Final Post?

Well, here we are at the end of the semester. I might have been a quiet student, though not without my personal reasons. If I haven't seem so involved then I will admit it is because I prefer to stay on the sidelines and observe rather than to draw attention. I've followed my curiosity around here and there. I wouldn't call in disinterest at all but instead the notion that I struggle with having confidence in my own opinions.
Anyway...
I honestly read on a daily basis; random articles and tidbits all across the internet. Now, I am certainly one of my generation. I often have a short attention span and I easily forget... I feel like my head is full of floaty, non-coherent information. It's a lot of stuff, but I don't know when it will become relevant to me. I suppose I'm trying my best to turn my head into a library of sorts for world building. I mean, I am trying my best to observe the functionality of things around me.
I like to read scientific articles, or watch historical documentaries. My family can barely get me to watch TV, or movies if it's not educational (or animated). If I'm going to take in a fictional work I honestly prefer those to be given to me through text, or perhaps if a friend is telling me a story they've come up with. Videos...kind of wear me out for some reason.
Anyway, I do read. I've got several apps on my phone based on "informational exploration" I guess you could call it...Stumble Upon, Daily Curiosity, Pinterest. Maybe those are old news at this point, but I still fiddle around with them several times a day. I fear I'm always going to be more of an enthusiastic amateur than an expert of any kind.
All of this rambling aside, I can't exactly name any books I'm looking forward to reading. I prefer to just take what comes my way at the time. I'm just always in a sort of gathering phase. Right now my biggest interest sort of falls on a theme, I suppose. I'm researching knights in an attempt to get a better historical understanding of their general time period as opposed to their popular settings in fantasy. Although, in the future when I have a more accurate understanding (I hope) I would like to apply this information to some projects my friends and I are working on.
Maybe it's not intellectual reading, but I am thumbing through some Pathfinder rule books as of recent. I bought three of them to get started on world building for the game.
On the other hand I've got a book titled "Knights" and a Smithsonian textbook on History that I'm reading together, a little bit each evening before I go to bed. Once again, I'm really trying my best to research and gather information. To the best of my ability I like to know how the world works.
I still have a fear that I might not be properly understanding any of this or retaining as much as I should. Regardless, I still have that curiosity. It feels invigorating to "learn" and so I'll keep feeding that desire.
What I am looking forward to on a general level are more "academic" books pertaining to my areas of curiosity. I just want content. My mother does keep books for me that her friends give her because they know I'm an art student. At home now I've got a book on William Turner and a few other big names waiting for me. I'll probably read those this summer and mentally organize that information as relevant to their particular time periods. Even if I don't fully absorb I hope it at least stretches my mind out a little more...I think I need as much of that as I can get.
As open minded as I'd like to think I am I know I still have my quiet little nook that I hide in. That idea in itself is a way to stay boxed in.



Iffffffffff you're curious to see where I go with the whole blogging thing in the future here's my tumblr version. Who knows how much I'll get around to working with it, but I have dreams of keeping it active:

http://adingydinghy.tumblr.com/

"Bootlegs"

So, I am bringing these things because I believe their existence raises some interesting questions and social commentary. It is certainly something of a niche to know what these are, but I think that the message might be bigger? Of course, the level of artistic merit is debatable across the board. You might consider the differences between an "expertly crafted forgery" and a "desperately cobbled bootleg". The similarities they share regardless of quality are the fact that they are "copies" meant to fool and they were likely produced to make profit.
I have a few links to related materials ranging from video games to action figures. Now, keep in mind these aren't all opinion-free discussion pieces, though I thought they were good examples to present the issue.


Link to a growing database of bootleg video games: http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/BootlegGames_Wiki

Ken Perenyi forges paintings:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-forger-of-art-tells-all-03-03-2013/

Ashens reviews knock-off toys, "fake" action figures, and other things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYRK5lzfb9w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM_7EZKFgOw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6KMGfmI5UA

Joel Plays Bootleg video games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DfeyBxH2k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2UzROUj0yE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdvcrVuUGfs

So, what do you guys think?

Week 11

I want to admit I am on what I feel is very neutral ground in regards to The Medium is the Massage. I didn’t look further into McLuhan’s work, though I read through the suggested material. There were many points on which I did make a connection and others I feel that by now are out dated. In my opinion it is difficult to assign a singular definition to media over a wide range of generations. As generations change, so do their interpretations of words and other content. By connotation, someone 50 years my age might not think the same thing of “community” or “socialization”. Of course, there will be those who insist on a singular explanation and perhaps they have every right to.

On the day of discussion what struck me as most interesting was an observation on the inflation of media and reaction. Time feels to go faster only because we have many more reference points to note. By contrast of the past, with a higher population on Earth there will logically be more content created at higher, quicker rates. It creates a lot of  “noise”, which in relation to the book was another thought I found intriguing. Again, with the amount of people and new kinds of media being produced in this age the newer generations have no particular expectation of content, but rather content will exist, no matter its form.

It is obvious to me that what we are surrounded by will affect our views and actions. A quieter world will produce more stable, or still opinions, while a constantly moving world must be open to adaptation. In the end I believe I see McLuhan’s points, though I neither support, nor reject their reasons in full.

Back to week 10...

For week ten I chose to watch films by Maya Deren. Now, I am not a film student, nor did I have any prior experience with her work. And perhaps I have a biased due to my own field of study, but I believe most everything made can have a "personal style" implemented. We know that there are, of course, big organizations that are known for producing a certain "style" and that is what they in turn sell (much like Disney). But, on a smaller scale, for instance, with any independent films, artists are not running on the bill of large corporations. They have a message to tell and no one to tell them how to make it. Why would they waste an opportunity to be unique unless mimicry in some way conveyed their story?
I have no knowledge of any particular film artists similar to Maya Deren. I watched her pieces "Meshes of the Afternoon", "Witch's Cradle", and "The Private Life of a Cat", and again, if you ask me I would insist that she has a very distinctive style. Even for "The Private Life of a Cat", consisting of a rather different message from the other two, I believe her fingerprint is present. The way the cats are documented to me is very dreamlike. There is no sound, only your mind to interpret whatever words flash on the screen, or any bit of imagery. There is a certain element in her message therefore that only she could understand and reproduce to the "Maya Deren" style. And that style, I believe is her message and its presentation. Both "Witch's Cradle" and "Meshes of the Afternoon" have a very surreal atmosphere that have an obvious and deep context. Once again, it's all about the imagery and symbolism hidden in the composition that Maya Deren uses to relay her intentions.

Trump "Inventory"!

First thing I got when I found this image was "alpha male appeal". No, really, those were the words right on the article. Trump's playing it all out cool. He's confident and cares little about what others will throw at him. And he knows he's expected NOT to back down. From a supporter's standpoint this image might imply those expectations. "Everything is all right. We got this, guys. We're better than the rest." That's what I'm getting. For those of us against Trump, we just see a guy who's full of himself!
But on neutral ground once more, this image tells us that Trump is a no-nonsense kind of person who won't cover up his intentions with formalities. Again, he's confident in everything that he is doing and will ignore the opposition regardless.

My answer to our question about last week's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is really not much different from what was discussed in class. I agree that it is very much a show about Drama and perspective. It is a symbolic reflection, a self aware, or perhaps far from a self aware experience. We see these contradictions between the performers and Rosencrants and Guildenstern. In my opinion, the two main characters (oddly enough side characters in the original Hamlet) are like parts of the subconscious competing within a single mind. And on our other hand we have the actors of which seem eerily aware of their situation. Somehow the performers have broken the binds of their so called "roles" through a hyperawareness of their own story. Even when Rosencrants and Guildenstern are put to their deaths they cannot seem to beak free of their own minds. To me this emulates how the subconscious cannot control itself, or be any more than exactly what it is, the subconscious. On a larger scale it could be satire on certain kinds of individuals. Several times in the play, either Rosencrants, or Guildenstern stop to contemplate the meaning of death. They construct the illusion for themselves that they are being profound and they catch themselves up in all of the wrong details. But, perhaps they cannot help it, and that could be precisely what the play means in demonstrating the lives of two minor characters. They are throwaway souls, and in that case have no choice of escape. The notion could be seen as a sort of way to break the fourth wall, which, Shakespeare often did in his plays.    

I managed to read through two and a half of the provided short stories for today, completing both "Hitting Budapest" and "Whites". Being of mostly white European decent, all of these stories have been written from perspectives that would not be considered my own. But the point of "listening" without necessarily relating was brought up. That is an idea that is very personal to me because of my belief in having sympathy for other human beings. Though I cannot physically reach empathy for the characters in these stories I have tried my best to understand their messages. You may or may not agree that there are important moral lessons packed with these writings. Perhaps they are aimed at particular audiences to express the existences of different worlds on a parallel course. I would agree that this is the very case, especially for myself coming from a culture where I am often not exposed to these sorts of characters. It is eye opening in a way I feel should be more frequent.

I'm choosing "Whites" to analyze for ethos. There is a heavy feeling of struggle detailed about Japanese woman in America. I feel as if the story makes a point of their mistreatment, longing, and will to continue despite, all as specific elements. In this case its ethos would be an idea that this particular demographic has been pushed into a harsh world created for them by people of white backgrounds, particularly men. Throughout the story men in particular are described as demanding and dominant. They are considered liars, the women their victims, and it is made worse by white men who use the women for their own desires because they believe they can easily take advantage of them. The ideas of "home" and "childhood" appear to be the most cherished, as described in the end by the narrator who makes these memories out to be better than their current situation. And yet still, a woman's independence and will to carry on are both praised as demonstrated in scenes between women who leave their husbands and seek other women for advice.

There is indication of a voice used in this story. Though it covers a broad subject, it is still a voice relatable to a certain group of people. It speaks for multiple people, in this case, but is still present as being a certain "individual" with a particular background. By placing in specific contexts and clues it is easy to get the feeling that narrator "knows what they are talking about".

Regarding the characters, they are connected to their world as opposing forces. There is the ruling class, namely the white men, and the quiet, working class, the female Japanese immigrants to America. The ruling class is portrayed as not recognizing, or mentioning what hardships that they place on these women, though they may, or may not be aware of it.