President Clinton spoke of the Internet and the upcoming Electronic Age during a speech eight years ago. He said the Internet had "unlimited...potential to expand...opportunities..and broaden horizons". My experience at the Five Years Too Many Iraq Protest and the subsequent blog post confirmed what President Clinton said. I agree that the Internet is a powerful phenomenon that is changing the way humans communicate. The field the most altered by the Internet is that of art. The computer has increased access as well as transformed the methods of creating art.
To analyze the effect of the Internet on the art world, it is important to first ask, "What exactly is art?" A historical definition from Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy says an artwork is " a thing that has been seriously intended for regard in any way". By this definition then, any blogger is an artist. According to our class syllabus, art focuses on the interrelationship of hand, eye, and mind to create something that engages larger critical, formal or cultural digests. Like the Stanford Encyclopedia, our syllabus stresses that art is meant to seen and discussed. In today's world this is accomplished through the Internet. Anyone with a Facebook or anyone who writes a review on Amazon.com is an artist formulating an idea then opening it up to discussion. Thanks to the computer, the world of art has expanded to include anyone with a computer. Artistic critiques can now take place between thousands of people, at thousands of different times.
Despite the fact that the Internet has facilitated artistic discussion, I don't believe the Internet actually enhances the fundamental elements of art. Go to freeonlinegames.com and you can see grotesque trolls battling your elf, or black and gray raccoons squabbling. These images do possess some qualities of art like color and proportion. At the same time, no one critiques that raccoon for proportion or chromatic value, so it is not associated with art. If we try to look at the raccoon as a piece of art, we lose interest quickly because the troll game looks more interesting. The ubiquitous quality of digital images is cheapening the value of art. To be honest, I would not have labeled a Youtube video as "art" until I took an art class. Looking at a digital image is much less powerful than a huge canvas because the images are everywhere and then gone with the click of a mouse.
The internet is expanding the forum for artistic expression by getting anyone with a computer involoved. At the same time, this trend is sucking some of the life from the artistic world because there are too many images or ideas and not enough value placed in their contemplation.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Plans for the Situational Tour
I would have loved to go to the IRS protest, but I slept through my alarm. Then I planned to go to the The World Can't Wait protest in Layfette Park. I had heard they were going to demonstrate waterboarding right in front of the White House.
As fate would have it, I stepped out of the Farragut North metro station into a full fledged student protest. Sorry World Can't Wait. This was where I wanted to be for my situational tour.
I spent the afternoon with SDS, Students for a Democratic Society. When I first saw them, they were to dancing to great music around a circle of student desks in the middle of Washington circle. Eventually we moved down K street and stopped to protest in front of an Army Recruiting Center.
The map below shows where we were:
View Larger Map
Students for a Democratic Society started in the 1960s by college students protesting the Vietnam War. It was exciting to participate in this protest because I felt I was finally part of the "Student Protest" ritual. Growing up, my parents and friends spoke reverently of "the 60s". On March 19th, I actually participated in this democratic ritual.
1960s ideology played heavily in my protest experience. It was pouring rain and people were "just going with it", shouting things like "DROP BEATS NOT BOMBS!" and "Tell us what democracy looks like: THIS is what democracy looks like" The protestors rallied behind the nonviolent ideology. When someone in the crowd threw a stick at the Army Recruiting Center windows, for example, the protestors BOOED. Shaming the thrower, proved that the students were lucid and "Those crazy kids".
I grinned and threw the peace sign in the air.
I forgot to mention that what assailed me first when I stepped out of the metro was the shriek of police sirens. Security forces surrounded the protestors on all sides. The security actually seemed happy to be out in the pouring rain watching kids dance and shout. They wanted to know where we came from, when we were moving on to a new location. They roped us off with yellow caution tape. The security was ready for crazy shenanigans. When we didn't oblige, a relative peace settled between us and them.
This peace broke, however, outside the Army Recruiting Center. A student in a soaking blue suit shouted "We don't want to die for you anymore!" at the employees looking down at us. Tension escalated.
A very short police officer began yelling at us through a megaphone. (Why is it that short men seem to revel in positions of authority?)Anyway, the short police officer told we had to move on. Our numbers and anger ate away at the short man's authority. But the line of policemen with billy clubs advancing slowly down the sidewalk grabbed our attention. The stone-faced police officers herded us down the sidewalk shoving people in streets back up onto the curb so they couldn't block traffic.
As fate would have it, I stepped out of the Farragut North metro station into a full fledged student protest. Sorry World Can't Wait. This was where I wanted to be for my situational tour.
I spent the afternoon with SDS, Students for a Democratic Society. When I first saw them, they were to dancing to great music around a circle of student desks in the middle of Washington circle. Eventually we moved down K street and stopped to protest in front of an Army Recruiting Center.
The map below shows where we were:
View Larger Map
Students for a Democratic Society started in the 1960s by college students protesting the Vietnam War. It was exciting to participate in this protest because I felt I was finally part of the "Student Protest" ritual. Growing up, my parents and friends spoke reverently of "the 60s". On March 19th, I actually participated in this democratic ritual.
1960s ideology played heavily in my protest experience. It was pouring rain and people were "just going with it", shouting things like "DROP BEATS NOT BOMBS!" and "Tell us what democracy looks like: THIS is what democracy looks like" The protestors rallied behind the nonviolent ideology. When someone in the crowd threw a stick at the Army Recruiting Center windows, for example, the protestors BOOED. Shaming the thrower, proved that the students were lucid and "Those crazy kids".
I grinned and threw the peace sign in the air.
I forgot to mention that what assailed me first when I stepped out of the metro was the shriek of police sirens. Security forces surrounded the protestors on all sides. The security actually seemed happy to be out in the pouring rain watching kids dance and shout. They wanted to know where we came from, when we were moving on to a new location. They roped us off with yellow caution tape. The security was ready for crazy shenanigans. When we didn't oblige, a relative peace settled between us and them.
This peace broke, however, outside the Army Recruiting Center. A student in a soaking blue suit shouted "We don't want to die for you anymore!" at the employees looking down at us. Tension escalated.
A very short police officer began yelling at us through a megaphone. (Why is it that short men seem to revel in positions of authority?)Anyway, the short police officer told we had to move on. Our numbers and anger ate away at the short man's authority. But the line of policemen with billy clubs advancing slowly down the sidewalk grabbed our attention. The stone-faced police officers herded us down the sidewalk shoving people in streets back up onto the curb so they couldn't block traffic.
Monday, March 17, 2008
"The computer as a medium"
For someone at the start of her independent life, learning about art used to stress me out. When the world of art was opened to me, it was overwhelming because any and every situation could be considered art. This art course has blown my mind. Art is another form of communication, relaying an idea or emotion in such a way that is aesthetically pleasing. Can art exist for a fleeting moment like sunlight falling through the leaves as you walk down a path? Does someone have to be with you when see that light before you believe it is art?
SO if art is everywhere and it must be some form of communication, the computer represents vast artistic possibilites.
As I've said before, this art course has blown my mind. I would have never thought chosing my Facebook profile picture as art. But it is. I am communicating an idea to hundreds of people. Some days it looks like me, some days it represnts a cause I feel strongly about. any times it is a nother artist's photo that I enjoy. I haven't changed the photo itself, just the way others view it. I don't even know the other artist, but now when people look at this piece of art it is on my Facebook so people associate it with me. I hve re-contextualized another's art so that is has meaning to all of my friends. It is probably copyright infringement but it is still art.
SO if art is everywhere and it must be some form of communication, the computer represents vast artistic possibilites.
As I've said before, this art course has blown my mind. I would have never thought chosing my Facebook profile picture as art. But it is. I am communicating an idea to hundreds of people. Some days it looks like me, some days it represnts a cause I feel strongly about. any times it is a nother artist's photo that I enjoy. I haven't changed the photo itself, just the way others view it. I don't even know the other artist, but now when people look at this piece of art it is on my Facebook so people associate it with me. I hve re-contextualized another's art so that is has meaning to all of my friends. It is probably copyright infringement but it is still art.
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