I had a lot of fun today at the Drawing On And On event and show today. Hopefully this will help jumpstart my drawing practice. I felt ok about my drawings and I really liked what some of the other artists produced.
Tag: Moore
Critical Dialogue
Each time I go to a critique at the MFA program at Moore, I leave feeling so full. I am reminded time and again the value of the bond forged in the crucible of grad school and the power of shared experience. The relationships are not based on what any one of us brings to the table, but rather on the collective understanding of what it means to be in the place that we are. Together, there to aid, support, and even commiserate sometimes.
I think one of the most valuable forms of support is putting in the effort to have real critical dialogue. Not the dismissive or flat responses that is the unfortunate status quo in an average conversation. Rather, deep, meaningful questions preceded by careful observation with the goal of unpacking meaning and experience beyond the surface.
McLuhan on Art
I stumbled upon this quote while writing tonight,
"Art is whatever you can get away with.“-Marshall Mcluhan- The Medium is the Massage (1967)
The man had a way with words and remains eerily poignant, even today.
Alone Together
This is an image of a lone figure, half emerged from the mist of an ambiguous crowd. The figure embodies some of the fundamental paradoxes of social media; it is unique yet vague, specific but indiscernible. This is a person trying to lay claim to identity through a technology that denies it.
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| “Alone Together” |
Found Identity
One part of my thesis brings up a digital world problem of other people having more control over your identity than you. Think about it, each image that is uploaded with you in it tells a story about your identity, but it doesn’t have to be you that posted them. Friends or complete strangers that have snapped a shot of you can post and comment without your knowledge, and whatever that image says about you becomes a part of your digital identity. Since people tend to trust a third party’s description instead of someone describing themselves, these extraneous bits of identity are often taken as more legitimate than anything you could post yourself. This also means that interaction in the social media sphere is practically mandated if you want any say about your own identity. Each of us is in an uphill battle, fighting for control of our virtual selves, but its a battle that can only be perpetually fought, never won and often lost.
After thinking about this I decided to attempt to track down every image on Facebook that has me in it that I did not post. So far I have gathered 175 of these “found images”, and now I am taking those and reconstructing self portraits from groups of them. I don’t think its possible to retake my virtual identity, but at the very least I want to know how I am presented.
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| Found Image Self-Portrait |
The Business of Distraction
“Google, as the supplier of the Web’s principal navigational tools, also shapes our relationship with the content that it serves up so efficiently and in such profusion. The intellectual technologies it has pioneered promote the speedy, superficial skimming of information and discourage andy deep, prolonged engagement with a single argument, idea, or narrative. ‘Our goal,’ says Irene Au, ‘is to get users in and our really quickly. All our design decisions are based on that strategy.’ Google’s profits are tied directly to the velocity of people’s information intake. The faster we surf across the surface of the Web – the more links we click and pages we view – the more opportunities Google gains to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Its advertising system moreover, is explicitly designed to figure out which messages are most likely to grab our attention and then to place those message in our field of view. Every click we make on the Web marks a break in our concentration, a bottom-up disruption of our attention – and it’s in Google’s economic interest to make sure we click as often as possible. The last thing the company wants is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. Google is, quite literally, in the business of distraction.” The Shallows, 156
This quote from The Shallows sums up one critical part of what my written thesis and my work is really about. The Internet cannot be viewed as a neutral force because it is being used and shaped by entities that have only their own goals in mind. Were this to be all I focused on, I could see some kind of pitchfork and torches moment where I urge everyone to rip out their wi-fi routers and ethernet cables. But instead, I see this as much more of a public service announcement. The Internet is already engrained in our society, and barring anything unforeseeable, there is no going back, and the truth is that its high points are a continual benefit to the world. So, surf with caution. Browse with a grain of salt. Click deliberately. And take a moment to pause and take in your surroundings, even if they are digital. Your brain will thank you.
Speaking of Distractions
Sometimes I think best after I have been sufficiently distracted from the task at hand. That can take the form of a game (Carcassonne, Kingdom Builder, Survive!…) or a tv show/movie, but tonight it was baking. I enjoy cooking immensely, and most nights I cook for my wife and I. However, I’m not much of a baker, so this afternoon I expanded my horizons a bit and made a Vanilla Pecan Danish Puff Pastry. I must say, I’m pretty proud of myself.
Thesis Preface & Intro 4/4/12
Here is my preface and Introduction for my thesis as they stand right now.
Preface
I want to start by giving you some inside information as to why I find it important to be asking questions of technology. There could be a general concern for how people embrace the growing world of technology, or a simple fascination with how the virtual world is beginning to shape individuals’ psyches. But my interest lies on a much more personal level. I am part of the Millennial Generation. This generation is defined by being the first digital natives. They grew up with regular computer access. The World Wide Web hit mainstream and quickly became ordinary in daily lives. Digital technology became more present and accessible, bringing to life the science fiction of cell phones in everyone’s pockets and similar gadgets from forward looking novels. However, despite my date of birth placing me well within that definition, my siblings were a part of the previous generation, Generation X. This generation was formed in entirely different circumstances. In relation to the digital technologies that so impacted the Millennials, Generations X’ers were introduced to its possibilities and promises, but did not witness it pervasiveness. Generation X saw the signs of the great transition from analog to digital, but remained rooted in the analog.
There was a generational divide between siblings in my house that I believe in some respects gave me a unique perspective. My family would be classified as “late adopters”. They were not anti-technology or luddites in any way, their frame of reference was simply the physical world. That was their comfort zone. I can remember having a computer in the house when I was fairly young, but it was tucked away in the attic, out of sight, out of mind. Our first connection to the Internet frontier came in the early 2000’s during my high school career. I got my first cell phone in 2004, and it was the free one that came with the plan. The first time I used a digital camera was in 2005. I never owned (nor much played) a gaming console until 2007 when I was in college. All of this could mean almost nothing. There are plenty of other people with similar stories, but for me it allows me to start looking at the philosophical questions that have come about through this massive shift in frame of reference. I grew up in a home that was most comfortable in an analog world. I now live and work in the midst of the current society of digital connectivity. So, my research, the questions I ask and the work I make are not simply academic in nature. Essentially I am asking how to best exist in a world that is hurtling towards virtual existence.
Introduction:
Changes in technology have an immense power to change us as people. Let me be clear, we do not set out to change ourselves through the tools we produce, rather our goal is often simply to find a better way of performing a given task. But each new technology in turn manufactures new ways of going through life, and the resulting behavioral shifts have a deeper impact on our identities than we could ever foresee. In this paper I will address the question, “Does technology cause a shift in how we perceive our relationships and ourselves?” Then I will discuss two implications of that shift in depth in a kind of cost-benefit analysis of our current technology situation. It is within these two areas that my visual work is situated, asking the questions that I feel are being glazed over, ignored, or even covered up for the sake of advancement. However, I am not anti-technology; I am skeptical of all the marketing of shiny new things without being willing to ask difficult questions about how using them will change us. My conclusion is an ambiguous one. There are clear global and individual benefits to a life filled with technologies, but on the other hand, those things exert an unrelenting tug towards becoming something I do not want to become.
… There are about 24 more pages right now and I’m still going strong. Wish me luck.
And don’t tell me about spelling/grammatical errors.
Memory and Technology
A book I’m reading for thesis says that the “Internet is a technology of forgetfulness”. That sounds counterintuitive at first. Everything that can be archived, is, ensuring that nothing will be forgotten (as long as compatibility holds out, but that’s another issue). But with that as such a reassurance, I have no motivation to remember anything, ever. If Facebook didn’t remind us of our friend’s birthdays, would you still remember them? There are almost no questions that can’t be answered with a few taps on the keyboard, but what does that do to us as people? It separates us from any ownership of knowledge, of the stuff it takes to live life. We constantly rely on this external force to remember for us, and eventually it will come to the point where we forget how to be people and how to merely exist.
Anyway, I’ve been working pretty intensely back and forth on my written and visual thesis. I have found that they are informing one another in a really beneficial way, to the point that I think I’ll need to continue doing some reading and writing in future work.
These are two different versions of an image that I"m currently working on. They are created by combining an image from every single one of my Facebook friends’ profiles. I wanted to make it after thinking about identity, information overload, and the ambiguity vs. specificity that is at play online. It was a surprise (and a happy one) that a reasonably specific form was created. I was expecting a blur, but instead I got a new figure, that if they actually existed I think they would be recognizable.
Right now on my written thesis I’m working on filling out my section on Google as the “dialectical good evil”(Christian Fuchs, Google Capitalism). There are an awful lot of things at play, but when looking at the situation from one step back, we have to ask whether Google is actually holding to its slogan “Don’t be Evil”, or if its exploitation of the “audience commodity” reveals its true colors as just another money grubbing global corporation. You’ll have to actually read my thesis to find out more.
Thesis Mind Map & Translation
Here is my starting point for organizing my written thesis. Good luck trying to make sense of it all, but to me it actually helped to write out all the stuff that was trapped in my brain and to organize it on paper in relation to all the other stuff I’m thinking over. I’m excited about the directions my research and work are taking me.
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| A Mind Map is a Terrible Thing to Waste |
And believe it or not, all that turned into this:
Identity and Connective Technology
Table of Contents
1. Preface
2. Introductions
3. Colors that end with “urple”
Technology Natives are Beating their War Drums
How Technology is Reshaping our Brains (literally)
Socrates Hates Calculators
Why This is Different & the Same as Before & Why That Does not Matter
4. The answer is 42, now what?
The Internet is a Commi!
Google as the “Dialectical Good Evil”
The Hyperlink Paradox
“F” Reading
All Hail the Hive
Reorganizing is the New Innovating: the death of just about everything
Identity Disorder
Centripetal and Centrifugal
Web 2.0 Gone Wild
Life is like a…
Blindly laying offerings on the altar of technology
That’s the current table of Contents for my written thesis. I’m sure it will change as I go along, but I got excited when I realized that if I were to pick up a book at the library and look at this table of contents, I would probably keep reading. I’m thinking that might be a good sign.
Open Studio Tonight; 1st Year Review
If you happen to be in Philly tonight around 5, come and stop by Moore (its next to the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin Institute). Ben and the four other graduate students are hosting an Open Studio, which means you can go in and look at what they’ve been working on this summer. They’re on the 5th floor- once you get cleared by security they should be able to point you to the elevators.
Before the Open Studio, the first-year graduate students in studio art are being reviewed by several artists/professors, including the artist/Graduate Program Manager Paul Hubbard (official site). This is the ‘qualifying review’ that takes place now that the first semester is complete. It is in preparation for the important mid-program review that will happen next summer, when students will be evaluated on their work and whether or not they are creating art at a level worthy of an MFA degree.
Tomorrow Ben will bring his work home and set up a space for himself in the loft, which will be his studio until next July. At that time, he will go to Ireland for a four-week residency at Burren College of Art.
But for now, Ben will have a break until the weekend classes begin in September!
[by] melissa
praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways
Ben Panter's Art Blog 