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Author: jbrooks1

VISU 1311: Creativity Blog 7

Time

After watching the Ted talk and listening to the podcast I found both very interesting.  I was fascinated by the podcast because the concept of time is something that I have looked into a lot and especially hearing the physicist talk about the theory of relativity was very interesting.  I was really intrigued by the free will conversation.  How we would like to think that we are in control of things and that choice is possible when in reality it’s not, at least not in a single universe.  The experiment about how our brain is already preparing itself to do something before we know we want to do it was fascinating.  It really begs the question of who is doing it, is our brain acting outside of our conscious knowing? We think we are telling our brain to do things but our brain is telling us. Regarding choice, I find it interesting that in this universe we technically have no choices, everything that is ever going to happen is going to happen one way. In parallel universes we chose different things and in result live different lives.  Every choice you have had to make has played out differently in parallel universes. When they were saying how every moment that has already happened or is going to in the future has already happened and will always be happening. Each moment is a distinct moment that goes on forever.  As for the Ted talk, I was completely mind-blown by what he was able to accomplish. He slowed time down for his body, somehow was able to slow his heart rate and other functions to such a slow rate that time seemed to be irrelevant.  According to previous medical standards he would have been dead or had serious brain damage from lack of oxygen, however he was fine.  The concept of time is something that I still don’t understand and I’m not sure I ever will.  It’s something we all experience differently, and yet we try to live on the same clock.  We’ve created this standard time in order for our commercial world to operate. Time was made for business.

VISU1311: Creativity Blog 6

Memento

 

After watching this film, it was a little difficult to piece together.  The movie jumped around a lot cutting to scenes in the future or past with little to no explanation of what it was. Once you kind of start to put it together the story is very intriguing.  A man with short term memory loss searching for his wife’s killer.  Everything he lives is life by is written down on his body as tattoos or on the polaroid’s and pieces of paper he keeps with him.  Living your life by what you wrote down yesterday seems so inaccurate. For example, what if you wrote down something that someone told you and it was a lie.  You’d have no way of knowing, you would wake up the next morning look at what you wrote and you’d live your life by that, even when it could all be a lie.  One part that stood out to me is when Lenny the main character is talking about time and healing, he asks how is he supposed to heal if he can’t feel time.  This really resonated with me because when I thought about it, so much of our mental health is effected by time and in his case losing a loved one is something that can only pass with time, but when you wake up and it feels like it just happened yesterday, but it’s been years, how is one supposed to heal from that. Healing requires time, you can’t rush it but when times doesn’t exist in a sense things become very difficult. Now Lenny would be able to heal from a physical injury just fine because his body still responds to time, it is just his mind that won’t.  Even though he wakes up every morning not remembering anything after the accident, every day he still wakes up with that same drive as he had the day before and will have the day after.  It makes you wonder if he was right about Sammy another mental patient faking the same illness that Lenny had.  Could they really just snap out of it if the right thing were said or done?

Blog #5

After watching the noisey video involving symmetry and harmony I found myself wanting to learn more.  I found it intriguing the different ways that they would manipulate the guitar to create unique sounds, especially when they removed a string in order to lower the other notes and allow you to create that unique sound.  Also the relationship between the two hands when one is playing the guitar is something that when mastered can produce beautiful results.  The two hands have to work together in times and then also work opposite of each other, the musician must be able to completely manipulate his hands into doing what he wants.  They spoke on how the right hand does it all, cause without that the guitar couldn’t talk. It seems to me like it could go both ways because if the left hand wasn’t there to play the chords then it would just be constant strumming and that would get old quick. It takes both hands to play, one can’t work without the other, where there they are working together or apart, there has to be both.

VISU 1311 Project #1: Jon Brooks

Gestalt

Taking photos on South Congress is something almost everyone in Austin has done at some time.  So when we were constrained to shooting only on South Congress I wanted to try and not focus on the iconic soco spots.  Instead I tried to only photograph things that I had not seen before or things that were not going to stay in place (birds, cars, people).  When i go out and shoot on my own I usually don’t set rules for what I want to shoot, I just go out and see what I run into.  Setting these rules for the project helped me to focus on the subject and not spend as much time taking photos of random things.  My photos are mostly characterized by bright colors or sharp textures, helping them stand out and pop.

 

Continuity

Continuity

repetition

Repetition

Containment

Proximity

2016-10-02-4-of-4

Repetition/Grouping

Closure/Containment

Screenshots:

screen-shot-2016-10-04-at-9-11-33-pm    screen-shot-2016-10-04-at-9-11-47-pm

Blog #4

After reading and listening to the articles a few points stood out to me.  One that I was already familiar with was the fact that societies are shaped by the media. Almost all of Americans watch the news on TV or read about current events in magazines or newspapers, as well as apps and other websites.  All of these are examples of different types of media that are all trying to convey their own message.  If you read two different articles about the same topic, it’s unlikely that they’ll present the same information.  The media outlets can distort and change the information they give to you.  In this way they can shape what society learns about and doesn’t.  Also the fact that the children of today are no long being shaped by their parents but rather everything they are surrounded with.  The child’s whole environment shapes the way they grow up and what they think is right and wrong.  They mention that childhood is a relatively new concept.  In the past kids stated working or learning a trade as soon as they could, the “childhood” of today is something that has just come around.   This is interesting because I haven’t thought much about it, I can see what they are saying about childhood being a new concept however I think that children in the past still had a childhood it just may not have been for as long or as easy.  Along those lines todays school and set up like factories they say.  With assembly line-like set ups of learning.  Most children today seem to learn better in less structured schools.  Schools that focus on each student rather than the whole.

VISU1311: Creativity Blog #3

 

After watching the Ted Talk with Amy Tan some of the parts that resonated with me the most were when she was asking why things happen and that uncertainty is a good thing. I found those two comments interesting because uncertainty was always something that I felt like shouldn’t happen.  Although I can see how uncertainty could lead to creativity.  You are faced with a tough decision and neither of the choices seem right so you create your own. Also questioning why things happen, or why you are yourself.  Thinking about these questions only seems to lead to more questions although perhaps sometimes the questions can lead to a thought or memory or feeling that can spark the creativity inside someone. The Dan Brakhage film was intriguing. I had not seen anything like it before, all the fast moving colors fading from warmer to colder and back again. Every time I watched it I kept thinking I saw faces or object is the designs on screen. The Spoon podcast I enjoyed very much, the song sounded familiar and it was very interesting to hear how they made all the specific sounds. My roommate produces songs as well so being around him helped me to understand some of the same things they did such as the sampling of the sounds and instruments. When you hear all the sounds separately it seems impossible to be able to put them all together in a way that flows but when it’s all said and done it sounds perfect. After reading and watching all the articles it seems that inspiration can come from a number of places, a lot of times it is from a tragedy but not always.  Inspiration can come from something as little a bug you see one day or as big as a death of a close relative.  Inspiration is all around us it’s just up to us to open our eyes and realize that inspiration is what we make it.

Blog 2

 

A New Mind and New Design

I found these two articles fairly interesting, especially A Whole New Mind. I found it strange and rather pleasing that so much of the world is switching from these “textbook” ideas of what success and knowledge are, to more right brain ways of thinking about and doing things.  It mentioned how even large car manufactures such as General Motors are in the art business.  They are designing “art, entertainment and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally, also provide transportation” (53).  More and more companies today are beginning to take this switch to more of an art associated path of growth.  They are starting to think more right side rather left side. None of this would be possible without well thought out designs.  For the process of designing these systems, one must understand what design is. “Design began at the very moment man started to use tools” (412).  Using our vessel or hands we are able to craft thousands of ideas into reality, solve problems and keep ourselves safe.  It all begins with design.

Blog 1

The Photograph

 

I found this article very interesting as a photographer, I liked the fact that the colors we see in our photographs are not the same colors we see in person.  How only black and white are truly portrayed as black and white in the pictures we take because of the lack or abundance of all true colors. The colors we see as red or blue are really only algorithms and equations made into what we see as the colors.  But what about the advanced digital cameras of today? When we take pictures with these cameras are we seeing what color is truly present or are we seeing a computerized color made up of complex equations and algorithms.  The algorithms for colors is just one example of how the camera directs the photographer in what to shoot rather than the other way around.  We like to think that we have complete control over our camera but sometimes that might not be the case.  The camera and the photographer are supposed to work together and at times they do, however there are also times when the camera and photographer’s interests diverge and in this case the photographer’s intentions might be overruled and changed to the cameras liking. A good photographer is able to overrule the cameras intentions for his own and is able to create his idea by manipulating the camera to do what he wants.

 

 

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