have a seat

Took this picture on Sunset Rock in Highlands, NC in September, 2005. Former facebook pic and current myspace pic. Liked it for those forums primarily b/c many folks have large pics of their faces. But like the pic for other reasons as well.

According to Paul M. Lester in his recently published (2006) textbook Visual Communication: Images with Messages, the brain reacts more quickly and readily to 4 visual attributes: color, form, depth and movement. He says, "these four visual cues are the major concerns of any visual communicator when designing a picture to be remembered by a viewer."

I believe Lester is correct to the extent that these four characteristics can most strongly influence an audience's reaction to a visual work. For example, the eye can begin with the closest object in the picture, the left knee in the left corner and follow the line made by the right foot to the two sandals or to the small bush at the edge of the rock which leads to the edge of the rock and the trees. The tan bush at the rock's edge light color pulls the eye.

I also like the balance between the blue on the pants in the foreground and the blue in the sky in the background.

The picture could be much better, of course. It could be more balanced between the sky and the rock. Currently the shot is split into rough thirds. The knee begins at one third and the rock ends at the second third. It would be nice to have tried this shot in fourths.

Pretty pleased with the colors, but can't take any credit for them. Didn't plan to wear neutral shoes and jeans simply to make a nice shot.

And, being more honest, didn't think about much except that I liked what I saw through the lens.

A bit more honesty--(vous ne voyez pas mes amis et notre vin rouge).

I'm not buddying up with Hunter S. here, just saying that Lester (and certainly many others before him including Hubel and wiesel with the cat experiments :O!) is correct. My audience, in this case, was only me. I naturally preferred a shot that included movement, depth, and some balance of form and color.

What Lester does not describe in his work, that I am not left wondering, is why we naturally have these preferences. How do they work with (or against) post-modern design? Is art anything more than techne? Is there a remainder? Why do natural landscapes evoke emotion?

?

A Visual Raison D'Etre: Triplets de Belleville

Not a spoken word in the film, but it conveys a moving and brilliant story. If I had to live inside an illustrated world, it would be the Triplets of Belleville.

The illustrations and the sounds are seamless. Visually, it is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. The precision is amazing, from the bicycle wheels to the riders' form to the triplets movements as they play their fridgerator, vacuum and newspaper on stage.

Muted colors and intricate scenery delight the eye. The film has visual ambience. It's pleasing the view without seeming to try too hard. It's subtle. The film shyly flirts with the scopophile. "You're welcome to gaze at my beauty. Look and believe."

A must-see. A favorite.

Productive(?) Censorship

A defense of Plato and possibly an argument for our nation's (don't mistake this for a party's, partial in other words) policy towards images that excite, Judith Butler's "Implicit Censorship" argues for the formative (hello Foucault) power of censorship.

At first her argument sounds like political philosopher Leo Strauss who threatened the possibility of the creative act by connecting individual ability to suppression. He said, "literature (here I include all forms of art) is essentially related to a society which is not liberal."

Think theory/criticism has nothing to do with everyday life? Check out his former teachers/students. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss

Ok. What if we're not ready to sign up for Strauss' camp?

Butler allows for censorship. She doesn't necessarily argue that we should censor; rather she says it happens. Again, think Foucault here. Instead of complaining about this censorship we should "embody the norms that govern speakability." This censorship can be "formative of subjects." Essentially, through discipline and not speaking, we will eventually be able to speak and speak powerfullly and meaningfully.

Then we can "compel the terms of modernity to embrace those they have traditionally excluded."

She seems to suggest that we should seek change internally; we should change our internal states first and subsequently seek internally to change our republic.

I believe she is correct to the extent that some are capable of embodying these norms that govern speakability. However, some do not have the option to embody norms. It, of course, depends on where you draw a line.

For Strauss the line stops after embracing only "the young men who might become philosophers." I'm not willing to make that concession, but I don't know how to reconcile the underclass, who because of their inherent status, are not allowed access to the avenues toward subject status.

power of images

Tonight we watched September 11 footage in class. It reminded me of what we don't see. The prevented power of certain images.

mouse or potato?

Technics and (the end of?) Time: A Response to Stiegler's Technics and Time, 1

If there is a teleology of technics that is not a human process (72), then we must redefine the meaning of organic and inorganic (76).

This redefinition is the necessary counterpart to the anticipation that is a "dynamic proper to the technical object tending toward its concetization" (81).

Either way we are future oriented beings. Either way we will experience anxiety and a concern about time.

If this teleology, if the end of the process of technology, is not a human end, then we need a terminology that will enable our active participation in a material sense. This terminology (technological supplement?) will help us to transform our anticipation into a positive catalyst to a necessary process.

This redefinition would present itself as a blurring of the definition between living and non-living.

Mankind after internal posthetic evolution mounts prosthetic matter (see above). The two states of matter combine to the mutual heightened release of potential energy.

A position that considers particular matter nonliving forgets Heisenberg. Stiegler's position--"The evolution of the 'prosthesis,' not itself living, by which the human is nonetheless defined as a living being, constitutes the reality of the human's evolution, as if, with it, the history of life were to continue by means other than life: this is the paradox of a living being characterized in its forms of life by the nonliving--or by the traces that its life leaves in the nonliving."

We seem to solve the paradox when everything is living, in different states of potential energy reserve. If we have any interest in technology, if we want to resist participation in "culture that has made itself into a system of defense against technics" (66), then we must reconcile the non-human teleology of technics through the application of a more-encompassing system of calling.

Evolving Maps and Dissolving Territories

A bit of searching so far. Can't tell where Baudrillard has written about Second Life, but the more I learn about the virtual world, the more I wish he had. It seems like he should care about it. On the other hand, his more recent writings have also focused on the war. Guess he has plenty to fill his time.

A Second Life blog:
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com
And, in another post from today, Tateru Nino writes about Zefrank. If you haven't, check out www.zefrank.com. Ridiculous, existential, genius...and duckies!

V i SUAL COMMUN i CATION

What does it mean to communicate visually? Visual comm./graphic comm. seems to be a trendy field these days. Clemson's graphic comm. major has a 100% job placement rating. The students paint, print and practice layout among other things. They create. In some ways the major seems similar to fine arts.

Thought that visual comm. this semester would be similar to the digital side of graphic comm. Not so much. We're working in the virtual world Second Life and creating projects such as websites, games and films.

I expect that when we study(?) Second Life, we will find that questions of visual appeal influence every aspect of the program. In this way, I do not believe that Second Life is different from the "real" (outside of the program) world; questions of visual appeal influence every aspect of existence. However, with Second Life, the visual is (virtually) all we have access to. The visual is the conditioned sense (of the main six...excluding, say, common sense, memory, sense of style). In the arguably more-interactive non-Second Life world, the other five senses are able to compete with the visual. The visual becomes seamless. I would suppose that those who pay attention to the visual in every situation would have an advantage.

For example, it would seem that visual communication includes the furnishings we choose and the way we arrange them. The visual space we choose to create for ourselves and our guests. Take a walk through an office building. Notice the different ways people have chosen to arrange their furniture and belongings. Unless these workers' guests will touch/interact with the objects, the design of space is mostly visual design.

V i SUAL COMMUN i CATION isn't new. It isn't a secret formula that originated in the 60s or a market that McDonald's, Coke, and Apple have cornered. Rather, visual communication and questions of the aesthetics of appearance, have become more easily apparent in our scopophilic world.

Nebraska researchers posit hotdog/cancer link

http://www.newsnetnebraska.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/14/44e1313101214

Note that the risk depends/varies according to the level of sodium nitrite present. Not very helpful. Went to Ingles last night to look into this.

Every brand of hotdogs (even the Kosher brand) at the Central, SC, Ingles contains sodium nitrite. On every package it is listed last or second to last in the ingredients.

Got curious.

Every pre-packaged meat except two brands of sausage contained sodium nitrite. Almost every time the ingredient was listed last.

If you don't want to consume sodium nitrite and you still want the dog (or meat-ish material on a stick), check out Morning Star Farms dogs/ corndogs or Smart Dogs.

Mmmmm. Dogs.

A Second Life for an Argument with Baudrillard

Final paper from Literary Theory last semster:

Have been following threads from Baudrillard's Simulations since May. It lead me to drive to Boston and later to two projects. The most recent one [right] also addressed Second Life.

Now, in Visual Comm. we're focusing on/ working with Second Life.

I'm hoping to continue the argument against Baudrillard (and for a different conception of the virtual) with a multi-media presentation (maybe a short film).

We'll see. Either way, isn't it strange how things connect?

Where's Prospero? The Prestige as a Critique of Scientific Invention

If you're interested in humanity's relationship to technology, then you should definitely check out The Prestige. Or, if Christian Bale's leather-tastic performance in Batman Begins only whetted your appetite, then Christopher Nolan's most recent film, which also stars Bale, should satisfy your longings.

It seems that the Nolan brothers might have taken some lessons from Derrida when they wrote the screenplay. Throughout The Presitge Bale and Michael Caine's characters reference "the secret." They tell us that once the audience knows your secret, you will be nothing to them.

So, the secret constitutes something for the audience only when it remains a secret. The substance is lost as soon as the trick is revealed.

In magic the prestige is the reappearance of the signified/signifier at the end of the trick.

The Tesla coil [pictured above] provides the final, yet-to-be revealed (magic?) technique. With it, Hugh Jackman's character is able to duplicate himself. Because of it, we are challenged to question the ethical implications of invention.

Whether or not this ultimate or absolute prestige should be explained by science, magic or cheap plot tricks, the Nolans seem to suggest that magic is simply technique which few understand.

An argument for empiricism, we are told that a close visual read will produce all answers.

It's not a Romantic sentiment, but whether you're a fan of Romanticism, a (post?)modernist advocate, a follower of the cloning debate, a post-structuralist disciple, or a victim of Bale's Batmanly backside, do yourself a favor and see The Prestige.

the fall