Reflection on Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

Soooo I really enjoyed reading benji again. He's so interesting. Anyhow...I don't find photographs really that interesting anymore. Anyone can take a picture nowadays and develop/reprint a picture. I suppose that's what makes it less interesting. He talks about how anyone can be a published writer now in the editorials of a newspaper and he's right. We can reproduce in mass quantities now and that is accessible to everyone. I think the problem with reproduction is that everything becomes familiar which means people don't have to use their brains as much because they already know what it is. We no longer really have to imagine because we have moving pictures that already brings us wherever we want to go and draws all the details for us so that we don't have to. Although things like film has engaged us more, I feel that it's made us less interactive with art, especially with paintings. With all the flashiness around us today, being stuck in front of one painting, one image that might take us at least 15 minutes to understand and take in, most people don't have the attention span for that and/or get bored very quickly. Of course, that is all changing now and art is reforming/resurfacing in a new form where viewers can physically interact. It has been said that the best artist steal from others. So then actually, art is just always being reproduced. It can be a photo manipulated or a painting redone abstractly. However, whatever it is, the concept might be the same/similar but it'll still be different. I understand that in film, because the picture is always changing you don't really have time to take it in and contemplate but you can go back to it in your head after the film is finished or go watch it again, just as you could go back and see a painting. As for photos, maybe the first picture that was developed conceptually is different to the third photo that was printed even though it's the same photo. I suppose that's what Benji meant when he quoted Hegel, that because of the mass mechanical reproduction provies, "We are beyond the stage of reverence for works of art as divine and objects deserving our worship. The impression they produce is one of a more reflective kind, and the emotions they arouse require a higher test..." On that note, I just want to say, the war quote by Marinetti in his manifesto on the Ethiopian colonial war,...I thought it was beautiful.

phys comp week 3:trying to keep it cool

So, I've had a rough week in physical computing. The lab was fairly simple(picture shown.) Unfortunately, I blew my accelerometer, that sucked. Then someone stole my flexi-sensor. Great! Then I find out that the computer store is out of sensors except for the hydrosonar. So I bought that but i'm holding out to use it just yet. I ordered two force sensors that just arrived today so that'll be exciting to use this week hopefully. So basically I've been trying out loads of stuff, all of which failed in one form or another. I'm feeling a bit discouraged but I just went back to my bongo project that irritated me for about two days because I couldn't get it to work again. Fortunately I have, and i've changed a few things up. I'm going to try and make it look all nice and more like a complete project. Unfortunately, I won't have that ready for this weeks class which is today but hopefully by next week. I dont know. I'm not gonna try to beat myself up too much because I'm sure I'll be facing a lot more downers in the next two years. Narf!

The Blogs of War

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/milblogs_pr.html

I'm not completely sure how to respond to this article. I think the government should obviously set certain regulations for soldiers in battle who blog. Those regulations should only be about giving coordinates and strategies away, but that's obvious. But for blogging bout casualties and such, I can't decide where to stand. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a parent and wonder if you kid is alive. Blogging can kind of remedy that situation. Then again, the enemy has a way of finding out how badly they've injured their target and maybe plan to strike knowing their very down in numbers. I don't know, I've never been in war so I'm just wildly speculating here. All in all, I think blogs should be allowed and that the government shouldn't regulate it so much. Like it said in the article, a lot of people go to these blogs for the "real" story and to read a story that's often told better than the media. I don't think the public should be denied that, and I think it's great for families to communicate and stay in touch. Everyone's going to have a different opinion of what's going on, some will be pro-war and others will be against it. I'm sure the soldiers know not to abuse their liberties of blogging as was made clear in the article. They know that the government might shut them down and etc. But I do think they should be allowed to express their opinions whether they be positive or negative without government regulation. I think i'm just rambling now.

Everquest and Gaming Communities

I thought this article http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/info_and_tech/game_theories.htm was very interesting. It's crazy how people can actually make a living out of these gaming communities. I agree with Castranova when he says "I liked it better when they were just, you know, games." I always viewed online gaming as a way of escaping the real world and the stresses that come with real life. Instead it seems to have just crossed over. I suppose it's good for those who are complete game addicts and for parents of those teenagers that do nothing but play on their computer. Then again, I suppose you have the option of whether or not, or how much, you want to bleed the real world into the virtual.

group video post

Click To Play

This is our first video. What a nice guy ey?

So I've uploaded this video onto Bliptv and youTube. Both fairly easy and simple. This is the link to the youTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0KLLgn1sk .
My only problem is how much crap mail i'm probably gonna start getting. bummer.

phys comp week 2 creative bit

So I decided to make switches using my bongo. I attached foil to my fingers and to certain areas of the bongo. When my foiled finger touches the certain spots on the bongo, different lights turn on. Check it out.

PhysComp Week 2

So I had some problems with the lab but by my own folly. I didn't put the wires into the correct pins. derf. silly me. Other than that, the lab was relatively is....probably because I didn't have to write my own code.

Comm Lab Week 1

"Orality and Literacy" Response

I think Ong makes some really interesting points. I appreciate that he seems to fully acknowledge the fact that our view of an oral society is generally speculation because we live in a literate society it is impossible for us to know or fully understand life in an oral society. I agree that sign language is a product of a literate language because it is based on literacy and rules of literacy, such as having an alphabet and grammar. I understand Ong’s belief that literacy is a form of human evolution with the rise of science, art, philosophy and so forth., but I can’t seem to fully agree with it. Plato, was against writing, believing that it weakens the mind. One of Ong’s arguments is that, today, we are forced to think away from cliché because it is frowned upon, because it is the obvious and it takes more thought to stride away from the cliché. That’s obviously completely untrue as you look at some of the films and books that come out today. In my opinion, I find things produced today probably even more cliché, but that may be because we've been overexposed. However, in Ong’s defense, he admits that oral culture can be ‘artistic and beautiful’ in ways that literary people will never experience, but he still says that orality is a lower form to literacy. I think it’s possible to say that our so-called step forward can also be a step backwards. Plato viewed writing the way we may view computers, “inhuman, thing-like.” It’s true that computers can make you lazy, and that it probably does weaken your brain with tools like grammar/spell check, the tempt of cheating with all the resources the internet and mobile phones provide, and tools such as calculators. We don’t really have to know as much, or spend as much time learning things anymore because we have technology that does it for us. However, maybe technology can some what be seen as going back to orality because we have more time to concentrate on other ways of interacting and communicating without the use of writing. Now with resources like YouTube, a new language, or a language forgotten is resurfacing in a different form, kind of bringing us back to orality, from still drawings to moving images that is accessible and available to anyone and everyone in the world.




55 Word Story


#B000EZYKTS

Assemble. Polish. Package. Deliver.
Receive. Tremble. Open. Excitement.
Plug in. Turn on. Wait. Anticipation.
Red light. Push. Green light. Active.
Input. Output. Motor. Life.
Humming. Shrieking. Silence. Repeat.
Input. Output. Head. Body.
Humming. Shrieking. Silence. Repeat.
Input. Output. Sleek. Sexy.
Agile. Flexible. Simple. Relief.
Input. Output. Smooth. Lean.
Life. Dead. Green. Red
Shaved. Guaranteed. Complete.

Phys Comp Week 1

Week 1


So i had a bit of a difficult time doing my first lab. First of all, the nyu computer store jipped me with my toolkit which i didn't really appreciate. Thankfully, whatever i was missing, i could find at the itp workshop. I had fun soldering, wasn't too hard, although i did burn myself once or twice. I ended up wasting about three voltage regulators. Well the first one was the wrong voltage which is completely my fault. I ended up blowing out my adaptor plug that powers my breadboard. Thankfully, the power connector was not harmed. As soon as i realised my folly, i quickly changed the regulator after continuously burning my fingers and got myself a new adaptor. The regulator actually got so hot that it started melting some of my other components especially the hot glue i had just used. The first mishap ended up somehow destroying my second regulator. Then Todd graciously got me another regulator which kept unfortunately kept faulting. In the end, after everything cooled down, i ended up just chucking the regulator and doing the project without it. After that, the lab went pretty smoothly.