Flash Games

With the advent of the internet, a vast amount of people have discovered new forms of entertainment. One of these forms is the Flash game.  These are simple animated games that can be about any subject, have any storyline, and each have their own unqiue style specific to the artist that made them.  Usually, flash games are not high quality, they are meant to be simple, fun, and easy to pick up and play. Plus, the smaller the size of the online game, the faster it loads so more poeple can, theoretically, play it.   

Most flash games can be found on sites such as ugoplayer.com but these sites tend to host games that are either very quickly put together or not very visually appealing, that is to say, not all of the games are in this category, but a fairly large amount are.

Recently, I discovered a website, http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ , that is a true work of art.  

Here is a short trailer:  http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/others/trailer.htm

These games are not only fun to play, but are beautifully animated.  They are simple yet the color palette, character design, and backgrounds are incredibly gorgeous and each game has its own unique setting.   

The site was created in 2000 by the artist Ferry Halim, he makes flash games for a living , among which are games for the American Girl Company, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and South Park.  Each of the games on his site belong solely to him, he created all of them for his own amusement and for others who follow the site.

I recommend looking through the games he has listed on the site even if you don't intend to play; the music is absolutely lovely and the animation is breath taking, especially for the shortness of the loading time.   

Sugar Sculptures

For the past few years my family has religiously watched the Food Network. My father and mother tend to watch Rachael Ray, the Barefoot Contessa, and other cooking shows while my younger sister and I love to watch Iron Chef and the Food Network Challenges.  One of my favorite Challenges is the sugar sculpture one that usually appears around the holidays.  

I've always considered food preparation and display as an art form, but sugar sculpture is one of the most beautiful food 'mediums' to work with.  

Sugar Sculpture is basically the art of creating centerpieces entirely composed of sugar and/or sugar derivatives.  Showpieces are usually made up of several various sugar elements, but it all basically comes down to cooking sugar to the hard crack stage, about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, so that it can hold molded shapes.  The completed shapes are then welded together using a gas torch.

  

There are several types of sugar used to create sculptures.  The NationMaster-Encyclopedia website details them as follows:

Pulled sugar

Once the sugar has been cooked, the now-liquid sugar is poured onto a silicon mat. Any coloring is now added. The sugar is then folded repeatedly into itself, until the sugar is, while still flexible, cool enough to handle. The sugar is then stretched out and then folded on itself repeatedly. This process incorporates air into the sugar, and gives it a bright lustery sheen. The sugar can then be sculpted by hand into various shapes, made into ribbons, or blown.

Blown sugar

In blown sugar, a portion of pulled sugar is placed on a rubber pump which is tipped with either wood or metal. Pumps are most commonly hand pumps. The sugar is then blown, much like the technique used in glassblowing. While being blown, the sugar can be shaped, often into animals or flowers. Unlike glass, blown sugar cannot be dipped in water to quickly cool it down, and chefs must use fans to cool the sugar, all the while rotating it so that it does not come out of shape.

Cast sugar

In this technique, sugar is poured into molds. This technique produces more sturdy pieces than pulled and blown sugar, and is almost always used for the base and structural elements of showpieces.

Pastillage

A thick sugar paste, similar to frosting, is molded into shapes. When dried, it is hard and brittle.

Pressed sugar

Granulated sugar is mixed with a minimum amount of water, and is put under pressure. It hardens into a solid piece. Though this is used for showpiece bases, it is less often used because of the time required to produce it, and its lesser aesthetic value.

Rock Sugar

The liquid sugar is blended with a small amount of royal icing. The heat from the sugar causes the air incorporated in the icing to rapidly expand, causing the mixture to grow to several times its original volume. The mixture is quickly poured into a lined dish, and placed into a blast chiller to set. This process produces a sugar mass with the texture of volcanic pumice, the color of which is determined by the color of the sugar syrup.

All of this information can be found at it's original source on   

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Sugar-sculpture

I find this medium fascinating because it is so incredibly difficult to work with.  Molten sugar is not only dangerous, it is difficult to contain and shape and it is frightfully fragile once it hardens.  Sugar Sculptures are also exceedingly beautiful, at least to me, and come in an endless variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.  Here are a few sugar sculptures:

DeviantART

Some of you may be familiar with the online artist community known as DeviantART.  This is a very popular site used by thousands of artists to post their art, get public opinions on their pieces, share works with friends, get exposure, etc.  The site boasts some wonderfully talented artists, both amateur and professional, of all sorts. From drawings to sculpture, digital works to costumes, and from painters to poets, DevianART is filled with a vast variety of artists from all over the world.  

I feel that this site pertains to our Art and Wonder class because it hits upon such a broad spectrum of wonder; it literally has almost anything you could imagine displayed in some sort of art form, whether it be in prose or painting!  You can type in some of the most random things and find hundreds of people interested in the same idea as you are.  

Granted, there are some drawbacks to having such a large art site.  You may have to sift through dozens of works that you might consider sub-par or boring before you find a piece or an artist the captures your interest.  I, personally, enjoy this process (to a point) because it allows me to see many art pieces that I might normally not have given a second glance too and through this process I find more artists that I admire.

Here is the link to the main website  

And here are some of the many artists that I have found through the site that fascinate me.

http://wynahiros.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://shizenko.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://ktshy.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://losmios.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://saimain.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://mercuralis.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://mynti.deviantart.com/gallery/

Hopefully, these galleries will give you an idea of what is on DeviantART, these range from traditional media to digital and the subjects vary among the artists.  If you're really inspired by this, I encourage you to get your own account and, if not post some of your own work, at least show support for your favorite artists by critiquing their work, or if you REALLY want to support them, some sell prints or take commissions.

More animation

As I stated before, animations of all kinds fascinate me.  A few days ago I watched these animations in my KI course and was blown away by the amount of planning and effort put into these.

The first animation is by the artist Blu.  Over the course of many days Blu painted the entire project on various walls throughout Buenos Aires and Baden.  A normal animation has between 15 to 30 frames per second, I do not know how many fps this is but to constantly paint huge murals over one another, especially outside in public places were they could be defaced, or the weather could ruin them, etc, is quite frankly amazing.

I find the images fascinating, yet disturbing. They move very fluidly, are incredibly creepy, are 

very whimsical, and somewhat disgusting (at least to me). Blu's website can be found here 

http://www.blublu.org/ if anyone wants to see anymore of his wonderful art works.

Another animation that is equally fascinating is Yellow Sticky Notes, a hand drawn animation by animation filmmaker Jeff  Chiba Stearns.  In this animation, done entirely on yellow sticky notes (about 2300), Stearns reflects on his life over the past nine years and the major world events that occurred during it.  I find this animation particularly fascinating because the medium is so simple and the drawings are very stylized and recognizable but are used in very creative ways.  It is also very relatable for many people and goes through everyday events, such as breaking up with someone, attending college, and moving to name a few, among the devastating national events that everyone was effected by (the Twin Towers and the current war).