Home, Sweet Forest

Image #1 Original: Strip Mining. The original image sighs...please help me. The pulse of the earth is weak and one can see clearly from the photo that vitality and life is non-existent. It hurts to look at this image---a huge gaping hole in the earth, barren and depleted.

Image #2: Remix. Home, Sweet Forest. The remixed image appears to sing a song of harmony with a vital, vibrant and life-sustaining forest and lake. Without strip-mining, we can preserve our natural resources for the enjoyment of future generations.

Source: National Geographics, December, 1970, Volume 138, P.777

Meg

The Greater Good

My family used to invite military personnel home for the holidays or would ask a person from a homeless shelter to dinner on the holidays. My dad was an epicurean chef who worked at various large restaurants in New York and Boston and his idea was to share what we had, that he was grateful he could provide for six children and his wife. The original image came from the National Geographic Magazine of the 1990's and shows the World Food Day Anniversary which was October 16th. The Food and Agriculture Organization was created in 1945 as part of the United Nations.

My remix shows how we can make a difference in the world, not by just offering people food, but by being part of the community and sharing your good fortune with others not quite so fortunate. My idea was to make a day (or days) throughout the year to provide food to others in your own community. By sharing what you have, the ties to the community grow stronger and you develop a greater sense of what is around you and connect to that energy.

Meg

Plan-t

Here I have remixed a beautifully photographed plant. The original looks life like. I was drawn to this picture in a magazine "give and take box" at the library. The pictures were so authentic and timeless that I did not realize it was from 1985!
In my remix, I have surrounded the plant with the remaining colors of the Earth. These three colors represent: water, dirt, and rock. The green is simply all the living things. The remixed version leaf veins are 3-D, I hope they pop! The bottom leaf was hard to give an equally remarkable effect. I thought recycled aluminum foil would create a real presence. Sadly, I was wrong.
Overall, the plant has a new sense of life. The veins produce color and the background encompasses our life necessities. Life keeps keeping on here.

Source: Unknown

Stephanie

The Marriage of Art & the Environment

I find it disturbing that the media is focused on depicting the marriages and romances of celebrities. This picture perpetuates the “fairy tale” notion of marriage and, in so doing, repeats and re-instills in our minds all of the gender, racial, class, and cultural stereotypes and inequalities learned through reading traditional Western fairytales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. There needs to be more journalism and photography in the media that engages the public’s critical thinking skills so images like these are not taken for granted, and so these kinds of injustices do not continue to be seen as “normal” or “okay”. I have chosen to remix this image to show the “marriage” between the Arts and the Environment! If I had my way, I would have also remixed their outfits to be less mainstream Western cultural as well and/or I might have even depicted a same-sex marriage. For now, I have chosen to provide this image as a suggested alternative to be included in Women’s Day Magazine so that women who buy such magazines can fill their brains with alternative things so that our social and cultural “environment” will be much healthier

Source: Australian Women's Day Magazine, 2004.

Diem Dangers

House Well Worn

There is nothing wrong with this picture, nor the man in the picture. It took me a while, actually, to figure out what bothered me about this add so much. I assumed at first that my money-poor student heart was aching after an apartment of my own with swanky windows and shiny hardwood. I finally realized, however, that instead of being attracted to what this man had, I actually wanted nothing to do with him or his bright, spotless apartment. What was so off-putting was the complete absence of this man's life in his apartment. Where were the stories, the relationships, the history, evidence of interactions with and connections to the world? Where was the inevitable dirt that rides in on the shoes and under the fingernails of a house's vibrant characters?

Tired of waiting for our hero to venture out into the world, I brought the world in to him. I filled his sanitary, sterile, static hideout with songs, conversations, voices, smiles, earth, growth, and life. Now seated at a table full of food and companions, he may hate me for my invasive impertinence, but at least he will have to encounter the world to kick it out.

Source: Martha Stewart Living, [Advertisement for Anderson Windows and Doors], October 2007.

Grace

Peace not Pieces

I did a double take as I looked at this picture - Kids having fun swimming, and splashing in brown murky water... uh and a bombed out building for a backdrop?! "That's wrong" my brother commented as he picked up the picture, I nodded in complete agreement. This is what peace looks like in the Karrada district in Baghdad- using these horrible memory-ridden empty bomb holes for fun? What message is this giving to kids? Where is the hope when your playground is a graveyard for fallen victims and dangerous structures?

Using images from outside, scenic backdrops and natural materials. I constructed a more idyllic swimming hole for these kids to play. The crumbling building gave way to a rocky mountain range, and concrete ground to a sandy beach. Now they can be kids, without the pressure to face adult responsibilities too soon, or the negative images and memories from the past seeping into their subconscious. Give them room to be free! fly a kite, to be entertained by native birds and animals, to use their imagination for life, not dwelling on death. The alternative energy windmills in the back are signs of progression and awareness of conservation for the natural world- things that these children will lack as they reach adulthood without the appreciation for nature. The one thing that does show hope is their energy and smiles, by fostering these
children's needs their future and the worlds future may start progressing towards peace.

Source: Newsweek, [This is 'Peace.' Kids Swim in Bomb Crater], 28 July 2008. Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie, Getty Images.

-Kyle

For the birds!

The original image is a Hitchcockesque experience for the modern seagull. Tis true, seagulls are not the loveliest of fowl but this is no life for any living being. Swarming a landfill and digging for edible treasure these birds are packed in like humans in a highrise. In my altered version, I wanted to offer these birds the cuisine and lifestyle they deserve. Fish and crabs in a saltwater sauce with a side of seaweed, all with a lovely view to dine by. Now that is a respectable meal for a fellow scavenger. Welcome back....Jonathan Livingston Seagull!

Source: Artificial Nature, ed. Jeffrey Deitch and Dan Friedman, [Image of seagulls and landfill], Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York, 1990.

Raye

John's 2nd re-mix

This is a commentary on the old "eat or be eaten" dilemma. We are both creatures great and small surrounded (in both the human-made and natural world) by other creatures great and small. We have endless drive to push, conquer, get faster, get richer and Get Smart. There is a price to pay for doing this. There is a price to pay for not doing it. The answer of course is more cowbell.

Source: Unknown

John

Hello Photosynthesis

This advertisement showing components of a meth lab is repulsive. Although it is for an art show, the message is still the same. There is a huge problem with meth labs around the country. Most are in neighborhoods with families and children playing right out front. The fumes are terrible and deadly, but you can't see them. It my remix, the meth lab components have been turned into flowers and water. They are outlined in yellow to represent the sun. The "fumes" you cannot see is the process of photosynthesis, which all things need to survive. In the background, are many things growing showing how wonderful the world would be if we would create gardens instead of meth labs.

Source: Modern Painters [Hello Meth Lab in the Sun], July-August 2008, p. 19.

Erin

Holding The Future In Our Hands

Original image from October 2007 dwell magazine

As human beings, our stewardship of the planet is shameful. We have reached a critical juncture and are literally holding the future in our hands. Our decisions have changed the environment, and even though Mother Nature will continue in some altered fashion, we will not survive ourselves. This remix is a reminder of life's beauty and our responsibility to care for what we have while living here. After all, we are only guests.

Source: Dwell Magazine, October 2007.

Kerri Schmidt

A Solution to the Pollution

The first time I saw the image of the polluted air and stream, my first reaction was complete and utter disgust. All of the life has been choked out of this stream due to the runoff from the local factory in rural China. I wanted to transform it completely, in hopes of restoring it to the time before the factory. In my new image the sky is a pleasant blue, the water is cleaned up and the smoggy factory has been transformed into grassy hills with a tree in the distance.

Source: National Geographic Magazine, [Polluted River in China], 2008. Washington DC: National Geographic Society. Vol 213 (5): 146.

Amy

No Boundary or New Boundary

This image of a Gucci pocketbook and expensive shoe reminds me of the greed of our country as it pertains to nature and trying to take control of what is not ours. I find excess written all over the image. I have remixed the image to represent strong boundaries with fortified walls. I feel that the boundaries are necessary to protect our wildlife and leave animals in their natural habitat. I use the image to make a statement about opening new doors, which creates a parallel to expanding the mind to various alternatives. I feel strongly that we need to leave the natural order and peace of nature, untouched by humans.

Source: Time Style and Design Magazine, [Photograph of Gucci Python Bag, Louis Vuitton Necklace, and Donna Karan Sandal], Spring 2008, p. 87.

Terri

Alternative Energy

The original advertisement consisted of a gasoline-guzzling car which I remixed to promote using a bicycle and walking instead of driving a car. I replaced the truck with the bicycle while using the existing truck wheels. Mosaic-like collage techniques and acrylic paint were used to cover the construction site and alter the wording. The meaning behind the remix is that using a bicycle or walking can help to resolve the problems of obesity, pollution, and overuse of fuel. All of which Americans desperately struggle with.

Source: Sports Illustrated, [Image on Back Cover], 3 March 2008.

Lisa G.