After viewing the Runquist murals at Knight library, I got a better understanding of what is the meaning of Public Art. According to Doss, he described this term in his article “Public Art Controversy: Cultural Expression and Civic Debate” that ”Public art is artwork in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property, or whether it is acquired through public or private funding. Public art can be a sculpture, mural, manhole cover, paving pattern, lighting, seating, building facade, kiosk, gate, fountain, play equipment, engraving, carving, fresco, mobile, collage, mosaic, bas-relief, tapestry, photograph, drawing, or earthwork”(Page 2). Public art can be found everywhere around us in the campus. It serves as a public media with a specific intention that can be accessible to all. It is used for public occasion for people to appreciate by the specific meanings it carries.

In terms of civic improvement, I think public art is the best pathway for people to get understanding about the history or cultural background of civilization, thereby help civic improvement through the use of public art. As demonstrated by Runquist two murals, it describes the development of art and science through a special mode of art expression. It uses a tree mode as a clue to drive the main direction of the development of sciences and arts, and emphasize the representatives in each period of the development process. This is a very interesting way to tell the story of arts or science, since it is easy for me to find out important steps that push us to get today’s achievement. Public art like this form can help us to receive, appreciate, remember and then spread the information easily. Thus, help people in civic improvement. Just as Doss states, “public art was a form of civic improvement and could help generate a shared sense of civic and national identity”(Doss,4). We will all get a sense of pride after viewing these two murals, and sign with emotion that how many efforts human being have made that drive us to today’s development.

In terms of civic identity, I think Runquist murals can convey positive information and sprits of the University of Oregon to its students. The murals try to convince people to be educated in a more well-rounded way and produce values to society after graduating, This information also stands for the values of University of Oregon, what it wants to tell all students. Another example of civic identity of Public art I can think of is the “Statue of Liberty” with a coded meaning of freedom in this sculpture. It is a symbol of American and the statue can encourage people from diverse backgrounds to chase freedom and pursue their own dream.  According to Doss, “public art can play a central role in shaping and directing community identity—as seen in the heated discourse over Danzas Indigenas. Public art has the unique potential to encourage multiple American publics to tell their stories—and to listen to others” (Doss,11).

The Runquist murals in our knight library well illustrated the history of both arts and science, astronomers, biologist, mathematicians etc, are all involved in these murals and these disciplines are also the foundation of our university. These two murals can be viewed as best “public arts”, which can represent the essential values of our university.

Key words:

1. Creativity
2. Belief
3. Imagination
4. Version
5. Love
6. Patience
7. Talent
8. Quiet
9. Passion
10. Freedom
12.  

In the presentation “Law That Choke Creativity”, I am touched by the three stories that the speaker Lawrence Lessig talked about. In the first one, he showed that “the culture moved from this read-write to read-only existence” (Lessig, TED). He told us the negative results how these advanced machine block human creativity. In the second one, he stated that “common sense revolts at the idea” (Lessig, TED). This is true in most of our daily life, that our creativity is limited by some traditional rules or regulation, thus some novel thoughts may face pressure when bring out. He also indicated that “we cannot make our kids passive again, and we can only make them, quote, “pirates” (Lessig, TED).  I think remix is a better way for us to be more creative since we can be motived by multiple ways or methods. However, I am not sure if advanced technology will replace the human minds and slow down our speed of creativity, but I do think that remix can make us in a better life if we can make through it by using our mind efficiently.

1.Correctly identify the primary thesis of  ”Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins” The primary these of “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins” by Beverly Jones is that how past art patterns influence the evolution of the formation of computer graphics, and how computer graphics and current art combines to influence the history and cultural bases of computer graphics. Even new technology appears in art project, the origins of the effects do not change over time instead, “ they may be demphasized or emphasized in current art form” (Jones, 51).  In addition, the change of the modern art not only merge into our life quickly, but also become a factor to shape and re-construct our life pattern and cultural background. Just as Jones stated, “These changes contribute to maintenance and change of culturally conditioned conceptual patterns in the larger historical context” (Jones, 51).

 2. Identify one of the three historical examples Jones provides as an illustration of her thesis.

I think one of the three historical examples of Jones provided about her thesis is that  the Romans try to present a 3-D image on a 2-D objects. And Romans have figure out to work the art work on the walls to show a 3-D effects and try to make the image more vivid. This these is consistent with the author’s theory that art and science can never be divided apart, and they are dependent on the presence of each other, Physical principles support the well-established of a realistic art work. This these can be best explained by architecture major, where student need aesthetic ability to construct a paint, also need some scientific background to set up a correct scale to well present the object itself.

3. Provide a compelling and accurate illustration of Jones’ thesis at work in todays culture.

I think the most compelling and accurate illustration of Jones’ thesis at work in current culture is from energy basis and use high-technology to present art in a diverse  forms rather than using traditional art form. Previously, the art project can only be expressed in paper, sculpture form, and the raw materials are always derived from oil. Thus, traditional art work may increase the dependence on our un-renewable energy resources. I found an interesting example of modern art that has the similar meaning as Jones’ thesis, which is computer animation. “The image is created by means of 3D computer graphics, though 2D computer graphics are still widely used for low bandwidth and faster real-time rendering needs (Science Daily). This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures. Currently, computer animation is essentially another form of art works in today’r culture.It follows the energy consideration of traditional art, also it can produce more mobile and vivid aspects into art project, and bring audience a new version of art world.

References:

 Computer Animation. Science Daily.2013  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/computer_animation.htm

Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image –Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.

After seeing the presentation by Jane McGonigal, I found my views about online games and gamers change totally. I am convinced that “gamers are a human resource that we can use to do real-world work, that games are a powerful platform for change”(McGonigal,TED). First, I am shocked that McGonigal thinks that the time of playing games is not enough since online game is good for human beings, especially using the attitudes in virtual world to solve real-world problems. Later, I noticed that we can be more capable in games than in the reality, and our cooperation ability become much stronger in the games. According to the speaker, people can get continuous positive feedback during the game which will make us chase the “epic win” of the task. We can be more relaxed in the virtual world than in the reality, but I am still unsure whether will we construct real-world ability of solving problems or not in the games. Will online games be helpful to solve problems and will the difference between game and reality make people more want to escape from the real world?

1. How do you define “spirituality”?

My definition about “spirituality” is related to the deep mind of each person’s inner world and can only be expressed by one’s own ideas. The spirituality one can feel may be invisible to others, since it is a special individual term. In addition, spirituality is the origin of one’s personal values and it makes us believe in something, just like the origin of religion. Spirituality means something different to others. For some people, it refers to attend some organized religion and get connection with church. For other people, it is more personal and related to individual activity, such as yoga, long walk or talk with someone in order to get spiritual contact.

       2.   Does spirituality differ from religion?

I think the difference between spirituality and religion is that, spirituality is more personal and religion is much like a public event or believe.  Religion is always about loyalty to institution or rules, which should be a common believe among diverse people with different cultural backgrounds. While.spirituality is about loyalty to justice or compassion. For instance, religion is about god and spirituality makes us believe in god, which means make us godly. I think religion at its best should be the community of spirituality, which means the public and common religion is composed of individual spirituality.

        3.How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is a process to recognize or generate ideas that maybe useful in solving problems or communicating with others.  Creativity is transient in nature and is constantly evolving. I think creativity is a mix of ideas of one’s own experience and based on the motivation from previous activities. There are some reasons that people are motivated to be creative: Creativity is need for novel situation, solving problems and well connected with each others. In order to be creative, we should view things in a new way or from a different perspectives.  It is just like a novel product of personal values, experience and knowledge. I think everyone has the capability to become creative, because we all have different background and the unique background will become the source of the motivation of creativity.

        4. What is the source of creativity?

I think the source of creativity can be from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For the intrinsic motivation, I think personal experience plays a major role, which included what we have thought about, met with, saw and observed. We can observe novel ideas by appreciating it from the life experience given us. For the extrinsic motivation, it comes from the external world that we live in and the influence from the people or environment surround us. For instance, the religion belief around us may have a deep influence on our mind. The surrounding traditional belief may become the motivation of our creativity and make us create novel thoughts about our surroundings, which can be called the process of creativity.

After reading the article “Art as Spiritual Practice-The Mission of Art” by the author Grey, I got much more insights into the real meaning of art and its relationship to spiritual practice. The author first describes the difference between seeing and looking, and regard it as “a difference which is fundamental to artist experience” (Grey, 72). Then, he used Saint Thomas Aquinas’s 3 things needed for beauty to further explained the different art experience, through wholeness, harmony and radiance” (Grey,73). Later, the author introduced the a brief process of creative formulation, and states that artists need to be sensitive about their creative process. After introducing the process of creativity, the author brought up novel ideas that “Art can be interpreted from the standpoint of its cultural legitimacy or success.”(Grey, 92). In this relation, the author connects the process of creating art to spiritual practice, in which that the quality of an art project is based on the awareness and being that the artist is being accessed or transmitted. According to Grey,  “In order to experience art fully viewers must go through a mini ego death by placing themselves in the inspired mind of the artists” (74). I kind of disagree with this viewpoint, and I do not think that we should put ourselves in the position like an artists to understand the artwork. We should not limit our innovation in the shoes of the artist and this must restrict the diversity of the meaning of the art. We should conduct out own understanding based on our own experience or personal values, and creative spiritual practice through the way just like the author indicates in his article, from formulation, saturation, incubation, inspiration, translation to integration (Grey, 75). We should not require that the audiences to have an “inspired mind as artist” and we should create our own understanding model of art.

1.      The First article I found is “Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies”. In the article, the author Sharon Begley analyzed the major reasons why most people would like to spend their money on horror movies and its relations to physiological reaction of human’s nervous cells while watching the movies. She described that human’s nervous system required “periodic revving” to be continuously active and watching horror movies will excite this part of nerve system and keep the system active. In current society, many people face a lot of stress during their daily life, such as unemployment, education and health problems. When they go to the movie theater and watch horror movies, they can use this way to active their nerve system and release stress, since people all know they are sitting in a safe environment and the ghosts in the movies are all harmless. The horrible effects of the movie will only decrease their stressful during their daily life rather than increase their tension.

Just like what Carroll described in his “Why Horror” article, “ The impossible being does disgust; but that disgust is part of an overall narrative address which is not only pleasurable, but whose potential pleasure depends on the confirmation of the existence of the monster as a being that violates, defies, or problematizes standing cultural classifications. Thus, we are attracted to and many of us seek out, horror fictions of this sort despite the fact that they provoke disgust” (284). People have the intrinsic behavior to chase a feeling of horror and they may not find out the feeling of disgust from the “non-narrative examples” of art horror. In addition, the author Sharon in my reading stated that horror movie is an approach for audience to release their repressed emotion. People can feel the horror scene but sit in the same place without getting hurt. The “Safe” property of horror movie will attract people to increase their visit of horror scene. Unlike extreme sports, which may bring dangerous, horror movie can bring people the feeling of excitement without getting hurt. In addition, you can be personally on the scene just let yourself comfortably sit in a chair. The experience is diverse, which can from hearing, seeing and even smelling, if it is a 3D or 4D movie.

2.      The second article is “Ever Wondered Why the Music in Horror Films Scares Us? The Harsh Sounds Tap into Instinctive Fears”, the author analyzed the scientific reason why people will feel scary when listening to the horror music in a great details. Scientist found that the scary music will trigger nerve system to release more neurotransmitter, which may bring much greater excitement to the receptor, thus trigger human’s scary emotions. The common features of horror music are “unexpected” and “discordant”, which will bring people a feeling of uncomfortable. Just like during the clips of Buffy movie, there are many non-dietetic background sound during the night time, especially when the monsters haunting on the grounds. Also, the screaming of women in the last part of the movie also brings a great horror feeling to audience. These sound all play together to trigger tense emotion to audience. Furthermore, the author pointed that the sound which is “non-linear” sound would make people feels much more horror, and it can make by blowing trumpet or other instrument hardly. The analysis showed that this situation is not random and this is for the purpose of enhancing audiences’ emotion. In addition, women’s scream found a lot in most films because it is bright and shrill, just like the effect of the “non-linear” sound.

After reading this article, it brought me back to the video clip we have watched during this week about Buffy. At 40:45 when the girl gets her voice back and screams very loud and long.(Buffy-the Vampire Slayer). During this part, the girl’s voice break up all the monsters and just like a voice of victory. This sound has been lost in the clip for the majority of time and when it comes back, it definitely increases the aesthetic of horror in this video. Imaging that, human voice is totally lost in the clip and has been quiet for a long time except for the scary background sound. Once the real sound comes back, it enhances the dramatic effects of the entire episode.

References

1. One example of non-diegetic sound from Buffy episode is at 14:00 when people sleep and their “voices” are all absorbed by the box of the monster. During this part, there is a very strange and scary background music, which increases the dramatic effect to the movie and creates horror to the audience. It is an example of non-diegetic sound because it is a sound effect which is added to the movie and the sound source is invisible in this clip. It is a source outside of the story and it also enhance the horror effect of the entire clip, which make audience to hold the breath and wait to see what happen next. Thus, it is a perfect example of this respective film principle. In addition, this example does increase the aesthetic of horror for the video, since the sound ends up when the monster comes out, which brings the whole story to another climax.
2. One example of diegetic sound from Buffy episode is at 40:45 when the girl gets her voice back and screams very loud and long. During this part, the girl’s voice break up all the monsters and just like a voice of victory. This is an example of diegetic sound, because it is the voice of the character herself and the sound source can be seen on the screen. It is an actual sound that produced by the girl.  This sound has been lost in the clip for the majority of time and when it comes back, it definitely increases the aesthetic of horror in this video. Imaging that, human voice is totally lost in the clip and has been quiet for a long time except for the scary background sound. Once the real sound comes back, it enhances the dramatic effects of the entire episode.
3. One example of the mise-en-scene is at 24:10 when the white monster pass by the window of the girl’s house. The girl almost screams out but there is no voice since she lost it. This is an example of the mise-en-scene, because it contains the major parts of mise en scene, such as color, lighting, actor’s performance and framing of the camera’s position. It is night time and the light is very dim, which enhance the horror effects. It also choose a close look of the white monster when he passes by the window, his strange smile and the certain camera angle give the audience a feeling of entire scary. In addition, the actress performance also enhance the dramatic effects. She suddenly falls back, which also draw the attention of the audience and surprise people.