myflyingturtle

Identity and reading "The War on Culture"

2009-11-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

In Carole S. Vance’s “The War on Culture”, the author uses Andres Serrano’s artwork “Piss Christ” and Robert Mapplethorpe’s “Perfect Moment” as examples to show how the art from the minority groups struggling with the public taste. When we read the article, we need to have some background information. The article was written at early 1990’s, which was far different from the time we are living right now. During the 80’s, as the beginning of the “Culture Wars’, was a throw back to the 1950’s when the McCarthyism reigned. As the nation faced an economic recession, a health pandemic with the emergence of AIDS, and the increasing social problems as homelessness and homosexual issues, the Conservatives fought to regulate and moralize the culture. That is why Alfonse D’Amato and other senators were outraged by Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ”. For the same reasons, Robert Mapplethorpe’s “Perfect Moment” has to be cancelled under the congress’s depression. The article brings up the issue of how marginalized groups within the capitalist society of the United States of America are treated. The article also brings a related topic, which is about the artist’s identity. At that time, if you are an artist from a “different group”, you have to be careful to march the main stream’s value and taste. Time has changed. As an artist living in the current time, I think the artist identity is fading and keep changing. Philosophically, I'm more interested in becoming than being. Much more interesting, to me, is not the identity of who we are, but the question of how we become. For we become not by staying the same, but by relating to something different. If identity is a valid concept, then to me it is still a process. We think of identity as the identity of a person. But people are far from one thing only, just as identity is far from always the same. Identity is not a static thing. In this essay, I use my Internet identity, my social identity, and my identity that appears on my works to support my statement.

Firstly, my Internet identity is not a static thing. It's been said, I don't recall by whom, that we experience ourselves as complex and differentiated, but that we see others as a whole. I think this is very good to explain the online identity. I use myself as an example. I spent at least five hours on line every day, which means I spend much more time on line than on anywhere else. But somehow, the online identity is not important at all. I always invite my friends to my website to see my works. The identity of my website is the domain name, but that is not a fixed property. When I create my website, I only purchase that domain name for 5 years, which means, if I didn’t continue pay for it, the name would be somebody else’s. I have different identities on different web 2.0. I create a cartoon character’s name to write online journal, I use my dog’s name to chat on Skype. On Twitter my ID is a series of numbers. I use these different Ids following people’s post, make comments, share videos, photos with other people and chat with them. These “other people” I mentioned earlier, yet I do not know them face-to-face. I know them by their IDs that they registered on line. I don’t pay attention to their ID. I have interest on them because of their postings or comments, or, they and me share some same interest. I don’t care “they” are female or male, white or black, married or unmarried. On some level, I only see myself is different but all others are the “same”. On Internet, I see myself as a “one” but all others as a “whole”. So, who cares about the online identity? To me, it is not necessary to pay attention to somebody’s online identity. The online identity only reflects that someone’s interest or taste, and it can be changed as time goes by.

Secondly, a person’s social identity is not static either. One can be involved into different groups, and be tagged on with different identity. Identity might also be how a person presents himself or herself to others, may be clear in how they talk, and will most certainly be involved in who and how they relate to. But as this person is always changing, the identity would not be the same along his changing. If someone asked me “what is your identity”, I wouldn’t have so much to say. Sometimes I am not sure what is “Identity” in our reality life means, although it seems it is a very important issue for everyone. I was born in China, which means I was born as a “Chinese”. But it is not very true. I only can say that before I immigrated to the United States, I was a Chinese. After immigrated to America, I was a Chinese the first two years, and then I become a Chinese American. People in school think I am a Chinese because of my Chinese background, the culture I inherited and the way I look. The U.S government considered me as an American and I even got a letter for recruiting for U.S Navy. I plan to go back to china to teach after I got my MFA. If I were really to do so, I would be a Chinese who has U.S citizenship. That will cause me some inconveniences when I live in China. . The Chinese government wouldn’t think I am a Chinese, I need to get the residential permission to stay first. So, what is Identity? I use my nationality as an example. What I want to point out is that the identity is not a static thing. Identity is always changing, it is not something about “being”, and it is always about “becoming”.

Thirdly, the identity that appears on my works is not static. When I got in the MFA program two years ago, I was trying hard to find my form, as everybody else did. Many questions bothered me. If technology brings us to a communicational age, are we all connected? If we were all connected, can we understand each other earlier than before? If communication brings us understanding, why we still have to face war and even more conflicts than before? These questions didn’t related with my personal identity, because I was thinking I was “globalized”. On my first year of MFA, I had a show called “"Globalization". In my show, I use three different languages (Chinese, English, and Russian) to present the variation of "globalization" definition from Wikipedia. The underlying concept of the exhibition is to show the "Globalization" present in something that is known and being used worldwide: Wikipedia. For each language, I use 57x57 inch frame. The texts are electronic printed on canvas. Right below each canvas frame, I put the English translation of that language so the audience can see and compare the different meaning of the word "globalization" in each language used, and the audience can easily find out different language speaking people have different explanation of a same thing. Though "Globalization", we can see “localization”. (See image #1 & #2) Also at the first year (2007-2008) of my graduate study, two things attracted my attention. One was the U.S government band Chinese toxic toy. Later, some American store announced that they refuse to sell the products “made in China”. Of cause, “made in China” is not just a simple label. What is behind? First, it represents a miracle of China's economy. But to many western consumers, “made in China” is not only representing an inexpensive, but also low quality products from China. As a result, it poses a threat to the merchandises at home. Based on my research, I had another show “Made in China” on early 2009. I made a life-size shipping container in a small gallery. The shinny orange golden color shipping cargo occupied most of the space in gallery. Along with the shipping box, I presented the database that shows the merchandise list imported from China (to U.S) in year 2008. (See image #3 & #4) When I create this work, I didn’t really think of my “identity”. Not because of I have Chinese background, I got more sensitive with “made in China”. I was interested on the identity of “made in China”, the social perception of a brand. This was nothing to do with my personal identity. My latest work was “Tea Time”. The inspiration was form my trip to Israel. My brother was stays in Israel for about 10 years. Culturally, I became a Chinese American and my brother became a half Chinese half Israelee. I was still thinking I was “globalized”, and same as my brother. What "globalization" happened to us was not only our own identity changing, but also effect the whole family. I invite people to the galley for a family teatime, but some of my family members were physically absent. Visitors were able to talk to them on Skype. In this work, although “identity” was not my theme, but people can realized that “identity” is a stage of changing, and it is not static. Currently I am doing some researches on how Internet changes people’s behave and I hope to develop that concept and incorporate it into my works. Again, when Identity meet internet, the concept of identity become a gray zone. When I look at all my work, my personal identity didn’t play any significant role.

We need to consider the issue of identity is like flux, a stage of changing and ongoing. As an ancient philosopher said, a person cannot cross the same river twice. The technology allows the world changing faster than ever before. The lower cost of transportation allows people travel around the globe more frequently and to places that were not accessible before. We are facing more opportunities. If we pay too much attention on our identities, we limited ourselves to merge into many more interesting aspects of life.

"western art"? or "Others"?

2009-10-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Talking about "western art" or "Other Arts", I think there's nothing to make one better than the other, to make one smarter than the other. It depends on where do you stand and what position do you take because the two worlds don't share a common language. In Chinese the word "China" means "the Central Kingdom", by that point they see all other culture all "others", as well as in Western culture a non_western artist has to deal with "impurity". we can connect many discussion in our class in the past to this topic. A artist's work not just belongs to the artist, but also belongs to the culture. The art reflect the artists themselves, and it is how we mediate our perspectives.

We cannot talk about art seperately. The reality is, if the economy is not equal, if the political power is not even in the world, the art is not in the same value.

what culture?

2009-10-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

Does an artist need to speak his "own culture"? He might speak his "own language", but what is his "own culture"? When we define a person's identity, we should think about "becoming" rather than "being" (if the person is still alive), because we are far from one thing(one culture) only. Or we can forget the term of "idnetity" at all, because we only think ourselves are different but see all others as a "whole". In the essay Fisher made comments on the internationalism and multiculturalism. I agree the cultural symbol is "pure", but is there still any "pure" culture exist in this world?

The essay also mentioned about the "cultural sign" and some artists who deal with "cultural sign"s. I believe a cultural symbol or "sign" is presenting "truth", with original meaning, and it is "pure". Ai Weiwei is one of these who successfully uses cultural symbols. This is his "Coca-Cola Vase". The vase is from Tang Dynasty (618-907) and paint.

Wendy March and her research on "ordinary people"

2008-04-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Wendy March is an interaction designer, and she is doing a interesting research on teen girls and communications technology. (http://www.intel.com/research/researchers/w_march.htm)
The angle she focuses on is not the "special", but the ordinary people. It is a remarkable angle, and made for a compelling argument that the design has impact the ordinary, boring activities that usually escape the notice of researchers and product developers.
One example is: Interviewing a Japanese housewife about how she spends money, it turns out she takes a wad of cash with her every week and physically deposits it in three bank accounts in three different banks. Asked about online banking, she explained that it was too expensive, and too easy -- the walking and depositing was integral to the way she managed her money. "We keep trying to make things seamless and easy," observed March about this discovery, "but maybe people don't want it to be seamless and easy."

how do we think about technology? Reading "Natural Born Cyborgs"

2008-04-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

how do we think about technology?

To a infant, every thing is new, she is totally a learner. As an older person, we learn "who am I" by exprience the life. the information day by day is always changealbe, we absorb and selet the information in different ways depending our personalities, relationships, realities and cultural backgrounds. What is real, what is not real? People pay attention on the environment. when we look around, we see many things involve technologies. The technologies are invoving to our life style and it seems become part of our life. I notice when I am communicating online that my face usually mirrors whatever emotion I am feeling and/or trying to express - I have caught myself smiling at my monitor when sharing a joke with a friend in IM. I don't have to think about my face as much when I am just looking at a computer, so I think maybe I work less at controlling it, not more, than when I am face-to-face with someone. Interesting.

Reading: Natural Born Cyborgs (Andy ClarkMake)

2008-04-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4
Question1: First, Please try the first 2 experiments on this chapter on Pages 59-60.
question2: given this adaptability with our external world and our ability to accommodate seemingly artificial things to be part of this speculate on what could be done with this ability?

They are interesting questions. Since our bio-body is a whole, combining and balancing all the actions and functions, and the brain control and balance all of these information and functions by sending signals and receiving signals. We don't notice that because we don't need to, our "mind" have other things to do. But all of these body systems are able to make things out. Something has become our instinct, the exprience and skills that we learn. But sometimes the "instinct" could be wrong. seems we only believer our instinct, and all the instinct all from our exprience. Those exprience become(creater) our soft sense, and these "soft sense" can fool our judgement, mess up the balance between the body and mind, that is what the experiments in the book about.

Reading Lev Manovich

2008-02-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

"Database As A Symbolic Form"

1. The Database Logic
From the historic view, the logic of a novel is narrative, expressive and subsequently arranged. Narrative could be considered as a traditional dominated human culture. Later, cinema brought us a similar form of expression of the modern age. In computer age, the new media objects do not tell stories, instead, they are collections of individual items, and organized in treelike structure.
Ervin Panofsky analyze linear perspective as a "symbolic form".

CD_ROM --- a storage media, as a "virtual museum", has narrative nature nature like museum.
HTML --- sequential, storage of separate elements, open nature (always can be edited), never be completed, less narrative.

2. Data and Algorithm
computer games: "While computer games do not follow database logic, they appear to be ruled by another logic - that of an algorithm. They demand that a player executes an algorithm in order to win."
"Algorithms and data structures have a symbiotic relationship. The more complex the data structure of a computer program, the simpler the algorithm needs to be, and vice versa. Together, data structures and algorithms are two halves of the ontology of the world according to a computer."

A program reads in data, executes an algorithm, and writes out new data.
Once it is digitized, the data has to be cleaned up, organized indexed. The computer age brought with it a new cultural algorithm: reality -> media -> data -> database.

3. Database and Narrative

In general, creating a work in new media can be understood as the construction of an interface to a database... Database becomes the center of the creative process in the computer age. Database narrative is interactive. (user >< database) An interactive narrative can then be understood as the sum of multiple trajectories through a database. Traditional linear narrative can be seen as a particular case of a hyper-narrative.

Conditions to be narrative: it should contain both an actor and a narrator; it also should contain three distinct levels consisting of the text, the story, and the fabula; and its "contents" should be "a series of connected events caused or experienced by actors."

In summary, database and narrative do not have the same status in computer culture. Database is an unmarked term. Database supports narrative, but not narrative.

4. The Semiotics of Database

keeping each element as separate layer -> allow to change anytime -> montage look -> impossibility in reality

semiological theory of syntagm and paradigm: the elements of a system can be related on two dimensions: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. As defined by Barthes, "the syntagm is a combination of signs, which has space as a support." (* this is the syntagmatic dimension, exist in the physical world.)
linear sequence
(In paradigm dimension:) each new element is chosen from a set of other related elements. This dimension is related in absentia.

For instance, in the case of a written sentence, the words which comprise it materially exist on a piece of paper, while the paradigmatic sets to which these words belong only exist in writer's and reader's minds.
In the case of fashion outfit, the elements which make it, such as a skirt, a jacket, are present in reality, while pieces of clothing which could have been present instead - different skirt, different blouse, different jacket - only exist in the viewer's imagination. Thus, syntagm is explicit and paradigm is implicit; one is real and the other is imagined.
Literary and cinematic narratives work in the same way.

New media reverses this relationship. Database(the paradigm) is given material existence, while narrative (the syntagm) is de-materialised. Pis privileged, S is downplayed. P is real, S is virtual.

a saying that I like

2008-02-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

data wants to be socialized

2008-02-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

In today's discussion(Tuesday meeting), Joel was taking about numerical and data. Based on Lev manovich's theory, data has potention, and data is more than data itself. Data wants to be socialized.
Can I say that a group of data is like a piece of information? Of casuse a piece of information is much more than information itself. It is like language, or communication. Communication is ambiguous at most of time, there's no knowing with any certainty what another person is truly thinking. So it is same as data, and the meanning of data is much more than data itself, and the "extra" ambiguity is the key to keep things going. Data wants to be socialized? Yes. Like most of the website, it is about talking. The subjects on internet are about ourselves, or something we are interested about. We talk about things we want to talk, and "tell" people about ourselves. Is that related with the charactors of data? I need to spend more time to think about it.

Cyborgs etc

2008-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

Cyborgs are not new. People always want to create machines into their lives, even at the time they didn't have that technology. At the primate time, when people making their stone tools, they already dream about the cyborgs. Now we have all kinds of machines that involve into our lives, some of them can enhance our abilities like hearing aids or cell phones, some of them just for entertaining. Enclyopedia is a system of recording human knowledge in a limited sense. Enclyopedia is expending while the watch is repeating the cycle. I think the watch and enclyopedia are valid analogy in its own sense, because the watch is recording repetitive which can be link to the routine life. Encycopedia on the other hand, expending its data collection, as like goes day by day. What a bad design? What is a "friendly design"? Even it is an "unfriendly" design, many machines still in fact a part of us unseperatable.
The interesting question we talked in the class was "Is tatoo or earrings cyborgs?" If they are, the fashion cloth is also cyborgs. Is the definition too broad?

Mixed Feelings

2007-04-15T13:20:00.001-07:00

In Mixed Feelings, the author explains how do we sense, how these senses function and how the sensor technology used on scientific field. For example, when we see things, our eyes collect photons of certain wavelengths and translate them into signals (data) to our brain. The brain process the “inputs”(data) and get the information (outputs) of what do we see. Ears do the same thing, translate vibrations in the air into signals (data) and send these “inputs” to our brain. Later, some scientists found that our brain not only can process the data but also can change how it interprets data from a particular sense, or take information from one sense and interpret it with another.

When I was reading this, I feel so familiar with some words, like “data”, “process”, “inputs” and “outputs”. I start question: Is the brain a computer? Is the mind a computer program? Can the operations of the brain be simulated on a computer?

I believe the scientific research and the theory the article states. But I am thinking about “the sixth sense”, the inexplicable awareness that something is about to happen or something is not quite right. Probably the future scientists will find out how the brain programs the sixth sense. It has been suggested that a sixth sense is the sum of the other five senses combined. If so, I will totally believe our brain is a digital computer.

video installlation art

2007-04-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

video installlation art

It took me step by step to understand Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is a message". In video installation art, the form (installation) is more important than any message or "content" the video conveys, the medium plays a important role, the video talks to the installation, be a part of the installation, and meanwhile, the "meaning" or content in the video has reduced. That's why Margaret Morse states that each installation is an experiment. The technology based video installation art opens up more possibilities, it is not like a narrative or documentary film or paintings, it create dialogues between the video and the installation, between the art works and the audience. The audience not only can find his best view of the project, but also can be a part of the project. That's how I understand the video installation art.

mirror & mirror

2007-03-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

The field trip to Cinequest short film festival "Mirror, Mirror" was disappointing. "Regarding Sarah" was a good one but I doubt why the director put the old lady back to her decent life, recording was a way she found to enhance her life. For many others, I didn't see the quality of "being short".

The reading assignment in this week has more fun. It talks about Youtube phenemenon and the truth and the reliability of online videos. why the online video site grow so fast? The internet has the ability to conduct the flow of seduction works, because the net has no mirrors. The internet world has been solitude and isolated in the physical world, in the virtuel it facilitates seduction. When we broadcast ourselves, we show what we want to show, but the real me has been protected from the self-absece.

But can I say the mass media is more real than online youtubes? remember the videos to show killing soldiers in Iraq? Is a sniping seen on youtube more truthful than what the news agencies willing to show? what is truth? Is the news on TV programs are "real" truth? when truth is edited, produced, and narrated? People might enjoy Youtubes more than mass medias because they can watch people, and they can let people watch them. That's how we get the better of our curiousity.

audience culture and the Video Screen

2007-02-26T17:01:00.000-08:00

The TV program I watched last night was about the 79th Academy Awards. I payed attention on the red carpet fashion show. I was thinking about the simulation that the book mentioned ("Audience Culture and the Video Screen" ).
The informations that provided by TV programs are recorded informations. The audince had no chance to exprience the origianl events, but they can watch the events on TV to get the information. So the events are the recored events. The recordings are so good to stand for the real. We trust the recording. We believe it because the events are real, experience are valid. Since we have no direct exprience for the event, the performance, the movement, we can spontaneously "borrow" the the exprience from the media. The media sell the experience, and each individuals has different demands of these experiences. That is how simulation occured when we watch TV programs.

the interview with Mike Figgis

2007-02-18T14:50:00.001-08:00

In the interview( The Interview With Mike Figgis), there is something caught my eyes.

1. The relationship between an audience and a film maker. What is a perfect audience? To Mike figgis, whose reason for making film is to see what is technically possible to do with film, the perfect audiences could be : enjoy the technique in the film, after watching a movie, they might say, " I have no clue what the story is about, but you have to check this out. Because i don't know how they did it."

2. How to measure time in a film? Is the plot incidental?
Mike Figgis definitly has an entirely different sense of time, a gait out of step with the rhythms of time common to the moving picture. Shooting a 93 minite film in four different scene synchronously, Figgis plit each action into four, and claimed that the relationship of these people anf their movement(actions and reactions) is arbitury and incidental. Meaning is achieved in the relations between synchronous time with different spaces in a system, not by telling a story.

art and Science

2007-02-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

I like the artical about the big questions in science(Wired, Feb2007). I don't worry about the earth core, although I think the big bang is incredibal. I remember the science professor said the life start big bang. I am fasinated by the time topic and the myth of DNA. Just look at those questions: How does life arise from nonlife? What is sleep and why we need it? What is language? why is time different from other dimentions?
In acient chinese philosophies, time is related with space. The "universe" is made by "time" and "space". it is like a multifaced card game, in which a deck of cards is taken for play, by people in different time and space, playing differnet games, having different rules and languages. Either space or time, provide the rule of transformation for any particular line of flight and plane.
I don't want to talk about science here, since I am not a science person at all. But science has never been tight so close to art. I am looking at some GPS art works recently, GPS art is also a new art form that about time and space, an art from science.

It's social not political

2006-11-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

Is the world of Web2.0 a new kind of democracy? I don't think the internet, specifically the web2.0 is a political systerm, although it is grass-rooted, and it does threaten the traditional modes of political engagement and the mainstream media.To me, the web 2.0 is communicational and publishing stage that allows people deliver all modes of information(vidio, audio, photo etc) on it. As one of these users, i post, leave massages and leave comments, email to friends, forward, bookmark, rate and vote. I interact with others. It is more social than political, and technology plus culture give us new social practice.

A virtual Friend: Homer Simpson

2006-11-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

Art 104A lot of people like The Simpson show. Like many others who we can find on the street, Homer simpson plays a role of a husband, a father, a small business owner and a dreamer. Mr.Simpson is not real. He is one of our virtual friend that exist in mess media, and I think the mass media works for ordinary people just like Homer Simpson. Cartoons and comics are especially created for a person who is a dreamer and an ordinary person at the same time. In many fields we are "outsiders", but we are involved in many field. Actually, in the post moden socialy, people are not labled insider or oursider anymore. We do cross boundaris all the time, everybody can become an artist, at least, "life is a show".

I have been confused recently about one topic that we had discussed at the beginning of the semester. Now I do agree that "The media is the message". Here, a cartoon show is a message.

life imitate art

2006-10-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Art 104I have found much more fun to read Gizmondo's story than others. For those who have not read it yet, it would be a real fansinating reading. Just look at these words that involved: 1million ferrairi crash, upper-scale mafia, CEO of big company in game system and high-tech industry...perfect, isn't it?
The story itself could be build as a role playing game. If we add some other mysterious peopple in this story, and the mysterious gun. In this case, the life imitates art.
But to many people who are in high-tech related industry, including gameing system, the story is not so funny. People might not to attend to find out what really happened, or really to catch who, but why. Why such a gangster(his history and hobby nothing can be relate with high-tech field) can lead a big high tech company and so many smart people? Who is the real genius? What is the weakness in new high tech industy?

Let's Face It, Transplants or Cosmetic Surgeries

2006-10-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ther is a Mr. know-it -all in "WIRED", who is able to give help when you are nevigating life in the 21st century. IN the recent issue (October 2006), Mr. Know-it-all tells a lady that she need to confess to her fiance about her cosmatic surgeries if they want to add kids in their future marriage and also, it is about the genetic honesty.
How many people are involved to cosmetic surgeries or tranplantation?, since they are so common and affordable to many of us? The biotech is a real miracle. Do you still remember Isabelle Dinoire, who got a transplanted face few months ago? (http://www.kydepot.com/isabelle/) People debated, mostly around the culturual issues. Has the medicine gone too far? Is that face her face or the donator's face?
If I was in the same situation, i mean, If got somebody else's face, will I be able to face myself? I try to convince myself, a transplanted face is just like an transplanted organ but that is only in the theory of bio-tech. As a peoson, a face could be the primary organ of his/her personality.
But how about the cosmatic surgeries? A changed face is still her/his face? I guess most of us would say yes. I don't think we can look at a person and not see her/his face as her/his face. For example. we are easy to forget a person's old hair style when he has a new hair cut. But it is hard to people to accept Isabelle Dinoire's new face but easy to accept the changes after the cosmatic surgeries?

How Important to be Interactive?

2006-10-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Ellen says, in an interactive art work, "the andience is actually involoved in the artwork. tather than only exposed to the artwork". My question is : when the audience's reaction and the artist's creation involved at the same time, how important is the simultaniousness mean? Is there anything change in terms of "authenticity"? And, does the interaction have to be face to face?

I think another charming thing about digital media is, it can always allow the artist across the boundries, from photos to vidios, to films, we don't even know what is the next. It is not about the technology, it is about the concept, no matter it is interactive or not.

You and Me and Our Identity

2006-10-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

In "The Age Of Cybernetic Systems". the author states that both camera and personal computers have become symbols. They are represent a set of transformation to the self and the reality. Thinking of the project(by Nikki Lee) we discussed during the class, we can see identity now is a subject that widely used by many artists. Why?
Our daily life today has become rationlized and assimilated more than ever before. It is all under the economic purpose. For example, for each season we have certain fashion style. Because the similarities among products(cloth) can promote the productes together, the similarities can be the link of personal likes. We are eating the similar food, wearing similar cloths, and have similar life style. The information we get is also mostly digitally duplicated. The information we get is also alike. Finding our identify is more difficult than before. Everybody wants to be DEFFERENT. Because of that, personal computers are so important. A personal computer indicate the owner has his own "screen" that different than others. The screen means he has his own path and his own selection among this inforamtion mass, in this informational age.

A splog is A Sign

2006-10-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

In the artical "the article Spam + Blogs = Trouble", the author brings the problem but not offering any way to solve the problem. As one of his subtitle says, Splogs are annoying, but not illegal. To me, anything exist must has its season to exist.
A splog is a sign. Let's forget about how they make money first. If 1,000 people clicked on a same splog, can I say it must have something in common among these people? Why this particular splog talks to them but not others? In some points, all people are connected, but some are more connected than others. Splogger used this to creat their business.
To a reader, is a splog on net different with an ad on TV, when we watch a movie thru a television program?

aninteresting relatinship

2006-09-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Art 104
somebody says "see it, believe it". I wish i have this kind of strong mind. "believe" is a big word to me. I like "way of seeing" because it talks about the relationships between "see" and "be seen", and it brings some fresh ideas to me. As a viewer, when i see a piece of art work, i always switch my role from a simple viewer to a artist and then change back. I mean the way of how the viewer seeing is not stable , but the artwork is a conclution.
And then I think how's if the artwork is an action, like a performance artist's work, or a stage artist's work? I guess the performance is still a conclution, since it has been designed(directed) in that way, but psychologically it's not so simple.
And then I think about a woman's makeup, can wwe say it is an artwork? I think so. but how's if she looks(see) her make up through a mirrow? the relationship between the "see" and "be seen" is more interesting, i guess. is that same as when she see her self-portrait?