Homework

Answers to Matt's questions:

1) Title of recent book your read, why you chose it.
Re-read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man... Chose because it'd been awhile since I'd read some of his books, and he's one of my favourite authors. Started with Fahrenheit 451 a trip home or two ago, and was reminded of why I love his work so much. His writing style and use of uncommon metaphors, as well as the telling aspects of humanity and profound truths he reveals in such a conversational realistic sort of way, are the two main things which have drawn me to his work. This time around, however, I found myself really admiring and studying the way he is able to construct a whole world in the space of a ten-page story - something I've been working toward myself.

2) Recent album,(MP3 archive, I mix) you bought/downloaded, why you chose it.
Sigur Ros' "Takk...". I've loved their work for years, it's incredibly unique, ethereal and emotional, full of beauty and yearning. "Takk..." is their newest album, and it relates essentially a fairy tale, of a boy who woke one morning to find the sun gone, and sets off to find it. The videos (linked to on apple's site somewhere) are stunningly beautiful, and the music... the cd didn't leave my cd player the whole time I was home.

3) Top 3 media artist that interest you, and why.
- Kaori Yuki has drawn me in lately, manga artist of Angel Sanctuary, among others. Absolutely stunning detail and beautiful, beautiful images, really unique compositions in some. And lots and lots of angels, as well as storylines as intricate as the drawings.
- Mark Holthusen. While wandering around the internet recently, I stumbled across a lot of interesting things, including his photographs for Ca Ira, an opera about the French Revolution put together by one of the guys from Pink Floyd. Have yet to check out any of the music... but the photos are stunningly beautiful, combining photographs with digital elements, and I'm definitely looking into more of his work, the look he achieves in these images is so strong and interesting, very much like old paintings yet far more vivid.
- Cyan studios. I've gone back to playing/re-playing the Myst games, partially because the idea of uncovering a story as you explore abandoned rooms and objects ties in with my plan for my capstone project. Though the first few are beginning to grow a little dated in their appearance, due to the growth of technology over the past ten years, the approach, unique style, beauty, and compelling nature of the games is as strong as I remember.

4) How familiar are you with Macintosh computers
Relatively familiar, though all of that is from working in the lab the past few years. Good with computers in general though, so I can sort things out.


Respond to these terms, use full sentences and be descriptive. Do not define the term.
1) Simulation
Like life but not quite real, pseudo-stimulation, simulated senses. It feels as though you've been there, and to your mind perhaps it is no different, but there is no dust from desert sands hiding in the folds of your clothes, no dry heat hanging in the air about you, only the images of flat ground and thoughts of long walks. ...something I once regarded as a negative thing, a lack of experience, but now I wonder a little about. Does it replace experience or add to the possibilities of what one can have?
2) Postmodernism
The future has passed, there is nothing new to find or see or become. The world and its limits are pinned down to the floor, mapped out and complete. Culture and change are paramont, mass production prevails and so may be appropriated to convolute its own intentions. ...I don't usually pay much heed to one artistic movement or the other, it's like applying genre labels to music, the things that interest me aren't easily categorized, and it forces a preconcieved conotation onto everything. There are ideas in this concept which interest me, but I would be slow to say I like or dislike something because it falls under such a heading.
3) Symbolism
Adds depth or aggrevation, depending on one's point of view. Is it a further meaning to images presented, or only imagined connections? All depends on the point of view, is yours the same as the author's? Interpretation is individual, but is your meaning what the author was saying, or is it your personal experience coloring your perception? Was either the author's intent? ...something I hated in high school, but now find myself drawn more and more toward. In one of my drawing classes a year or so ago, I did an entire series of images featuring fallen angels and flowers in various settings, where the meaning of the flowers tied together and enhanced the meaning of the images. I find myself repeating images and feeling the connotations and deeper meanings of certain phrases or objects, and I love the depth which symbolism can lend to things. (I still think a character in MacBeth saying "well, well, well" was merely a casual comment, not a reference to graves and death, but...)
4) Propaganda
Mass-produced messages, impersonal and yet intensely personal, to the point of attempting to alter your personal opinion. A very strong and negative political connotation, yet we're (largely unconsciously) surrounded by it almost every moment via any sort of media, pushing one product or idea or another. ...not something that's usually my style of thing to be interested in, and yet...I find myself intrigued by the ways in which people are able to alter thought processes like that. Last semester, one of the ideas discussed in the media arts club was to create a religion in Second Life, and promote it as if it were a real thing, hopefully creating true adherents who knew nothing of the scam behind it. That really, really strruck me, and I was incredibly interested in trying it, and though we decided to head toward something else, that idea is still lurking in the back of my mind.
5) Franchise
Evil commercial chains which circle the planet, binding up the more personable and personal world of small businesses, providing an equally mediocre experience for all. ...something I read once, can't recall if it was L'Engle or Bradbury or someone else entirely...equal does not mean identical, people being on equal ground doesn't mean they're all indistinguishable copies. That's right, Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time...another one I should re-read soon, it's been a couple of years. Though I remember how friendly and profitable and nice-sounding franchises were back in my 7th grade home economics class, and though I'm still more likely to go to a Perkin's than some unknown family restauraunt in an unfamiliar town, I look around me and see the same storefronts in nearly every small town, and it really scares me.
6) Truth
...after completing an entire philosophy minor, I doubt I'm any better at settling out its nature or anything about it. I still have to believe that there is a central truth to things, an objective fact, even about right and wrong. In some cases it's a matter of scientific mathematic or logical proof, in other cases it's more difficult to "prove" by such commonly accepted means, it rests somewhere between the unprovable heart and soul of humanity. But simply because we haven't calibrated a microscope quite properly yet and can't yet see it, I don't think that's any less reason to believe it. Though our science and technology and knowledge has grown, it grows harder and harder to find those other truths. It seems the fog of perspectives and proliferation of biases and outlets for the voice of everyone's individual view on the world is only growing, and will likely continue to do so, and the focus on the differences between details leads our minds away from the knowledge that we all, deep down, have far more in common than we do in difference.