A blog about making art education more accessible and my own creative pursuits.
After somewhat of a hiatus, I’m blogging again. May 16th, the date I graduated from Hofstra last year, came and went. On May 22nd this year I watched from the bleachers as my boyfriend Bill walked across the same stage I did a year ago. Hours before, I had to take a pair of scissors to the sleeves of his gown because in his true fashion, he never ordered his cap and gown like he was supposed to and had to use what was left over. Continue reading ““I Can’t Quit You” – Why I’m Blogging Again”
A few weeks ago, I wrote an entry about Joshua Davis, the infamous tattooed web designer, author, and new media designer. I was the vision of a delighted eight-year-old girl who got a pony when he found my blog (through Googling himself and finding my Twitter), commented, and invited me to his studio. After a few emails, we decided I would stop by after he got back from London.
In this age, we respond to emails immediately, tweet constantly, publish/upload anything and everything as quickly as possible, and keep going as fast as we can because time is of the essence and nothing should slow us down.
Three weeks later, such a visit has not happened, an email was sent from me, and no response. I might have lost my chance of getting the chance to meet some one AWESOME and having a story about how Twitter can bring good things.
I was so excited at the prospect of meeting you and visiting your studio, not to mention I would have a great story to tell Twitter-haters and blog-bashers. However, I let time get away from me and I’m afraid I lost my chance. But as mere humans we cannot control the force of chaos and when it decides to occur, it’s always at the worst possible time. I must also take into account you are an extremely busy man with amazing opportunities and business ventures in the works, and I am just an unemployed college graduate who was earlier contemplating whether to eat rice & beans that fell on the kitchen floor.
I graduated.
Had dental surgery that became complicated.
It took myself and my roommates our third offer on an apartment before we stopped the cycle of being screwed over by hidden fees and shady landlords.
Time Warner did a number on me and took four days to tell me they didn’t have service in Brooklyn. I didn’t have Internet for a week, which is ironic because I spent half of that at Internet Week.
Such are the enjoyable situations one finds themselves the first month of the real world. Everything is at a state of homeostasis now, except I still kick myself regularly for losing out on such an opportunity.
If at all possible, I hope you stumble on this again, make me the happiest eight-year-old girl who got a pony and together we can figure out another studio visit.
Por favor?
Sincerely,
Reb Carlson
unemployed college graduate who knows nothing of the 5 second rule
To explain, I recently posted a blog entry about deciding which designer to write about for my New Media Web Design course as part of a final project. Based on the initial web layout of the site, I selected Joshua Davis. His portfolio was laid out similarly to Evan Roth’s in a grid-like pattern. Davis had actually commented on the post, saying he was glad he won, but HE was the first to use the grid pattern for his portfolio. He said he greatly admires Evan Roth and even though he used the layout first, “we won’t have to kill him.” Davis then offered an invite to his studio in Mineola, NY, where I could possibly score some print freebies.
Bio:
Joshua Davis is an American web designer and new media artist. He is most recognized for being an early pioneer of Macromedia Flash and wrote Flash to the Core in 2002. Joshua Davis’ work “brought an entirely new dimension to art. Utilizing randomization in controlled environments, or Chaos Theory, Davis established a new and unique perspective on visual communication and creative expression, pioneering an area previously unexplored in graphic design.” (via good ole’ Wikipedia)
Chaos Theory = Butterfly Effect
“”In my work I derive huge satisfaction from creating discrete shape and color palettes and then writing algorithms that assemble the pieces into randomized, whole compositions. Chance is not always pretty, but it is fun.”
-Joshua Davis
After being a part of the New York art/club scene in the early 90’s and battling with drug addiction, Davis elected to pursue his dream of being a full-time artist. Working under Thomas Noller in 1995, he learned to write HTML, experiment with Macromedia Flash, and ActionScript programming.Davis became a major influence in graphic and web design during the “Y2K” era of the “Dot-Com” explosion.
Timeline:
1998 – 2001
worked at Kioken Design, a web production company who made JLo’s first site, until it folded in 2001. became an independent web designer and artist, speaking at graphic design conferences including SIGGRAPH, Flash Forward, FITC, BD4D, OFFF, & Graphika Manila.
2002
teamed up with developer Branden Hall to form The Department of Notation Studios,
a media development studio
2003
took over the band Tool’s websites – designed info page
2006
The Department of Notation Studios disbanded. Davis & Hall continue collaborating on projects.
2007
professor at New York’s School of the Visual Arts, runs own design studio, & leads workshops at design conferences.
Influences:
Jackson Pollack – abstract expressionist prominent in the 1940’s and 50’s.
“Among modern artists, I conceptually identify with Jackson Pollock — not that I’m a particular fan of his visual style, but because he always identified himself as a painter, even though a lot of the time his brush never hit the canvas. There’s something in that disconnect — not using a brush or tool in traditional methods.”
– Joshua Davis, from his studio website
Classic video games – used “sprite” of an alien from Space Invaders as logo for Praystation.
Apple iPhone Art App “Reflect”:
REFLECT is an Apple iPhone Art App that uses multi-touch gestures to randomly generate a composition which gets reflected into a kaleidoscopic pattern.
You can then save your reflection as a background wallpaper, or send to a friend.
For more info, visit Sideways Mobile.
Independent Projects:
Praystation.com was a website used by Joshua Davis’ website display new design work and experiments and one of the first to offer open source Flash files. It was regarded as an “icon of web design.” (Design Museum )In 2001he won the Priz Ars Electronia Award, a prestigious prize for digital art.
Joshua Davis also hosted Dreamless.org, the site of a popular Internet forum, hosted by Joshua Davis. Its minimal design, understated Web presence and hidden registration page all added to its intrigue, and for a period of time it served as an online community for many graphic and web designers and programmers. “Photoshop Battles” were a popular activity among forum members, leading into the internet phenomenon now referred to as Photoshop tennis. “Photoshop tennis” is a graphics related game conducted in internet forums where one member “serves” a photo to another member to make their own alteration. Each member makes one alteration and then passes on the photo. The community of Dreamless traveled past the boundaries of the Internet with impromptu local meetings, or “riots” according to Davis, that were arranged for Dreamless users to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas.
One notorious forum on Dreamless was “08 – Meaningless and Shallow”, a topical free-for-all which lead to numerous flame wars, post floods and user-led XSS vandalism. After several “meltdowns” and member disputes, Davis closed Dreamless in July 2001.
Commercial Clients:
Barneys Department Stores, Lucent Technologies, BMW, Kanye West, Motorola, Amp’d Mobile, Nike, Volkswagen, Umbra, Miquelrius, Sony, Motown Records, Puff Daddy, Bad Boy Entertainment, TOOL, Universal Records, Atlantic Records, HBO, Canon, Nokia, Charles Schwab, New Riders Publishers and others.
Websites:
Credits:
Gadgetopia “Whatever Happened to Kioken Design?”
As part of the final project for New Media Web Design for the semester, I have to write an essay profiling the background, work, and creative perspective of a recognized design studio creating award-winning web or interactive design work. The list we could choose from was Funny Garbage, Robert Greenberg Associates (RGA), Antenna Design, and Joshua Davis.
The following is proof about how the layout of your website can make or break whether you are offered certain opportunities, or whether a graduating senior will write an essay about you as a final project.
Funny Garbage -big text – REALLY big text – and crazy animations going everywhere. It may be the Red Bull I drank at 1 am, but I’m growing anxious at the rapid movement.
R/GA – Oh, I see you are opening a Singapore Office. Everyone is doing work in Singapore nowadays. I see you like to use Helvetica. Everyone likes to use Helvetica Nowadays. Oh, wow, you’ve won a whole mess of awards. You are also black, white, and red all over.
Antenna Design – You demand for me to get Flash 6. My 4-year-old IBM can’t handle it. Yes, I know, I’m not a full-fledged Mac user yet. Why do you have to take such a low blow considering we just met? I’m done with you.
Joshua Davis – At first glance, I see you laid out your site in a grid patter similar to Evan Roth. Great minds think alike? Oh, and your studio is based in Mineola? You show images of your work right away, which I see mostly involve pleasant looking designs, some of which are in soothing kaleidoscope-like patterns.
Joshua Davis, in the spirit of Pokemon, I choose you for my paper topic.
My Name Is Reb 