wrap up

It is rather bewildering that I am already writing my final entry. Is this meant as some sort of a cruel intimidation tactic? Regardless, I am quite ambivalent with respect to blogs. My tenacious aversion to technology, exacerbated by the frustrations of my excruciatingly slow typing speed, has left a lingering distaste. In other words, I would never choose to write a blog of my own volition. However, after setting one up, writing a few entries and discovering that it is an essentially harmless exercise, I am now able to understand why it is that someone one else might be so compelled. Academically, blogs hold little promise. They have a colloquial reputation, and I find it difficult to imagine that they would ever be a preffered style for academic papers which tend to be dense, rather demanding of their audience, and generally conform to a strict format. The short entry form, which creates a distorted sense of paragraphs, henders my ability or desire to write anything substantive in blogs. Of course the entry could be written in word and transferred, but I generally find papers in the form of pdf files, much more transparent than those that have been mutated by blogger.
So, the final tally-
- If I'm going to write in an informal style I would prefer writing by hand, I find typing somewhat unenjoyable.
- Not transparent enough to support academic papers.
- Good use of it in this class to keep an informal check on general progress of the course.

presentations

Individual personas were by far the most protean and appreciable features of the presentations. It is interesting to watch styles develop and differentiate. I think we all have a distinct ideas about the type of forum that we are likely to present in and we have begun to taylor our voices to conform to the expectations of our respective presentation cultures. Stacy's presentation was professional, but non technical, fitting for an assembly of teachers, Davids presentation was enthusiastic with a latent energy that conveyed excitement about a new product. Johnathans' conveyed the conversion of a childhood's store of observation, into an insightful reflection on the future of video gaming, and would have been appropriate in a product development setting.

wiki's

I'm extremely skeptical. Intellectual progress is generally met with incredible resistance. If Copernicus had been subjected to the censure of a wikipedia when he proposed his theory that the earth was not in fact the center of of the universe, his idea would have been immediately whitewashed. Correct in the wikipedia sense seems to be the view that is popularly held. It leaves little room for intellectual confrontation, nor does it preserve the active thesis anti-thesis dialogue that is so crucial to intellectual development. Ideas should be preserved as they are. Any ideas that are concieved and represented in language should remain essentially true to authors original intent. Otherwise, subsequent interpretations are not only muddled by the distortion of author to reader, but are a process of distortion upon distortion upon distortion. This is not to say that editing is not valuable, or that it is somehow untrue to the authors original intent. Rather, editing is a process that is a dialogue with the author, and is meant to amplify rather than alter the authors meaning. Inherent in any process of publication is a censorship of ideas. However, quality and change is a result of challenges to the status quo, and cultivation of thoughts and viewpoints that are not popularly supported.

after talk

The two slides seemed to bee the standout feature of my presentation so I think I'll try to work off of that for next time. I also want to make some sort of meaningful connection though, so I'm going to try to drive home a specific point that will be memorable. There will probably only be one take away idea. In eight minutes even this may be asking a lot but I want to work off of something that everyone will remember for at least a week or two.

The Plan

I liked how two slides worked last time, using just a couple of images freed me from a lot of the constraints of powerpoint. The next presentation is a bit longer so structure will be especially important. I'm not entirely sure what I'm giong to do to corner some attention, but the a lot of times the art is capable of accomplishing that on its own.

Things to think to about

The thing is that there are so many possibilities. It’s hard to narrow the list of options down to just a couple of things that I’d like to look into, but I’ll give it a go. I’m fascinated by art. Who wouldn’t be? It’s a reflection of who we are, how we visualize the world, and how we imagine it could be. The strange thing is that I usually think of art in the context of a museum or a collection. In many ways, the computer seems to be neglected as an appropriate medium for visual expression. Modern art is something to be found in a gallery, at the MOMA, it is limited by tangible materials and space. Why is it that the computer does not have more prestige? I’ve heard it said that one aspect of modern art is that it is big. What larger arena could possibly exist than the internet? There is no other way to connect so many minds on such a grand scale. Art as way to fixate expression in the collective imagination of the web seems as though it could have incredible potential, and yet it seems to command so little respect. Perhaps this conception only advertises my technological ignorance, if it does, and if there is, in fact, a vibrant visual online art community I would be excited immensely. Will there ever be a Rembrandt, Greco, or Warhol of the web? Does he exist already? Along these lines there are a couple of potential research questions I am tickled by.
What form does internet art take, is there a critical establishment, as there is for conventional (all irony intended) modern art?
http://www.dam.org/
Or
How do artists utilize, and exploit the unique characteristics of the web to express themselves?
http://digitalart.org/art.categories.php?ID=1

Oh God...

This is absolutely ridiculous. That's what I say about everything, but I really mean it this time. Nick has been pestering me about this sort of thing for an eternity. I feel like I'm giving in. I always got a sense of moral superiority from not having a blog, an ipod, a website, a phone, a computer, or electrical lighting. Just like I feel a little self satisfied because I rarely check my e-mail and I don’t have a face book site. Suckers...

There's this play that I read, the Rhinoceros by Ionesco, at the end the entire world is going nuts (everyone is turning into Rhinoceroses) and the main dude lets out this rant about how he won't ever conform and finally says "I will never capitulate!" That's how I feel, accept now I'm turning grey, growing a horn on my forehead, and snorting.

I don't listen to the messages on my cell phone either. I've spent a lot of time philosophizing about this sort of thing and I've come to the general conclusion that they're just really annoying. I did change my voice mail message once, I thought it was really clever. It started like this..."You have reached a forlorn, forsaken and forgotten voicemail box... you may say what you like, and it will neither be considered, nor attended, nor responded to." Something like that anyway. I guess this strategy can be sort of bothersome to other people, but I really hate having to take time everyday to check things. I'd rather clean the rancid, festering, pink scum off the communal sink or scrub the brown ring off the inside of my toilet everyday. At least then I could say I have a clean bathroom. Call me cut off, backwards, incompetent, Neolithic, whatever, I can't stand it and I don't ever plan to. I prefer my ignorance.
Well, perhaps this blog is a new dawn, but I doubt it, after all my words per minute still stands at about 15.