Takeshi Murata was born in Chicago Illinois in 1974. He
currently lives in New York. Takeshi Murata has exhibited his art all over the
world. Murata graduated from the Rhode
Island School of Design with a B.F.A in Film/Video/Animation. Murata uses a lot
of film video and animation in his work so it’s a good thing that he has a
degree in it. His usage of color and broken down media really makes his artwork
all his own. Murata’s work has been known to draw attention for its abnormality.
The strangeness of his artwork involves abstract ideas and a breaking away from
what many would consider to be digital art. His psychedelic pieces invoke
feelings of happiness and simpler times. A lot of Murata’s pieces consist of
videos that use segments from classic movies. One can easily tell that Murata
is influenced by these classic horror films. His use of technology involves
breaking down pieces while adding his own twists to it in order to produce a
completely new artwork. Murata also uses very funky music in his pieces. It
helps to create an allure that makes one feel happy and free spirited. His
artwork literally gets into one’s mind. One simply does not forget Takeshi
Murata’s artwork. In his piece, “I, Popeye” Murata uses playful music while his
piece consists of some pretty dark and violent themes. It’s this perfect usage
of contrasting ideas that really adds to Murata’s art pieces. The above piece
involves the copyright of Popeye in Europe and how this will affect the usage
of Popeye’s image. Through his piece, Murata is drawing attention to this
issue, showing the consequences of a copyright running out and what this means
for the original artwork. In his digital piece we see Popeye wearing a shirt
with his image on it. The image is surrounded by money. This represents the
usage of Popeye’s image for monetary profit. Nothing else. This is how Murata
breaks away. Instead of doing something sweat and simple he is able to give us
something dark and thought provoking.
He not only does this through his digital
art, he uses the sound to his advantage as well and breaks away from the psychedelic
art style that he is widely known for in his work. Some may feel confused by Murata’s artwork,
and may struggle to understand it. One of the points that Murata makes through
this is the fact that he modernized psychedelic art. He was one of the first to
mix and add his own view to it. In his piece “Monster movie” we see Murata bring
out his fun and playful side. The video uses broken code and the classic 1981
movie, “Caveman.” This mixture of old and new is something that Murata explores
in all his pieces. As such this can be seen as one of his recurring themes. The
above psychedelic piece involves a frame by frame design that messes with one’s
mind. This artwork combines fragments that create and destroy the images at 30
times per second. This is one of the reasons why it makes its psychedelic art.
The music adds to the upbeat tempo that Murata brings through in his piece. Takeshi Murata continues to create moving art pieces and has recently showed his art work in New York. He can he contacted on Instagram where he posts many pictures of his family and future art projects. Takeshi Murata involves many different themes in his pieces, one of them involving digital media and its effects on how art is shown and represented. One of the reasons that some of Murata’s pieces seem to have a lot going in is because they do. Murata tries to show how crowded digital space has become and can become. His innovative themes are able to stay fun and new while really drawing attention to the themes at hand. Through his work, Murata shows us how jumbled our thoughts have become because of all this new technology available to us. This is in a way a gift and a curse, something that his artwork is able to show. It is this idea and theme that concludes this paper. The continued exploration of the digital media is what makes Takeshi Murata an artist. As a modern digital artist Takeshi Murata is able to continue to create new pieces that involve digital media while exploring new ideas and ways of creating art. It is through this innovation that Murata continues to transcend Digital Media.
The music adds to the upbeat tempo that Murata brings through in his piece. Takeshi Murata continues to create moving art pieces and has recently showed his art work in New York. He can he contacted on Instagram where he posts many pictures of his family and future art projects. Takeshi Murata involves many different themes in his pieces, one of them involving digital media and its effects on how art is shown and represented. One of the reasons that some of Murata’s pieces seem to have a lot going in is because they do. Murata tries to show how crowded digital space has become and can become. His innovative themes are able to stay fun and new while really drawing attention to the themes at hand. Through his work, Murata shows us how jumbled our thoughts have become because of all this new technology available to us. This is in a way a gift and a curse, something that his artwork is able to show. It is this idea and theme that concludes this paper. The continued exploration of the digital media is what makes Takeshi Murata an artist. As a modern digital artist Takeshi Murata is able to continue to create new pieces that involve digital media while exploring new ideas and ways of creating art. It is through this innovation that Murata continues to transcend Digital Media.
Jon Rafman is a man of few words. His pieces on the other
hand speak loudly for his ability to work in different mediums. Whilst
concentrating on his digital artworks, one can also see that Jon Rafman can
work in many different mediums, some that aren’t even related to digital art. Jon
Rafman was born in Montreal Canada. He at some point moved to the United States,
although it’s hard to know when exactly. Rafman identifies as a contemporary
artist and filmmaker. Rafman graduated from The School of Art Institute of
Chicago. He has held exhibitions for his work around the world. As a digital
artist, Rafman’s work also explores Digital Media’s impact on our lives. As an
artist his themes vary from piece to piece. As such, some of his pieces
completely differ from others adding to the type of work that Jon Rafman is
able to explore and create as a modern artist. Jon Rafman is known for his images in google
street view or 9 eyes. His images are able to capture human life in motion
whilst also bringing Rafman commercial success as an artist and digital media
innovator. His photographs are able to show life around the world, from mostly
private moments to heartfelt memories. They also show fear and the progression
of society throughout time. Google nine eyes shows digital media at its most
beneficial, creating a new way for society to connect with one another
throughout the world. This photos show how connected we all truly are. Jon
Rafman’s tumblr page rightfully entitled “9 eyes” show his photographs and
other art works. In this project, Rafman tries to show his world through the “street
level” perspective.
This shows Rafmans ability to work with different media in
artwork and to see art where someone wouldn’t have thought to use it. Although
Rafman describes the excitement he had upon using this google nine eyes
technology, one might find it hard to relate. His excitement drove him to
capture as many images as he could in the hopes of capturing human life at its
rawest. In all honestly, some of his
pictures do in fact capture this, others may leave the viewer a bit confused.
In his piece entitled, “ Woods of Arcady” Jon Rafman shows his knowledge in the
digital art realm. He creates these beautiful scenic pieces using the internet
realm of second life. His piece is accompanied with the reading of “Woods of
Arcady” by Yeats, the poem entitled, “The Song of the Happy Shepherd.” Another
of Rafman’s recurring themes is the exploration of new found worlds. This is
done on his part in a way to make sense of the world and in order to explore new
ideas and worlds that others have yet the chance to do. In this piece Rafman
creates moving pieces of art that draw one in. One is literally filled with awe
at the amount of detail that his “Woods of Arcady” depict. The piece fills one
with questions and yearning for these locations. This “idle world” is what
Rafman is exploring while also bringing forth the question of “How technology”
really effects our lives and our own “Real world”.
Through his pieces we are
able to see a very capable artist in the digital realm. His creations continue
to develop the digital media realm while leaving us to ponder the effect of
technology in our lives. This ability to mix media is what separates Jon Rafman
into an artist all his own. It shows his dedication to the digital art world
and his own real world.
The artists that I chose to explore were Takeshi Murata and
Jon Rafman.
Both artists have changed my understanding of digital media and
while there are areas of digital art that I can’t even begin to comprehend I am
deeply moved by both artists and their way of creating their own style and
showcasing new ideas. It’s the fun and seriousness that both drew me to these
artists. To me, their themes were similar but were voiced in completely
different ways. Both artists, have expanded my idea of mediums that can be used
in digital art and remind me to have fun while also having a purpose in mind
for my work. I have contacted both artists and await an answer, hopefully
during the summer I will receive a response. Since Digital Art is still fairly
new I hope to someday be able to contribute to it just like these two wonderful
artists.
Bibliography
Electronic Arts
Intermix. “Monster Movie: Takeshi Murata”.
EAI. Eai.org, April 28, 2014.
Murata, Takeshi. “Takeshi Murata”.Takeshimurata.com, April
28, 2014.
Ratio 3. “Artist Takeshi Murata”. Ratio3.org,
April 28, 2014.
“TakeshiMurata”.
Salon94. Salon94.com, April 28, 2014.
<http://www.salon94.com/search/eyJyZXN1bHRfcGFnZSI6InNlYXJjaCIsImtleXdvcmRzIjoidGFrZXNoaSBtdXJhdGEifQ>
Rafman, Jon. “Woods of Arcady”, April 28, 2014.
Feuer, Jack. “Jon Rafman”. Zachfeuer.com, April 28,
2014.
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