common era

I designed two logos for my blog: one more abstract and colorful, and one more iconographic and black and white. I like them both! They were made with MethodDraw. I couldn't get the "export as PNG" function to work, so unfortunately for now I cannot add them as actual logos on this blog. Maybe sometime in the future! I am excited to be able to work more with vectors as I am used to using raster-based image technology.

Some word art done with Textorizer 2.

Word art with Textorizer 1.

Some weird wavy art made with Ecoffizer.

It was certainly interesting to see what you can do with generative art using word clouds. Textorizer is a super cool application, I really liked using it. We also were supposed to create a word cloud with Tagxedo, however, I could not get the application to work with any browser possible :( I tried Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and it just wouldn't work.

My generated ASCII art from GlassGiant.com.

Generated HTML art from TEXT-IMAGE.com.

ASCII art is such a cool relic from the early days of the internet. I was excited to find how easy it is to generate online. I used two of my photos from our Urban Landscapes assignments. I love how using HTML to make character art lets you retain color. I also love the retro feel of straight up ASCII art. I spent some time messing around with the different options and got some very interesting results with the generative nature of the programs we used.

refreshments from parker on Vimeo.

This video mashup is titled "refreshments". My clips mostly consisted of refreshments ads from the 50s and 60s, along with people eating, and footage I found made me particularly uncomfortable for some reason. I chose them because I found them interesting, and I also aimed to make the viewer uncomfortable. I used iMovie to edit this mashup. My style of editing is to match up cuts with the beats of songs, so I used that technique for this project. I think I was successful in this project. I love editing videos and have practiced doing it a lot, so I consider myself slightly about amateur level. I wish I could have used a different song. I used the song I made in Soundation, which wasn't terrible, but I am definitely an amateur composer. The most difficult part about completing the assignment was of course finding good footage. Archive.org has so much to offer, but a lot to sift through. Since I already have video editing skills, I didn't learn much new material from this assignment, however, I think I have improved my time management skills.

hey there!

my name's parker. welcome to common era zine.

this blog functions as a webzine.

zine is short for fanzine. a zine can be any independent publication put out by an individual.

zines allow for freedom of creativity that being under a publisher does not.

common era zine will explore all aspects of life in the common era.

a little about me:

i am a UT student studying art education. my pronouns are they/them. i love drawing, the X-Files, and my 2 pet frogs.

i live in Michigan and have lived here my whole life.

more to come.