Sight or Sound?

The sense of sight and hearing are two as many of the major functions of how we live daily. Both are common ways of how we see around us which helps us to do activities or produce things and hearing to help us socialize and create. Though there is always the question of which sense would you rather have compared to the other? An experiment was in progress whenever a previous student completed her masters by studying the factors of sound. So from this she started off by doing a test of students to put descriptions of what they thought sound was in a spider diagram and then began to question them on their answers and more about what sound is,which lead her to ask ‘Do you think there is such thing a silence?’, a few said yes, while others said no. The debate turned into a discussion of if there was such a thing of complete silence then what about the facts of us still hearing our heartbeat or our own breath. Next was the topic of ‘Would you rather lose your sense of sight or hearing? Generally people would answer hearing over sight because all of our basic activities and everyday living would consist of using our eyes over people losing their hearing which brought the graduated student to be shocked over the fact that most of the class said hearing over sight because she had strong different views on rather losing sight. She gave an example of musician theorist John Cage and explained how moved and inspired she was by this man on his understanding of sound and how he gave her the reason why sound would be more important than sight. John Cage was young whenever his inspiration and passion for sound and music started to develop. He is a pianist who’s fame escalated for his composition in 1952 which was performed in the absence of deliberate sound. In this video called 4,33, shows a demonstration of him with his orchestra attracting the audience to see him perform. This begins with John Cage making his appearance into the room, sitting by the piano, and just as he is about to start he suddenly stops to stare of his watch which was repeated several times. This helped engaged the audience to really listen to the sounds around the room, though possibly confused, this piece from John Cage was probably his most intriguing and clever style of work whilst the length of time he was on stage. He finally quoted “the content of the composition is not four minutes and 33 second of silence, as it is sometimes assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4 Another point of how John Cage was recognized was through his very strong debate of “there is no such thing as silence”. His piece 4,33 shows a perfect example of how sound is better than sight which helps people (including myself) have a new perspective on the matter of even if we could not see with our eyes, we can see with our ears through the technique of sound because there is always going to be sound for everything to help direct of guide us.

Moving Images

The technique of moving images is used to challenge the conventional mainstream film to make it a success. But in order for this to happen, you would need to understand the concept of space esthetically. We were shown a short clip of a movie named ‘Man with a movie camera’ produced by Dziga Vertov. His aim for this short film was to grasp the audience to understand and to realize that even if a film isn’t ‘Hollywood’ material or isn’t that standard with a perfect story line or ending, it can still be recognized as inventive and creative. He wanted to bring to the world a new form of universal cinema which shows the world it’s true form and to see the truth meaning and definition behind the film instead of only seeing what’s infront of you. This film is about Vertov filming a man setting up his camera on top of another one. But how is this possible? That’s the question Vertov wanted everyone to ask themselves while watching this film because he had a new way of thinking and presenting his work through visual art. Another strong example of this would be a short film called ‘Ghost story’ by WiIllie Doherty. This showed confusion in the fact that this film consisted of a shadowy figure of the end of a road and the camera shooting this figure gradually getting closer and closer and then falling back to the start. This kind of clip gets everybody thinking and wondering about the real story behind it which most of the class were doing during this lecture as we were asked about our thoughts and outlook on the matter. The story that Doherty was trying to portray was based back in the troubles of Ireland, the road which was an old country road, was blocked off by police, which lead to a lot of people wondering about the shadowy figures significance of whether it described it as is being the people who dies during the troubles? Another Moving image artist would be Bill Viola. This particular clip that we watched in class was called ‘Emotions’ and was based on several people’s reactions to the 9/11 incident but in slow motion. This clip was somehow intriguing to say the least. Using emotions was his main tool for creating this short film because that’s where he wanted to inspire people. His short film ‘The Passing’ which was quite an intense clip of his mother in hospital before she passed away and then showed her lying in her coffin peacefully. This showed symbolism through him shooting this clip in black and white and by using water. Even though this film must have been very personal to Viola, he still kept in mind that by shooting this, is would help connect to the audiences emotions which helped them have a major reality check into life and where it ends. Finally, we were shown how a water printer would display information. This brought up the discussion of different ways technology can display this kind of information. At a train station in Osaka, Japan, their water printer acts as a screen to show the time which I found fascinating and brilliant. This just shows that technology will never cease to amaze society and it will never stop developing.

The Significance of Mobile Communication

Technology that was previewed in older fashioned tv shows has gradually worked it’s up to become an actual form/idea. For example, our tutor was discussing with us about the children’s programme ‘Thunderbird’s’ which showed examples of different type of technology of the characters used already being used in 21st century life, such as a certain character using a camera phone to communicate with her colleges by using ‘Face time’ when talking. Back then technology like that would not have been there for use or even mentioned because such a device looked very ‘futuristic’ but now most of the generation now uses these device which are called ‘Smartphones’. The virtual industry is now made up of two factors ‘the government/ military’ and the ‘pornographic industry’ which they both play big roles within the system. This term is called Invention and Adoption. Motorola was the first company to make a hand held phone and also the first to create the first flip up phone and to text. This make of phone was called the STARTAC. And also the RAZR mobile from Motorola was the first to have 3G. The two biggest apps on a phone at that point were ‘calls’ and ‘texts’ because they were the standard way of communicating while on the go. During the process of developing phones, not only did the design of the shape of the phone change, but so as the design of the style. e.g flip up, slide. The apple newton was the first form of technology that Apple creater Steve Jobs had started to develop and create. The Apple Newton gradually started to develop to an iphone/ notebook. Even though there are many companies that develop mobiles etc for the present/ futuristic generation there will always be ideas that will be copied e.g iPhone/ Galaxy S3 which are both very similar in look and function. But apart from copy rights, mobile phones have increased paranoia of protection and possession from how the ‘latest’ mobile is an necessity or an essential so society has the need the buy one and to have it as a fashion icon which makes people more prone to be protective over their possessions. The term paranoia has escalated from more than just mobile phones, it has increased to the standard of certain relationships e.g. student – teacher/lecturer. Whenever paranoia comes into relationships, it puts in a trust issue and with that comes strains and restrictions. Texting can easily provoke people to say things that are false to make promises or arrangements that aren’t properly discussed which makes it slightly dangerous. Mobile phones do not create as much risk as people think. Different accusations have caused people to develop more paranoia. Mobile phones have also become a big part of the fashion industry. They can determine different levels or standards of people on which phone they have. Globalization Africa’s use of mobile phones are completely based around texting. Phone calls are never used, even for business arrangements. This just shows that even if mobiles can do anything, even in this generation they will still be used for the main essentials. But for Dubai, they are making fortunes by selling mobiles with diamonds imprinted on them which make their products worth thousands of pounds. The Future: constant connect interaction no interface interfaces immersion human/machine convergence

“Inspiration is inseparable from the people who are creating it”

The Inter web is a way of linking/ communicating with the world through images and data, while the internet is just a form of communicating. The Sarnoff loop is a demonstration of how everything is broadcasted. For example the loop has a certain radius of 144 point that only make communication available for one on one. And it can grow and grow by sharing more information and expanding its radius so it could be spread to more than just one person which is the stage of Metcalf is developing further and further so that is then re-looping. This info graphic was easier to understand and to contemplate the term of inter web and how it is processed and shared. We use technology everyday to communicate in ways without even knowing that we are. The generation of television has gradually started to go down. This is from the fact that everybody has no time for television as we are all using our smartphones or macbook’s as a source of entertainment. We all done a poll about the different sources of connections that demonstrate our use of time. Example: How many hours we spend watching tv? Playing games? On the internet? On the mobile phone? And how many texts do we send a day? As statistics show with the answers that we received from the poll, it explains that a majority of the class mainly spend the time either on the internet or on the smartphone, and even then we would use the internet on our phones. We were also asked about these other two topics of: Do we need to be face to face with people to communicate? Does hours of unsociable behavior behind a computer playing games or using the internet do any harm? No, because we are always connected to everything, therefore it would not cause harm to how to socialize. The generation of technology today can now read information that will be of use and will help you. Technology can connect to other forms of technology to make it activate such as the new Aibot x6 which can only activate by an ipad or iphone. This device can raise a large security alert which can invade private spaces within the region and is also used as a spy gadget. By watching a video clip of how the device actually works, I was impressed with how clear and detailed the camera is at such a high distance.This is an example of the new Aibot x6: We are collecting data all the time, we refer this to as ‘Big Data’. Eventually the over come of data will take over and over flow because the amount will be too much to comprehend. Infographics is a new way of displaying information/ representing data. Deb Roy presentation on TEDTALK called ‘record your life’ shows an example of this through recording moments of his sons life, growing up and having a inside look at what happens daily in the life of a child. During these years, he gathered information and data through recording speech movements and influences of the company and whereabouts of the home. Using this recorded information the data has even showed when Debroy’s son spoke his first words. This idea has become known to many varieties of people and has shown how this method is more fascinating and creative than just gathering photo’s for a family album. Here is the video clip of the seminar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE4ce4mexrU

Public Exhibitions

Glasgow visual artist David Shrigley, produced a painting for Derry City of Culture 2013. This painting was a bold statement to say that the expenses of the city yet being small, is becoming poorer. The title of the painting was ‘News’ followed by the statement of ‘Small city becomes £25,000 poorer. This of course brought confrontation for the community as he was asked and paid the same amount as mentioned in the painting, to produce something creative for the city. We are questioned about this painting and were asked about our views and statements to start a discussion about the matter. A majorly of the classes agreed that this style of art was stupid for the fact that it looked rushed and simple, also for the fact that anyone could have produced this. This lead to our tutor highlighting the fact of not everyone would have had the idea or creativity behind the artwork itself, which got me thinking of the fact that maybe somethings are more than they appear from that even the simple form of art can cause confrontation through creative thinking. From this technique of painting, the bold statement was able to travel from newspapers, social networks and headlines and was talked about vastly by everybody. Through this, the topic of Simulacra and conceptual art started to be discussed by our tutor. The term of logical thinking behind David Shrigley’s artwork is now art being structured into something that can be more than just seeing through a camera lens. That’s where the creativity comes from. Another example of a visual artist would be from the styles of Tracey Emin through her rough, exposed and graphic concepts of artwork which describe her life through different forms of art such like ‘My Bed’ where each item within that piece describes her and who she is. French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, a social theorist and critic had a passion and inspiration for post modernism. His articles were mainly about theories about the first Gulf war and whether it happened or not because no one really knew what actually happened or what it was like. The only witness that endured such events and to question the reality of the situation was a solider who was shot by a bullet at that very moment he faced reality. This piece spoke out in a way of changing peoples perspectives on the subject on them seeing it in a different way and to question the topic of ‘are we real or not’. Whenever we think about Simulacra, we think to the fact of that is it linked through the term of conceptual thinking.Reality will always be questioned, and to be it can be looked upon as a state of mind. This will be debated by many people wondering about their own reality and their perspectives and views on how they see it for themselves. So instead of looking at a form of art and only seeing its appearance, look beyond that and think about the thought and meaning behind it.

The Modernism Age

Modernism has now become part of the 21st generation of living. It began with the industrial revelation with two main factors. One being the Industry and the other concerning the cities. Within the cities, modernism was taken over with involving art into architecture with museums or public sculptures etc. A new sense of seeing artwork was invented which could only be described as inexpressible. An example of modernism through art is Jackson Pollock, a drip paint artist. His artwork shows a demonstration of art can be expressed as something that doesn’t have to be detailed or perfect but can be just about colours and patterns that show emotion and messages through a mixture of drips, splashes and heavy brushstrokes. This made Jackson very popular from his unique and creative sense of style which had a tone of confusion in it. Each painting had a story to tell behind it, and even though this style of artwork was hard to figure out that’s what made his work famous. This painting named ‘ Full Fathom Five (1949) was one of his most famous forms of art: Though, artists who produce art that is too different or expressive can cause confrontation within communities such as writer and artist James Joyce, for he was banned from Ireland for his forward and shocking artwork. A particular piece for this was named ‘ Finnegan’s Wake”. Modernism is now about obsession with knowing about you. For example, what you are doing? Where you are going? etc. This is generated to be a search for ‘yourself’. It is also obsessed with physiology, example, the Pavlov’s dog which was an experiment tested by Ivan Pavlov and Jung who were both great physiologists, analysed the flow of the past into the future. Another great physiologist was Freud who believed that everything was based on sex or was somehow linked to the topic. Postmodernism is now a new form of how we live today, is has brought a sense of boundaries and discipline. It is about us, and our views and opinions on how we see things. Another topic that has been debated on has been about intertextuality and how most of the world that we see today isn’t real such as movies etc and how easy it is to copy ideas off other writers and producers. Subjectivity is an emphasis on impression and how seeing (reading or perception) takes place, rather looking at what is perceived example Big Brother. It’s all about you. Shallowness as another term following the idea that everybody is self centered to a degree that we do not care about the important things half the time and whenever we do, we delay looking into it further for another time. Finally Non-linear Narrative is an emphasis on another way of seeing the world through fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives and random seeming collages of different materials. At the end of the day, our society is run by self pleasure and self service through the community being self involved. But if people weren’t selfish once in a while then they wouldn’t have the opportunity to aim for certain goals and wouldn’t get what they want in life, so that saying, post modernism may have changed society for the better.

The Term of Network Art

Network art is all about Identity. Modern sources of data are used as infographics which is a new way of visually showing statistics. Through infographics, we can now show information in a simpler form, to help more people understand statistics and data in a graphic image instead of reading vast amount of text and not making sense of it. Open source is giving the code to everyone, the ability to transfer information or software onto other types of technology, which is how Arcade Fire was able to make that music video by allowing people to openly share data to view different browers of information. For example our tutor brought in a DELL notebook but had the setting and programming of a Apple Mackintosh which was then given the name ‘Hackintosh’. This just shows how easy it is to use open source to transfer even programming to different forms of technology like the DELL notebook which proves that everyone can be open to use these codes for personal use. Finally our tutor gave the class an experiment to see how we would react in certain situation and for us to give our thoughts and views on the matter since we use our lives as a open source via. Facebook because we were given an example of an artist who wrote a novel written entirely by tweets called ‘The Black Box’. So to start off we were asked a question of: revealing a secret monogamy by tweeting a women with two lovers, one poor and one rich, who should she chose if she had a choice? I personally stated that if the poor man shows you more affection than the rich man, then its a decision between fortune or affection. Then we were asked to think of a secret that we wouldn’t share publicly, not even to our closest friends, write on a slip of paper and anonymously post it up on the board. After our lecturer would read out each secret to reveal what kind of people we had among us in the class room. This shows that if we can’t reveal our secrets to the classroom because we may feel ashamed or embarrassed then why post our feelings and situations up on a public network? The Network art, is a rapidly changing system. There is a term called ‘The New Aesthetic’ which means: the physical world/ the digital world is different compared to marking your territory or sharing information physically or digitally by using phones etc. There is a video of youtube called ‘Mark your territory’ which is of a man who experiments with connecting pink coloured paper to a mobile phone and then applying it to either a wall or a certain place on the ground and simple urinating on it to see if it would pick up the data, which it did. This acted like a GPS. How this worked, was that seeds were planted within these slips of paper and whenever the urine hit it, it would release these seeds to grow over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdfeb7vDWg#t=15 Arcade Fire was the name of the company who came up with this inventive idea to create a music video using the data of a GPS reading and Google maps to show you the location of where you are. This particular video lets a story constantly flow throughout the song whilst a man is running down a street, but, with the GPS data showing where you live, this information transfers to the video making it look like this animated man is running near to where you are, with different browers of animations opening up to add a range of amusement and involvement of sharing data. I find this use of method very interesting and creative with being able to use your own data to tell a story and create something entertaining.