Brion Gysin's Dream Machine

Brion Gysin created the device to transport audiences to another world, creating a sort of high without substances. People sit in front of the cylinder with shapes and patterns cut out. As it spins the viewer closes their eyes. Many have seen colors and shapes swirling, creating a dream like trance for the viewer. Many have described the experience as extremely intense.

Dada

Dada blossomed following the horrors of World War I. The movement began with a group of artists and poets who proclaimed they had had enough. They spouting meaningless gibberish, giving meaning to sounds and noises. Led by Tristan Tzara, the movement concentrated on anti-war protests by rejected to common and accepted forms of art and language. Tzara through out language all together, creating his own way of communicating. He assigned meaning to noises and sounds, spouting poetry that had no real words in it. The movement spread fast and furiously, tearing down the walls of modern art and culture. The movement eventually became a stepping stone the creation of surrealism.

Grid Art

My grid art project was very fragile, so here are the pictures of its progression.

Bullying and Video Games

Since the creation of video games, people knew the medium would explode into a billion dollar industry. However, what was not anticipated was how violent games would become, and how much opposition they would receive for being too controversial. Parents across the country argue over the gore and excessive violents children are exposed to in video games. They believe these video games cause children to act out violence and lead to brutal incidents like Colombine. A major argument is that games that are too violent should be banned in order to stop bullying and vicious acts among children. However, most children playing these M rate 18 and up games are 12 -15 years old. They have no way of showing ID to purchase the game. It's their parents that purchase the very brutal games they dont want their children to play. So, I ask how can you blame the video games for increased bullying or violent outbreaks, when the parents are purchasing the games for them?

Apple?

Apparently Jobs came up with the name while working on an apple orchard in California. He was on a fruitarian diet and thought the name was fun, spirited, and not intimidating.

The image above was the original Apple logo. It depicts Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. The image references Newton's theory of gravitation while alos showing off an apple tree to connect with the name.

Ray Kurzweil

He an author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in optimal character recognition. Kurzweil is recognized as a strong advocate of futurist and transhumanist movements. One of his main belief is extending human life through the combination of humans and machines. He was a strong believer in technological singularity, the idea that one day a superintelligence greater than humans will emerge. This is seen as an intellectual even horizon.

Radio

The show that I listened to, was an excerpt from The Shadow. The show starred Orson Welles as a hero never seen, but always assisting individuals in trouble and saving the day. He possessed super human abilities such as profound strength and agility, puzzle solving techniques, and ability to disappear. The show was immensely popular and helped to showcase Orson Welles acting abilities before he exploded with the fame of War of the Worlds.

Flip Book

Here are a few of my favorite parts from my flip book. My goal was to create what someone experiences when they're having a bad trip on any kind of hallucinogen. I tried thinking of weird and creepy scenarios to play out as the trip got progressively worse and worse. 

War of the Worlds

When Orson Welles broadcast a Halloween special of the classic novel War of the Worlds in 1930, the country immediately plunged into a state of emergency. Many listeners entered the broadcast part way through, missing the beginning, which explained that it was indeed just a broadcast. Welles use of bulletin style updates for the first few parts of the show made the whole endeavor seem as though it were really happening. People rushed into the streets, shotguns in hand. Many tried to dig trenches and shelters to escape the invaders from Mars. The broadcast has since gone down in history as the greatest of all time.

Walter Carlos and The Rain

Walter Carlos was an electronic musician and composer who came into prominence in 1968 and later went on to compose the scores for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. In 1962, after becoming a student at Colombia University, Carlos underwent the process of sexual reassignment. In the fall of 1967, he began hormone treatments, changed his name to Wendy, and began living full time as a woman. These fantastic works are two of my favorites, specifically the off putting Clockwork Score. Carlos' mix of classical and electronic synthetic music created a dizzying effect that transports the viewer Kubrik's dystopian future. Many synth pop bands in the future would refer to this composition as one of their inspirations. 

When he created A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrik asked Malcolm McDowell to sing a song during the rape scene. McDowell only knew all the words to one song. That song happened to be Singing in the Rain. Kubrik told him to sing it and the rest is history. The scene is now infamous for the brutality of the rape, juxtaposed with the classic up beat tune. 

Below I posted an extremely odd music video for one of my favorite electronic songs. Check it out if you want to watch something weird.

Fantasy by DyE