More process

I yet again narrowed more into my topic. Yea, it's a tough topic I picked. But I'm sure it'll all work out in the end.

So after wanting to talk about internet censorship in different countries, it seems that all I did was stating the issues and pulling out articles of these issues and not going deep into them. After today's class discussion about my topic, these are my fresh set of goals:

- What are the reasons and consequences of internet censorship in certain countries?

- What are the statistics?

- Who is censoring? The government or the people themselves?

- Find out about possible things that are influenced by the internet or lack of, such as crime, literacy, cost, consumerism, etc.

- Find out how the internet usage is like by asking people from other countries.

The last one, I am planning on asking people to answer some questions to a questionnaire that I'll put together and an online survey for statistic purposes. Possible candidates are foreign students from school, Facebook, etc. I might even make a Facebook group to get people to help me in on this project, we'll see how that works.

I'm also contemplating a photoshoot. I just need to think how to visualize and art direct it. Amateur ideas on my mind sofar are: circuitboards or internet wires as censors, the use of access denied label...that's all I have sofar, need to think more.

Other goals:

- Pick out 5-6 typefaces I'm going to use

- Icons, at least a "brand" for my project, but I'd like to do more

- Infographics since I'm dealing with statistics

- Map out my research

Here's to a clearer research.

Here we go...

Process #2

Finished editing color and opacities, plus added the text. Been suggested to arbitrarily set the characters up as teeth.

Should I leave it like this, add info, or be subtle about adding info...

Just a process entry

Currently working on my poster, just wanted to give a preview of what I've done with the skull sofar.

So I was told to trace the countries more accurately and use overlapping, color, and opacity. Just wanted to see if I'm going the right direction while I'm still working on it and finishing up.

I just need to figure out how to interpret the lines (internet pathways) into here. Any other elements I'm adding I know what I'm going for.

Okay back to work.

2nd pass and still working on it

Some people like this version better because it's clearer. Some like my old idea. The conclusion came to both have good elements, it's just that the first version just needed to be pushed further and at the same time utilize the "connections" of the second version and still maintain "death of the internet" when it comes to these black hole countries.

Interesting class today. Now I just need to figure out how to fix this poster. Possibly merge into one by using the good elements of both posters. My piece can probably then be successful.

So me finding articles is a good idea. Each article I find I can design posters out of each subject matter. Or whatever source I find where the subject matter is interesting enough to design a poster. Could be a YouTube video or something.

Catching up with research

So I have been looking up articles on internet censorship. I feel that I am getting a clearer understanding on what I am aiming for.

My three subgroups for my thesis on international internet censorship:

1. Black Hole Countries - Talk about certain issues that have to do with the black hole countries on their minimal access to the internet due to government control. Sofar I found China and Iran with big stories. China with the Olympics (Great Firewall of China) and Iran with bloggers. I hope to find more sources on black hole countries with big stories on the effects of internet censorship.

2. Nominal vs. Freeroam - Mainly I'd like to compare and contrast the nominal countries, who have alot of control of where they surf but not complete freedom, with the countries who have no restrictions. I found a source about how Turkey was about to ban YouTube because of videos insulting their founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. I hope to find more stories and as for the freeroam countries I'd like to find out what content are they free to view, mainly from an American's point of view (since the US is a nominal country).

3. Circumvention - There are plenty of ways to bypass restricted sites due to servers' filters. In the video I posted in a previous entry, one example is to not spell the word accurately or to put a space between two parts of a word (the example was "viagra", someone would type "via" and "gra" and they'd get through. This was an issue in China due to the fear of very little freedom of using the internet during the Olympics, mainly for bloggers and reporters). I'll also talk about proxys as well, and other methods I find that people use to bypass server filters to get into blocked content.

There is definitely more research to be done, but I feel that I got things planned out.

A couple of found posters and a video

First pass/pallet

About the subject matter, it's about the 15 black hole countries that are "enemies to the internet", meaning the government of these countries have the most control on internet censorship. I used the shapes of the countries and put them together to make it a shape of a skull to give it a negative feel, something like how these countries are killing the internet access with their strict censorship.

More to add. I'm planning to give it a subtle internet-patterned background. Maybe a bionic pattern or something.

My color pallet.

A different approach on tackling my internet censorship research

Internet censorship is quite vast and can be hard to tackle when it comes to researching. Been trying to narrow down to the right direction. I had to do alot of thinking of what I was going to do, how to approach this. After a discussion in class and alot of thinking, I decided to go with international internet censorship. I'll talk about which countries are monitored, which countries have more freedom, and who are the enemies of the internet. Other things I'll probably talk about are things like portal censorship, circumvention, what the free-roaming countries are allowed to view that the others, even the nominal countries (who have alot of freedom but not completely, like our country for example) are not allowed to view, the great firewall of China controversy, etc.

Hopefully with more research in the future, I will have more information to work with. Right now I'm mapping out and organizing everythingr, which I'll talk about in my next or one of my upcoming entries.

More to come. Alot more since I'm planning to update this week's research by steps.

Update on thesis

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Moving image

After re-reading my "inspiration" entry, feedback, thinking through...I thought of doing one out of two things:

1) Stick to the plan. I do think it'll still be a good topic to work on and MAYBE I can pull it off, but maybe it'll be too much information since the internet is one big place that has everything to offer.

2) Zero in on how people put themselves or other people out on videos. Today we're living in an age where we can make videos of ourselves and post on sites like YouTube and the like. And there are some who do it professionally, and there are some who like to put sick violent videos of people out on websites for their kind of entertainment. Plus, the majority of that blog entry was about videos since videos on the net seem to be the most graphic than the other things I mention like MySpace, chatting, internet predators, etc. I do feel that it'll still cover on the idea of censorship of the internet, but focusing more on the most graphic.

Swipe

These are from a book I have.

These were some logos I liked that I threw together. Not all were picked for its typography, some were picked for visual purposes or color/texture.

Inspiration

What drew me to the topic of censorship on the internet is the fact that the internet is an open realm. You can pretty much have access to anything, even what I'd like to call "the goods". Not that all of "the goods" are good, but what people use during their spare time instead of doing something healthier like taking a walk or reading a book.

Speaking of books, I'd like to pull out something I read today out of coincidence for my Media Criticism class. It's from the book Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin:

"Long-term users (four or more years) say they go on for more than two hours per day, and boys and girls alike spend the bulk of their internet time entertaining themselves with games, hobbies, and the like. In other words, Internet redistributes the flow of unlimited media but does not dry it up" (Gitlin 16-17).

I think this quote describes my thesis very well. Like I stated earlier, you have access to anything on the internet, in Gitlin's words, "unlimited media".

This thesis project is more towards a broader audience since most, if not all, are big internet users and the idea that the internet is uncensored. Not only is it a fact, but it can also be an issue, and I'd like to tell my audience the issues, the effects, how the internet developed into this uncensored realm, and the specifics.

So what inspires me to pick this topic for my thesis? As a long-term internet user, I've noticed alot of "interesting" things in the past. I go on YouTube alot, and alot of things I've seen were really crazy things such as uncensored language, young women degrading themselves, the use of illegal recreational drugs, and even a video of Saddam Hussein's execution! Anyone can see these videos, and even if they're flagged, minors can just simply make an account and lie about being 18+.

Then a friend of mine tells me about a site called Xtube, which is pretty much like YouTube, but for amateur porn instead. Same rules apply like in YouTube, which can mean anyone, even minors who lie about their age, can join. There are alot of amateur porn sites on the internet, for both videos and pictures. Even professional porn sites seem to be like that as well. To enter, all you do is click "Yes I am 18+" and you're in. Totally not the same as if you were to go buy a movie or magazine because they'd ask you for identification.

And then there's the famous MySpace, home of degrading profiles and predator targets. I feel that quite alot of profiles I've viewed, they get too personal. They share alot of info such as "I smoke alot of weed" or "I love to have sex", or even personal info like exactly where you live. And the pictures on alot of these profiles include females barely wearing anything and people getting drunk and/or doing drugs. Alot of users are also underage, and there are alot of users, mainly girls, unfortunately, that try to act older and try to be "sexy". Which can lead to predators checking out your profile. MySpace always seems to be in the news due to rapes and murders because of this uncensored internet past time.

Online predators can also be found in chatrooms and on instant messengers. They can lie about who they are, give them your info, ask you if you want to meet, and the next thing you know, you're dead. As we all know, anyone can join a chat or make a screen name for an instant messenger. Language is uncensored unless you're in a monitored chatroom, which there are very little of.

Going back to videos, besides pornography, we also have vial videos that some like to view out of entertainment. Some include BME Pain Olympics, 2girls1cup, graphic execution videos, and alot more. Some people on YouTube make reaction videos of them watching these vial videos, which makes people curious and they go check them out themselves. It's like free marketing of these videos that shouldn't be seen.

There are also pictures online of violent and graphic images.

As you can see, I explored the internet quite a bit. Anything I have viewed is my inspiration. Also what inspires me to do this are the issues and concerns behind this. Issues and concerns include minors using these uncensored features of the internet, predators using the internet for victims, parents being unaware of what sites their children go on or who they talk to, the crime that can be caused due to the internet, people degrading themselves out in the open, and people even becoming addicted to the internet due to this unlimited realm of uncensored entertainment leading to an unhealthy life.

The main sources that give me inspiration to do this project is what I hear on the news and exploring the internet myself. In other words, the inspiration came outside myself. Mainly, I see my topic as a general human existential dilemma.

The three specific areas I will explore are: the history of the internet and how it developed into this uncensored realm, websites in specific, and the effects for both minors and people in general. I feel that websites is the strongest area and that I'd like to make it my core topic for the viewer. I feel that the others are more for backup support. I will mainly zero in on these certain websites so people will know alot more about them and maybe be aware of them.

Proposal on thesis project

My thesis project will focus on censorship on the internet. We all know that we can access EVERYTHING on the internet, but maybe a bit too much access. I would like to educate the reader by talking about certain websites, from popular sites like YouTube to porn sites, and how the internet today is affecting people, mainly young underage kids due to most of them being able to free-roam due to their parents' unawareness. Also I'd like to talk about how the internet developed into this free-roaming uncensored world from the time it was invented.

Here I am

Some work from the past...

Greek Heritage Month Postage Stamps

Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc type book re-interpritation

VNV Nation concert poster (silkscreened on sheet metal)

Yellow Pages Re-Interpritation

Chaos Theory (silkscreen print)

WoMan (Book cover and bookmark)

"The Art Of Junk" 8-page spread

"Warhol's World" 8-page spread

Chairman Mao beer packaging

99 Cent Items Repackaging