Prof Warwick: the history of electronic music

Professor Warwick, in my opinion was a very interesting fellow. I felt like i could learn alot from him, and I did in his lecture. it was quite long but he wanted to tell us so much! he didnt even have time for it all. But i'm glad he told us what he did because i wanted to learn about the creative minds behind the past electronic music endeavours.i was truly inspired to make my own music after this.

It was amazing to me that electronic music began so long ago. the musical telegraph was made in 1876! it also shocked me hoe fast technology advanced, showcased by the modernism of Poeme Electronique (1930). it was fun to see all the historic stuff, but i got more interested when warwick mentioned Brian Eno, who produced some of my favorite bands (talking heads and devo!) i started to really be able to relate to this whole electronic music thing then.

samplers and synthesizers remind me of dj equipment. my friend john from home recently bought an entire dj booth setup and has started djing parties. he let me play around with the turntables and i felt so awesome to mix and scratch with the headphones half on so you can hear the transition. technology really has come such a long way from mixing tapes to mp3's. i am so enthralled with it! i want to know how everything works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nbc76UqnjQ <<Johann Johannsson, Odi et Amo. beautiful imagery in both the lyrics and the performance!

Electronic Media Exhibition; Sound, Sight, Interaction

I was lucky enought to attend the opening of the recent electronic media show this past Thursday. Going in, I wasnt sure what to expect, but I actually ended up loving it! I had no idea you could do so much within the field.

The works that stood out to me the most were those by Mr. Doob [Ricardo Cabella]. His HTML5 piece was really striking because what is on the screen is something you definately DONT want to see on your own comupter screen,  a frozen dragging screen implying a virus. it was realy fun to play with though without the attachment of your own home computer to it and it made me really think about how he hacked the screen to do only this. Another piece of his titled, WaterType, was true to it's description, "I garuntee you'll be entertained for at least 15 seconds". I was. again, the screen function was very simple and in this way elegant, even though it deminished the quality of the computers of today by reverting to substandard programming.

versatility was shows with the sound pieces, the guitar with marbles that amplified the sounds, and the staircase microphones, which im not sure what they were for but seemed like a cool concept. but my favorite of all time was the genius piece by Bon Champion, "Conversation: A Collaborative Drawing". This really showed to me the power of the interactive piece, because all the viewers lefdt their own mark and self portrait of how they felt while observing this piece. so simple, yet so brilliant! i love love loved it!

Shepard Fairey - A Hero

The given article, Shepard Fairey and the Art of Appropriation, is incredibly biast. It is clear the author, Jamie O'Shea, sides with Fairey and is demoralizing Mark Vallen's ideas, but in any case I agree. I think Fairey is a genius of street art! i dont care if he uses other images, because they are appropriated to make political statements. he intentionally used approriation in "Greetings from Iraq". the point was to shock people and make them remmeber the earlier piece in contrast to his. I also think Vallen is a schmuck for saying that Fairey is only interested in money! Street art is the least profitable form of work ever. And there is NO WAY that i, as a "second rate art student" could ever make the work of Fairey. I have enough trouble with illustrator let alone having the drive and thoughts of Fairey. It's also ludacris to say Fairey doesnt believe his own work and its leftist ideals. what fool would go against hsi own political stance? its not likes he is making fun of it or anything.

Don't get me wrong, i still stand with my previous beleif that its wrong to steal images and try to pass them off as your own. It was wrong of Fairey to try to hide evidence of his robbery, as stated in the wikipedia article, but i think he uses appropriaton in the correct way in contrast to Jeff Koons.

<<TALENT!

Telematics/Robotics

To be honest telecommunications art, especially the work of Kenneth Feingold, scares the daylights outof me. I think its creepy. But it does interest me that it is considered and art form. I would out it under the category of science myself, but then again, the design and intention of the pieces are more liek art than anything else. The things tht robots can do nowalso freaks me out. if they can already think for themselves, enough to hold a conversation that isnt pre-recorded and retain new information, i think we will soon have a huge problem on our hands. Lynn Hershman's Agent Ruby even emphasizes that thr robots can take on a life of their own and essentially become social beings! I wish i had the savvy to create my own robot though! unfortunately thats not quite my forte. If i could mimic anything it would be the work of Eduardo Kac! i think Rara Avis is so cute and such a clever idea! but i think it's taking it too far when you get to things like Exoskelton.

Jeff Koons, disgrace to MICA.

Personally im pissed off that Jeff Koons went to the same school as me because now we are all associated with copyright infringement. It's ridiculous the likeness of his sculpture to Rogers' photo. I also hate Koons for employing Jaclyn Santos. I HATE JACLYN SANTOS. She has no original ideas of her own which i learned in "Work of Art" on Bravo, and I can see where she gets it from. She is such a talented painter but ruins it. Koons is also incredibly successful and versatile. he works in do many mediums so well but it's all bullshit. Art should have got all the proceeds from the sculptures. He was totally within his rights to sue.

The appeal of the photo is evident ans incredibly inspiring; But the fact that Koons used his inspiratinon to rip off Rogers is crazy. the photo and the sculpture are exactly the same. The only difference is the stupid daisys which i suppose are supposed to represent something of whimsy or whatever, but its not enough. its just stupid. the sculpture even cuts off at the knee like the photo and is just sitting there on the ground ike the photo would.

Despite my strong feelings against Koons' actions im still fuzzy on what exactly is copyright infringement and what is appropriation. What gave me the biggest insight was this excerpt from James Traub's article in The New Design Observer, "Art Rogers vs. Jeff Koons"

" In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Even armed with this knowledge, the line between legal and not is so blurred. I hope i dont get into any trouble like Koons did, but i would never be THAT stupid.

thoughts on EGG interview with Barbara Kruger

Quickly, i read over the interview and realized that I wasn't engaged at all in what it had to say because i had yet to see any work by Kruger. I did some searches on her art and found them to be, to my surprise, INCREDIBLY engaging. From the first glance at the interview I could tell that Kruger's work was going to be very personal, but I then realized that the depth of her personal thoughts expanded into the world of advertisement in a universal, relate-able way. Her style is very specific to her, but yet commercial in a sense that it is easy to follow and see the whole picture.

Taking another look at the interview, i revisited the fact that Kruger worked as a graphic designer for a magazine, and could immediately see the influence. Although, I completely agree with Kruger that her work is ART and not graphic design. Her work reflects her persona vividly, which ties into her question, "'Why have you chosen to call yourself an artist?'". That question made me consider my own work and it's worth to my personality. I think all art should tell a story about the artist in a way.

Film: Hacking

I think the most intersting part of this movie was the connection between  phone phreaking and computer hacking. It seems that they would bev ery different, but infact they are quite similar. it blows my mind that people have thw intelect to come up with the blue box devices and be able to get phone service for free at a time when it was up and coming and exppensive. I think it was a brilliant idea! the only problem is that it lead to not so brilliant ideas in the computer age. Its scary to think that hackers can enter the internet and get all of your information. i nthink that hacking could have been used for fun and new innovations but unfortunately people are not always good hearted.

I also find it fascinating that people felt and still feel the challenge of hacking. that some people dont want to steal information or anythig, they just want to see how smart they can be at getting past  barriers. i never would have guessed that that is how it all started. i feel that if we hadnt stiffled those people's ingenuity, then maybe we would have advanced technologically alot fast than we have. But then again, they could change things for the worst too! its such a controversial and complicated topic. but im glad that now i can see the other side of the story.

Steve Wozniak using  a blue box to phone phreak!