In Beverly Jones’ article: Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins she discusses how technology has become an art or technology has at least adopted past art forms to create a fusion of old and new. Her thesis is: “it is a premise of this paper that old cultural patterns do not die. They may fade or become more evident; that is they may be deemphasized or emphasized” (Jones 51). What Jones is saying is that the new takes from the old in an ever-evolving process. It might get to the point at which you can’t clearly see the original inspiration or thought (or art form) that created the new, but the old will still be there. Her premise is basically that “new” things are usually based off of older things. She supports her assertion with a few examples from history: “The stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture were based on earlier bound papyrus columns. Early-oil paintings-were similar in technique to egg tempura paintings and did not take advantage of oil’s mixing properties, slower drying: and resultant appearance of softer edges. Early mass-produced furniture imitated handcrafted furniture in form and applied ornamentation” (Jones 51). Basically in a world with ever-growing technology and innovations we still borrow from the past. Even when a new technology first comes around, like oil paintings, we may not at first use them to their full advantages because we are used to the old form of art and so look at it from that perspective. In today’s culture new things are forever taking from the old. Movies are continuously being rehashed, remade, or simply parallel an existing movie. Avatar was Pocahontas with better graphics and better technological innovation but in its barebones it was the same thing. “Paint” on Microsoft computers allows you to use different brushes and strokes to create digital artwork but there is no necessity for the applicators to be called paintbrushes because it isn’t real painting but it borrows this terminology from the old to give the new meaning. These days “new” ideas all come from older ones. The ‘wheel’ will forever be being improved upon but it will still in essence be a wheel.
Category: Unit 08
Art, Technology, and Games Discussion
The Ted Talk featuring Jane McGonigal really intrigued me. She stated that the internal power we gain from playing games can be applied to the outside world. Furthermore, we can make games that help affect how we interact with the real world and in doing so improve the world. McGonigal has a very bright outlook on our future, she thinks that games can be a positive change on our world. She thinks that there are four main “superpowers” that gamers get from their online experiences: blissful productivity, social fabric, urgent optimism, and epic meaning. This is the point that made me questionable, do all or most gamers really gain those four skills from playing online games?
I could understand some people achieving some of those skills but McGonigal is insistent that all gamers have these traits. Now I’m not a World of Warcraft player but I do enjoy video games. I can understand the social fabric to an extent because when I was younger I did develop friends over Xbox Live, people I had never met in real life and people I will never meet in real life and that’s the problem. ALthough these voices over my speaker were real people and I interacted with them multiple times a week it didn’t make me any better at being social in reality (I was a very shy kid) and if anything gave me more reason not to go and find more present friends because I had these friends across the country. As for blissful productivity, yes in the game I seemed productive and I was on task but in reality it took away from my school work. McGonigal states that at the current rate gamers are spending the same amount online as they are in classes from 5th to 12th grade. I may have been present at school but my schooling and homework was always delayed and procrastinated to play video games. I do not believe the type of productivity can be transferred to the real world. As for urgent optimism and epic meaning, I was optimistic about games and got a lot of meaning from them but that didn’t transfer over to my real life. That is from my personal experience but I would like to hear if others think those four skills are obtainable from games.