FREE Photo editing software

Alright folks! The word on the street is that the best freeware version of photoshop is called "Gimpshop." Give it a try and let me know what you think: http://www.gimpshop.com/

Wordpress

For those of you starting your own blogs or websites, here is another free service you can use:
http://www.wordpress.com

(Sorry blogger.com!)

FREEWARE

Hey Team,
Some of you were asking about software that you could use to animate, learn how to program, etc. Lucky for you, there is a huge open source software movement going on, and here is just a sampling of a few programs you can try out, use, and keep, all for free!

http://www.alice.org/
3D Program. Go through the tutorial.

http://scratch.mit.edu/
Really GREAT Flash-like program for storytelling. Download and click on the help button for a tutorial.

http://www.processing.org/
Programming/Animation (Advanced) program. Go through the tutorial.

There's also a free version of photoshop. I have to find the url, and then I'll post it. Every give a big cheer to the open source movement!!! Hip hip...hurrah!
Enjoy!

I just had a Crazy idea

I finished Berger's "Ways of Seeing" today and it left me off with lots of new ideas about the conceptual and visual forms of Art. All this cool artsy stuff went on today as well so I'm just really excited and motivated to create something.
The thing I want to create is a type of image projector: a tube of paper with stenciled with drawings from top to bottom. It would be hanging from the ceiling encircling some sort of light source (flouresant, lightbulb, don't know yet). The negatives of the images would be projected onto a larger cardboard cylinder which the viewer could step into. I was thinking Richard Serra-ish. The large cylinder "walls" will most likely be black to enhance the absorption of light while the paper tube inside of it would be white to increase the reflection from within.
The paper tube would be spinning from the ceiling, I was thinking of taking apart an RC car and using the wheel motor to create the force for rotation but I'm sure theres a better way.
While inside the installation, the viewer would be surrounded by rows and rows of images constantly rotating and creating the illusion of movement while the cardboard cylinder may seem to (hopefully) rotate around the viewer. The viewer will be forced to make the choice of either following the spinning images or waiting for them to come to him/her to create a frame-by-frame animation. It'll look like rows of long comic strips being dragged around a circle, like the center has some sort of gravitational pull.
I want to prove that a still image can be an image in motion (inspired by Berger) and that a still scene can create just as much detail as a 5 minute movie clip. Think of all the stuff going on in Wheres Waldo, its like watching a cartoon! I want to destroy the separations between the ways of viewing and digesting visual information. Reading books and comics are unique in that if you dont understand a section you can just turn a page or look back a few sentances or boxes. No technology required. With a movie you've got to pause, rewind, etc. I want to recreate this ability to look at past information to understand the present, thats part of why it'll be in constant rotation (maybe reversing once in awhile) allow the viewer to catch up to whats going on.
It may be an autobiography, illustrating my life to this point, that would be pretty funky: each row representing another stage of developement.
Any feedback or reccomendations on how to get this going? I'm going to start making a miniature.

Post Secret

Hey Team! Thanks for all of the hard work this semester. The class was so much fun, and your work was great-- fun, energetic, and thoughful! THANKS! I'll post some more details about getting DVD copies of your work when the time comes. This blog will still be available so keep using it to post your work and interesting links and to stay in contact, etc.
Happy Holidays! -Huong

ps. Here's a really great website that started as a mail project:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Open Studio Today and Schedule for Next Week

Hey Team! Thanks for being so attentive to Marisa's talk and for all of the hard work yesterday. I just wanted to post the schedule for the next two weeks for reference:

Dec. 5, 4-6PM
Open Studio

Dec. 9, 4-6:30PM
Make-Up Class
Studio Day for projects

Dec. 11, 4-6:30PM
Last Studio Day
Projects need to be finished at the end of class, NO EXCEPTIONS!

Dec. 13, 4-6PM
FINAL EXHIBIT!!!
YAY! Invite your friends, family, etc!

Also, here are the links from Marisa's lecture: http://delicious.com/marisaolson/MOMAlecture

SORRY IT'S LATE-Why I Make Art

I don't know why I started making art, I just always liked drawing. I think I kept on drawing because I wanted to become better at it, and I've gotten a lot better since I was younger. I was interested in making movies when I was ten because I liked watching internet cartoons and I wanted to make them. When I was twelve I got Adobe Flash 7, and I was always making animations and putting them on Youtube. When I got my third cellphone when I was thirteen, and I started trying to make movies with the video feature on it, sometimes the videos I made would influence my animations with flash. Every time I try to make big and lengthy flash animations, it would be hard and boring when I was making them, but when I was done, I was always happy with what I made. I make art because I like the feeling of seeing the finished project I made, and it can still be fun while I make the art.