Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin is an artist that created the infamous Dreamachine. This piece of art is a device that spins 360 degrees around very quickly and has a light on the inside that shines through different size cutouts. it is put into a dark room and the audience is supposed to stand in front of the piece of art with their eyes closed. It is very interesting because everyone ends up seeing somethings differently. I think that the coolest thing about his Dreamachine is that the machine itself is not that art, the art is what you see when your eyes are closed. Because in the instructions, you are told directly to not look at the piece of art, you're not even supposed to see what he created. What he is creating is the image that you are seeing when your eyes are closed. It is a very cool concept that is extremely out of the box. It is very complex but also very simple. He has done other pieces of art that are fun, but none are as famous or as thought-provoking as the Dreamachine. The people in the video are looking through slits in their eyes and they're also talking while they're looking at the Dreamachine. I don't think it would be as effective if you talk or don't follow instructions. I would imagine you'd have to be in your own zone.

McCarthyism

U.S Senator Joesph McCarthy is the man behind the -ism, McCarthyism. The -ism came to be in the 1950's at the height of the Red Scare with the Soviets. There was a huge Communist witch hunt against Americans whom were assumed to be undercover spies for the Soviet Union, or of whom were followers of the Communist Party. The actual term, McCarthyism, can be defined as accusing people of disloyalty or treason without any proper evidence against them. McCarthy would take people without any evidence that they were actually spies or Communists and put them on trial. A particular and popular trail had to deal with the Hollywood Ten, a group of ten Hollywood actors, writers and directors that were accused of being Communists. Another popular couple that were put under trial for espionage were the Rosenbergs. I did a presentation on the Rosenbergs when I was in 10th grade. I don't remember much about it though. McCarthyism affected thousands of Americans, most of whom were wrongly accused of being Communists. I did, in fact, have to read The Crucible while we were studying the Red Scare in 10th grade. At the time I remember it being an extremely difficult book to get through, but I was only 16 years old.

Bauhaus and HIMYM

Bauhaus was a fine arts school in Germany, known for its teaching of design. The Bauhaus school was not originally built as a school for architecture. The original mission behind the Bauhaus school was to create a total piece of art, including crafting, fine arts, and architecture. Bauhaus style was really popular during the modern art era, including modern design and modern architecture. When Germany was defeated in WWI, there was a great burst of radicalism and experimentation that artists developed and evolved. Bauhaus was influenced and inspired by this experimentation. The most influential part of the past on Bauhaus was modernism though. It turned simplicity into art. The architecture put out by the  school of Bauhaus include different buildings, but also functional things such as chairs and cabinetry. The school of Bauhaus has a big impact on trends in building in Europe, building simple, square, plain, but complex buildings. Now that we're past the boring informational part of Bauhaus, I think it's very funny some impact Bauhaus has had on media. I think Bauhaus trend has influenced the Western World's stereotype on Eastern artists. Perfect example, in How I Met Your Mother, there is an episode about building a new headquarter for Goliath National Bank, and they bring in European architectures called, "Sven". They are very mod and they come up with crazy ideas for buildings. It reminded me a lot of the modernism and European vibe of Bauhaus.

Grid Art

After having a lot of difficulty finding a pre-existing grid that went along with my idea of using paper flowers that had to be glued on, I decided to make my own grid on a piece of foam board. The picture I used was the Dave Matthew's Band Firedancer. The original picture was in black and white, so I chose the coloring by myself. I then drew a grid on the piece of paper, and followed the pictures lines by what picture was in which grid. In total I used 2,189 flowers. 

Dada Manifesto

The Dada Manifesto was first recited by Hugo Ball in 1917. The second writing of the Dada Manifesto was written by Tzara in 1918 and was considered one the the most important Dada writings. Other manifestos were published in the future, but none were as important as Tzara's as it explained the complexity of the Dada movement. In these manifestoes, dada is explained as simple, that it can mean anything. Come before or after any word, and complete the sentence. Simple as that. I would say not so simple to one that was not as radical as those in the dada movement. Dada, in Ball's manifesto is also described as the cure for everything and the answer to everything. A way to find bliss, a way to become famous and a means to ones end. Tzara's manifesto mainly describes the way that the poems and the vowels and the sounds move through speech and how they explain things and make actions. The Dada movement, especially the poetry through sounds reminds me slightly of a neurological condition called synesthesia. People that are diagnosed with synesthesia are able to combine letters or colors in capital or lower case in order to form words that accurately describe an action or an instance. For example, my friend Becca was diagnosed with synesthesia, and her speciality is naming people. She told me that my name is dugger, all with lowercase letters. It seems odd to some that may not understand the neurological condition, but "dugger" accurately describes my personality and my being. The combination of letters and how they look is, in essence, me. It reminds me a lot of the Dada movement, because that is exactly what they were doing, but purposefully instead of actually having the condition.

Video Games and Bullying

I have very mixed emotions about video games regarding their effect on bullying. I do believe that video games have a direct affect on the attitudes, attention span, and social abilities of children. But I'm not sure how well you can directly connect video games to bullying. I believe it would have to be a process of a couple of steps. In short, I don't think kids learn bullying from video games, but I do believe that children can become more violent in action and attitude, allowing them to have the potential to become more like the common bully. For example, my brother used to play a ton of video games, and just like everything that you take in has an affect on your life and your actions, his actions directly related to his video game playing. He began to drift away from his friends, and even drift away from his family. In the peak of his video game addiction, he lost a lot of sleep because he stayed up all night playing games, which in turn made him very cranky and very mean. So it was not the shooting game that directly made him more violent, but rather it was the attitude change from playing video games that caused the harshness in his attitude. I also think that bullying can be a second hand effect from video games. Saying that, the person that plays the video games does not become the bully, but rather the person that plays excessive amounts of video games, and therefore pulls himself away from being able to socially interact with real people face to face, rather than avatars over a microphone, causes him/her to be bullied by other people. I'm not the biggest fan of video games, and I could probably go on and on about how video games change the social ability level of children from a very young age, but I will hold off as it could easily become a very angry rant. BUT in conclusion, I do believe that video games in excessive amount and not played moderately can cause drastic changes in a person's attitude and social abilities, as I've seen it happen with many people.

History of Adobe

Adobe Systems is a software company that is based out of California that creates software for design and multimedia use. Adobe was originally founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. One of the first softwares that Adobe created had to do with different type fonts in order to compete with Apple's typography. When the 1980's hit, Adobe started making software directed towards graphic designers, such as Adobe Photoshop, which enhances and manipulates pre-existing photos. Before Photoshop,  Adobe Illustrator was created, which allows the user to create customized shapes and figures which can be transformed later into fully transformed characters and objects. In 1993, Adobe created the PDF, which allowed for documents to be downloaded on a specific type of file. PDF is probably Adobe's most successful piece of software, as it is now used universally as a medium for technological documents. Another release made by Adobe was InDesign, which allows the user to create different pamphlets and books and separate pages all on the same page. Adobe's software creations have allowed graphic designers to reach an entirely new level of work that they are able to achieve. It is also amazing because it is user-friendly and almost anyone can get the hang of the systems once they have worked with it long enough. The software that Adobe has created has been the roots to many jobs that are available today that would not have been made had the software not been created. Hats off to you, Adobe!

Apple

Why is Apple called Apple? Well, the answers to this mysterious question were revealed in Steve Jobs' biography, as Steve Jobs was the original creator of the name Apple for his company. Many believe that the term Apple comes from the forbidden fruit that is so wonderful when you finally get ahold of it. According the the website that I researched, it was simply called Apple because of Jobs' past of working in the apple orchards. After having that experience, he believed that apples were, "fun, spirited, and not intimidating". Which perfectly matches the description of the computer that Jobs was originally intending to create for society. The first logo for the company was a very intensely drawn picture of Newton sitting under a detailed tree with an apple shining above his head on the branches. It was later simplified to the bitten apple that we see today in order to further elaborate the simplicity of the usage of the computer. Most websites that I looked at also say a similar story of why Apple of was called Apple, but they further expand the story into saying that at the time Jobs picked the name, he was  on an all fruit diet, and said if no one came up with a better name, he would call it Apple. I assume no one came up with a better name.

Raymond Kurzweil

In class, as I was watching the parts of the documentary with Raymond Kurzweil, I did not really like him. I thought he was a bit odd, as most futurists tend to be. I also thought he may be a computer himself, his wrinkles in his forehead eerily resembled lines in a computer disk. I decided to do some research on him to see what this guys really about. Other people tend to think he's a bit cooler than I think he is, as Forbes, Inc. has even recognized him as the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison". It turns out he was the original inventor of the flatbed scanner and the first print-to-speech machine for the blind, which in my opinion is an extremely important invention for the handicapped. I'm starting to think as if the documentary shaped him as some Scientologist-Mayan2012-alien kidnapping, futuristic Jetson. Rather than writing about War of the Worlds and Cyborgs taking over the world, it seems that most of Kurzweil's books are actually about health and how to remain healthy, as he has faced some real health issues by not taking care of himself. After researching about him, Kurzweil, nor his opinions, do not seem that god-awful. Moral: Don't judge a computer by it's monitor.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

I picked to listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar because the name sounded captivating. Although when I started listening I discovered that Johnny Dollar is an insurance agent. I thought, maybe this will not be so interesting. Then it began to turn into a murder mystery. There were different actors in the show as opposed to a narrator, like a book-on-tape. There was also descriptive music to go along with startling events that would happen. The actors had a strong New York accent, so I envisioned men smoking cigars with low-tipped hats as they were talking to each other. Kind of the gangster ages of New York 1920's era. The mystery took place in an amusement park, as carts fell off of ferris wheels and killed people. There was a villain, named Carter Lacey, he admitted that he would kill people. He was in jail for killing a person. Lacey also admitted that out of the three people that were first interviewed, two of them would be dead. The rest of the broadcast was trying to find out who would die. I think I missed how this turned from an insurance agent man to a detective story. As I was listening to both Johnny Dollar and War of the Worlds, I found it very difficult to concentrate and follow along. As part of the generation that never really knew life without or besides television, I felt as if I needed a picture to follow along and understand a plot. In a book I can read and picture a whole entire scene, but I can read at my own pace. If you miss something on a radio station, it's difficult to go back and listen to it.

Broadcast-The War of the Worlds

As soon as Orson Welles started talking, I was creeped out because of how his voice sounded. Like it was stated in the documentary about television, without having a picture, radio allows the listener to create whatever picture they want in their minds of whatever they are listening to. I envisioned a creepy guy, speaking in the dark. I was kind of expecting him to say, "You are about to enter, the Twilight Zone!" and all of my lights would flash out and the windows would crack. The breaks in-between the broadcast, with the music and the weather, allowed for the listeners to think that they were just listening to a regular broadcast. Although, the interruptions regarding the Hydrogen gas, which were a part of the trick, were very good additives into leading the listeners into believing and partaking in the arrival of the "aliens". The interviews between the fake Generals and the Vice Presidents of companies, along with the orders to fire bombs and gunshots, were also a very intelligent move into making the listeners really believe they were being attacked. If I were listening to this when it actually happened, I would be in hysterics. I can understand how people were freaking out over the broadcast, as they depended so heavily on the radio to relay the real news and facts of what's happening around them. I feel as if this broadcast actually sped up the production of the television. I don't know how people could establish what news was real and what news was fake after this broadcast was aired. Therefore, they not only needed to hear the news, people needed to see the news in real-time in order to believe that the news being reported is actually real.

Television Timeline

This website was a very fun website to play around on and look at. I enjoyed how interactive the website was. Everywhere you click it wold send you to more and more places within the website. I also enjoyed the tv antics that were used throughout the website, such as the black and white lines whenever you went back to the home screen. Within the timeline section of the website, I really liked how the information given for each decade was not just for America. There was information about the television progressing all over the world. My favorite part of the timeline though would have to be the pictures of all of the different television sets that were made throughout the years, and being able to read about the functionalities of each television set throughout history. My favorite television throughout history would probably be the Space Aged television from 1967 due to its compact size and futuristic and modern shape. I would have liked the timeline to go past 1975 though because there have been extremely large advancements in television and even though we are living through them right now, there will be more advancements very soon and the televisions today, as we know them, will be history soon enough.

War of the Worlds

After Orson Welles presented his rendition of War of the Worlds over the radio in 1938, people went into mass hysteria. People were hysterical because they actually thought that the broadcast was actually real and it was actually happening. Considering the radio was the new forefront in presenting the public with national and local news, people actually thought that what was being presented was real. Considering the television was not really invented yet, or in the homes of the public, the listeners could not see real-time what was happening while the broadcasters were talking, so for all they knew, it actually could have been happening. The sound effects that went along with the broadcast added the extra special effect that an alien invasion was actually happening right where the broadcasters were. People also reacted strongly due to the recent hysteria on the radio of WWII. Another reason people freaked out was because in Washington, due to the amount of people calling into the radio station to confirm if the broadcast was actually true or not, there was a power outage. People thought that the power outage was due to aliens invading their town. If I was in that position in 1938, I probably would have built a bunker.

Brain Images

I read an article, although it was dated back to 2008, about researchers in Japan that have created technology to take images from the brain and reconstruct them outside of the brain, like on a computer. These researchers say that they can even take it as far as to be able to view peoples' dreams in the upcoming future. The technology behind being able to reconstruct the images deals with an fMRI scan, allowing the scan to see the blood flow in the brain at real time. As the fMRI scanner was scanning the blood flow of the brain, images were shown to the subjects of the testing, allowing the computer to put together the connection between how the blood flows in the brain based upon the certain images being shown. I do believe that this technology is a forefront in modern medical and psychological technology, but it slightly scares me. It scares me that in the future, advertisers or companies could be able to not only take images from our brain, but implant images into our brain in order to make us think a certain idea.