Jeidn Winkler

Art has always been a means of understanding myself and the world around me. Ever since I could draw, I always had an interest in drawing myself. My art engages with my subjectivity, conditioned by society and life but unique to my processing, living with a disorder that inhibits the development of a stable identity and creates a heightened perception of emotions. I explore my interests, history, heritage, and self-perception through self-portraiture. My relentless production of self-representation is an attempt to get a foothold between cultures and diagnosis. The mediums I work with are colored pencils, acrylic paint, and photography. I have an interest in color theory as well, and I incorporate this into all of my artwork. I consider what are colors associated with and how they can build upon my work. My artwork is in discussion with artists such as Cindy Sherman, creating characters of myself to portray. I deliberately put emotions into my art to create an emotional response from the viewer.

Week 1: AI is everywhere

Nowadays it feels like artificial interference (AI) is everywhere. And the craziest part is it helps us every day now. My friend's phone is built with AI to improve photos, and the editing capabilities are mind-blowing. On social media, there are AI filters that change the way you look. We use AI to use our face IDs to access our phones. When we talk to Siri or Alexa, we're talking to AI.

AI has gained increased popularity on social media over the last 1-2 years. This is because it can be both a helpful and entertaining tool. Social media influencers use AI to improve their videos and photos. People scrolling through social media platforms, such as TikTok, as simply looking for something entertaining to do, so AI filters became a big hit. These AI filters will turn you or your surroundings into whatever you want them to look like. These filters have been used millions of times by millions of people.

How do AI Filters work?

Firstly search and activate the filter on Tiktok. There are several filters, but most of them will have a word search bar. In this bar, you input word(s) that tell the AI what to create. In this example, I will use the word "Barbie", which was a popular trend around the time the Barbie movie came out in 2023.

Secondly, the filter loads to create the image you want. Sometimes to AI filter has trouble and fails to load an image but repeating the process should fix the problem.

Finally, your AI image has been created. The AI is usually pretty accurate for a TikTok filter, but it has trouble making clear and accurate images. Every time you use this filter, it creates a completely different image. This tool can be mildly helpful too, and unproblematic.

Learning How to Felt

This week in one of my Studio courses, I learned how to felt with water. This process is not that complex but it requires a decent amount of manual labor. To felt with water, you layer the felt vertically and then layer it with more felt horizontally. You then apply a screen-like fabric and spray it with water. You rub it with olive oil-based soap. Then you roll it up and continue rolling it for a few minutes. Repeat the water and soap, and keep rolling in both directions. You've completed once the felt holds together well.

Doing such a natural process makes me consider the unnatural processes that go into felting on a large scale, where machines are involved to mass produce a felted product. A process that is quite simple in nature, however taskly and time-consuming. With this product also being "trendy," many people turn to large corporations that mass produce these products because it's cheaper to purchase from them than to purchase from an artist who creates hand-made felted items. This is a long-time struggle for artists: Companies producing similar but cheaper products that ultimately get chosen because of the price point. Although the buyer might be able to understand the price point of the artists's work, they won't always be willing to make that financial sacrifice, especially considering the current economic state of the world. This ultimately has a negative consequence on small businesses and artists trying to make a living through their artform.

<-- Felting and Machinery

Language: The Matrix

Language has always been an important part of my life. I speak 3 languages fluently and I can understand and vaguely speak 2 more. I grew up learning 3 fluent languages at once and so my brain has learned to function in 3 different languages. Having these three languages also confuses me. English especially, has so many similar words, that although I'm fluent I don't always understand. As Laurel Airica explained, there are so many contradictions in the English language - and so many more - that make it even more confusing! I think if we were to go back and correct our languages, so many things would change.

Airica brings up a lot of very interesting points about the English language and how it functions. They also talk about words that need new words because of existing preconceptions of the existing word used to describe something. The problem with making more words due to created implications is that humans will always create new implications and so we as a society would constantly have to change words. Furthermore, different people have different experiences and different connotations to words depending on their past experiences and current beliefs.
Airica also talks about the movement and languages and how cultures have implemented and created different but similar languages. This always interests me because speaking 3 different non-related languages: A Germanic one, a Latin one, and a Slavic one. When I learn other Germanic, Latin, or Slavic languages, I'm able to understand and catch different similarities in the languages that were caused by the movement of culture throughout history. As Airica puts it "Language is a chamber of echos", which beautifully describes the historical advancement of different languages throughout history.

The reading begins by acknowledging the current crisis as catastrophic, anticipating an apocalypse. It's not a politico-theological document and it dismisses conventional discourses except for the collapse of the climate system. There is a focus on increasing automation in production, which is seen as the root cause of capitalism's crisis, rather than catastrophism.

Both right-wing governments and much of the remaining Left are criticized for their inability to envision radical alternatives, leaving the future seemingly paralyzed politically. The reading advocates for a systematic class-based approach and new political organization to reconstruct hegemony and shape the future. The reading emphasizes the importance of subversive knowledge and presents itself as a leap forward in communist thought.