Mesh Mashup: Selection and Refinement

The object I decided to refine was something I heard was a neat idea, but didn’t seem to be the most popular among those I spoke with. I decided this design should be more realistic. I didn't go with the ideas that others were interested in, I was more interested in perfecting and honing my technique. The cup and the liquid for this piece were infuriating, and I honestly enjoyed pushing myself to get outside of my comfort level again.

People seemed interested in my creature, but as I am not going into character design and personally am not interested in working on something I lack passion in. Lack of passion for me translates to unrefined, and lazy work for myself. I found the shark monster, and the couch to be the easiest pieces for me to create so far.

I am a realist. Someone who believes in bringing the truth of reality to life. I refuse to stay quiet. I have been incorporating, corporate corrupting into my practice for some time. Instead of using the humpback whale I did previously I choose a dead and rotting Orca. This piece shows the disparity of a creature that is majestic, but has become a source of entertainment and profit for a company that says they are doing what they do in order to help sea life. Life isn't cut and dry, it’s not all fluffy clouds puppies and kitties. Life is raw, and thus my art is raw.

I changed the liquid spilling from the cup to make it representational of the lives taken by captive orcas like the trainers at SeaWorld. In addition to the lives of Orca's taken by living in a human made habitat. Don't get me wrong I know we are destroying our oceans, but logically why is keeping a large mammal in a tiny bath tub ok? How is it even ethical at this point? Animals of this size should be protected and live free. The people around the edge of the splash are the customers, those who go to these parks in hopes of glimpsing an Orca. Yes, they get to see a majestic creature up close that has been trained to jump through hoops. The consumer is at time not educated about what truly happens to these creatures. The size of the tanks alone is terrible, this is why the cup is floating. The only time these whales are truly free from captivity is when they die.

“The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.” – Oxford Dictionary. My concept ties into the juxtaposition category since it takes four things that don't go together. You would never see a whale in a cup of blood, nor people celebrating around whale carcasses.

"Remix culture is a society that allows and encourages derivative works by combining or editing existing materials to produce a new product. A remix culture would be, by default, permissive of efforts to improve upon, change, integrate, or otherwise remix the work of copyright holders. In his book Remix, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig presents this as a desirable idea."  https://www.definitions.net/definition/Remix%20culture . For the purpose of this assignment I have taken images from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:668841/  with the use of the images from this site I was able to create the work of art in mesh mixer. I edited and combined different images to make a new image. Thus, fitting within the definition of Remix Culture.

Is this piece one that fits into the read and write culture "Read and Write Culture, not just consuming is important but to create and to share that creativity is important." http://us.aving.net/news/view.php?articleId=17613 I believe my piece fits within the quote mentioned above. As I have said previously, I believe in creating art work that speaks to people when I am not around. Using this piece can help others to see a reality not always spoken of. The hard topics, the disruptive topics need to be documented and expressed through creativity.

Mash-up is “a mixture or fusion of disparate elements.” – Oxford Dictionary. I believe my piece fits into the mash-up category. I have mixed different images to combine them into one piece.

Over all I believe I have an understanding of the terms we have covered from mash-up, remix culture, read and write culture, and juxtaposition. I did my best to cover all of these points in my writing and within the work itself.