Remix: Yours or Theirs?
For this week’s segment I listened to Nate Harrison’s audio about the Amen Break drum beat that is, as he says, ‘a ubiquitous piece of pop culture soundscape’. The beat comes from “Amen Brother” by the Winstons that was recorded in 1969. It has since popped up in techno, rap and hip hop, commercials for Jeep and major pharmaceuticals. No one can be quite sure what to attest its catchiness to, but it’s there nonetheless.
He goes on to talk about the copyright and how it’s evolved because many considered the beat to be part of our culture and it could be used by others to build on. After noticing the popularity a UK Company came in and made sample CDs that were copyrighted. These sounded nearly identical and through the appropriation, they pretty much own it more than The Winstons do! It’s so crazy to me how these loopholes of laws can protect and exploit information like this.
This completely reminds me of the issue that Robert Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice) had with “Ice Ice Baby” and the hook sounding a lot like Queen’s “Under Pressure”. Van Winkle said he had added an extra note and that changed the entire thing so he shouldn’t have to pay Queen or reference them to use it. He has since gone back and changed it to give credit where it was due. However, I wonder, if it would have been Vanilla Ice going after Queen, would there have been the same success? In law it seems that he with the most money and power will win. Is anything really safe from being copied once it’s released? Isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?
From the Old Comes the New
In my opinion, “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins’” by Beverly Jones was the hardest and dullest paper we have read yet for this class. It was a lot more difficult to assimilate where it was going and I found myself not being engaged with the writing at all. I had a hard time figuring out how this really had that much to do with art, especially when contrasted with the other papers we have read this term. I think that is largely because I was least interested in this segment.
That being said, I did wade through it and worked at pulling out the main thesis point. Jones writes, “I hope to establish the relation of specific image, object, event or environment to conceptual frames. These frames exist within art and technology and are present in other forms of symbolic material culture”. This really talks about immersing technology into art and that is very clearly seen when you watch any of the video games or any of the Pixar films.
People become more and more familiar with new mediums and as the familiarity increases, so does their ability to make art with it. I mean look at how simple the first cellphone games were. All I had on my first Nokia was Snake…a small snake that wrapped around, eating a piece of fruit and growing as you ate more and you had to avoid demise and couldn’t run back into your own body. Now cellphones have games that are over the top and span the imagination! Uniquely though, what we see in this art is affected by cultural patterns and the origins are often a very influential pattern throughout development of our art and entertainment.
Jones uses this example about our form now and how it’s influenced by the past, here, “…the stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture were based on earlier bound papyrus columns.” The cool thing is that even if the original use of the technology is thought about in a different aspect, it can evolve and find a new use in modern day. “New forms of art and technology are frequently cast in the mode of old forms, just as other aspects of material and symbolic culture have been” (Jones).
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Computer Graphics – Art?
Although I know you can make art with a computer through programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, CAD, etc., I have never really stopped to think about the validity of the media in the art world. Does it make it less authentic if it is made with a computer instead of the hand renderings drawn by virtuoso architects like Frank Lloyd Wright? Isn’t it still the person tapping into their spirituality and their higher senses to create something?
What about if that art is used in a game? To me, I almost feel like that should make it more impactful since then the user is fully integrated into the medium. I know that when I have played video games, especially the more recent options out there, I am often blown away by the superior quality in the way the scenes are created. That being said, I will admit that Jane McGonigal did not have me convinced that playing these games could save the world and that we actually needed to play them more. However, by the end when she talked about what games they were developing and how they should be played, it began to make more sense. It was really an inventive strategy about how to bring awareness to things like oil shortages and famine and clearly had strong impacts on the user’s actions in real life which I find enormously commendable.
Spirituality Lends Itself to Creativity
How do you define “spirituality”?
To me spirituality is about being connected to a higher consciousness or presence. To me, it’s not all about God or the divinity, but rather just more awareness that the world and existence is bigger than we are. We are a mass of energy, but I also believe that we have spirits and when we pass on, our energy and spirit do carry on and change into another form or essence of being.
Spirituality can be religion or meditation or something as simple as walking in the woods. I have always viewed it as what can ground you to the world and simultaneously allows you to see outside of yourself.
Does spirituality differ from religion?
I do believe that religion is a way in which you can express your spirituality. Spirituality is not all religious though. I do believe that religion has a much more structured set of rules and beliefs that defines it. Spirituality is a lot more ambiguous and able to melded to what each person needs it to be. Religion has always been something that tries to explain the unexplainable for me and helps to give people answers to the questions of where we came from and why we are here. I don’t see spirituality as needing to answering the questions, but more as being okay with not knowing the answer and being at peace with where you are and your part in it all.
How do you define “creativity”?
Creativity is such a diaphanous term, that it’s hard to really nail it down and define it. I think it is about the ability to translate your ideas and thoughts and feelings as well as a way to express your ideals and beliefs. Through creativity one can express parts of their imagination and delve into exploration of new ideas and they can transcend the earthly realm. This can be done through an enormous cacophony of mediums: song, writing, traditional artistic methods (painting, drawing, sculpting, etc.), dance, amongst many others.
What is the source of creativity?
I do see the source as being pretty spiritual, even if the person expressing their creativity doesn’t necessarily think of it like that. Creativity comes from within you and is inspired by where you’ve been, what you’ve seen, the varied experiences we have in life, from values and belief structures that were imposed upon us. I think the real source of creativity is the desire to express what we have inside and what we see and feel. It’s the conscious effort to put it on paper, or sing it through song, or to push the clay in just a certain way. Creativity is you.
The Art of Spirituality
Alex Grey has always been one of my favorite artists. I was turned onto him back in 2003 when I was in college the first time. My boyfriend at the time was a huge fan of his work and Maynard James Keenan’s music (Tool and A Perfect Circle). I’ll never forget the first time I saw the piece that Nate had on the wall of Grey’s that first introduced me to him. I looked at it for hours throughout our relationship. A lot of hours. And the more I looked at it, the more I saw and the more the piece resonated within me. It was if I could really get a sense of Grey’s spirit and who he was and what it was like to be in his head and what his spirituality was like. This was only intensified after the first time I took mushrooms and stared at that poster while getting completely lost in the deep lyrics of Tool that have a lot of religious implications since Keenan grew up a Baptist family.
It’s like when Grey writes about how his visions were intensified when he first took DMT. It is as if a whole new light was shed on the way you look at things and your brain’s ability to process and interpret.
This entire fall term in this class I have been stating that art is really what resonates within you and that is what can make it ‘art’ for you. To me that means what you see and what you feel and what something evokes in you. I feel like this perfectly corresponds with Grey’s writings in Deeply Seeing. He says, “Seeing occurs when our attention is arrested by a person, object, or scene. Our mind stops and pays attention” (Grey, 71-72). He delves deeper and says, “Viewers appreciate art because they resonate with those states of being” (Grey, 79)
I am a very empathetic person. I’ve always had an uncanny way of being able to feel what it would like to be in someone else’s shoes and to be in their experience. It is about the experience. It’s about how the artist felt when they created the piece. It’s about what thoughts they were trying to pull out of their own spirit to share with the world. I’ve always tried to seek the deeper meaning to lyrics and broad brush strokes and the indentations in clay. Every medium is meticulously chosen to be able to convey the message of the artist. The inner workings of their soul to communicate the message to the outer world.
Grey says that an artist “must be open to the tumultuous ocean of potential inspiration, the entire spectrum of consciousness, and yet reduce or essentialize that infinite ocean to a few flowing strokes from their own fountain, providing tangible evidence of inner discovery to the outer world” (Grey, 80). To be completely REAL and HONEST in the moment. That is a rare gift.
Here is where I make ‘spirituality’ real to the context of my own story and where I am in this moment.
I started to write this on 11.12.13. It’s the first day I am living without my husband who’s fallen in love with a woman in his class. I married him on 9.10.11. I joke and tell people that I’m just picking up where he left off. As if that wasn’t enough, on 11.13.13, the first day I spent in my new home with some incredible friends, their 19 year old son was hit by a car and is in the ICU with the right side of his skull removed because of all of the swelling on his brain. It is at this moment that I realize that the spirits that align and make sure we are where we are meant to be, put me here so I could be a vessel of strength and hope for this family. Losing a partner is nothing like losing a child or watching them fight to stay alive. The spirit must always go on though and the woman’s will can find a way to persevere, and I will.
I will find a way to be like Alex Grey’s lovers. Connected for infinity through the mind and through the heart. Nothing but a network of veins and bones and cells that still find a deeper connection than is seen through science.
Spirituality: believing in the unseen; things like true love and trust and loyalty, even when they can’t be seen or explained. Just because they are and it feels good to you. That is all we need to get by.
Artistic Analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Diegetic Sound:
When the teacher is speaking to the entire class in the very beginning of the show, that is diegetic sound. The entire audience can hear her speaking and it’s not coming from off camera or showing that it’s an internal sound dialog. It is also an external diegetic sound since all of the characters can hear.
Non-Diegetic Sound:
After the teacher has asked Buffy to lie on the desk, the man comes up to kiss her. Once they get more involved in the kiss, dark, stormy music starts to play in the background. Wind sounds like it is blowing about and thunder erupts. All of this is non-diegetic because it’s creating an atmosphere and ambiance and isn’t sound that all of the characters in the scene can here. It comes from off camera.
This creates a dark, mysterious tone and the eeriness is instantly felt through the tonal structure of the music.
Mise-en-scene:
I will describe this about when the man with the creepy hands comes into the scene and opens the box which he seems to trap people’s souls in. It uses diegetic sound in the way of the box closing, but the whispers of the souls as they are slipping out of the bodies uses non-diegetic sound to show that it’s happening off camera, and out of the character’s audibles.
- Production Design: sets, props and costumes – There is makeup on the hands of the character that are very old and almost skeletal. They look creepy and instantly conjure a feeling of repulsion and fear – like you know this character is up to no good. The box and even the way the hands move are gloomy and seem as if there is an aspect of magic about them. Dark magic. Of course it’s portrayed fully when the camera pans back after he closes the box and you see that it’s a skeleton-like vampire with dark, sunken eyes and very sharp, scary features.
- Colour (present in both production design and lighting) – in this scene it gets dark. It goes from being bright and colorful when Buffy is in class or they’re outside, to a much bleaker scene.
- Lighting – As I touched on in the color, things go dark and the lighting follows suit. It gets darker and hence leads you to think there is danger a foot in the scene. It instantly felt like to me that this was going to be a scene where the monsters and creepy crawlies were going to lurk into the episode.
- Actors’ performance (including casting and make up) and movement (blocking) – The monster serves to just give a dark mood and the hands move slow and with a scary factor to the slow, methodical way they float over the box. He stands off camera so just the attention is on the hands and the box. The characters all lie relatively motionless in their bed and just make little diegetic sounds through their moans as the souls slip across their lips. It then pans back to the monster who closes the box and we finally see that he is as evil and scary as we might have first thought with the hands.
- Framing including position; depth of field; aspect ratio; height and angle (but not movement) – There is little movement and for the most part, the monster is off camera right until the commercial break. The humans who have their souls stolen are framed in tight and the camera zooms in so you can see their mouths opening and the diaphanous soul escaping their lips. The movement is fluid and almost if you’re floating through the scene.
Personal Beliefs and Adornments
I have always really liked my sense of style and enjoy helping others find their own voice in that element too. I appreciate body piercings, tattoos, unique styles of dress and things that are just a bit out of the ordinary.
I wear things I like, not because they are trendy or in fashion at the moment, but because something about them resonates for me. Maybe I like the way I feel when I am in them, or how they look on me, or their particular patterns and textiles they are made from. Some items in my closet have emotional significance, or were made especially for me. I like pieces that really do show my personality – bright, bubbly, optimistic and fun.
My tattoos bear a lot of significance and serve as tomes to remember the important thing. The left wrist filters the energy entering my body and reminds me that I always have myself and to always give love. The right wrist signifies the energy I give back to the world, and it’s a symbol that stands for community and forgiveness. My piercings are just additional little adornments that add more sparkle factor – I have an obsession for things that are shiny!
I think a lot of this sense of style and self expression has come from my mom. She’s a very free spirited, creative person and so I have always carried myself in a very similar fashion. Clothes do not identify you or give you value, so big brands and designers have never really had a lot of significance for me. I can like an item from the thrift store as much as I can enjoy something from Neiman Marcus.
The development of not really caring what is in fashion or ‘hot’ at the moment has definitely evolved over the years. As a child in school, especially through the high school and teenage years, I did care a lot more about what others thought and if I would fit in. I had my mom spend way more to get name brand everything and had to have everything from the ‘in’ stores. Now I really do know how well we can express ourselves and the message our appearance sends to those around us and I do not want to be just another face in the crowd from the pages of J. Crew, etc.
I think the core values of my family were things like honesty, integrity, strong work ethics, a sense of purpose, respect for self and others, being environmentally kind and super importantly, happiness. Again, my mom is a hippie at heart and she never really seemed to care what other people thought. She is a bohemian and I although she is usually heavily accessorized, I have always thought that her best accessory was her smile and the light that shines from within her.
She loves to find things at the thrift store which makes both environmental and economic sense. She doesn’t take more than she needs so that there can be something left for the next person and she taught us to do the same.
Mom always said we could be free to express ourselves and she totally stood by that. I wanted to pierce my belly button at 13 and although she did not want to do it herself and my dad abhorred the idea, she went along with me to hold my hand and support me. She respected that it was my body and therefore my choice.
My peers are a diverse group. I have peers at school and at work and they’re on pretty different spectrums. I feel that most of my peers at school are still figuring out who they are and identifying what they really feel expresses them through fashion and adornments. At work, there aren’t very many who give a lot of thought to what they look like. I work in the not for profit world and I have heard many of the social workers joke about how you know if someone is a fellow member of their group by their uniform – sandals, jeans and a baggy t-shirt. It doesn’t really tell you a lot about the person except to sort of state that their appearances don’t mean a whole lot to them.
On the other side of the coin, I do have some of the executives and people in our Creative Services and Marketing departments that are a bit more attached to their fashionable identities and how they portray themselves. Many of them wear current trends in business appropriate fashion—taking meticulous time to pay attention to the small details—much like the girl in my second observation that I wrote about.
Adorn Yourself Accordingly
- I see a girl that looks much like all the other University of Oregon girls – clad in black leggings, Ugg boots and an Oregon hoodie. I have teasingly dubbed it the Oregon uniform for several terms now.
To me it seems that she has pride for her school and she’s aware of trends. I think she cares about her appearances, because even at 7:00am her hair and makeup are done as if she was going out on Friday night.
I assume that she is about 21, is definitely white, comes from a blue collar background, she’s active and eats well as do most Eugenians and she is a decent student who enjoys the recreation of college man than what she’s getting out of the classes right now.
I do think that because I didn’t take school so seriously the first time around, that others don’t either. I was a sorority girl back then and the same shoe could fit her quite comfortably from her outward appearance. - The other person I observed is a lovely Korean girl. She’s in sleek clothes in muted tones – mainly black and cream. She has gorgeous gold jewelry that pops against her skin tone.
I believe she takes adornments to be an extension of her personality and uses them to enhance and draw your eye to certain parts of herself, some of them being her status. Every piece looks meticulously chosen, there’s not a hair out of place and everything is well made and clearly wasn’t bought from Forever 21.
I am assuming that she is Korean, and in working with a lot of Koreans, I have become much better at picking them out in a crowd. She has no accent so I am guessing she grew up in the US. I’d put her at about 24-26 and she appears very healthy and seems to be in good spirits. She has an infectious laugh that makes others around her smile, even if they’re not a part of the conversation.
I see pieces of me in her – the spirit and the bubbliness – the attention to the little details (although I don’t usually focus mine in the same manner as she does) and I think I am likening her to the several Korean girlfriends I have that I adore! - The last person I watched is a man who is very attentively studying what looks to be, “PR”. He has Beats by Dre headphones on, an Oregon Basketball backpack and is in full Nike regalia.
To me it seems that he regards the Oregon association in very high regard. I believe he respects and admires Nike and would be willing to bet that he’s pretty loyal to the brand beyond Oregon. He looks familiar and I know he’s on the team, but I can’t place exactly which player he is.
I am assuming by the clothes and the Athletic Department issued backpack that he plays on our basketball team. That coupled with the fact that I can almost place him, helps me feel good in that assumption. I bet he is very athletic and places the priority of school and sports on a pretty even playing field (ha). He is African American and I picture him growing up in Atlanta, GA for some reason. I would guess him at about 22 and he is in amazing physical shape and I guess him to be healthy and satisfied. He appears to be self confident and very focused and driven.
I feel like I am making several of these assumptions off of other people that I assume him to be, are like. Growing up in north Idaho, there really wasn’t a lot of culture – Maybe in part of that, I would say that I do generalize and group people into what I am familiar with and have experience with. I likened the Korean girl above, to the Koreans I associate with. I am doing the same here with this guy. They all made me smile and made me stop and really see the things we do have similar and how no matter what you look like and what you wear, we’re more alike than we’re different.
A Matter of Taste: My Critique
In the article I found, “A Matter of Taste” by William Deresiewic, the author talks about how food has become almost religious in America. Furthermore, he goes on to say that not only has food not just become art, but rather it has worked its way so resolutely into our culture that it has replaced art. He states that it used to be that people would go to Ivy League schools to become highly educated and cultured, but now they’re leaning on food and bustling farmer’s markets to express their knowledge and demonstrate their astuteness. He brings up Italy and France, both countries that hold their food in high regard, but unlike here in America, they both hold art in higher esteem and don’t forget to respect it ahead of their food. Deresiewicz gives his argument about why he believes food is not art and I will admit that he does bring up some compelling points. Food cannot evoke all the senses, or make you angry or make you sad. It does not have nearly the impact as other forms of art. He wraps up the article with this line, “Here in America, we are in danger of confusing our palates with our souls.”
Although some of his arguments do have validity, I really don’t agree that food is not art, nor do I believe that we are ‘confusing our palate with our souls’. I do not believe that just because food does not reduce people to tears, nor makes them go off in an angry tirade, that this means food is not art. Deresiewicz went on to say, “A good risotto is a fine thing, but it isn’t going to give you insight into other people, allow you to see the world in a new way, or force you to take inventory of your soul”. I don’t believe all art has to do this to be counted as art. I have many pieces of art in my home from all around the world, only one has ever reduced me to tears and that had more to do with the context of which the piece was given to me in. Does this make them less inferior and not as artful, because I do not find myself weeping at their feet, or screaming at them in a fit of rage? And on the contrary, I actually do believe that new foods actually can see the world through new eyes.
In, “Food as Art” by Elizabeth Tefler, she writes, “Many philosophers argue that although food and drink can give rise to aesthetic reactions, they cannot constitute works of art.” Deresiewicz and what I could be considered, close-minded arguments, must come from this same traditional standpoint. I appreciate that Tefler makes sure to face that head on and goes on to elaborate on the statement where she writes, “Not all objects that can give rise to aesthetics are works of art. A work of art is by definition a man-made thing, even if the human involvement need consist of no more than putting a natural object in a gallery and giving it a title.” I think it really is important to think about what ‘art’ is and not apply such closed boundaries to the definition.
Ellen Dissanayake wrote, “What is Art For?” and in the book, she states, “Art has become if not a religion, an ideology whose principles were articulated by and for the few who had leisure and education enough to acquire them.” It is for this reason that I believe fine dining can fit perfectly into what one thinks about as ‘art’. Regardless of what these authors think, I know that food really is a form of spirituality for me; a form of expression and an ability to put an idea on a flawlessly composed plate. It helps me to show those around me that I care about them and I can give the love a physical embodiment that looks beautiful and sustains their body’s need for nourishment. My brother has always told me that the meals I prepare are the best he has ever had because it is clear that I prepare and cook the entire meal with love. That to me is absolutely art.
Cooking is a form of abstract expressionism and every meal is different for me.
Dissanayake says, “Because these values were not easily apparent to the untutored observer, appreciating art became more than ever an elite activity.” I think we can all agree that fine dining is reserved for special occasions and those that are affluent. Food is, at times, a costly activity. It can be meticulous and it can evoke emotion. It can cause nostalgia and takes thought and intention to create. To me, this constitutes ‘art’, no matter what other authors have to say.
Works Cited:
Deresiewicz, W. (2012, October 26). A Matter of Taste. The New York Times. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/how-food-replaced-art-as-high-culture.html?_r=0
Dissanayake, E. (1988). What is art for?. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Tefler, E., & Ridley, A. (2002). Arguing about art: contemporary philosophical debates (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.