"Belongings"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19648095

I stumbled across this a few days ago and it really intrigued me. I am impressed by this artists commitment to his project, and his willingness to ask people what he did. I imagine he endured a fair amount of resistance and the final project is a wonderful look into this society.

Digital Art pg. 143. How truly "natural" can Thomas Ray's "Tierra" be if it is an artificial environment to begin with? I am not a computer science person by a long shot, but I do know that any environment the program evolves in is going to have basic laws in which to operate that have been ordained by the programs developer. This could be seen as an argument for intelligent design I think. Don't get me wrong, it would be amazing to watch in person, I am just curios about the discourse it would spawn.

Wiener and Licklider's Theories are near prophetic in their accuracy, I wonder what they would think of the smart phones of today and our reliance on them. The Galapagos series is fantastic, I love the idea of using today's technology to further educate people on these theories that have been around for so long. It mixes Darwin with Mendel's sweet peas in a beautiful way.

The reading for Art, Science, And Tech. was both fascinating and gross at the same time. I doubt I will be the only one that was a little uncomfortable with the digestive trac idea. Class starts in a few minutes,  I am excited to hear other's responses.

The controversy surrounding this iconic image from The early days of Barack Obama's campaign poke out its ugly head again. How can an artist allow this kind of simple mistake forever fog his career and reputation. By his own admission he knew full well the dangerous area of copyright he was clearly crossing, such a very sad story. A cautionary tale for any of us. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/obama-artist-spared-prison/

Thoughts on the Debate

The debate in class last week was very eye-opening to me. It taught me quite a bit about not only postmodern and modern art (which admittedly I knew little about beforehand), it also illuminated personal dynamics in my classmates. To avoid being gossipy I am going to avoid specifics, I can however say that art touches people on such an emotional level that as new to the discipline I have a difficult time responding to certain ideas respectfully. Open discourse is crucial to academia though, and I must become more aware of the different arguments not so that I can argue against anyone, but so that I can appreciate the many perspectives represented and learn from them.

Self Portrait

With this image  I attempted to play a little bit with one life experiences revealing themselves in their eyes. I played the flute from 5th grade till my sophomore year of college, so even though I no longer play the impact of music in my experience growing up warrant the inclusion of some reference to it in anything that is meant to in some way represent me. My wedding day is without a doubt a major life event.