["Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. In common parlance, the term smart, metaphorically used, is frequently the synonym of situational and behavioral (i.e. observed and context dependent) intelligence."]
After watching Dancer in the Dark a couple of days ago, I began thinking about Björk and her other work (specifically her work as a recording artist). I would argue that her music - her sound - is something of an acquired taste, and I know many who say they just haven't gotten into her "out-there" stuff.
I like her. (I didn't at first.) After watching her speak in live TV interviews, and learning more about her creative intelligence and her arguably anarchist attitude towards the Hollywood mainstream, I came around. She's just really interesting (whether you can relate to her much or not), and I think she deserves at least little bit of credit for being such a consistently unique performer.
Here's the award-winning (and somewhat controversial) video for her song, "All Is Full of Love", which I think is really cool:
9.2.07
going viral
["Viral phenomena are objects or patterns able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. ...The concept of something, other than a biological virus, being viral came into vogue just after the Internet became widely popular in the mid to late 1990s."]
The focus of this evening's 20/20 news segment was on the internet and it's home to "the viral revolution." The featured discussion touched on almost everything from the explosion of YouTube to Perez Hilton and his famous celeb-rag blog.
Take a look at 20/20 for clips from tonight's feature, "Caught on Tape."
The focus of this evening's 20/20 news segment was on the internet and it's home to "the viral revolution." The featured discussion touched on almost everything from the explosion of YouTube to Perez Hilton and his famous celeb-rag blog.
Take a look at 20/20 for clips from tonight's feature, "Caught on Tape."
8.2.07
retinitis pigmentosa (fade to black)
"[Retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, is a genetic eye condition. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some sight all their life. Others go completely blind from RP, in some cases as early as childhood. Progression of RP is different in each case."]
Sometimes, experimental art has the effect of distancing the viewer from it. It might be that odd formal techniques or other stylistic abstractions employed by the artist in its creation make a piece seem altogether absent from reality - and therefore inaccessible. However, it seems that in other cases, artistic experimentation yields a result so uncannily "real" that viewers must struggle to separate their own perceptions of reality from that of the representation itself.
I found myself struggling (and ultimately failing) to remain in control of my viewing experience yesterday when my digital photo studio classmates and I watched the film, Dancer in the Dark, directed by Lars von Trier.
Usually I consider myself fairly stoic when watching even the most emotionally-charged of films. Perhaps this is a defense mechanism I've developed (a front), but regardless, it's rare for me to shed tears or show genuine fear during a viewing experience.
This movie snuck up on me like nothing I've experienced in quite some time, leaving me shaky and emotionally drained when the credits began to roll. ...And honestly, I'm still trying to figure out just how it hit me so hard.
Released in 2000, this musical melodrama stars Björk as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who spends long hours working in a factory in rural America. Selma guards a sad secret: she is in fact suffering from a genetic degenerative disease (perhaps something similar to retinitis pigmentosa) that is causing her to go blind, and she knows that her young son will suffer the same fate if she can't save up enough money to secure him an operation. What keeps her going day to day is her passion for Hollywood musicals, which offer her escape and a vision of a world where "nothing dreadful ever happens."
The movie is noteworthy in part because it was filmed exclusively on hand-held digital cameras, and the musical scenes themselves were actually shot with about 100 static cameras (with the images later stitched together in sequence). The film is therefore unique - pioneering even - and has a striking hand-made, documentary-like aesthetic.
(Here is the link to the official site for the movie where the theatrical trailer can be viewed.)
My understanding is that the role of Selma was altered somewhat to be more in keeping with Björk's persona. Even with this knowledge I cannot imagine any other actress in the role - she is a stunning presence. Björk is really not of this world, ...and I mean that in a good way. Her Selma steals our sympathies within the first few minutes of the movie (and I'm still grieving for her).
Sometimes, experimental art has the effect of distancing the viewer from it. It might be that odd formal techniques or other stylistic abstractions employed by the artist in its creation make a piece seem altogether absent from reality - and therefore inaccessible. However, it seems that in other cases, artistic experimentation yields a result so uncannily "real" that viewers must struggle to separate their own perceptions of reality from that of the representation itself.
I found myself struggling (and ultimately failing) to remain in control of my viewing experience yesterday when my digital photo studio classmates and I watched the film, Dancer in the Dark, directed by Lars von Trier.
Usually I consider myself fairly stoic when watching even the most emotionally-charged of films. Perhaps this is a defense mechanism I've developed (a front), but regardless, it's rare for me to shed tears or show genuine fear during a viewing experience.
This movie snuck up on me like nothing I've experienced in quite some time, leaving me shaky and emotionally drained when the credits began to roll. ...And honestly, I'm still trying to figure out just how it hit me so hard.
Released in 2000, this musical melodrama stars Björk as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who spends long hours working in a factory in rural America. Selma guards a sad secret: she is in fact suffering from a genetic degenerative disease (perhaps something similar to retinitis pigmentosa) that is causing her to go blind, and she knows that her young son will suffer the same fate if she can't save up enough money to secure him an operation. What keeps her going day to day is her passion for Hollywood musicals, which offer her escape and a vision of a world where "nothing dreadful ever happens."
The movie is noteworthy in part because it was filmed exclusively on hand-held digital cameras, and the musical scenes themselves were actually shot with about 100 static cameras (with the images later stitched together in sequence). The film is therefore unique - pioneering even - and has a striking hand-made, documentary-like aesthetic.
(Here is the link to the official site for the movie where the theatrical trailer can be viewed.)
My understanding is that the role of Selma was altered somewhat to be more in keeping with Björk's persona. Even with this knowledge I cannot imagine any other actress in the role - she is a stunning presence. Björk is really not of this world, ...and I mean that in a good way. Her Selma steals our sympathies within the first few minutes of the movie (and I'm still grieving for her).
4.2.07
the secondary auditory cortex
[Within the auditory system, which is responsible for the general processing of sound in the brain, the secondary auditory cortex is involved in the more specific perception of “harmonic, melodic and rhythmic patterns."]
I really love music. This is probably something many people would say. I really, really do appreciate it though (to the point that it might qualify as an addiction). I particularly love discovering new bands, and admittedly take some pride in being called an audiophile/audio"file" by friends when I can identify some random track on an old mix tape that hasn't been played in a decade (I specialize in bands who occupied the limelight circa '96, give or take about three years).
(Anyway) imagine my elation when I was recently referred to Pandora, a new internet radio site created by The Music Genome Project. First of all, the neurobio nerd in me loves the mere thought of experts seeking to "map" the musical genome. Plus, and more importantly, this is one of the best ways to find new music I've encountered yet. Some large (mystical?) online database stores the unique identities of countless songs - based on "everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony." So, you can type in the name of a favorite band or song, and Pandora will find songs and artists whose musical identity is similar to that of your pick. The radio stream is interactive as well - you can indicate whether you like or dislike a song being played, and this feedback is then used by the program to further personalize subsequent song selections. It's good fun.
I just wanted to let you know in case you might be stuck in a "life soundtrack" rut. (There is hope!)
I really love music. This is probably something many people would say. I really, really do appreciate it though (to the point that it might qualify as an addiction). I particularly love discovering new bands, and admittedly take some pride in being called an audiophile/audio"file" by friends when I can identify some random track on an old mix tape that hasn't been played in a decade (I specialize in bands who occupied the limelight circa '96, give or take about three years).
(Anyway) imagine my elation when I was recently referred to Pandora, a new internet radio site created by The Music Genome Project. First of all, the neurobio nerd in me loves the mere thought of experts seeking to "map" the musical genome. Plus, and more importantly, this is one of the best ways to find new music I've encountered yet. Some large (mystical?) online database stores the unique identities of countless songs - based on "everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony." So, you can type in the name of a favorite band or song, and Pandora will find songs and artists whose musical identity is similar to that of your pick. The radio stream is interactive as well - you can indicate whether you like or dislike a song being played, and this feedback is then used by the program to further personalize subsequent song selections. It's good fun.
I just wanted to let you know in case you might be stuck in a "life soundtrack" rut. (There is hope!)
1.2.07
Freudian slip(pers)
["A Freudian slip, or parapraxia, is an error in speech or memory that is believed to be caused by the unconscious mind. Some errors, such as a woman accidentally calling her husband by the name of the other man with whom she is having an affair, seem to represent relatively clear cases of Freudian slips. In other cases, the error might appear to be trivial or bizarre, but may show some deeper meaning on analysis. A Freudian slip is not limited to a slip of the tongue, or to sexual desires. It can extend to our word perception where we might read a word incorrectly because of our fixations."]
I ran across these and decided that they may be the greatest things I've ever seen.
On a similar note, I was pretty amused when I saw this, which one of my friends recently put up as her Facebook picture:
It's really weird and slightly disconcerting, but it is clever. I'm not a big believer in the therapeutic potential of psychoanalysis, or really any of Freud's theories on fixations and female "envy" for that matter, but he certainly was hugely influential in the development of modern psychology as both a philosophy and a science. (Plus, I really like those slippers... and they certainly wouldn't exist without the existence of the man himself.)
I ran across these and decided that they may be the greatest things I've ever seen.
On a similar note, I was pretty amused when I saw this, which one of my friends recently put up as her Facebook picture:
It's really weird and slightly disconcerting, but it is clever. I'm not a big believer in the therapeutic potential of psychoanalysis, or really any of Freud's theories on fixations and female "envy" for that matter, but he certainly was hugely influential in the development of modern psychology as both a philosophy and a science. (Plus, I really like those slippers... and they certainly wouldn't exist without the existence of the man himself.)
prosopagnosia II
[Thoughts on self-portraiture as an act of representation... and my own problems with "face blindness"]
The first project my digital photo classmates and I were assigned to involved creating a portrait of a human subject. We were asked to explore the various ways that we could "render identity" within a photo, which is actually a very difficult thing to do - particularly when asked to portray one's self.
I personally have never really done a self-portrait, which is why I was encouraged by my instructor to attempt it for this first project. No one sees themselves objectively - this is a given - but it's still intimidating to focus on the self as the subject; to make the artist the one represented in the work of art. Most would acknowledge that the presence of the artist is evident in any piece, regardless of whether or not it's a self-portrait. We always impose our own perspective when we frame a photo. ...I just had to settle on what perspective I would impose on myself.
In order to avoid getting too self-conscious (though I suppose that was really the whole point...), I decided to experiment with a new formal approach rather than trying too hard to create something that defined "me" (because, honestly, I don't know how to do that). I have always liked the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, so I took in some of her images as inspiration.
Here's what I came up with in the end:
(All rights reserved.)
I have a hard time recognizing myself in these photos.
The first project my digital photo classmates and I were assigned to involved creating a portrait of a human subject. We were asked to explore the various ways that we could "render identity" within a photo, which is actually a very difficult thing to do - particularly when asked to portray one's self.
I personally have never really done a self-portrait, which is why I was encouraged by my instructor to attempt it for this first project. No one sees themselves objectively - this is a given - but it's still intimidating to focus on the self as the subject; to make the artist the one represented in the work of art. Most would acknowledge that the presence of the artist is evident in any piece, regardless of whether or not it's a self-portrait. We always impose our own perspective when we frame a photo. ...I just had to settle on what perspective I would impose on myself.
In order to avoid getting too self-conscious (though I suppose that was really the whole point...), I decided to experiment with a new formal approach rather than trying too hard to create something that defined "me" (because, honestly, I don't know how to do that). I have always liked the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, so I took in some of her images as inspiration.
Here's what I came up with in the end:
(All rights reserved.)I have a hard time recognizing myself in these photos.
prosopagnosia
["Prosopagnosia (sometimes known as face blindness) is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize objects may be relatively intact."]There is currently an exhibition at the LACMA that features works by one of my favorite artists, René Magritte. Several other contemporary artists also have work on display in the exhibit, which explores "The Treachery of Images." The exhibit appears to be beautifully designed.
Images are a source of information that help us to construct our understandings of reality. The theory that human perception is a subjective psychological phenomenon arguably served as inspiration for the surrealist movement within the world of art and visual representation. Magritte's works explore reality as a construct, as well as the perceptual disconnect between dreams and reality. It seems that such dream-like imagery might advocate for freedom from the restrictive nature of the rational, socially imposed "reality" of existence. (I think Freud would be proud.)
image credit: Magritte; originally uploaded by _PaulS_
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