Remix Project

The theme of this remix project is technology combined with agriculture. It is sort of the literal application of the term “server farm”. I have always been fascinated with computer components. If you look closely at motherboards they can be easily seen as miniature cities with all the chips and capacitors. So I decided to put a spin on that thought. Instead of making a city using computer components, why not create a rural area using computer components.

The first part of creating the design consisted of finding or creating a background. At first I wanted to use a premade background. However, I had trouble finding one that was the correct size and was able to fit my theme and work well with my objects. Therefore, I decided to make a background. I used wind tools and Gaussian blur tools to make the grass. I then used the render cloud tool to make the clouds for the sky. I used the gradient tool to attempt to make a realistic horizon. I created the soil using a mask over the grass to reveal the soil underneath.

After creating the background I needed to create the main focus of the project. I placed pictures of RAM cards, a motherboard, and a hard drive disc to create the “crops” of the farm. This looked good but there was still a lot of empty space. Therefore I decided to add a tractor. I used a photo of a flash drive stick and placed CDs as wheels and batteries as accessories. After that I added a clump of computer mice to make a forest or tree image. I still had more space to fill so I used an image of a power supply to make a barn. I also used a heat sink to try and depict a farmhouse.

This project was a good test of my skills so far. It was difficult to correctly shape the images in order to create the correct perspective. Unless you did it the right way and used the right tools then the image would come out misshaped and ugly looking. This is where the bulk of my time working on this project went. I also had some difficulty integrating the objects. Even now they still seem like separate objects cut and pasted on the canvas rather than parts of a bigger picture. Part of this may be due to perspective issues but some of it may be due to the choice of objects and the placement.

I feel like my work habits were good. I feel like a better understanding of photoshop and art theory in general would have allowed me to work more efficiently and create a better piece of art. Since this project was a great learning experience I expect that any similar projects should be easier.

In review of this artwork I believe that I only partially completed my goals. I was able to complete the assignment; however, I do not think that the artwork looks particularly good. The perspectives seem off and the objects seem a little out of place. There also seems to be a lot of empty space between the objects and this makes the artwork seem empty. I am also not sure if my theme and meanings of the objects are being communicated clearly. I believe that the tractor looks like a tractor, however many of the other works do not look like what they should. The motherboard, RAM, and HDD do not seem to convey the notion that they are supposed to be crops. Nor does the power supply and heat sink manage to convey that they are supposed to be farm buildings. I believe that the mice trees could go either way. So may see that they are supposed to be trees while others may not.

I feel that, while I put a lot of work into this project, the outcome could have been better and did not really do justice to what I envisioned I was going to create. However since this is my first project I will try not to be too hard on myself. I believe that a grade of B- or C+ would be good representation of the quality of the work and the amount of time invested in this project.