Artist Post 5: Derek Prospero (Web Designer)

Derek Prospero is a web designer and is also skilled in multitudes of other artistic fields. He is a "multi-disciplined artist, write, photographer, and creative director" (Prospero's Web Site). I searched pretty thoroughly and was a little bit surprised when I could not find a photo pf him anywhere online. He has a Facebook page and his photo isn't even on there. Keeping your picture off the internet these days can be a difficult task though, so that in itself is a little bit of an accomplishment. However, in browsing the images in the"photography" section of his site, I found something pretty close:

Photography: "Sunset Snapshot"

 Prospero's Web Site- the link above- is very well-done. He does a lot of work with the programs I have recently been exploring and creates design tutorials. He is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, which has awarded him with the "prestigious" Guru Award three times. Aside from his web site, which in itself shows all of his work, here are a few that I picked out, out of interest, all taken directly from his web site.

A piece of Mixed Media: "Blink"

Commercial Design: "Gypsy"

Computer Wallpapers: "Graffiti Skyline"

His web site in interactive, thorough, well-laid out, diverse, and artistically presented. When you move the mouse over things, they change, light up, or become colored images from previously being in black and white. The web site he made for himself is portfolio-style, as it is essentially an advertisement for himself. It was fun just to explore around the site.

The diversity of the kinds of digital media art Prospero does is amazing to me. He covers so many areas and seems to be very successful at all of them. As far as creating his web site, it is very well-done; it is sleek and modern, and is also accessible while being complex at the same time. The quality of his artwork and web design is great. As far as critiquing his work and his web site design, I don't have anything I would tell him to improve it; It think it is great and It is good for me to see it because it is helping me to form ideas for the web site I am creating.

After having worked with creating web sites a little bit in DreamWeaver so far, I really can appreciate all of the work that went into the creation of Derek Prospero's web site.

"Get Lost" Photo Documentation

When I "got lost" I ended up exploring Daffodil Gulch, which is in full-bloom with all of its daffodils, and also following another path through the woods to the water that was elsewhere in Historic St. Mary's. Here are some of the pictures from the adventure:

Post on Paragraph from the Reading

"The Internet people whom I have collected over the years are as much a part of my identity as my 4th grade teacher and afk best friends. They may know things about me that people whom I interact with daily may never know, because those secrets felt safer enclosed behind the glass of the screen, the distance between. Some of them knew me before I used my real name online. In the beginning, it felt powerful to be able to hide behind an alt where I could be treated like an adult if I wanted to."

This is the paragraph from the reading I chose to write about. This strikes me because it amazes me how much people have come to depend on online relationships. People have used the internet as a means to hide from the real world and not have to deal with real world problems. If people have an identity on the web, it can be totally different from their identity in the real world. This is harmful because if people become dependent on these electronic relationships, they will lack the skills it takes to survive in the real world. They won't have a backbone to deal with face-to-face issues. They may give the world a false sense of who they are. If an employer is trying to hire someone they only know from online interaction, they can never know exactly who they are hiring unless the meet the potential employee in person. 

People also tend to say things on the internet that they wouldn't say in person. As the paragraph says, people feel like they are able to "hide behind" their secrets. This has led to problems as well. Cyber bullying is a perfect example of this, as it is essentially bullying someone else behind the safety of the computer screen and the "space" it puts between the bullier and the bullied. People can be more daring; they feel more comfortable throwing around insults online when they would never say those things to someone in person.

People use it as an escape as well. The internet can provide an alternate world or virtual reality where they can play online games, creating a character and being able to talk to other people from anywhere in the world. People with so many virtual relationships miss out on real ones, which have a different level of substance. 

Though there are many advantages to online connections, it causes people who struggle with social interaction to feel safe and content in hiding in that insecurity, and so they don't get a chance to develop their social skills.