Brian Inch

Zoo Visit

            I went to the Oakland Zoo today. I walked through all of the exhibits, and I observed the displays and people’s reactions to the animals in front of them. The Oakland Zoo is like many other Zoos. With each exhibit they are trying to display to you a different part of the world. I will take you through various exhibits that I saw, and I will try and explain to you the intentions behind each one of their exhibits, and the emotions that they want to evoke.

            Like “Touch the Magic” the Oakland Zoo can “take viewers to spectacularly inaccessible, invisible, or little-known places (Susan G. Davis). For example I was at a display for an animal called a Siamang, which is an ape. This example is a perfect example for this quote in the fact that it is really trying to make the viewer feel like they are in this animal’s habitat. The Siamang exhibit had little concealment, except for a mote, and a 3-foot high fence with bushes on the exhibit side. This little fence was just high enough for small children to peer over, with their perspective of the exhibit it seemed like they were actually in the jungle. With such a minimal barrier, it makes the viewer really feel like they are on the border of a different reality that this animal belongs to. The zoo wishes to create a world that “humans should wish to approach more closely. The notion of far-away worlds trying to contact us…(Davis). The zoo wants to create welcoming settings, with animals that are peaceful, and friendly looking.  An exhibit that I thought felt rather welcoming was the Camel exhibit. The viewer was level with the Camels, and there was nothing in between the fence and Camel. The Camel had the ability to walk within feet of the viewer. While I was walking up to the display, the camels trotted down, in a manner that appeared to quite playful. The zoo wants to make the viewer feel like the camels want to come and play with viewer. But in actuality they are coming to receive food. It says on the fence “don’t feed the animals”. This sign hinted me that the camels come to the viewer often in search of food. But the display isn’t focusing on that, it is the idea that the viewer is to be welcomed into this new reality by a playful camel.

            Another idea that the Zoo wants the viewer to realize is that the animals appear to share similarities to them. “…it is about relationships, feelings, and families”(Davis). An exhibit that I found it blatant was in this tiny exhibit for these tiny turtles. They were in a small tropic rainforest display, which was like mini paradise.  All the turtles in the display were paired up. They want the viewer to see how things should be, in the sense of having your mate. The turtles are only seen in pairs, and it is basically telling the viewer what is natural, and that relationships are important to these turtles like they are to us. The frogs in the display next to them were in basically the same habitat, paired in couples as well.  To me it was clear about how these exhibits wanted to portray how common relationships are in the animal kingdom in parallel with our own. The actions that these critters do really makes the viewer or viewers connect with these animals, and make them believe they have an understanding of their world.

One of the displays that I found particularly interesting was the monkey display. It was pretty simple; it was a little island in the middle of a small mote. It appears that the viewer is wondering through their habitat.  A monkey was swinging non-stop is the tree that had its branches all shifted in the view of the people. This was well placed so that the monkey could appear to be putting on a show for its viewers. But in actuality the monkey probably has no such intentions, it is just within their nature to swing. But with how the tree is situated it created close and sometimes eye-to-eye contact with this swinging monkey. “…lack of a common language, its silence, guarantees it’s distance, it’s exclusion from and of man”(Berger). We look at these swinging animals and try and interpret that they are trying to play with us, or show off, and act human. But in actuality these animals as Berger says don’t confirm anything with men. So we have no idea the reason of his swinging nature. This barrier of silence leads its actions up for interpretation by the viewer, which turns the monkey’s behavior into a performance, rather than it’s natural behavior.  The last exhibit that I visited that really made me think that the zoo was trying to establish a connection between humans and animals is the petting zoo. “...animals offer man companionship which is different from any offered from human exchange”(Berger). At the petting zoo this exhibit creates a bond between small children and animals. From an early age this exhibit creates companionship, and a different type of love for animals. This is the display that fixes in the viewers disappointment in not getting to fully engage with the rest of the animals. They want to make the animals friends of the viewers. The tigers at their display are all given friendly names like Grace, Molly, Ginger. This creates a further connection with these beasts, and makes them more human because they share names with a percentage of the viewers.

I found my visit to the zoo interesting. Each display had a message or a desired idea that they wanted the animal to display. I never really looked at it this way, but the Zoo now appears to me to be a way for the Oakland Zoo to show people the unseen of their daily lives. Now that nature is so separate from our society it is their responsibility to portray it in whatever way they want.

           

Human interaction with dogs

Up on the sand dune hills along the ocean coast of San Francisco lies one of the Bay Area’s popular dog hangouts, Fort Funston. By the name, Fort Funston, it is clear that during the world wars this area was used as a military outpost to protect America from any attack. There are still batteries intact and standing today for everyone to explore and take in our country’s history. With the amazing view of the ocean from the top of the cliff, there are many eucalyptus trees scattered around and paths that people like to walk their dogs on.

As you enter the park from the main parking lot and walk towards the cliff, you reach the main open space. Posted at the main open space is a water fountain and below are the dog water bowls. To the left is where all the dog packs start to form and come into the park. There are various paths that one can take to explore this fort and enjoy the ambiance.

On an overcast Sunday in San Francisco, Fort Funston was packed with people and their dogs. There were dogs being walked on leashes, dogs walking without leashes, and dogs playing catch. Everywhere I looked there was a human interacting with a dog.

I thought it was interesting to see the different variations of how one would train their dog compared to another. Some would change the pitch of their voice, some would use treats, and some would use a special type of collar like a shock collar or a choke collar. In the “Touch the Magic” article, Davis writes, “The most extreme examples of decontextualization are also the most popular: the trained animal performances.” (209). When an animal is trained it seems to make it easier for the human or in this case owner to be able to control their animal. I think this is almost a sign of trust between the owner and the dog. When the owner calls for the dog to “come” the owner has this assumption that the dog will come towards him or her because he or she trained the dog to come on command.

 Personality of dogs and humans are quite similar to each other. Just like humans on how sensing vibes from other humans, dogs can also sense them as well. In “Why Look at Animals?” Berger writes, “The eyes of an animal when they consider a man are attentive and wary. The same animal may well look at other species in the same way.” (4). At Fort Funston, there are a lot of people who want to pet other people’s dogs. When approaching to pet a dog, a human has to be very cautious because the dog may or may not like them. If the dog does not like him or her then it can go all-wrong for the human. The dog will either bark or growl and worst-case scenario end up attacking the human.

People have several reasons on why they own a dog. One can own a dog for companionship, or if it is a couple they could own a dog as their own child, or even one can just be the biggest dog lover in area. Berge also mentions, “With their parallel lives, animals offer man a companionship which is different from any offered by human exchange. Different because it is a companionship offered to the loneliness of man as a species.” (6). With thus said, humans are able to find some sort of common relationship with their dog and accommodate to their personality. Walking around Fort Funston and seeing humans interact with their dogs is interesting to see because it varies from each human and each dog.  

The phrase, “dogs are just like their owner” is something I do believe in. When observing at Fort Funston and seeing all the dogs with their owner, it is kind of funny to see how a dog matches their owner so perfectly.

LGBT Discriminiation PSA

LGBT Discrimination

LGBT stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender” people. This is an acronym used since 1990’s a self- designation formerly known as “gay community”. Twenty- four countries currently allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. Seven countries have passed legislation to recognize marriage rights for LGBT citizens. Five states recognize marriage equality. Thirty states have passed constitutional amendments of laws explicitly banning same- sex marriage. Thirty states fire on basis of sexuality and/or gender identity. In regards to LGBT rights, statistics show not only how far we have to go in the struggle for equality, but also how far we’ve come. 

 

Who Andy Warhol?

·       Real name is Andrew Warhola (8/6/28-2/22/87) (Became Warhol after a misprint)

o   Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Parents from Czechoslovakia (does not exist anymore)

o   Father worked in a coal mine

·       In High School, kicked out of art club because he was “too good”

·       Graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

·       Graduated with degree for pictorial design & wanted to become a commercial illustrator

·       Designed advertisements for women’s shoes

·       Used Polaroid camera

·       Fear of hospitals and doctors, hypochondriac

·       Favorite print making technique was silk screening

·       Friends & family described him as a workaholic

·       His sexuality was speculated upon and how this influenced his relationship to art is “a major subject of scholarship on the artist”

·       First solo expedition in 1952

·       Coined the term “15 minutes of fame”

·       1960s: iconic American products (pop art)

·       Created The Factory, his NYC studio from 1962-1968

·       Celebrity portraits developed into one of the most important aspects of his career

·       Made films (first one called Sleep – 6 hours of a man sleeping) (1963)

·       1965 said he was retiring from painting

o   1972 returned to painting

·       Designed cover for the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers (cover made out of real jean material)

·       Produced Velvet Underground’s first album

·       Started a magazine called Interview, worked for Glamour Magazine, Vogue

·       Shot by Valerie Solanas 3 times for being abusive and “too controlling” (6/3/68)

o   Solanas authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist document

o   "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

·       Marilyn Monroe = favorite model (not painted until after death)

·       Wore silver wigs until he dyed his hair silver

·       Practicing Ruthenian Rite Catholic who described himself as a religious person

·       Died of a heart attack brought on by a gall bladder surgery and water intoxication

·       $100,000,000 for one of his paintings (highest amount paid) (“Eight Elvises”)

·       Referred to as the “Prince of Pop”

Warhol

Photoshop

This picture was originally in color, but then in Photoshop I made it to thershold. Doing thershold took me a lot of time and patience and was very hard to do. In fact, it had a lot of steps and precedures that if you messed on one layer, it is better to start all over. So what I did was make a copy of the image background. Then I had to get rid of all the white areas. Once I did that I made at least ten duplicated layers of that. Then after I had to go to thershold and as I go back down the layer bar and as I go down the thershold becomes darker and darker. Then After I do the color background and as I go down the layer bar, The color I used gets lighter and lighter.

This photograph is three different pictures that I have made into one photgraph. This was my copy and paste picture. The base picture was the picture of the Disneyland rides. Then I had a seperate picture of a girl sitting on a railing of some stairs. So I used the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop copied her and then pasted her onto the base picture. I also had another photograph of another girl looking up in the sky. I thought it would be cool if she would look up and the girl sitting on the railing, think what she was doing up there in the first place. I did the same precedure for copying and pasting the girl looking into the sky as I did for the girl sitting on the railing. But the girl looking into the sky was too big in photograph so I had to change her image size. Then I had to adjust the brightness and contrast in the photograph so it looked like one photograph instead of three different photographs.

This picture is also I copy and paste photo. But it is different in the way I already had set the subject on how I wanted to be. I just added another object into the photograph. I got picture of the Pokemon off from the internet open the picture in Photoshop, used the magnetic lasso tool to copy it then pasted it to my orginal photograph. The Pokemon was too big so i had to adjust the image size to get this photograph.

This picture is a different from my copy and paste photographs. It is two different photographs of mine but instead of putting them on top of each other, I blended them together so you can see both of the full images. I chose these two images because I had one photograph of the running and then I wanted to show that there are people cheering them on as well. Since both pictures where taken outside and the weather was on the dull side, When I first blended them together it was dark. Then before I blended them together, I used the bleding effect of Linear Light so it was not as dark. But then I played around with brightness and contrast to get it how it looks now.

Let It Happen

As these last few weeks past by we spend most of our class time working on different tools we can use in Photoshop. This picture here is an overview of what I learned in Photoshop. We learned many different types of editing pictures like fish eye, black and white, and blending images, and more.

This is my blending image and I first had to choose three images to combine together. The hard part about choosing your three photos are that you have to make sure when you combine them together it does not look too busy. When I applied the picture of the girl on top of photograph of the table of artwork, she was too light. So what I decided to do was go to image of girl and changed the brightness and contrast so that she can stand out more and not get lost in the photograph. Then a drawing from the table photograph was in my way of seeing the bracelet the girl was wearing. I went to the table photograph and used the clone tool to get rid of the artwork on the table to get a clean white paper. Then finally, once I combined those two photographs together it was finally at the image I want to look like. After, I added another photo to the blended one to have three images in one photo. I did not have to do much to the third photograph because it basically already how I wanted to look like.  Once I finished combining all three photos I played around with the brightness and contrast so you can see all the three images as well as if you saw them separately. After that was all done; to add more effects to it, I used the gradient tool to get the dark edges on the photograph. I did not want it too dark because then I would lose the picture that I am trying to portray. 

When we were first learning about photoshop, I thought it was the hardest thing of my life. I did not understand why it had to take so many steps. I was not a fan of photoshop at first, because it just took too long for something really simple. I always thought why we could not just use a website that does it for us. But turns out there are not that many websites that can do the same thing photoshop can do. I became more use to the fact of using photoshop and accepting that it takes time to get the photo you want.