U.N.I.T.Y

I found this picture that looks like a rundown project area, the trees stand tall but yet has no leaves so I remixed it into what unity stand for, being united or joined as a whole. I created a family tree with people from different diversity, children to represent happiness and togetherness then the other stuff I added such as the clouds and the plant are just there to represent nature.

Original image: Unkown Magazine, Wang Di, October 2010 issue

Sandra Germain

Excess

Excess

In searching for images for this remix I came across the of image logging and the image of urban sprawl. I could not decide which to use and because I felt that these images are intrinsically connected I included both. The only thing I could think of was how devastating the effects of this kind of excess are. How many ecosystems and forms of life were terminated or put at risk in the logging and building of these places? I think this is a commentary on our societies need for material things. Proof that material things are extremely important in our society. If there is a demand there will be a supply but at what cost?
In my remixes I have attempted to portray the importance of downsizing, of leading a simpler life for the benefit of all. The owl watches us, waiting for our decision. The owl is a reminder of what we stand to lose. What path will we chose?

Ronja Geilen

Sources of Images
First Image:
National Geographic Vol. 191. No.3. March 1997.
Second Image:
National Geographic (July, 2001). Urban Sprawl. p. 49

The oil spills affects on wildlife

Artist’s name: Charlie Riedel

Title of work: A bird covered in oil flails in the surf at East Grand Terre Island, La.

Title of magazine: Discovering News website articlehttp://news.discovery.com/animals/oiled-birds-gulf-oil-spill.html

The oil spill from the deepwater horizon rig explosion has not only affected the coastline of several states but has also devastated the local wildlife throughout the Gulf of Mexico. I found this image on the Discovery website. The photo depicts a seagull completely covered in a thick glaze of oil. This unfortunate tragedy has taken the life of the bird, so that the bird’s body lays upside down floating in the ocean’s current.

When I remixed the image, I turned the seagull’s body into a rock and placed a baby bird on top of the rock. The young, fuzzy chick scampers about the rock with enthusiasm. In the background, I placed a horizon line and brightly colored clouds. The remixed image represents the beauty of life and nature. We must remember how delicate nature is and must respect the earth by taking care of it.

Robin

Bears shouldn't have doors.

This original image of "Mimmi" the brown bear is in a zoo in Finland. Look at Mimmi and how she is flexibile and poses for minutes at a time "ooowww" (note a bit of sarcastic tone). Then look at her surrounding. She is sitting on a bed of concrete with a concrete wall behind her and a rusted out old door. Just how Happy is Mimmi the brown bear? No water, no trees, no squishy grass, no life, no play mate. She is in a zoo, behind a cage and sitting next to a door. Not where she is intended to live, but where humans have put her. This image makes me extremely sad.

If we are going to continue to have zoos, then give them the habitats they deserve. My remix is how I would like to see this brown bear. enjoying herself in a natural setting, and with at least one more bear. Not posing for the camera. Shes an animal, not supposed to be entertainment.

Ashley
Photo by Meta Penca, "Visions of Earth" National Geographic, May 2011.

Man with Nature

I chose this picture because I wanted to show that through destruction we can recreate with nature not against nature. the first thing that really struck me about this picture was the lack of color. Nature is full of color, so i added many different colorful pictures of nature. The house is built around nature instead of taking down the tree the house will built around the tree. there is also a sanctuary that was built with nature. The point was to show a balance between man made and nature together. lastly I changed the face because it symbolizes a person with nature. It also gives a sense of hope as well.

Janet Reitman, Rolling Stone, August 18, 2011 pg 58-59

The Harm of Plastic Bags

For our second remix assignment I wanted to find a way to express my feelings about the seriousness of our overuse of plastic bags. After viewing information in class about how millions of plastic bags end up in landfills and waterways, killing countless amounts of wildlife, I was hit with the question "Why are we not more aware of this?". You can go to any grocery store and see the recycled material "green" bags being marketed in the check-out line. But does anyone really think about why it is plastic bags are so horrible? I feel as a society all too often we are only concerned with issues that personally effect us. Animals are ingesting them, confusing them for food, and dying because of it. They are being tangled up in the bags so they can no longer fly or swim. These facts have to do with wildlife, not humans, so a majority of people are not personally effected and don't care to help. I chose the image from a fashion ad to create a "shock" ad. I have the model with a plastic bag over her head, and bags in the water as well as on animals around her. My caption reads "Beautiful?". I would hope this would make the viewer have this devastation really hit them, and think "Why no, this is anything but beautiful". Although it may be graphic, I feel most people are unfortunately more compassionate when it comes to images of other humans being harmed, rather than other wildlife. Hopefully the message is loud and clear.

Original Image Source: Fortune Magazine. Volume 163, Number 4. March 21, 2011. Ben Hassett for Conde Nast.

Kristen Cuttone

Bag Wars

I chose this picture because I was disturbed about the thought of our planet being covered in plastic bags. I used nature scenes to show the beauty and purity of the enviroment. A clean ocena, extravagant trees, open fields and glorious coves seem like the enviroment that we want to keep clean. The children are the alternative to the one guy standing and watching the mess. He looks defeated while the children are enjoying nature. There is also people covered in plastic bags as if the earth is fighting back and covering people with the bags instead.The recycled bags are what we can do to stop this from happening.

Nikki

Sea of wave, Rolling Stone, April 4, 2011, Pg 37, Alessandro Geigeaton

Free the Fish

The original image that I chose to use is a mass of dead fish in the Salton Sea. I altered it by cutting out the shapes of different sized fishes. This is representative of the disappearing of sea life as humans continue to pollute our earth's waters. Then I glued the cut out fish all over the edges of the image, showing their freedom of pollution. Additionally, I placed a silver layer under the image, visible through the cut out fish shapes. This, a long with green seaweed, and blue string lacing the image, represents the hopefulness of a cleaner and more healthy ocean.

~Original image: National Geographic Magazine, February 2005, P.88, Photos by Gerd Ludwig

Lauren

A Healthier World

Children need to learn at a young age about good nutrition.
What better way than to plant, harvest and prepare?
I believe that if children took a more active role in food that they would make better choices!
I feel that they would be more apt to try new foods if they had a role in it from beginning to end.
How to do this when parents work all day and children are being raised in childcare centers?
How do we as educators make the time to hoe the site, plant the seeds and watch it grow when the state says planned curriculum and the children say emergent?
I am looking to answer these questions and many more.
How can I get the children involved in their lives?

Original image: Rolling Stone, February 17,2011, Theo Wenner

Joan

Reclaiming Abandoned Spaces: Nature as a Tool of Transformation

Image: Leblon, Serge, "Everything On the Line".
ELLE Magazine. April 2011: p. 310. Print.

I chose this photographic image because it shows the gradual decay of abandoned buildings and the ways in which we as humans change an environment and then neglect it once it's use has been served. The current economic crisis has led to thousands of abandoned buildings and spaces where the natural environment was bulldozed and covered by cement parking lots and structures. This level of abandonment can be seen in rural and urban areas plighted by unemployment and neglect.

In this piece I hope to show how nature can reclaim these abandoned spaces, and how humans can reintroduce native plants and vegetation to aid this transformation through the creation of community gardens where people of all ages can commune with nature. The central figure in my image is transformed from an apathetic model to a young girl examining the roots of a plant she has pulled, bridging my images from one of inaction to one of action.

- Carolyn

Golf Ad- Tim

(Forbes Magazine Volume 187 Number 10, 2011, CHUBB ad page 33.)

Oh, excuse me please.
Could you perhaps sink this putt elsewhere?
Look around you, look at the mockery of nature.
This green lush grass, the water fountain, the trimly cut trees, all of this is fake!

Look at yourself, as you squat there.
You look onward to a false hope.
You couldn't be here, in this space, without machinery and gasoline.
So I doubt, you could ever get that ball in that hole.

So go on! You practice, as you play. But also you practice as you live.
But you live full of filth and disgust.
Thank you, for destroying my native habitat.
Everyday you waste natural resources.
Everyday you waste water. You are the reason we have drought.
And everyday you use chemical fertilizers.

So, no wonder, why I am mad!
If you want to make this putt, you will need to change your life and that is a fact.
Plant grasses.
Plant flowers.
Plant trees.
And soon enough, bees and other insects will slowly come back.
After that the animals will soon arrive, and the forest will become alive.

While you may always have trouble getting a ball in a hole, you will sink the putt of life and restore harmony to others including yourself.

*And that was that, and the habitat was restored and while there wasn't any golf in the world, everyone lived happily*

z

It's Natural

Rolling Stone, Issue 1122, Jan 20, 2011, Ad from page 21

IT'S NATURAL: A media remix

I found this ad in Rolling Stone Magazine. It is a picture of a male gorilla kissing his reflection. The headline reads "Tough Yet Beautiful".

The male gorilla is a massive creature, muscles bulge out-he is all strength. It is the strongest, biggest, boldest male gorilla that is the packs leader. The lucky male will have dominate reproduction rights in the pack.

I've parelled the gorilla image to the human male image found in magazines. Images of man with ripped abs, shirtless and youthful flood pages to sell products. Communicating buy this and this is how you'll look.

In a playful way, I have dolled up this male model to an exaggerated level. He looks like a jigolo with a Budweiser bow tie, red bull xxx, logo where a shirt should be. He is holding a coke logo and a star burst of products offsets the images. In a playful gesture the gorilla now kisses the human male in a narcissistic manner.

Today much of society condemns this "show" of masculine promiscuity but I question if it is in large part human nature.

Lara

How do we use our earth?

Catastrophe at Kourion, National Geography, July 1988, p.35

My original image was the photo of an archaeological site from National Geography. I had to think about how people use the environment from generation to generation. The earth where we are now living used to be the home of our ancestors. And that is the place my son and family will be living in the future. But how are we using our environment? We built buildings, dams and destroyed the nature as we misunderstood that it belongs to human. It is such a chaos. We have to rethink that earth is not ours. Earth is not something we can change or destroy. We only borrow it. We have to return!

Mihye

A Cure for the Common Condo

This image struck me because of its abundance throughout the world. Condos are on Carribbean beaches with swimming pools and golf courses. They are built extremely close to the shores in Florida, Minnesota, and many more states. This disrupts wildlife not only in the water but all around. The water quality inevitably suffers. In this remix image I decided to take away some of the condo to emphasize the word "REDUCE" although recycle and reuse are important, reduction of our consumption is most important. I extended the beach so the condo would be further away from the shore where turtles lay their eggs. I left the trees and put solar pv panels on the condo. The green on the condo represents a greenhouse - blending it with nature on could grow food inside and wildlife would not experience it as an obstruction.

Costal Living. Page 90. Copyright 2009 by Dominique Vorillon.

-Anna Linck

La Nature

This picture represents nature and I made up a little poem about it so check it out.

I AM WHO I AM,

I'M BLUE,

I'M GREEN,

I FLOAT,

I'M YOUR SHADOW,

I CAN FLY, most of all

I'M IMPORTANT BECAUSE I AM WHO I AM,

I AM LA NATURE

Source of image: unknown author,"Yankee New England Magazine" september 2008, p.52

Sandra

Recreate a Balance

When I looked at the original image I felt that the jumble of tangled wires were hectic. In today's world we have the tendency to over use this wired mode for communication and many other things. In a way it can cause a disconnect with the tangible world of communities and nature. We are turning more and more inward into the tangled web of technology. In my remix I tried to express the need for balance. A balance in our lives of the technological world and the world of nature. Can we stand equally in these two worlds? Can we restore a balance? This remixed image is an attempt to bring awareness to the idea of recreating a balance as well as a renewed respect for the natural world.
-Ronja

Source of Original Image:
Hennevogl, P. Harpers, August 2011. p. 20

House or Home?

House or Home?

By Alice

Image from Vestibule Magazine, Fall 2010, pg. 12.

This summer I have begun to think about buying my first house. In my excitement, I have found myself sucked into the consumerism depicted in the first image. I have become obsessed with square feet, condo fees, and 1.5 bathrooms. But in creating my transformed imaged, I wanted to remind myself (and others) that a home needs more than a beautiful exterior. In my transformed image, I have added joy, love, warmth, health, nature, and music. I have created a home from a house.

A New Life for Chernobyl

When choosing this image I was drawn to the faint beauty which was created by the lack of human civilization. I had read an article mentioning that the majority of the human population never returned to this area, but that nature was slowly returning. The original image shows trees popping up from the pavement and a carnival being devoured by the elements. This got me thinking how nice it would be if this space would be able to flourish untouched. If animals were once again able to inhabit a world once taken over, then destroyed, by humans, it would be great. I chose to use bright colors because they gave me a sense of rebirth and a fresh start in an area which is so dark and worn down.

Original Image Source: Boston Sunday Globe, July 24, 2011. Photography by Anton Borodavka

Kristen

Nobadeer Beach- 4th of July

Original image from: The Inquirer and Mirror (Local Nantucket newspaper)

Artists: Nicole Harnishfeger

Title of artwork: Nobadeer Beach on the 4th

Article by: Jason Graziadei

http://www.ack.net/nobadeerjulyfourth070411.html

This Fourth of July, I went to Nobadeer beach on the island of Nantucket. There were thousands of young people on the beach enjoying the sun and having a good time. Unfortunately, to my amazement, the majority of beach goers were throwing their trash (beer cans, plastic cups and other waist) on the beautiful sands of the north shore. Although I did see a few people with trash bags, most carelessly tossed their garbage on the ground. The following morning, I found an image of the beach in the local paper (The Inquirer and Mirror) and decided to remix this image for class.

So, I created an image that captures the beauty of the beach and emphasizes the importance of recycling. In my remixed image, I covered the trash on the beach with linear photos of sand. In the background, I created a horizon line and seashore that culminates in a hillside covered in dark green foliage. In the foreground, I created a recycling barrel out of a Lancôme lotion bottle and placed an over-sized arm that places trash in the shiny silver container.

Robin

The calm before the storm

The original image I found was meaningful to me because I love the ocean and it reminds me of my trip to Australia and how beautiful the ocean was. What was problematic for me was the ship in the serene photo of this beautiful picture of an ocean. I decided that I wanted to replace the ship with an animal from the ocean (which I found and used a whale) and created waves with various colors that represent the colors of the ocean. I covered up the slogan with some fluffy clouds to take away the cruise ship advertisement. It may be a beautiful ship but the damage and destruction to a place like this by humans i can only imagine is catastrophic.

The message is almost (in my mind) if we stay out of places like this they will stay beautiful. I feel as if with the cruise liner moving in with its gas and people aboard, how long could a place like this stay pristine? A tidal wave of destruction is what I see with this cruise ship moving into the distance. My image is a bit more beautiful with natural elements of the ocean, rather then a large piece of metal.

Original Image: 2010-2011, 'Exotics' Princess Cruises, p. 78

Ashley

Tell it Like it is

Car manufacturers glamorize their product by selling road trips as a paradise. In fact, the same product is a major contributor to global warming. I remixed the image to convey a more truthful message.

Christiane

Hide and Seek

The original photo shows a barren field in New South Wales that was used to graze cattle before a major drought hit the area. This field use to feed roughly 250 cattle. This is half of the two-page spread. The other half showed the young girl’s brother and father. All of their faces express feelings of despair, anguish, and heartache. This tragedy has harshly impacted their family. The father now has to travel over 400 miles to raise livestock.

The remixed image I created shows the girl playing hide and seek. Instead of the girl covering her face to hide her pain, the remixed image shows her “counting” while her brother hides behind the tree. The landscape is no longer dust. The children now enjoy playing in a grass and flowers, with a beautiful horizon in the distance.

Betsy Preval

National Geographic Magazine, 2010, p. 21

Mr. Bear Goes Home

I am really interested in the idea of displacement. The idea that anyone, human or animal, should be taken away from their natural environment is not right. In the original image (top), this bear cub looks lost and confused as he wanders around what looks like a crate. He is trying to lick something, which makes me think he's hungry. So, I gave him some fresh plants to play or hide in. He deserves to be in his natural environment.

Think about what you are eating

I think about this image of the cow in one of my old cookbooks all broken down into the different meats and it is very easy to forget that this was once a living thing. We often times don't think about what we are eating and where it came from. Luckily for us humans we are at the top of the food chain, but I am very sensitive to the fact that not all living things are that fortunate.

I don't like to eat meat because it does bothers me and I don't like seeing these images.

So for my alterations I put this poor cow back together and allowed him space to be comfortable and free.

Kristine Biegel