The Titanic Avatar

I recently came across the trailer for James Cameron's "Avatar", a 2009 3-d science fiction space-fantasy epic. Basically what i can gather of the premise is amidst a intergalactic species energy war, a disabled war veteran is promised the use of his legs again, if he undergoes a transformation to turn him into an "avatar" of a mix of both himself and one of the blue tribal space aliens the marine is to fight, for space minerals that equal high dollar energy.. wow sounds a bit inflated to me, but i figured this somehow fit into this sort of realms digital media ideas have kind of flourished and been embellished in the creative mind. I mean move over Sim's..im gonna be a real living, breathing blue furry man tiger man. Anyway, yeah. I left a link to the trailer so you can see for yourself. I mean i loved Terminator, but im not sure what to make of this.

Bizarre, new places.

So last week, had me researching Mark Napier, a rather interesting digital media artist and scratching my head at just how unique and creative some the processes he developed for his pieces, really is. I mean, these are truly one off ideas. They literally take programs and code, and completely either destroy and rebuild them, or skew them far beyond where they began. This kind of work really pushes the boundaries of what art really is. Even the concept of a programmer being considered an artist, is really breaking new ground. I'm excited to get further into the work this guy created. I'd like to believe that when i leave this class I'm going to have an entirely new and fresh view on modern Art. And maybe walk away with something new for myself to work with.
Also, my next blog will have me creating an Avatar in the epic World of Warcraft. I have never really done anything like this before, but I'm totally intrigued by all this. I mean this place literally destroys real lives on the other side of the screen. I think that at least, is worth a blog. Or at least worth some comprehension on my part. so that's that. Bizarre, new places.

Art, lived.

Never, in my life, have i ever found so much comfort in so much uncertainty. It's interesting that there seems to be a parallel slide between my current residence of thought, and the world of what is Art right now. Its truly seems that the more we learn and discover and create, the less absolute it all really is. In the past, Art had what seemed to be a clear definition. The materials had boundaries. This is Art, this is not Art. But as time has progressed we have come to allow expression to become the piece. To have the medium to drive the voice. Or maybe the voice to drive the medium. The boundaries achieve slack.

For quite awhile I have been fascinated by the work of Nam June Paik. And in the recent article on New Media Art, it was interesting to take a step back and see the whole wave of these new media artists. I have stood in front of "Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii" by Paik, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. And it does blow you away. All the monitors, bright and flashing. Points of interesting pulsing and shifting. Kansas singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Neon bulbs. A visual one stop road trip through American culture. And right in D.C. the monitor collects you, and you become a part of the piece. I was in his Art, in his version of America. at least for a few moments.

And maybe that's what I'm getting at. This idea of static existence. And the artists using the new media seem to be letting us into the secret. Its all a little bigger than us, but it doesn't work without us. Living inside the Art, and even becoming Art. The boundaries have faded, and the absolution erodes. With so many people online, expressing so many things, and the lines of communication being so wide, you ask yourself. "Have we become one giant piece of living artistic expression?"

"I may be paranoid, but no android."

A response to "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" or an opinion anyway.

Initially i read this and thought, this is profound in many ways. What a discussion piece. I want to know more. So.. i googled Nicholas Carr, to get more information.. Funny, right?

The term "wired", to describe those who are connected to the Internet, seems a bit light at this point. We are downright intravenously tethered to all forms and facets of the web, and its very threads bind us all. We are a generation of human devices. So many of our human relationships rely on the availability our internet connectivity.

As I am reading this article and my computer has made no less than 3 suggestions to me. "Update Itunes to version 8.2?"..It's hardly a question. "Safari 4 update, now please." "Windows update or I promise future repercussions.. Scan me or succumb to a horrible virus death..critical system error..thank you." HAL, no. Distraction, yes. My computer looking out for my best interest is hardly "I, Robot" here.

I respect how he points out throughout time, the great minds and tools they both dismissed as downfalls of modern man and cherished as enlightened human achievement. His view on Google however, was a bit grim. A lot of heavy smoke over little a search engine. But then again, it isnt so little. I mean you can Google just about anything. Literally. Instantaneous results. Surprisingly reliable. It refines your own searches. The librarian in a limitless library.

However when the article begins to detail Google's interest in next generation Artificial Intelligence, and the quarry of knowledge available if you were directly linked to a new age system, one cant help but conjure all those visions of chaos in science fiction. Sky NET, HAL, The Matrix. Could this be a 20th century cyber-nightmare in it's conception? If Carr is a worrywart, I'm a feverish hypochondriac. The Googleplex. Images of the Tower of Babel flood my head. John Conner on a cyber-war torn future scape, hellbent on the salvation of humanity over machines. Art imitating life, of life imitating art. Maybe just slightly alarmist.

When Carr mentions himself the nostalgist, I think to myself "could that be me?" Well, hardly. I find my weather on my ipod every morning, and well as my current CNN news. Email..check. Stocks..check. Hell, a Carb Counter..we have an app for that. So, perpetual nostalgist, hardly. Distracted, maybe. I find myself re-reading pages of books when i cant acquire the "information" I feel I need. I re-read 10 pages of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" so many times, I left the book for some time. He literally painted so much detail over the storyline, i was frustrated at the prose and lavish description, I just wanted the bones. Because i couldn't find the plot line in a headline. Oh, Where is my mind? Point, click. Instant. Just like the board room coffee. Isnt it fitting for our "fast, now and alot of it culture"?

As far as what type of new culture will emerge in the future from all this, who can be sure. We are already a culture of advertisement and entertainment. Maybe just more quick, and to the throat. I don't think all this information makes us stupid, I think its on the contrary. But I do fear all this ease of access. Sometimes it seems like we have all this readily available open communication, and no one has anything important to say. Hopefully, that's what will emerge in the future. Open discussion, understanding, a bit of civility. I can only hope that as we stray further into the digital universe we don't loose the self realization. In a place of avatars and profiles, who are we truly? Identity is a leisure. But hey, let's not shit ourselves. We can barely ask ourselves as people, who deserves to be healthy. Maybe Google has the answer, I'm feeling lucky.