Monday, October 15, 2012

Inside the Studio

1. Petah Conye



2. Kiki Smith



3. Sandy Skoglund


4. John Currin



5. Dan Graham


Technology and Media

 

   This weeks readings all strongly dealt with how technology is effecting our everyday lives. They all seem to have a fairly pessimistic outlook on the ever-blurring lines that everyday technology creates.
   In "The Watchdog and the Thief" a few quotes stood out to me:

          “Even people who are weary of the Net’s ever-expanding influence rarely allow their concerns to
            get in the way of their use and enjoyment of technology.”

          "When we extend some part of ourselves artificially, we also distance ourselves from the
            amplified part and its natural functions…today’s industrial farm worker, sitting in his air
            conditioned cage atop a gargantuan tractor, rarely touches the soil at all- though in a
            single day he can till a field that would have taken a month by hand."

    To me, what the author is trying to get across is that these technological advancements that were originally designed to make our lives easier our ultimately numbing us. HE uses the example of the test subjects who either do or do not receive help on the puzzle test. He notes that those who did not receive help worked quicker and more logically by the end than those who did receive help; their brains are being challenged. 
   On a similar, yet different note, "Turning Points," discusses the modes of communication that modern technology has created for us. From landlines to FaceTime, our current communication methods are designed to keep us connected on a larger basis than ever before.
   But how has this virtual mode of communication AND technological ease effected our lives as physical people?
   In "The Machine Stops" people of the world are connected to each other and technology, yet disconnected at the same time. The pull to experience things and people in person is no longer there; they settle for a virtual connection over a face to face experience. 
   This is similar to the "The Turning Points" description of the man who is more happy in his relationship with his Second Life wife and life than his own. He has no intention of ever combining the facets of his real life and virtual life, which leads me to question; are we moving to an era in which we are humanizing our computers while at the same time, dehumanizing the individuals around us?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Media is the Message

 

   I think the major thread behind this weeks readings was that each new generation of humanity comes up with its trademark tool for communication and what that means for us as a society.
   Much of the reading was rather pessimistic in its outlook of the way that humanity is headed or how we do things. The authors seem to believe that our world is quickly becoming that of science fiction in which we are slaves to our culture, telecommunication advances, etc.
   The authors also often bring up 1984 and Brave New World as being related to our current culture, specifically Brave New World and its warnings against becoming a culture based around our indifferences and eventual love of their oppression through our love of the comforts of technologies that undo the ability to think. In relation to the real world, this seems to signify that we are (or already are) to become enslaved to our telecommunication tools and that we are alright with that.
   In "Four Arguments" the author writes, "In one generation out of hundreds of thousands in human evolution America had become the first culture to have substituted secondary, mediated versions of experience for direct experiences of the world." I think what started with the television has evolved into the internet and more specifically social networking and smart phones. We are so used to over stimulation that there if often an outright need to be connected to something. People constanly are seen texting, uploading photos to Instagram or Facebook, creating tweets, even while in the presence of another physical human being. I would say strongly that many of my generation would prefer to email or text someone over a phone call in most situations. But is this necesarily a bad thing? Do these communications actually dehumanize us/create indifference, or have we just become more efficient in the way in which we communicate?

   On a somewhat unrelated note, in "Amusing Ourselves, the author writes that Las Vegas should be the metaphorical city of our current world because it is almost entirely based around the world of entertainment much in the same way that our current population participates and praises entertainment/ers. Having grown up in Las Vegas I find this particularly interesting because the majority of the people I knew growing up have one of two opinions on the city that relate to the readings:

          1. They work within the entertainment industry and love it there or
          2. They work outside of the entertainment industry and want to leave

   Between reading that Las Vegas should be considered today's metaphorical city and the knowledge of those within my age bracket living in the city who enjoy it makes me wonder, is this reliance on entertainment as a way of life bad, or more specifically, is it a response to something else? 
   For example, Vietnam was the first nationally televised war, and it would be fair to say that because of that, much of that generation became disillusioned to what America, or even the world, meant to them. For my generation, the event that sparked much of what we are now as a society was the World Trade Center Attacks. Perhaps as the generation of children who saw this media saturation of this horrific event and the wars and emphasis on national security and terrorism has become disillusioned and has chosen to participate in society in ways that pose no threat to their happiness.
   Keep in mind this idea is not only related to Las Vegas in particular, but also contestants of reality shows or those working in other entertainment fields. Events like 9/11 push generations of people in different directions and sometimes its more comfortable to focus more on things that come easy and avoid complication.