A Scientist Predicts the Future

The was a really interesting read. Some of the things that were listed are absolutely incredible including the thought that they will soon be able to interact with out genes to let people live longer and cancer soon going to become something like the common cold. The problem though with this type of thing is that the population of the Earth will rise at a rapid pace because far less people will be dying while nothing is done about the birth rate. Something will eventually have to be done about that, maybe not in our lifetime, but still soon. This could mean finding new worlds to live on or inventing ways to combat pollution and resource management. This article also goes along with the sight video where it is actually kind of scary to think of how much the world is going to change.

Sight

This video was a pretty amazing look at what could lie ahead in the future based off a fictional story, but it is also a very terrifying idea to think that it could be a possibility. The technology of the augmentation is incredible, there is no denying that, but turning everything into basically a game makes things very weird. What makes up social interaction completely changes from what we know it to be today. As a person who does not necessarily like change, it is hard to think how much of society would fit in with this sort of thing.

Video Art

Performance Art

Golan Levin

Because I do not have a great understanding of computers or other technology, it was fairly difficult to follow on some of the things that Golan Levin was talking about in his Q/A. That being said, I found it pretty interesting to hear what he had to say about what was to come after Kinect, even if it was a pretty vague and round-about answer to the question. It was also hearing about his thoughts on what a degree is actually worth and I completely agree. In the field that I am going into, Criminal Justice, a degree is worth exactly what he said. It gets you to meet people and learn things that way. Other than that, most things that you would need to know or learn will be on the job.

The actual video and the effect that was done on Golan Levin was very interesting. At some points I just found myself staring at the various patterns that were made and the outlines that could be seen through his face.

Breakdancing

Breakdancing was brought about by the new kinds of music that were coming about. It took an incredible amount of skill in order to do and became a great form of art for people to express themselves.

Beauty in Error

To show "Beauty in Error," we watched the video "I'm not the girl who misses much" by Pipilotti Rist. This is a great example of embracing what is wrong with a video, whether it is messing up a line or the video itself having static or whatever else. This video itself is interesting. The vocals are something that get stuck in your head for no reason, the video is full of lines running through it, Rist is very blurry in the video so that you can not really make out individual features. All the changes throughout the video make it interesting to keep on watching, fast forwarding for different sounds or changing the filter on the camera for different colors.

Sheryl Oring

Sheryl Oring's website is fairly interesting. Looking through her different projects, the political aspect of some of her projects is very interesting, including "I wish to say" and "the birthday project."In, "I wish to say," citizens told Oring what to type out to the President, everything from their thoughts on the War in Iraq to things going on in their lives that they need help with. A couple of interesting ones came from Arizona in 2004 where the citizens said that they have been waiting to get electricity for their entire life and yet they still did not have any in their homes. Other ones such as "writing home" is just incredibly interesting in its own right. What Sheryl Oring does with her typewriter as art pieces is very unique and thoughtful way of getting other people involved in what she does. 

HOWL

HOWL was a poem by Allen Ginsberg. At the time that it was released, it was considered incredibly obscene by the public. This is something that at the time, 1955, was fairly common in all forms of art or entertainment. When I listen to it today, it is hard for me to see how it was considered obscene. Yes there is some vulgar things in it, but this is all things that can be heard in music today or seen on movies and TV. It is just about impossible to find something that is obscene to me. I have seen dead bodies with their head blow off from rifles, so hearing a guy say cock and balls is nothing.

Archetypes

An archetype is a constant idea or symbol that is universally understood. In literature, this would include things such as witches, gods, or kings. This is compared to stereotypes which are born within a society about a group of people. These can be based off of fact, but are not always true. This includes things such as: Asians are smart, black people like fried chicken, Jews are stingy. When the two are compared, archetypes are more for story telling and getting a general idea across to people while stereotypes are more for talking about people and getting a general idea about them.

Xerox

Part of this project was my love for hockey and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The hands in the middle are both my moms hands and my hands, showing the close connection I have with my mother. 

Grid Art

Because of my busy schedule, I chose to do fairly simple image. The image is made of roughly 2500 clear push pins. For my grid, I used chicken wire which I removed before placing everything.

Emak-Bakia

After watching this video, I can honestly say that I do not get it. All it seems to be is a bunch of random different videos put together to make one longer video, added with random music. It makes not sense. To me, it seems to be put together very incoherently or with out any purpose. I am sure that is not the way it was done, but it would have to be explained to me what is going on. This whole genre of art is confusing as to what it all is and why it came to be. While I am not trying to argue that it is not art, it is not any sort of art that I care for.

Steve Jobs 2005 Standford Commencement Address

Steve Jobs was a very inspiring man. His message of never giving up and living your life to its utmost possibility. Those people in life who have become successful were not ones who sat around and did nothing. Instead they were the ones who worked hard at what they loved to do and made sure that they would flourish. This can really be seen with Steve Jobs life and how he approached it. Everything from his founding of Apple even though he never graduated college to him being fired years later when the company no longer thought that his visions were in the companies best interest. He always continued on doing what he loved and trying to be successful and it worked out. This video is very inspiring for all people to watch, especially younger people who still have their entire lives to live and make an impact on society.

Wage War - "The Aftermath" (Official Lyric Video)

This is a lyric video that a friend of mine was hired to make for the band Wage War. He creates album art, logo designs, and videos for all sorts of music, though hard rock/metal is what he specializes in. He also just created a new Facebook page where he will put up more of his work, linked below.

Blind Cat Studios

Speaking of Turing Machine...

This is a song of the same name by the band, Traverser.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing is the man who came up with the idea of the "Turing Machine" which is the basis for the modern day computer. This machine had limitless memory and a scanner that could go through all the memory, reading what it went through and then come up with new information based off of that. It could decipher code and write its own program, which was the first time that it had been mentioned that machines could have some sort of intelligence. During WWII, Turing was part of the team that made "Colossus"which was a machine that was built to crack the Germans radio communications without them knowing that the code had been cracked. This was a very basic computer that had 1600 vacuum tubes, no internally stored programs, and was not a general purpose machine. Every time the machine was used for a new task, the wiring had to be switched out by hand. From there, many people started using programs from Turing to make there own computers. Turing's next accomplishment though was making high speed memory for computers. All of this work by Alan Turing led to what we now have in the modern day computer. Without him, we would not have computers as we know them today or we would not have the advanced computers that we have.

History of the Battery

The modern day battery is based off of the work of Alessandro Volta who invented the voltaic pile in 1800, which he made based on work from Luigi Galvani. The voltaic pile was made from discs of zinc and copper which had pieces of cardboard soaked in brine put in between the metals. This was able to produce an electrical current that was steady and reliable. Daniel Cell invented a longer lasting battery in 1836 that was used to power things such as telephones and telegraphs. In 1859, the first rechargeable battery was made which is what modern day car batteries are based off of. 1866 brought in the first battery that was able to be transported. Before this, batteries were considered wet cell batteries because the materials were not sealed tight. The dry cell battery was able to completely seal the materials and made batteries more what they are like today. 1881 brought in the use of a negative and positive side to the batteries but 1901 brought around Thomas Edison who created a battery that is used today, a positive side made from nickelic oxide and a negative side made from iron. This was called an alkaline storage battery.

War of the Worlds

This was a very interesting broadcast. When it was first aired over the radio, it started a panic for people who did not understand that it was just a story being told or for those who may have tuned in late. And I can see why they may have felt that way. While I was listening to the recording, I was working on some homework. At times, I was not quite paying attention so I would forget that I was listening to a story and not what it actually sounded like which was reporters talking about what they were seeing. After a second I would remember but it definitely shows how well the story telling was from Orson Welles. It was also good that there was no video to go along with because a video would have made it very easy to tell that it was fake. It shows how prevalent the radio was back then when that was the type of show that was on and the quality of it.

Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick was a revolutionary writer that completely changed the face of science fiction to what it has become today. He started writing when the ideas he was writing about were supposed to be perfect. While the movies were made after Philip had started writing his books, Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey are examples of what everyone thought of technology, space travel, and overall the future. Robots were subservient to intelligent, living life forms and worked perfectly doing whatever their jobs were. Space travel was fast, comfortable, and easy. Philip made everything abnormal, everything had flaws, one would even question free will. Prior to Philip K. Dick, the Minority Report would have been just about stopping crime before it happened, not about the corruption that came from using the precogs. We would not have movies scifi movies such as Judge Dredd and the Matrix which are heavily influenced by his work.

Flipbook

A Clockwork Orange - Nadsat

In the novel and movie "A Clockwork Orange," a dialect is used called Nadsat. Many of the words have a Russian background in them. They either are spelled exactly the same way as their Russian counterparts or only have a letter or two different. A few examples of this include "droog" which is Russian for friend and "zhena" which is Russian for wife but in Nadsat is zheena. Other words are completely made up by Anthony Burgess. An example of this is "staja" which is a combination of the words "state"and "jail." Some more words have roots in English words, French words, or slang.

More Stop Motion

More stop motion things that I did not think about until later. It comes from South Park. The first things Matt Stone and Trey Parker ever did for South Park was a stop motion short introducing some of the characters and a small story about Christmas. The first ever episode is also made by stop motion. Each frame is made of construction paper and it took 3-3 and half months to complete.

Stop Motion

Below are a few links to examples of stop motion videos. The first link is the one that was seen in class. This video took an incredible amount of time, effort, and talent into making and because of that, it became an incredible video. The next video is also a very amazing video. It relies heavily on actual people to be part of the story rather than drawings or inanimate objects so getting every part of it to flow can be a little harder. But it pulled it off brilliantly. The creator of this video mixed several different scenes together into one piece to make for a very great story. The third video I just found to be a fun video with a neat little twist that I was not expecting. Although it was done with animation, it was made to resemble action figures and did this very well. Because they resembled action figures, stop motion was used to make it look like they were real and it became an entertaining video to watch.

http://vimeo.com/993998

http://vimeo.com/robinking/tenthousandpicturesofyou

http://vimeo.com/3784524

A Trip to the Moon

Wow, what a weird video. The video itself was very odd, but the soundtrack that was added to it was completely out of place and did not seem to match the style of the video. The soundtrack seemed more like something that you would find in a video game rather than an older movie like this. Also, I think I would have preferred to have seen this in black and white rather than in color. The way that the color was added to films like this is pretty fascinating, but I think it takes away from what it could have been. For the video, it is crazy to think that this was something that they thought of as a possibility for what is on the moon since nowadays we actually do know. To come up with something like this would basically have to come from a child who does not know anything about the moon.

The Great Train Robbery

This video is truly amazing considering it is 110 years old. It really shows the great capabilities that filmmakers and actors had back then even though their technology was very simplistic. This is one of the films that definitely led to films becoming a huge part of our daily lives and directly led to movies such as "The General" which was made about 23 years later. The soundtrack to this film was somewhat out of place, which makes me curious as to what the original soundtrack would have been like. Also, it was sort of odd how only certain things were put into color including the woman's dress during the dance scene.

Abelardo Morell's Camera Obscura

http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_49/cameraobsc_57.html

Some of these "pictures" are truly amazing. This is something I really had no idea about but the simplicity of it along with how great the pictures come out is remarkable. The fact that you can do this anywhere is great so any beautiful landscape or architecture can be captured for a little while. I like how at the beginning of the pictures he shows you the camera obscura and the simplicity of it as well as how he is able to flip the images. Two of my favorite images though I put below. To me, these are just great examples of how clear and beautiful the images can be.

Blackface

Blackface has been used for white actors to portray black people in movies, theater, and other forms of art. But is it racist? This is a hard question to answer. Back when blackface was first being used, it was most definitely racist. White actors were being portrayed as black because people did not want blacks to work for them due to racism. It was a generational idea with slavery being in the not too distant past. Nowadays on the other hand it is quite different. While there is still racism around, black people are accepted into every day life just like any other person.While blackface can definitely be used as a racist move if not used properly, it should be linked with the art that it is being used for. There is usually some sort of message that is being portrayed by the use of blackface, like in the movie Tropic Thunder.

Robert Downey Jr. in this movie plays a white actor who plays a black character in a movie. Director Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. use this character as a way of lampooning actors in the past who used blackface in racist ways.

People unfortunately tend to be too sensitive to certain subjects. This gets people into trouble when they try to do something harmless, like in this next video.

That should be compared to something like this next image.

This was from a video that was shown in class. It comes from the singer Die Antwoord in the song Fatty Boom Boom. While I know nothing about this this woman, she seems like a very disturbing person which is very evident in the music video that this image is taking from. It is offensive, but in the society that we live in it is something that should be just looked past. Once we are able to do that, society will become a better place.

Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly

Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly is a unique look at the the story of Madama Butterfly which we heard about in class. The way that it was made seemed to make it more for kids because of the animation aspect of it, but once it really started, you could tell that that was far from the case. It turned out to be even sad and disturbing story because of the depth that animation can go into to tell a story. At the start of the video there is a very erotic scene between the main character and her lover. He then goes away and leaves her pregnant and lonely. She eventually gives birth and raises the child, all while waiting for her lover to return home to her. When he does return, he has wealth and a new family. He then takes the child away from the main character and leaves her. This is then followed by the main character leaving in despair and then committing suicide, shown by her taking off all of her skin and then tearing off all of her limbs.
At first it seems like a true love story. There are many different feelings that you have while watching this that is done very well by the animation. I felt sad for her that she was left alone to raise the child yet happy that her lover had returned. Once she is betrayed, I again felt more sadness through the rest of the video. The use of animation helps to portray things in this story easier than live action movies would be able to do. More sensual images can be used without actual nudity and things can be made more disturbing by using the opera without actually being disturbing in nature.

Opera in Pop Culture

One of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption has a great scene involving the use of opera. The main character Andy turns on an opera for the entire prison to hear which quite literally stops everyone in their tracks. While no one is able to understand what is being sung, the beauty of it makes them feel free.

While not from an opera, V for Vendetta uses classical music extremely well throughout the entire movie to help bring out its messages.

Raul Cuero's Interview

Raul Cuero said a few things in his interview that can be used in every day life in order to become a more creative person. One of the first things was that people spend to much time on electronic devices and not paying attention to their surroundings and nature. He believes that nature is one of the keys to a person becoming more creative because they have the visuals to help understand how things work and can try to apply those things to what they are doing. Instead of staying inside all day doing nothing, a person can go out for a walk and will have more knowledge around them to gain that would help them out more than just what is on a computer or other electronic device.
He also mentioned communicating with others on a personal level. You are able to share ideas with each other and gain knowledge with them or through them. This can be seen through children as they are playing together when they are young. This is also why people go to a school or to a job instead of staying home and doing everything. You learn a lot more this way rather than attempting things on your own.

Art vs. Design

This article makes a good point about how art is something new and creative compared to some "art" which is based on the design of previous artists. Art is something that a person should feel from within which then comes out into their work. Design is just doing art using other peoples style so it is not really coming from within yourself but others. Unlike artists who can do whatever they want without have to rely on others, design you cannot really steer too far from the "instructions" of past art.

Juan Carlos Delgado

Juan Carlos Delgado's work is a great example of multimedia. By definition, multimedia is a form of art where the subject is intentionally changed over time. In Juan Carlos Delgado's work, the statue in the room changes based on how many people are in the room. The room and the statue are in cold temperature. Every time a person comes into the room, they are adding their body heat to the room. The more people in the room, the more body heat. This heat makes water condense onto the statue which then forms ice because of the cold room. This is a very interesting piece of art that really shows how multimedia is a form of art.

First Impression/Self

I have mixed first impressions about this class so far. On one side, the professor seems like a very nice, intelligent guy who will make for an entertaining class. On the other side, the class itself seems like it will be a pain in the ass because of the subject matter being so foreign as a criminology student. Because I know very little about art, I do hope to learn about the various forms of art and technology. Judging from the first class, I am sure I will learn plenty.

I am a senior in my third year of college. I am a criminology major planning on going into law enforcement after college. Because of UT, I have been able to travel to Poland and the Czech Republic. I graduated high school from Plant City High School in Plant City, Florida. I am passionate about hockey and the Tampa Bay Lightning.