A brief history...

I am 27 years old and have been living in San Antonio for the last 5 of those years. Throughout my childhood I grew up in the military and that way of life has allowed me to live all over our country. I have lived everywhere from Hawaii to North Carolina and many places in between. Those experiences have instilled in me a love for travel. It also explains why I desire to move on from San Antonio. I love many of the things I've seen from the many places I've been but I also know that so far I have only seen a facet of what our world is. I've always been the "creative" one in my family and have had great support from them in all that I do, no matter how odd. I can’t imagine pursuing a career in any other field than art, if not art than some other art form whether music, writing, even martial arts. Am not sure if a career in arts will be one that guarantees financial security but I know it’s one that will keep me sane.

Appropriation, Fair Use and Barbara Kruger

"You are not yourself" Barbara Kruger (1982)

Barbara Kruger is an artist who uses appropriation freely throughout her body of work. All of the materials in the piece presented were taken from some other source not originally of her own creating. Though she did not create any of the materials originally, the way that she brings the parts together, she does not break any laws by presenting the final piece as a work of her own creation. She is able to do so by adhering to the four factors of fair use.

1. The Transformative Factor: The Purpose and Character of Your Use-- The materials that Kruger takes from are various editorial publications (newspapers, magazines) and the end product that is created is not of the same nature or functional use. By bringing together type from different sources along with imagery that are not originally together Kruger is able to create new context and meaning to be visually read
2. The Nature of the Copyrighted Work.-- Since the original source materials are taken from objects that are published in mass media and are open and freely abundant in the public, it becomes nearly impossible to pinpoint any one editorial that Kruger takes from.
   
3. The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken.-- Kruger is definitely following the idea that less is more. The text that constructs her words and phrase are built from letters taken from different sources. Not only would it be hard to identify where she maybe taking a particular word from a particular editorial, but it becomes impossible to pick out a single letter from a single editorial. The image being used might be easier to track down but by displaying it in its new context it is not a direct plagiarism.
4. The Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market-- It is pretty unlikely that the piece will effect the profit or income of the original published materials as it does not compete with the publications and works for a different function.
   

Handyman!!

First exercise for video class was the, always fun, blue screen assignment! It's interesting that with this particular exercise every group tends to go down the humorous path. Our group was no different.

The scenario in our story takes place in a wood shop. While sawing some lumber a worker "clumsily" mistaken's his arms for the wood. "OH NO! not again" he thinks to himself. Quick on his feet, the wood worker walks over to grab a tube of wood glue from a near by table to reattach his limb. On his walk from the saw to the glue we can see multiple detached heads on shelves in the background from other "accidents" of the past.

Everyone in our group enjoyed the experience and learned a lot. The blue screen is a great first assignment that gets everyone excited and motivated to jump right into the video editing process.