9.28.10

Tuesday in class we had a life drawing session with a nude model.  I have done this in the past, and I enjoy it, but I was a little frustrated this time because I felt that all the model's poses were way too similar.  I would have liked for her to sit down or do something different with her arms.  I was also frustrated with using the viewfinder to draw.  I like to have free flowing strokes and the viewfinder kinda cramped my style.  It took me a few drawings to have get back to a free flowing style, but once I did, and started letting my arms and eyes do the work and not my brain, my drawings were better.  This is another example of the left-brain to right-brain switch. I also would have liked to do a long pose, maybe 30 minutes or so.  I definitely want to take advantage of some of the Thursday night drawing sessions, and I'd like to use paint sometime for figures too.

The reading from Tuesday was about how people see things.  It's kind of obvious once you read about it, but the excerpt noted that "The camera isolated momentary appearances and in so doing destroyed the idea that images were timeless."  This gives the idea that images before the camera could only be captured by an artist, which will be biased and personal because it's from the artist's perspective.  One might enjoy the image, but it wouldn't be exactly how they would see the view if they were sitting where the artist was.  Photography is universal. Anyone can look at a photo and it will be as if the viewer is standing where the photographer was, because the image is realistic. 


Thursday in class we were in the mac lab.  We started off with a slideshow in which we saw art and tried to describe what we saw.  One image I thought was mind boggling was a landscape by Van Gogh.  I thought it didn't contain much meaning until Professor Friebele put up the caption, "This is Van Gogh's last painting before he committed suicide."  After that the painting looked ominous and I saw much more meaning in the dark color palette and in the crows.  We then split up in groups to talk about the reading.  My group with Amy and Ashok focused on the quote, "When in love, the sight of the beloved has a completeness which no works and no embrace can match: a completeness which only the act of making lobe can temporarily accommodate." (Page 8) We disagreed with the part that said "no words" can be used.  We understand that no words can make someone feel exactly the way you do, but words can and are used to help explain your feelings.  People say that no words can describe love, but that's not true. People describe love all the time, and you won't understand if you've never been in love, but those who have will identify with those words and their personal feeling of love will come to them.  After that, we listened to (mostly) wordless music and drew on really cool touch-pads? I forget what they're called. But we drew what came to us when hearing the music.  I felt that mine got better with each song.


I've decided to do a little research on those who are color blind.  I feel a little bad for them because in art,  color has meaning, so color-blind people would get from a painting a message that the artist didn't intend.  

<<< How scary is this???

Being color blind isn't usually that big of a deal, but there are cases that have been fatal.  The gene that is defected is for "L-ospin, the protein in the retinal receptors that responds to long wave-lengths of light."  I learned that the retina is made up of rods and cones. Rods give us night vision but don't have anything to do with color.  Cones aren't that helpful at night, but they help us see color.  Cones are sensitive to different pigments, and if the gene coding for the cones are wrong, the person will see the wrong color.  Color blindness is something one is born with, and it cannot be corrected, although today there are tinted lenses which can mildly help those who are colorblind.

http://neuro.amygdala.net/2009/10/14/a-cure-for-colour-blindness-in-monkeys-now-they-can-drive/

http://colorvisiontesting.com/color2.htm

http://colorvisiontesting.com/color7.htm#most%20common%20question

9.14.10

 Video

In Memento by Christopher Nolan, the main character Leonard survived an accident that severely impaired his memory. He has short-term memory loss, and every time he falls asleep he has to relearn what he knows. The last this he remembers is his wife dying. He has tattooed himself with phrases such as “John G. raped and murdered my wife,” and “Find him and kill him.”  Leonard’s concept of time is different from everyone else’s because he doesn’t know that time has even passed when he first wakes up.  Every time he awakens he has to relearn what his motive is, which is to find and kill John G. One quote that I thought was thought provoking was when Leonard said, “How can I heal without time?” Leonard has no sense of time passing even though it has, and he has to realize everyday that his wife is gone. This movie reminds me of 50 First Dates in that Lucy suffered an accident and is now experiencing short-term memory loss.  She, too, must relearn everything about her life that has changed since the accident.  In Memento, Leonard talks about a man named Sammy who had short-term memory loss so bad that he would forget things within 15 minutes.  This reminded me of a story that my mom used to tell me about her grandmother.  I was a toddler and my mom and I were visiting Grandma Sabatini at the nursing home.  Grandma Sabatini asked my mom if she was working, and when she said yes, grandma asked what my mom does with me during the day.  My mom told her that she takes me to daycare.  Grandma said, ”Huh…Do you work?” and it went on like this for about 20 minutes.  I find it weird that old people’s memories can be as bad as people who have suffered an accident.  It would be so frustrating to have to start over every time you fall asleep, and especially every 15 minutes. 

Reading

In the second chapter of “What is Time?” by J.G. Whitrow, we learned about different philosophers’ theories of time. The French psychologist Guyau argued that time is not a, “prior condition, but a consequence.” (Page 16) If this were true, then time would not be something affiliated with the present, but instead is something that happens because we do things. I disagreed with this theory when I first read it.  Time goes on if we do nothing, of course, but I then thought that maybe time going on is a consequence for doing nothing.  A man named Herbert Spencer

Questions

On page 18 in the excerpt from Robert Hooke, he capitalized words such as quantity, organ, and memory.  I would like to know the significance in capitalizing the words.

At the bottom of page 18, Hooke also argues that we “can no more remember without the organ of memory than see without the organ of sight." I’m wondering if Hooke means that memory and sight are actual organs, because they aren’t body parts. If so, I don’t agree that they are organs but I’m wondering what memory is if it’s not an organ in the brain? Would one identify memory as simply a place in the brain or is it something different to everyone? I can point to your head and say, “This is where my memory is.” But I first mean my brain, and within my brain lies my memory. Is that actually where our memories are?

Research

I’d like to know more about what makes people’s first memories so significant that it is what they first remember.  People’s earliest memories normally happen before they start to consistently remember, which for most is at the age of five.  It is not known whether first memories correlate with one’s reminiscence function or defensive style.  Studies have shown that older people’s recollections of their early memories are happier, and are used to decrease boredom, maintain intimacy, and even prepare for death.  So, one’s first memory may not be significant because of the memory itself, but because it is needed as a defense mechanism in the brain against the negative thoughts one acquires as they age.

http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.025.0228a - excerpt from textbook

http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/5/581.full.pdf - study on memories

see my comment on Amy's blog to understand these pictures.

9.07.10

During class last Thursday, we watched the music video for Sugar Water by Cibo Matto.  Throughout the video there were two frames side by side. The left frame constantly moved forward in time, and the right frame constantly moved backwards in time.  In class we discussed the timelines of each frame and found that the woman in each crossed paths with each other, and in that moment the women switched frames, so the one who was moving forward in time was now moving backwards, etc.  After analyzing the video, I found that the most interesting trick that the director threw in was a black cat that looked like it jumped in one frame and out the other, but it would be impossible since one of the frames is going backwards in time.  After watching it in slow motion, we found that the cat actually was moving backwards in one frame and forward in the other.  However, it was one swift motion and this visual trick got us thinking about the possible ways that the director could have made the cat jump forward when the woman was going back in time, without any film tricks.

In What is Time? by J.G.W., I found that throughout the text, the word “cyclic” was used to describe time when it was first discovered.  The Mayas viewed time as days, months, and years all moving in a circle as “relay teams marching through eternity.” (Pg. 2)  I found it interesting that only humans show that they are able to perceive time in the past, present, and future.  Animals such as dogs and chimpanzees are fully aware of the present, as they act on instinct, and are aware of the past because they know who their family is, and in a domestic environment dogs know who their owners are.

I would like to know how the first person or group to discover time actually did it.  I understand that shadows can be used to tell what time of the day it is, but I’d like to know how someone found out that there are 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year, etc.

It is interesting to note that the Gregorian year is too long by 3 days in a span of ten thousand years, and the Mayan year was 2 days too short in a span of ten thousand years.  I think it’s crazy that these civilizations were so close to being correct without any modern tools to help them.  It also makes me wonder what happens when you get to those 3 extra days.  Do they not count?  If that happened now would it be a sort of holiday?  Would people get school and work off because those days can’t be included in the calendar?

<<<>>> 

Think think think think think.  The word is losing it’s meaning.

Professor Friebele asked us to think about how we think, whether it’s in words or images or blurs.  When I tried to think about how I think, I didn’t think like I normally would.  I tried to make my thoughts appear really interesting to myself, if that makes sense.  So I stopped thinking about thinking, until a thought caught my attention.  (It’s as if my thoughts are different from me.) I was biking up that really big hill outside of Monty, and I made it up that first hill by the bell.  Then I got to the second hill and really had to force my legs to keep going or else I’d end up going backwards.  Well I made it up the hill and my brain thinks, “YEAH ME!”  That was a natural, unforced thought, and made me realize that sometimes I think in words.  I do think in images, when I think of a place.  And when I think of people, and even my dog, I think in feelings, the feeling that the person (or fat black lab) gives me.  My thoughts mostly rush past without me even noticing.  I know I am what my thoughts and actions are, but after analyzing my thoughts, and noticing that they go on without me consciously knowing it, I realized that makes me feel like there is a little “me” inside my head, and the big me (the one that does the actions) only feels like we’re connected when we (I?) have conscious thoughts like “YEAH ME!”

I am one person, but I am separated by my unconscious thoughts and actions and by my conscious thoughts and actions.