers experimenting and solving problems. The show being the results.

Something Good, Something Better
Since the projects all have some social factor in them and none are based on aesthetics alone.
This could be fun to play with for our marketing too I think.

Smoke and Mirrors
Since most of the projects also deal with perceptions and the realities behind them, or the deeper truths or with being more up front and real, this could be an interesting take.

Positive Feedback or Feedback Loops
From the Wiki on Feedback Loops-Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same (i.e. same defined) event / phenomenon (or the continuation / development of the original phenomenon) in the present or future. When an event is part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop, then the event is said to "feed back" into itself.
On Positive Feedback -A system exhibiting positive feedback, in response to perturbation, acts to increase the magnitude of the perturbation. That is, "A produces more of B which in turn produces more of A". The key feature of positive feedback is that small disturbances are amplified. When positive feedback is present, there is some causal loop where a small change creates an effect that causes an even bigger change, like a ball rolling down an increasingly steep hill.

I've been racking my brain trying to find a cooler way to phrase these. I really like the idea of the title of the show recognizing us as makers being both influenced by and influencing culture. It's something we've talked about in many of our classes and relates great to our topics I think. I love the idea of owning up to your role in culture and society by deciding how to influence it and how to be influenced by it. Another one along this lines is, "Us, Them, You, Us" I think it is interesting, a little different- though that could read as pretentious once again. But it sort of says, "there is no us and them, only [all of] us together. It also vaguely hints at that idea of our place in the feedback loop.
hmm, Influencers and Influenced or something like that? Maker - User - Maker tested well with some people I asked haha. what about Feed It Back? no, you're right, that sounds stupid.

While I was researching this, related terms included: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, which is also interesting.
From the Wiki for Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: "A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient India, it is 20th-century sociologist Robert K. Merton who is credited with coining the expression "self-fulfilling prophecy" and formalizing its structure and consequences. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, Merton gives as a feature of the self-fulfilling prophecy: e.g. when Roxanna falsely believes that her marriage will fail and fears such failure will occur that it actually causes the marriage to fail."
hmm, "between belief and behavior" is interesting too!

Names

I Googled punk rock bands because I thought that those were the types of phrases that would sound good for senior show... some of them I actually thought were good or we could change a little to fit better....

Against All Authority
Against All Odds
Anonymous
Articles of Truth
Big in Japan (that one is just funny)
Count Me Out
The Damned
Disrupt
The Exploited
Eye for an Eye
Running Joke

ehh.. Ill look though the rest of the alphabet later.  But I thought it was worth a shot.

New faces!

Hey guys, here's the most recent painting I've (almost) completed. I got things figured out with my friend and was able to shoot with her this weekend. Here's what I've done with her images so far:

She has an anti-eye brow dermal (the star-shaped jewelry, diagonally below her right eye) and single lip piercing, both of which are a little hard to make out at this size; I also plan on doing a painting showing her arms, as well, on which she has two partial half sleeves (Harry Potter themed on her left arm, Where the Wild Things Are on the right!!).

This piece still needs some touching up and additional shading, but I hope you guys like it so far.

Digital Sketches

The bottom one is more digital sketches based off of what you told me.  I like the purple and charcoal so I think I should stick with it.  I also don't think the play or delete symbols is strong enough to be on its own.

I was talking to the future father in law and when I told him about my ideas he got really excited.  He said that it could be a national campaign and don't delete youself can mean more than body image.  Just people connecting because they dont write themselves off because they are different in any way.  "Dont delete yourself... im gay"  etc, etc.  He also told me I should get the same copywritted... I guess that means he really believes in this thing?  He also had an idea of making bands (like the live strong bands)  everyone knew what those were... just having a purple one with the trashcan on it might be the key to getting people to do it instead of having people send in pictures.. just have them send their stories about how they have had to overcome any sort of insecurity.   I dont know, it got me excited to think about how this could take off and actually be successful!

Thoughts?

Wanna help??

Hey guys - I know that I've been focusing on heavily modded people in my show so far, and I really want to get a broad range of level of modification. I think it's kind of against the point of my show to focus on only professionals in the field.

I was wondering if anyone in the class would want to participate? Even if you just have one piercing or tattoo! I wouldn't even have to paint you if you're not comfortable with that, I'm mostly interested in getting people for the book I'm putting together. Also, if you guys know anyone who's interested, send 'em my way.

Thanks!!

Hey everyone - here's some food for thought/research I did on the terms I particularly feel attracted to.

1. Infusion: we could do something like "inFusion," "inFUSION..." you get the idea, something to show both fusion and infusion and how they are both important to us.

Fusion is from the Latin "fusio," to pour out or melt. This refers to something being united as a whole.

Infusion is from late Middle English "infusus," to pour into. It literally means that something is inspired or imbued with something, ie. to infuse someone with enthusiasm, to fill them with it. This can also mean to emotionally charge someone or something.

I think this is appropriate for our show because "fusion" suggests the fact that there are commonalities connecting all of our projects, and infusion suggests that we are attempting to imbue people with a positive energy, emotionally charge them, get them thinking.

2. Metanoia: metanoia is the Greek word for a profound moment of transformation, a conversion. It is literally an awakening, a conversion that comes from understanding. This is vitally important to all of our projects in that the subject matter is something on which we wish to shed more light, comprehension, and resultant appreciation. This plays a different, albeit important, role in all our projects, as well as on a group level. Let's really change how people look at things! =)

3. Paradigm: "shifting paradigms," maybe? "Paradigm Shift" is a really common art exhibition name, from what my Google searches told me, so maybe we could play around with how we name this.

Paradigm is from the Greek word "paradeigma," meaning pattern, which in turn comes from the Greek verb for "to show side by side."

A paradigm is a mold, a standard, an ideal, a paragon, an example serving as a model one should follow, a stereotypical example. Take your pick. Either way, most of our shows truly are about shifting paradigms. Although this title would be a more straight forward approach, I think it's really appropriate.

4. -ness: -ness is a suffix, exemplifying quality of state. It is attached to an adjective or participle phrase to create a noun. It comes from the Visigothic term "assus," the meaning of which is unclear. It seems to have been used as a sort of filler word when no other word seemed appropriate.

The Visigoths were one of many of the Barbarian groups (a derogatory term given by the Romans) like the Ostrogoths, Normans, etc. They're what we think of today as Vikings, basically. From the 2nd to 11th century BCE, they populated areas of Europe like Spain, France, and modern day Italy.

What particularly interests me about this term and its origin is that the goths, as a whole, were a truly misunderstood group (as are, perhaps, modern day "goths..."). They were called barbarians, meaning "bearded ones." This term was given to them by the Romans, a group who looked at clean-shavenness (haha) and youth, which a lack of beard signaled, as the ideal. A beard made someone seem old, dumb, incapable, and inferior. It's interesting to me that this suffix, "-ness," comes from a group of people who were actually very capable, yet taken for granted. This can apply to the subject matter of many of our projects.



Hope this really helps us! Happy word hunting =)

exhibition title ideas

title ideas
(please research your favorites)

 identity
community
threads
maturity
ripe
collaboration
perception
perceptitude
suchness
---ness
art was here
catharsis
something for everyone
thanks mom & dad
now you know
the wall show
moving walls
shoes
infusion
metanoia
truth, veracity, verisimilitude, validity, fidelity
truth or dare
metamorphosis
synonymous truth
paradigm
paradigm shift
shift


thoughts for the space:

move the fake wall in the center (out of the space)
remove the divider on the back of the fake center wall
add a wall at the entry to hide the benches
encircle the benches with a wall
get new lights in the existing track system
change the lighting and light in a new way
paint the middle gallery wall a different color (maybe gray?)
clean off the glass skylight so it lets in actual light
move the opening to later that night (maybe 7?)

Updates & Ideas

Okay so finally got a meeting set with Marazita on Wednesday excited to ask him some questions and see what response he has. On another note is there anything anyone would like to see in particular about my project. I have been researching more and more, and trying to "really" understand the scientific aspect of my project more, but I want to know if there is anything specific anyone needs to see to understand my project better? The research I can to but as for creating visual ideas I am stuck on color illusions and tricks. So if anyone has any ideas or requests please let me know.

Sketches

Hello Peoples!

As promised I would not do anything productive tonight at work besides sketching!  So heres what I came up with tonight.  Basically a bunch of whatever came to my mind.  Let me know what you think and I'm sorry if the quality is poor, I used pencil...

Back to the grind..

Hey all!! I hope you all had a great break and are ready to start cracking down! If you weren't already cracking down over break, that is =]

Can't wait to see what we all have tomorrow. Best wishes!

Also..heard this quote and found it highly appropriate for how we should all be acting during this final semester in our college careers:

"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.' " -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's really challenge ourselves! Not necessarily to the point of fear (tehe), but let's go farther than we ever before thought ourselves capable of going. We can do it =]

I had an interview with Jim Sweeney @ the Franklinton land development office. I learned several things in our meeting. These images are of paintings hanging on buildings in the Franklinton Art District. Also, land development not only deals with new builds, but also with restoration and renovation of current structures. He gave me an example of a property his team purchases for around 20 thousand dollars, they then have to do about 100 thousand dollars in renovations. With $120,000. invested, they will be lucky to bring in $70,000. Some of the funds used in renovations comes from grant monies. I thought these were great, and I had no idea there was an art district in Franklinton.

For Jess Becklett:

Hey Jess, this is the picture I told you about when I saw you the other day. My mom made up boxes for my brother and me for Christmas with old pics, report cards, artwork, etc. I was never fond of this one, bad hair day, and the collar could put someone's eye out.

My Statement

Hello all,
I am so sorry that I have not been able to post any ideas. I travelled to Texas to see my sister and her family and unfortunately Igot sick there. I just came back on 6th of January 2011. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Wao! you have all gone far with your plans and ideas. You all did well. Keep it up. I was not productive during the holiday because I was sick, but here is my statement.

My Goal
My goal is to show different ways in which African fabric can be used in painting of a portraiture. One of the ways is: by painting the pattern of African fabric designs at the background of the portraiture. This could be done the opposite way. That is, rather than painting the background, the fabric is glued at the background. Another way is: using African fabric to create a three dimensional form. This is done by gluing fabric on the exposed part of the body and adding stuff where you want it to bulge, e.g the breast. There are other ways I am yet to explore.

ps. i also really like this idea of you guys getting separate blogs started. i think that is not a bad idea for myself to go ahead with. I just have to figure out all the mumbo jumbo out. It'll be my first personal blog since the xanga days. kinda crazy.

Hello all! My apologies for being absent on here. I hope everyone has wonderful break. I am enjoying reading everyones posts. A lot of progress with all of you! Below is some imagery manipulation I have been working with. It deals with textures and applying them to an image to give a realistic feel. Let me know what you guys think! The textures and model are all free stock images that i borrowed. Figured I would practice before I start using my own once I finish up my photoshoot.
-------------------------------------------------
I've also been playing around with color schemes,phrases, and logos. I will have to post those when I move back in tomorrow because it is all saved on the ODU server for now.
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I also am meeting up with breast cancer surviver Zoe next week and she is going to share her story with me about her first hand experience with breast cancer at a very young age.

imagery

The "process" of "Interpretation"

I just finished reading this paper that my friend back home made me aware of:
"THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES" by Alfred Korzybski.
I have to say, it was a perfect find. It had a little bit of everything I've been thinking about in it. I took extensive notes and I wanted to share this chart and some ideas from it with everyone. Everything in this color is me, everything in blue is from Korzibski's text.




Essentially, this is the process I believe occurs between what is happening around us and what we experience. I also believe that what we experience shapes what we do, which in turn shapes what we experience, and so on and so on.


Basically:
First,you have your happening, the event (I). Next, is the experiencing of that event on the most basic level- the interpretation of it by the nervous system (sensing- hearing, feeling, etc.(II)). Here the information (of which there is vastly more than the human body/mind can interpret) of the situatuation is edited down to something understandable by the brain by the different senses (the visible spectrum, sounds audiable to the human ear, etc. etc.*). Then, the information from the senses is put into order by the mind (III). This is where quick decisions are made, such as to dodge a falling rock or to stay away from a rabid animal. Finally, things are interpretted on the verbal level (IV) which uses the map of language to create a map of the experience (II and III), itself a "map" or at least an interpreted simplification, of the event.

This last step in the process involved labeling, assigning an identification to, the different aspects of the event. If language is considered in this process than untrue generalizations will occur. This is where traits of individuals get assigned to traits of wholes, like racial stereotypes or the idea of "liberal or conservative"

Koryibski had this to say: Unfortunately, people in general, including many scientists, disregard levels II and III completely, and react as if unconscious that IV "is not" I. In other words, we do not take into account the mechanisms of the human nervous system or "think electro-colloidally" about our reactions. Such a disregard leads to misunderstandings, heated two-valued ("either-or") debates, hostilities, prejudices, bitterness, etc.

If we "think" verbally, we act as biased observers and project onto the silent levels the structure of the language we use, so remaining in our rut of old orientations which make keen, unbiased observations ("perceptions"?) and creative work well-nigh impossible.

Language becomes then a medium through which we eventually talk to ourselves or to others, with its own definite limitations. "The relation between language and experience is often misunderstood," Sapir found (40). "Language is not merely a more or less systematic inventory of the various items of experience which seem relevant to the individual, as is so often naively assumed, but is also a self-contained, creative symbolic organization, which not only refers to experience largely acquired without its help, but actually defines experience for us by reason of its formal completeness and because of our unconscious projection of its implicit expectations into the field of experience" (italics mine [Korzybski's]).


*another major one which requires some time is that of solid matter. According to modern physics, every phyiscal object around us is made of atoms which are more empty space than they are matter. The solidity, as with the color and sound and temperature etc. are all interpretations/reactions/interactions with the nervous system, at least as far as we can prove. It has been said that we should start thinking of physical objects as events since they do not last forever, and are constantly in motion.

another artwork

this was more for fun, this was inspired by a book i have read. let me know what you think!

Color Cognition

Okay my blog is up the link is on my profile on blogger, bare with me this is all new to me. I hope you check it out.

Susan G. Komen is trying to trademark "for the cure"

I figured you probably already knew Jenn, but I just saw this on the Colbert Report lastnight and thought it was worth talking about. I guess they are using donor funds to sue a bunch of other non-profits for using it, like "Cupcakes for the Cure."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Susan G. Komen Foundation & Spider-Man Musical<a>
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> March to Keep Fear Alive

For Jess Beckett

Hey Jess - I saw this commercial (which I've searched for incessantly on Youtube and still can't find!!) today that made me think of you. I'll keep searching and let you know if I find it, but until then, I'll just try to explain it.

It began with a woman stepping onto a digital scale, covering her eyes and saying timidly, " Ooh I hate scales!" Then she uncovered her eyes, looked at the display, and instead of it showing a number, it boldly displayed, "COURAGE." Another woman stepped on, and her weight was, "PRIDE." This continued with another couple of women, and I was intrigued. I thought this was a really empowering commercial. Although knowing your actual weight in pounds can be helpful in cases where health is a concern, why else does putting a number on your weight really matter? Shouldn't it just matter that we feel healthy? This also brings to mind some other commercial I saw in which women say things like, "I want to weigh HEALTHY" and "My goal weight is HAPPY..."

Of course, the commercial ended up being a Special K commercial, attempting to empower women by making them feel like they should want to lose weight and encouraging them to do so, which I thought sort of contradicted the original message...but the important part, and the part I wanted to share with you, was the beginning. Thought this might be helpful.

When you go to the Special K website and look at the part in the near-center, displaying pictures in which women are holding up signs saying things like "Moxie," "Stength," and "Delight," I guess that's sort of like what the commercial was doing...but those cards they're holding up also say, "I will gain _____ by losing weight." I think it's more apropos to say, shouldn't we feel stength, delight, and moxie (this word makes me giggle) just by accepting our bodies for what they are? HMmm..food for thought.

A few designs

I have been thinking about designing a book, just an outlet, and here are a few ideas I have for covers. Let me know what you think!

Found this inspiring:

“In fact, it is possible that scientists, poets, painters and writers, are all members of the same family of people whose gift is by nature to take those things which we call commonplace and re-represent them to us in such ways that our self-imposed limitation are expanded.”

From Gary Zukav in his book on quantum physics, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics

Whats up this week

This weeks plans:
1) Finish up getting stuff for my blog
2) Take more pictures of product placement
3) Continue with more in-depth research on color-brain reaction
4) Continue trying to get in touch of Marazita, and Staton

More updates..

I know you guys will see this stuff (in better detail) when classes start up again, but here goes:

As of now, my current plans are to:
1. paint more. paint paint paint...
2. take pictures of and paint my own mods.
3. plan interviews
4. show the paintings I've done so far to Jared, considering he's the only one I've painted so far
5. Ask Mike (the artist of my backpiece) about photographing him with his daughter and wife
6. Ask my cousin about photographing her with her sons

These last two deal with capturing the vulnerability of modified persons, at the wonderful suggestion of Jessica Larva. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine just posted this picture on my FB profile the other day..
Coincidental huh?

Best wishes everyone.