Zeum as Community

What makes Zeum a community? There is many things that makes Zeum a community. One thing that makes Zeum a community is that we care about our visitors. This makes Zeum a community center to the general public. We work very closely with our visitors. We greet them and help them when they walk into the exhibit. We take turns rotating and talking to visitors to make sure everything is running smoothly. When a piece of equipment is broken we walkie the tech person as soon as we are notified of the broken equipment so it is running back up as soon as possible so we can please our visitors.

Another thing that makes Zeum a community is that we are open to anyone, not just to people living in San Francisco. You can be from a totally different country and visit here. We had some people from Europe visting while staying on vacation to San Francisco.

I decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff. The reason why i decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff is because we are a community. What I did was uploaded the pictures from the camera to the computer and opened them up using Adobe Photoshop. Once the program was open, I used the different filters to change how each picture looks. Somethings I did was use the paint brush to paint on the pictures, blur filter, wave filter and so much more.

Everyone on the staff has been like family to me. They all care about me and check up and see if everything is going ok. Besides Zeum being a community center for the general public we also have a community within the staff. Everyone of the staff cares about each other. When ever ZeumMasters need help with a personal problem or a problem with a piece of equipment we know we can turn to each other for support. Being part of the Zeum staff community has changed my life. Before I was all sad and miserable because of home life but being here, away from my home is the happiest place I have ever been to. I wait every week to come here on Fridays because I get away from home.

When Fridays come I am happy because I get to see the people who care about me. I truly love everyone on the Zeum ok. When Perry was giving me a ride home after seeing Assassins, the play that he was in I was talking to him about personal stuff that was going on in my home, he was totally supportive and gave me advice about what to do and how to handle the situation. That showed me that he cares and is there for me whenever I need someone to talk to.

I am going to mention a few words i would like to say about how the staff touched me.
Perry, Ari, and Noel touched me by caring about me. When I would have a problem I would then with my problem and they would listen. They are totally supportive and help me with my situation the best they can. They would come to me on occasion and make sure everything is ok and I'm doing well. They truely ment the most to me and I will miss them.

Debbo and Derrek touched me by making me laugh. Whenever I was sad they would always give me a high five or do something to make me laugh. Sometimes Derrek would say someting to make me laugh.

Paul and Michelle F.,Musiliu,Sharon touched me by caring about me and keep saying that they will miss me so much. It's nice to know that they care so much that they keep telling me that they'll miss me. I WILL MISS THEM MUCH because they are like my brothers and sisters.

The Sky's the Limit: Considering Photoshop

So...this is my first entry as a ZeumMaster, but definitely not my first time reading this Blog. I first came across this page when I was applying to become a ZeumMaster back in marchish aprilish. What really drew me into applying in the first place was the opportunity to work with arts and technology. I hail from a long line of photography lovers, and I myself take a photography class at my high school.

Its quite amazing how art and technology can both be meshed together, and I think photography is the best example of that. At school, we mostly worked on dark room stuff (for now at least), and my mother, being from the olden days and all, never worked with digital photography. So I saw Zeum as a wonderful chance to get into different aspects of digital photography, like photoshop.

Basically the only thing I can do with photoshop is open it. ... ok, thats a lie, I can do some basic things on the program. But my experience with photoshop has barely begun and I'm totally ready for 20 more tons of it to smack me in the face. Here at Zeum we have a "space" called Digital Workshop, which is where people can take a picture of themselves on the computer and use photoshop filters and brushes to change it up. ... Sound familiar? Maybe some of you Myspace freaks out there (ugh!) like to go to the apple store and change up your picture too. For those of you who deny you like to take pictures of yourself, don't worry, cause theres plenty of photoshop out there, it's just camouflaged. How else do the stars hide their blemishes? Why do you think everyone in advertisement look sooo beautiful? one word: photoshop (well actually this computer is telling me photoshop isn't a word...).

Photoshop....the root of evil, the reason why we're all living a lie? or a miracle of a program that was the best thing that ever happened? This all depends of course on how you use it. Unfortunately photoshop is used to perfect everyone in the media and set unhealthy goals for 12 year old girls, but this program also holds so many different opportunities! Photoshop itself could be considered a form of art, a way to exercise your creativity. The ability to change the image of reality and beautify everything is so powerful and fun. And that is exactly what I want to do with photoshop here at Zeum.

I want to learn how to use this program to change the ordinary to extraordinary, and I'm so glad that Zeum is providing this program to its many many visitors. This is a chance for so many people to learn about this great program, not just how it can turn people into sticks, but how it can be just a fun tool to use, a tool that could create wonders with a couple of clicks.

I feel like Zeum is giving everyone the chance to see that photoshop is accessible to all , and everyone can be an artist. The sky is the limit, and photoshop is here to help. I am so excited to learn more about the program and I'm so thankful that Zeum is giving me the chance to do so!

Watch out, one day I'll be working my photoshop like no other at some big magazine company, and you'll say: wow, I knew her back when she was a ZeumMaster, look at her now...shes a pro. And I'll be like: thats right....

ANGEE on Human Rights, Technology and the Artistic Process...

For Parent Night I chose to create a movie based on the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now, the Declaration has THIRTY articles, so I didn't know if I were to make a move based on all THIRTY articles or just a few.

Now, it's still a work in progress. I'm still going to tweek it here and there, but overall it looks good.

Here's what I've done so far:

Enjoy!


Starting out, I realized that basing the movie on all THIRTY articles would be a little ambitious, so i just stuck with the first ten. Then, I had to brainstorm how to do this: animation? drawings? claymation? I didn't know just yet.

LIKE A BOLT OF LIGHTNING it hit me. I could just do images on photoshop based on each article. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP is one of my favorite things to do here at Zeum. I've been working with photoshop for about four years now, so I thought it was a great idea.

On Photoshop made an image for each article. To do this I would get an image from the internet, make it into a black and white/positive and negative image, then define a brush. Photoshop saves the brush automatically. This is a good function to know. The brushes I made then became backgrounds for the images I created.

From there I took the articles and placed the text over the colorful backgrounds. I think it came out great, just like I wanted.

Now, what to do with the images?! Make a gif. file? Movie? Hmm...Then I remembered how well I worked with Windows Movie Maker...PERFECT.

I took the images I made on Photoshop and created a movie. I started with titles introducing the articles and quick history on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, followed by the images I made, and then quick credits at the end. All of this was accompanied with the song, "Dream" by Common and Will.I.Am.

Yeah, it's still a work in progress. But MOST DEFINITELY a project that I'm proud of.

Pam on What's Digital

The Digital Workshop is a Zeum exhibit that I love. In this room, anyone can take a picture of his or herself and add effects to it in the program, Adobe Photoshop. Then they can add their work to the constantly changing exhibit wall space. (see the pic)

I have been a part of the Zeum team for over three years (!!), and I have enjoyed seeing the steady progress that DW has gone through. We came all the way from our old, floppy disk carrying, ancient cameras to brand new fancy shmancy apple isight cameras. Pretty GOOD DEAL.

Yes. The DW is a room of wonder. I, personally am interested in photography, so it is fun to observe how people take their pictures and edit them. I have been able to experience so many things in DW. Apart from being able to take my own pictures and play around with Photoshop myself, I get to work with the public and help them move through the space and learn about digital photo imaging for the first time often.

I feel like when I am working in DW, I am not just watching over the room, but I get to develop my teaching skills as well. Besides becoming a better teacher and developing qualities such as patience (-when the room is so full that we have to close the doors and the printer isn't working and computers are freezing, its kind of a wildhouse)-, I have learned to become a better artist myself. Photoshop is very useful when it comes to so many different things and the skills that I have learned are so valuable to me.

I've been thinking of what the zeummaster show could look like. For a couple months when I first started at Zeum, the cone show on display was all work of Zeummasters. Everyone got their own cubby and could fill it with whatever they wanted. If there wasn't enough cubbies then they were able to take up a whole wall between two cubbies. I think that that would be really cool because not only would it make Zeummasters feel more apart of Zeum, but hello, we could show off our skills.

I would like to have a show like that and fill a cubby with drawings and photographs of mine.

Another idea that I have for a cone show is a show "Spotlighting on Zeummasters". Everyone would have their own cubby that would kind of be like their biography. They could have anything that they believed represented them inside the cubby. That way, visitors could feel like they know the staff that they interact with. We could take pictures of ourselves in the DW and add effects and filters to it. Then, we could have that picture be in the middle of the cubby, representing us and serving as our profile image.

Overall, DW is my favorite room to be in, other than the Music Production Lab. It is a really great exhibit that everyone should get a chance to experience.
This post was written by Pam, the ultimate Zeummaster.

What does HOME mean to you?

This year Zeum Masters are working tirelessly on an exhibit that will be shown at the end of the year.

Today we started with reflection on our home life. We were given the task to reflect on what "home" means to us, also challenged with making a collage of what we believe this word meant to us.

Without hesitation I went for what I knew to be true about my "home." That is, "Home is where the heart is." Although cliche, it is the truth. I illustrated my own definition with a huge heart in the middle of a green home surrounded by deep strokes of blues. With the words, "Home is where the heart is.." emblazoned in yellow around the house. My home is definitely where my heart is. It is the beat that keeps me going everyday and the center of my world. My situation at home is different then anywhere else outside of it. It is where my heart lies, because that is where my family is.

My situation at home is very different than most. I live with my mom and brother. My mom is a single mom who works three jobs taking up most of her time throughout the week. My brother is pre-med at a local university, he is also very involved at school with clubs and his fraternity. While I go to a high school 20mins away, and usually have something to do after school between student government meetings and club gatherings. With this much going on outside of the house it is hard to get us all in one place. That is why, home is the one place i know to go to when i need to be with family. On the weekend is probably the only time we get to be a family. Although limited, we cherish our time together as a family. Home is stationary to me, always there for me when i need it. Because a house is not a home...home is where the family is and where the heart is.

This project tied into what we will be doing later on with the exhibit. Not only will we be working with different collages but also photoshop. The different layers and mediums we used in our collages ties into the different layers we can develop with adobe photoshop. Next week we will segway into photoshop by making photo composites of a favorite memory of ours.

As we work on this exhibit we are asked to reflect on our personal history and develop our thoughts into our own artforms. Something i cant wait to figure out and develop for myself! =]

Posted by ANGEE