week 8

18/11/11   Sound and vision.

We discussed the importance of sound when combined with visuals, how it influences the imagination of the viewer and helps to create a more interesting visual perspective.

When using sound in the production of a moving images piece or a film, sound effects like footsteps, background noises or even explosions are added after the filming to enhance the quality of the footage and avoid unwanted noise. Sometimes the sounds of certain objects are recorded and used to imitate those of different objects, and this effect is called “foley”. Considering the tools and technology available today, the audio for a video production can be worked on more efficiently and creatively than before. It is an important additional element that provides more options and can become indispensable depending on the piece. It gives the experience much more interesting results.

We talked about Walter Ong (1971), who focuses mainly on the study of written literature against the background of oral tradition and the impact that the shift from orality to literacy had on culture and education. He also studied the effects of the first transformation of human thought from the world of sound to the world of sight.

We discussed how we combine images and sounds and analyse objects by automatically assigning particular sounds to them. I believe that it can also work the other way around. We refer to them in our everyday lives, sometimes they can have very personal connections and the sounds we hear provoke feelings and can remind us of a past experience or a person. Also as Bela Balazs said we learn culturally how to perceive sound.

So what is sound?

Sound is immersive and cannot be shut out. As opposed to visuals, there is no point of sound and it cannot be frozen as an image can.

I think that sound can also be called a relevant noise; the difference between sound and noise has been confused. I find that the best way to explain it is that sound comes from controllable sources and has a set purpose like a radio, a musical instrument or even a speech. Noise often has more random and mixed sources; it is irrelevant and often undesired. It could also depend on the context in which it is perceived but I am still unclear when exactly a sound can start to be referred to as a noise and vice versa.

 A sound envelope is composed of an attack, sustain and decay. In a lecture/conference for example, the sound perspectives are comprised of 3 elements:

Figure = Paul (lecturer)

Ground = students

Field = class room

Sometimes we play with these perspectives, like in a nightclub where the field becomes the figure. The ‘Cocktail party effect’ describes the ability to focus on a particular noise and ignore any others in the background even in really loud environments.

All sound has a form of distance it can be:

Intimate, personal, informal, formal or public.

We looked at John Cage who is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4.33, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. This composition seems to have been a great achievement in many artists’ view and at the time it was produced it was seen as original and highly creative. It makes a very strong point: all sound is music, music is all sound.

week 7

11/11/11.   Real simulation.

Following last week class, we started with Baudrillard’s ideas regarding how society’s methods of communication determine social relations. In addition he says that Simulacra involve denial of the concept of reality as we commonly understand it. Baudrillard argues that today there is no such thing as reality. We then noticed the way we live life through simulation of real life and how reality becomes secondary. For example, in a night out every move is recorded by pictures or videos, and it is only when these pictures or videos go on Facebook that it becomes the night out. This life style can be dangerous as it is possible to get lost between the reality and the act. Also the line between private and public life is blurred. 

What is public life and what is private life?

We also use this technology as a tool (smart phones, Ipad, etc…) to create this virtual space, to which we are constantly obliged to refer. These tools affected the way we do things and how we live and organize our lifes; time is compressed and we can achieve more in a day than before.

We than look at this famous ‘Ipad’ and it's new virtual magazine that can be purchased online. We discussed how the companies constantly try to find new ways to adapt to the needs of society, to create a more special experience but also how to market their products.

Next we looked at the Ipad’s ‘flip board app.’ which is another way of keeping up to date with this virtual life (no need to go to the shop to buy magazines and newspapers). The application could also be interesting for kids we flipped through the pages of the virtual book, Alice in Wonderland, which contains the story but also have little interactions and animated pictures “incidentally it reminds me of the pop-up books”. The menus have many options like edited versions for younger readers and other audio options. And for adult users the news and live broadcast are available to watch, yes it does indeed have it all…

In my opinion, the values and the qualities have lost their meanings as not every family can afford an Ipad and would have to find much more affordable ways to entertain, educate their kids or to keep up with current affairs. I mean what if you can’t afford Internet connection?

Looking at the notion of mobility, it is a brilliant piece of equipment to have. It allows one to be aware of many things at anytime and anywhere as long as an internet connection is available and as long as the battery lasts.

A book does not required battery and the Ipad does not provide the smell, the sound of the flickering page or even the feel of the paper on which it is printed. In my view these things should not be forgotten, as they are the very personal and physical feelings that the Ipad lacks and have as much importance as the content of a book.

So after buying the device, paying the monthly bill for the connection and purchasing the virtual book online, I am questioning whether it is really a need or just an expensive capitalistic quality of life?

Moving on from the apple achievement in challenging years of traditional culture, we talk about Appadurai’s five scapes.

Ethnoscape, technoscape, and finanscape, intervene and work in relation with each other.

Ethnoscape refers to the evolution of people across cultures and borders. Multicultural scapes with which we live, react, deal, respect and negotiate.

Technoscapes bring about new types on cultural interactions and exchanges through the power of technology, which is very closely tied with the constantly developing economy (finanscape) it has became almost a virtual scape as we actually never handle money and every transaction are done virtually.

The mediascape and ideoscape deal with the national and international creation and how image and information are used. Mediascape (radio, T.V., newspaper etc.) make the totally fabricated world we live in. Ideoscape refers to ideologies and ways of governing but it does really depend on the viewer and his personal opinions.

We realized that the population could easily create it’s own scapes like soundscape or soundmark (church bells for example) visualscapes, etc. and that various similar therm can be produced. This use of the suffix ‘scape-‘ which when combined with appropriate prefixes offers a framework to describe and examine society.

week 6

04/11/2011 Digital natives.

This week we watched a clip from an episode of ‘Thunderbirds’ the action figure series from 1968. We noticed how productions like this got cheaper along the years and how the puppets would have a different look/appearance to those in similar series that are more contemporary. We discussed how the production was pure science fiction and outside the realm of possibility, but also very original. It was hard for the population at the time to imagine, for example, being able to have a video conversation while on the move as Miss Penelope does in this particular clip. Another example is the way that games and films have become almost impossible to differentiate from one another as the technology of the tools used in these productions has evolved.

As opposed to the “digital immigrants” who are trying to catch up, the generations after 1985 (known as “digital native”) were born and raised with a natural knowledge of operating technology and would communicate with a “visual grammar.”

As the time needed to change is getting shorter along the years the world shifted into this virtually connected population, statistics show that there would be considerable stress and confusion if subject to a media blackout (that is no phone, computer, or any kind of wifi connection). Just as these social network methods of communication are destroying more traditional conversation practices, some of the digital immigrants would also be left behind as these changes happen too fast for them to catch up.

As an example of the consequences of this, we talked about how important it seems to think about ways to accept smart phone as a tool in education as they are not likely to disappear. Statistically there would be as many smart phones than baby being born.

Using them as an educational resource, the student of today can gain access to instant data and learn faster. Examples include being able to check on the validity of information from a lecture instantly as it is being given, and the creation of walled garden (a chat room limited to students in the same class, in which they can discus and exchange information on a specific module, talk about a lecture/seminar taken earlier that day or on work related to this module.) In my view, as the information that is available on the Internet is not always proofread, it is as important to confirm the authenticity of this data.

To follow we talked about the different rules regarding the value of certain networks, which were the Sarnof’s loop, (a one to many traditional broadcast/communication like the T.V. or radio), the Metcalf’s loop, (a one-to-one communication in a network of many, like email/phone) and Reed’s loop (which adds multiple size groups to a network to build on the one-to-one communication possibilities, these possibilities would depends on the size of the groups.)

Lastly we learned that as the generations evolve with these social networks to communicate, it became a necessary part of life for them. It also became fashionable for some to expose themselves; in the postmodernism world every one gains a celebrity lifestyle. This way of living can be as equally damaging/dangerous if too much personal information is being shared and if precautions are not taken.

week 5

28/10/2011 What is art today?

Conceptual art come in to our everyday life and evolves from it. It is composed of a set of ideas that would open up to this type of art. These ideas or concept are most important in this kind of work. For example the famous piece of art (fountain) from Marcel Duchamp who was often associated with the Dadaist movement (anti art movement) we note that he focused on changing the way we look at art. In this particular piece Duchamp made use of an already existing object that he presented in the Louvre in an “out of norm” fashion. As well as Robert Smithson did with his “earthworks” pieces of art that is also named as Site-specific art. In this case the concept of art and the location have a certain relationship. This practice became the way of art in the 21st century.

So as an artist we need to gain confident and think of how to present ourselves, how to get the message across by using these new way and location to exhibit.

We than look at some of Paul’s sound artist work from an old Gommon cinema in which he presented recordings of an old cinema session. The work was shown in a gallery composed of a multi records players set up, that supposably looked like they were simultaneously playing the recordings. Each visitors obtained a book in the form of a record sleeve which contain information about the piece and a copy of the recordings that give the impression of being a small record, a CD on which the grove had been cut on one side. (Really cool and am guessing expensive too!).

An other site-specific art project from the same artist along with Jem Finer was the land scope. This project centred around the Lough Neagh. Using digital sound and video recording and reproduction.

We also looked at a similar sound, site-specific art project composed with a series of location recorded sessions in the Namib Desert. After being edited, the compositions of these sounds were displayed at the national art gallery of Namibia.

So what did I get out of all this is that to help promote yourself you need to have connection and collaborate to make the work more interesting and unusual (to think outside the box, to be disruptive and attract attentions) but also to gain experience. Getting popular artist to look at our own work can be useful for many different aspects.

week 4

21/10/2011 Modernism/Postmodernism.

So far what I have discovered is that the notion of modernism spanned various modes of cultural production (in art, music, architecture, literature, etc.) that animated western society at the end of the 19th century, (some would argue that the same ideas began simultaneously in other parts of the world and that this is a euro-centric approach – i.e. taking the west as the point of reference and suggesting that the west is more advanced than the rest of the world). It started around the time of the First World War and it ended in the 1950’s during a transition period after which the post-modern era began.

Even though I am still uncertain about some areas of modernism, to me, it is a period of time in witch realization and evaluation of the evolution of grand narratives happened, including cultural practices, traditions, politics, religions, etc. The movement focused on the importance of design in improving everyday life, for example in architecture, and to make cultural production more reflective of real life. Some argue that it has become the means through which value and worldview of the west have been imposed around the world. Some of the elements of Modernism such as a continuing belief in reason and progress have been challenged by many different events. An example we discussed in class related to the Vietnam War and how its impact created doubt among some about the value of democracy and led them to consider alternative methods of governance. Many were disappointed and felt betrayed with the declined of the grand narrative and the security that they provided.

Around the 1960’s Postmodernism would have evolved and moved away from modernism. Different but more importantly new ideas and view would come out and would corrupt these old forms that modernism used to reflect accurately modern experiences. As Fredric Jameson describes postmodernism as the "dominant cultural logic of late capitalism." "Late capitalism" refers to the phase of capitalism after World War II.

In art for example the picture below  

 recycled Dali’s painting  (older style of art) into a new representation. mixing the genres is characteristic of postmodernism (in this example animation and fine art). Old things are not as affective today and people do not relate to them anymore, so there is no point, it is necessary to do something different to get the public’s attention, to capture their interest and imagination. Also, life isn’t so neat and tidy and straightforward, to accurately represent our experiences these days you have to use techniques that show how people feel – e.g. people now are more alienated from their communities with the rise of the metropolis.

 The fact that I am trying to understand these terms in an accurate way and identify them, shows the influence of modernism. Personally today’s subject in the lecture, after the outcome of my day, had given me a lot to think about. I believe that we put too much emphasis on theorising artistic practices and movements. I would prefer not to look at it in such a studied manner and appreciate these artistic ways of expressing life forms and feeling as they come.

To Post-modern? Or not to Post-modern?

That is my question!

Slan!

In memory of Patrick Lynch 1984-2011 R.I.P.

week 2-3

During the initial classes, I could not help but notice Paul’s love for music, especially punk and rock’n’roll. He seems to have a particular interest in collecting items that reveal to me the generation in which he grew up.These items; records, books, leather jackets or what ever they might be, exemplify how the music industry evolved along the years, how this industry adapted to keep up with the general needs and interests and how these interests in buying music change. In 1990 music was sold for the music but then the industry shifted towards more visual and aesthetic attributes. I believe that these changes were caused by the complex of inter-related cultural and political events, which in this case would often be express through artwork and music and presented in many different forms and methods. For example, the release of the Sex Pistols’ album “God save the queen” was timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebrations and it sold with great success.

This evolution in the music industry did not stop there and soon even cassette tapes went out of date. Artists of today are inspired by the industry of past generations; they build on old-fashioned methods, adapting and repackaging them for business purposes. For example the Sonic youth mix tape is available to listen to for free on the web. http://www.sonicyouth.com/jukebox/jukebox.html

Recently the Ipod has provided a more tactile and visual object that provides a different kind of listening experience - i.e. on the web, music videos, music sharing etc. It has also completely erased the Sony portable tape and C.D. player “walkman”.

So what I have learned is that the music industry as it used to be is over and as Paul said in class ”If u can digitise it, give it away”. Finally it was interesting and inspiring to watch a speech by Steve Jobs through which I have come to understand that it is important not to forget who we are and how we got to where we are.

Issues of visual cultures at Magee University.

 

First weeks lecture/seminar

During the first few sessions we decided that every week we would summarise and share on this page this things we talked about, our experiences during the lecture and our thoughts. The aim is for every student in the class to be able to access this information and be aware of each other’s point of view. Other functions of this blog are related to personal and academic records as we need to make sure the information given in the classes are understood and assimilated properly. An evaluation system will be installed at a later date which I believe will consist of an elimination procedure, and the class will examine and assess each other’s work.