Surrealism in Art and Photography

Surrealism is an artistic movement that was founded in the early 1920s. It's influences include Sigmund Freud (famous psychoanalyst who was fascinated by the subconscious mind and dreams). "Surrealism style uses visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility." In other words, it doesn't make sense in the real world, only the surreal world. Surrealism includes an element of surprise and uses unlikely juxtapositions and blends dream and reality.

Please research Surrealism in Art and/or photography and create a vuvox presentation that includes the following: (Please post your finished vuvox presentation on your blog by Wednesday Nov. 2, 2011. Ready to present please!)

1. What is Surrealism? (In your own words please!)

2. Pick one Surrealist artist and briefly discuss their view on surrealism, the years they produced art (or birth-death), and who they are as artists in general. Were they part of other artistic movements?

3. Show 8 examples of Surrealist art by the artist you have selected.

Please pick one artist each so that we can cover all of them.

Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Hieronymus Bosch, Yves Tanguy, MC Escher, Erik Johansson (modern day photographer), Jerry Uelsmann (modern photographer who worked with negatives to create surrealist photos).

4. PLease include any and ALL links that you have used to find your information. Please do not copy and paste directly from these links!! That's called plagiarism and it's a big fat NO-NO!

5. You can include a reference list at the end of your presentation, but you MUST embed a minimum of 3 links (they could be videos, audio interviews or just other websites with more information) into your vuvox presentation.

6. Don't forget to use hotspots and cutouts. Make the presentation surreal, but make sure we can clearly see and identify the artist's works, as well as the text that answers the questions above.

This is a precursor to your Photoshop assignment, so start thinking about ideas for your own photoshopped surrealistic dreamscapes... here are a few kind of fun ones to whet your appetite.

http://www.alltelleringet.com/

SLR Camera Simulator

Check out this camera simulator. It allows you to change the settings on the camera and see the results. You can vary the lighting, the camera/subject distance, the focal length of the lens, ISO, aperture and shutter speed. It's really cool. Try it out. Hopefully it will help you understand the impact the various settings have on your final image.

SLR simulator

Check out this 3D Facade mapping

This is one heck of an advertisement for LG Optimus one. Impressive. Perhaps we can create something like this for the outside walls of LCI. Amazing inside...

How to write about my logo! For Year 1

Hello Year Ones,

Once you have finished polishing off and fine tuning your beautiful logos, the next step is to post them on your blogs and write a statement about them.
To post them, you'll need to go to Save for Web and Devices and save them as jpgs. Don't forget, you MUST KEEP THE ORIGINAL .ai files with all the layers as well.
You should hand in all of your files (.ai) - rough pages and final page with you black and white and colour logos into the drop folder.

What to write about my logo...

1. Where did you begin?
Start with your name research. What did you find out about your name? And what 2 or 3 qualities did you end up using to design your logo around?

2. Where did your brainstorming lead you?
What imagery and ideas did you come up with to illustrate those qualities? How did you end up with the imagery you decided on? This is where you talk about symbolism and meaning.

3. Break it down.
Now discuss your choices of shape, colour, line quality, direction and type (thick, thin, gritty, smooth, diagonal, horizontal, curvy etc.). Also discuss your choice of typography. What do those letterforms (the way the letters look) say? Are they edgy, artsy, confident, corporate? Be as descriptive and specific as possible. State the shapes used. State the colours used, the name of the font, the description of the lines. And then, explain the meanings behind all of these design choices. (ie. I chose a circular shape because it represents the sun, the moon and all of eternity (or whatever it represents to you). I chose to place the pictorial image so that it overlapped the circle to represent the idea of leaping forward etc.)

4. Get technical.
Discuss your technical process - drawing sketches to computer illustration. What did you learn and how did you use Illustrator? What tools, use of layers, any effects etc.

5. Your thoughts and opinion.
Are you happy with the logo and how it turned out? Would you do anything differently if you had more time? What did you learn about designing a logo? Now that you know more about Illustrator, what do you want to do next? What do you want to learn more about?

That's it!
Be thorough. I don't expect you to complete the written in class today, as you may need the time to finish the logo. I will give you until Wednesday to complete the posting and written part, but no more class time after today.
Good luck. See you tomorrow.
Ms. Silverman

Are you thinking of a career in the Arts?

Here is a great source of information if you are considering applying for a College or University that requires a partfolio. Check it out!

http://sparkboxstudio.com/artschoolguide/