Jenefer Harrison

Bill Fontana

2005-10-07T08:39:00.000Z

Bill Fontana

Bill fontana's website

Bill fontana downloads

biography

Janet Cardiff

2005-10-07T08:38:00.000Z

Research

2005-09-30T09:48:00.001Z

The following is just some links that might come in usefull for the intermediate studio assignment- ok, so we're not ment to google things, but i've just got the dictionary definitions for the 'key words' in the assignment.

Gaps

Identity

deja vu

photogrphy

Doubles

Culture

copy

Chance

encounter

imagination

2nd year! Yey!

2005-09-30T09:48:00.000Z

Alton towers

2005-04-19T11:14:00.000Z

I've just been looking at the Alton towers website and thought i'd blog it because of the graphics they use look computer gamey. The map is like an old gameboy game. It's cool!

Alton Towers

Essay

2005-04-10T10:42:00.000Z

In my Spatial and Visual Culture module we had to give a presentation on a multimedia subject that we selected from a bag of newspaper articles. Kind of like pulling a name out of a hat but it was newspaper articles and it was a bag not a hat!
I was lucky enough to pick out an article about Kerry Conran, the director of the film Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow, a film released in 2004 that was created entirely on computer with the exception of the actors.

It all started in 1994 when Kerry Conran had the idea of a film set in 1939 where giant robots were attacking the world. He knew that it would be very hard and very expensive to film a real set that bore any resemblance to a 1939 scene so he decided that maybe it would be a good idea to actually animate the scenery and it would only be a fraction of the cost that there would be if it were all live action (somewhere in the region of fifty million dollars). So he sat down at his Mac llsi and using Electric Image, Photoshop and After Effects he started to make the film by himself. He even said “…I didn’t care in a way how long it was going to take, because I knew it was possible.”

He based his original sets on photographs of New York as he had never actually been there!

After four years he had only animated six minutes of his film.
He said “It would take five minutes to process a single frame, for a simple comp, not even 3D. Five minutes just to see any changes take place.”

Things were looking pretty bleak for Kerry. It would take film forever to animate an entire movie on his own. (Actually if the film were 90 minutes it would take 22 and a half years if he continued at that pace!)
Luckily his brother Kevin Conran showed the six minute clip to a family friend, Marsha Oglesby. She was so impressed with the work that she advised the Conrans to show the work to a friend of hers. Jon Avnet, a producer.

They sent a video tape to him containing the six minutes of footage but also included a comic book and a small plastic version of the huge robots in the film.
He was even more impressed with the work than Marsha had been and decided to take the project on.

Jon Avnet helped Kerry get a script together and was always available to help when he hit problems with the story line.

He was also responsible for casting some big name actors. The first person he cast was Jude Law by simply showing him the six minutes of footage that Kerry had created. Although Jude Law wasn’t really the real American cowboy style hero Kerry and Kevin were expecting they were happy with the choice.

Next Jon Avnet also cast Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, again by showing them the six minute short and explaining Kerry’s ideas to them.

Jon Avnet also set up a custom Digital effects studio in a building in Van Nuys, the porn capital of America. Marsha Oglesby said that the building was ‘a machine shop and there was sawing and drilling next door.’

Jon Avnet also set about hiring a fleet of digital artists, animators, modellers and compositors to aide Kerry.

As the people in the film were going to be real actors, Blue screen technology was to be used. However the actors would find it nearly impossible to be in the right place on the set at the right time, so there had to be a 3D storyboard created with digital stand ins of the actors. This helped the actors get their bearings and using a top down view and markings on the set floor they were able to act a lot easier.

Before filming took place, nine months before actually, Jon Avnet set up a reading of the script so that Kerry would have a chance to meet the actors, but also so that they would have recording which they could then put together with the animatics that had been created.

When it came to filming, the footage of the actors was shot using HD cameras instead of tape so that the footage could easily be obtained from the cameras using the Macs that had been used for the entire production.

Filming took just 29 days in a location in London. Kerry said that “…directing wasn’t hard with these actors. With Jude Law in particular, there was never a moment, even when he was standing in the middle of blue nothing, when you didn’t believe he was somewhere.”
Kerry also insisted that any extras in the film that did not interact with the main characters had to be shot severalty so that they could be manipulated later without having to re-shoot the entire scene.

Second part of essay

2005-04-10T10:41:00.000Z

When the footage of the actors was completed, work began on the animation side of things. It was all done in the Digital effects studio, starting with a team of twenty then jumping to a hundred people and even some external companies.
Even though there was not much money for luxuries in the building, including food and air conditioning, morale was fairly high. Most of the people working on the film with the exception of Jon Avnet and Marsha Oglesby and a few of the animators had never worked on a film before and were all excited to be doing so. According to the animators it was a good morale boost to have the Conran brothers, who were essentially the producers of the film, just wandering around the building and always on hand to offer advise.
Steven Yamamoto, the animation director and digital effect supervisor said that any advice given by the Conran brothers was usually in the region of “If it looks too big, it’s not big enough. If it looks ridiculously big, just go a bit more”.
The final result was actually intended to be black and white. The footage had a filter on it so that the colour was removed leaving only black, white and greys. Then, however colour was applied later by a team of colourists. According to Kerry this was how they achieved the sepia feel of the film.
“We did make a black and white movie, we just laid colour on it after”- Kevin Conran.
When it came to the post production stage of the project Macs were again used, running Final Cut Pro and After Effects.
Finally the project came to an end, 10 years after Kerry Conran first sat down at his Mac llsi. The ‘little independent movie on a big scale’ was finished and was released in the latter half of 2004.

Before I end this essay, I’m just going to mention a few interesting facts about the film that I dug up of the internet, such as the fact that some of the dialogue between actors and some of the sounds emitted by the robots was lifted directly from the ‘The war of the Worlds’.

Also if you watch the film, keep an eye out for King Kong who is on the empire state building in a certain scene. You might also spot another giant monster, namely Godzilla, on the front of a Tokyo newspaper.
Zack Petrock, the modelling supervisor on the film said “You’d be hard pushed to find a frame that does not have something that was specifically put in there that maybe only the people in the project would know about.”

Dr. Totenkopf, the evil guy in the film, is played by Sir Laurence Olivier, who died in 1989. Using him was made possible by manipulating archived footage of him. Jude Law thought that he would be good for the role and recommended him.

The spire on the Empire State building is actually in place to allow air ships to moor as they do in the film, however strong updrafts from the city below make it impossible to actually do.

In a particular scene where Sky captain and Polly Perkins are glying underwater they fly (sail?) past a ship graveyard. If you look closely you might see the Titanic and the Venture (the ship used in King Kong.)

Finally as I mentioned in the essay Conran used photographs of New York as his inspiration for the sets. However when production began on a larger scale they actually used the photographs instead of computer animated versions. However this idea was scrapped because it meant that only a few scenes could actually be used.

HI

2005-04-08T15:16:00.000Z

I am still alive honestly. Just not been abe to do much in the way of posting on my blog because i can't get internet access very easily.
But! I am alive!

What i've done today

2005-03-17T00:21:00.000Z

Hello
This is just a quick post at about 20 past midnight
I'm just sat in the library with my friend and thought i'd document some of the stuff i did today on my Toy project. I finally found a decent conversion from Euros to pounds and also designed and documented (!) three levels of my game and to top it all off, i started doing the actual thing in Flash! Wow I've been productive (for me!) Anyways i think we're going home now!

Euro conversion

2005-03-16T09:27:00.000Z

This website has got a Euro conversion table on it which is very helpful, especially since i reaslised yesterday that i have no idea how muchu a euro is worth in comparison to a pound!!

Euro converter

german hotel

2005-03-13T13:47:00.000Z

german hotel
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

As one of the main areas of the main places that the main character in my game wil be visiting is the hotel where they need to go to get their energy recharged, i thought i'd look at some german hotels. This is the best picture (In my opinion)i could find!!!

germany

2005-03-13T13:45:00.000Z

germany
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

This is a German street. i thought i'd blog this beacuse as my game is set in Germany the majorioty of the surroundings obviously will be German streets.D'oy.

2005-03-12T17:54:00.000Z

2005-03-12T17:51:00.000Z

This is a website i found where you can play free online language games.
Might be cool to use for referance

language games

AQA

2005-03-12T17:48:00.000Z

This is just a link to teh AQA website. they are the main exam board that is used at GCSE. Might come in useful!

AQA

Translator

2005-03-09T09:34:00.000Z

This is a link to a conveniant little website that lets you get free translations. Granted it's not amazingly accurate, but it does the job at least!

free translations

German GCSE

2005-03-03T13:49:00.000Z

Since my game is aimed at students studying for German GCSE, i thought that i'd include this link.
It's the bitesize website, that i'm sure many of us have used in the past for GCSEs and A level and othe 'fun' exams.

Bite size

Monday's lesson

2005-03-03T13:46:00.000Z

In Monday's lessono we had like a mini review for our Toy project.
We did it in groups of three (our two in our case because we were last!) and we (me, Oliver and Isil) basically talked through our ideas and let the other people (person) give their opinions and give you any ideas they think might improve the toy.

In short we decided that we both needed to carry out some more focused research, but we were at least fairly well on with our toys.

Phone games

2005-02-25T13:15:00.000Z

This is a link to website where you can download games for your mobile.
phone games

Erwin Wurm

2005-02-24T11:57:00.000Z

This is a bit of a random link. I was just thinking about people who have tried to do something within set constraints, like making animations on a 16 by 16 pixel canvas thing!
Erwin Wurm, if you don't know or have never seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers video for 'Can't Stop', is famous for, among other things, making a series of 'one minute sculptures'. I just thought it was an intresting constraint to set yourself!

Erwin Wurm

Habbo hotel

2005-02-22T14:27:00.000Z

Okay so this is another site that Rob told me abot that I kind of already knew about. (i'd used it in my 'interactive me' essay for Stuart)
It's a visual chat room where you create yourself in the form of a small person (who look a lot like lego people)
I've included this one because the graphics, for the pixel size used, are amazing. They show shadow and highlights buy having differant blocks of colour, a technique maybe i can use in my game!

Habbo Hotel

Eboy

2005-02-22T14:25:00.000Z

This is a site that Rob told me about in my metting interviewy thing. It's full of pixely pictures that you feel would not be out of place on a game on a mobile phone!

Eboy

Germany

2005-02-18T13:07:00.000Z

This is a link to the German Tourism website. Since my game is set in Germany, this may come in handy for some research!!

Characters

2005-02-18T13:04:00.000Z

Considering that my game will be played on a mobile phone screen, hte character is going to have to be very small.
So i've been looking at this site called flip flop flyin'. It was shown to us in a a 16x16 lesson, but i think it's quite useful for this aswell.

pac man

2005-02-17T11:38:00.000Z

pac man
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Pac man! hmm, what makes him special. Is it because he's based on a pizza with a slice missing? or because of the Wocca Wocca sound he makes? I think it's just because the game is good!

This image is from retrosite

mario

2005-02-17T11:33:00.000Z

mario
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

I've decided to look at computer games characters, and what makes them memorable. I've started with Mario. Everyone knows him and plays him in computer games. Can't figure out why he's special though. He's a dumply little plumber! (who can fly and has a racoon tail occassionaly)

zelda 2

2005-02-11T14:39:00.000Z

zelda 2
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Okay so the picture is shockingly bad, but the general idea is that the character generally is in the middle of the screen and the surroundings move around them.
This is taken from the Legend of Zelda the Ocarina of time for the Nintendo 64.

zelda

2005-02-11T14:38:00.000Z

zelda
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

This is a screen dump of a Legend of Zelda game for the Gameboy advance. Like the pokemon entry i'm using it to look at differant layouts. Like the pokemon one, the character can roam around the screen and move to the sides to go to a differnat area.

pokemon

2005-02-11T14:36:00.000Z

pokemon
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

This is a screen dump from Pokemon. I'm just using it to look at the way the screen is layed out.

Typography

2005-02-10T13:03:00.000Z

Here are a few typography sites i've fopund after lookint at typography on Monday

Microsoft typography

Planet-typography

Monday lesson!

2005-02-10T11:45:00.000Z

This Monday we looked at typography and had to make a flash thing that was typography based and showed the instructions to a computer based game.

First things first, i had to choose a game, and what better than 'Bomb jack'!

Next i had to get the instructions, which was pretty easy, but here they are.

Player-1
Objective-To collect al the bombs and coins on the levels while avoiding any enemies.
Controls- arrow keys and space bar to jump
Tips- dont' die.

Next i had to present this information in a flash file so that it was appealing.
I tried to match the font used in the actual game and have it moving in ways that represnt the game.
I also decided to use some more 'anti social fonts' (things you'd expect to see graffitied somewhere'.) as the whole point of the game is collecting bombs.
When it came to talking about the controls i tried to make it more appealing by havein the word 'jump' jumping. and the controls moving around the screen.

My final ection was the top tip, which started small on the scrren then grew to fill the entire section. The tip 'Don't die ' then flashed on the screen in very large font.

Pokemon

2005-02-03T11:44:00.000Z

This is a link to the Pokemon website.
I thought since in my game you have to collect hings, it might be approprite to link it to the Pokemon game where you 'gotta chatch 'em all'
Also i'm looking in to the same kind of display.

pokemon

The Sims

2005-02-03T11:40:00.000Z

This is the Sims website. We all know what the Sims are right?
I just thought along the lines of have ing to so basic everyday stuff to survive...like the sims do!

The Sims

Tamagotchi

2005-02-03T11:36:00.000Z

This is a fan site ( i think) devoted to tamagotchi. It's just to weird for words!

mimitchi

Idea for my computer game

2005-02-03T11:18:00.000Z

In this Monday's session we had to have our first review on this 'toy' topic. We had to present research, which was the content of this blog, and initial ideas.
My idea was influenced by something that Dave said in a 16x16 lesson. Something to the effect that it would be good if you learnt a new skill while playing a video game. So I thought about what skills you might be able to learn through a computer game.

And came up with a new language. The game could be aimed at teenagers doing their GCSE's and could help t hem in either the French or German language bit.
Okay so there is a point to the game, but no game as such. So I had to think of a game that would be the main bit. (if that makes any sense at all!)
I eventually decided that the character would be a school student, of a similar age to the target audience. They would be on a school trip to Germany and would be exploring the cities.

However the characters bag splits, spilling the contents as they walk around. The character realises when they try to return to the hotel at night but, can't get in because their hotel key, along with the rest of the contents of the bag is missing. So they have to retrace their steps around Germany to find their lost items, starting with smaller items like their sunglasses, leading up to text books, and finally their hotel key. To find the items, the character must talk to the native Germans, who ,obviously, will only respond to and in German.

Luckily, one of your friends knows basic German, and has agreed to accompany you on the first day of your search. But after that you have to manage on your own.
There would be a note book where key German words would be recorded to help you to begin with, and later in the game, you would be able to find your German phrase book, meaning you can use more complex language.

So that's my game. It sounds a bit complicated but that's it.

The feedback i received was pretty much that i needed to bulk the game out. For example the character might need to find a way to bathe so that people would talk to him. also you may need to feed the c haracted so they don't die. Almost like a tamagotchi.
So thats the kind of stuff I'm researching this week!

differant types of computer games.

2005-01-31T14:24:00.000Z

This is the nintendo site.

It shows differant examples of the types of computer games.

Click Here

PDA

2005-01-27T13:34:00.000Z

This link leads to a website where there are difernet reviews of various PDAs. It's really specific, so it could come in handy.
www.mobiletechreview.com

Nokia Ngage

2005-01-27T13:28:00.000Z

This is the Nokia Ngage website.
It's a mobile phone but doubles as a portable gaming device, more so than a normal mobile phone.

www.ngage.com

This link leads to a page detailing the technical specifications.
Tech specs

GameBoy DS

2005-01-27T11:53:00.000Z

The GameBoy DS is the newest addition to a long line of succesful Game Boys. It's the main competitor for the PSP.

http://www.nintendods.com/index.jsp
This is the Gameboy DS website. The website itself is pretty impressive!

I've also just found the Uk version of the site. It's also cool. You don't actually have to click the mouse to do anything. Does get annoying after a while though.
www.nintendo-europe.com

PlayStation PSP

2005-01-27T11:41:00.000Z

This is part of my reserach for the TOY project.
The next few posts will be about me looking at differant platforms for my game to be displayed on.

Sony PSP

The site is really useful. It's PlayStations UK home page.
PlayStation UK
Below are a few pages that i've picked out because they will be very useful.

Unveiling of PSP - This page has got all the stats of the PSP

Toy design exercise- week 3

2005-01-27T11:17:00.000Z

In this weeks Foundation Studio session on Monday, we had to design a level of a computer game from a newspaper article from anytime before 1984.

Our group had a choice of two newspaper articles. One about some weird 'sea wasp' that killed a child, and one a bout an african boy who was chased by a lion.
We decided to use the one with the boy chased by the lion.

Firstly we had to decide who our main character was going to be. There were really only two choices. The lion or the boy. We chose the lion.
Next we had to decide the overall idea of the game. We decided that the lion wanted to chase people so wandered in to town, where he would target one person and chase them. But the people could defend themselves by throwing boots and bikes, which is what he boy did in the article.

This would be the first level of the game. The following levels would be about the person trying to escape from the lion, each time by upgrading their mode of escape. for example, level 1 was a bike and on foot, level 2 would be by car and level 3 might be by helicopter!

The game would be played from the lions perspective, and the player would see the person being chased towards the horizon.

I think the game was a good idea, but perhaps a little too obvious, as some of the other groups had similar ideas.

The following are some of the sites we used to research items for the game.

http://www.africaonline.com/

military boots (to throw at the lion)

lion

Toy design exercise- Week 2

2005-01-21T14:15:00.000Z

In the second week of the toy assignment we were asked to bring a non-electronic toy to the lesson to play with. (yey!)

When we got to the lesson we were put in to our groups again and were told to play with the toys for a while and then were set the task of 'redesigning' one of them by making anew set of rules that would make a completely new game.

This was quite a hard task considering our toys consisted of a magnetic dartboard, a bouncy egg, a number of wooden puzzles and a battery powered bus, (that didn't really count.)The only toy that really had rules to begin with was the dart board so we decided to use that.
The rules of darts are pretty simple, but if you're not sure of them check out this link.
So we had to change the rules to make a new game. What else can you do with darts beside throw them at the board, or possibly getting a bit drunk and throwing them at people? So we had to change the scoring. The current scoring is pretty simple. You start with 501 and you work your way down to zero by hitting numbers on the board.

We thought that maybe we could make it a bit like Countdown where you have to reach a randomly generated number. But how would the random number be generated. Well we decided that one of the players would have to throw all six darts and record the numbers. And since we didn't have our own version of Carol Vorderman we decided to have some device on the dartboard that would automatically sense where the darts had landed and generate a random number using them. This number would then be displayed in two LCD screens, one above the other, one for each of the two players. The aim was then to reach the score by, liked he original game, hitting appropriate numbers.

We also decided it would be a good idea to mess with the game a bit more by removing the double and triple sections of the board and replacing them with numerical operators:- + - x ÷
If the user hit, for example, the + in the 20 segment, they would receive 20 points and an extra 20 points. If they hit the - in the 20 segment they would loose 20 points.

In normal darts the game can only end when the exact number is scored on a double. In our game we decided that the played could score over the target, but it just meant that they had to use the - segments to get down to the required amount.

On reflection our game is actually quite hard to understand, and unless you are a mathematician, probably not that fun.

The comment that we received in class were mainly along the lines that it was quite a hard game to understand, and that no-one would really want to play it in their free time. However we did also receive comments saying that it would be a good game to be used in education. Probably not too great for younger children, but college students and university students, definitely.

What did i learn? Not to bring a dartboard to a lesson where we would have to re-design the game!
Also to think more 'outside the box' as Dave kept putting it.

Game theory

2005-01-20T11:45:00.000Z

This isjust a website that's all about game theory. It's aimed at students and lecturers so it might come in handy.

gametheory.net

History of toys and games

2005-01-20T11:40:00.000Z

This website is part of the History Channels website and is a seperate exhibit. It contains information about the history of toys in general as well as some specific toys. And there is a cool test to do!

History of Toys and games

History of computer games

2005-01-20T11:36:00.000Z

Okay so i'm not completely sure that this relates to the project or just that video we watched, but i'm including it anyway because i think it's really interesting!

Computer games history

GPS games

2005-01-20T11:31:00.000Z

This is just a post which kind of relates to a certain top secret game that one of the groups made in last mondays session.
I hadn't realised that there wer so many difeerant types of games related to GPS. Geopoker? Geogolf? Who'd have thought it?!

GPS Games

Game and toy definitions

2005-01-13T11:56:00.000Z

Game according to www.dictionary.com

toy according to www.dictionary.com

Dr Toy.com - This is just a cool website where people can write in about toys they are looking for or toys they have queries about.

Bananas of mass destruction

2005-01-13T11:44:00.000Z

In our Foundation Studio lesson on Monday we had to design a game in an hour and present it ot the rest of the class at the end of our lesson. Our group came up with a few ideas, which included shooting politicians, a monkey in a maze and rubix cube type game. Also there was the 'sign up sheet for a trip to laser Quest' but i don't think that really counted. The someone suggested we made a game about the Ugly Tree. So we did. We combined the other games, so that we ended up having a monkey trying to scale the Ugly tree collecting Ugly Branches, and avoiding banana skins that other monkeys were throwing at it. When it got to a certain stage of the tree, th monkey was allowed to throw a politician out of the Ugly Tree. Also depending on the amount of sticks they had collected, the more points they scored. If the monkey had no sticks when they threw the politician out, then the politician was able to do some evil politiciany thing like increase taxes or something. The monkey would then move up the tree further unill it reaches the next politician who would be higher up (hierarchialy speaking)than the previous one.

On-line identity

2004-12-13T18:45:00.000Z

Online identity

The internet is one of the fastest growing new technologies that allows almost instant communication with people who are across the globe. This means that people in England can talk to people in Australia without the huge costs of a phone bill! It also means that awareness of cultures and other countries is improving, but it also means that the number of people using the internet with malicious intent is increasing.
In this essay I am going to look at online identity and how people use it. Whether it is to make friends in other countries or to lure people in to a false sense of friendship.

Ideally for this essay I would like to have made a report about online identity and since I have never been in a chat room I could have documented my findings, but as the computers at uni don’t like me and won’t let me go on chat rooms, and because I live at Ashenhurst Student Village where there is no internet connection, I can’t. Instead I’m going to write about online identity as a whole, and draw on my (limited) experience of MSN and e-mail communications and even text messages.

There are many different ways of having an online identity. I want to look at a few of the different methods, and how they can be used for good work or bad work.

When a person is faced with creating an online identity, they have the chance to be anyone or anything that they could ever want to be. For example one of my friends decided that her hotmail address should include the name ‘Betty Boo’ because she liked the character.

It doesn’t relate to her at all. It doesn’t have to be an e-mail address though. It could be, for example, a blog (web log) name. Check out this blog which is ‘the incredible Hulks blog’. at this link Of course the incredible Hulk doesn’t actually have a blog (or even exist for that matter) so that means that somebody somewhere though it would be a good idea to create a blog under the name Hulk. This person doesn’t necessarily have any similarities at all with the Hulk, maybe they are the complete opposite, but they do it because they can. They could have been anyone they wanted.

It’s quite a scary thought that your new friend in America that you have been talking to for the past two weeks and think is a 19 year old girl could actually be a 50 year old bald man who gets a kick out of talking to young women.

That’s one of the major worries about online identity. There have been many cases in the news over the past few years about people who have been misled by someone’s on line identity. A case that sticks out prominently in my mind is that of an English woman who was chatting regularly to an American man on line. When she eventually went to America to meet the man, not only was he completely different from what he had told her, he was also a murderer.

One of the major concerns about on-line identity is about those few people who use it for malicious intent. One of the first things that you probably thought of when you read that line was paedophiles.
We’ve all heard about paedophiles who create an online identity that they use to lure young children in to believing that they are talking to other people of a similar age, only to be asked to meet and discover that their ‘friend’ is an older person than they expected and is not too interested in being friends, but more interested in other sick things.
Unfortunately paedophilia is a side effect of being able to create an online identity. People think that they can get away with anything because the web is not particularly policed. And even if chat rooms are monitored which they regularly are, the monitors have no way of telling if a person is paedophile or not.
The only way to abolish web paedophilia would be to abolish the ability to make your own on-line identity.
This a sacrifice that many people would not be willing to make as it means that they would have to be sincere on the net, making it harder to communicate as they can no longer hide behind their masks.

When faced with making an online identity people often see it as a chance to be what they want to be. For example, if I had been able to get in to a chat room I would have liked to come across as a more confident person because in real life I’m actually really shy.
People see it as a chance for a new start with a clean slate. Nobody knows them or anything about them. They can reveal as much or as little about themselves as they see fit.

Having an online identity can also prove helpful for some people. It’s like having a mask to hide behind. If a person is extremely shy and has trouble making friends, they can create an online alter ego that is confident and that they can use to make friends, because they might feel more confident knowing that it’s not actually them but their online identity. (Think along the lines of a super hero who has a secret identity.)

Habbo Hotel is a visual chat room. Users are invited to create a person (who looks remarkably like Lego people) and then enter the hotel and interact with other guests.

habbo hotel1
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

It also goes as far as allowing each guest to have a bedroom where they can decorate it how they like and decide whether or not they want other people to be able to access it or not.

habbo hotel2
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Having a person who you can actually control just makes it that little bit more fun. It’s almost like the Sims but without the huge price of buying the game and the fact that you can interact with other people, all on the internet.
As I mentioned previously, having a Habbo hotel character means that you can be anyone you want. Fat people can make skinny people if they so wish or males can make females and visa versa.
It just makes chat rooms that little but more personal with having an actual character that you can talk to, and making it possible for you to actually interact with other people.

People do not always pick an identity that makes them appear as something they are not though. Many people would select their name as an e-mail address because it is easier to remember and is more practical for people who use their e-mail address as a correspondence tool for business activity or even educational uses. The main problem with this however is that there can only be one ‘joebloggs@hotmail.com’ even though there are probably millions of Joe Bloggs’. (At this point I feel it is necessary to point out that one of the cool things about having a weirdly spelt name is that It means I’m much more likely to get my name as an e-mail address. More so than the normal spelling anyway!) This means that other Joe Bloggs’ around the world will either have to put a number after their address or use a nickname.

How people communicate with text messages is another interesting topic. Not only can they be whoever they want, even though the person with which they are communicating will most likely already know them, they communicate using a whole other language that the every day language everyone else uses. Word are abbreviated so more can be fit in to a message making it almost impossible for someone who is not used to text messaging to read, let alone understand.
(For those of us like this there is a very useful dictionary of text messaging terms here:)

Another thing to think about is how you present yourself to the people on the internet. As I previously mentioned I would try and be more confident, but other people might have different ideas. Some people might want to convince people that their physical appearance is different from what it actually is. As previously mentioned some larger people may decided that they want to convey themselves as thinner people to get more attention.

On the opposite end of the scale, have you ever wondered how you present yourself to computers? What information is being stored about you on databases that have been made from data collected about you? You’ve probably got a huge number of entries about you which have been collected from numerous transactions with computer, such as buying things on line or even signing up for an e-mail address. How did you present yourselves on them? You may not have realised it but you most probably used an alternative identity than your own, even if only small differences occur.
For example, more often than not when asked to fill in an on-line form I use the more common spelling of my name, simply because it feels like I am divulging some information that is too personal if I use the actual spelling of my name.

In conclusion, having an on-line identity that differs from yourself, is something that nearly everyone does. The only difference is the extent to which some people change their online identity in comparison to themselves.
On line identities are defiantly a good thing for people who, as mentioned, have problems with confidence and therefore have trouble making friends, but it’s also a bad thing as there are and always will be people who will abuse the privilege of having an online identity.

Bibliography

tipsofallsorts.com

habbohotel.co.uk/habbo/en/

incrediblehulk.blogspot.com/

Colour theory essay

2004-12-11T21:13:00.000Z
Jenefer Harrison
Colour Theory

Colour theory is "a set of principles used to create harmonious colour combinations" It looks at how colours co-ordinate with each other to make different end results. For example, blue and purple when used together create an over all effect that is pleasing on the eye. However, green and purple create an image that is not pleasing to the eye, and can create negative feeling towards the image for the viewer.

To make it easier to understand we can use a colour wheel. Initially, a colour wheel is made up of the primary colours, colours which can not be created by mixing other colours. So, red blue and yellow are used.

colourwheel1
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Next colours which can be created by mixing the three primary colours are added to the colour wheel. These colours are called secondary colours and include green orange and purple. They are positioned in the wheel in between the two colours that would be used to mix them.

colourwheel2
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Finally, we can add the tertiary colours, which are colours created by mixing the primary and the secondary colours together. Again, they are inserted in the colour wheel between the two colours that formed them.

colourwheel3
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

In the images used to illustrate this, the colours are presented in blocks, however they can be blended together to make a more flowing image that encompasses all of the possible colours, such as the image below.

colour wheel4
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Now that the colours are presented in the proper fashion, we can look at how and why some colours mix well to form a pleasing result, and why others do not mix so well to result in an image that can be hurtful to the eye.

It all depends on the location of the colour in the wheel, as to whether it will mix well with another colour.

If the colours are directly opposite each other then they will co-ordinate well to produce a nice effect, for example red and green-blue.
This type of relation ship is called a complementary colour scheme.

This image is an example of a composition using complementary, colours, in this case blue and yellow.

yellow
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

If the colours required are positioned next to each other in the wheel, it creates an analogous colour scheme. For example red and yellow would work well together to produce a well co-ordinated outcome.

colourwheel5
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

In the below composition I used red-brown as the main colour, but complimented it with red, which is next to it in the colour wheel, and added accents of white to attract attention.

red
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

If three colours are being used, and they are positioned equally around the colour wheel, then they will co-ordinate well, and form a triadic colour scheme. For example, green, blue and red.

colourwheel6
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

If one colour is being used, but in differing shades, then the image produced will also be a pleasing result on the eye. This colour scheme is called monochromatic.
Below is an example of an image using a monochromatic colour scheme.

blue
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Another important aspect of colour theory for designers, is knowing which colour schemes and colours will best achieve the required result. For example if a designer is creating a website, they would have to consider which colours would enhance the appearance of the site by complimenting each other, but they may also choose to include some colour clashes to attract attention. It is important that designers know how best to use the colours to their advantage.
In my final composition I used black and white which, although not necessarily classed as colours, compliment each other so that they stand out.

black and white
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Colour Psychology also plays an important roll in graphic design, as it is important that the finished article has the effect desired and not something completely different!

When people view a particular colour, it can trigger images in their mind which remind them of particular events or feelings. For example in a colour diary that I have been keeping as part of my course work, I found that the colour green reminds me of a holiday I went on when I was younger, there fore the colour green always makes me feel happy, as the holiday was a happy event.

Normally lighter colours such as yellow are associated with happy memories or feelings, where as darker colours such as navy are associated with bad memories or feelings.

The shade of the colour also plays a role in which type of memory is evoked. For example in the blue colour composition included earlier in the essay, the blue-black section shows a depressed person, as ‘being blue’ is often associated with depression or sadness. However in the opposite corner of the image there is a pale watery blue that would make most people think of the calm and relaxing effect that water can give them.

However, some colours do have contrasting ‘meanings’. Such as red. Some people immediately think of red as a romantic colour where as others think of it as an angry colour, hence the expression ‘seeing red.’ I have shown this in my red and red-brown colour composition by showing my opinion of the colour, war and fighting, and questioned it by writing over it in transparent lettering ‘romance?’.

Another ‘colour’ with a contrasting meaning is black. Some people view it as being a colour associated with evil and dark spirits, where as others see it as a religious colour. After all priests in most religions were black, so it must be holy.

As well as evoking memories, colours can also have physical effects on people.
For example the colour yellow has been shown to make babies cry and adults loose their tempers easier. In the yellow colour composition that was included earlier, there is an angry face in the centre of the yellow flower and crying babies round the edges to illustrate this fact. In this particular composition I have also used a transparent sunny scene in the background, as one of the feelings evoked by blue is the feeling of calm, as mentioned previously.

In conclusion Knowledge of colour theory and of colour psychology is important for any designer because, as colour plays such a major part in anything the colours need to be appropriate to achieve the desired result. Designers must be able to look at the pros and cons of a particular colour and weigh up if they would be best used in any situation. For example, yellow is a popular colour for nurseries because it is a ‘happy colour’ but colour psychology tells us that yellow makes babies cry. Good designers would know this and avoid using the colour, thus achieving the best possible result.

Bibliography
color-wheel-pro.com 01/12/04
colormatters.com 01/12/04

gob stoppers

2004-12-11T20:58:00.000Z

gob stoppers
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
This image was taken from Global Gumball.com

R 241
G 41
B 67

The other day my friend bought me apack of Jaw Breakers bubble gum and they reminded me so much of when i was younger because me and my friend at the time would always go down to the local shop and buy loads of sweets for about a pond, and there was always at tleast three packets of gob Stoppers in the haul. I've chosen the red colour because let's face it everyone likes the red ones best!!!

dookie

2004-12-11T20:51:00.000Z

dookie
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R-191
G-156
B-52

Green (green day green)

This weird limey green colour reminds me of the Green Day album cover for Dookie. They are one of my favourite bands ever and this one of the first albums i got. It also really reminds me of college because one of my friends was a Green Day fanatic (worse than me) and was always talking about them!

research for interactive technology thing

2004-12-09T14:35:00.000Z
executives online
A possible rival company to the corpex group.

ERS

exec-appointments

yellow

2004-12-05T19:34:00.002Z

yellow
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

I did this one because Yellow and blue compliment each other nicely. I wanted it all to be pretty flowers but then with an angry face in the middle because yellow is supposed to make adults loose their tempers easily.

black and white

2004-12-05T19:34:00.001Z

black and white
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

This is a photo of a church that i took when i was doing my art a level. I thought i'd 'play' with the colours to get it very black and white because both black and white have religious meanings, as does the church!

red

2004-12-05T19:34:00.000Z

red
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

Second new one. It's not supposed to be political or anything it's just one of the things i assosiate with red and black!

blue

2004-12-05T19:33:00.000Z

blue
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

This is one of my new compositions that i've done to replace the ones i did first because they were kind of lame. I'm not saying this is not lame, but it's a bit better!

composition- red and blue

2004-11-22T15:07:00.000Z

composition- red and blue
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
This is the third composition (unfinished like the others.) It's made using a Complementary colour scheme, and is meant to show things that are more personal to me than the previous ones.

yellow orange composition

2004-11-22T15:02:00.000Z

yellow orange composition
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
This is the second of my compositions. This is my Analogous composition showing yellow and orange. The happy things being yellow (the sunflower, the smiley face and the cat(?) and the scary things being orange, the pumpkin and the scarfyface on the sunflower.

green composition

2004-11-22T14:51:00.000Z

green composition
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
This is the first of my (bad) compositions for foundation studio.
This is a green Monochromatic composition.

research for anolgous composition

2004-11-17T09:56:00.000Z
sponge bob square pants!

Sunflower

research for complimentary composition

2004-11-17T09:35:00.000Z
red telephone box

tomato sauce

apple

Blue screen of death

Green things

2004-11-16T11:44:00.000Z
Green lizard

Mike from Monsters INC

Sloth!!

2004-11-01T16:10:00.000Z
Okay this may seem a bit weird, what with having about a billion pictures of various sloths (and busses) on my blog, but stick with me i am going somewhere with them! well not literally. That's just weird!
I'm going to use them for my interactive self portrait in foundation Studio bit of my course.

Sloth!

Another sloth!

yet another sloth!!

upside down sloth

three toed sloth!

London Bus
bus needs to be yellow though

yellow double decker!!!!!
yellow bus

autumn brown

2004-10-29T13:37:00.000Z

leaves2
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 135
G- 117
B- 69

This picture is meant to show the great autumnal colours of the leaves. The reds and red browns remind me of autumn, but in particular a caravan site we used to go to when I was younger. It was completely surrounded by trees, and if you went at the right time of year you could literally walk on a carpet of leaves.

Brown

2004-10-29T13:29:00.000Z

sticksd
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 188
G- 131
B- 76

This colour always makes me remember when I was in secondary school. Mainly because whilst I was there, my school amalgamated with another and got a face lift. All the doors ended up being this colour. Stupid, I know.
One particular thing I remember is when I was in year 11 (well just finished my exams so I'd finished really), and me and a friend had gone to the music department to use the practise room. She was playing the piano, and I was playing the drums, and we didn't realise but there were a load of kids watching us, and making themselves late for their lesson. We ended up getting told off by their teacher for side tracking them.

Red

2004-10-29T13:27:00.000Z

fairy
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 180
G- 34
B- 44

This colour reminds me of my last art lesson. My class decided we should get dressed up as different fairies. I ended up being an evil fairy hence the spiky head band, black and red hair and other weird things!
It was dead good though. Only two of us got dressed up in the end.

Greys

2004-10-29T13:25:00.000Z

Huddersfield
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 142
G- 154
B- 168

These colours reminds me of Huddersfield. I see the view on this photograph every day on my way to University, and the colours just are Huddersfield!

snow white

2004-10-29T13:24:00.000Z

snow
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 255
G- 255
B- 255

I love snow. It's got to be the best type of weather. The snow- white in the picture reminds me of so many snowy memories it's unreal. The most important one is probably when I went skiing with secondary school. It was great fun. We went skiing, bum boarding and had some huge snowball fights. It was so good!

Georges Melies

2004-10-22T14:00:00.000Z
In this essay I will be writing about Georges Melies, a French magician who played a major part in the birth of film and special effects.

Georges Melies was born in Paris December the 8th 1861, and was given the name Marie-Georges-Jean Melies. He became interested in performance from an early age, and was busily making cardboard sets for marionette shows by the age of 10. His interest in the subject only increased as he went to see performances by the magician Robert Houdin.
When he grew older, after serving in the army, he was forced by his father to work in the family business, a boot manufacturers, as an overseer of the machines. However he still continued to practice conjuring by attending lessons with Emile Voisin, an owner of a magic shop, and continued performing to small groups of family and friends.
He married the daughter of a rich industrialist in 1885, and in 1888 he received a third of the family business after this father retired, which he then sold to his brothers.
With the money he raised from selling his share of the business and some money from his wife’s family he could now afford to buy the theatre Robert-Houdin, a place where he could hold performances, and use his artistic talents for set designs.
In December 1895 he attended the first showing of the Lumiere Cinemtographe, and was amazed with what he saw. Needless to say, he wanted to own a version of the cinemaographe, but was not able to as Antoine Lumiere decided not to sell copies of the machine. However Melies was able to obtain a similar model from England; a theatrograph.
Melies’ early films were simple films showing cityscapes, or event films.
It was whilst filming one day that he discovered how he could use the camera to make special effects. He was filming the Place de l’Opera when the film in the camera became stuck and would not move. It took him a while to release the film and to continue filming.
Only whilst projecting the film did he see that the people who were on screen had disappeared and vehicles had changed in to other vehicles.
Melies realised that he could use the technique to make films that featured trickery.
His first to do this was called ‘the vanishing lady' and was based on a magic trick he once saw. It showed a woman sitting on a chair covered with a blanket, then the blanket being removed to show a skeleton.
He made a number of other productions and then began to build a studio where he could make more of them after realising how popular they could become.
After experimenting with his new technique in his new studio, Melies stumbled upon another technique which involved using black backgrounds so that images could be superimposed on them. He started to make films were there was only one actor, or where he became decapitated and his head flew around the stage. One of the most popular of this type of film was ‘the one man band’ where seven Melies’ all played instruments at once.
Melies went on to release many more of his trickery films, including the most well know, ‘a trip to the moon.’ He also became more ambitious, making underwater films that he shot through a fish tank so as to have real fish in the end result.
Melies began to face problems however when the public demand rose, and he began to focus again on the theatre. In one year he produced only two films in comparison to the 29 released in 1901.
Melies began to suffer even more when he signed a contract that provided him with a loan in return for share of the profits of his film. The company, however, began to cut Melies film lengths, so much so that parts of the plot were lost.
Things hit rock bottom when his wife died, and the war began, meaning the theatre was closed due to lack of custom.
Melies married again to one of his former actresses, and they settled down together to run a toyshop.
It was by chance that he was re-discovered by Leon Druhot, the editor of a film magazine, who began to advertise Melies again. Another stroke of luck took place when a large amount of Melies films were found, restored and shown again.
Melies was moved to an apartment for veterans of the film industry where he lived until his death in 1938.

http://www.nwlink.com.html
http://www.mshepley.btinternet.co.uk/melies.htm

pale blue

2004-10-22T13:55:00.000Z

bed
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R- 186
G- 210
B- 234

This blue colour was the colour I had on my walls in my bedroom when I was really young.(I know in this picture it makes my bed look radioactive, but hey!) Although I had it up for years, the only thing it really reminds me of is this time when I was doing forward rolls on my bed. (for some strange reason.) Anyway I whacked my head of the wall and had a massive bump for ages. It really hurt!

Dark green

2004-10-22T13:42:00.000Z

river
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
R- 54
G- 85
B- 18

Okay. Are you sitting comfortably, because this is going to be a long one.
This deep green colour reminds me of this time when I was on holiday in France with my family and my sisters friend. My sister, Laura, thought it would be a good idea to go canoeing one day down this French river. (I have no idea which one!) Luckily enough the camp site had organised days and one of them happened to be canoeing. So we went along. Laura must have been about 14 or something, meaning I was about 10 or 9 (I think.) Anyway, the point is none of us had any idea how to steer a canoe, and since the instructions were in French we had to improvise, by bouncing of the alternate sides of the river for about half an hour. After a while we realised how to do it and paddled like mad to try and catch up with the group that had all disappeared about twenty minutes ago. Instead, it started to thunder. Loudly. Laura, remembering her science lessons, thought we should get out of the water because it was dangerous. So we did and pulled the canoe out of the water and sat with some cows in a field for about an hour.
We eventually got going again and managed all right for the large amount of time of five minutes, when we ended up in a big bush of thorny things. As we were trying (and failing) to get out Laura's friend dropped her paddle which began to float away down the river. Laura then decided it would be a good idea to get out of the canoe and chase the paddle, then come back and out us out of the bush. She managed that okay (the water went up to her waist) but then moaned the rest of the day that she was cold. So we set off again. Everything was going great until we came to a fork in the river. Now remember we'd lost the rest of the group ages ago, so we guessed which one to go down. We went left. Bad idea. Well, at least we got a free go on the rapids, which no-one else got to do.
So we carried on like this for a long time. Dropping paddles, going wrong ways, getting stuck in bushes and getting stuck under a bridge, but eventually we got back to the camp site..... almost.
You see to get in to the camp site's lake you had to turn right in to this gap. We realised this as we went sailing past it, but managed to do the aquatic equivalent of a hand break turn and almost get through the gap. Except that we didn't. Somehow we got the canoe wedged in the gap, and then managed to tip it over. So we succeeded in damning the lake with an overturned canoe.
This French guy came over and started to try and move the canoe (unsuccessfully) and we made a hasty exit.
I think they eventually got it out!

Research for essay

2004-10-20T10:18:00.000Z
the man with the rubber head
The man in the moon

research for composition

2004-10-20T09:10:00.000Z
Greenday

black

2004-10-14T13:21:00.000Z

000_0010
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R-0
G-0
B-0

When i was younger i was a bit accident prone (still am!) and besides cracking my head open (see pink) i managed to set my hair on fire. It was bonfire night and i had a sparkler and was waving it around when my mum started hitting me on the head really hard, and i didn't have a clue why. i was more shocked than anything else. I'm not sure why black makes me remeber it, i think it's probably because it was at night and so was dark.

Another pink

2004-10-14T13:17:00.000Z

pink
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R-255
G-128
B-128
This pink reminds me of a time when i was younger and i managed to crack my head open after tripping over the back door step and running in to the side of the fridge. I was at my Nana's house at the time and she didn't have a clue what to do, so sent me up in to the pink bathroom while she rang someone to see what to do.It makes me remeber how scared i was at the time, bearing in mind that i was only about 6 at the time!

Grey

2004-10-13T11:19:00.000Z

transporter bridge
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R 161
G 165
B 168

I know there are more interesting things to look at in this picture but it's the sky that's important. The grey colour. It reminds me of home (somewhere up near Middlesbrough in case you hadn't guessed from the Transporter bridge!) because the sky was always that colour except for an occasional nice day, which wasn't very often.

Pink

2004-10-13T11:16:00.000Z

hotel
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R 168
G 87
B 93

This pinky colour will always remind me of when me and a friend decided to go to Scotland for a few days just because we could. When we arrived at the hotel this colour was on the carpets throughout the place. It was also on the walls as you can see in the picture. It particularly sticks out in mind because it was the first time i'd driven anywhere that was more than about 10 minutes away from my home! I was soooooooooo scared. Especially since my friend had to navigate (for the first time in her life!)We had a great time though when we eventually got there, and this colour reminds me of it.

Yellow brown

2004-10-13T11:09:00.000Z

Greggs
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R 229
G 204
B 164

This picture is meant to show that horrible browny yellow colour that is everywhere, floors, walls, you name it! The photo is taken in the place I used to work (Greggs the bakers) and always reminds me of there now. Well it reminds me of when I first started there and didnt have a clue what to do and had to keep asking everyone where things were and how to do stuff. Luckily for me, the place seemed to get brighter the longer I worked there otherwise that colour might have driven me mad!

leaf green

2004-10-13T11:03:00.000Z

leaf
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.

R 126
G 168
B 56

This leaf green colour reminds me of my art a level sketch book work. The theme was ritual and by some way or other I ended up looking at natural rituals and somehow found myself looking at plants. I had this brain wave that consisted of me spending a day in the back garden at home and tearing up leaves and other assorted objects to make a collage for my sketch book. I was so sick of this green colour at the end of the day. It wouldnt have been too bad but it was really sunny and I ended up getting a bit sunburnt (Just a little bit!).

research for colour project

2004-10-06T09:49:00.000Z

Colour psychology- this site provides a definition of colour psychology, and has some information about a few colours.
More colour psychology- another definition this time with more colours. Click on them to find out some more information about each one.

Colour theory- This site has loads of information about colour, and has a good definition of colour theory if you click on the top link on the menu, 'Additive colour synthesis'
More colour theory-a smaller definition, but has some information about colour wheels as well.
Colour wheel- this site has the best images of colour wheels, and has definitions for terms such as 'analogous colour scheme', and 'complementary colour scheme'. Also at the bottom of the page it has some information about the history of colour theory.
Even more colour theory- this site has some useful information about primary and secondary colours, and even uses the English spelling of colour
Colour identifier- this site has a colour identifier which allows you to drag and drop one of the colours on to the designated area. It then provides you with the hex value and the RGB values for that colour. (I'm not entirly sure this is working at t he moment

tea pot

2004-10-06T08:27:00.000Z

tea pot
Originally uploaded by Jenefer Harrison.
This picture is just to make sure that my new flickr account was working ok. It is!

Graffiti

2004-09-29T08:57:00.000Z
Graffiti- Vandalism or art?

In this essay I will be writing about graffiti and trying to distinguish if it is classed as art or vandalism. I will use images and quotes from external sources, and my own opinion to achieve the finished verdict.

Graffiti is the drawings or writing that you commonly see on the side of buildings, walls or anywhere else! It’s illegal in most countries, but there are sometimes dedicated graffiti areas in some towns. There are many types of graffiti, the most common ones being tagging, which involves the ‘artist’ writing their name, and murals, which involves the ‘artist’ painting an image that can sometimes spread over large amounts of wall. Murals are not always illegal as they can be commissioned by local councils or owners of property.

Vandalism is classed in the online dictionary as ‘Willful or malicious destruction of public or private property’.
Graffiti is usually classed as vandalism because it involves the ‘willful destruction of public or private property’.
Graffiti can also mean that there are large costs to local councils or owners of property affected by graffiti. This is because it costs large sums of money to repaint surfaces affected, only to be ‘tagged’ or drawn on again.
It’s also classed as vandalism because it is thought of as ‘the first link in a spiral of decline, meaning that worse things will follow graffiti such as muggings or robberies.
Also graffiti is often associated with gangs. An example of gang graffiti can be seen here. Gangs are often frowned upon because of the stereotype that they will freely commit crimes, which worries people who live near areas affected by gang graffiti.

Graffiti could however be classed as art because of the complexity and beauty of some of the pieces. Some ‘graffiti artists’ often paint entire walls with long flowing pictures. This is a section of one wall which comprises of at least 10 images combined in to one. If it were done on canvas it would be classed as art but as it is done on a wall it is vandalism.
Also some of the images are very detailed, and give an overall image of a complex piece of work.
Graffiti artists Schmoo and Celtic also argue that what they do is art because it brightens up the cities, and after all they are only expressing themselves like any other artist would. The only difference is that they have to ‘sneak around’ to do so. For the full interview with them, click here.

In my opinion some graffiti is art. Mindless tagging, in my opinion is not art, but vandalism. Some of the pieces that I have seen whilst researching this topic have been extraordinary images that would have been classed as art, if they were not created illegally. They usually have fantastic bright colours that would indeed brighten the surroundings, which in some graffiti artists opinions is the whole point.
However the other images I have seen are simple tags that have no purpose except to show that a certain person had been at a certain place.
In conclusion, my opinion is split. I think graffiti can be art or vandalism depending on the image itself.