Vaporwave, kind of reminds me of this club I went to called Webster Hall. It had several floors with each playing different genres of music, it was just the wave, lol. Music floating through the air and people souls as the lights flicked different colors and everyone happy. I think it’s cool, keeps me interested all while introducing me to something new. I would rather jump in as an artist and make some vapor wave. Seems a little tricky adding different music. Happy Holidays! Hope the New Year brings continuous Peace, Joy and Blessings!

Many people are unsure about what copyright is and do not understand how simple mistakes equate to stealing intellectual property . When we quote articles and don’t cite then it’s stealing . When we sample old music and make new mixes , it’s stealing . When Fashion Nova steals designer brands ideas , it is definitely going t be an ordeal with copyright. Many people create something unique and don’t understand the severity of claiming their ideas .

You could have thought of something years ago but if an individual stamps their name on your idea and registers it , you’ve lost. Legal actions hold more weight than moral codes and that I something everyone is familiar with being a citizen in the U.S.. My favorite thing from the discussion with Andy Bacio was about Steve Jobs.Many people glorify him because of his stature and wealth . In the very beginning of his evolution he took the idea of Graphical user interface and the mouse key from Xeorox Star. Is this acceptable because of who he is ? , absolutely not . Everyone deserves to be penalized when they don’t compensate their inspiration .

when people use music they should give credit , or when doing covers the original artist should be given credit. An example of copyright issues is when instagram or youtube take down your video because of unapproved music added . There are features social media that listen or audio that is not allowed to be shared without permission. According to investopia.com copyright is “Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler terms, copyright is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of products and anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work.  Visuals , musicals , dramas , literary and physical art can be copyrighted . To honor your creativity , be smart and get the rights to your creation . You deserve to reap the benefits . WE also need to educate people on how to reference work without plagiarism and encourage others their work is better than taking someone else’s.

With the Fall 2020 semester coming to its conclusion, there are many things to talk about, such as the skills and experienced gained during my time in CT 101. So without further a do, let’s get started!

One of the very first things we learned about was how to add gifs to our blog posts! Gifs are such an amazing tool to use because they help make a message more fun and dynamic.

For example, take a look at the gif and caption below.

Caption: “The face when I’m hungry but the waitress finally brings my personal large pepperoni pizza.”

By combining both an gif and a caption, I’m able to make a funny but powerful message. There are many fun websites to check out more gifs, such as https://giphy.com/.

Alongside gifs, we also have memes! Although memes can be in the form of both a gif or image, both are equally iconic.

Below are some popular memes found on a great website called Imgur!

What all of these have in common is their ability to bring people together. When these memes become icons of the Internet, people begin to associate these images with a certain feeling or message. As you can see, the “Success Kid” in the image above is a way for users to express their feeling of accomplishment. All in all, memes are a great addition to the Internet.

The next thing we learned about in CT 101 is the DS106 Assignment Repository. Essentially, it is a website that helps students discover new possibilities by introducing them to creative assignments.

Throughout the semester, I’ve done a number of assignments;

a cereal box cover,

a fashion design,

and a written letter to my past self.

This variety of assignments has taught me that creativity is NOT  linear concept, it is always flowing and branching out. I never imagined I would be creating cereal boxes or drawing designer dresses, but here I am actually doing it! The core idea I have learned from DS106 is to always be willing to try something new.

Now, the biggest project we had this semester; creating our own websites! Feel free to check out my website at https://paperpig.net/!

My website is designed to be a Personal Portfolio site where I can post my own works such as professional or personal projects that I’ve worked on.

I was able to add an Instagram social feed into my website. Now, whenever I add posts to my Instagram with art I’ve worked on, it automatically updates the social feed as well!

I also added a digital photo gallery,

and even created my first blog post on my website!

While I did encounter some frustrations such as trying to learn how to customize all of the widgets and pages, all in all, I’m super happy with how my website turned out and I plan on consistently updating it and finding ways to make it better.

I plan on applying the skills I learned in this class to the real world. My goal right now is actually to become a User Experience Designer, so the skills I’ve learned from creating and developing my own website will definitely be beneficial to me in the future. It’s also extremely important for me to appeal to audiences as a designer, so being fluent in the language of memes and gifs is essential for keeping up with the times.

I will proudly say that I deserve an “A” for the class. Aside from completing all the required blog posts and even creating my own website, I have developed new skills and reached my personal goal of “Broadening my horizons”, as mentioned in my first gif blog post.

Gif Caption: “How 2020 Killed Me”

As much as I enjoyed taking part in CT 101, I’m honestly a bit burnt out from this semester and from 2020 in general. This is probably one of the hardest years of my life so far, so hopefully things will be better in 2021.

Thank you for creating such a wonderful classroom experience Professor Seslow. I can promise you that this is one class I won’t ever forget. I wish you all good luck, for the present and for the future!

Vaporwave is described to be a music genre that was generated from chillwave. It’s popular aesthetic can be found on Instagram ,Facebook , and other social media outlets like tumbler. They are so popular because of the bright color varieties,  the use of famous anime characters , and famous cartoon clips. Many people have seen these visuals attached to sad messages and soft music . Vaperwaves are more than visuals, they are meant to leave you with a lasting impression. Many vaporwares I have watched surround themes of loneliness, depression , and heartbreak. Many people actually indulge in drugs and enjoy the trippy effects. While one sense is ignited , you’re pleasing another.

The trip graphics and over edited images are meant to impact viewers. They reign in popularity because of the harsh themes they express to the public. I believe they are beautiful because they provide a  platform many people didn’t have beforehand . It’s hard to speak on dark feelings, this allows creatives to divuldge their inner feelings into a visually pleasing presentation .

The retro themes are also a trip down memory lane . Vaperwaves are a compilation of retro 80s symbolism and old school music. Many mainstream artist have used the them like Bones and $uicideboy$. Like the messages it gives , it invites its participants to feel their feelings. Despite negative or positive , you shouldn’t fight it. 

The firs thing that comes to mind when thinking if copyrighting is taking ownwer ship of somehting thast you created or have possion on when it come to the digital world. This could range from music, orginal videos, paitnting, information and or content etc. LOL you cant copyright a drink like Homer Simpson thought he could, being that the bar has owner ship to it already.

If you want FULL credit for any work done and published on the web its extremely important to copyright your work.

Am I ashamed to say that I had to do extensive research on copyright before confidently making this post? Absolutely not.

Research had to be conducted because where I’m from, Guyana, copyright laws do not exist.

Yes, you read that right! But, while doing research, my country was not listed as one of the countries where copyright laws do not exist. So, this is either a case of the rest of the world is not keeping up to date with small, unpopular countries, which is normal, OR Guyana has copyright laws that no one is aware of.

So, to answer the question, copyright is an exclusive right that is given to the originator of any published work. For others to use this work, permission must be given by the originator of said work. If for some wild reason, you decide to use an original piece of work without permission, the consequences that may follow this are very dreadful.

Yup! And this is all due to copyright laws. The copyright laws of the USA states that we are prohibited from fully copying works but we are allowed to use ideas from a work. One of the examples that come to mind when thinking of this law is Ariana Grande’s music video for “Thank u, Next.”

(I’ll insert the video for those of you that may not have seen it.) If you have seen the video before, you would have seen that she used many elements from popular movies as scenes for her video. Is this okay? Did she have to request permission from the writers and producers of these movies or because she was making the scenes her own, it was fine?

Another popular example in music was a recent incident whereby DJ Luke Nasty sampled the melody line (I believe) from Kirk Franklin’s “Melodies From Heaven.” Now, quite frankly, it took me a long while to hear similarities in the songs, and when I finally heard what everyone else was hearing, I did not think the songs sound a while. Luckily for DJ Luke Nasty, he did not face major consequences, but because of the ‘copyright infringement’ certain music streaming platforms, like Soundcloud, were not permitting him to upload the song.

You guys can judge the situation for yourself. Do you think the songs sound similar?

When watching “Laws that choke creativity,” the most compelling thing said by Larry Lessig was his explanation of using the content of others. Some of the things he said were, “It’s how they understand access to this culture.” and, “It is a literacy for this generation. This is how our kids speak.” And with these statements, I could not agree more.

Now, he was in no way justifying using someone’s work and portraying it as your own, but rather,  he was explaining that using someone’s work as a learning method is a way that increases our understanding of digital technologies and builds relationships with ourselves.

I believe we like to make copies of things we see and like- just look at how many remakes of tik tok videos are posted after one goes viral. We like to put our own spin on things. So I agree with Mr. Lessig. We definitely should not copy anyone’s original work wholesale but there is absolutely no issue with being inspired by an original piece and trying to make it your own.

I also took a look at an article written by Andy Baio. (If you haven’t read it, give it a read!) The article talks about how he was sued for the artwork he did by an American photographer, Jay Maisel. Reading the article drove me to anger as I don’t believe Baio should’ve been sued.

I’m asking for you guys to use your judgment here again and tell me if you think Baio should have been sued. There is no doubt that the images are similar- after all, Baio was intentionally recreating Maisel’s work.

One of the factors that come into play when ‘fair use’ is being considered is whether the material was transformed into something new or copied verbatim. I don’t know if I have somehow created a bias toward Baio while reading his writing but I don’t think this is a verbatim copy- especially since the images are expressed in two different art forms. I feel like I would’ve understood the decision to sue Baio a bit better if he took Maisel’s image and claimed it as his own and used the image for financial gain.

In actuality, the recreated image was being used as a tribute to Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” and profits that would have been earned from his fundraiser would have been given to musicians. All of his intentions were pure but yet, he ended up with a fat lawsuit.

Maybe small blame can be placed on Baio for this. Maybe he should have double-checked that he had gotten licensing for everything he wanted to recreate, but I still dislike the fact that he was sued for something that was recreated. (Please let me know if you guys think differently.)

Baio also didn’t believe he should be sued but he went through with the payment anyway- only because it was the cheapest way out of the situation.

All in all, I believe we just need to be very careful that we are not breaking any copyright laws. In Baio’s article, he said that even judges and attorneys had a difficult time defining ‘fair use’ of an original work. So, if you’re going to use someone else’s work, get the necessary licenses and permits before you end up having to pay a fat check. (Unless you have Jeff Bezos money and a lawsuit wouldn’t bother you.)

Copyright can be used in many different scenarios varying in severity depending on the situation. For example, highly sensitive creations such as patented products and ideas are subject to copyright because they require protection from replication. There are many forms of copyright such as Public Performance License, Reproduction right, and Non Derivative.

Focusing on copyright of digital content, I believe it will always be a gray area due to our nature of translating ideas in our own personal ways. Human creativity gravitates towards other inspirational ideas and creations. Without this inspiration from other sources we would be extremely limited to creating “NEW” ideas and new creations.

I don’t believe copyright is a good influence in areas of creativity. It is extremely limiting and restrictive to our inspiration for creation. Copyright can be discouraging for aspiring creators because the danger of dealing with legal repercussion is definitely not worth the risk when establishing yourself as a creative.

The case of Andy Baio the software developer highlights the major issue in copyright existing throughout areas of creativity. Andy Baio received a lawsuit from a photographer claiming infringement on his intellectual property in the form of a digital image. Unfortunately it can be difficult to differentiate the ownership of an arrangement of pixels, and the ownership of intellectual property.

In the words of Andy Baio, “We learn to make great art by copying”. I believe this is completely true, and the reason there is a ‘gray area’ when discussing copyright throughout creative environments. Andy Baio believes that everything at it’s core is a remix, he states, “The idea of the lone artist and inventor struck by an idea is a myth” when discussing a video inspired by videos from a song that samples another song made by a game that is inspired by another game. This complexity of origination shows the reason human interpretation is a contradiction to copyright.

Richard Prince who encountered a unique incident of copyright, experienced having the court rule in favor of his creative interpretation as non infringing on the intellectual property of another. The idea that the supreme court can order a creative to destroy their creation is clearly discouraging of creative creation, ” the court ordered all unsold Canal Zone artworks and catalogs sent to Cariou so that they could be destroyed”. The idea that, “Prince makes fair use of Cariou’s photographs, often altering them very slightly with painting and collage” should be more than enough to exempt Prince from any legal reparations.

Personally I do not always abide by copyright standards. I would assume the majority of us infringe on copyright standards in our daily lives. The fact that we are not publishing these works does not mean we should be going under the radar, and aspiring creatives showing their work to the world should be punished. There are tight restrictions on where music can be played and shared, what arrangement of pixels are considered intellectual infringement, and more. I understand the importance and significance copyright but I believe it is a barrier that limits the true potential of human creativity. In conclusion the negative impact on creative work outweigh’s the positive protection and uniqueness copyright provides.

Being introduced to vaporwave at an early stage of it’s progression I am very happy to see how much the genre and aesthetic has evolved to today. I believe vaporwave represents our attraction to tranquility, bliss, and smooth, moody, intriguing aura. Vaporwave embodies all of these adjectives through classical sculpture, web design, surrealism, low-poly computer renderings, glitch art, VHS recordings, cassette tapes, Japanese art and cyberpunk tropes.

Vaporwave has become such a rigidly defined genre that it can be relicated in many different ways and translated for different purposes. The genre of “vapor wave” can be applied to almost everything and allows for many redefinition throughout the rest of it’s existence. I expect the genre to undergo many more changes as our values, society, and beliefs shift over time.

Vapor wave is defined as a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an internet meme. Clearly it is a very dynamic genre. I can appreciate the nostalgia vapor wave evokes because a lot of 80’s and 90’s influence is applied to the genre. KIDMOGRAPH and other motion graphics artists use these representations of nostalgia in creating very creative pieces of art.

Here is an image I created using the aspects of Vapor wave. I created this vapor wave image specifically for our CT101 class using 13 layers of different PNG images and FX editors. Adding glow, chroma blur, and high contrast are very helpful when attempting to achieve the signature “vapor wave” aesthetic. I really enjoyed creating it and adding my own spin to each element I added to the image. Vapor wave is a genre I can see existing for a long time, it is a very interesting aesthetic to follow and the creative minds behind it always manage to reiterate it’s best qualities in a new way.

VAPORWAVE!!!!

I saw this type of art before may be in games or on social media, but I did not know that it is called vaporwave.  I was amazed looking at the images. The bright colors (blue, pink, purple, orange) in the images are really catchy to the eyes. I search more about vaporwave, so I get to know that it is a “microgenre of visual art style, and electronic music that seeks to coney the joys of the internet generation” In visual arts include 3D rendered object, web design, glitch art, and anime.

               3D rendered object

                 Glitch Art

 Anime

Throughout exploring my classmate’s websites I came across one that attracted me particularly. This website is “StraightTalkwithKysa.com”.  This website conveys a blog like style that has multiple calming sunset backgrounds when scrolling through the different sections.

Upon first inspection the website seems bare and empty with content. Further scrolling unveils the true intent behind the website where Shanae uses an episodic formatting for her blog. Personally I like this formatting for her blog website because it seems like a modern twist on blogging by forming it into episodic discussion. Basically I was drawn to this idea because bloggers are more likely to tune into the latest topic and even deciding the topic they want to discuss.

Personally I believe a website with this type of formatting and style could gain a significant following. With the right promotion, advertising, and publicity this could be a really enjoyable community to check in on. Humans are very social beings, having a community to join in the conversation with is a great idea that anyone could participate in. I really enjoyed looking over this website.

Adding content to my website was definitely the most entertaining part for me because I was able to discuss information that I am very familiar with. I used the opportunity to share my experience in video editing and visual representation to teach others. When first approaching my website I was fairly confused on how to begin customizing my theme.

This confusion required me to do additional research on configuring my WordPress website.  For example, Kinsta is a blogging website that created a helpful post on how to customize your WordPress themes. kinsta.com/blog/how-to-customize-wordpress-theme.

Using this information I was able to navigate through the WordPress administrative settings and begin customizing my website. When learning new interface it is very common to run into confusion and frustration. This is why research is important when learning any type of interface from website creation, to video editing, to audio design, and more. 

After modeling my website to my desire I began by deleting all the default information added.  I gave my website the header, “Visual Creations” with a sub-header ‘online space for sharing visual creation’. This helps me focus on the goal I have in mind for building my website.

 For a few days I was confused on how to customize the “Home” page section because there was no information. This is when I required the assistance from another website. The following website https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-edit-a-wordpress-homepage-easily-effectively. This website was helpful because I was able to navigate back to the administrative settings above and create a new “PAGE” for my home screen. This was confusing for me because editing the home section of my website required leaving the website page view. This information allowed me to jump into adding the content my website needed.

Throughout building my website I ran into many more confusions while learning how to format, space, add media. Creating a new “Block” allows you to use the side panel for adding bullet point lists, adding pictures, adding video, adding files, new headers and tables.

This allowed me to format my website how I wanted and space things appropriately.

Adding media to my project required me to use the internet to find relevant images to represent my ideas and illustrate what I was discussing. I used google images to find the majority of my pictures. I used these pictures to display what equipment is required for creating visual representations using footage, and how to navigate editing software interfaces.

Different aspects of developing my website required work away from the website editor. For example, creating visual representation as an example for aspiring creators, learning how to use multiple editing software, and understanding audio design are all important factors in creating significant creative visual work.

This opportunity to build my own website has changed my perspective on website creation and added a new skill to my arsenal in online marketing. I think I have come away from this assignment more knowledgeable on the digital world as a whole. The majority of our online activity exists in online browsers where we interact with websites at all times. I am glad this assignment has tied into many of my other passions because it allows me to discuss information I am familiar with while learning new skills at the same time.

Building a website is a work in progress so I do not consider my work finished. I am allowed to own this domain for a year so I will be changing it in many ways during my ownership.

Getting started with my website was fairly simple with the help of professor Seslow. I was able to install WordPress and choose my theme within 30 minutes and this got me started in exploring the interface of creating my website. I chose the name “CreativesStayCurious.com” as my domain name. The purpose of my website is to guide aspiring creators in creating their own visual representations of what they wish to convey through footage and video editing.

The theme I chose for this project was Singlepress. I chose this theme because it did not have any large distracting images and allows for simple step by step instructional assistance. Upon my first few visits to the administrative editor I learned how to edit side panels, change the color of my website, change menu titles, and add widgets.

This was a good introduction to beginning my website because I understood the basis for customizing your website to your personal taste.

Vapor Wave! Vapor wave images are definitely something that takes a toll on my eyes lol!

The bright colors and constant moving is something I don’t enjoy looking at late night, if I’m sleepy!

Overall, Vapor Wave images are unique and cool! It brings a night life club vibe!

As mentioned before, I don’t hate Vapor Wave images but I’m not 100% fascinated with it either!

It gets me a little dizzy after looking at these images for a while lol!

My classmates created wonderful websites that are creative and interesting to navigate through!

One website that I found interesting was Claudia’s Website!

The best thing I like about it, is how easy it is to navigate through!

Another website that I really enjoyed was Oscar’s Website!

His website is super unique and creative! Oscar’s website definitely stands out with the colors and content!