I Wish to Say

This week we've been studying performance artists in my Art and Technology class, and one of them was Sheryl Oring.  She is known for using typewriters to do her work.

One of her ongoing projects is called "I Wish to Say," which stemmed from her worry that the voice of the people wasn't really reaching the US government.  This project consisted of Oring typing up postcards containing what different people wanted to say to the President.  Every postcard was typed word-for-word, and all the original documents were sent to the White House while she kept copies.

One of the postcards was dictated by Penny Ross, a former junior high school art teacher.  She revealed that her job had been erased because the state she lived in, Arizona, had ended its funding for the arts.
Reading that story in Sheryl Oring's blog stunned me.  Being an art major, I just couldn't believe that funding for the arts would come to a halt anywhere.  I really hope something is done about this once it reaches the government, because I know I'm not the only one who considers it a great loss for any student not to be educated in some way in any subject of the arts.

Cut-Ups and the Dreamachine

Brion Gysin was the creator of the cut-up technique.  This technique is often performed as typing a story, cutting the paper into sections, and then reassembling the pieces out of order to create unique words and sentences that no longer make sense.  It blurs and erases the previous meaning of the story, creating something entirely new.  I love this idea because it's a form of an exquisite corpse.

Gysin also created the Dreamachine {or 'dream machine'} in a collaboration with Ian Sommerville.  The Dreamachine is a very intriguing contraption featured in the picture above.  One must face it with closed eyes, and as the Dreamachine spins rapidly with an illuminated center to create a strobe light effect, the viewer experiences vivid colors and patterns.  I find this to be incredibly interesting, and I think it'd be fun to try sometime - I'm curious about what I'd see.

Grid Art Project

From this...

...to this:

This Grid Art Project for class took me almost nine hours total to complete!
I chose to use a picture I took at the beach a little over a year ago of a beautiful crane standing at the edge of the ocean.  I used thousands of different-colored beads using the Perler brand, which allowed me to iron and fuse them together.  My childhood friends used to do this all the time, but I never tried it myself until now.  Ironing the beads took forever and was very frustrating because there were a bunch of spots that didn't fuse completely even after ironing it for longer than the directions instructed, so it took a while.  It was very hard work but I managed to get it all to stick together, even though it's still fragile.  I think all that time and effort paid off though, and I'm happy with the result!

"Find what you love."

This wasn't the first time that I watched Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address, but I still find his words freshly inspiring every time.  As an art major who would ideally love to make a living as an artist, it's not easy staying hopeful about how things may turn out if I do end up going that route.  However, Steve Jobs' words about how he overcame obstacles because he had such a strong love for what he did reminded me that even though being an artist wouldn't make me a rich woman, the money won't be the most significant part because I'll be genuinely enjoying the work I produce.  That is the key to success: having a love and passion for what you do.

Words and typography are both forms of art, too, and I've used both in images I've made before.  The unique and individual fonts that are available probably wouldn't exist today if it weren't for Jobs.  The calligraphy class he decided to take was what caused him to create the different fonts for the computer.  I feel that everything happens for a reason, and this is an excellent example of that - even if something seems irrelevant, in can lead to very significant results in the future.

It also makes me think of how many, if not the majority, of the students in my art classes aren't art majors, but they're all taking the art class for one reason or another.  But each professor has made a point to explain how the concepts behind the techniques or lessons they are teaching are not exclusively important for art majors - the students with different majors will be able to take the information learned and find ways to tweak or twist it in a way that can be of significant value in what they're studying.

Steve Jobs was truly innovative and it's inspiring to know how successful he became for doing what he loved.  I'm positive that everyone who has ever listened to his commencement address gained something from it. I know I have.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a British mathematician and computer scientist whose accomplishments left very positive marks in history and some of which have made important impacts on today's world.

He invented the Turing machine, which was the basis of a computer in that it would be able to carry out numerous, specific tasks once provided the proper program.  The Turing machine's logical capabilities defined what an algorithm is. Computer science wouldn't exist the way it does today without Turing.

In addition to his contribution to the computer world, Turing was also an expert codebreaker.  In World War II, he and another mathematician, Gordon Welchman, managed to decode messages enciphered in the "Enigma" machine by the Germans.  He was able to do so because of the British "Bombe," which he designed alongside Welchman.

Despite this man's amazing feats, he was arrested for homosexual acts in 1952.  Just two years later in 1954, Turing was found dead in his home by cyanide poisoning, most likely via the half-eaten apple that was found with his body.  It was deemed a suicide.
As unfortunate as this was, Turing's incredible achievements will forever be remembered, and computers likely would not be the way they are in modern times if not for Turing's efforts and innovative mind.

War of the Worlds

Radio has a great influence on many people, and it is relied on for news and information besides the usual music.  A fantastic example of this was "War of the Worlds" in 1938.

Orson Welles was the man who directed and narrated the infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.  The broadcast was influenced by H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" novel but with a modern twist to increase realism for the listeners.  The broadcast made it seem as though aliens really were invading Earth that very moment, and Welles' compelling voice combined with the 'sound effects' such as the coughing from poison gas would convince anyone that it was really happening - especially since there had been no warning that this was all fiction until the end, and people tuned in after it had already started anyway.

A portion of America who truly believed that Earth was being invaded by aliens flew into a panic.  Many even abandoned their homes in an effort to evacuate the area and escape the incoming attack.  When it was discovered that "War of the Worlds" was only a performance, the public reacted angrily.  Orson Welles gave a public apology, but no serious measures were taken because it didn't do any real harm besides giving the public quite a scare.  In fact, the broadcast even made Orson Welles famous and probably helped his future career as a filmmaker.

Flipbook Animation

My first flipbook animation ever! It features Friiha, the little deer, and her hallucination of a demonic wolf.
The song is Glitch by Anoice.

The Battery

After doing some research, I discovered that the battery was actually invented about two thousand years ago, although of course not in the same form as it appears today.  The first 'battery' found was a clay pot with an iron rod sticking out of the middle, encased in a tube of a sheet of copper.  This relic had been in a tomb belonging to the Parthian Empire in Baghdad.

Many centuries after that first battery was made, Alessandro Volta made publications about the details of his own battery in the early 1800's.  What he did was add layers of silver and cloth or paper soaked in zinc and salt until he reached the voltage he wanted, called the "Voltaic Pile."
However, despite being the first battery to have a stable electrical current, the Voltaic Pile couldn't last very long.  As the years passed by, a lot of other types of batteries were made:  the carbon-zinc battery that was referred to as a "dry cell" since it didn't need liquid to function; the lead-acid battery; the iron-nickel alkaline cell battery; the nickel-cadmium battery, and so on.  A solar battery was even invented.

Without batteries, life on Earth would be very different.  The vast majority of electronics and light sources wouldn't exist, and we'd probably still be using candles and lanterns to light up our surroundings! All the hard work that inventors have put into making the battery what it is today has certainly paid off.

Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick's work consisted nearly completely of science fiction.  He wrote short stories, novels, and essays, and was well-known for his bizarre mind and ways of thinking that were reflected into his writings.

The man was a mess at first.  He abused drugs and, possibly as a result of those, became a very anxious person.  Dick's anxiety even drove him to drop out of college.  He also married five times, all to different women.

What really interested me while reading about this guy was his epiphany-vision experience.  His abuse of drugs, namely speed, could have very well been the cause, since speed can cause hallucinations and delusions.  However, speed doesn't insert accurate knowledge of things that Dick couldn't have known otherwise, which is what actually happened.
Strange things fascinate me, as does the abnormal. Philip K. Dick's experiences were certainly unusual, and their religious nature piqued my curiosity all the more since I am Catholic myself.

I'm drawn to the surreal, and reading about Dick's ideas made me sit back and do some thinking too.  A few of his beliefs or themes in his writings that caught my attention were his idea of reality, discovering one's personal identity, and the "phantom twin" that appeared multiple times in his work.
I thought it was interesting that Dick often contemplated the reality of reality itself.  He probably sometimes believed that reality is just an illusion, and that none of us, nothing around us, is real.  It was actually kind of scary to read about that because I frequently dwell on how real reality actually is, but I try not to let myself think about it quite as deeply as Philip K. Dick did.
The theme of the "phantom twin" came from Dick's own twin sister, Jane, who died six weeks after they had been born six weeks prematurely... so, she died when she should've been born.  Jane's death heavily affected him, which is what spurred him to use the idea in his work numerous times.  I think personal experience is really important in order to produce something compelling.

Another thing I liked about Philip K. Dick's stories was that he didn't write about your typical hero saving a damsel in distress - he focused on the lives of characters that had serious hardships, such as mental illness.  Although sci-fi isn't usually a genre I seek out, I'm looking forward to reading something he wrote one day.