Google Earth Project

I am going to be mapping all the places that I have road a bike in my life. I was going to map all the places I have lived, but since I have only lived in two places, I figured it would be boring. But, I have road a bike many places around the country and in Mexico.
The tour starts where I first learned how to ride a bike, in the back yard of my home in Laguna Beach. I am going to map all the places I have road a bike chronologically, from where I first learned to where I went mountain biking down a mountain and almost everything in between. This tour is going to map where I road bicycles and dirt bikes, not any other motorized bikes.

Where I plan on mapping:

Laguna Beach, CA
Littleton, CO
Morro Bay, Ca
Catalina Island, Ca
Greenwich Village, NY
Strasburg, CO
Mammoth Mountain, CA
San Francisco, CA

This project did not turn out well for me. I was unable to upload all the pictures in the matter that I wanted, As a result, the idea of my project changed as I kept failing to do what I wanted within Google Earth. My original idea, showing all the places where I road a bike, was scratched to tour of San Francisco. I started out at the Golden Gate Bridge and then went to the Oakland Bay Bridge and then made my way through all of the main tourist spots in the city. This idea was more fun for me and for some reason it was somewhat easier. But then of course when I went to put the whole thing together, it did not work and all my images were lost and apparently I did not save it correctly. So, once again I was left with nothing.

Finally, I decided to go super simple and document the Olympics in Canada. I just took a few pictures of skiers, snowboarders and ice skaters and placed them in the area where they would be performing. It was a very short clip with not much detail. But of course, I did not save the images right and lost the whole thing again.

Overall I was unable to come out with a complete Google Earth movie of my bike riding adventures, a tour of San Francisco or even of the small documentation of the winter Olympics in Canada. I made several attempts complete this project, but it ended up being extremely stressful and aggravating.

Links Related to Google Earth:

This artist used Google Earth to show the wonders of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. They took outside shots of the museum with Google Earth and then zoomed inside the building all the way up close to an individual painting. The artists also added in video of them making the Google Earth video. I found this very interesting because it showed me that Google Earth does not have to be used just for showing different locations in a movie, but it can be informational for a specific place.

Google Earth Blog, by Evert Schut:

This collection is very interesting. It does not use Google Earth for making a movie at all; the artist takes snap shots from the Google Earth application from outer space and then paints that image using different mediums. The Artist Evert Schut is a biologist/ environmental expert BIJ education and trade, but he says he an artist at heart. He is from Gelderland in the Netherlands and until he discovered Google Earth and it's potential for new art forms he painted landscapes with a tendency towards abstraction.
(I was unable to embed this blog onto my blog, so this is the like to view the art)

http://googleearthart.blogspot.com/

Sol Lewitt on Conceptual Art

After reading Sol Lewitt's article, I gained a better understanding on what Conceptual Art actually is. "Conceptual Art is made to engage the mind of the viewer rather then the eye or emotion of the artist." I thought this to be interesting because most artist try to convey a message or feeling to the viewer through their piece, but with Conceptual Art, the artist is just making the art with the idea in mind that "different people will understand the same thing in a different way."
There were a lot of interesting facts and sayings through out the whole article which allowed me to grasp the thought process of creating a conceptual piece. At one point Lewitt mentioned that the thought process of the piece is sometimes more interesting than the final product, which I agree with. I have always enjoyed viewing the artists sketches, drawings, models, and notes on a certain piece more than the final piece of art. It has always been humbling to me to see that even the best artists mess up and have little crappy doodles and that they are not afraid to hand them up next to their final product.
There is one question that Lewitt asks in the article "What size is best?" I instantly connected with. I never know what size my painting should be. This has always been something I struggled with, not only because I have a limited amount of work space, but because I just don't know what size my pieces should be.
I am going to end with a final quote from Sol Lewitt, " Conceptual Art is only good when the idea is good"... like that is not intimidating at all.