Art, Games, and Technology Research

The primary thesis of Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins is discussing how the technology and art have co-evolved and how technology and art have influenced each other from 1945 to present. It is very interesting that the author also analyzed the connection among art, technology and culture. The author states “In this paper origins and practices of computer graphics from 1945 to present are examined to reveal cultural patterns and embedded in their material and symbolic form. Reflecting origins and prior practices, these embedded patterns may have existed in art, technology or other aspects of material and symbolic cultures”.

Jones discusses how the new forms of computer graphics have been created due to the growing population and how technology boosts the graphics. The interesting historical example is that the Romans wanted to reflect a 3D picture on a 2D surface, so they took what they already known and applied the knowledge to create the future. Jones also compares this example with the recent artists and the recent scientists. She thinks both of them do the same thing, the only difference between the Romans and the recent artists and scientists are the development of the technology. She states “Both artists and scientists abstract natural laws from the real world to express mathematically and to present it visually.”

The illustration of Jones’ thesis is that video games will invade human life and have a strong impact on human. Now people play video games for entertainment, but I think video games will be one solution to solve the world problems. Actually, some jobs that required professional skills train people with stimulation, such as pilots. The flight stimulation makes pilots feel they are in the real situation so they won’t panic when they are facing emergency problems when they are in real flights. I think the development of video game industry have a huge positive impact on the computer graphics which is an useful tools for doing researches to solve world problems.

It is true that the art and technology tightly connect to each other because the improvement of technology opens many different ways to create art. I read an article by Erik Olsen. He talks about new programs in the computer graphic industry. There is a new technology that can focus on pixels in a video to identify changes. They believe that this new technology can increase the working efficiency in the oil industry because it can check whether a machine works properly or not by filming that machine. The development of computer graphic not only increase the quality of video games, but also benefits humans’ life. I think computer graphics is one of the power that is generated by scientist and artists to solve the world problems

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

Olsen, E. (2013). Scientists Uncover Invisible Motion in Video. Bits: The Business of Technology. Retrieved February 28 2013, from the New York Times.

Remixing Google Image Search

1.perspective
2.emotions
3.inspiration
4.magnificent
5.Creative

Creative Spirtituality Reflection

How do I define “spirituality”?

For me, the spirituality is a symbol of our soul. It is necessary for human being and occurred in immaterial world but connect material universe with awareness or feeling. Because of spirituality, whole world for people become bigger than we looked. Especially the artist, they have various imaginations in spirituality. Thus, they own a bigger individual world than normal people. However, everyone person should be own spirituality. People become happy or angry for the emotion change. The emotion, feeling or thinking are one of parts of spirituality.

Does spirituality differ from religion?

They are different. For religion, it is one of characters of spirituality instead of whole. The religion can express what your spirituality is. But the religion is not the natural part in people’s life. People can use the talent of spirituality to choose what your religion or belief is when grows up. But the spirituality is must be occurred in your body when your born in. Even if some people thinking of the religion is the spirituality because the religion becomes their purpose for life and same as the function spirituality given. Religion is not useful for everyone but spirituality does.

How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity means create some new, fresh things in normal life. It is the bridge to connect your spirituality and the reality world. It seems as your spirituality world inspired body to create more beauty or special things in reality world. Creativity becomes important way for people to take actions to represent the spirituality universe. If you have an idea in your brain, the creativity helps you to shows what you wanted.  Because of this kind of ability, the relationship between spirituality world and material universe get closed. People own the talent of creativity to increase interesting things in life. Thus, creativity helps people shows how they are thinking and change the world becomes interesting for human being.

What is the source of creativity?

As same as I defined of “creativity”, the main source of creativity come from spirituality in the macroscopic view. The thinking from spirituality is inspired people or artist to create something in life. Moreover, each of people can connect their individual spirituality to achieve some creations together. Thus, what of people’s thinking in spirituality is original reason why creativity in people’s life. In the other hand, the source also comes from experience, environment or anything which related in reality life. The fresh or new things would be created by compared with old things. Thus, creativity base on many factors in life by the microcosmic view.  Anyway, the source of creativity is complex and related in both spirituality and objectives.

Remix Discussion

The remix-video in TED presentation shows the humor and special creation ability even if they against copyright law. But I have to say that people’s creativity must base on original things to create. As same as Lawrence Lessig told that “Every single use of culture produces a copy”. The open mind is necessary but the current laws always limit it according to the two stories in TED. People believe that the law over anything in world by accepted education. If people consider the laws serious for creativity, the remix-culture will more variety than nowadays.

Art, Games, and Tech Discussion

In the two presentations Riedel-KIn the two presentations Riedel-Kruse creates the special videogames by living microbes; Jane McGonigal supports the idea of gaming can make a better world as the game designer. Actually the topic of games is interesting for me. I like to play some simple games such as Plants VS Zombies. The few time in gaming give me so much fun in life. And I believe the game is benefit thing for human being and the development of games is so fast in the world.

By the analysis of contexts in Jane McGonigal TED’s presentation, I think that the virtual world in games give more good life values or benefits than reality life given. For example, Jane argued that “Gamers are virtuosos at weaving a tight social fabric. And lots of interesting researches show that we like people better after we play a game with them. Even if they have beaten us badly and the reason is, it takes a lot of trust to play a game with someone” (9:35). I think the purpose in games is positive and environment is clean without pressure like reality world. People just need try to fighting with team members and chase the final win always. The process in games is pure and leads people continue do it. Anyway, I think it is meaningful experience for human being to build good benefit or value in gaming.ng.

Creative Spirituality discussion

After reading the course material of “Art as Spiritual Practice”, deeply seeing inspires artists to create art. Different seeing is bases on the different thinking in our spiritual and seeing leads to aesthetic decision. Meanwhile, the writer discovers the relationship between subjects and art which determined that the seeing inspired the art to reflect or create in subjects. There had a word said that “The artist’s three eyes of knowing are inspired by the radiant spiritual beauty of the subject, fascinated by the subject’s harmonic structure, and motivated to express the unique wholeness of the subject by drawing a bounding line around it” (P. 5). Furthermore, the inspiration is unique by each of artist. In the other hand, the reading also told about the meaning of success for artist. The important one is your art must fulfill your inspiration or require your desire. Then your friend’s good feedback is also means success for your art work. Thus, the reading focus on the unique inspiration brings the special see to create art, also people how to know or determined art.

I have interested in the words from reading which said that “Inspiration is the most mysterious step in the creative process. The artist is possessed by a creative force, overtaken by a vision and driven to create” (P. 13). How is amazing of the process of create art! I am no doubt that the inspiration gives powerful energy to artist. Meanwhile, the inspiration gives the special vision to artist. They will feel what normal people don’t know things. The requirements for how to get close of art also are abstract concepts. “Saint Thomas Aquinas, an Italian philosopher of the thirteenth century, declared that three things needed for beauty: integritas, consonantia, and claritas” (P. 3). The creation of art is meaningful for human being by inspiration. The consciousness has the different level, such as the aspect realize for each person is different. Anyway, the Authenticity-art is related on inspiration and they have more meaningful characters occurred in both normal people and artistic’s seeing.

Personal Adornment Reflection

I have grown up with a lot of beliefs and values, but very few related to dress. I don’t think much about dress because I feel that there are way more important things in life. When it comes to my beliefs and values, I have always been a huge believer in the idea that less is more. The real situation is that after waking up early in the morning, I just grab one random T-shirt or shirt, jeans and sneaker and put them on and rush for school. But as a business student, I have to put on my business suits on presentation day because it shows respect and formal at the workplace. In my viewpoint, dress can represents one’s identity and should be distinguished by different occasions.

The dress is important factor to show what your attitude of life is. I believe keep simple and clean in the daily life is important, for both others’ side and my own side. I will do some shopping over moths, and I will prefer go to boutique shops rather than shopping online. But since there are not enough boutique shops in Eugene, I have to do it online. I will buy my daily clothes—T-shirts, shirts, jeans and sneakers but also for preparing presentation and future work or internship, I will choose to buy some business suits. Furthermore, I also think the country culture influence on my dress style. Such as, tattoo is very popular in America. Otherwise I can’t image the tattoo in my body because it is not normal in China. Over the years, I thought my clothes style not change so much. Maybe the American style has a little influence on my mind after I study abroad in UO. In America, I like to most of people usually play sports and dress comfortable clothes. It changed my mind to more focus on comfortable. Such as I have more than time to dress sports clothes and UO T-shirts instead of the other clothes.

For my perspective, a good body symbols a health life value and good sense for art. All of people like a lady who own health and jimpness body; a sir who has muscle and strong. For my perspective, a good body symbol a health life value and good sense for art. Moreover, the physical beauty is more important for me rather than the dress or wear. The desire for physical beauty is important for my life. I think it is good value of life and I thought maybe most of people admit this opinion. Such as not so many people will agree with your dress is beautiful but all people will for talk about how to judge the person appearance. Everyone like beauty but what beauty is can’t definition exactly because different opinion for each people. Physical appearance is basic way to show what your life is. Thus, the adornment is important factor to show what your value of life is. Deeply thinking of adornment, the adornment style is different like the value for human being. There is no exactly standard to judge someone’s appearance. But I believe each people view for physical beauty is common.

Family actually do not influence my values of dressing a lot. My mom did not judge or limit my personal dress. The only value I taught by my mom is dress must be fit and respect others. My dad is a businessman, the only clothes in his closet are varieties of business suits and shirts. But what I learned from him is that you have to wear business suit while working or meeting, because it shows your respects and business profession to your clients and colleagues.

In my peer community, most of my friend likes play sports. As same as them, I focus on the comfortable sports clothes so much also. As a ducks in UO it is necessary for me to love me school. Thus, I prefer to dress UO or ducks brand clothes as much as I can. Furthermore, my major of accounting gradually teach us become a business people. Especially I enjoyed the BAP club. I feel the professional dress is important in the further in this community.

Anyway, I thought dress can represents one’s identity and should be distinguished by different occasions. Meanwhile, the factors which influence on my dress style are comprehensive, especially the environment of you grow up and current community. The dress must be one of considerable sides for personal value.

Enjoying Horror Research

Most people would not find watching something horrifying unfold right before their eyes. However, when it comes to horror films millions of people do. What is it about horror films that is so interesting to us? In an article posed by Sciencedaily.com a University of California at Berkeley study stated that we actually enjoy being scared. According to the article “the most pleasant moments of a particular event may be the most fearful” (sciencedaily.com). Meaning that when we watch a scary movie, we enjoy the upcoming scenes. We also like to watch them unfold based on our assumptions. We like to assume that the main character is going to make it out of the scene alive. When we watch a horror movie we experience both positive and negative emotions. We experience fear for the characters in the film are endangered and we experience relief when they make it to safety.

The unfolding of events and the mixture of horror and relief is why we find horror stories so interesting. In the article “Why Horror” Author Noel Carrol makes the argument that “it is not the tragic event itself that imparts pleasure, but rather, the way it is worked out in the plot” (Carrol, 277). Meaning the event that takes place in the film is virtually useless in determining whether we will be interested in a film or not. We like horror films not because we enjoy violent scenes. We like horror movies because in short we like to be scared. We are willing to endure the horrors of scary movies because we like to feel that sense of relief at the end of the film. It is exciting for us to try to predict what will happen next. We like predicting the fate of each character and are surprised and horrified if the plot does not unfold the way we had predicted.

Horror movies rely on a person’s imagination and curiosity. Humans are curious in nature and love to watch events unfold just to know what is going to happen in the end. This curiosity is no different when it comes to horror stories. Horror stories are similar to tragedies. In both genres the audience watches a dramatic chain events unfold as the main characters are put to the test in several physical or mental challenges.. Without a strong and dramatic story there would be no interest from third parties. We are attracted to these types of stories not because we enjoy being scared or watching violent acts occur. We watch them because they are exciting. One experiences several emotions when watching a film and that variation in the viewer’s emotional state is what keeps the film interesting.

Science Daily News, Initials. (2007, July 22). Why Do people love horror movies?. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge.

Food As Art Research

In Crystal Neely’s article “The Significance of Food in Culture: Is Taste an Art Form”, she encompasses many of the questions and objections surrounding the argument that food should not be labeled as a legitimate form of art.  Neely does an incredible job structuring this argument and by responding to those arguments with her theory that food is in fact an art form, while at the same time supporting her reasoning with other professionals and philosophical viewpoints.  Neely believes that “food is an important part of everyday life and the emotional role that it plays in informing our reactions to what we eat makes it essential to consider food art just as we would art that is evaluated with any of the other senses” (Neely 1).  She responds to objections such as what actually is the piece of art when food is being considered, or the objection that food is considered functional and art should not be functional at all.  Additionally, the article discusses the idea of aestheticism and how it relates to food, and therefore as a result of the concept of art.

Food has been an integral part of every person’s life since the existence of man.  It is a bare necessity to live and a necessary component for our bodies.  As Dissanayake said in her article “What is Art for?”, “art must be viewed as an internal universal trait of the human species, as normal and natural as language, sex, sociability, aggression, or any other characteristics of human nature” (Dissanayake 1). Over the generations, food has taken on an increasing amount of importance in our culture.  I believe that culture in the late 20^th century and the current 21^st century has redefined food to be a culturally sophisticated component to our every day lives.  However, as author Crystal Nelly points out, food seems to go about unappreciated too often.  If we reflect on what the importance and impact food has on our lives, we would realize that it “reflects our lifestyle, culture, preferences and beliefs” (Neely 1).   Additionally, there are hundreds of thousands of people across our nation that have aesthetic reactions that turn into emotional responses when they come across certain foods.  For example, a specific dish or type of food has the ability to bring back warm and loving memories of family, friends, or loved ones for people who encounter them.  I believe that it is nearly impossible to argue that food does not have this type of ability, and that food does have the power to allow people to experience an aesthetic experience.   In Elizabeth Teller’s article, she states that many philosophers agree that although food and drink can give off aesthetic reactions, they still do not constitute a form of art.  These philosophers believe that a “work of art is ‘an artifact primarily intended for aesthetic consideration’” (Telfer 12).  This statement would make the argument that food is a not a work of art completely invalid.   This also goes against the widely viewed opinion that music is most definitely a work of art.  Music is by no means an ‘artifact’, but it does primarily intend to give off aesthetic experiences.  As culturally integrated as music is, so is food; and, as artistic as music is, so is food.  With how important food is to our lives and how important it has become to our cultural overtime, the aesthetic experiences that it gives off to people exposes itself as a work of art.  Like Neely stated in her article, “art is an object created with intent to give rise to an aesthetic experience and which in some case successfully achieves this objective” (Neely 2).

Both Elizabeth Teller and Crystal Neely go deep into the question of whether or not the recipe or the dish itself is the work of art that we are trying to support and argue.  A dish is duplicated over and over again, whereas the recipe is the hardcopy manual for those dishes.  An objection rises stating that “there is no way for an exact experience to be duplicated thus no way for the art to be reevaluated” (Neely 4).  However, Neely argues with the concept of music once again.  Musical composition is a form of art not from the written notes on the page itself, but the actual performance based on those notes on the page.  However, each musical performance is not identical to one another.  This is the same for a specific dish made over and over again for one single recipe.  I believe that each time you analyze or experience a painting, a piece of a music, or even a sculpture, your experience will never be identical to the last time you experienced it.

In conclusion, there are fundamentally two components to art.  The first of which is aesthetic experiences and human emotion.  Without this, no one would respond to works of art the way they do, and would result in the human species not identifying art for what it is.  Food gives off emotional responses, brings people together in society, and allows us to respond aesthetically to its taste and smell.  The second component is detail orientation.  Without detail, art would not have the aesthetic pleasure that it does without it.  Food falls underneath both of these categories that make it a legitimate form of art.  With its ability to connect with our minds, memories, and emotions, there is no reason to not label food as a form of art.  It’s one of the most needed and desired things in the world.

Source:

Tefler, E. (2002). Food as Art. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 2). New York, NY: Routledge

Neely,C. (2007). The Significance of Food in Cultures: Is Taste an Art Form? UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research X

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What Is Art For? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote addresses 1991 (NAEA Convention). (pp. 12-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

Horror

The example I choose from Buffy is the scene at 2:21. When the man character kissed the women character, the scene suddenly has changed. A full filled college classroom turned into classroom with nobody but only women and man character. And the sound of a singing girl suddenly showed up, here it is diegetic sound. I choose this scene as example because it did contribute to the aesthetic of horror, due to it is transition between a romantic scene to a horror. Terrified and attracted audiences and pushing plot to the next phase.

The next example for non-diegetic sound I choose is the scene at 13:30. Here was the bell of a church ringing and scary sound in the background. Then wired hands opened a box, with lots of sound of muttering and echoing, mystery fogs (peoples’ voices) coming out of peoples’ mouths into that box. This scene also contributed to the aesthetic of horror because it is the foreshadowing of the next phases.

The example of mise-en-scen is pretty straightforward due to it is very common technique and trait in any movies. The clip I choose is from 22:50, several zombies was walking or floating on the street. I do not think it contributed to the aesthetic of horror because there were no plots or story tell what were them, these zombies just suddenly showed up and terrified audiences.