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The Group Interview

Recently, my group and I have been working on an interview that would go into depth about the public’s gripes with the University of New Haven.

1. What things do you think about when you hear the phrase, “The University sucks”?

2.  What do you personally not like about the University?

3. I heard people always making comments about the food selection. Can you elaborate on the issue?

4. If this hatred is irrational where do you think it stems from? Is there a particular person or event involved/

5. Do believe the constant construction around campus is a beneficial thing?

6. Any “survival” tips for prospective students looking to go to this school?

7. Do you believe the University is putting in steps to make it a better experience for the student population? Why or why not?

8. Do you ever think the University will be so bad that you would have to transfer?

9. What are your thoughts on President Kaplan?

10. Is there anything you would avidly change about the University?

We are going to be filming this interview in the arts and sciences lounge on the third floor of Maxcy. It is quiet and very aesthetically pleasing due to it looking almost like a small library space.  

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My Interview Tomorrow

Hello, I am pleased to announce that I will be hosting an exclusive interview with my professor and mentor Nicki Chavoya. She is a filmmaker, who is put her talents to extensively explore documentaries. I look up to her and know that other listeners and I will learn from her experiences.

 Now, Let me tell you what you should expect. I’m definitely going to inquire about 10 questions during the interview. This was what I was thinking.

  1.) Why did you choose to study film?

  2.) Can you explain How you actually get your foot into the business?

  3.) What type of projects have you worked on since then?

  4.) Can you explain how you would go about making a documentary? 

  5.) Can you tell us about your most recent project?

  6.) What is the project that you are most proud of?

  7.) Could you explain what prompted you to become a professor?

  8.) Do you think you will ever retire or would you want to keep on doing what           you love forever?

  9.) Is there any advice for anyone listening?

10.) If you could throw sticky rice at anyone in this world living or dead, who would it be and why?

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An Explanation for the New Aesthetic

The new Aesthetic can be summed up as another contemporary art experiment that showcases the ideas of the present melding with the future. Many may think it is some neo-futurism ideas, but in reality, that is far from the truth. Neo-futurism is all about the idea of a better future, but the New Aesthetic is more of art that shows the truth of what the future holds.  Many of the pieces seen in this experiment or collaboration share many common qualities. They showcase the qualities of the future via technology. Some may be just art pieces that showcase technology, but others showcase the actual technology. I found some examples of the New Aesthetic on their verified Tumblr. The first one posted in 2016 shows a house that doesn’t seem quite right. What I mean by this is that it is almost an optical illusion in the fact that the architecture choices make the house look straight out of a videogame.  (http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/152595082951/university-of-pau-and-pays-de-ladour). It interests me because in my eyes it shows just how much our digital world and reality have coalesced together. In a sense, we could say that it is one and the same. 

Another interesting post I found was called Centipedes. It shows many groups of people walking in lines following each other in different directions. To be honest, I really don’t know how to feel about it, but I do know that it must symbolize ideas and mob and how the may agree, but still go farther apart from each other much like the ideas of society(http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/158471499995/erdalinci-centipedes-ultra-hd-video-). I think the visual is weird, but it’s interesting. 

Lastly, this post shows a piece of technology using a neural network that sees only what it has seen before. So, it makes sense of an image by what it sees. Specifically the ocean, fire, and flowers (http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/172063255845/prostheticknowledge-gloomy-sunday-latest). Now, these visuals definitely don’t look exact, but it is intriguing to me how an AI like us can interpret what it sees. It makes me wonder what the future is to hold for AI, will they reach our neural capacity?

Though these projects are intriguing there is a bigger question as to if these products are authentic. Benjamin’s essay from last weeks post can shine the light on this question. He talks of how mechanical reproductions lessens the authenticity of these works. In my opinion, though this false in the case of these pieces. This is becasue overall this is a project to figure out the future and where our society stands as a whole. Even the aura of the piece is not hurt when replicated. This aura is the idea that one can express meaning from the piece. Most forms of mechanical reproduction can’r express meaning that well, but a site like Tumblr can. It allows us to view our own and other’s thoughts. This means that a variety of meaning can be made just by spreading art on the platform, especially the new aesthetic.

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How Mechanical Reproduction is continuously changing how we view art.

Today I had the pleasure of reading, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, by Walter Benjamin. His essay goes into extensive detail about how the mechanical reproduction of art has shaped how we as a society view art. In the essay, Benjamin emphasized that art reproduction has always been around. He calls back to the Greeks, who actually had 2 procedures in the reproduction of art. They stamped things like bronze and terracotta because it was easy. Any other forms of art were too hard to extremely replicate it. Throughout the middle ages etching also became a really important step. This was because it allowed a new way to copy works of literature like the Bible and other books or scrolls. 

Then when lithography came to the scene and allowed for, “graphic art to illustrate everyday life, and it began to keep pace with printing”. Photography then surpassed lithography because of its swift ability to take these pictures.

Also, Benjamin has a lot more to say about photography. In terms of authenticity, even though it shows the most accurate image, aside from sight, it cannot be considered forgery. Benjamin states, ”And photographic reproduction, with the aid of certain processes, such as enlargement or slow motion, can capture images which escape natural vision”. In some cases, photography enhanced how we viewed different artworks. Photography allows us to continuously have a conversation about art in more comfortable ways. For example, we know it exists, but we also know that the original is different than the photograph.

Even though photography is a non-destructive form of mechanical reproduction there are other forms of mechanical reproduction that can change the “aura” of the piece due to the original idea withering away. Benjamin uses the word aura as a technical phrase to describe how accessible art is. He explains that the art that is reproduced eventually has a greater aura because many people have the ability to see the piece in the comfort of their own time. This is because with the more people knowing about the piece the more popular the piece actually becomes.

The popularity of a piece can be visualized in two different ways. Benjamin, in this case, uses cult value and exhibition value. Cult Value is how people will like the piece just based on previous experience and likeness to the artwork. The exhibition value is a determinant on the matter of why the piece exists. If there is a central idea examined in the work it might have better exhibition value of pieces without those. Even though these definitions are the case it seems that they can definitely fluctuate based on how they reproduce.

The art of reproduction is something I personally never thought that much about, but it is extremely important. Even the talk of an actor in a film reproducing a role from script to screen. He examines how the actor represents himself to the public before the camera. Instead of just following the script they put their own personal spin on it. This is why many are interested in seeing the film. It is kind of interesting to see how different it is from actual stage acting. This due to the fact that when we watch a play the actual actor and who they are is gone and we are left with the character, whereas in the film we all know the actors so we can still distinguish them and their character.

All in all, the mechanical reproduction of works of art has changed a lot in just a matter of 200 years. It will be interesting how much it changes in the future.

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Digital Technology’s continuous and Eventual Evolution

I was born in the new millennia of 2000. To be honest, this century marked a vast change in how digital technology is used in our daily lives. It is definitely hard for me to remember a time where we did not have small computers at our fingertips. SERIOUSLY, it seems as though I may be the first generation to not have the option to accept these changes and instead just live with them. So all in all my daily life hasn’t been altered ever since the smartphone was invented when I was only 6. Now, this isn’t to say that technology hasn’t changed since 2006 because IT HAS, but it is more of a realization that since then change in digital technology has been way more gradual and not as drastic as the shift with computer technology in the late 80′s to the mid 90′s. In my personal opinion, growing up coincided with the just and understandable changes to computers and digital technology. For example, after the smartphone came out each generation only added slight variations to their hardware to the point when fingerprint security was almost a given by the time 2013 came around with the iPhone 5S being the first smartphone with touch identification. The biggest change I see in technology is how fast it is now. I remember when I was little and my mom would get frustrated with how slow dial-up was. At this point in 2018 most of us don’t use dial-up and so we can’t even last 10 seconds waiting for a post or video to load on social media. I personally can’t imagine going back to the “slow” times as I like to call them. Now, since the World Wide Web is so fast it is now the most practical thing most of us use. We can search anything to find quick results with such little effort when decades ago we would’ve had to trudge to a library and learn through reading the “archaic” book. I personally love reading books, but it would not be intuitive to go through 10 or so chapters of a book on the subject of President Andrew Jackson’s terms in office just to find the exact interval of when the trail of tears happened. 

We definitely take these actions for granted, but it truly is crazy how we have become so accustomed to them. To me, the most prominent and biggest change in how we interact on a daily basis with this technology is Social Media. This tool, that can be debated as good or destructive, has shaped who we are. We all seem to use it as a way to stay updated with each other, but to a degree, that may seem unhealthy. In fact, as I am writing this right now I had maybe 5 or 6 breaks just scrolling through Facebook or Instagram to just to see what I’ve missed in the last 20 odd minutes (It really seems unhealthy when put into perspective XD). We can spread awareness, events, opportunities, and ideas like never before. It truly is a wonder to what mankind has accomplished.

Many have argued that these advancements are terrible for society and that we must stop now before we lose all hope as a human civilization, but I can’t disagree more with something. The Evolution of digital technology has allowed us to become even more human. We care for each other on a bigger scale with hundreds and thousands of quick connections made through social media alone. We all try our best to keep tabs on each other. WE ARE NOT ALONE! Sure we never were, but there has a never been a time when that fact was truer. The spread of information has never been so fast. In seconds we can find new ideas, perspectives, and hobbies. Everyone is learning from each other and that is amazing. You could find your passion just by searching the internet and learning it exists. If your passion is playing the Digeridoo while you create artisan baskets then the tutorials are probably out there. To me nothing is obsolete and in fact, everything is enhanced. Tutorials about using real film are made every day even though people have mostly switched over to digital and this is because of the curiosity of it all. Humans are curious and want to learn so much. Just look at where I wrote this post. If people didn’t want to learn about how digital technology worked than we wouldn’t have these commodities like Tumblr that are a staple to our society. There is a quote from Charles Darwin talking about his theory of natural selection where he said, “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” This is evolution at it’s finest. It seems that humankind must continue these steps in order to continuously evolve digital technology in order for our society to truly “prevail”. Who can really say what will happen to prompt even more innovation. All I know is that it will definitely evolve...eventually.