http://designseminarspring2011.blogspot.com/
This is the blog where I will be posting a majority of my seminar related work from now till April/May. Feel free to keep tabs on me if you'd like.
Actual posting may or may not happen in the near future.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
The infernal march of time and the next generation
I would like to take a moment and if you would be so kind as to read along then please be my guest.
In more recent news, the Mark Twain novel "The adventures of Huck Finn" was recently going through a change in it's publication where all uses of the term "n*gger" was to be replaced by the word "slave." At first, I was a bit disappointed with this, Twain's book being a timeless classic in American literature and any alterations to it's text felt as though it would be tarnished. It was set in a period in time where things were much different and to maintain this sense of the era it would be best to leave things as they are. However, it's just as I said, it was set in a period in time where things were much different and although Twain's wit and writing is brilliant, much of it is lost in translation as the readers from more than 100 year in the future read it today. Since this is the case, there should be no need to be worried over the simple exchange of a single word, or rather overjoyed that a hateful word is extracted all together. This is the reasoning I have come to understand about this matter and it just seems silly to be upset over the change of a word, regardless of it's context or meaning. Maybe it's better that if a new generation reads the books of Mark Twain that they do not have to ask their teacher "What is a N*gger?"
But this isn't so much about the alteration of books but rather how when something becomes old enough it begins to make less and less sense. As time marches on with every infernal step, things that were once considered important or memorable are now being "antiqued" by the general public, shelved and presented as novelties rather than regarded with the respect they once commanded. Or worse, they are forgotten until some one, some day, repeats a very dreadful mistake or mishap. Now there are a lot of things we leave behind for time to gobble up, things like novels that were less than masterpieces of literature or movies that were alright perhaps even remade but even still weren't all that good to begin with. Those things we don't care so much about and why would we? They are only forms of entertainment.
But then there are things, events and moments in the past that we hear stories about, like when our grandparents told us about growing up in the great depression and how the world was on the end of it's seat during the second world war. Or perhaps more recent, during the 60's and 70's with the war in Vietnam and free love and all the strange, strange things in-between. And here we are, at the beginning of another new year, already buzzing with a few thousand things going on . . . I'm starting to see a trend. As I said, time moves on and on and things are being swept under the rug as we go along. But how much will be lost? How many of the things we experienced last year, five years, ten years ago will really matter to the world of tomorrow? How much will my children know about 9/11? Will it be nothing more than just something that happened a long time ago or perhaps something mommy and daddy saw? And it doesn't have to be political, it could be anything from seeing Michael Jordan play for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals or what it was like to listen to an iPod? Or maybe, just maybe they will make me feel old and ask "What is Mario?"
The world will be a very different place for that next generation of wiggling and squirming little brats that may be our children and I wonder whether or not they will learn anything from the events of the past? How will those bygone eras of the 2000's-2010's will actually matter to them?
As a skeptic and someone who sees the glass as half empty far more times than I will ever care to mention, I don't have high hopes. I imagine a lot of things from our collective youths will be fodder for time's gluttony and will be non-existent to the next generation and a hazy memory for us. But for the things that matter, the World Wars that were fought and won, the times that came before when these strange creatures called hippies reigned supreme and all the nasty things we as humans have done because we should have known better, those need to be kept even though they might lose their meaning and their relevance. But even if we change the words around, it'll still be the same at the core . . . right? History is a funny thing, even funnier still is the history that wasn't so long ago. I can hope that the education system our generation will run will do their level best for these children. I hope my children, or at least the children I will one day be questioned by will be inquisitive of what the world was like before they ever arrived. I want them to pick up Huck Finn and ask me what the hell is going on and above all else I want to be able to tell them more than "it was just a different time back then."
So at the very least, remember now. Right now. Right as you are reading this right now. What is happening in the world today? What is special about today? What about you? What are your feelings about today? Were things better before or will they be better in the future? What will you have as an answer when someone asks you what this corner in time was like? I know that this topic is far from original, I'm almost certain I've been posed this question at least 100 times in my 22 year tenure on this rock. But I suppose it's important to ask it again and again because someone may have let it slip past them.
This is the end of a realization I had at 4 am on the 10th of January 2011.
In more recent news, the Mark Twain novel "The adventures of Huck Finn" was recently going through a change in it's publication where all uses of the term "n*gger" was to be replaced by the word "slave." At first, I was a bit disappointed with this, Twain's book being a timeless classic in American literature and any alterations to it's text felt as though it would be tarnished. It was set in a period in time where things were much different and to maintain this sense of the era it would be best to leave things as they are. However, it's just as I said, it was set in a period in time where things were much different and although Twain's wit and writing is brilliant, much of it is lost in translation as the readers from more than 100 year in the future read it today. Since this is the case, there should be no need to be worried over the simple exchange of a single word, or rather overjoyed that a hateful word is extracted all together. This is the reasoning I have come to understand about this matter and it just seems silly to be upset over the change of a word, regardless of it's context or meaning. Maybe it's better that if a new generation reads the books of Mark Twain that they do not have to ask their teacher "What is a N*gger?"
But this isn't so much about the alteration of books but rather how when something becomes old enough it begins to make less and less sense. As time marches on with every infernal step, things that were once considered important or memorable are now being "antiqued" by the general public, shelved and presented as novelties rather than regarded with the respect they once commanded. Or worse, they are forgotten until some one, some day, repeats a very dreadful mistake or mishap. Now there are a lot of things we leave behind for time to gobble up, things like novels that were less than masterpieces of literature or movies that were alright perhaps even remade but even still weren't all that good to begin with. Those things we don't care so much about and why would we? They are only forms of entertainment.
But then there are things, events and moments in the past that we hear stories about, like when our grandparents told us about growing up in the great depression and how the world was on the end of it's seat during the second world war. Or perhaps more recent, during the 60's and 70's with the war in Vietnam and free love and all the strange, strange things in-between. And here we are, at the beginning of another new year, already buzzing with a few thousand things going on . . . I'm starting to see a trend. As I said, time moves on and on and things are being swept under the rug as we go along. But how much will be lost? How many of the things we experienced last year, five years, ten years ago will really matter to the world of tomorrow? How much will my children know about 9/11? Will it be nothing more than just something that happened a long time ago or perhaps something mommy and daddy saw? And it doesn't have to be political, it could be anything from seeing Michael Jordan play for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals or what it was like to listen to an iPod? Or maybe, just maybe they will make me feel old and ask "What is Mario?"
The world will be a very different place for that next generation of wiggling and squirming little brats that may be our children and I wonder whether or not they will learn anything from the events of the past? How will those bygone eras of the 2000's-2010's will actually matter to them?
As a skeptic and someone who sees the glass as half empty far more times than I will ever care to mention, I don't have high hopes. I imagine a lot of things from our collective youths will be fodder for time's gluttony and will be non-existent to the next generation and a hazy memory for us. But for the things that matter, the World Wars that were fought and won, the times that came before when these strange creatures called hippies reigned supreme and all the nasty things we as humans have done because we should have known better, those need to be kept even though they might lose their meaning and their relevance. But even if we change the words around, it'll still be the same at the core . . . right? History is a funny thing, even funnier still is the history that wasn't so long ago. I can hope that the education system our generation will run will do their level best for these children. I hope my children, or at least the children I will one day be questioned by will be inquisitive of what the world was like before they ever arrived. I want them to pick up Huck Finn and ask me what the hell is going on and above all else I want to be able to tell them more than "it was just a different time back then."
So at the very least, remember now. Right now. Right as you are reading this right now. What is happening in the world today? What is special about today? What about you? What are your feelings about today? Were things better before or will they be better in the future? What will you have as an answer when someone asks you what this corner in time was like? I know that this topic is far from original, I'm almost certain I've been posed this question at least 100 times in my 22 year tenure on this rock. But I suppose it's important to ask it again and again because someone may have let it slip past them.
This is the end of a realization I had at 4 am on the 10th of January 2011.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Preperations for Phase 2
It took me a while to get as far as I have but I still have a long way to go. Even with my glorious break from academics, I've been attempting to get further along with my seminar projects since I had what I'd kindly call "a late start." But that is all behind me now and I'm glad it is. I got my bearings, now I need to accomplish my goal.
100 pictures for 100 captions.
Despite my set goal, I will probably be making much more art than I need for the sake of being able to pick the best from the best. Although I have plenty of artwork made and finished, some of the earlier pictures no longer have a place with my ever changing thesis and so I have much less to work with than I originally thought. I am able to salvage what I can, but I'm still in a spot now where I have to make images and make quite a bit of them.
All other personal pursuits like the Plastic Beach series that I started close to a year ago will be placed on hold, but there is always a chance I could make another one by complete chance. After all, I am making more than I need. As for the Gundam model, well it's finished. I'll post more about that later.
In theory, making 100 random images should not pose too much of a challenge. I'm hoping I'm right about that because next semester's work load is much more on quantity with more classes to worry about and an independent study for writing. However, I'm not looking for a mercy angel just yet so I'm still hopeful.
100 pictures for 100 captions.
Despite my set goal, I will probably be making much more art than I need for the sake of being able to pick the best from the best. Although I have plenty of artwork made and finished, some of the earlier pictures no longer have a place with my ever changing thesis and so I have much less to work with than I originally thought. I am able to salvage what I can, but I'm still in a spot now where I have to make images and make quite a bit of them.
All other personal pursuits like the Plastic Beach series that I started close to a year ago will be placed on hold, but there is always a chance I could make another one by complete chance. After all, I am making more than I need. As for the Gundam model, well it's finished. I'll post more about that later.
In theory, making 100 random images should not pose too much of a challenge. I'm hoping I'm right about that because next semester's work load is much more on quantity with more classes to worry about and an independent study for writing. However, I'm not looking for a mercy angel just yet so I'm still hopeful.
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