Persuasive Games

My computer does not run the games, so unfortunately I was not able to play them. Still, I explore the website and I liked some of their games idea.

Windfall is a strategy game that makes you create wind farms. The game consist in be able to recognize the most favorable places to harvest energy without altering residents life. This is an actual pretty idea, because we do not have to just place the wind farm, we also have to place it in a good location, and we cannot upset the residents that could be living there. There is also some risk taking in this game, that could help you win the game since it is not just about avoiding this places, but to place in place that you believe that are profitable and will not cause alot of turnmoil.

Debt Ski is also a pretty good concept. I think that it is an awesome idea to make college people realize that debt is not a good idea. Even though the game does not have nothing to do with manage your money, it could make the player aware of seriousness of the topic.

Elemental, I wish I knew this game while I was taking chemestry with old good sister Caroline.  I think that the hardest part of high school chemestry is to make students familiar with the topic. Sincerely, high school chemestry is difficult at the beginning because kids are not familiar with the field. It is a whole new world, then as time passes we become more familiar with the course.  

Sights

The movie was actually interesting, and the message was very clear for me. When is the limit? I mean with technology going out of control, when do we know it is enough? Today, Spencer mentioned before class that the smartphones keep track of our location, and it could be hacked. This is a very big concern for me because in my country, people can kidnap you by just knowing were you go to eat lunch. I personally would not like to live in a world Sights portrays. For me computers are just machines, but we are the decision makers. Computers will not kidnap, steal, or rape, is the people. Still, computers make our task easier and give more power to people, even the bad ones. The movie Sights also portrays that we are missing human skills like dating, get to know people (You cannot know people by reading their facebook profile), and many other things. Having a software that helps you to date might be great to get laid, but you will not really develop or increase your dating skills. You will be mindless following orders, instead of being yourself and grow from the failures.

Golan Levin

Interview
Some of the thing that I agree with him is about computer skills, the value of a degree, and that computers cannot be more intelligent than humans.  As he said, computer is a big area, that have space for everyone. As we learned in this class, computer began with military purposes then expanded into businesses, education, and science. Who could have predicted that computers are now used for art.  We are experiencing a whole new change in society as we were used to when we grow up.

In my opinion, we cannot put a price in education.  The degree is just a prove of your capacity in the field you chose to study. The college experience is about helping to grow and stimulate the new decision makers. It is not just to make you a kind of big shot professional that drives a Lamborghini, it is to create an environment to help you grow as a professional and adult.

I agree with Golan that computers are never gonna be more intelligent than man. People sometimes forget that the machine is a tool and not a living thing. It makes better operational things without mistake, but computers lacks of abstract reasoning, system thinking, collaboration, and ability to experiment skills that according to the former secretary of labor, Robert Reich are the key ingredients to attain job security in the XXI century. Before computers we used to rely heavily in people to handle a lot of the operations like keeping of track inventory, sales, purchase orders, etc... This people had life, and were not a 100% committed to the operations they were in charge. That is the reason why processes in the past were not as effective and efficient as they are today. Still I do not discard the possibility, but as is today. Computers are dumb, they just create information to us, the human to use.

Ursonography:
It reminded me of what dada said about how to create the most beautiful poem. To grab pieces of letter and mix them around, and with the mix create a whole new words so the appreciation of the poem can be in the dramatization, rather than the power of the words.

Messa di Voce
If difficult to think that this is art, but as Mr. Echeverry said, "What this mean in those time, does not mean the same in this times." For me this is art because it tries to interact with the new technologies and mix it with stage performance. Just another way to help artists to express.

Opto-Isolator
It is a very cool concept, I kind of find similarities with Juan Carlos Delgado's sculptures. Since Juan Carlos Delgado's sculpture interacted with the audience. It brings and redefine sculpture into a whole new level.

Two Sides of Life - Video Art

Presentation V.S. Representation

As I was doing my research about presentation and representation, I read that presentation is the authors purposes while representation is the audience perspective of the author's meaning. This made me think about Plato's Allegory of the Cave from the Republic. The story began with Socrates telling a story to a friend about 3 men that were raised in the shadows, and everything they knew was about living in the shadows. One day, they went out to the real world and they did not like it. They decided to return to the cave and would not want to go out to the world.  This is a classic because it remarks the different perspective, and how often people react to things that they do not understand.

Massive Attack

Massive Attack is a very interesting group, it is outside my field of knowledge. I find kind of interesting that there song focus more on instruments sound than the voice. The voice is more to enhance the the instruments' sound. What I am used is normally the singer as the main focus and the instruments to enhance the voice. It is also interesting than even without the singer, you kind of feel their music. It makes you think for a while and reflex what is the mean of the song.

UK Underground Music + Smiths

While watching the video, I remembered what Mr. Echeverry said about underground music and popular music. While popular music might be considered trends, underground music is usually ahead. This is because underground music creates the perfect environment for experimentation, while in popular music is more likely music already developed and approved for the masses. In my opinion, things like hip-hop, rock, electronic, etc... in their moment were considered underground, and it was not until those young adults transform into decision makers that those type of music were considered popular music.

Smiths for me were the results of a society full of uncertainty.  I think first was developed underground, and then became famous by the Smith at the right place and time, Manchester. Once the heart of the Industrial Revolution was facing a lot tension and they will no listen to lies from the current pop in the media that try to spread that everything was alright. The Smith were able to win the people's heart by telling the truth and making a connection with the real things that are happening in society.

Graphene

Graphene might be the solution to the limitations of silicon. I remember read about an article that the reason technology get cheaper is because we build the technology in order to have more output out of silicon, but that there will be a breaking point were we will not be able to increase that output. That is the reason every year there are faster and small computers.

If the technology can be develop to exploit this material, it would be wonderful. We would not longer depend on silicon, and we would get more output out of our dollars than the traditional silicom base computer give us. But still is kind of scary were technology will take us. If the U.S.A. is already able to store and process most of the things that happen in the digital world, I fear for what they would be able to do with the next generation computers. 

Music

Disco

I was surprise that ABBA was not in the list. I chose ABBA because is one of my mom's favorite. I think that it fits in disco category because believe or not in Mr. Echeverry time they used to dance this. And as he said, disco means danceable music.

Girl Power

  

Many people say that Shakira screw Pique's football career, but I think Pique screw with Shakira's artist career and make her into an entertainer. When I was a young child of God, Shakira was a symbol to any girl that woman can be beautiful and independent. She used her sexuality in a way that women are not seeing as objects. But that was in the old good days, now she signs things like Loca, Waka-Waka, I Don't Remember to Forget You, etc... It is good, do no misunderstand me, but is more to entertain than actually real art work.

Latin World

                                      

Yo solo quiero pegar en la radio, para ganar mi primer millon~~~

I chose Bacilos because is a group that was formed in Miami by people of different countries of Latin America. In my experience living in Panama, this feeling of latino does not really exist until you are outside the region. In my country, if you are a minority you are often categories from where your ancestry comes from. Even son's of Colombia and Costa Ricans that are next door are regarded as outsider, and even though they are part of the community you can feel that there is a wall. Bacilos really breaks the wall, and truly ties together people from that region. 

Nineties 

 

Nirvana really opens the door for rock to become popular music. For me is  transition from traditional rock that took a switch in the 90. It is a stamp of rock of the 90s.  

Techno

I chose Liking Park because I was running out of options. I think they are techno because they use alot of computers generated sounds.

TR808

Raga Bhairav

A Guy Called Gerald

 

HTRK — “Ha”

Videoartes.com

I had problems figuring out how to post this video here, so I'll be pasting the links.

http://vimeo.com/6605263

I found it very funny. It reminds a paper game that I used to play in elementary school where you flip papers and you get some answer. For me it is kind of ironic because it reminds me to the paper flip games, and this have a rated M content.

http://vimeo.com/13781357

Very weird video, but this reminded me of desconceptualization and gives me a better perspective of what video art is.

 http://vimeo.com/13362364#at=140

Another weird video, I think that I am getting the concept of video art. It might look weird and seems to not have a reason, but the main part is trying to dessconceptualization of reality in video. None of these video art have a story line, and does not seem to have a purpose.

Video Mapping

I was searching for video mapping, and found this one from Audi. I think it is a very cool concept since we been watching video mapping mostly in building. It bring into my mind that this new technology has multiple opportunities, not just entertainment. Audi is here using it to advertise their cars.

Here is another example of the unlimited opportunities of the use of this new technology. It really enhance the dance, and could bring live dance industry into a new whole level.

 

Advertisement, dance, why not art performances?

Propaganda V.S. Commercial

Propaganda and commercial, both try to persuade their audience with multiple types of media. They have similar methods influencing individuals, but for very different reasons. Propaganda is more associated with politics and the support of their causes. Commercial is usually related with business and changing consumer taste. They both have audience in which they try to manipulate or control.

During the Holocaust, Nazis used propaganda to justified their atrocities. No sane person would have supported the Nazi cause if was not for desperate time. Before the rise of the Nazis into power, Germany was in a depression similar to the Great Depression of the U.S. The Nazis in order to get the favor of the German people began to create a common enemy to create a sense of unity and right. They picked on the Jews and other minorities in order to blame them for the situation of the country. Propaganda does not only refer to negative things, it could also help good causes. In the beginnings of the green movement, educators used propaganda in order to create awareness. In the times of Mr. Echeverry, most of the people did not care about pollution or had minimum idea about global warning. Now, we can see people that have grew with the green movement trying to make decision in favor of a more green movement approach.

As a business major, I am very aware of the potential of advertising. It could be a game changer if used correctly. Commercial have many purposes, not just trying to make you buy. They could be used in order to let people now about products and services, and also steal some of the lights from your competition. I always been preferring Adidas over Nike, but after the recent Nike Risk Everything campaign I been preferring Nike.

 

The video is not advertising any Nike product in particular,  but making their brand known and being the one talked about. The video shows famous starts like the PFA young player of the year Eden Hazard, Lakers' star Kobe Bryant, the elegant Pirlo, Sideshow Bob-David Luiz, the heart breaker Irina Shayk and the most important my lost twin Cristiano Ronaldo.

Performance Art

Andrea: She was very brave by letting strangers paint her. I would personally not let stranger paint in me, even though I am 5'9, and 192 lbs.
Spencer: He did a great job with the camera. By hiding the camera he was able to capture the real essence of people observing a performance art.
Kirby: I like her analogy of journalism. She was sketching the different angles of his friend, as a journal have to do research about the different angles of the situations.
Marveen: I did not understand the relation with international business and marketing with his performance art. I think that as a performance it was good, since it was trying to portray the how busy we are that we are not able to see whats around us.
Kate: It was very clever to use a sign saying, "this is not an advertisement." Her performance art makes her audience think about it.
Ralph: It was really funny. He tried to express his feeling as an adult student.
Leah: I did not get the relation with her performance art and math. I like the observation of Mr. Echeverry about math and isolationism.

Art Performance

Xerox Project

                         

My work is based on Marcel Duchamp idea of decontextualize a toilet into a water fountain. I chose Marcel Duchamp's Fountain 1917, because it was a revolutionary idea for its time. He belonged to Dada, which were trying to redefine the concept of art.  In today's world flipping an object and transform into another does not have the same impact as they did in Dada's time. It is because our concept of art are pretty much built by those ideas of Dada.

Flipping a toilet and transform it into a fountain and call it art is a concept that many struggle to understand. I decided to simplify the concept of Fountain 1917 by Marcel Duchamp. Instead transform the toilet into a fountain, I decided to transform an sculpture of my eyes. I chose my eyes for my Xerox Project because of Father from the Japanese animation Full Metal Alchemist.




Father



Father is the main antagonist in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. He is known as the obsession of   of seeking The Truth. In the end of Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Father  is able to be infront of The Truth but his obsession, he is not able to recognize it. I chose father because we have the pre-existed concept of art, and when we are in front of a master piece we are not able to recognize it.

I Wish to Say

I Wish to Say is a performance art by Sheryl Oring, a firmly believer in the constitutional right of free of expression. The reason she is making this performance art is because she feels the lack of attention that the government pays to the common American. Up to this day 2 000 letters have been sent to the White House from this project.

Most of the letters I read were about bringing the boys back from overseas. I think that Americans/ tax payers do not believe in this war, and many of them are struggling daily to finance a war that they do not believe. In my opinion as a history aficionado, U.S. spends a lot in the military to keep the balance of power, and to keep the boys in shape. History teaches us that the greatest empire the world have seen, they have fallen because the under militarization. It might be true that the demilitarization of the U.S. would let other countries being number one, but being number one is just to feed the ego of the people on the top. There are many countries like Canada, Sweeden, Denmark that barely or spend nothing in the military and are able to give free education, health care, and  many other social benefits.   

I think this performance art is very powerful. In my opinion the audience will be the government and the canvas everyone who is making letters to the White House. It is very helpful since help us to understand the idea of performance art as a tool to create awareness.  

Grip Art

My muse for this project was the unique and handsome Mr. Santiago Echeverry.

Tristan Tzara, "Dada Manifesto 1918."

Dada was an art movement that began during the Great War. It literraly means nothing. Tristan Tzara, the leader of this group wrote a manifesto explaining Dada.  The entire manifesto is a clear example of Dada, it is literally nothing. The manifesto does not give us an idea of dada, since dada itself is nothing. Nothing is a very complicated concept. Since the beginning of mankind the term of nothingness was a very discussed one in monotheistic religions. Romans were not aware of the zero or in other words the nothingness. This is because the ideas in western civilization were base on polytheism. Polytheism is the idea or believe that the everything has been created out of something. For example in the Helen world of paganism, it was believed that the Earth came from a deity called Gaia. In the Sumerian's myth the world was created by the remainders of Marduk. These myths and many others that helped to shaped the West, they did not have about nothingness. It was not until monotheism and the coming of Christianity that the west was aware of the term of nothingness. In the Christian version of creation; Ex Nihilo, God creates the word out of nothing. This was revolutionary at the time, and the West began to be aware of nothingness. My Christian Doctrine professor; gave us this analogy of Monotheism myth of creation, "Monotheism is like a poet and a poem, the poem is created out of the poet and as long as the poet sings the poem it will exists." In my opinion, this is the main idea of dada, to focus on the ideas rather than the piece itself. In the pre World War I era, art was solely focus on the piece rather than the meaning. During the war, artists found themselves oppressed and experimented with many alternatives of expression. This formed a new group that will change the concepts of art from a strictly aesthetic form to a more expression form of art. This new group was known as Dada.

'The Mother of All Demos' Is 45 Years Old, Doesn't Look a Day Over 25

Thanks to Engelbart and his team we have the Graphic User Interface (GUI) and mouse. The Graph User Interface and mouse were key ingredients in the success of computer distribution in the 80's. By having a Graph User Interface and a mouse was more user friendly, way easier than turning on or off switches. This meant life easier, and since it was easy to use more people will be involve in computers. Sadly, Engelbart's and his team's idea were ahead of his time. Computers were still mostly use for military, and the idea for their use in business and civil use were days ahead.
I cannot imagine a life without a Graphic User Interface or the mouse. If computers were still make with switchers we will probably still years behind. Since the Graphic User Interface allowed many people interact. As more people interact with the computer, this allows more development. We will still use the library as the main source to do research.

Flip book: History of Multimedia

The first part represent the born of multimedia, when began to pass knowledge to their young by oral tradition. The hands of the man represent polytheism, since it was the main form of religion in the west.We can see a hand with five fingers and the other one with a kind of matter. This symbolize the polytheism idea of the world as a creation of deities by giving shape to something already existed.
The man created a doll within its shape. After that doll, it began to appear more dolls and then a man counting them. This is because the first evidence of writing system were form to take in account inventory. After we got the writing system, it was easier to spread knowledge. That is the reason why every doll transform into a man, and continue spread knowledge.
We can see a man with a Greek theater mask, symbolizing the importance of Greek contributions in the development of multimedia as way to educate the elites.
Roman Circus, the Roman realized that a way to control the masses was by giving free entertainment. In the Coliseum we can appreciate the use of control of the stage. The Coliseum could host gladiators fights, beast eating Christians, and naval battles.
The curtains symbolize the arrival of Opera. I portrayed a brief stages of Opera with L'Orfeo as the first popular opera, then the curtains close and reopen portraying a bright man symbolizing the focus of Opera to kiss monarch's asses and finally with Le Mirrage de Figaro  symbolizing the focus of Opera in the common people.
When the curtains disappear and the lights are began to shine is the moment of Broadway.  The stage is portrayed with balerinas, and the lights disappear to announce the beginning of the big screen. The big screen began to shrink to a t.v. and then the use of t.v. for video games.
In the end, I was trying to close the flip book with draws of a flip book flipping.
PD: This is just a friendly reminder that to Mr. Echevery that I got extra credit.