"Environments are invisible."

The set of photographs I chose as a response to McLuhan's notion of the "antisocial" were all taken on a weekend trip home to Minnesota. They display different parts of Minnesota (the city, country, and wealthier areas). Originally, I wanted to hone in on the idea that "antisocial" is non-existent in the American culture by taking snapshots of people in diverse environments. Then I found myself in a lot of mundane scenery and zero to few people (which happens when it is cold outside in MN). I found myself snapping pictures without a a specific goal, but then looking back at the images I found that the pictures were telling a short, simple story that related to a few specific contentions of McLuhan's. 

I liked McLuhan's bit on story lines and humor, so I chose to make my book a bit of a story with the text. On the first and last page it reads, "Where everything is unique and beautiful, but, therefore not at all." Basically, we have to have ugliness and conformity to obtain beauty and McLuhan's idea of "antisocial." Though this is true, as America is an individualistic culture, to be "unique" or "different" or "independent" is actually conforming to society's demands. I found Minnesota's lack of people in the streets demonstrated a bit of an antisocial aura while walking around because the streets rarely had more than two or three people on them.  Older venues for selling music and books were almost vacant, which one may conclude is due to the new technologies that are available.

It is interesting that during my stay in Minnesota I hung out with college dropouts, which McLuhan may have applauded according to his professional vs. amateur arguments. 

Flickr

SnapFish Book!

Everyone has a dream; that's yours.

Lynda Barry, Lynda Barry

Bynda Larry

What to say, what to say

About a woman I listened to that day

A petty rhyme could fill the short time,

to retell her jokes to folks

 and about her encounters with 'deep play'

I specifically enjoyed Lynda's reference to interactions between parents, children, and technology. She commented on how parents devices such as their phones and ipads appear more compelling to look at then their own child's face.  This thought rarely left my mind over the weekend. I journeyed home and found myself "people watching," more specifically seeking out to view this disconnected parent-child interaction in public places.  I, of course, had a thought in the back of my mind of how often people look at their phones, ipad, computers, etc while they are in public, but the way Lynda phrased it startled me (the screen of a phone being more compelling than the child's face). At social events, such as a small concert and ice sculpture viewing, where one would think parents would be totally immersed in play with their children, they were pulling out phones to talk, take pictures, post to some sort of website, etc.  This causes one to contemplate how much the lack of traditional human interaction will effect how the next few generations will be interacting. How will the field of social psychology evolve? What happens to society as technology evolves to mimic human personalities, interactions, etc?  We know that technology has affected the current college-aged population's way of interacting with one another. Technology has created the ability to disconnect one's self from their words and create glowing walls between people's interactions with one another.  Are people moving towards more inspired by a photo on a screen than a physical person, place, or event itself? Are we there now?

These are all questions that Lynda either asked during her speech, or hinted towards in her stories including children and their parent's technologies. 

This is a different version of the previous film. View this one if you want to save your ears and have a more tame experience with Clyde.

Filming Clyde was slightly tedious at first because for the first few takes he did not want to eat any of the food that was in front of him, which is very odd for a hedgie his weight.  One can see I then moved him to the dish and he began eating right away. Not only did he get cranky and ignore the food at first, but after I moved it away he was reluctant to take anymore.  Thus, the  word 'Assistance' in the title seemed appropriate. 

His hesitant behaviors could be similar to McLuhan's  hesitance to embrace the growing technological advances.  Clyde is reluctant to eat unless made to. He is content with the weight he is at and is lazy and falling asleep once he has the food in his mouth. McLuhan seems content with the printing processes that have made books part of an "individualistic culture," and rejects the rising desire for technological advances surpassing printed books, stationary use, and useful, simplistic things as such.   

"'Rationality' and logic came to depend on the presentation of connected and sequential facts or concepts." Marshal McLuhan.

So what happens when the presentation is not connected or completely sequential?

I played with the sound in my video a lot, muting it, overlapping sound between clips, and adding a bit of music. The sound creates and rejects logical sequence of the scenes of Clyde's eating. In the beginning Clyde is rejecting his food, but with the foreshadowing noise of crunching one can predict that soon he will be munching away. On the other hand, the music, "I'm So Tired" by The Beatles, is followed by a rush of speed eating and this breaks the expected foreshadowing of a nap. The noise I added anytime an outside figure appears in the video indicates foreign intervention/presence. 

Take a Look Into My Mind

Toby. Even in sickness he was required to look good.

Doodles.

What I See

What I Imagine.

My Reaction.

No words to convey your thoughts

Escape the reoccurring themes.

Using one's mind, hushing the voices

Surge through the blockades put up by your peers.

To motivate those urges to create and manipulate.

Yelling in their deaf ears; show them your darkest dreams.

Well, as it may be, many introduce themselves on their blogs. I am Rose. My pets and art consume about 45% of my life; body modifications are my best sport; the rest is just life-stuff.

Read the last three titles in order. (top to bottom)
Then read the captions in order.