McLuhan Response

The types of works McLuhan describe in this piece really interest me. When new media projects involve a certain level of inventing/engineering I tend to be inspired. I not only related to this article personally, but its quite relevant to my current work as well. In Jenny's class, I am constructing a series of surreal sculpture-type pieces, one which involves a jacob's ladder (climbing arc). For it I obtained a 9k volt transformer from a neon sign and am using thick copper wire for the electrodes. Really fascinating imo/

Nic Collins

I have just found it so interesting how many gadgets have been hacked, taken apart used for other purposes then intended. It has made me want to go start taking things apart to see what I can make or create by making oscillators. I also like all the warnings of the "killervolts" and to be careful with old tvs.

tv music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdUzUe37vIU

There are an amazing amount of hazard warnings in the Collins readings, the second line even re-assures you of no danger to your equipment this time. At least it balances out how encouraging it is. "Cloud Music" seemed simple by pointing a camera at the sky and letting the photoresistors translate cloud brightness into sound. But, at the same time it is appropriate with the unrecreatable method. It would be impossible to reconstruct the same sounds with the exact same weather input. McLuhan touches on all areas of television, mostly pointing out the direct effects on culture.

Collins and Mcluhan

In regards to the Collins article on visual sound, I found the project where Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Shcaa attached electrodes to Elsennaar's face to create a visual/sound representation of his facial expressions intriguing. Human emotion is a mystery that science has been unable to quantify, but using machines to capture emotions accentuates the enigma and allows for us to perceive emotions differently (in the context of art) rather than trying to understand them through the lens of scientific rationale.

Mcluhan seems to go back in forth in his perception of tv and its affects on culture. For example, he briefly explains that certain English dialects have re-emerged due to television, but then follows by explaining how tv is the cool medium for political propaganda. However, he does seem to lean more on the side that tv is degrading culture.

Video synths

Hey everyone. Two things I want you to take a look at for tomorrow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qh6jRzjmcY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

this is a video by Dan Sandin where he demonstrates his early video synth, the sandin I.P. Lars' system is a kind of update of this iconic piece of equipment.

http://www.lzxindustries.net/

this is a link to Lars' company's website. Take a look, he has lots of videos uploaded. Have a few questions ready to ask him tomorrow. See you then!

part4

This section of Youngblood's text brings to light how computers can aid in human creativity, which is a sign of their intelligence as well. "The computer amplifies man's intelligence in about the same ratio that the telescope extends his vision," and in being such an efficient tool, merely completes the tasks that the humans assign to it, with often unexpected results pointing to its own creativity as a media. This is exemplified through the various computer films discussed.

Part 4

Youngblood talks about the computer as a part of man because it was made by and for man. It made me think about the computer assigning more value to backgammon than checkers. More affluent people play backgammon and the world trend moves toward wealth, but whose values were implanted for the computer to calculate? Are these values an extention of the playters? My brain assigns checkers as more important because more know how to play than backgammon. This is why "the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention man needs to make". The invention is an extention of the people who created it, everyone else has to adapt. Its like the iPhone, some people think its the greatest smartphone but some jail-break and adapt around Apple's attempt to restrict your play.

Youngblood-Episode Six

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Intermedia section of the Youngblood text. Specifically, the section on 'Artist as Ecologist', where Youngblood describes the synergy of art, intermedia, physics, metaphysics, engineering (etc.), as helping us become aware of unnoticed relationships on the micro and macro scales, and the places where they occur. He mentions how the artist and scientist, or artist/scientist [what have you] develop through the exploration of Form, Structure, and Place to achieve what I like to call a higher state [cloud 9, nirvana, formlessness, call it what you will], which leads well into the next section about intermedia as a medium to explore non-ordinary realities; holographic technology is on the way, stay tuned!

Youngblood 4

In this section Youngblood discusses the role of the computer and how it has affected man. He tells us how this tool was so powerful to our species, that we had to virtually relearn how to live in many parts of our lives. He also talks about how it was made by man, for man, and is therefore, a part of man. Youngblood also breaks down the inner workings of a computer and how they parallel the inner workings of a human. The bond between man and machine is already a strong one, and this bond continues to spread to various parts of lives.

Response To Dinnell

I'm not sure what Bruce McClure does that is awe inspiring because I could only find one link to a video of his. He does these multi-projector pieces, that by the text have been associated with the idea of "color music" and that has been a problematic endeavor for most artists/musicians who have attempted it. The author of the text seems to be a Bruce McClure fanboy and loses objectivity as the text delves further into praising Bruce for his masterpiece "Christmas Tree Stand".

Youngblood part 3

In Youngblood he goes to compare human intelligence with computer intelligence. It just so happens Jeopardy this week IBM's "Watson" will be competing for the first time against the two smartest human contestants. "There is a real possibility that we may one day be able to design a machine that is more intelligent than ourselves." (Southerland p. 187). It also brings up the interesting fact that if we design a computer more intelligent then man, then in turn would that machine create one more intelligent then itself? We use computers to run our lives from shopping, traffic lights, home use, vehicles, money, travel, and more.

Youngblood pt.3

In this section Youngblood focuses mainly on the meaning and technique behind the psychedelic visuals of 2001 and Jordan Belson's experimental film portfolio. Author C. Clarke, author of 2001, talks specifically about the techniques behind the creation of the effects used in the film, such as the light-slit machine and painting on glass, and explains how technical difficulties/experimentation can lead to future success. Completely opposing Clarke, Jordan Belson speaks conceptually about his work without revealing any specifics on how his visual effects are created. The mystery behind his work is intriguing, and it is interesting to know the narrative/ thought process behind each of his visual experiences.

I also wonder if Youngblood choose to interview Clarke after reading his interview in Playboy magazine. I guess Youngblood does read Playboy for the articles.

the flicker

"Viewers would term the experience of watching the film 'masochistic'." I found the readings on The Flicker interesting in terms of the open interpretation. I am prone to migraines triggered by light so I agree. I can only watch about 5 seconds of this type of film before turning away, even shutting your eyes doesn't stop the film's effects. The only reason I would continue to watch is if I intentionally wanted to give myself a major headache. Even though the film only consists of black and clear frames every viewer is going to see something unfamiliar, the inability to process the changes makes me feel like my brain is frying. This makes me think, are these perceptions really visually induced mini mind melts? The aim of the film is to free the viewer of the film maker's perception and make the personal experience the focus, "The pursuit of a 'de-automatized perception' that would interrupt and prolong the habitual processes of vision and thus render them newly conscious, transforming perception into appreciation". The intended effects on my vision result in a nightmare of transformed perception that my own mind produces. The marriage of art and science is explored in terms of experience perception but unexplained in terms of how the mind is being affected.

Part three "toward cosmic consciousness"

In this section of the book Youngblood further pushes the reader into the psychedelic sphere considering outer space visuals and philosophy as it relates to the human consciousness in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001 A Space Odyssey and several of Jordan Belson's film artworks.

In 2001 A Space Odyssey, "the astronaut is a child of the new age, a man of cosmic consciousness". This according to Youngblood separates him from his family on Earth as he is part of a new generation. A generation which is subjected to face the reality that there are things beyond our home planet and that Technology will ultimately separate us from what we now consider nature. In an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, co-author of the film, he states "This film is about the two most important realities of the future: development of intelligent machines, and contact with higher alien intelligence. Which of course may be machines themselves".

Youngblood admires the way Kubrick merges science fiction and art almost seamlessly. He manages to keep a minimalistic vision that is strikingly captivating. Similar outer space visuals that were created in 2001 through the use of complicated inventions and big budget were also more simply created by Jordan Belson using an Oscilloscope in his piece Allures.

Belson's films are very much based off of his Buddhist practices and his concern with the inner and outer explorations of the soul. When creating Samadhi, 1967, "he severed emotional and family ties, reduced physical excitement and stimulations,(...)and focused on his inner consciousness." His inspiration and focus for this piece was our sun and how it is a process of life and death; a star being reborn and an atom which is part of a much larger, unseen structure.

I think that all of these films are extremely aesthetically pleasing. They are very different to me however. I think of Belson as more of a visual/psychedelic kind of artist and though his films are largely based off his philosophies they seem to stand without the narrative. Whereas 2001 a space odyssey brings up more psychological interpretations in my mind.

Example posting

Hi Everyone,

To provide an example of a slightly more interesting way to approach posting, I'm going to share a work that I think addresses (tangentially, at least...) part of this chapter by Youngblood.

Youngblood mentions at the beginning of the chapter that the language of cinema was expanding to include new technologies, and that likewise the language of science was expanding to include spiritual realities. A contemporary artist who I think exemplifies some current development in this thinking is a woman named Aspen Mays who approaches aspects of current science from the perspective of an enthusiastic, awe-filled amateur. A recent piece of hers called "Larry", which was a tribute to "Lawnchair Larry", an amateur who in the early 80's attached several weather balloons to his lawnchair in order to float about 3 miles into the sky, is a good example to start with.






You can see a short video documentation of the piece here: Larry Video

She sent a tiny little mock-up of Larry's chair into space with a video camera to document its ascent and fall. You might be reminded of the father and son who did something very similar with a tiny hd camera this last year.

While this may not relate directly to the kind of technology Youngblood is discussing, which primarily relates to his metaphor of the informational "Noosphere" forming a kind of common consciousness that relates to certain Eastern metaphysical systems, I think it does highlight one of the current approaches toward science and technology in contemporary culture: one that doesn't necessarily need to understand the technology fully to be filled with the kind of awe that could be described as "cosmic consciousness".

Toward Cosmic Consciousness

The internet and social media have brought us into a higher level of planetary consciousness, and the emergence of more powerful technologies for exploring interstellar space and sub-atomic space are bringing us into an elevated awareness of the cosmos. As Youngblood discusses, science has been lurking in highly conceptual, metaphysical realms since the early 20th century with the introduction of quantum physics, realms that have been explored by artists and spiritual seekers for thousands of years. Youngblood mentions a sort of revolution,"...the remarriage of reason and intuition," the fusion of art and science. The ancient civilizations seemed to make the connection between creativity and rationality facilitating a cultural paradigm which embodied the cosmic consciousness Youngblood discusses. The current paradigm is built upon the separation of things, especially rationality and creativity. I think Youngblood is saying that we need to see how all disciplines can be connected and applied into a cohesive system where one practice feeds the other in order to see how the universe works.

Youngblood 2

After reading just the first few paragraphs, I can already tell that it's turning into a who's better than who contest. Now that television has "revealed the observed, the observer, and the process of observing", as well as the fact that there's no longer any need to represent the human condition through art, expanded cinema must attempt to go beyond these concepts, not in a technological advancement way, but in order to deeper probe our consciousness where "synaesthetic" cinema is created and viewed. This point on how expanded cinema is constructed and observed by and through the viewer rather than the artist who directed it has been stated before in Rosler's text. It is an idea that I continuously find interesting.

However, there are times where I feel like the weirder or more abstract videos become, that the people who made them are all trying to be better than the other by saying "mine takes a deeper trip into the subconscious and is harder to understand, therefore mine is better!" I'm not sure if there is, in fact, any competition in expanded cinema since each video is different from each other, but I imagine this is how it would be if so. Not all new media work is like this, of course. There are many videos that are infinitely entertaining to me, whether I understand them or not, but every so often there exists a video I come across that seems to be trying too hard, that instead of being baffling yet fun to watch, is confusing and boring to watch. (I'm not trying to come off as ignorant when I say these things, but I definitely won't sit and watch a video that I don't understand and PRETEND to afterward. I believe merely acting like you know what the meaning of a work of art is, rather than admitting you have no clue what the idea was behind it, would be kind of insulting to the artist, and ultimately you'd be insulting your own intelligence as well.)

Youngblood part 2

Youngblood talks about cinema and the way film has changed into something more then a story with a plot. A way for humans to communicate on a more sexual level. Brown says this, "The Western consciousness has always asked for freedom: the human mind was born
free, or at any rate born to be free, but everywhere it is in chains; and now at the end of
its tether." Youngblood talks bout the "underground" movies for "personal cinema" which "is by definition sexual cinema" Sexual cinema moved from "underground" to commercial and later to Hollywood. Hollywood was breaking thou new ways of sexual exploitation and getting people use to seeing what was considered inappropriate or a "sin." I have noticed this from watching I love Lucy show to a show like Sex in the City. Slowly desensitizing the majority audience to accepting that is the way it is. Not only that but at the time personal recording devices made it easier for people to record themselves without worrying about censorship. This made it easier for culture and people to realize sex wasn't just man and woman and creating, but for mere pleasure and enjoyment. Andy Warhol created a sense of the "polymorphous-perverse." I find it interesting that Warhol help create films that had no drama and had a bases on redefining the unisex world we live in.

Youngblood pt.2

"Television is one of the most revolutionary tools in the entire spectrum of technoanarchy."

This term "technoanarchy" seems to be extremely fitting to what Youngblood is implying. He describes a new frontier of filmmaking that moves from being informative to becoming entertaining, as television has become the newest means of mass communication. This releases film from its traditional, realistic state to a new anything-goes state of "technoanarchy" that allows the artist to communicate cinematic experiences to the viewer.

Youngblood also has a very Freudian manner of thinking when he relates cinema and television to body and mind. "Humanity extends its video Third Eye to the moon and feeds its own image back into its monitors. "Monitor" is the electronic manifestation of the superego. Television is Earths superego."

I also found it amusing when the book referred to Andy Warhol's recent work. Gotta love 1970.

Young Blood Part 2

Synaesthetic cinema as I understand is all about experiencing film in a much more psychological way than the films that say hollywood produce. It's about reaching a state of mind, actually becoming more aware of yourself throughout the process. This is done by creating more meaningful and artful films that don't necessarily have a story or plot but communicate through images. "The effect of synaesthetic cinema is to break the hold that the medium has over us, to make us perceive it objectively." The goal is to shift from being a kind of entertainment for the masses that doesn't accurately speak for the masses to being something that literally anyone with access to the current technology can create and make it meaningful.

Youngblood-Synaesthetic Cinema

My interpretation of this reading is that cinema, or synaesthetic cinema is the most effective medium for expressing and realizing human consciousness because it enhances our sensory perception to communicate more efficiently. It is hard to ignore the power of cinema because we spend the most time, roughly an hour or two, watching a movie or a short film as opposed to a few minutes with a sculpture or painting. Directors and filmmakers have approximately one hour to mold our brains, plenty of time to bend time. It seems as though cinema is an evolutionary catalyst that is altering and enhancing human perception.