Art Projects
Big Manifesto: How A.I. Hasn’t Killed Creativity
Processing3, Java code
Big Manifesto was my Senior’s Capstone Project for my Film and Media Studies major at Colgate University for which I earned Honor’s recognition.
For this project, I researched instances of A.I. art (Artificial Intelligence) and deeply studied art movement’s manifestos in order to develop a new manifesto for A.I. as an art movement.
Artist’s Statement:
Tunnel
Max8 by Cycling’74
Tunnel was featured in the Colgate Magazine:
Lost in the blackness, with no sense of direction. That’s what Erika Fox ’21 wants users to feel as they interact with her digital project.
During a Digital Studio class in the fall, Fox and the group discussed the notion of the pandemic as a portal. “But I think that implies that it’s quick and easy,” she says. “It’s more of a tunnel we’re stuck in and struggling to find our way out of.” The project — which the film and media studies and computer science double major made using the programming language Max8 — represents Fox’s theory.
The interface allows users to navigate through the blackness of the “tunnel” looking for lights. At the brighter points, the user is rewarded with fun audio clips, like popular TikTok songs, viral YouTube videos, and upbeat instrumentals from the video game Animal Crossing.
Fox intended for these audio clips to be positive reinforcements, representing the happy little moments of culture that can be a brief respite from the darkness. (She took inspiration in finding these clips from her work as a global insights intern at ViacomCBS last summer.)
In the tunnel, there’s also a large “I’m lost” button, but every time users click on it, they are navigated to a different random point, and a COVID-19 public service announcement plays. “The more lost you say you are, the more lost you’ll be [in the game],” Fox says. “It’s a commentary on how you have to stop dwelling on when you’re going to get out and when the pandemic is going to end — because that’s not going to help anything; it’s just going to make it worse.”
The end of the tunnel is attainable through four points, at which the screen becomes almost completely light and the volume is at its peak. As the screen becomes lighter, Fox’s ultimate message becomes clear with the words: “as we navigate unprecedented times / we find little lights in the tunnel / that help us through the darkness.”
– Aleta Mayne, Colgate Magazine
Tetris
Processing3, Java code
Inspired by Sol Lewitt’s Wall Drawings, Tetris is a dynamic painting that is the execution of “instructions” written by Kyle Wybranowski:
Build an irregular shape.
Crowd the screen with this shape of all different sizes.
The screen should not be full or empty.
Emphasize:
A.) the differences between the shapes (e.g. attributes: size, color, distances, etc.)
B.) the similarities among the shapes (e.g. overlap, clustering, location, orientation, etc.)
Published Video Work
Erika Fox 