The Future of Our Fears

Artificial intelligence, time travel, aliens and the apocalypse. Fear of what the future holds is inherent in this age of technology. Age of the Spiritual Machine is a book written by Ray Kurszweil, who has been called the "restless genius" according to the Wall Street Journal, and the "ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes. In this book, Kurszweil outlines a future utopia he foresaw - one in which humans gained near immortality by becoming one with robotic technology.

Our most powerful 21st-century technologies continue to grow at an incredible rate. We as a society may be seeing the items on the following list coming true in our time:

• ·     New senses, telepathy
• ·     Brain transplants
• ·     Matter reformation
• ·     Weather control
• ·     Contact lens displays
• ·     Alter space and time
• ·     Life on other planets
• ·     Alien contact
• ·     Synthetic/eternal life
• ·     Intelligent machines
• ·     Cryogenic sleep
• ·     Cloning: extinct animals, ourselves
• ·     Bionic implants for strength
• ·     Creation of new organisms
• ·     Genes from other species implanted in us

At first glance, some of these topics seem farcical, perhaps even laughable. Technology is progressing at a rate that the public may not even realize, and for scientists on the cutting edge of technology, these subjects which were once laughable, are now becoming topics under serious scientific and philosophical scrutiny.

Many crucial topics to consider when thinking about the future of technology involve ideas of dependence, and power. For example, who is dependent on who? And from there, who has the power? In his book, Kurzweil discusses a society in which humans have become so dependent upon machines, that turning the off switch becomes equated with suicide.

 Common fears associated with technological advances include:

• · Advancing at immoderate rates to think of consequences, “blind progress”
• · “playing God”
• · creation of excessively powerful weapons
• · disproving God
• · disappearance of the human race, replaced by "cyborgs", bionic/human hybrids
• · cloning dead people and extinct animals could have unforeseen consequences

These advances in technology, and the inevitable ethical and moral issues involved intrigue me, it's as if technologic advancement is the new frontier. No longer is the world concerned with discoveries of the earth, but today, we are concerned with discoveries of the mind. When encountering these predictions about the future, the mind creates pictures and ideas about how it would look like if these predictions ever transpired. 

Drawing from these mental images, and their associated fears, I wanted to portray the future, and illustrate the negative results that technology may bring. 

Digital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software.

A graphics tablet (or digitizer, digitizing tablet, graphics pad, drawing tablet) is a computer input device that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper.

Using Photoshop CS2 (and yes, I know I'm behind the times with adobe software), and a Wacom graphics tablet, I hope to portray a frightening world in which technology, not us, possesses the power.

Here are some digital paintings from various artists online who have also focused on a nightmarish, menacing future:

The Medusa Fields by spyroteknik

Future Face 5 by biz02

Rusty Future by eWKn

Here's a short video explaining technological advancement within the next 50 years, covering various topics:

Here's another video from a Microsoft commercial, illustrating their vision of the future:



Here is the final digital painting, encompassing cloning of the dead, the apocalypse, and cyborgs:

Please click for full view! :)

They Are Not Artists

In New Media from Borges to HTML, Lev Manovich maintains that due to the innovations of people like Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart, they should be hailed as artists. Manovich comes to this conclusion by initially exclaiming that because technology actualizes the ideas behind projects by artists, the technology becomes art in and of itself. He continues to say that the web is art, that Final Cut Pro and Aftereffects is art, and finally, those who invented these technologies are consequently artists.


I beg to differ. These men, who I consider to be extremely relevant, intelligent and etc., are not artists. They are inventors, and they are visionaries. Are the minds behind such things as a chair, a screwdriver, the printing press, the car- are they artists? Certainly not. An artist is someone who practices a creative art. An inventor is someone who creates a process or device. The key point here being that we should not misconstrue Caravaggio with Ted Nelson.

Caravaggio, Artist

Ted Nelson, Inventor

The idea that we can not define what New Media is was also troubling to me. If we can't define what it is, (basically a lack of objectivity) then how can we even identify what New Media is when we see it, or explain it? What is the point of having a textbook? It's like taking a really bad philosophy class and getting graded (objectively I might add) and then at the end of the term, say that because we can't define it we can't know anything?

Furthermore, if we are to associate rhizomes with the idea of New Media, then perhaps we can build a definition of New Media from the foundation of what a rhizome is. In A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, a rhizome is comprised of 6 principles:

• 1 and 2: Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be
• 3. Principle of multiplicity: only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity" that it ceases to have any relation to the One
• 4. Principle of asignifying rupture: a rhizome may be broken, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines
• 5 and 6: Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model; it is a "map and not a tracing"

More simply put, Deleuze once said that a rhizome can be thought of as "an image of thought". 

If we were to take this definition, then is the internet and new media the result or "image" of collective thoughts? 


Considering the idea of a rhizome and interconnectivity, when combined with technology, I thought of the novella written by Ayn Rand entitled Anthem. This story is set in the future, with a society that is so collectivized that the word "I" has vanished from the language.  In the story, technological advancements are planned, if they're allowed at all. 


I feel as though the idea of rhizomes and technology are very relevant to the world that Rand created in her story. One of the main points she makes is the idea of vanishing individualism, and how it wreaks havoc among civilization. Does technology, by creating global integration, contribute to decreasing individualism?


Here's an excerpt from Anthem.

The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga

LADY GAGA

Lady Gaga is a phenomenon in and of herself. Her manipulation of a variety of digital media and technology plays an integral role in her ability to have direct contact with her fans, transform her identity, and to control her image. 

The various types of media in her technologic arsenal include but are not limited to social medias, her armada of musical outlets, and the invasion of television. Within all of these factions, Lady Gaga debuts technological outfits and props into her persona, not only on the stage, but in her every day activities. These range from iPOD LCD glasses, mechanical dresses, involvement in Polaroid company as creative director, and more.


Social Media:

• facebook
• blog
• website
• myspace
• transmission gagavision

Music:

• itunes
• cd's
• albums
• ipod application
• video games
• range of Gaga earbuds

Television

• interviews
• award shows
• tours
• music videos
• appearances

Lady Gaga and LCD glasses

Gaga and her earbuds

One of the most apparent uses of technology that Lady Gaga has mastered has been her ability to reinvent herself with every new type of media she uses, as if each format contains an independent part of the Lady Gaga persona.

·     "By creating a new fictional storyworld to play in, Lady Gaga has yet another tool in her media arsenal and by making sure that each platform iteration of her music is a significantly different package than any other, the audience isn’t getting bored."  -The Social Robot

Powerpoint demonstration to illustrate her manipulation of various media.

This project was quite enjoyable to create, as finding "scholarly" or academic articles on Lady Gaga were far and few between and was a challenge. In fact, some of the most interesting information came from tabloid media outlets, which offered the chance to take that information and turn it into a topic of scholarly context. I found many useful websites that proposed theories on Gaga concerning a wide range of topics, from gender to sociology, to economics to technological debates, to psychology. 

Whether we like it or not, or agree with her tactics, the persona that Stefani Germanotta has created to be Lady Gaga continues to escalate on a global scale. And the woman behind this rocketing pop-vehicle continues to prove to be calculating, and is very aware of her use of technology.

The Medium is the Message

Marshall McLuhan was, amongst his many endeavors, a professor of English literature whose work is widely considered to be a foundation for the study of media theory. In fact, his achievements won him the honor of being titled the "patron saint" of Wired magazine. In his book The Medium is the Massage, McLuhan aims to "consider the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns that amplify or accelerate existing processes". In simpler terms, McLuhan believes that the medium in which a message is conveyed through directly affects and influences how the message is perceived.

Marshall McLuhan by Monsteroftheid

Furthermore, McLuhan states that "It is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association." He goes on to state  that cubism seizes on instant total awareness,  and therefor encapsulates the idea that the medium is the message.

McLuhan continually assures the reader that the message was once about "content", saying that people used to ask what a painting was about, but that in this electric age we should focus more upon the medium than the message, or content. I agree with McLuhan in that the medium definitely has a strong effect on the message that is trying to be conveyed, but I don't agree that the medium should take preeminence to the content. Perhaps being an artist who follows a more traditionalist view of painting has quite an effect on my opinion, but personally, I wouldn't be "doing" art if all I was focused upon was the medium in which I wanted to convey my ideas. I wouldn't want to cast away my ideas for the purposes McLuhan was trying to have us be attentive to, if he indeed wanted people to solely focus upon mediums instead of content. In fact, I would throw away my painters brush if I thought viewers of my art were only interested in seeing it due to the fact that its on a canvas and that I used oil paints, rather than the content of the painting.

I understood McLuhan's points about the fact that the medium affects the message, but I reject his idea that this concept is what we should be focusing on. It seemed as though he wants people to focus more on media theories and derivations and mediums rather than focusing upon the actual substances of subject matter. I don't think that we as a society would achieve anything if we focused upon the fact that a painting is on a canvas rather than what is actually portrayed IN the painting. And so while I understand McLuhan's assertions that mediums do have an inherent influence upon messages, I don't believe that they should require more attention than what is actually being conveyed by the message.

On a side note, I found this video of McLuhan discussing his term "the global village" highly relevant to what the world is experiencing today, with resources and online communities like Twitter and Facebook.



Furthermore, I thought it would be interesting to illustrate McLuhan's idea that the medium is the message by showing various "renditions" of the Mona Lisa, and seeing if the viewer really finds the medium more influential than the actual picture... so here goes the "experiement":

The Mona Lisa in chocolate

Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle

Mona Lisa as toast

Mona Lisa as styrofoam bust

The true Mona Lisa, oil on poplar panel

Is the medium the message?

Evolution of Technology & Society

After reading The Technology & The Society by Raymond Williams, I wanted to create videos that involved the past, present and future of technology.  And incidently, each of my pieces seems to give different impressions on my opinion of technology, and as to whether I view it in a positive or negative light. The first to explain what technology is and how we use it today, then the evolution of technology, and finally where technology has brought us. These videos can be viewed directly from my Youtube channel here.

The first video is entitled Technology. I define technology as the creation or evolution of an object or process that brings about an easier or more efficient result. With this video, I aimed at highlighting the various ways technology has made our lives easier or more efficient. Additionally, I wanted to juxtapose the fact that while some places around the globe are becoming more and more technologically advanced, others continue to live their lives with technology that has become our past.



In the second video, entitled The Evolution of Technology I wanted to create a strong narrative and message without using dialogue. The video begins with peaceful music and footage depicting the beginnings of technology. Next, complicated machinery and artifacts from the industrial revolution came to become the newest technology. Then, I wanted to portray a sort of dark side of technology, and what our world could become. Personally, I believe that a sort of mindless technologic revolution could occur, one in which progress is made for the sake of pushing boundaries heedlessly and without thought. A world in which all we do is create without thought for consequences. I wanted to show this with one of the creepiest ideas I believe has come out of this technologic age, and that is the idea of robots or androids. My father was a robotic technician when I was a child, and he was always bringing home state of the art robots to show us. Back then it was exciting because these robots had purposes, such as cleaning the house or creating other machines. But when I see videos of androids whose only purpose is to be as human as possible, it makes me question the idea of aimless technology.



In my third video, The Evolution of Society I wanted to make a social critique of a negative side of technology. This footage is one minute long with no video or auditory edits, and shows an exhausted, out of shape man surrounded by technology. If one was ever to use the phrase "waste of space" this video would be the poster child.

I have some trepidation that in the near future people will become socially inept due to their increasing time spent with solitary technology. Not only will they become socially inept, but they will become physically ill due to stimulation without processing the technologic stimuli they are surrounded by, because they have no interaction with the people around them.



The influence of technology to the human mind:

Killed by Technology

On a lighter yet similar vein of thought, I have always loved this clip of Homer Simpson evolving through eons into a man, in order to sit on his couch and watch television:

Remix by Lawrence Lessig

The disjuncture between copyright laws and technology are explored in the book entitled Remix by Lawrence Lessig, and aims to repeal current copyright laws as he claims they are antiquated, or out of date.The major points brought up in this article involve the idea that nothing is new, and remixing old ideas is supposed to create something new, the various democratic differences to types of expression, and accepting the critics.

Lawrence Lessig

I loved Lessig's statement that "any qualified Hollywood lawyer would tell you there's a fundamental difference between quoting Hemingway and quoting Sam Wood's version of Hemingway." I had always wondered about what this fundamental difference was in my ascendence through the world of academia. I never needed to cite well known Shakespearean quotes, but needed to cite The Da Vinci Code.


Indeed, I thought Lessig raised some very concise and logical arguments for why copyright laws are basically in the medieval ages. The stories about Disney complaining about Mickey mouse painted on a wall at a kindergarten where absolutely repellent, and was a great extreme example of how out of touch current laws are.

Evil Mickey

Other arguments were made about the quality of democratized writing, such as blogs having the ability to be more accurate and weighty as The New York Times. Additionally, referring to the internet as an ecosystem was a very interesting way of defining the blogosphere, more in terms of its impact upon the producer of the content than the viewers. I had never put much thought into this idea, but realized that if my diary had the potential to be read and commentated upon by millions of readers, it's contents would change drastically. Lessig's reference to internet trolls was highly amusing, mostly because they reminded me of this video: Internet Bridge Troll


However, I found it admirable that he doesn't filter comments or delete them, all for the sake of growing as a writer and thinker. I think Lessig hit the nail on the head when he said to reward critics. In science, the only way to become right is to try and prove yourself wrong, which can also be called being contrastive. In this respect, if a someone has a thought or theory, and continually tries and proves it wrong and can't, then it can be said that with all the knowledge that they have, they are currently right in their beliefs.

Overall, Lessig gave a compelling argument for why we should include media into the ways in which we remix the rest of the areas of our lives, such as writing, conversations and thoughts. It  should be as he calls it, creativity supported by a new technology.

The Technology & the Society

Written by Raymond Williams, The Technology and the Society and was published 1972, and attempted to recognize how technology and society interacted in order to bring about the television. Williams proposes two categories of how technology has altered our world: technological determinism, and symptomatic technology. From there, Williams  suggests that we dismiss the first two categories, and that we view technology and inventions as effects of human intention, guided by "social needs, purposes and practices". This view remedies Williams initial problem with categorizing technology as an effect or a cause, because every invention is then en effect of intent.

Raymond Williams

The late 19th century and early 20th century format for inventions could be illustrated from Williams conclusion of technology, as effects of human intention guided by social needs, purposes and practices. This format continues to bear striking resemblance to the late 20th century and the world we live in today. For example, I can remember being in high school and hearing from my teachers that many of the world's new technology originates from science fiction novels, but are created for "current" needs. Technology that was proposed in books such as Star Trek, and Star Wars can be seen to be coming true today.

Here are just five inventions we owe to science fiction (from this website):
1) Electronic Book Readers
2) Wireless Tracking Monitor Bracelets
3) Light Sculptures
4) Networked Electronic Voting Machines
5) Computerized Language Translation Software

One example that I love, from one of my favorite book series, Harry Potter, inspired technology that the U.S Army is inventing right now, called an invisibility cloak. If anything, history, and series of events like designing technology originating from novels, tells us that while some inventions are created accidentally,  most are foreseen (as Williams states) in human imagination or are created out of necessity, and are constructed when the technological means are available. I've heard from many teachers that the future is essentially governed by science fiction novels, which interestingly coincides with Williams view that technology is "foreseen". This idea in itself is an immense and fascinating concept to contemplate.

Possible Invisibility Cloak Technology

Screen Capture from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I thought Williams consideration of technology and society was commendable because he united the two thoughts of technology, technological determinism and symptomatic technology. But while he characterized technology as the effect of human intention, he also recognizes but simultaneously glosses over accidental inventions/discoveries that have altered our world today, such as penicillin, radioactivity and plastic. Perhaps Williams would argue that these discoveries nevertheless contained an intention to discover, and would then correspondingly agree with his thesis. However, William's thesis would be a lot stronger if he were able to account for these accidental discoveries more adequately if he actually discussed them as results of intent, instead of glossing over them.

Today, television is being used as an artistic medium, which is a far cry from it's initial objectives of a mass media communications device. Film genre's categorize narrative elements of films, and the experimental film faction is quite a, for the lack of a better word, unique result echoing from the invention of the television. After viewing William Wegman's  short video's, including Deodorant and Crooked Finger, I questioned his intentions for making the videos, as well as his intentions for calling them "art". While silly and sometimes amusing, they didn't convey any humanistic truths to me, weren't beautiful, and were not significant, to use all the available definitions of art. This was true of the videos watched in class, but upon viewing his photographs of his dog Man Ray, I could begin to understand why he is considered an artist:

"Puppies" by William Wegman

"Hansel and Gretal" by William Wegman

"On Set" by William Wegman

The photos, unlike his videos, conveyed artistic conception and thought, and demonstrated talent.

Along the same vein of Wegman, the artist Anthony Goicolea utilized video as a tool for artistic expression. The video Amphibians was a very different use of the medium than Wegman's approach. Goicolea's video's followed more of a conventional plot and character design than Wegman's, but is still considered an experimental piece because it places the viewer in a more thoughtful and active relationship to the film than mainstream films. I appreciate the effort put forth of Wegman and Goicolea's films, but will abstain from placing an opinion on the experimental film genre until I see more films along the line of Stan Brekhage, because I can actually think of his films as being art.

Burroughs & The State of Decay

In The New Media Reader, Noah Wardrip-Fruin declares that "there is nothing new under the sun." While this may sound like a sentimental artistic recycling notion, it also holds true in the realm of physics. The law of conservation of mass states the mass of an isolated system will remain constant over time. If this is true, than every artistic endeavor ever attempted is a part of an immense recycling system. However, this idea only holds true to domain of mass, right? Perhaps, but the idea of reusing information and ideas, not just physical material, has been a debate amongst philosophers for years. Most people believe that everything someone acquires, be that knowledge or matter, is due in some part to the preexisting world around you. And in that sense, there is nothing new under the sun.


Additionally, in the New Media Reader, Wardrip-Fruin states that "the surrealists were uninterested in tossing dice unless the throw might help to coax something up from the unconsciousness". This echos the ideas brought up in the article "the Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin" by William S. Burroughs, in which Burroughs adamantly attests that "poetry is for everyone" and that the act of "cutting up" words in order to create a new dialogue is a true form of art. Wardrip-Fruin and Burroughs I believe, would both support this notion of the need for human interaction or editing during the process of "cutting up" words, because of this necessity for the words to be able to speak to the human unconscious. If this is true, than the use of a computer for editing processes would eliminate this connection with the unconcious. The human unconscious was explored in depth by the psychologist Carl Jung, and proposes to express inhumanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. A personal unconscious differs from a collective unconscious in that the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species. And so, to Burroughs point, any form of cutting up words or objects and edited by human hands should in some way speak to our collective unconscious.

William S. Burroughs

Carl Jung

I believe that the idea of speaking to our collective unconscious is what the "cutting up" of works relies upon in order to be relevant to society. Unless of course, the aim is to be as intelligible as possible (which, to be fair, some people would consider this an art form). Perhaps one of the earliest popular "cut-ups" or "mash-ups" in human literature was the novel Finnegan's Wake, by James Joyce. This book is in an experimental style that includes a mash up of linguistic items and the abandonment of conventional plot and character developments, which makes it one of the most difficult to read novels in the English language. I feel as though my initial stance on being introduced to the cutting up style of poetry or art is not to be inclined to it, because I think that while it's fun and experimental, it lacks a purposeful drive and intention. And for me, those are the things that I most admire in artistic talent, rather than the happy accidents that Burroughs exalts. Here's a short clip of the author James Joyce reading from Finnegan's Wake:




In continuation of this idea of an artistic collage, the 2002 found footage film Decasia explores the medium by considering old and decaying silent film footage. Created by Bill Morrison, the film was constructed by using found snippets of decaying film footage. The film evokes a sense of loss, due to the obvious deterioration of the film used. Morrison enhances this idea of the loss of something that can never be recaptured by the compilation of decaying images set to a dramatic (and purposefully out of tune) soundtrack. Morrison's use of technology transforms these found footage reels from singular, perhaps sentimental remnants of life, to a collective pool of decaying pieces from a lost world. And in that sense, I believe that Morrison made use of Carl Jung's idea of a collective unconscious, in that this film definitely speaks to us as human beings by being a world in which all that we know was previously a part of.

The Panopticon & The Still Image

This project exhibits three kinds of surveillance: self-surveillance, being watched by an authoritarian figure, and surveillance by an anonymous entity through reflections. These sets were largely influenced by the invention called The Panopticon, created by the 16th century philosopher, Jeremy Bentham.

The Panopticon was a prison building that was constructed in such a way, that the prisoners were able to be under surveillance at all times, but they would never know if they were actually being watched, or if no one was in the surveillance tower at all. This design would have bred fear and anxiety amongst the prisoners, and was meant to cease forbidden behaviors and activities. This is an image of Bentham's Panopticon:

Further information on the Panopticons invention is illustrated quite well in this informational video:

With these three sets on Flickr, I wanted to examine critical self-surveillance, an approach that humanizes a source of surveillance, and depersonalizing or dehumanize surveillance. My method was to start with examining the self, turn that into a larger picture by humanizing a normally anonymous entity, and then to abstract that idea of an identity completely.

First, the "Reflections of One's Self" set examines the very human idea of being aware of one's appearance, and attaching identity to one's self through their appearance. This concept became more interesting to me to look at it on a time scale, and to realize that people have used their appearances as a means of identifying who they are, perhaps more so than their personalities, beliefs or actions throughout time. This became more apparent in the context of time due to the  the various fashion decades dictating what a person's appearance was. I decided to capture this through the surveillance of one's self by reflections.

For "The Antiquated Watcher", I wanted to form an identity for what the public calls "the man" when referring to the government. The government plays a crucial role the surveillance of civilians, and because the identity of "the man" is obscured by a mask of anonymity, ideas of "the man" can generate fear. I think fear is heightened when a being remains anonymous, because it becomes more of an idea instead of a tangible corporation made of tangible beings (here comes the V for Vendetta comparisons). What kind of retribution can someone get by attacking an idea? This is why I wanted to provide a face to the entity known as "the man". This humanizes that entity, but at the same time, he is portrayed in desolate, lonely and ramshackle locations. This is a comment on "the man" being able to exist in every corner of our imaginations, because of the fear generated by anonymity.

"The Windows" set, in contrast to "The Antiquated Watcher", attempts to portray surveillance again as an anonymous source. By dehumanizing the entity by abstracting their silhouette, it heightens the sense of tension and fear. The pictures show reflections from very domestic locations, such as around a house, to give the sense that you are being watched even from the comfort of your home.

For each set, I used a different technique in editing the photos. for the self-surveillance set I wanted a lost of contrast, and softness to convey a feeling reminiscent of film noir. "The Watcher" set was the most time consuming to edit because I used the same format for editing to create a cohesive esthetic. I wanted an old-world feel, so I added texture and some vignetting, and made all the color palettes subdued and vintage looking. The result was a gritty, antique feel that seemed to bring out the best in each picture. For "The Windows" set, I played a lot with trying to get the pictures to have a green tinge for a sense of unreality, and for a surreal quality. I took an editing cue from film editors after I read on article that pointed out the fact that certain genres of movies have similar color palettes created in post-production. For example, a green tinge conveys a psychological thriller, grays or a desaturated palette seem to be standard for post-apocalyptic worlds, and oranges and teals run rampant in action thrillers. I thought this article was rather hilarious, but also put forth an interesting point- that colors can create the emotional setting or feelings of pictures, and I tried to set that up for each picture to convey what I wanted.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a computer term that is commonly associated with applications that facilitate interactive information sharing. The first arrivals of this interactive sharing on the internet were the use of text, then a program called Adobe Photoshop, then flash. Each of these platforms allowed sharing through different mediums. Text facilitated conversation through discussion, such as email, blogs and message boards. Photoshop allowed people to share still images, and flash allowed videos and moving pictures to be shared.

When Rachel Crowl, the Lawrence University New Media Coordinator came to speak during class, I thought that she shared invaluable information as someone who was present during significant periods of change through the digital age. It was interesting to hear her personal thoughts about what happened and the effects of the changes. I enjoyed how she broke the technological breakthroughs down, such as assigning email as taking communication into our own hands, and blogs enabling people to self-publish, as well as the age of social networking and Facebook being created solely for the purpose of socializing.

Furthermore, her take on how Web 2.0 allows and almost forces an integrated kind of learning was for me, a different way to think of how the web effects people. Because I've grown up with the challenges of computers being an entity that changes constantly, I've just sort of adapted to that change without looking at it as a hurdle, but as something that comes with the territory. And along with that territory, I've made it my business to get a grasp on every popular program out there and be proficient with it because it enables me to have much more control on the internet as an artist. When Rachel talked about the necessity of learning how to use common programs such as Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator I completely understood what she said, because the tools that learning how to use those programs enable you to navigate the internet so much better. And for me, I really threw myself into the process of learning photoshop, and I became really interested in using it as a an artistic medium for digital painting. Without Web 2.0, there wouldn't have been this entirely new platform to create the kind of art I have been creating with Photoshop. Here are some of the paintings I've been able to create in photoshop:

The development of the democratized invention called Web 2.0 has enabled artists of all shapes and sizes to come out of the woodwork and has given them a platform to showcase their works, no matter who they are or where they come from. It has leveled the artistic playing field that used to only allow artists of a certain caliber to enjoy an audience. And in my opinion, it has "upped the ante" of what artists can aspire to become, because they are now up against the artistic endeavors from people around the world in this digital age.

Here's a short video that illustrates (very consicly) the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0:

The Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer of the 20th century, and is widely regarded as the father of modern journalism. A French churchman of the 17th century named Cardinal de Retz once said, "there is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment". Considered to be an expert on snapshot or candid photography, it's no wonder that Cartier-Bresson's photographs remind the viewer of what Cardinal de Retz referred to as the "decisive moment". Cartier-Bresson's use of the then new Leica 35 mm miniature camera technology enabled him to exploit that "decisive moment" due to the Leica's size, mobility, shutter speed, as well as Cartier-Bresson's unabashed outlook on informal, "not-in-the-studio" portraiture. While the Leica gave Cartier-Bresson a means to take of-the-moment photographs, his method was to travel extensively and to be in the right place at the right time.

One would believe that the concept of the "decisive moment" in regards to image-hosting giants such as Flickr, would play out as millions of "decisive moments" in photographs from around the globe. However, in order for there to be that mastery of the candid photograph that the likes of Cartier-Bresson captured, one has to either have many happy accidents, or be very intentional about when they take a photograph. In today's day and age, Flickr is a web community that enables people from around the world to upload photographs for many different purposes, and many of those photographs are not taken with the intent of any decisive moment, but merely for the purpose of sharing. Because of this, pictures of the kind of decisive moments referred to by Cardinal de Retz are more numerous due to websites like Flickr, but are perhaps captured unintentionally and do not hold the same intensity and gravity that pictures solely taken for the capture of the decisive moment do. Here's an example of what may happen to photographs with and without intent:

Captured with intent:

Captured without intent:

If what Cardinal de Retz said about everything having a decisive moment is true, then it follows that Museum of Modern Art curator, Dan Leers would have many of them on his transition from Lawrence University to the New York art world. Interestingly, Leers referenced many decisive moments that led him to the many experiences of his life during his lecture at Lawrence, including his classes taken at Lawrence, moving to the west coast, his time spent in west Africa, and his time at Columbia University. Dan Leers encouraged those at the lecture to try and explore a diverse range of subjects while at Lawrence, and it seemed as though his message to his audience was that by expanding your interests and exploring your world, you enable yourself to experience more of life's decisive moments.