The inner workings of the practive Light painting video

The process behind making the video was more difficult than I expected. I started out with no clue how to start or where or where go. I asked my room mate for advice and he noticed that I already had all of the information on the site.
I started with pulling photos from the site and using information there. I did not put them in an specific order and then I handed the video to my Project partner who did the voice and narration. After we were happy with what the video said and the how amusing it was,we posted it on his youtube page. My friend wrote the little jingle in the very beginning.

Coprights and Control: Friend or Foe?

After watching the film RIP! A Remix Manifesto By Brett Gaylor I have a few things I would like to discuss concerning 4 part thesis.
Does our culture build on the past?
When Brett says that our culture always builds on the past I partially agree. Sure, things like music, art, and literature all have ties back to the past. The Beatles stole cord progressions from the classical composer Brahms. Director Quentin Tarantino is inspired by many other older films. However, I now challenge you to look more closely at today's culture. The internet is obsessed with cats. Dubstep, the original music is from the past, but said base dropping is completely original. I agree with Brett but todays culture is not completely unoriginal.
The past controls the future?
I completely disagree with the concept that the past control the future. Maybe in a family the older person will control the younger people. But as a culture? No. That is not to say that the past has no influence. Look at the 90's it was full of grunge and bad cars. How does that define and control us. In the 90's the U.S.  was in debt and that was solved by raising taxes. We are once again in debt and we haven't yet raised tax. That shows that the past doesn't control us in the sense that we learn from our mistakes because we clearly don't. From an artistic point of view we may have learned from our mistakes if you look at the cars that were made. other than that we relive the same cultural phases a fair amount with some but not a lot of variation.
Our future is becoming less free?
We are becoming brainwashed animals with no free will, self-determination, and no education. we have no information.                Wrong          Everyday someone becomes more and more informed, thanks to the internet. Information is the pillar around which freedom is based. It's that simple. I see no way at all that as a people we are becoming less free.
We must limit the control of the past to become free.
Actually we must remember the past more for some freedom. For example, do you remember the time when the government watched all of our lives, read our emails and texts and things like that? Well if we remember that the next time we set up a massive unifying communication system we should be fine and free. Social speaking I see no way how we are not free.

Correction and addition of a missed post.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Attending class?

In today's modern age technology is becoming more and more prevalent. Most people have access to just about everything there is to know just a few taps away. This raises the question are physical classroom really needed anymore?

There are many arguments for and against a traditional class room. For example, Dukunle Somade, a senior at the University of Maryland claims that "technology is giving students more and more reason not to come."

He also says that "students can easily grab material online, including lectures by gifted speakers in every field." Lastly, The National Survey of Student Engagement did a study at the University of Indiana that showed that four of eight "high impact" learning activities required no class room time at all.

There are still arguments for a traditional class room. Teachers and professors are still better informed than the vast majority of websites. Also, the former Director of the Baylor University Academy of Teaching and Learning claim that he does not see himself as a gateway to knowledge but a guide to the class. On top of that a class room creates connections for students that often help them find jobs in the future.

A lot of Teachers and Schools are shifting to more online based method of teaching. For most people this would work however it will not work for everyone. Any advanced degree in anything requires face to face interaction with a teacher. From an advanced Art degree to a PHD in Physics a personal hands on training is required. For that reason the traditional class room with never go away but it will remain mostly for vocational schools and Very High levels of education.

The Creative Process

The creative process is different for everyone. To me James Webb Young's idea that there is a process to new thought and Ideas is incredibly stupid. I do admit that it is possible that people go through these steps. For me it is never like that. For me it changes depending on the issue I am faced with. If I need to create art i use a completely different set of rules than if I am trying to fix a broken lamp.
With art if have a process of either seeing an image that is aesthetically pleasing and then experimenting with that image. If to reach I have a goal to reach while making that art I simply throw that Idea into what looks good.
If i need to reach a goal like fixing something it really is step by step process like Young claims but most people don't do this.
1. What is the problem?
2. How do I fix?
3. What way uses the least amount of materials and time?
4. Is it worth my time?
Once all of these are considered  I will then do something but I understand that most people don't do this. that being said Young's process behind new ideas is incredibly misinformed.

My Idea for The DMA research project will be a collaboration between me and roommate. we will create a video that combines both of our fields by creating art with only light and it's manipulation. Jason and I need to research the best way to combine the design principals I have learned and the technical skill that he has learned. I am curious to see how it will turn out.

What is new media?

New Media…What the hell is new media?

At the start of this class I just thought that it was the internet and things that you find in internet land, it partially is that. Now I think that new media also entails innovation in art. Such as street art, installations, and using technology in new ways. The most shocking thing about art is when you see something totally new and unseen. We seek innovation in art for the same reason Robert Mapplethorpe the photographer was successful. We the audience needs something new.

I often think of today’s artists (with an admittedly biased view) in a kind of split manner. I tend to split them up in 2 groups, the people that stick old test forms of art, and then the experimenters and inventors. The inventors are in the field of new media.

There are a few artists that would definitely fit my new definition of new media.  There is a dance group called Palindrome that blends technology and dance together. Their use of sensors, monitors, and cameras to link light and sound the dancer movement is brilliant and new.  The connection between dancer and technology means that the audience sees things that they haven’t seen before. That is exactly what an audience craves.

The artists Christo and Jean-Claude are a couple who have spent their live creating installation pieces. They were the ones who placed umbrellas all over Japan and California. They put the gates all over central park in New York City. They are probably the most famous installation artists out there. In many interview they say that there is no deeper meaning to their art they simply want to create a beautiful sight. What they do is New Media.

New Media isn’t simply playing with new gadget and making giant sculptures. It is innovation in the artistic community.

Manovich and New Media.

New media is a growing field and skill in the world where the entire wealth of human knowledge can be accessed in seconds from almost anywhere. The academic world is trying to make sense of this few found ability. New forms and models of news and entertainment are coming up from everywhere. People can now associate an emotion with a single picture. It is hard to define exactly what new media is.

What is new media?

New media is something that lacks a certain definition.  Manovich says that it’s anything distributed in an electronic format. He claims that ANYTHING on a computer, Ipod, phone, or any other outdated bit of technology is new media, Even if the original text, music, movie, or image exists in a hard, tangible format in the real world. 

I disagree, the term new media should only be applied things that only exist on the internet. There is a whole electronic world at our finger tips and a lot of does not exist on paper. That material, that original content, should be considered new media. Before the internet and computers there was a thing called a “newspaper”.  “Newspapers” relayed world news and events, and entertainment to many people in an unprecedented manner. Soon they were wide spread and common. Before the printing press books were not common and literacy was rather useless. Folk stories were the only way people were entertained. News was spread by people telling other people what happened and hopefully the people affected would hear. It was that or maybe “letters” that news was spread. After much research I could not discover the purpose of “letters” beyond a personal dialogue between two people.

Information technology has evolved over hundreds of years. What is happening with computers and other similar technologies is progress. Here is a new idea, newer than newspapers, all about new media. Technology has evolved language and media. Artist and film makers and musician all have to consider the internet as a medium for them to conquer. 

Type 0.5 and Empathy

All around the world people are begging for change. Some people want more food, others want more education, or a safer place to live, or they want other people to change. I challenge you to think of literally anything and I know that someone, somewhere, wants that something to change.

We are divided.

In the all of the desires across the world there is no unity, even though empathy lets us feel the pain of others. We are capable of knowing some of what a total stranger feels because of our ability to empathize and we don’t help each other. We all have our struggles and most of us deal with them alone. Eventually we will collapse from this weight. Author and social thinker Jeremy Rifkin asks if global empathy can be achieved. Empathy was originally only felt towards the people in your tribe, then people of the same faith as you, and then it was felt towards ones countrymen. The next step must be empathy felt on a global scale. One of the few examples of global empathy is when the earthquake razed Haiti to the ground. The world rushed to give aid in only a few hours. Other than that global empathy has not happened very often.

Can global empathy be achieved? What will happen if it isn’t?

Unity is required for advancement, without advancement humanity will die. Michio kaku has theorized that that there are 4 types of civilization. Type 0 is a lack of global unity, with war and violence. Type 1 is total global unity. Type 2 is a civilization spread out over multiple solar systems, at this level, civilization is immortal. Type 3 is a civilization across a whole galaxy and beyond. Humans are at type 0.5, we still fight and kill. However there is hope, a singular thing connecting the world that grows every day, the internet and electronic communication. We feel empathy on a global scale more and more. We embrace technology and science, through that unity is created. Fundamentalists that embrace theology want us to remain the way we are.

Will we remain stationary?

I hope not. I hope we can move on and accept this opportunity to end such violence. The more we connect and communicate with others. The larger we build our web the greater our unity and empathy will be. We will go beyond a type 0.5 civilization.

Humanity > 0.5

McLuhan and Technology

Marshall McLuhan’s and Quentin Fiore’s   graphic novel, “The Medium is the Massage” made some very interesting points.  They claim that that written language has destroyed oral communication and that the printing press and technology has unified the world and we are living in a “small village”

When people say that written language has destroyed oral communication I have agree with them.  When people write compared to speaking they have the ability to revise and edit. The ability to go back and correct any mistakes before other people here you say it does not exist. When you speak the mannerisms that people are full of come out. In writing people often write in a very technical manner. It is true that good writers have voice but really good writers are hard to come by. Also meaning can be lost in writing because sometimes the tone one uses when they speak changes the meaning of the words. For example sarcasm is very dependent on the tone and cadence of the speaker. In writing, poets are really the only people who can get tone and cadence, even then getting those qualities perfected takes lots of work.

The printing press and other technologies have unified the world in many ways. Before the printing press books and the newspaper weren't available for most people. When the printing press was invented people across the world could be be reading the same thing. That created a unity among people that were literate.

With the invention of electronic communication one can talk to someone thousands of miles away. This means that there is a connection between people that would otherwise not know that the other existed. Instead of only being able to communicate with people in your area like a "small village" one can speak to almost anyone they choose.