Axiom Museum

I think that the combination of technology and art brings the idea of an art museum to less of an elite level. Many people are intimidated by art exhibits, or any art for that matter. Technology is something that anyone can relate to; we all experience it. While abstract paintings and impressionistic works may intimidate, we can immediately relate our lives to the pieces of art at the Axiom Museum. Perhaps it is because we go to a tech school. My favorite piece was the visualization of George Bush speaking the word "war." It was an incredibly interesting interpretation of the word, and it is fascinating that the shape derives from the sound waves of speech. This is an all encompassing artwork, including more than just sight, but also sound and touch (you were meant to pull the zippers open and shut). You can feel the hopeless fear and destruction by looking at the piece. It is made more interesting with the use of a hidden exit sign, which is only visible when a person acts upon the art piece to reveal it. To me, this implies that it will take physical action against the war to make any difference.

I also really enjoyed the painting with LEDs built into it. It adds a new dimension of randomness and depth to the painting which was really new to me. It was nice to see all of these new ideas in art so close to each other, and many with a personal interaction with them.

The gallery's exhibit was a complete success, it was a great representation of several new medias which were all very interesting. The trains below shake the foundation as they go by indicating that we are in a new, imperfect, age of technology. The artists there are making new art and applying it to everyone, in a media that is accessible and understandable to the majority of our society in this new age.

For Music and/or Earth Lovers:

Earthfest is this Saturday on the Esplanade!

The headliner is Cake, but there are lots of good local bands too. It is supposed to showcase environmentally friendly products, but mostly its just a good time!

EARTHFEST 2008!

Little Bratz

While on the discussion of the Barbie complex, I thought of something similar that worries me. It is the Bratz dolls. In my opinion, the Bratz have superseded Barbie in that they are posing as young girls, targeted AT young girls. They don't encourage growth, intelligence, or personality; they encourage makeup, belly shirts and shopping. The commercials show them in clothing only a vegas prostitute would wear, walking a dog and sipping a Starbucks coffee. In my mind, little girls shouldn't idolize plastic figures of materialistic adulthood. No wonder girls are 'maturing' so quickly. These are the examples they are given to play with, initiating each of their creative scenarios with a scantily clad teenager. Bratz go beyond the media driven concept that the perfect woman is Barbie, they begin to mold our young girls to be body conscious, media driven consumers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cup of Starbucks, but there is a time and a place for growing up, and it is starting too early in our kids today. They have a few precious years to look and act like whatever they want, without worrying about fashion or appearance. Bratz dolls are taking this away at an earlier age than ever before, and in a way forces them to grow up much sooner than we did. When I was little I liked Barbies because they were adults, and we loved to pretend to be 'grown up'. However the Bratz are meant to be little girls! Which takes little girls who play with them out of a fantasy world, and influences them to imitate completely unrealistic idols. It is sad to hear that some 7 year-old girls want to go on diets, and are already wondering why they don't look like the bobble-headed plastic figure in their toy bin.

Bratz

I bought movie tickets online the other day and I was disturbed to find that the movie ticket website (fandango) posted my recent purchase on my Facebook profile. When did this become a minute by minute detailed account of my actions? How do these things become approved without my knowledge? My life is now an advertisement scheme? I feel that the power of these networking sites is being abused by the media. It seems like such an insignificant event but I disliked that there are "alliances" that are commentating on my life. When will all of my endeavors be documented for the world to see? Will I be able to choose privacy? Is it possible without social isolation?

It seems incredibly futuristic to imagine people marrying robots, but here is the clip of the Futurama episode I had seen on this topic. It is very comedic but perhaps it is one of those "fiction before fact" scenarios. Before our discussions I had never even considered it to be a tangible future issue. Robo-ethics is especially new to me. In my opinion, robots are circuitry, wires and electricity. To be honest I couldn't think of  why they would deserve rights at all, because where would you draw the line? Would I eventually have to hold a funeral service for my vacuum cleaner? It is interesting however, that perhaps we too are programed and we too are machines for living. The difference is our makeup, but you may consider our thoughts and feelings just circuitry and electricity, just in a different material. I would like to think that I am not programmed but I might also be a blank slate if I had never experienced family, media, friends, language or society. We call this learning, but it simply takes longer than an upload. If we are all defined by our parameters, and programmed by our life experiences what makes us different is that we can interpret each experience individually, where as each model of a computer might respond in an identical way. We choose to be offended, happy, or amused, which alters our programing. However you can continue the argument that our decisions are based on prior programming and a computer could do the same. It could go on forever.

Futurama: Don't Date Robots!