A little opinion of Einstein's Dreams

Well, I thought this book was much more interesting than the Cabinet of Wonders. I feel that this was just more creative i guess. It made people think differently about the passage of time and how the construct of time existed in our reality. We, as a people, know that our time is normal, i guess, it doesn't seem to change and is always as exact as time can get. We can create fictions of the reality of time, though, and that's what they do in this book:

* A world where Time is a Circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself , precisely
* A world where Time is like a flow of water, occasionally displaced by a bit of debris a passing breeze
* A world where Time moves in three dimensions like space
* A world where Time is in 2 forms- Physical time and Body time
* A world where Time flows slowly, the farther one is from the earth
* A world where Time is absolute
* A world where Cause and Effect are erratic. Time and events in the past have no bearing on the events in the present - Unpredictability is the order of the day.
* A world where Time does pass, but little happens from day to day
* A world where Time ends on a certain date
* A world where Time appears or moves at different pace in the same town
* A world where Passage of time brings more order to the world
* A world where Time stands still
* A world where there is no Time .There are only images
* A world where there is no memory and hence no significance of Time
* A world characterized by changed plans, unexpected visions, sudden opportunities
* A world where Time passes more slowly for people in motion
* A world where Time flows backward
* A world where people live only one day
* A word where Time is sense, like taste or sight
* A world where people live forever,
* A world where Time exists but cannot be measured
* A world with out future
* A world where Time is a visible dimension
* A world where Time is discontinuous
* A world where Time is a local phenomenon
* A world where Time is rigid bone like structure
* A world where there are countless copies
* A world which thinks that firmness to past is an illusion
* A world where Time moves differently by age of a person

(http://radhakrishna.typepad.com/rks_musings/2007/03/einsteins_dream.html)

I liked these brief sentences that summed up each of the dates in the book.
All and all the book was really enjoyable and so much more creative and inventive than the first book. More books like this one please.

The Wonder of The White Sox

The wonder of sports, and by that I mean my beloved Chicago White Sox. So, I know that I am possibly the in the minority in the art community, where i am a huge sports lover. Pretty much anything Chicago sports related, except the cubs i hate them. But, the White Sox are now tied for the American League Central Division with the Minnesota Twins and they are having a one game playoff tonight, during our class time at 7:30pm. I hope to god that the white sox with this one and head into the playoffs, to make the possibility of a White Sox/ Cubs World Series. If that happens, Chicago will explode and most likely burn to the ground. This is a weird blog about sports, but it is a passion of mine and i will forever be a white sox fan (and always annoy my girlfriend who is a cubs fan). But, I will leave you all with this: GO WHITE SOX!!!! Beat the Twins!!!

Candice Breitz

Well, I forgot to mention last week about our visiting artist for the Photography and Film program, Candice Breitz is a video/installation artist. She was born in South Africa and currently resides in Germany. Her work reflects on pop culture and how we interpret it. The work of hers that I was particularly attracted to was her work where she recorded around 30 people singing an album of a globally popular artist, and showing the commercial and mass produced affects of it, to our personal reactions to it. She let everyone listen to some headphones and sing along to an album, we the viewer don't hear the music, but how the people sing it and act out to it. It's rather funny, to show the impersonality of pop music, with the personal sides of humans. the website is www.candicebreitz.net

A thought about wonder

Well, the last couple of days have been incredibly nice, weather wise, and it made me think aback to the time that I lived in Southern Illinois. For some reason or another, there was something different about this weather, particularly on sunday, that reminded me of Southern Illinois, or at least the times that I would go venture out with a few of my friends to Giant City State Park in Makanda, illinois. Now, this was only about 20 miles from the university and a few friends and i would go out there on really nice days on the weekends or when we had no work to do, and relax on the cliffs and possibly catch a buzz. Makanda is a small village with a population of about 450 people. It's got a small boardwalk area and an incredible scenic backdrop to it. The reason that I bring up this topic is because of the wonder of memory and how it can be triggered by anything, even the weather. Now, I don't think about Southern Illinois all the time, I do a lot, but not all the time, but for some reason or another when I was out for a stroll on sunday, something clicked in my head. At one time or another, the temperature and weather of sunday struck a chord with me, and I just remembered of going on a nice fall day to Giant City with my buddies and hike around the rock formations. We may bring a bottle of liquor or some beer or whatever to the park and really enjoy ourselves out there. We'd go to the boardwalk and get some food, some incense, and hot sauce (there's a shop that has a huge selection of hot sauce for some reason). The ability for my brain to relate the weather to a memory of Southern Illinois is incredible. Something that is over 800 miles away from Richmond. There is a sense of wonder about that, how we as humans can relate something as mundane as the weather to a really good memory of something so far away. I'm providing some photographs of giant city and makanda so you all can take a look at it. But, this was something that came to me on sunday, how it is wonderful that we as people can do this. Create such odd little connections in out head and related them to a completely different environment that one we're presently in. To me, that is something of wonder.

Why Look?

Why not look?  We feel the need to look because we are human.  We are interested in things that don't really concern us, in that respect, and we need to look to make a human/personal connection with the subject.  In art, we look to approve of our curiosity.  We need to look at art, because that's what art makes one want to do.  If I glanced over at a piece of art, and my response to it is "Why Look?" then I feel that the piece has failed.  It needs to engage the viewer, not deter us away, regardless of what the artist statement may say.  We as a culture are now the most visual ever.  We can find pictures, videos, blogs, movies, sports, anything at the click of a mouse.  It has made us dependent on our eyes, instead of our minds and imagination.  We need to look to engage ourselves with the subject and to understand the subject.  Our culture has been raised on TV, internet, video games, etc. and we now need to deal with the consequences of that.  I guess this really isn't an answer, but we just need to look.  It's how we're programmed, and as visual artists, we are all voyeurs in one aspect or another we get off on looking at things.  It's just what we do.