The Swimmer - Final Project

This video is meant to help non swimming athletes understand just a glimpse of what I hear and do 4 hours a day every day except Sunday. I am happy with the results, but the during the making of this video I broke the underwater camera. I wish I just had a GoPro.... oh well, RIP camera.

Enjoy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_B677h1J-Y

Object Oriented programming

When discussing programming in class and talking about video games, I thought of God of War. God of War is one of my all time favorite games and after you beat each game you can watch a video of how they made it, and I love seeing all the processes and problems they over came. I also like looking at what they kept and what they threw away. But anyways here is a clip from something you could watch after you beat God of War III.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqGapygtJl4

Performance art - Renaissance Fair

So I went to a renaissance fair and made a sign that said "Black Plague." For the entire fair I posed in different spots displaying my sign. Sometimes I would walk behind groups of people dressed like nobles and kings and queens. Peoples over reactions were funny and were mostly mad or happy. The technology is linked to modern medicine and how it has altered or saved many lives. While medicine was very primitive many people died because of the black plague. People do not really think how fragile life would be without the use of modern medicine. I hoped to invoke deep thought in medicine like how much does it really impact your life in the past, present or future and where would you be if you did not have access to medicine that is available today.

Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VCDAUC7D20

Aw yeah dat 1080... 

Performance art idea #1

My first idea for my performance art piece is taking a non-working camera out to a tourist spot, like the beach. I will have someone film while I ask people to take my picture like many people do while on vacation. When the camera doesnt work, I will throw a fit and become very frustrated and upset that my time on the beach wont be captured forever. The importance of technology will be the use of the camera in everyday life. Does an image really mean that much? Does it take a photograph to really recall your time at a special location? And over all what really defines memories, the photograph or our own conscious? 

Photocopy Project

The artist movement I chose to do my project on was Cubism. I chose Cubism because I think each scan represents a square geometrical object of myself and when put together they come to make a whole, which is my upper body and face. Cubism is all about taking a subject and breaking it down to its basic units. So i decided to scan myself and break it down into pieces i.e. my face, the left side, the right side, the top, my chest, my right and left shoulder and right and left hand. I also chose to take different angles and perspectives of my body because along with different geometrical shapes the Cubist movement also looked at multiple perspectives. The process of scanning myself was fun but challenging. It was hard to hold still while my printer was scanning so some of the scans came out blurry, and it was also hard to get the right angle to get closest to the glass to get a nice clear scan. Other than that the project was a lot of fun, and here is a preview of what I have so far. 

Grid final

Here is the final product. on the right you have the sketch, and on the left is the final one. I think it came out very nicely, matching pretty closely to the actual image which should be just below.

Grid 3

So in honor of having car problems, I have decided to do my project on the Dodge emblem. Hurrah.

Grid take 2

Might just end up doing Link's Shield

Grid picture

Was thinking of doing something like this, still looking for one in color and also a finger picking it.

Flip Book

I drew a zippo lighter going up and lighting a cigarette on fire and the cigarette slowly burning out. I liked seeing everyone's different take on the assignment and I like how mine turned out. It was cool using an old book for the assignment and trying to overcome its obstacles of sticky pages and what not. Overall this project was a lot of fun but very time consuming and tedious. 

History of Chicago

The city of Chicago was founded in 1832, beginning with the arrival French explorers and fur traders sometime in the late 17th century.
With the cities great access to the great lakes and the Mississippi River basin, it grew rapidly until the fire in 1871.  
After the fire, Chicago still thrived with a growing population from 299,000 to 1.7 million in a span of only 30 years.
 
The Chicago Theatre opened on October 26th, 1921. It offered the best in live and film entertainment at its time for over 40 years.
During the World's fair in 1933 it was changed and modernized.
In the 1970's the theatre was becoming obsolete, because more people would rather see a movie in a more modern movie theater than the old Chicago theatre.
In 1986 the Chicago theatre was brought back to life with a 9 month, multi-million dollar renovation.
The theatre holds shows of many famous celebrities today as in Ellen DeGeneres, and Kelly Clarkson. It is completely outfitted with modern equipment, like advanced lighting and microphones and also speakers.

Opera and modern films

The coolest part about class with santiago was how we watched little samples of some movies I have seen that incorporated opera and Mise en scene. We watched the 5th element and the scene with the blue lady where Bruce Willis was watching her Opera. We also watched Bugs bunny and saw different aspects like character placements and depth and camera angles. Then coming back to real Operas it made it easier for me to see these different elements and also gave me a much deeper appreciation on how much Opera has impacted so many things I enjoy today, like movies and video games.

Opera to Fireworks

When the homework assignment was to watch a firework display, I had a hard time connecting that to opera at first. But then after last class period where I received a more in depth analysis of what it means to be an opera I saw the connection a lot more clearly. Opera being way over the top and dramatic and based upon exaggeration can be seen with spending 20 million dollars on a 15 minute firework display.  

Art 211

Hello my name is Zach Sprague. I am currently 19 years old and a sophomore at UT. I also swim for the university. My first thoughts and feelings for this are that of excitement and anticipation for each new class. After the first session I know that we will be looking at art at a much deeper level than I'm used to. I can't wait to see where this class takes me on an intellectual level when dealing with different forms of art.