I don’t know if I can miss this.
So I haven’t blogged for pure fun since Xanga ‘03. But I remember liking it, so I’m transcending the line between personal blog and academic blog as of right now.
HEYO personal blog. Maybe I’ll actually write in you more than one a week.
So. I need to decide if I’m staying in Urbana this summer TONIGHT. I need to give my boss in Montana a good month to replace a fine employee like myself. I think a Venn-diagram is in order.
Wait. I’m too lazy to make a fucking diagram. i know this because I just tried and aborted almost immediately. IDIOT.
I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. :-/
Got the glitches out.
The desktop is an eighth worldwide wonder I have taken for granted my entire life. I do believe in its staying power, and impression on our current and upcoming generations. It has augmented the way we think and problem solve, and there is no question about that. Though, I will admit that it is a driving force in todays world that makes me wonder about technology’s ability to destract from life. Actual life. It’s a subject often up for discussion, and I find myself always discussing. Despite my concentration in the New Media arts and thirst for learing more technology.moremoremore technology. I find that I get so caught up in the modern wonders and sometimes all I want to do is just hold something in my hand, cut it up and glue it to a piece of paper. The vastness of technology and computers today almost daunting, and the idea of me never learning beyond a fraction of what there is to know makes me feel inadequate. And I find myself needing to spend many more hours in front of a bright screen and at the same time spend more hours running bare foot through the grass.
Also interesting to me is the debate between Macs and Windows. I have always been a full on Mac supporter. I grew up on the Mac and had a Macintosh Classic II when I was little to play Spacestation Pheta and Oregon Trail on. Even though, I can’t deny that the chic nature of Mac computers is an attractive attribute, but what I realized when reading this article is that I like Macs also because they aren’t Windows. Full on mass producing corporations drive me insane. Its the same reason why I wont drink Starbucks. Its tainted because its produced by a monopolizing company.
Something else interesting to me about the article is the point of “the conceptual failings” of the desktop metaphor and how we currently take it too literally. I’ve never before really considered the limitation set before us by such a userfriendly, accessible interface, but it rings true. It seems we censor some seriously innovative possibilites by setting down these rules about the desktop.
Some samples until I get my link glitches figured out.
Holy shit, I haven’t exerted this much effort to read an article in a long time. (Exception: Art Ed. article I read at 4:00 PM today.) Even when nearing the end of this article, I was so distracted by the seemingly aimlessness of the language, that it was hard for me to connect all its elements to decipher a true central meaning. Eventually (by the last page,) I caught on: the subject is databases and making the contents as accessible as possible to the human mind. As the author took me on a nice trip through time, discussing past inventions as well as future possibilities, I was able to appreciate how non-scientific I am. And how I especially don’t possess a naturally mathematical mind. I do believe the most efficient way my mind can process a plethora of information is through thought association. So when the author starts writing about the memex and the idea of associative indexing, I think thats a bandwagon I would easily jump on.
Alright, so, if I have to choose one example of an interactive art that is a little less obvious than others, I would have to pick the Felix Gonzalez-Torres piece, “Untitled,” consisting of black licorice candy in a corner (app. 700 lbs of candy). I choose this piece because the whole point of it is participation and interactivity. Anyone there is free to take as much of the candy as they like. There are no further instructions or written expectations, so it is up to the audience to decide how much is too much. It deals with people and their comfort and ethics and it forces individuals to face themselves with their ethics. Some people might come upon it and not assume that they are supposed to take a piece at all, so it can be hard to see it as an interactive piece. I honestly temporarily forget what hot and cold media is, but I venture to guess that this is cold media because it can be so confusing for people to see and comprehend as a work of art.
So the new version of Grand Theft without Audio just came out and I just did a demo of it. It is really strange, I’m used to there being really good tunes playing while I’m driving around smacking hoes. I am also used to the hoes crying and carrying on. The game felt way less intense without any sound. It also mellowed out the chaos that was happening on the screen. I didn’t get nearly as nervous when I got in tight situations. With the regular version, my heart beats faster when the cops are chasing me, and I even get a jolt from the initial sirens, but I feel way more removed now. I also have to admit that the game now feels way more safe, and even more lame. I can understand why intense fans might be disappointed in this version of the game, there is even less reality and flavor in the game now, and that would make it less appealing to those who have played the regular game.
Beyond the obvious observations, its still easy to see how different the virtual game Cockfight Arena and the traditional board game Monopoly are from one another. One is technologically based, while the other is old fashioned. Monopoly can have several players while Cockfight Arena limits the number of players. Cockfight also gets more involved so that the player can become more emotionally invested in the game. The players are to dress up for their roles as cocks to make the experience as real as possible. Even the controllers are modeled as wings, where as there is a definite disconnect between Monopoly players and their little game pieces. The environment also plays a huge role in the false reality of either game. In Cockfight Arena the player is immersed in a virtual environment that engulfs senses like sight and hearing. This makes participating in the game more real. In Monopoly, the player only uses sight and feeling, no hearing. Yet, the player is very aware of the disconnect between themselves and the game because they have to physically pick up and move the pieces. When I think about it, virtual games like Cockfight always make me a little nervous. They don’t seem as harmless to me as boardgames. They seem to come too close to the human mind and make the mind more susceptible and accepting of what is happening to them as if it were real life. It is scary to me how intense some video game players become, and I think the language of the game has everything to do with why these players hole themselves down in the basement for hours playing these games.
When thinking about Cockfight Arena, then immediately comparing it to Monopoly, it is surprising to see more correlations than expected. Especially concerning how the player is feeling during the game and how that differs from how they behave in everyday life. Both games allow their players to act as irresponsibly as they please with little consequence. Because of a disconnect between reality and the game, the players are free to make their game persona act in anyway possible to win the game. So if someone abiding by social standards of behavior play cockfight, the game gives them an opportunity to act violently with out any consequence in real life. And if someone else is playing Monopoly, they can make any financial decision they please, even go bankrupt because there is no consequence in real life either.