EAT

The Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), consisting of the 9 Evenings of Theatre & Performance, the Open Score was a fun looking experience. I love playing Tennis myself and I thought it was cool that they included art & technology to make a physical sport fun. Even the audience of 500 people had fun being "super stars" of the piece. I enjoyed watching the fun people had, even though today it probably wouldn't be as "wow-ing" because we are already used to this technology. These artists and engineers work very collaboratively together and they have such tremendous amount of imagination for their time. The way they think of these ideas are inspiring and very stimulating. I loved how they said that "art should have no direction" and you can be "open to infinite possibilities." They definitely look like they had a lot of fun in their time, it was like "opening up a window to a whole new world." Their surprising reactions about this new technology can be compared the to the amazement of the Ipods & Iphones of today. 

The Open Score was a rare moment and done in its time. As they said, when its over, its not over. You have it in your head for the rest of your life. I think the piece can be done again today but with more advancement in the technology or with additional features that are outside of our own vocabulary of today. Maybe then the piece would have a lot more interaction, more advanced lighting/projectory, better rackets... or maybe the rackets don't just trigger lighting now.. maybe it could signal to people's cell phones and do something crazy with it. However way it could be done, it is exiting to see artists and engineers push to be creative rather than remaining "practical" to their resources.

EAT

The Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), consisting of the 9 Evenings of Theatre & Performance, the Open Score was a fun looking experience. I love playing Tennis myself and I thought it was cool that they included art & technology to make a physical sport fun. Even the audience of 500 people had fun being "super stars" of the piece. I enjoyed watching the fun people had, even though today it probably wouldn't be as "wow-ing" because we are already used to this technology. These artists and engineers work very collaboratively together and they have such tremendous amount of imagination for their time. The way they think of these ideas are inspiring and very stimulating. I loved how they said that "art should have no direction" and you can be "open to infinite possibilities." They definitely look like they had a lot of fun in their time, it was like "opening up a window to a whole new world." Their surprising reactions about this new technology can be compared the to the amazement of the Ipods & Iphones of today. 

The Open Score was a rare moment and done in its time. As they said, when its over, its not over. You have it in your head for the rest of your life. I think the piece can be done again today but with more advancement in the technology or with additional features that are outside of our own vocabulary of today. Maybe then the piece would have a lot more interaction, more advanced lighting/projectory, better rackets... or maybe the rackets don't just trigger lighting now.. maybe it could signal to people's cell phones and do something crazy with it. However way it could be done, it is exiting to see artists and engineers push to be creative rather than remaining "practical" to their resources.

What is a hacker?

After viewing the documentary my idea of a hacker has opened my mind about who they really are. I used to think hackers were just horrible people that wanted to break people's computers for fun, steal identities, or to steal confidential information etc. But after watching the video, even Net Artists are hackers because of their altering, subverting, repurposing, re-creating, redefining of whatever someone says you're supposed to do with something. Hackers are very experimental, innovative thinkers that have definitely pushed a new medium to develop new things. I have been so used to seeing them in only negative ways but after watching the video, I realized that without hackers then the creation of home computers would not have existed. Hacking led to these new computers, and additional features like making games, programs, and graphics. I never knew that it all started out with an era of "phone phreaking." Whistling and making sounds into phones to make free calls is very ingenious. Not only is hacking thought of as just an outlaw profession which can violate the right of privacy for many, but hacking is a profession that has greatly sparked the computer revolution. However, hackers are still a great threat to society because they can find information from people- which can be a powerful thing in my opinion. Although copying information from people isn't necessarily "stealing," I feel like it is wrong sometimes because the original doesn't belong to them. I hate it when people try to steal graphics or codes of my site layouts or something, and try to put it on their sites without my consent. But then again, I might be hypocritical when I take parts of other people's codes for my site too.. but I just alter it to fit my site. I usually give credit too.

As for "hacking," I am not sure how to define what I made as "hacking." I used to own my own forums/bbs, however you wanna call it. I would install codes provided by XMB Boards and I would customize everything myself. I was the Super Administrator and I had the power to alternate and change the board to my own liking. There were features you could add to the boards, besides the basic message boards, members lists, etc. Features such as "shops," theme/layout changes, additional live chat rooms, games, additional forum pages, portal systems, and random little changes for the boards. These features were called "hacks." Depending on the version of the XMB Board you had, they had different hack releases available for you to use for your own boards that people created, or you could create yourself. A friend and I created live chat rooms and additional pages for an old board, but we closed it down after a while of inactivity. It was really fun having people our age come to our boards and have contests, random topics and games, chatting, sharing pixel art & other art, and so much more.

The forum is still actually sorttaa up, but its been really dead and dying the past like 2 years. A lot of code is just messed up and gone because I haven't updated it in aggesss. I made our Forum a fun theme, "Bandaid BBS." Adminstrators/Moderators were like "Doctors/Nurses" while members were like "patients." It's such a shame it's down now though. You can see it here at a subdomain of my main site: http://bbbs.simplyaesthetic.net. (I warn you it looks really horrible now, and there are missing images and backgrounds and codes... ew. And it was reallly pink- at least the default theme was pink.)

What is a hacker?

After viewing the documentary my idea of a hacker has opened my mind about who they really are. I used to think hackers were just horrible people that wanted to break people's computers for fun, steal identities, or to steal confidential information etc. But after watching the video, even Net Artists are hackers because of their altering, subverting, repurposing, re-creating, redefining of whatever someone says you're supposed to do with something. Hackers are very experimental, innovative thinkers that have definitely pushed a new medium to develop new things. I have been so used to seeing them in only negative ways but after watching the video, I realized that without hackers then the creation of home computers would not have existed. Hacking led to these new computers, and additional features like making games, programs, and graphics. I never knew that it all started out with an era of "phone phreaking." Whistling and making sounds into phones to make free calls is very ingenious. Not only is hacking thought of as just an outlaw profession which can violate the right of privacy for many, but hacking is a profession that has greatly sparked the computer revolution. However, hackers are still a great threat to society because they can find information from people- which can be a powerful thing in my opinion. Although copying information from people isn't necessarily "stealing," I feel like it is wrong sometimes because the original doesn't belong to them. I hate it when people try to steal graphics or codes of my site layouts or something, and try to put it on their sites without my consent. But then again, I might be hypocritical when I take parts of other people's codes for my site too.. but I just alter it to fit my site. I usually give credit too.

As for "hacking," I am not sure how to define what I made as "hacking." I used to own my own forums/bbs, however you wanna call it. I would install codes provided by XMB Boards and I would customize everything myself. I was the Super Administrator and I had the power to alternate and change the board to my own liking. There were features you could add to the boards, besides the basic message boards, members lists, etc. Features such as "shops," theme/layout changes, additional live chat rooms, games, additional forum pages, portal systems, and random little changes for the boards. These features were called "hacks." Depending on the version of the XMB Board you had, they had different hack releases available for you to use for your own boards that people created, or you could create yourself. A friend and I created live chat rooms and additional pages for an old board, but we closed it down after a while of inactivity. It was really fun having people our age come to our boards and have contests, random topics and games, chatting, sharing pixel art & other art, and so much more.

The forum is still actually sorttaa up, but its been really dead and dying the past like 2 years. A lot of code is just messed up and gone because I haven't updated it in aggesss. I made our Forum a fun theme, "Bandaid BBS." Adminstrators/Moderators were like "Doctors/Nurses" while members were like "patients." It's such a shame it's down now though. You can see it here at a subdomain of my main site: http://bbbs.simplyaesthetic.net. (I warn you it looks really horrible now, and there are missing images and backgrounds and codes... ew. And it was reallly pink- at least the default theme was pink.)

Survival Research Laboratories

The video from class featuring the Survival Research Laboratories did strike me with horror with the destruction and violence of the technological pieces. If I was to actually witness the place in person I would definitely feel threatened, more so frightened, by the mechanical chaos of the environment. The artistic technicians who created these robotic mechanisms are extremely creative geniuses. I am surprised they would even let their hard work and dedication destroy themselves. These are some of the most dangerous events I have ever seen. I also never considered them to be a work of "art." However, after thinking about it, these machines are very structurally made, and are very innovative. This creativity is in fact a work of art. Even though they look very destructive, it is an art, and art does not have to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Art does not have to be limited to pieces that can only fit in museums.

The scenes just seemed so chaotic and out of control. I wondered if the future consisted of many more machines like those in the video. If that ever happened it would be like a huge apocalypse, which would be pretty scary. The video also made me think, what if machines ever start to take over the world and cause destruction. As technology these days seem to move fast, and people become more dependent upon it, we seem to lose all our traditional and manual ways of surviving. Technology could possibly take over our lives, cease our existence in reality, and make us feel incapable of doing things. I was reminded of a movie called "Artificial Intelligence" where intelligent-thinking machines were constructed. In the movie, the human race advances so quickly, it reaches to a point where robots think and serve intelligently. They become so threatening to human society because of the possibility of robots taking over the world. Another movie that is recent called, Wall-E, has also made me think about the technological future of the world. The possibility of robots and technology taking over the world would result in deplorable outcomes that are a disgrace to humanity. Seeing gigantic, obese, super lazy humans in the future with no physical reality except within computer screens show how the increase of technology makes humans deteriorate.

Survival Research Laboratories

The video from class featuring the Survival Research Laboratories did strike me with horror with the destruction and violence of the technological pieces. If I was to actually witness the place in person I would definitely feel threatened, more so frightened, by the mechanical chaos of the environment. The artistic technicians who created these robotic mechanisms are extremely creative geniuses. I am surprised they would even let their hard work and dedication destroy themselves. These are some of the most dangerous events I have ever seen. I also never considered them to be a work of "art." However, after thinking about it, these machines are very structurally made, and are very innovative. This creativity is in fact a work of art. Even though they look very destructive, it is an art, and art does not have to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Art does not have to be limited to pieces that can only fit in museums.

The scenes just seemed so chaotic and out of control. I wondered if the future consisted of many more machines like those in the video. If that ever happened it would be like a huge apocalypse, which would be pretty scary. The video also made me think, what if machines ever start to take over the world and cause destruction. As technology these days seem to move fast, and people become more dependent upon it, we seem to lose all our traditional and manual ways of surviving. Technology could possibly take over our lives, cease our existence in reality, and make us feel incapable of doing things. I was reminded of a movie called "Artificial Intelligence" where intelligent-thinking machines were constructed. In the movie, the human race advances so quickly, it reaches to a point where robots think and serve intelligently. They become so threatening to human society because of the possibility of robots taking over the world. Another movie that is recent called, Wall-E, has also made me think about the technological future of the world. The possibility of robots and technology taking over the world would result in deplorable outcomes that are a disgrace to humanity. Seeing gigantic, obese, super lazy humans in the future with no physical reality except within computer screens show how the increase of technology makes humans deteriorate.

Fluxus

The Fluxus movement, which is like the 20th century Dada movement, consisted of a group of artists revolutionizing the concept of art. The meaning of "Fluxus" seemed strange because it does not have one set definition, and it did more than just one thing. It's connection and dedication to life and looking at life is thought-provoking. Examples of the movement, such as Allan Kaprow's Happenings from 1958-60's changed the meaning of art in such a way by looking at its outlook on life. The art events he hosted, uniquely distinct from traditional gallery events, included active audience participation that varied each time. In the video we learned about the one who started this revolution- George Maciunas. The concept of Fluxus in relation to challenging people through various art events, non-rehearsed, was definitely idiosyncratic. Their revolutionary movement was clever in thought, trying to break the stereotypes to do something different, in order to "purge the world of burgeouis and tradition for all people." It was inspiring to know they supported beliefs that anyone can do art by "curing people of stereotypes." They created things called "Flux Medicine," which I thought was kinda funny. A lot of Fluxus events made people laugh and have fun. The Fluxus influence of playful experimentation influenced the development of sound art, commerical art, and text play which revolutionizes how people use art today for productiveness in society. Not only did it influence art as being interactive, but it opened the mind of many people and after watching the documentary, I myself recognize that art is almost everywhere and anything. Apparently walking through a door is considered an art, or the dripping of water from the sink is art. Strange sounds such as blowing, spitting, screaming, crying, were all art. Although I do not find most of the Fluxus art aesthetically pleasing, it is more intriguing that the Fluxus philosophy played an important role in appreciating life around us. Sadly, the movement slowly dwindled down when George Maciunas died of pancreatic cancer in 1978. His huge influence in pioneering artistic concepts and catalyzing new ideas really challenged his public and views on art- and he had a lot of fun in his life doing so. I loved how he emphasized that Fluxus was not just a movement, but a way of life. Even though George Maciunas passed away, Fluxus will always live on, and he left his philosophical ideas with us. We are always in fluxus, always changing. We are always going to be challenging, expressive, and have new ideas that connect with our life.