Brion Gysin and the Dream Machine

Brion Gysin was an artist, traveller, writer, and alchemist of the 20th century. He was a great friend of author William Burroughs, who used his cut-up technique. The cut up technique, which definitely shows some parallels to Dadaism, is a literary style in which text is cut up and rearranged to create a completely new text.

Bryon Gysin's Dreamachine is another one of his cool discoveries. The Dreamachine is simply a cylinder with slits on the slides, placed on a record turntable and rotated. The light bulb underneath the cylinder, illuminates through the slits and creates a visual stimuli. Behind closed eyes, the user will see all sorts of patterns, shapes, and colors, and might even enter a hypnagogic state. It can be pretty intense, but the experience is over as soon as the user opens their eyes.

to try it online: http://www.netliberty.net/dreamachine.html

McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy was an American politician and Wisconsin senator from 1947 to 1957. During this time, millions of Americans were accused of being communists and Soviet spies. This era known as the Second Red Scare, only further increased the tension that was induced by the Cold War. Within McCarthy's ten year term, he was responsible for the blacklisting and accusation of around 200 citizens. The term "McCarthyism" was coined, to criticize his anti-communists pursuits. The term is used more broadly today to describe any unsubstantiated accusation or attack. 

McCarthy became a popular subject for political cartoonists of the 1950s:

McCarthy propaganda posters:

Bauhaus

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that is now very well known for the approach to design that it taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933 and specialized in crafts and fine arts. The school aimed to teach many various techniques and approaches collectively. "Bauhaus" translates to "house of construction" in German, which is most definitely reflective of the art and style that resulted from it. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design, in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Israel.

Bauhaus architecture:

Bauhaus art and furniture:

 The style is clearly like nothing that had ever been done before. Some famous artists of this time include Marcel Breuer, Werner Drewes, Max Bill, Gerhard Marcks, and many many more. 

Grid Art

It took me a while to get inspired for this project, but after a few days of thinking, an idea finally emerged. I decided to make a grid out of a bunch of pictures of myself and others, or pictures I have taken throughout the years. I shrunk all the pictures dramatically and gave them a yellow, red, or blue tone. I originally planned to make a larger picture out of these photos but I just didn't feel that was personal enough. After our last class (learning about Dada as well as our next Xerox project) I was messing around with my scanner and got a nice scan of my hand. After a while this is what the result came to be...

I had a few extra pages from Ravenheart (the 81 cent book i used for my flip book) and decided to cut strips and weave them together, making yet another grid. My eyes and lips on my hand was just an impulsive idea, to give it a more personal feel.

Dada

The Dada movement is extremely interesting. It is completely unique and original-- the name, the way it came to be, the style, and the artists involved. It is an art that has never been seen before. In Hugo Ball's Dada Manifesto he explains how "Dada" is meaningless, yet so meaningful. To Americans, the word is known to all as typically a baby's first word meaning, "dad." In French it means "hobby horse," "goodbye" in German, and so much more in many other languages. 

So, why use it to name this movement? To kill all curiosity, it means nothing. The artist took the word an drained it of all meaning. Much like the art itself, it means whatever you want it to mean. Peanut butter sandwich, glue stick, sea otter... that's dada. Dada is simply originality. 

Dada developed in Zurich, Switzerland as a result of World War I. Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Max Ernst, Hugo Ball, Man Ray, and Raoul Hausmann are just a few of the many artists involved in this movement. Collage, photomontage, assemblage, and readymades are all Dada techniques. 

Video Games and Violence

For nearly 40 years now, video games have been an easy way for humans to escape reality (for a couple of hours, anyway). Like all other technologies, the art of the video game has gradually improved, becoming more and more modern and realistic. They can be educational, interactive, and even violent. In fact, violent video games are extremely prevalent today for players of all ages and genders. So we wonder, myth or fact: are violent video games and bullying related? Many parents believe this is a fact, and try to censor the violence from their children. To me, the two are unrelated. If a child is a bully, it has nothing to do with the games they're playing; it is however related to the parenting they're exposed to. It sounds harsh, but the parents are doing something wrong if their child is bullying and they believe it is because of a game. In addition to that, they might want to reconsider buying the violent game for their child if they do not like the behavior they believe it will cause. I can't even believe something like MAVAV exists... Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence...

"Video game addiction is without a doubt, becoming this century's most increasingly worrisome epidemic, comparable even to drug and alcohol abuse. All the while, the video game industry continues to market and promote hatred, racism, sexism, and the most disturbing trend: clans and guilds, an underground video game phenomenon which closely resembles gangs. Parents NEED to be aware of the hidden dangers." 

If this is a parent's worst nightmare, it is seriously time for a reality check.

Why "Apple" 

How does such a common, everyday word such as "apple" represent such a successful computer company? Where did it come from? The answer, quite interesting, is revealed in Steve Jobs' biography. The name was actually created by none other than mastermind Steve Jobs himself, of course. Apparently, Jobs had spent some time working on apple orchards in Oregon, which inspired the name. He liked its simplicity as well as the "fun, spirited, and not intimidating" aspect. The original logo was actually an image of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, referencing his theory of gravitation.

Some Fun Stuff

I just came across this video that a friend posted on an animated tattoo a few days ago. Seriously too cool. It also just so happens to cover three topics we've discussed... grid art, animation, and some opera too!

The visual audio performance we saw today kind of reminds me of this cool little music making grid:

You click on a box in the grid and it lights up and lets you make your own music. Have fun!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9GDCbS/img44.imageshack.us/img44/6182/music.swf

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil is a successful American author, futurist, and inventor. He showed interest in his field at an early age, and quickly strove. He wrote his first computer program at age 15, and took first place at the International Science Fair just two years later, for inventing the classical music synthesizing computer. In his second year of school at MIT he created a company that used computers to help high school students find good colleges for them. He eventually sold it and made quite a bit of profit, showing signs of what would be an extremely effective career.

Kurzweil went on to create and sell many more companies, and worked with many businesses such as Xerox and Hyundai. He also wrote a number of books including The Singularity Is Near in 2005. 

Buck Rogers

I listened to the first episode of Buck Rogers from OTR and the creativity behind it is pretty interesting. The series stars Dr. Heurer, Wilma, and of course Buck, and takes place in the twenty-fifth century. The overall run of the episode was much like the plot of television show. The listener gets to imagine what the set would look like, as well as each character's appearance and interactions. Even more interesting though, was the advertisement in the beginning and end of the segment. The announcer actually converses with "Popsicle Pete," a young boy who's advertising creamsicles and fudge pops, rather than just talk about him or the popsicles themselves. These aspects of radio are what shaped the entire era.

War of the Worlds Hysteria

The War of the Worlds broadcast, aired on October 30th, 1938, set the nation into panic. The broadcast was a special Halloween episode of the Mercury Theater on the Air series. When listeners heard the broadcast, they mistook it for nonfiction. The anxiety and tension that already existed because of the impending second world war, had a huge impact on all Americans. It is said however, that newspapers exaggerated the extent  of the panic that actually existed. 

Walter Carlos and a phone conversation with my mom

Walter Carlos, now known as Wendy Carlos, has had quite a successful career as an electronic musician and composer. She is credited for the soundtrack of many notable movies such as Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1986) and Tron (1982) as well as Stanley Kubrick's bone-chilling The Shining (1980), and of course A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Using what we've learned about the song, "Singin' in the Rain" we can't help but wonder... Why did Carlos choose this song for the rape scene in A Clockwork Orange? I've been able to think of a few theories. Irony? The directors could have probably guessed that this scene would pretty much disgust the audience. But the addition of this chipper song with the horrible sight shown would be an even better way to get the audience's attention...and provoke some thought. And lets not forget that the character is actually singing the song while performing such a stomach-churning act, it's not just background music. However, when I researched the million dollar question I got an interesting answer. The song wasn't planned-- in fact, there wasn't any music planned at all. Kubrick asked McDowell if he knew any songs he could maybe try to sing, and "Singin' in the Rain" happened to be one he was very familiar with. He tried it out, and then we had ourselves one of the most memorable scenes in film history.

When I called my mom to see if she had seen any of the classics we discussed, we had an interesting conversation. Once I named a few, she immediately named some back that we had indeed discussed. I sensed some nostalgia when she enthusiastically asked if we talked about Polyester, one of her favorites. She also told me about when one of her high school teachers got special permission to open the school for a night showing of A Clockwork Orange. Oh, how times have changed. She talked about the "Singin' in the Rain" scene right away. When I asked her if people passed out in the theaters of Earthquake, her response was "Not in Brooklyn they weren't." She does remember seeing it though and mentioned the sensaround. She remembers it being scary, but not nearly as scary as Birds was. I was pretty surprised that my mom had seen so many of these movies, and her response was that if movies today were a dollar a pop, that's how I'd be spending my days too. I added that maybe if movies today were anything like they used to be, I'd also be more of a movie-goer. Thinking about some of the movies that are released these days, I'm not sure that it's such a bad thing that they're twelve dollars a pop. That being said, I really need to get my hands on some of these classic films.