CATFISH

Throughout the semester, the topic of web 2.0 and democratized media has has been talked about greatly in almost every class, so wrapping up the semester with the documentary "Catfish", was only seemed approriate.  Catfish sums up just how connected the internet has made us.  It shows how creativity can be transported at a click, how relationships can be established, but it also shows how easy it is to steal ones identity, lie and steal.  The interent, as we have spoke about, can be a fabulous thing, but also am awful thing...depending on how it is used.  In Catfish, Nev, the main character, seeks out a relationship with a young girl named Abby, who is a talented painter who saw one of his photos in an article. His brother, filmmaker Ariel Schulman who had already been making a documentary about Yaniv, basically kept cameras rolling to document their relationship, hoping to find something interesting about it, since an 8 year old painter is pretty intruiging. She sent him a painting of his photo, and they later began talking on facebook.  Through this, he then developed a relationship with her mother, and later a romantic one with his older sister, Megan.  Megan appears to be an extremely fun and attractive young woman, and Nev is immediately attracted to her. The two then embark on a very intimate online relationship which leads to constant texting as well as constant phone conversations. Nev quickly becomes infatuated with Megan, and it seems that Megan feels similarly about Nev.  Nev starts to realize some falsities in what the family is telling him, so he decides to go visit with his filmmaking friends. We later find out that almost everything he has been told by this "family" is false.  There is no older sister Megan, and Abby is not a painter.  Angela, the mother, is actually obsessed with Nev, and IS Megan.  We see a dark, twisted life that Angela was covering up. She has two retarded sons, and deals with the burden of taking care of them 24/7.  She admitted that she used the connection with Nev to escape, and be all the sides of herself that she wishes she had embraced.  She describes her story with a voice full of pain and heartache.  This twist opens eyes to the dangers of the interent, but it also shows a women using the internet to escape from her life full of pain and drama, as we have once talked about. The film Catfish displays and truly defines the basic ideas and values of Web 2.0
      Once the secret is out, Angela admits to everything, and explains how she had to use facebook and retrace the things she said so that they did not come off as lies.  She created over 15 facebook accounts to make it seem legitamet, but once her secret is out, it only makes her seem even more crazy.  Nev interviews her at the end, and the audience gets  a sense of sorrow, or at least i did.  I feel for her, her life was rough.  However, the movie ends with Angela painting a photo of Nev, and saying how hard it is.  It becomes eerie when she keeps referencing his "beautiful smile" and how much more beautiful it is in person.  Nev says he is ready to go home, and it seems as though he started to feel creeped out.  He gets the painting in the mail about a month later, and the movie ends.
      One of the reasons the movie was so intruiging was that the entire first half of the movie, you had NO idea that Angela was Megan...and that Megan did not exist.  Its very unexpected.  Once you find out, you realize that there WAS a real relationship between Angela and Nev, even though he was tricked to believe it was Megan.  At the end of the movie it says that they are still friends on facebook, so Nev did not completely "disown" her in a sense, i think he felt for her and her awful life too. 
       We still do not know WHY Angela seeked out Nev.  There was no indication of her doing this with anyone else.  SHE initiated it by sending the photo to Nev...but even the first encounter was a lie...which confused me.  She started the entire thing saying she was "Abby" the 8 year old painting prodegy.  So this makes me question her intentions.  Did she plan this sick,twisted relationship from the start? Or did she start off thinking she would make money if an 8 year old was the artist?  There are many unanswered questions that this movie has evoked in me. 

        The film Catfish basically uncovers the world’s fears of Web 2.0, and how easy it is to decieve others using the internet.  It made me think i need to be a little more private, and alert when talking to others online, because you really NEVER know who is on the other side of the computer screen.  It made me question for the first time how safe my pictures ar being up on the internet. Angela used a collection of photos of a random model who is married with children to form the identity of Megan Faccio and trick Nev into falling in love with this fake person.  I just imagined what would've happened if he ever saw that girl in the photos on the street.  She would've had NO CLUE who he was, and he wouldve been baffled.  The dangers and falsities of the internet are quite disturbing! All in all, i really really enjoyed this movie, and it was emotional, informational, and kept you watching.  The fact that it was not "based on a true story" , it wasn't "inspired" by a true story, it was TRUE, 100%, is what makes it so intruiging. 

Mr.Brainwash

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" is a documentary by Banksy, which follows Terry Guetta, a French filmmaker.  Terry is a street artist who uses street art to express himself.  It is a controversary as to whether the film is a complete hoax created by street artists.  However, assuming that it is NOT, this documentary shows just how quickly America can be "brainwashed" by advertising and word-of-mouth.  It shows how quickly people will follow the crowd.  It greatly relates to what we learned about culture jamming. (Remember Sheppard Fairley’s "Andre the Giant", and how quickly that image became popular).

This film begins with "Mr. Brainwash" (as he is known by street artists), following well-known street artists around while they "tag" buildings throughout the city.  He documents these artists whom he is fascinated by, and is thus a self-proclaimed film-maker.  Terry Guetta documents EVERYTHING.   At first, he is seen as a very genuine, artistic, and endearing character, with a passion for what he does.  He doesn't care that street art is illegal; it is a form of expression that deserves to be captured on film as true art. After much documenting, especially of the British street artist, Banksy, (who remains unveiled throughout the film) Terry decides that he wants to become a street artist himself.  This may seem inspiring, however, Terry rips off the ideas of many street artists he has documented, in order to become his own street artist. His mold of all these different works is the creator called "Mr. Brainwash". It is clear that most of his work is borrowed, not only from other street artists, but big names such as Andy Whorol.  This makes him seem much less genuine in his work, because originally in the film, street art was a form of personal expression that inspired him.  Later on, street art becomes a stolen art, which is NOT personal or genuine (at least for Mr. Brainwash).  It simply becomes a way to get his name out, become famous, and make lots of money.  Half the point of being a true street artist is remaining unknown, and mysterious (it is illegal).  Mr. Brainwash twists the entire concept of street are, making it public, and making it unoriginal.  He eventually puts on his own art show, with all these stolen concepts and designs, selling for upward of $60,000 a piece!  His show becomes the talk of the town and he is now even recognized by people such as Madonna.

Once he has his art show in the works, his entire demeanor and way he is seen through the documentary, changes. Terry, Mr. Brainwash, becomes extremely bossy, cocky, and all about the money. Going from Terry Guetta the self-proclaimed film-maker, to Mr. Brainwash, has changed Terry as a person, or so it seems through the film.   Banksy juggles the idea of endorsing Terry's show, because he is not sure if it a good idea, because he has also seen the changes in Terry. He doesn't really think Terry is a true artist; he seems him more as an opportunist. At the end of the film, the question of whether Mr. Brainwash is just what his name states, a person who tricks others into following the trend even though there may not be a reason to, or if he is truly an artist.  The public went crazy over Mr.Brainwash's artwork, so does that mean he is a successful artist?  Money wise, yes he is.  But the general public does not know his story or know that the works he "created" weren't really his true creations.  The end of the film leaves the viewer with a sort of bittersweet taste.  We watched a man go from being inspired by street art, documenting it all over the world, to becoming his own mainstream phenomenon.

Do you feel that "Mister Brain Wash" is a legitimate artist who is creating meaningful art?

       I do not feel that MBW is a legitamate artist creating meaningful work.  All he really did was document others, take their ideas, and call it art.  Such a large portion of his art were Andy Worhol's with a little spray paint on them.  He got his name out there by putting stickers up of himself all over the place.  It was almost symbolic when he plastered his design over another street artists.  Mr.Brainwash reminds me of a big corporation like Wal-mart, taking out small mom-and-pop businesses.  He doesn't care about the true art, he doesn't care about the other artists or "keeping art alive".  His works are not genuine.  What he cares about is people knowing who he is, knowing his "art" and spending their money on it.  He is an artist is the sense that he was able to get so many people to know who he was simply through word-of-mouth, which is definitely an artform of some sort.  However, when it comes to creating art, he should not be given much credit.  He took the ideas from street artists he had documented, other famous figures, and even had others creating the pieces of art for him! He is not a true artist.  The only art he really created was spray painting words on walls, which anyone can do. Any artist can have people working for him to produce some work, but the head artist is still producing art, he simply has the assistants to help.  MBW is just telling artists what to make for him.  Although he has "ideas" (which just about anyone can come up with a genious art idea or concept), he does not create it in any sense, he just tells others what to do and what to make.  The real artists are his assistants, creating the art.  Even when he had his show, Life is Beatiful, he wasn't even in there putting the pieces together.  He just told the assistants what to do, and when they needed help he was "too busy doing an interview".  Mr. Brainwash, in the eyes of a true artist, would be considered a coward and a poser.

GRADE REPORT

TRACING

Marylin Monroe <3

recreation of vector image

Recreation of my vector image, sorry i posted it a day late..my original  file got corrupted!

This is the original....

THIS is my recreation. It was not that hard with the shapes button to create the circles. I also used the curve angle tool to create the rounded edges. I actually enjoyed this assignment!

vECTOR iMAGE

I decided to change the image i am using for the vector assignment. This is the one i will actually be recreating