Stelarc

1. What do you think of Stelarc’s work?
-close relationship with the viewers as he used human beings to present his work
-very mechanical and systemetic
-violate the rule of nature, of human being, more like torturing when the man was hang up by the wire
-maybe ironic as human being sometimes work like a machine

2. What are some benefits or dangers of becoming a cyberbody (cyborg)?
-benefits
-longer live
-don't have to use so much money to buy something not necessary (because of the logical mind)
-enhance stablity, the systemetic mind can reduce mistake (lessen the case of emotional problems and being late)

-dangers
-identity confusion
-health problem?

3. “To what extent are we already experiencing a man -machine symbiosis that has turned us into cyborgs?” Christiane Paul (Digital Art, p166)
Overall, we have been so much influenced by the mechanical and technological era. People try to use different kinds of method to make the products identical for selling or ensure the machine system is 100% accurate to run a company. Whenever we make mistakes, we will be scolded by our boss. Human beings are not supposed to be perfect, but the society needs more and more precise calculations in order to run its perfectibility. So, to a large extent, we become more and more like a robot.

Interesting website

You can type any website, and the programme will show you the "artwork"!















source: http://www.potatoland.org/shredder/shredder.html - Mark Napier - "shredder" (Accessed from Oct 28, 2009)

Online identity

Hung doesn't love to use comupter, but she still has three identities on the internet. First, that is the most popular device we use to communicate online currently -- facebook. Her name is known as "Hung Sheng"(which is the real name of her). Second, she has an account of "sthung" in the Xanga blogging. Third, the "two words" account for MSN.

One of my classmates, Y, she has an account on yahoo named "tissue". "Yanna Ng" is also her account on a facebook. Moreover, she uses Ng Tsz Yan in gmail.

Digital art VS Traditional art

What are some challenges digital art presents to the art world (ie galleries, exhibition goers, art critics and scholars)?

--popular culture that comes fast and goes fast
--it is a mix of media (painting+ sculpture+ etc.)
--definition of art is challenged
--too easy to reproduce
--easier to "tell lies", like photoshop, people can add or delete details conveniently
--creates limitations: people who can access must have some basic knowledge of computer and also have the purchasing power to own a computer

Summary: Missin to Earth

Personally, the film is probably one of the most boring one that I have ever watched but still there are some very interesting points.

It is a film with many new elements except the narrative. Lev Manovich tries to show the audience different squares which are presenting various images at the same time. His method makes people think of Mondrian's artwork because of the uses of forms and lines. In this case, the audience is active which differs from traditional film. They have to choose which square to watch and to decide how long should they watch it. On the other hand, the way of story telling is very traditional like playing a radio without intonation. What's more confusing is the audience may not understand all the narrative because of language barrier. So, it seems to be unmatched with what they see.

The film produces a feeling that never stops. I mean whenever I thought it should be the end of it, it came out not. The "ending" music and vibrancy diagram repeated again and again until it really finished. It may reflect the girl's routine e.g. thousands of e-mails that no one reads.

My favouite quote

“Whereas it used to be that ‘creative’ or ‘well-made’ videos could get a ‘huge amount of [Youtube] views’, she says, now it was the videos that are sensationalist’ or represent the ‘lowest common denominator’ get a lot of views, providing what the ‘mainstream media’ was
providing before the emergence of YouTube, and that the people who make up the ‘core’ of YouTube were ‘running away’ from the mainstream media to avoid.”

(Jean Burgess, Joshua Green, “Agency and Controversy in the YouTube Community” Internet Research 9.0: Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place, Copenhagen, 15-18 October, 2008, http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15383/1/15383.pdf)

It is really a good point! We aware that the hit videos of the day are sensational ones like the sexual behaviour of a young couple in the street. It is not something creative or worthy. The ideal thinking of creating Youtube maybe twisted in this way, it now has no difference with the "mainstream media". However, we may say anything runs a risk in a long term process, so it is a problem of how to keep the image more long-lasting.