Media Arts: History & Theory

Grace Gilmore, Quiz #2 1) Camera Obscura 2) Albrecht Durer 3) Vitruvian Man 4) Leonardo da Vinci 5) Renaissance humanism 6) fresco  7) Petrarch 8) Jan van Eyck 9) one point perspective 10) Modernism 11) wealthy merchant  12) Avant-garde 13) Giotto 14) Fauvism 15) Picasso 16) Cubism 17) Abstract painting  18) Greenberg 19) photographers 20) Nicephore Niepce 21) Etienne Jules Marey 22) Muybridge 23) Semiotics 24) Gutenberg 

It is crazy to think about where we would be as a society if these things had not been invented. The printing press, the camera obscura, the collodion, the kinetograph, motion pictures. We used the results of all these developments everyday. I find it fascinating to see the effects these inventors and their legacies have had on the world. Without the Gutenberg press, newspapers and mass produced novels and even general education wouldn’t be available to the public. Without the invention of camera obscura and everything that came after, we wouldn’t have photographs and movies. Can you imagine a world where we can’t just pull out a camera to capture a moment? Or a world where we have no movies or tv shows? I know I sure can’t picture a world without these things. I believe it is so important for people to know about these risk takers who dared challenge what was the norm in order to give these creations. We are affected by them, which makes it all that more valuable that we know the hist...

Last week’s lecture covered a lot of things relevant to my major, Film and Media Arts, so I found it to be really interesting. I have always had a strong interest in photography and digital media, so this lecture was very intriguing for me.  Starting with the history of painting, we talked about how cavemen would use their hands as stencils to make drawings and keep records on cave walls. Then after writing was invented, monks would copy manuscripts by hand. Reproducing written works by hand was time consuming, so when Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press, everything changed. Coupled with the creation of the railroad, information was now being spread faster and further than ever. As time went on newer and better presses were developed, such as the offset press, then the digital press.  Printing wasn’t the only form of media that underwent changes though. Photography changed a lot too. Beginning with the first camera type model, we have the camera obscura. Artists use...

My section of our presentation was Impressionism/Post-Impressionism, ending with Pointillism. I explained the style and techniques of each, and provided examples of each. I referenced different works by artists like Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, etc. I also explained how Impressionism came to be.  Pictured below are my slides I did for the presentation, and the descriptions I said aloud are below them.  Following Rococo style came Impressionism in the mid to late 1800s. Impressionism style took off after the invention of tube paint and the box easel. Before these innovations, artists were confined to their studios. However, now they could take their paint and easels outside with them and paint wherever they wanted. This style of painting outdoors was called Plein Air, and involved painting everyday outdoor scenes, or snippets of common life. This style was very Avant-garde for the time, and was soon used by artists everywhere....