Thanks to this week’s studying materials, I have a better understanding about the history of the Knight Library and learn the information about the murals, Development of the Sciences and Development of the Arts, painted by Arthur and Albert Runquist. In fact, I never noticed these two murals in the Knight Library before study this week’s materials. It was amazing that Arthur and Albert Runquist associated the development of arts and sciences in murals in the form of trees. I was impressed by this idea and designation. In this way, people could have a direct view about different panels in distinct period. Arthur and Albert Runquist put the figures and substance that could represent one period most into the murals to describe the development of arts and science. For instance, in the panel 7 of Development of the Sciences, Arthur and Albert Runquist expressed that students are working on new discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology, botany, engineering and geology based on the traditional knowledge. From the age of the figures, the tools for experiments, and the apple hold by one student, we could easily understand what the author is trying to see.

Refers to the topic of public arts in this art, I think the murals painted by Arthur and Albert Runquist are the best representation of public art. Erika said, “Usually located in visible public spaces, organized by public committees, frequently funded by public dollars, and intended for multiple audiences, public art is, by definition, the product of public feedback” (Doss, 6) in the this week’s reading “Public Art Controversy: Cultural Expression and Civic Debate”. By observing the two murals, we could clearly conclude that these murals face to multiple audiences even though for all people on earth. These murals briefly summarize the history of arts and sciences in different period and different religions. In addition, Erika also mentioned the debates and controversies triggered by the public arts. She said, “It centers on dialogue—on the expressed interests and issues of particular groups—and that dialogue can be contentious. Conversations and debates about public art range from subject to site and involve competitions, commissions, hearings, juries, artists’ statements, awards, media accounts, and the art-making process itself. These conversations include artists, art administrators, civic leaders, funders, architects, engineers, and, of course, the public” (Doss, 6). However, after I observe these mural painted by Arthur and Albert Runquist, I think these two murals may be the ones that cause least controversy like other public art mentioned by the author of the reading.

Refers to the issues of diversity, these murals includes all the activities related to the development of arts and sciences in different religions in distinct periods. These murals show a concept of harmony of the human beings. People in different gender and ages, with different backgrounds, could find their effort on the development on the murals. These murals recall the history made by people and allow people to capture the history in an efficient way.

In this week’s reading, Erika mentioned one explanation about the controversy in the capital. “One explanation for public art controversy is the sense of entitlement that pervades today’s public sphere. Increasingly, diverse and often competing self-interest groups view public art as the direct extension of their particular causes” (Doss, 7). These two murals did not give people an opportunity to incur some controversies. Different groups with distinct cultures and religions could find their interests it these murals. For instance, in the mural Development of the Sciences, the Egyptian should find their interests in panel 3, where shows their effort on the development of the sciences.

In a word, after I study this week’s materials and observe the murals, I thought these murals are the best representations of public arts.

Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf

I was impressed by this week’s readings and videos. The three remix examples in the video Laws That Choke Creativity allows me to have a better understanding about the concept of remix. In addition the concept about RO culture and RW culture also make me think about our current society. However, from the video Laws The Choke Creativity, I recognized that there may always a conflict between the common sense and the ways people use new technologies to remix the old and new. I wonder how people could control the use of the technology on the old content in the history. In a long period, would the remix method damage the culture of a country?

The abstract stated that “The author traces the evolution from alphanumeric hardcopy, static and dynamic screen images, through objects and events that are not screen-based, to dynamic interactive, multisensory output. The effects of origins and prior practices in both technology and art on form, content, material, technique, meaning and purpose of computer graphics are explored” (Jones, 51). With a brief understanding about the author’s purpose, I read “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins” and found out the thesis of this article.

The author said, “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 and material culture” (Jones, 51). Therefore, from my point of view, the thesis of this article is “Reflecting origins and prior practices, these embedded patterns may have existed in art, technology or other aspects of material and symbolic culture. 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).

To illustrate her thesis, Jones mentioned the example of John O’Niell. According to the article, “the work of John O’Niell offers and intersint example of the interaction of theory and practice from the art world with the origins and practices of early technical/scientific graphics…because he believed that art was important not in itself bu only as it affected people. He believed that it had to reach people in a medium they could relate to…. He produced the graphics fro Atari’s game ET. Wording under the signature of Admacadiam, he produced a series of games” (Jones, 56). Jones uses the example of John O’Niell to allow readers to have a better understanding about the combination about the technologies and art in the cultural aspect.

The thesis of Jones still works in today’s culture. There is a short paragraph from the article “The cultural Effects of Video Gaming”, “In fact, the U.S. Army has even begun to leverage games as a way to bolster recruiting in areas where interest has been dwindling. Take Philadelphia, for example. As part of its marketing efforts, the Army has erected a state-of-the-art facility in a mall there. Complete with computers and Xbox games — not to mention a Black Hawk helicopter simulator room — the facility places potential recruits, as well as casual mall-goers, in a virtual war environment” (Hartley). This shows that the cultural elements influences current video games. Video games made by different countries have different scenes, figures, clothes, and stories. People combined the art and technologies from the cultural aspect just like Jones’s thesis said in this week’s article.

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

Hartley, Deanna. The Cultural Effects of Video Gaming. Web. http://www.certmag.com/read.php?in=3768.

I was impressed by Jane McGonigal’s idea that playing the video game could help people to make a better real world. She combined the games and tech with the real life via art. Art is a bridge to connect the world of game and world of reality. She mentioned that the video game players are the fantastic human resource for the future development of the world. In addition, according to Jane’s speech, blissful productivity, social fabric, urgent optimism, and epic meaning are the four characteristics that could help video game player could also do something useful in the real world.

However, from my point of view, I doubt Jane’s opinions. Jane said in the video game there are always a number of people to help the player to accomplish a mission but not the same in the real world. My question is focus on this aspect. In the world of game, people could achieve success and add some points after they finish one mission together with some other people. However, in the real world, it is hard for a people always have someone around them, assisting them to finish one mission. What’s more, the game always has an end and solution after the player pass all the missions. In the reality, no one knows what will happen and there are a lot of uncertain elements so that people do not know what kind of obstacles they will meet.

Therefore, I wonder whether the world of game could really help the real world even though video game player may have some useful characteristics?

1. How do you define “spirituality”?

From my point of view, spirituality is one of the ways for people to understand what is going on around their life. Spirituality is not a technique or a kind of knowledge that people could master in several days or a short period of time. Spirituality is formed based on people’s experience and background in a very long period of time. Spirituality shows people’s personality and the ability to understand things. In a word, spirituality cannot be educated but formed based on people’s experience and the environment around them.  

2. Does spirituality differ from religion?

Based on my understanding, spirituality differs from religion in some degrees. Religion can be educated. People in different religions have their own thinking system and beliefs. They think about things in different kinds of ways. These differences are not formed in one day but a long period of time. In another word, these differences are because of the traditional culture of distinct religions. Even though spirituality is not the same as religion, spirituality was influenced by religion.

3. How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is a kind of activity of people’s brain. Creativity shows the diversity of personality all over the world. Creativity is a ways for people to show their talents and their thoughts in a physical method. People may have different kinds of ideas about the environment around them. Their creativity helps them change the world they live. They maybe want to increase the efficiency of some equipment or come up some new ideas to help their life. Creativity is main elements for them to come up the method to change their life. 

4. What is the source of creativity?

The source of creativity is the life experience and backgrounds of people. Different experience of different people leads to distinct kinds of creativity. The environment is also a kind of creativity. People who live in nature should have more creativities than people who live in a city with high-tech equipments. Creativity was formed in a place where people want to change their life and where people are willing to think about the problems they meet and then create the most appropriate way to solve the people. Therefore, the source of the creativity is the environment and background of people.

After I read Chapter 3 Deeply Seeing of The Mission of Art for this week’s material, I thought this chapter impressed me. The author summarizes some normal process or phenomenon into academic language and states how a piece of idea could be developed into a fantastic artwork.

The author mentions the creative process with six steps as following: “1. Formulation: discovery of the artist’s subject or problem. 2. Saturation: a period of intense research on the subject or problem. 3. Incubation: letting the unconscious sift the information and develop a response. 4. Inspiration: a flash of one’s own unique solution to the problem. 5. Translation: bringing the internal solution to outer form. 6. Integration: sharing the creative answer with the world and getting feedback” (Grey, 75).

From these six steps, I could know that artwork is not only a design or object to show off, but also a combination of artists’ thought and soul. In the formulation and saturation process, the artist could find the topics they are interested in and they are willing to contribute their time and life to. By doing researches on the topic, they could have a better understanding about how difficult this topic would be or how successful this topic would be. From my point of view, the incubation and inspiration processes are the processes that artists associate their souls with the artwork. They do not just want to make an artwork to show off without deep meaning. In these two process, the artists make their artwork unique because of distinguish ideas and thoughts of different artists. Based on my understanding, the translation and integration are the processes of harvesting. The artists could share their thoughts and soul via the artwork and they could harvest respects and understandings from other people.

In fact, from my point of view, I thought everything in our daily life associates with the six-step process. We all need to figure out what we want and then have more understanding about what we want to do and have to do. The last 4 steps are processes for us to work out our ideas and share with others.

Therefore, art exists everywhere in our life. 

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.

1. Diegetic sound:

In this Buffy episode, the sounds of the conversation of the figures in this video are diegetic sounds.  These sounds are the voice of characters. For instance, in the video, a girl said “You do not care about what I think? You don’t ask about my day?” The conversation between the boy and girl told us the relationship between these two people. The diegetic sounds are the main part of the video and lead the development of the story. People could know what the story is talking about according to the diegetic sounds. Sometimes people’s stream or sacred sound allows the listener to know something scary happened.

2. Non-diegetic sound:

At the beginning of the video, there is a piece of music when a man is kissing the female student. This piece of pleasant music is non-diegetic sound. The music was added for making an atmosphere that matches the things happened in the story. The use of non-diegetic sounds strengthens the effects of videos. According to the pleasant music, listeners know the figures enjoy the kiss and know something beautiful is happening. The scary non-diegetic could make people feel more scared in the world of horror. Therefore, the non-diegetic sounds make happy stories happier and scared story more scared.

3.  Mise-en-scene

In this Buffy episode video, around 15:00, a person is brushing teeth. The telephone rings. There are sounds of steps and opening or closing of doors. We could call these sounds mise-en-scene. Because there are some change of the locations and the lights or decorations for changing locations should be different. From the sounds steps of the figures, listeners could know he/she changes his/her locations. The mise-en-scene could always contribute to the aesthetic of horror by expressing some unexpected sounds or change of locations. The things that people cannot see in some hidden locations could always scared people and let them experience the aesthetic of horror.

In the first place, I would like to say that I consider comfort as the most important element of my dress. All the clothes and the accessories I have should make me comfortable. Therefore, beautiful clothes are not my first choice but the comfortable clothes.

In some degrees, I am a Buddhist. However, I do not thing my religion have some influence on my dressing. I am a person who decorates myself based on my emotions and my favorite colors. I would like to introduce my way to pick and arrange my clothes in the following paragraphs.

In my closet, red is the main color. I have a lot of red clothes in different styles and for different seasons. For instance, the warm red coat, the pretty red sweater, and the red cute dress are three of my favorite clothes in the closet. Other popular colors of my closet are blue, green, and pink. All as you noticed, all the colors of my clothes are bright colors. From my point of view, bright colors give me power and energy. I like the feeling when I wear clothes in bright color. I would like to say red means passion. I believe that red could give me good emotions and I am full of power and confidence when I wear my red clothes. Green is the color to make me peace. When I have so much pressure from schoolwork, green clothes let me calm down and find the ways to go through the obstacles. In addition, pink and blue are the two of the light colors. Light blue and pink seems clean and comfortable for me and for people around me. In a word, colors in one of the important element when I choose the adornment and clothes.

Over years, my taste of colors does not change a lot. I still choose the bright colors and colors that make me comfortable. However, there is one thing I need to say. When I was young, I would like to choose the clothes that are look like fancy. For instance, the clothes may have some decorations on it or one clothes may have several colors on it. While as time went by, I prefer simple clothes in my favorite colors. Therefore, most of my clothes are one-piece dresses and simple coats. I think I would never choose the complicated clothes.

My family is a conservative family in some degrees. My father does not allow me to wear some sexy clothes no matter where I am. I need to always pay attention to this requirement. In addition, bright colors are also my family’s favorite colors. My father does allow my family members to wear pure black or white clothes or shoes as well as the hair decoration and some accessories. Because in my father’s view, pure black and pure white are the colors for the funeral, it is not welcome to wear the funeral colors. I have to say that my father does not have some discrimination on the funeral. What I said in this paragraph is just my father’s own belief and he just thinks it is better to different the color of daily clothes with the funeral clothes. 

From my point of view, the core belief of my peer community is energy and expression. Most of my peers have their favorite basketball or football players or teams. They would like to express their love and passion of a team or a person through the clothes with the team’s logo or player’s name. What’s more, some of my peers have their favorite brand. It is easy to notice that almost everything on his/her body is from the same brand. In addition, some of my peers wear black clothes all the time in a year in different style to show that he could not love the color black more. Therefore, I thought expression is the core belief of my peer community. Everyone would like to let people around him/her to know the things he/she loves and share the information with everyone. I also noticed that several friends are big fan of piercing. They have different piercing on their months or ears and wear some accessories that are related to their religions.

In the end, I think the diversity of dressing is just like the diversity of art. Everyone have his/her own understanding about what to wear and put on. The way people choose to decorate their body just shows their believes. There are no two people have the same way to wear. Everyone have the rights to express their own thought in the way he/she wants.