Digital Printmaking First Project Description

Introduction
ma·nip·u·late \mə-ˈni-pyə-ˌlāt\
1: to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner2 a: to manage or utilize skillfully b: to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage3: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose : doctor

Advertisers have as their rhetorical purpose the presentation and exhibition of a product or service and the exhortation and coercion of the potential purchasing population to the extent that that population becomes actual. Simply put, advertisers try by the various means at their disposal to get people to buy the product or service advertised. Moreover, advertisers want potential purchasers to consider what is advertised to the exclusion of all other similar products or services. They therefore attempt to construct an advertisement that will fully involve the attention of the potential purchaser and which will have a suasive effect. Advertisers thus create a semiotic world in order to persuade their audience of the essential "rightness" of purchasing the product or service advertised.
Artists have manipulated the feelings of viewers since the beginning of art. Plato warned against the power of art as a dangerous delusion making us have feelings that go against our better natures. Consider the role of art in religion as in the many images of Jesus crucified. In Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut writes of the traumatizing effects of one representation of the crucifixion on the book’s main character Billy Pilgrim:
Billy, after all, had contemplated torture and hideous wounds at the beginning and the end of nearly every day of his childhood. Billy had an extremely gruesome crucifix hanging on the wall of his little bedroom in Ilium. A military surgeon would have admired the clinical fidelity of the artist’s rendition of all of Christ’s wounds– the spear wound, the thorn wounds, the holes that were made by the iron spikes. Billy’s Christ died horribly.
To create an emotional response with an artwork is an aim of many artists, but true manipulation implies something more…sinister. Such manipulation often occurs because the artist or those who have hired the artist want something. Whether it’s power or money, there is a goal and the art of manipulation is the means.



Project Description:
Basically put the student is to create an image that either manipulates the viewer in some way or uses the concepts of manipulation (whether it’s on a personal or corporate level) as its theme. This image can be created using a variety of media including: photography, drawing, collage, sculpture, or raw food. The final product, however, will include as a component a three color screen print created using stencils printed digitally.
To complete the project the student will:
1. Research the concept of manipulation in its various forms with an emphasis on its use in art
2. Write an artist’s statement that offers the student’s definition of manipulation, provides examples from culture and art, and describes the student’s project, its intent and intended audience
3. Create at least ten preliminary sketches (these can be multi-media in approach)
4. Create a blog that will act as a sketchbook/journal for the project and will document the research and sketches
5. Give a five minute presentation of this blog to the class, with five minutes left for questions
6. Write a comment on at least three other student blogs
7. From the presentation and comments the student will create the final work incorporating the digital in some form as well as a three-color screen print
8. The student will document the work on the blog
The following criteria will be used in the grading of the artwork:
• The student understands the concept of the project and this is evident in the finished work
• Clear progression of ideas is visible through the sketches to the final work
• Application of skills learned in the Photoshop demo
• A demonstrated understanding of screen printing process

Project timeline
Wednesday February 18
Set up blog
Your first entry should include your ideas on the meaning “manipulation”, as as examples of images that have been manipulated or demonstrate a type of psychological manipulation
You should also have a description of the project you intend to create, include your concept as well the materials and process you will use for the work
Monday February 23
Create five sketches for your project. These sketches each be radically different or demonstrate a progression of ideas (they should represent about ten hours of work)
Wednesday February 25
Five more sketches, these should be even more developed with the last few representing the evolution of the final project
Screen printing demo
March 4
Meet in Mac Lab for Blog presentations
Images prepared for screen printing
March 9
Work day printing
March 11
Critique!!!!