Give Me ALL of Your Info!

So... from the reading on Lessig chapter 13...

Should information be owned? My opinion:

It depends. General information, no. Personal information, yes. If something is private and no one has bushiness knowing it, then it shouldn't be free game for everyone. If it is information someone needs or is beneficial for them to know, it should be allowed for them to know the information.

That is all.

It's Been Awhile

So...as you may have already noticed, I let procrastination get the best of me. Looks like its crunch time to get caught up on these blogs... Let's get started!

Anyway... I was reading chapter seven of Practices of Looking, and I gotta say it really piqued my interest. Advertising has always been a very interesting subject to me, although I am not sure why. Something about having the ability to convince someone of something in a creative way always seemed like a fun job to have. The main point that grabbed my attention came from page 275. It said, "Advertisements speak the language of transformation." What it means by this is that advertisements nearly always make a promise to "change" you in someway, and usually for the better. By buying this product, something in your life will change. I see this as a weak spot in human nature: most people are not content. They always want more of what they already have, or they want something completely different. It is very rare to find a person who is perfectly happy with anything and everything they have. That is why advertisements work so well, they sneak into a person's mind and make them think they don't have enough.

Very interesting, if you ask me...

Media is Taking Over

Gonna be a quick blog this week, ladies and gents.

I was reading in the POL book (chapter 6, specifically) about how media has become part of our everyday life. I hadn't really thought about how much. It has become a MAJOR part of nearly everyone's lives. It could be getting the news from TV (or radio, or the paper, or the internet, or...etc.). Checking your email. Online banking.The media is everywhere, and I think it is something people need to be aware of, as it could potentially become a problem (for many reasons, such as a dependency on media).

Run Away from Thomas Edison!

While reading this week's section of our Lessig text, the first thing that stuck out to me (probably because it was that first part of the reading) was the people who went to extensive lengths in order to make the kind of film they wanted to. Due to patents on certain aspects of filmmaking, many filmmakers went all the way to the West coast to get away from these patents. I actually found this kind of cool that people would go to such great lengths to do what they love, and it is pretty sweet to see what the movie business has become because of this.

The I of the Bee Holder

Recently, in another class (FA 331 taught by Doug), we have been talking about what makes art and what the definition of art really is. After some discussion, the general consensus seemed to be that art is whatever the viewer sees it to be. As the saying goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." 

From this section of reading, we learn the importance of the viewer in regards to artwork. Nearly every work of art is designed with the viewer in mind. This is something I often forget, and something that is immensely important in regards to art.

On that note, I leave you with this little gem that Google provided for me:

The Internets and Dying Chickens

So...after reading pages 1-30 of Lessig, (Yes, I accidentally read the first six pages. I'm not too happy about it, although I did get a good chuckle out of the chickens dying from smashing themselves into their barn walls. Stupid chickens!) I have a much deeper understanding of the history of the internet and what it all really means. I was born in 1993, and seeing as the internet started to become a normal household commodity sometime between 2001 and 2004, I never really have known what it is like to not have internet. By the time I was old enough that I would want to use it, it was readily available.

I found the idea of "piracy" vs. "property" to be very interesting in this section (mentioned on page 13). When talking about literal real world objects, it is a bit easier to determine to whom this object belongs. With a non-physical object, however, such as a software or digital photograph, it makes things very easy for someone to steal it and claim it as their own. This is a prominent issue that comes along with the internet and one of which that all internet users should be aware.

Back to School, Back to Reading

Yes, it is time to hit the classrooms once again for another exciting year of learning, whoop-dee-do! Anyway, joking aside, I am pretty excited about what this year has to offer. I look forward to learning some new stuff and getting better at some old stuff, and of course I am excited to inch a little closer to graduation day.
Anyway, we are supposed to talk about our reading, right? I would like to bring your attention to the picture on page 10 of Practices of Looking. This picture, taken by Arthur Felig and titled "The First Murder," shows the faces of several children and adults as they look upon a murder scene. The reason this picture caught my eye is due to the multiple expressions shown by the different people. The woman in the middle looks distraught, the women on the right looks somewhat disgusted, the girl in the front is wondering why someone would take a picture of her at such a time, and the boy on the left looks like he is enjoying himself way too much. This picture captures so many emotions of how people react to a certain situation, and I find it to be an awesome picture (although it is kind of creepy due to the smiling child and context).