Web Page project

For my final project for AVT 280 i decided to make a fake news website about unimportant news on the front while still maintaining a somewhat serious side to it by posting stories about whats going on around us at the moment. A lot of people don't care about the new or even less the upcoming election in 2008 especially people our age. I've made a website about things that keep us entertained, be it stupid videos on YouTube or videogames. These are the things that come up mostly in my life; nothing but funny websites, jokes and videogames. With this website I've glorified all the ridiculous and kept the real life important subjects to a bare minimum.

www.poopsaucenews.com

The Yes Men

The article from the Yes Men "WTO Proposes Slavery for Africa" was about them impersonating WTO representatives in a press conference talking about permanently purchasing workers in Africa. One of the Yes Men representatives Hanniford Schmidt said how private stewardship has been successfully applied to transport, power, water, traditional knowledge, and even the human genome. He proposed that the only way work condition will get better in Africa is that if a corporation owns the workers then it would be easier erase poverty. He argues that the current conditions which is that whenever a worker gets sick, gets aids or gets pregnant; they're out of the door with no job. By owning the workers, a corporation can get the employees life benefits and care for them 24/7. He says that human stewardry would work because by making people for sale then that empowers people who care to purchase rights to them and get them the help they need. Schmidt also supports his statements by recapping Africa's business relations with the west as "Good for Business, Bad for people" and he want his proposal to be "good for Business, good for poeple". Although his statements were well received by some, a lot of people were opposed to this kind of new way of "slavery".

Subvertising - finished ads

Connotation Project part 1

Here are some images i found in magazines that I believe have different connotative meanings behind them.

In this cigarette ad it shows people having fun smoking but in reality it isn't fun, people usually smoke by themselves which isn't fun at all. I also noticed that they're a couple at a party and looks like they might be kissing at some point during the night and kissing with cigarette smoke in your breath is really nasty and in real life no one wants to kiss a smoker, it's just plain gross.


In this picture there is a couple where the guy is offering the girl Skyy Vodka giving the impression that if you buy a girl a drink you'll get lucky at the end of the night. In reality it's nothing like that for example, you'll probably get drunk and pass out somewhere or you might get lucky but then you'll forget what happened the night before and you probably knocked up some random girl at a bar and you'll pay the consequences 9 months later.

In this McDonald's ad they show you that the kids meal is healthy for your kids and that you don't have to worry about it because they show the nutrition facts on most of their stuff. In reality, where does that meat come from, and what party of the chicken do those chicken nuggets come from? and how fresh are those apple slices? In my opinion that stuff is mystery meat that I have no idea where they get it from, its gross. Like most food advertisements what you see is definitely NOT what you get in real life.


In this vacation travel ad they show you how much fun you can have on a cruise but in reality you probably wouldn't be having as much fun as this couple in the picture. The real cruise will probably have a whole bunch of people trying to do the same thing and it will be crowded unlike the ad here which shows just the two people dancing. Also, theres alway the risk of the ship sinking so its sometimes scary going on a cruise vacation. You'll never know if your trip might end in a disaster.

Artists: Bansky and OBEY

Bansky: Suits Looking at Nob

This satirical piece by Bansky Illustrates that people in Suits or the people in power are perverted as how almost saying that their mostly homosexual because they're staring at a penis while only one of them is looking a written version of its female counterpart. The others are criticizing the one guy saying "...and this guy is really hot right now..." because he is getting excited over a word and not the real thing as the others are doing.

OBEY - Big Brother

This poster done by the OBEY artists makes reference to George Orwell's book 1984 it illustrates that "big brother is watching you". I noticed that the face is symmetrical giving it a more evil, controlling, lifeless, ominous look. You can easily insert the OBEY inside joke "... has a posse" that would further extend the movement's inside joke.

Artists: Martina Lopez and Ken Gonzales-Day

Martina Lopez - Questioning Nature's Way 2, 1998

This artwork that Martina Lopez made with mixing an old family photo with digital media gives the original photograph a new look and meaning. I noticed that most of her artwork relates to the human experience and her family. The photograph mixes nicely with the digitally made landscape and it gives it a feeling of being in touch with nature.

Ken Gonzales-Day - Bone-Grass Boy Series, Untitled #45, 1997

Ken Gonzales-Day did a great job of putting himself in this picture, makes you thing that he was actually there. His use of digital media to put himself in a historical background gives it a new meaning telling a different story. Its like he is trying to tell a story that never happened or what would it be like if he was there during the U.S.-Mexican war.

Dislocation/Location, Disembodiment/Embodiment, Disconnection/Connection Video Project

Disconnection


In this video the person is being constantly disconnected on an important phone call.
The story of this video is that the person walks into his parent's room and find them missing so he gets this phone call from a stranger using a deep voice telling him to bring 100,000 dollars to a meeting point that he cannot make out because of the bad connection service in his home.
The look on his face shows the feeling of being confused and worried because the person on the other end of the phone has kidnapped his parents.



Disembodiment/Embodiment


In this film the person is having a dream where his face is missing and he is violently washing his face to get his face back but in the end he wakes up and realizes that it was all a dream.


Dislocation


This movie has the main character sitting at the dinner table looking at the food choices he has for breakfast. He notices that everything is completely out of place like lemon and the ice cream and pretty much everything on the table is out of context. So, he randomly decides to eat a banana for breakfast and takes a big bite out of it but in the end it was only a small bite off the top.

Note: The idea behind these films was to make it as creepy and ridiculous as possible, with a disappearing banana and the missing part randomly materializes as if it was never eaten. Also the ridiculous face gestures my friend makes in all the movies. After watching these videos myself, the humor and the ideas behind them left me with a feeling of confusion, disgust and a bad taste in my mouth which is exactly what I want the viewer to feel when they watch it.