339. Ancient Gekko Mosaic Artwork: Because Vic's Been Hanging Around Herpetologists and Evolutionary Vertebrate Morphologists All Quarter Long!

About a year ago, I was messing around with Photoshop in concern of a single cartoon image of a "gekko" I drew. How Biologically Incorrect it is! I am not even sure how gekkos look like. I drew the image from memory of what a lizard-like creature might look like. But nevertheless, in the process of experimentation, I learned some new Photoshop techniques--particularly in layering and color changes. It's funny to think this Gekko Mosaic was in my computer for so long, yet I had no emotional incentive to place it on the internet. Now that my time has largely revolved around an Evolutionary Vertebrate Morphology course, such that all members of the lab (s) study herpetology (reptiles and amphibians) and vertebrate paleontology (from fish to mammals, I suppose), suddenly there is incentive to place this dormant set of artwork on the internet. My quarter has revolved around the intellectual indulgence of the Lovers of Gekkos, alive and dead, who have also end up being the most conceptual and inspirational thinkers I have ever met!

I suppose this also symbolizes my ReInauguration of being Immersed with my Fellow Biologists--to which I originated as a CCS Biology major back in the early 2000s. Biology, ecology, and evolution in other UC schools have been left to the molecules and the machines. The concept of "field science" has largely become "moot." People now study ecology and evolution soley through molecules--which seems to be the central theme of UCLA Biology. Even perhaps UCR Biology. I remember my friend, Yasmin, mourning, "What ever happened to the concept of a 'whole organism'?" And I added, "A 'whole organism' relative to its environment?" People think they are studying at "these scales" through molecules?! Ummm....

But UCSB field biological sciences has remained embedded in the notion that you actually go out in the field, get dirty, collect specimens, have crazy experiences that make you cus, come back, analyze data, tell crazy stories that made you cus in the first place, and then life is good. That is a satisfying lifestyle of a biologist at UCSB--which appears to be deteriorating elsewhere.

The other day I was chatting with Chris, a fellow graduate student, in attempt to becoming re-oriented at UCSB. It's funny to think I knew quite a few professors, but I hardly knew any graduate students. Especially in the Ecology and Evolution Department. And in terms of "knowing" professors, I was in a very different mental state as an undergraduate. I took their words as the Bible of Biology (and I have my "As" to demonstrate my religiousness to knowing that they knew)... And now?!!... You can see my eyes squinting with skepticism in every single lecture I attend... "Oh... ANOTHER MODEL. This theory is based on ANOTHER model. Great. Model. Model. Model. Why did you ask this question? And not this question? How do you know these methods are valid? And consistent? So, where is some REAL data?"

So, the situation was, I had actually been "frightened" and "shy" around certain professors as an undergrad (it took me a few years to re-label my old advisors Dr. Kuris and Dr. Tiffney as "Armand" and "Bruce") and I really had to find a way to crack this shell in concern of a current professor I was taking a course from. So I spoke to Chris and he eased my anxieties as I asked questions about Professor Personalities.

Amidst this discussion, I had the opportunity to meet one of Armand's (Kuris) graduate students. Chris had apparently purchased some wax worms and crickets for his reptiles/amphibians and the two graduate students quickly immersed themselves in a Worm Consumption challenge.

I was simultaneously stunned and elated at the same time! The experience of my peers impulsively munching what is ordinarily considered Lizard Chow and Frog Zap was Unexpectingly Predictable. I had been removed from My People--UCSB biogeeks, geobums, and the like--for so long, like five years, that I was in shocking ecstasy to re-witness the behavioral practices of My Kind.

I think Chris and the other graduate student mentioned the wax worms didn't taste like much of anything. Chris also mentiond that such "worm-eating" endeavors wouldn't happen at Bren. I feel that Bren is a superb academic home on campus in terms of the interdisciplinary properties of my research, but sub-culturally, the Corporate Formality is psychologically disconnecting--neurologically severaging (as I am wearing a casual t-shirt and shorts, lounging in the fifth-floor East Asian library, ploughing away at my computer).

After that moment--that turning point, that Informal Inauguration to the UCSB ecology / evolution graduate community, I truly knew I was back Home. My true Academic Home. I was back where I belonged. It's just one more piece of evidence to demonstrate that "If I Am Weird, then I Found A Pack of Weirdness to Blend in With." Weirdness (in the essence of thinking-and-doing-outside-the-box) needs to band together to remain safe. Otherwise, it's a lonely, lonely world out there. Five years of being "alone" (institutionally, at least) had not been the most cheery set of experiences to endure.

So, now it is most respectually the time to place the Gekko Mosaic on the Biologically Incorrect Blog, because now it has multiple layers of meaning. When before... it was just another mindless photoshop exercise... without any Biological Umph to its existence.

149.Blue Horizons Continued: "World's Easiest Catch: Zen of Rock Crab" Lightning Lamps Photoshop Experiment Resumed

I guess you can see an inherent obsession with lava lamps, plasma lamps, and the like. I already MADE a blog devoted to lightning and plasma lamps, and I can't help but doing a second! This blog also provided training wheels in terms of how to embed a picture slideshow to my blog. I will have to get used to this. It is in part distracting, and I would prefer still images. But it's good to experiment. It's always healthy to try something new! I remember Maria Gordon stating that it's important to have some degree of "motion" in a website, but there is a point where motion can become a distraction. I will have to find the right balance of motion: from healthy stimulation to cluttery, overwhelming distraction! *Sigh*

I remember Dr. George Legrady giving me a hard time with my rock crab film and the use of plasma lamps. The Media Arts Technology Approach is to create novel, sophisticated technologies to design a lava lamp or plasma lamp impression. And me? Shame on me. I did the cheapskate way: I USED a plasma lamp! With the Michel Gondry style, if you are creative enough, there is always some form of "cheapskate" way to do something that is supposedly complex. I will go the cheapskate route. Blame my mother for imposing her penny-pinching values on me :-)

The second thing I must state is that NO MATTER HOW MUCH FANCY TECHNOLOGY YOU HAVE AND USE... from paper and pencil to high tech mac computers to photoshop to new, fancy technologies from the MAT department, if you don't have any ideas INVENTED, DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR OWN MIND, then nothing will come of owning a multi-million dollar entertainment operation. I have a relative who has a fancy macintosh and a $5000 Sony HD camera. He doesn't even use the camera. It sits in its box.

If you have no ideas on how to put together a story, you can have all the fancy equipment in the world and nothing will come together.

For me? I always start with the primitive: my brain, my hands and fingers, a pencil, and a paper.

"Zen of Rock Crab: Parts to Whole" / Blue Horizons Logo Photoshop Experimentation and Final Cut

Above are the "final cut" or the best outputs of my Photoshop Filter Experimentations....

http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa109/stokastika/BlueHorizonsLogoExptFilter/?start=all

This website link above is a collection of photoshop modification experiments I conducted on the Blue Horizons logo. Did I mention I "own" Photoshop 7? It suffices for now... The experiments served as very useful, for now I have some degree of a plot on how to approach my "Evolution of Art" project. I felt like using "filters" in photoshop is like using "plug-ins" in Sonar Home Studio or whatever music software in use... hopefully Protools. Filters for visual special effects. Plug-ins for audio special effects in mixing and mastering. I think I'm getting it. Analogous structures. Or maybe homologous? Okay, Vic. Stop being a Biogeek. I can't seem to beat it out of myself.