Save the Aura

Title: Aura

Note: Typed long ago, but forgot to add it to the blog

Walter Benjamin calls it aura. When you hear or read the word aura, I’m sure you have a fuzzy idea of what it is, this aura, this feeling of peace and tranquility, the feeling of being in the "right" place. When I first heard and read the word aura that’s what I thought about, but never thought about it with respects to paintings and media publications. So what does aura mean in the context of mass reproduction and media production. Benjamin talks about a loss of aura when there is a mass reproduction of a painting. With this loss of aura also creates a loss of authenticity, authority, uniqueness, meaning, etc. When I first read Benjamin’s paper on mass reproduction and photography, I thought to myself, why would this be important, who would sit down and write about all these things. That is somewhat what I thought about when I learned more about what this course is. But this course, this subject and this author Benjamin, makes the reader or the student think more deeply about concentrated topics and aspects of life. He talks about photography and how it has created massive reproduction or artwork, taking it away from its original space. It is true, with the loss of aura, the painting is taken for granted, but the fact that there is only one of the true kind, makes the value of it greater. The reason for many things in this world is for money, but who would have thought that a painting of something simple that would not have been worth anything in a church done by some dead guy would become so valuable, and so costly? A question was asked about digital art and its aura, and if the aura of digital art is lost once it has been printed on paper? That is a good question, and now that I think about it, many people may argue that the aura is lost, but for the sake of argument, I will argue that aura is not lost. When art is created on the computer, it is created to fit on paper and to be printed. I believe that people feel the need to have a hard copy of things or else if something happens to the computer, the information is lost. Even if the art was to stay on the computer, the medium it would be shown on is the computer screen, which ultimately limited by the dimensions of the screen. I will agree that the capabilities of documents and are on the computer are greater, because of the zooming affects etcetera. Some things may never leave the computer screen, but the feeling of seeing it face to face is not there, the ability to have something in its full authenticity in accordance with reality is not there. The ability to touch the artwork, to smell, feel and see the rigid ness of the art work that is only available on printed copy is not present on a screen. For this reason I say that a larger proportion of aura is lost when the medium is the screen rather than reality being focused solely by the human eye and not the zoom function.

A Taste, A Thought

Title: Beyond the Boundaries
Date: November 13th, 2005.
Time: Unknown

Note: This is just an excerpt of my humanities paper.

Technology, as a whole, exists because humans have always felt the need to better their creation, decrease it’s limitations and see how far their creation can advance. A familiar statement by Marshall McLuhan is that technology is an extension of the human body. In the case of the Internet, this new technology is the extension of the brain (access to information). Technology is an application of knowledge to the meeting of human desires and needs (Hellman 24). The desires of humans are to advance our technologies and exceed nature’s limitations. With this desire, we will do anything to achieve these goals, but do we know the negative and positive effects of these achievements. We cannot deny that the Internet in its immediate perspective or purpose has positive effects. We are able to communicate with more people, at any time, quicker then ever before. Technology creates new possibilities for human choice and action but leaves their disposition uncertain. What its effects will be and what ends it will serve are not inherent in the technology, but depend on what man will do with technology. Technology thus makes possible a future of open-ended options that seems to accord well with the presuppositions of the prophetic tradition (Mesthene117). The problem is that we know the immediate effects that are positive, but we overlook the immediate negative effects, which may build up into a catastrophic problem. As Neil postman describes in his article called Five Changes we need to know about technological change, is that “technological change is a trade-off, meaning that for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage,”(Postman). Prometheus may not have directly punished himself but in actuality placed punishment on him self because he saw it as betterment for his creation. He knew that he would have to suffer the consequences of his action, but he never knew what the consequences would be. Prometheus’ decision is in close correlation with how technology has affects and may affect humans. With our technologies, we want it to work to its best abilities so we advance the technologies we create. We understand that the technologies we create will affect us, but we don’t know how.

Cyborg Envy

Title: Cyborg Envy
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2005.
Time: 10:51am

Doesn’t everyone experience cyborg envy? Well maybe I should define what cyborg envy is first. To my understanding cyborg envy is a sense of longing for an embodied conceptual space like cyberspace (The electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place). When we look at a television show, for example fear factor, they tell us professionals supervise everything, and that by no means at all should we ever try those things at home. Well then why can’t we hop through the screen and try it. We want to feel what we see on television and movies in reality, but there are many T.V tricks that have actors doing things that in reality could never be done. I would count cyborg envy to also be the times when my personal computer would work extremely slow or freeze up. Computer Scientists and engineers have tried to create Virtual Realities that would allow us to experience things that we would never be able to experience without death follow it. These experience like flying without wings, and living the Alice and Wonderland dream may seem childish at first, but why shouldn’t we be able to live, for at least a short while, in a virtual reality, must it only be in our dreams? Yes our dreams, I would have to consider dreams a virtual reality, a virtually reality that may be the pressing reason for us to want to have the virtual reality experience. Think about it, you can experience anything your mind creates, but the sad part is that your sleeping at the time of the experience, and by the time you wake up, you may completely forget your dream. The ultimate VR (Virtual Reality) is to be able to touch, smell, see, taste and basically experience life in something that is not reality. In the article, The machines are restless by Donna Haraway, she talks about also experiencing emotional realities in a virtual world. Feelings such as death without dying, and have sexual intimacy without intercourse, but can technology encapsulate these feelings a machine. If I was to experience VR, I would not want it to effect me in any way, I wouldn’t want it to play with my emotions to the point that I remember them. But to experience something is to remember it, including the emotions and psychological feelings. My point is, I think it would be fun to experience virtual realities, but some things are just not meant to be ventured without consequences both good or bad. Therefore, we should be happy with our human realities and go to Paramount Canada’s Wonderland every once in a while.

Technology – The Human Extension

Title: Technology – The Human Extension
Date: Thursday, Sept 22nd, 2005, and Monday, Dec 5th, 2005.
Time: 2:55 pm

Note: Marshall McLuhan wrote on this topic.

To define the word technology, good definitions states: Technology is a mechanism for distributing messages, including postal systems, radio and television broadcasting companies, telephone satellite and computer networks, basically electronic media. In another search for the word, the online dictionary states that technology is the application of knowledge to meet goals, goods and services desired by people. Continues to say that technology is the application of scientific advancement to benefit humanity. With all these different meaning of technology, at first it seemed hard to stick to one definition. It was discussed in tutorial on September the 15th, 2005, of what we thought the definition of technology was. At first thought, I thought it was electronics, I never really thought beyond that definition. But through out the course, I read the opinions of authors and scholars on what they think our thought technology is, which helped me to gain a better understand of what technology may mean. Marshall McLuhan states in his book, “Understanding Media The Extension of Man,” that we have extended our senses and our nerves by various the various media. I believe I understand that statement completely. If we look at the many technological media that is presented in 2005 alone, we will see that they are an extension of the human body. They camera is an extension of the human eye, while the nano Ipod is the extension of the ear, we can see a lot better and keep that frame in the memory of the camera rather than our minds. The nano Ipod’s extension of the ear helps gives a clear hear of tones of music that was not portable in such a fashion just a few years ago. When we look at these many extensions of ourselves, we take it for granted; years ago people did not have the privileges that we have today. Just like we take for granted the actual human body that we have accessible to us. For those that don’t have good hearing or great eye site, prescription glasses and hearing aids are available. We see the positive effects of technology in the examples explained, but what about the negative effects. This topic will be discussed in a later blog about Technological and Social Determinism.

Spy Cam’s

Title: Spy Cam’s
Time: 10:58
Date: Sunday, Dec 4th, 2005.

Do surviellence cameras in public spaces invade privacy? Well a better question maybe, has the world come to a point that trust has been obliterated? Its interesting, as the world turns and years go by, people are less trustworthy of each other and cameras are placed in every shopping mall, elevator, university, even York university. What has this world come to? In the past people were able to sleep with heir front door wide opened, now we can’t even leave a window cracked. Cameras are a smart way to take control of violence and destruction because people gain a level of fear when they know that there is a camera watching them. The camera may or may not be working, they may or may not even see the camera, but they are still cautious with what they do. From the novel 1984, Big Brother plays the role of the public camera, we don’t know where it is, but we are afraid to do anything because it may be watching us. I remember times in the store I would be cautious with what I do, if had to put something in my pocket or purse, make sure that I am clearly not stealing anything. With the modern technology of the Internet, we don’t know exactly its capabilities, so we watch what we say and do online. I’ve heard stories of online pedophiles being caught online chatting with little children, and luring them to rap them. These rare occasions of online pedophiles are probably at a very small amount because of human fear of someone somewhere watching looking for them, which is truly a good thing. I think it is sad that the world has come to a stage were cameras are used, but humans have proved that it is needed. After such a great amount of killing and stealing that are so prevalent today is mortifying. Bullets flying through children’s bedrooms, trains being bombed, planes crashing into towers, these are all very good reasons to have cameras in public places. Cameras have given us a sense of protection and safety. People are more reluctant to cut through a red light when a police camera may be watching them. If cameras keep us even less then safer than without, let cameras stay, to help violence and destruction be put to a minimum.

Introduction Blog and Russian Art Scene

Title: Introduction Blog
Date: Mon. Sept. 19th, 2005.
Time: Unknown

Note: Wrote this blog entry after reading the introduction and first chapter of the book by Rachael Greene.

It is amazing how many people are recorded in history towards advancement in the art world. When I use the term advancement, I mean change, the advancement of people’s thoughts on how art can be formed and how it can be presented. But the problem is, everyone has his or her won interpretation for art and their won definition of art. Once some people started Internet art, others did not agree that it was art. But opened mindedness brought advancement to the technologies that display art. Being able to coordinate with engineers, computer programmer and artists, new ideals and definitions of art came to existence. My definition of art today is a person’s view of anything that makes them stop and think or be in awe of how it is created. Art is a creation, sometimes accidental creation, and sometimes a purposeful creation. But I think from the discovery of the Internet it has only widened the definition of art. The Internet has given art in all its form a greater page to be created and greater viewing audience.


Russian Art Scene
It seems to me, in a certain thought that programs as they became more sophisticated, and its capabilities are greater, then the artist won’t be using their own capabilities, but adapting to what the program can do. Never know Russia had a lot of involvement in the Internet development. Another discussion could be about if things created on the computer is art. Well to discuss that, it would be very hard because we still do not have the definition of art. But like I mentioned earlier, our own definition of art, and things that we accept as art today has changed from what they have accepted in the past because of technologies advancement.