The Electronic Distubance Theater

I realize that the people writing these articles are very well educated and have a lot to say, but it sure makes these readings tough to understand!

I do think that if an artist is passionate about electronic art or public art they should participate as an activist. I think that if someone truly feels strongly about anything they should be an activist. I decided to look up activist through wikipedia. Wikipedia says, "In some cases, activism has nothing to do with protest or confrontation: for instance, some religious, feminist, or vegetarian/vegan activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically." A true activist shouldn't PERSUADE people, I think they should voice their opinions for change.

This definition of activism:
"A person who believes in or particiaptes in direct action to make changes in government or social conditions by campaigning in public or working" (google.com)
is a much better depiction of activists...

Cyborg by Donna Haraway

Today in class we had a discussion about the cyborg. The cyborg is anything that is part mechanical and part human. I think I am going to expand on the idea that one of my classmates brought up. In recent years, new technology has given humans the opportunity to use machines for medical advances. Having machines and robots do the surgeries and tasks that only humans could once do, is something that seemed completely fictional. "Late twentieth-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert."

I disagree with Hawaway in wanting to a cyborg rather than a goddess. I also am confused on her statement, "It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, space stories. Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess." A cybrog is just a "cybernetic organism". It is controlled solely by technology, while my definition of a goddess, would be an immortal being that is and has all sorts of power. I also think a goddess is glorified and almost praised. Is that asking too much!? I think the class was right... who wouldn't want to be a goddess!?

Oh ya... I wanted to address the question of why we chose art as our major.

Originally, I came into college thinking that I wanted to be a IPHY major. Then, I was convinced I wanted to be graphic designer. Come to find out, CU doesn't have graphic design as a major, BUT I could supplement for a graphic design major by doing studio art and ATLAS. As I began th ATLAS program, I learned that by combining this certificate and a studio major that it still isn't as similar to graphic design as I had been advised. Well... it's close enough, and during this frustrating process of not exactly knowing what I wanted to do... I figured it out. I think a lot of a college education is finding out what is right for you, as well as finding yourself. By taking different studios and other art and art history classes and I have really found a desire to be a working artist. Not only is it fun, I can channel my creativity.

I realize this is somewhat irrelevant, but our class got me thinking...

Deluze and Guattari - February 8, 2008

This article was over my head! This is what I got...

The rhizome that D & G refer to is a linked/never-ending amount of information of the web that has no beginning or end. This article applies to the web, because in a way the web is similar to the rhizome. You can get completely lost navigating through the web. A good example of this is facebook or myspace. As creepy as I think both of these sites are, I have pages. I have found my self logging on (which would be the beginning, disagreeing with the Rhizome) but then going from page to page or person to person, often clicking on people that I don't even know! Another example of this is on iTunes. I will be looking for a specific artist or CD and I find myself listening to the artists they suggest (if you like this.. then you will like this...) and I end up getting lost in process and forgetting the reason I even logged into the iTunes store.
I just ventured off from the the main topic or discussion questions from the assigned reading, but yet that again could be similar to the rhizome, or it could just be that I simply got lost in the difficult reading!!

Database as a Genre of New Media by Lev Manovich

Lev Manovich thinks that it is important to discuss databases because they are so abundant in our lives. As explained in the article, "the world appears to us as an endless and unstructured collection of images, texts, and other data records, it is only appropriate that we will be moved to model it as a database". The world wide web is simply a collection of databases, like flickr and any search engine (i.e, google, yahoo). These search engines navigate you to other databases that in turn have even more links, that link to other databases.
The problem with a narrative a narrative is that a database is not a story or a linear progression, it is a collection of material (Manovich).
I am going to go out on a limb and say that every website that contained art that we have looked at in class has been apart of a database. I think that a website, as long as it has any sort of link or collection of information could be considered a database.
If a website has only a linear way of navagation, without choice by the audience then it could be considered a narrative and a database. The only problem with that is the back button on the top of web browsers gives that option to venture backwards. This wouldn't happen if you were reading a book.... but I guess you could filp the back the pages and re-read parts... soooooo basically that's hard to say.
I think certain computer games can be narratives, like ones that you need to beat each level to conquer a a final villain or level. The article uses Tetris, which is a video game, as an example of a algorithm rather than a narrative.