In our last lecture we discussed types of artworks you can create using basic html code.  As our first assessment piece is to make our own basic artwork, I jumped on and had a look at the sites which were emailed to us.

I hated Asci art – www.asci-art.de/asci/my/. Why? Well it’s just not my thing and I don’t really classify it as ‘art’, but that’s just my opinion.  In addition I didn’t really like the abstract art (the page layout look a-likes) either.  So with my firm appreciation for web art – I now have to try and develop my own…..this could be interesting.

However, I did like the concept of developing an abstract piece using different shapes/colours etc – perhaps something along the lines of what donrelyea.com had – but of course ‘different’ from that. 

I started to do a bit of research to gather ideas and stubbled across a site www.dhteumeulea.com which had a lot of interesting content – links to other web artist (Jason you were at the top of the Links list).  Browsing through these different sites, it was really interesting to see how some people have developed their art.

I saved a few of the pics to play around with changing the code to see what parts changed, and to get familiar with all this code jargon.

CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you
’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. Since niche galleries have a tighter focus it allows them to be more detailed. Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.

read more | digg story

This week I was re-associated with the wonderful world of web resources…my, my, how I have missed these pages.  Our challenge this week, if we chose to accept, saw us don our ‘Toowoomba Jones’ hat and delve into knowledgeable world of forums, software download sites etc.  The biggest challenge I found was trying to remember all my passwords for the various sites which I signed up to last semester, which included:

www.digg.com
www.fark.com
www.flickr.com
www.furl.com

All of these sites offer the subscriber/user various services/applications.  For example, in class Jason discussed www.cnet.com and how you can literally find any software or program to download FREE and without spyware attached to it…which is a huge bonus! Last semester I was lucky enough to have a computer which had Photoshop, but alas that computer is now in heaven and I was left with no photo programs.  Hence my rather quick downloading of GIMP, which I am still trying to figure out how to use (yes there will be screenshots added eventually on this blog!).  Last semester I used flickr quite a bit on my blog pages.  Not only does this site allow the user to upload and create albums to display on the web, you can now also make your own books/business cards etc.

W3schools.com is also a great website.  Again I consulted this page many a time after a tip-off from a friend about it.  It has various code and instructions on how to get your page to do various things, i.e. open a link in a new window.  I’m sure again this semester it will become my best friend. 

Fark.com and metacritic.com offer news and reviews.  These webpage’s offer links to the contributors own blog site/web site.  Contributors vary between actual business, such as New York Times to someone how has created their own blog on a specific subject or various subjects.  I find these web pages quite useful as they lead you on to sites which you usually would probably not think to look at.  Plus the content is quite broad and caters for most in terms of news/sports/bizarre stuff.  Technorati.com also offers the same style of content as these other sites.

How to be a Gawker Stalker

http://gawker.com/stalker

WEB PAGE TO GO HERE 

If you’re a slave to the celebrity culture then this is the page for you. Whilst you really have to live in the USA to gain the full benefit, plus live in close proximity to any of these stars. Basically this page is dedicated to those who want to know where, what the famous are doing, what they are wearing and with whom they are doing their daily activities with.

I found this site interesting and a tad bizarre as it seems to echo the craziness of what people find interesting in today’s society. Celebrity mania has taken over every aspect of media and a lot of people’s lives. The page offers regular sighting updates which as you can see are marked on a map with a number. They are then given a write up as to what they were doing, wearing and who they were with.

This particular page is very easy to navigate around, as is the whole web site. So if you’re a slave to the famous then this is the site for you.

 Binary Code

http://www.tekmom.com/buzzwords/binaryalphabet.html

WEB PAGE TO GO HERE

As this course teaches us about code and how to alter and create specific details etc I found this page which gives you the coding for the alphabet.  Now whilst most may think ‘oh yeah that’s nice’ it got me thinking about how in the beginning of the computer age/development, how complex coding really is.  Yes the page set up is pretty boring and doesn’t really offer much for the visual stimulation it’s clear in the information which it presents to the viewer.

Pure Randomness

http://www.random.org/

WEB PAGE TO GO HERE

This website is simple in its design and layout making it easy to navigate around.  The topic of random relates to really ‘how random or predictable are computers?’  Random.Org offers various games in which ‘true random’ numbers are given, as according to the site it uses atmospheric noise in which to generate the so called randomness.  Confused….well I was a little.  Apparently the site is a hit for people wanting to hold draws and sweepstakes etc as it offers real random numbers!?!

I particularly liked the free games section where you could toss coins or play cards.  You can even get your lotto numbers picked for you and the probability of winning, which was generally 1, 400 000 or something to one.  At least you know realistically if you’re going to win your million!

Glasshouse

http://www.glasshouse.co.za/holder/

WEB PAGE TO GO HERE

I particularly liked this page due to the design and layout.  Glasshouse is a multimedia company in South Africa.  This page has been designed as a game to find out about the staff members.  Moving the mouse around the screen makes the grey ground move from side to side resulting in the shuffle and changing of the staff order.  A simple double click on the heads inflates the thin stick bodies with information inside.  Generally when it comes to staff profiles etc they are usually a standard photo with a blurb about their lives attached which is pretty boring in terms of visual appeal.  This encourages the person browsing the site to interact with this ‘game’ and also gives the site a ‘fun’ feel which makes you stay and browse the web site longer.