Day: November 4, 2015

I found the video, The Way Things Go, to be very surprising in how well it was able to hold up for such a long time. Each action has a consequence on the next action, and yet they are all connected so well, and the precision and timing of each action that occurs is nearly flawless.

The chain reaction that is caused from the precise relationship of each object to the next is something that must have taken a very long time to perfect. Several variables must have gone into play, and they all had to connect in a way that could keep the chain going.

I especially liked how liquid chemicals and fire played such a large role in this. The one constant that seemed to recur throughout the reaction was that liquids could be counted on to go in a very specific direction and to carry a specific weight. As more liquid collided with the next object in the reaction, the pressure is what allowed the chain reaction to continue.

Gravity, though, probably had the largest role to play. Each action was connected through gravity, because each object’s weight could be counted on to have the same relationship to gravity over and over again, and this was critical to the entire chain reaction so that both cause and effect could take place.

Listening to David Blaine was stressful to me. I can’t imagine putting myself in the situations that he has been in. I kept asking myself how he could continue to do things like he did when most of his attempts were nearly fatal.

However, on a less perilous note, I can understand where he is coming from. The overarching themes of his presentation were sustainability and practice. To get to the point of holding his breath for 17 minutes, Blaine had to teach his mind and body to sustain his life for an extended period of time. Not only that, but to do so, he had to practice keeping his heart rate steady in a stressful environment.

Sustainability can go for pretty much anything. In my drawing class we have discussed how to sustain a drawing and an idea, and the same can be applied to projects in Visual Studies as well. Practicing sustainability is of course the easiest way to get there, to keep trying to reach that point where you know something has succeeded, or is finished.

I found this podcast to be very weird, but the topics discussed in the podcast are things that I’ve sometimes thought about, as well. Maybe I’ve watched a few too many episodes of The Big Bang Theory or Doctor Who, but I have always found the concept of time to be interesting. Likewise, I thought that several of the points of the podcast were also interesting.

I liked the idea that humanity is so fascinated with time because we have a strong desire to transcend it. Humanity is fascinated with the idea of time and with the idea of sustainability. Not only do we as people want to be sustainable, but we want our belongings, our material possessions, to come with us. Anything we become attached to becomes a burden to let go of.

Additionally, another major point that caught my attention was that time hates, destroys, and outlives (if it can be considered to have a life) anything that humans might create. I mean, this is fairly obvious if you look at anything that is worn or antique. The most prominent things that have been destroyed by time are architectural structures, like buildings. There are ruins all over the world leftover from early civilizations, and their evolution from what they used to be at their creation is not yet over. I remember finding an image a long time ago of a “graveyard” of cars in Belgium that were left behind when the world broke out into World War II (Chatillon car graveyard).