I completely re-worked my site again. I’ve had lots of feedback and testing, and I want to know what all you folks think about my fancy new website.

This Friday, April 25, BathHouse hypermedia journal goes live with the reveal of their re-designed website, designed by EMU alum and frequent contributor to this blog Nick Woods.

The site boasts a new user-friendly interface and will experiment with innovative ways for readers to interact.

At the site you will find:
• Archived and current BH issues
• Regularly updated Artist-spotlights
• Bi-weekly BH “finds” (presentations of great journals, artists, and organizations to inspire and connect you)
• Submission and current staff info.

Visit them this Friday at: BHjournal.com

–
Sarah Smarch
Editor-in-Chief
BathHouse Hypermedia Journal
www.bhjournal.com

Edited by current Creative Writing graduate students at Eastern Michigan University, BathHouse promotes interdisciplinary and hybrid arts with a special emphasis on language and innovation. We are interested in art that blurs the lines of conventional form and genre.

PS: They are always looking for designers to work on various projects, so drop Sarah Smarch a line if you are interested.

The CSS/HTML class files are ready to go for Tuesday, March 11. You can view them with the link below.

http://www.emugraphicdesign.com/aiga/events/webdesign

EMU Friends of the Library need our help. They are having a contest and need us to do the following:

1. design a bookmark
2. design for a 11″ x 8″ canvas bag (2-3 colours) 
3. design a new logo for them

Each category will win a $100 gift certificate. These designs will give back to the EMU community as they are using them for a fund raiser to make the library better. Not only do you have a chance to win some money but you have the opportunity to give back to EMU. There are a few restrictions you must remember:

• bookmark and canvas bag must say “EMU Friends of the Library”
• your name and graduation year will appear on the design
• you can  have a printed piece to put in your portfolio
• they really want your design to “POP”
• let’s show the library how supportive we are

if you need to ask my any questions, please e-mail me or reply to this. my e-mail is jalliso1@emich.eduif you would like to visit EMU friends of the Library website go to http://brand.emich.edu/fol

okay i hope i got your attention. you need to come to the aiga meeting this week (on thursday) at 8:00….

we need you to come out and brain storm some ideas for the portfolio review that will be held at EMU

this year.  you need to come out, its pretty fun. get involved…. care.

There is a little girl back home (in Brockville Ontario) that was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her name is Lilly and she is one-years-old. There is going to be an art exhibition in Toronto where all art sold will go towards her medical bills as she comes from a family that isn’t well off. I’m looking for people who would be interested in donating paintings or creating paintings, photos, posters, ect. for the exhibition - but there’s a catch: the exhibition is called “Lilies for Lilly” so all art should be of a lily or lilies. If you can have the items for me before February 16th 2008 that would be sweet. If you can frame it that would be even better but if not I can pay for it to be framed.

Canadian Sarah (ask around if you don’t know who I am)

This is an interesting story. Teen makes myspace backgrounds for friends. They end up becoming hugely popular. She turns making backgrounds into a million dollar business. I wish I figured that out. Check it out.

Also here is her website: http://whateverlife.com/

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

This site can be found through the Processing.org exhibitions… It’s an exploration of human emotion on a global scale using data gathered from blogs. You can pick what kind of emtion you want to track, the weather for that day, male or female, locations around the world, and it will create will like emotional map of dots that you can click on and see that exerpt from the blog… It’s pretty freakin cool… and also pretty freaky that people are writing blogs that they think they know who their audience is and yet there could be people all around the world reading intimate details of their lives… It kind of makes you question how far, ethically, would you be willing to push things for your design? Maybe if you were browsing that site and saw something you, yourself, posted in a blog just hours before, would that change how you feel about it?

So I’m going to sound like some teen that just got a picture in the mail from some pop artist but this is way cooler. I always talk about how mathematical art inspired me to go into graphic design and computer science. Everywhere I look and find that kind of at and know that’s what I want to do is by Ben Fry. I totally look up to him as an artist and am amazed at everything he’s done. I found his e-mail address on one of his websites and figured it couldn’t hurt to send him an e-mail. I wrote to him about how I found out about him and how he’s inspired my work and asked if he ever takes interns and what kind of advice he could give me… I kept thinking, in my eyes, this guys is a celebrity and I’ll probably never hear back but last night I actually got a personalized e-mail back responding to my questions and giving me advice! I actually heard back from the guy who’s inspired it all!! I’m crazy excited and told my mom I’m going to frame the e-mail lol… Anyways I just wanted to tell all of you that in hopes it inspires you guys to contact those artist who’ve inspired you… It turns out these guys are actually human and maybe write you back, and who knows how many doors it could open if you just take that chance… Good Luck and please let me know if you have similar things happen. It would also be cool to know who inspires you so I could check out their work as well…

You’re The Man Now Dog, or YTMND as it’s users prefer to call it,.. is an online community started by Max Goldberg in early 2002. The site centers around making fun and pulling pranks on anything and everything in pop culture, film, television, and politics today. “You’re the man now dog,” famous words by actor Sean Connery in the film “Finding Forrester” inspired the first YTMND and unknowingly the huge internet movement. YTMND’s, as they are called, are any humorous or artistic combinations of an image file, a sound file, and possibly text. Over time popular YTMND’s recieve user support and form Fads; large fanbased followings that reproduce or add onto the legacy of the site.

Here’s a good example of a few YTMND’s. If your computer is set to block spam or Flash player 8 it may not run well.

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

http://walkenonglass.ytmnd.com/

http://oilpuppet.ytmnd.com/

http://drecosby.ytmnd.com/

These sites number in the hundreds of thousands, as anyone with a computer can create an account and create as many YTMND’s as they want. They cover all ranges of pop culture iconography, film, television, internet, you name it and there are likely twenty YTMND’s based on it.

The Washington Post did an article concerning YTMND, commenting on the juxtaposition, quirky humor, and unlimited potential the site can expect to find over the web.

Asside from that, some of the more experienced users and site moderators have posted YTMND’s to help the less expereinced make their own YTMND’s and troubleshoot programs. Example as seen below:

http://steamsteamlol.ytmnd.com/

http://loltutorial.ytmnd.com/

If you feel bored and creative, or simply want to make a statement.. find an image and edit some music and upload a site. That’s what makes YTMND so popular, it’s easy to start.