Sheryl Oring Speaks Out

What I like the most about Sheryl Oring's performance art is that it always involves the audience directly, in fact, it could not be possible without the audience participation that she receives.  Her art makes a bold statement, and it is centered mostly about voices being heard.  Whether through letters to the President or videos on opinions for fixing the country, Sheryl gives her audience the ability to give their opinions on topics that matter. I love the fact that she types her letters on a classic typewriter, because it goes along with the 1960's image that she personifies and it also gives the art a more interesting, less modern feel. My personal favorite art piece of hers is titled "Chain Letter."  This was not so much performance art as it is a sculpture, but it once again allows voices to be heard that otherwise might not have been.  In this case, it is the voices of many Chinese and Yiddish people writing of their reasons for leaving their homelands and coming to America.  Oring types these short explanations on a thin strip of paper and links them together as a chain.  I find it incredible that there is a method to the order in which she linked them; they hung in a pattern that shows the evolution of the Lower East Side/Chinatown neighborhood as these people came to inhabit it.  Overall, Sheryl Oring's work has a clear purpose, and it is beautiful that she has found a way to express herself artistically while also doing a public service to many different communities.

Man Ray's Emak-Bakia: Surreal

After watching this short, silent, black and white film by Man Ray, I can't say that I fully understand it. Then again, Man Ray once said that he never wished to be understood, only accepted, and I fully accept the film.  There are many aspects of it that I find really beautiful and unique, such as the camera angles at which everything was shot.  Whether it was objects spinning, feet walking, or a woman opening and closing her painted eyelids, every angle was from a point of view that normally wouldn't be seen.  I really found this interesting.  I also enjoyed to see how Man Ray experimented with putting his rayographs into film form.  This was a first for him and I noticed it especially because I made rayographs in my high school photography class, yet at the time I was not taught anything about Man Ray himself.  Looking at the short film overall, one can tell that it is under the category of surrealism, as was the rest of Man Ray's art.  Today in class we learned that surrealism involves expanding one's mind and imagination and ignoring all limitations.  Surrealism involves things that are very unrealistic and eccentric, and it is clear to see how this film came from somewhere deep in Man Ray's imagination.  I also found it interesting that Emak Bakia means "Leave me alone," because I'm sure that this ties into the culture of Dada and the rebellious movements that went along with it.  Overall, I find Man Ray to be an incredible artist and thinker, as well as an adorably funny man, and will always appreciate his work.

Grid Art Attempt

When first assigned the grid art project, I was actually really excited.  I had a picture completely planned out in my head and I immediately went out to buy tiles to create it.  However, not surprisingly for myself, I rushed into it and began the project completely wrong, sketching on top of the grid as opposed to using the grid.  I was pretty lost after discovering this and had no idea what else to do.  In a rush to start the assignment, I bought packs of sticky notes, cut them in half, and arranged them on my wall in a grid.  I drew the first thing that came to mind: our own Plant Hall.  Well, what is supposed to look like one of the parts of Plant Hall (the gray blob is a minaret).  It's simple, but given the fact that it was very last minute it was really the best I could do.

First attempt with tiles 

I know it looks like the work of a kindergartener, but I really tried! 

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs addresses the graduating class of Stanford by telling three stories.  Simple stories of his life that all end in a powerful lesson. In his first story, one about his short college career and connecting the dots, he reminds me of myself and of many others my age.  If someone comes to college knowing exactly what they want to with their life at the end of four years, it's rare.  So, like most people, Steve Jobs hadn't the slightest clue of what his path in life should be, and he didn't see college helping.  He took this to the extreme and dropped out of school after six months.  In his time off he was able to explore his interests, and as we know, this ultimately paid off for him.  I say that this reminds me of myself because I often wonder if I am at college for the right reasons.  Do I really feel that this is what I need to achieve my goals in life?  Or am I here just because it is a social norm?  Required classes have always frustrated me because I would much rather learn about topics that are important and interesting to me or that I will use later in life.  Jobs spoke about "connecting the dots" from the point in his life when he made this speech to the point of him dropping out of college.  Like him, I take life on a day to day basis and don't really have an overall plan for myself.  I just try to do the things I love and trust that they will get me to where I need to be.  Hearing Steve Jobs discuss how he did the same thing was really inspiring.

In his next story, one quote stands out: "You've got to find what you love."  In this story he discusses the period in life after he was fired from Apple.  Instead of moping around and feeling like a failure, Jobs took this rough patch and turned it into something amazing.  He used it as inspiration to keep going, and he ended up created more companies that are still extremely successful today, such as the one and only Pixar.  Jobs stated that his motivation to still work after such a low point in his life was the fact that he truly loved what he did.  He stresses that the only way to be successful is to have passion for what you do, and to never settle.  As a college student who also believes this, I truly take his advice to heart, and will definitely use it.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life."  Sure, this may sound harsh, but Jobs has a great point.  His third and final story is one about death.  He explains how the thought of death has actually helped to live a better life.  When reminded that death is inevitable, we realize that it is so important to be happy with what we are doing and to remember that fears of failure or embarrassment are pointless.  With his scare of terminal pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs knew first hand how it felt to be in the face of death.  He knew how death suddenly leaves you vulnerable, and you realize that in life, you have nothing to lose when death is the overall end for all of us, and therefore, you should do whatever it takes to make yourself happy.

In his closing statement, Steve Jobs left the students of Stanford with the phrase, "Stay hungry, stay foolish."  He didn't explain what it means, but it really does not need an explanation.  As college graduates, this should be the most hungry time of one's life.  Hungry for success, hungry for new experiences, hungry for fun and life.  However, it is also a time to be foolish.  A time to have fun and a time to make mistakes that you will learn from.  Jobs is saying to stay this way forever; to have a want and need for life and to make every day a new and interesting experience, and this is some of the best advice ever given.

Alan Turing is the Bombe

Born on June 23, 1912 in London, England, Alan Turing began a life of studying mathematics.  His college studies began at the University of Cambridge, where he was elected to a fellowship and recommended to publish his seminal paper "On Computable Numbers" under the mathematician-logician Alonzo Church.  The two two had written of similar theories, and in the same year Turing went to study his Ph.D. at Princeton as directed by Church.  This is where it all began for Turing, but his real timeline of the contributions he made to computer science doesn't begin until his hypothetical development of the Turing machine.  It is essentially a mathematical model that reduces the logical structure of any computing device to its necessities.  Turing's next great leap came when the device know as the Bomba, a machine used to decode the German Enigma, was rendered useless once the German's changed their operating procedures.  Turing came in and designed the Bombe; a different machine used for decoding that was so ingenious it kept the Allies supplied with information for the rest of the war.  Turing was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire at the war's end to recognize him for his astounding work.  As if this wasn't enough, Turing went on to design the Automatic Computing Engine for the National Physical Laboratory in 1945.  This was the first relatively complete specification of a digital computer.  

If I was to be previously asked who Alan Turing was, I wouldn't have the slightest clue. Yet, here I am using a machine that he was such an important pioneer for.  I doubt than many people know of the numerous contributions this man made to machines that are used in our daily lives, or of his incredible intelligence, but Alan Turing definitely needs to be recognized.  

Battery Power

After typing "who invented the battery" into google, "Alessandro Volta" appeared in large, bold print on the screen.  Clearly, I knew he had something to do with it.  In fact, although discoveries had been made before him, including when Benjamin Franklin coined the term "battery" in 1748, Alessandro Volta is credited with inventing the Voltaic Pile and discovering the first practical method of generating electricity.  It was constructed of zinc and copper discs with brine-soaked cardboard in between each one.  It produced an electric current and is the first "wet cell battery."  By 1859, after various advancements, Gaston Plant developed the first rechargeable battery, one that is now used in cars today.  As 1901 rolled around, Thomas Edison (creator of all things) invented the alkaline storage battery, of which many versions were created in following years.  There was now a high demand for these alkaline batteries, mostly thanks to photography.  Due to this, in 1964, the Duracell that we know today was incorporated.  Today, as technology increases, so does the need for batteries.  They continue to advance, and usually decrease in size and waste, and we owe it all to the contributions of not just one, but many scientists.

The War of the Worlds

My initial reaction to the 1938 broadcasting of The War of the Worlds: a mixture of appreciation for its creativity, and a god chuckle.  The chuckle, of course because of the reaction of audiences everywhere that weren't aware of the fact that it was fiction, and the appreciation because of the imagination and the many layers.  In class we often talk about the layers of a production, and this broadcast seems to be a great example of the way they come together.  It could have been a simple broadcast of a man reading from a script, but the broadcast went the extra mile with great acting and incredible description.  It didn't end there either.  The many background noises, such as realistic screams and explosions, added an extra layer to the narration, and therefore to the overall impact of the broadcast.  The narration in general was remarkable, as I'm sure most radio narrations were, because of its detailed description.  The first example of this that stood out was when the reporter first describes the image of the alien, with its black eyes and saliva dripping mouth.  I also really enjoyed the fact that the story was read as a real broadcast.  Although this caused chaos, I think that it was a really creative way to go about presenting the tale, and it was so nicely done.  I loved little details added in such as the voice of the reporter being cut off to imply that the alien invasion had gotten serious and cut the line of communication.  However, I chuckled once again at every piano interlude.  The soothing, classical music's contrast with the terrifying reports of an alien attack was pretty amusing.  Yet, it worked quite nicely with the more calm, defeated ending of the story, of which my favorite part involved the reporter sharing an emotional connection with a squirrel.  As silly or dated as The War of the Worlds broadcast may seem to us today,  radio requires a level of imagination and creativity that can hardly be matched, and The War of the Worlds will always be number one in both areas.