Simulations & Simulacra

In this section of the Survey, we discuss how paintings, photographs and cinema have became so creative, that they actually appear to be real. It opens up with talking about a painting of grapes, done by Zeuxis, looked so life-like that birds would actually try to eat them. Not to top it off, but moving to cinema in 1895, works done by the Lumiere brothers' did a first presentation on a film showing a train approaching the near-ground of the screen that some viewers actually fled the theater. That would be hilarious to see. Come to think of it though, back in that time this was all brand new to everyone, this was the first film presented on it, so I can see why they would run out of a theater scared. And to now where the film industry is at, it has definitely came a long ways, in the past 100 years. It is unbelievable.

Charged Enviroments

Still in the Survey section of Art and Electronic Media, comes the next section that talks about Charged Environments. What exactly comes to mind when we think Charged Environments? I think of a electricity bolt. I think of a picture of the sky during a really bad thunder storm. However, what the book talks about is not only the artist's work and how they create a art piece, but we need to also focus on the perception and cognition of the viewer that is overlooking that same piece. Artists can create pieces that challenge that behavior and that traditional art work to really enhance the audience perception. One name brought up is John Cage, who is an American composer that focuses on listening to the ambient sounds of one's environment. His contribution to electronic media was phenomenal and inspired many artists to really challenge that perception of sound objects and environments. Otherwise known as Charged Environments.

Electronic Production

Electronic production is the use of technological media rendering and altering artwork to a more productive output. This approach did in fact speed up production, while at the same time, affecting the working process of artists and transforming the end result of their work on visual culture. The invention of the rotary press came in 1850, which "enabled the cheap and rapid reproduction of photographs and drawings in newspapers." (Pg. 23) Although this mechanical production was the next new thing, Walter Benjamin is one that argued that reproducing these images left a lack in 'aura' that you can find in all the handcrafted originals. I would definitely have to agree with Benjamin. Reprinting and technologically altering imagery does make a more massive reproduction, but at the same time keeping the very original so unique and expensive. I can print off a replicate of the Mona Lisa, and it's not going to be worth anything, but now if you have the original in hand, you'd be looking at about $780 million today. The handcrafted originals will always be worth the most.

Coded Form

Coded form was first introduced by the French in 1801 and was basically encoded information sent by computers to machinery to get a specific job done. Although it brought great financial success to the work industry, most workers and employees weren't too fond of it with the idea that their jobs will one day be replaced by machines. Although there might be some truth to that, with machines helping most assembly line job outfits, there still needs to be humans to make sure those continue to work productively, to maintenance them, and build even better one's that can do twice the work in half the amount of time. I still do believe that one day all of our jobs will be replaced by robots, but I don't think that day is coming anytime soon though, there is still plenty of  jobs that require human censorship. There is still hope.

Should Textbooks Still Exist?

I think this was a very beneficial discussion to have in class today. I believe this to be one of the most controversial issues for college students today, because I myself have actually pondered this idea not only about textbooks, but a college degree in general. We live in a generation of the cell phone's and all electronics for that matter. There is ten times the amount of eBooks online available then there was five years ago. With that being said, more kids are purchasing eBooks and just pulling them up on their tablets at school, then actually purchasing a hard copy in the bookstore. Same with turning in assignments, I have a lot more teachers telling us to upload our assignments via online, then actually turning in a hard copy, just because that is what the world is going to now-a-days. A Electronic World. You definitely can argue both sides still, it is a debatable issue, but I think in ten years, there will be no debate left to argue..

Job Fair 2015

This year was my first year attending the Job Fair at WSU and I had a really fun time talking to the different employers. The booth I enjoyed the most as you can probably tell is the Pasco Police Booth and it was fun talking to the officers like Sergeant Scott Warren there in the picture. What a great guy. This was definitely beneficial to me, and something I look forward to doing again next semester if they have a Job Fair every semester. Thank you WSU. Go Cougs!