Sunday, February 23, 2014

Something is Happening | Exhibition Experience

This past Thursday, my digital processes class had its opening night at the Mudd Library at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI.  Even though the rain and lightning scared away some people from coming, the experience was definitely a success!

Our exhibition was focused on our photo books that we made for our Something is Happening project.  For the exhibition, we had to make two inkjet prints and frame them, something I've never done before.  I absolutely loved the process of going through the photos and choosing the two photos I thought best represented my collection and overall message.  Although I did run into some hiccups with the inkjet printer, I was very happy with the end result.

One thing that I've found throughout my classes where I deal with time-consuming art is how short my attention span is.  With makeup, the process usually only takes an hour or two at most, but the process that we went through for this project took much longer that.  I'm finding that I need to develop my patience for art that takes a little longer than I'm used to. Knowing my brain though, I probably won't be able to.

All in all, I'm extremely proud of everyone's work and am glad that our efforts were successful! This was a great experience!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Because You're Worth It?

You may be tired of my cosmetic and beauty approach to everything in this class, but you'll learn to love it ;)

My goal with this project was to highlight the beauty ads that we are bombarded with in our day and age.  Like most companies do, all of the major cosmetic retailers have taglines and slogans that they employ to help set their company apart from the competition.

Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Never Dries - it Beautifies!




With the introduction of TV and radio ad spots, companies now have the chance to drill their slogans into our heads relentlessly.  These days when we walk past their products in stores, chances are we're going to be singing their jingle in our heads while simultaneously being annoyed that they were able to get their silly slogan engrained in our brains.  It's almost as if "everyone [is] psychologically attuned to memorization" in an aural sense (McLuhan 113).  Actually, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what's happening.  Although everyone has their preferred or most effective method of learning whether it's visually, orally, or tactile, oral methods of memorization are almost always effective.  There is something about the rhythm of sounds and words that our brains automatically tune into, so hearing a slogan over and over again is no doubt going to cause it to stick with us. Oh, and this is all in the hopes that you'll buy their products forever and ever and ever... because you're totally worth the advertising money they spent.  Right? Right.

My soundscape was focused on the repetitive nature of a few cosmetic company's slogans. I wanted to string together repeated slogans in a way that was harmonious to my ear, but somewhat disrupted by the odd placement of some of the repetitions so that the listener wouldn't necessarily be inclined to naturally internalize the slogan.  I hope you enjoy!







Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Overload | Escape from Hoarders

As part of my digital processes class, I was tasked with expanding my Flickr Overload photo set into a photo book.  I pieced my photos together in a style that tried to remain true to the Flickr set.   It's hard for me to say if the narrative had more of a say in the process of placing the photos, or if the consumerism had more of a voice.  Maybe they were both equally heard. Who knows…

I wanted the viewer to simultaneously experience my everyday routine that I go through when it comes to beauty and to also be gradually overwhelmed by all of the brand names and logos that I tried to portray through the photos.  The photos that are spread over two pages at the end are photos that I felt drawn to aesthetically.  After all, someone(s) did sit at a desk and design these products for us!

Some lovely design humor, poor guy/gal

As a result of this process, I realize I've seemingly become blind to my own consumerism that I'm totally giving in to.  But at the same time, it's my job as a makeup artist to be familiar with new products and current trends in the fashion/beauty industries.  How do I find a healthy balance between these two problems?  Is there a healthy balance? Is it worth looking into?  Should I start looking into contacting an space organization specialist?  So many questions, so little time.

You can view the photo book here on the Mixbook website or watch the cute little slideshow below.  (If you watch it below, you won't be able to get the full effect of the photo spreads.)  I wanted the theme of the book to remain relatively simple with the emphasis on being this sensation of being overwhelmed as a viewer.  I tried to listen to my intuition, as suggested by Sandy Dyas, to puzzle my narrative together with some semblance of a flow.  Hopefully my intuition was right.

I hope you enjoy :)

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