PressPausePlay

In the documentary PressPausePlay, famous artist's talk about the modern and the effect of technology and mass media has had on the art of the world, especially music. The basic battle that is fought throughout the film is whether the mass media is helping the spread the culture of art or if mass media is destroying it and creating democratisation. Olafur Arnalds, a modern technology composer who was discovered over the Internet, is the major push through out the film that technology is good, that technology is changing the world of music for the better.
A movie director Lena Dunham, interviewed several times throughout the film says this within the first couple of minutes of the film, and sets the stage for the battle of art in the modern era. "Theres a million different platforms, so that all really good for people want to express themselves but also makes it a lot harder to kind of break through all the noise." (Dunham) All this technology is opening up doors for artists but it could also be destroying the magic in the art.
Andrew Keen, an author interviewed within the film is obviously against all the technology and he speaks about humans think that they are they artist and every human thinks that they can do better then the next guy. To put it in simple words he says this, "Its global masturbation." ( Keen) Humans are loving them selves more then the art that humans listen/look at. Mass media has destroyed the elite image that art used have. All though people within the film says technology is destroying arts commutation eliminate, many other believe that technology in helping with the communication in art.
Brenda Walker, a music journalist believe that all this technology is helping artist to open doors to a whole new thing and is helping to create messages that could never have been shared without technology and mass media "I think this is an incredibly fertile time for artists there is no cap on creativity, the technology advances have given the artist an open door..." (Brenda  Walker music journalist) Art should be able to be experienced by everyone and be able to move everyone. Maybe art is begging to lose some of its power and it is harder for a great artist to be discovered, but artist's live for changing people life and communicating with an audience, that's all that should matter and is cared about with modern day artist, not money.

Within the film, Arnalds is asked to compose a piece of music for a full orchestra, something he has never done before. He is very worried about, for he is worried that those in the audience will not like the piece for it is not totally classical and maybe not as amazing. Even so he says this. " But I think it sound good, and that's what matters...and I hope that people realize that's its not about the elitism and rules...but about doing something nice." This digtial world humans now live is helping to spread a message and amazing art to people that would never have been able to feel or see that art do to mass media. This is changing the world.

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For me this film spoke very deeply. I am living in this age of change when it comes to the arts. I believe that what we are creating is more beautiful then ever and with the help of technology art is toughing more people then ever, and that is truly amazing and something I think I have longed to see and continue to see grow throughout our small world. Art is amazing and we have the chance to spread it and share it so, why not?

                                                           

Blog 22

My class and I have begun to watch this film which discuss's how the world of the arts has changed due to mass Media and technology. So far the film is very interesting to me. Being a fellow musician , visual artist, and me also living in the "new age" of technology, I see somewhat first hand how technology is changing the world of the arts. I will not go into much detail about the film now, for as a class we will be doing that later in the week, but I do wish  to share the music video. In the film, they interview an Irish musician by the name of Olafur Arnalds. He creates music by mixing classical with new age sounds and technology. This music video below is one of his. The video was done by a fellow fan of his, and after seeing it , he made sure that it became the official video for the song. Even though the movie only showed a second or two of the music video, it captured me. I then went home and watched it, finding myself on the brig of tears by the end. It s truly beautiful music and a beautiful video. Its amazing what technology can do.

Blog Post 21; Ceremony Complete

My class and I finally finished the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko this week, with its rather surprising and almost "Cliff hanging" feel of an ending. I was very unsure what to expect at the end of the novel and was pleasantly surprised to see how much is resolved just in the last fave pages. I was amazed how Silko made the ending resolve, but still made it have a depth to the ending that left many things unsaid, left to be thought over by the reader. The poem at the very end of the novel is an excellent example. Even two days later, I continue to mull over the true meaning behind the poem. The poem made me feel resolved and made me feel like the story had come to end, but I can tell that the poem holds much more than that, a deeper, underlying meaning. So I once again find my self battling with the deeper meaning of this novel even after it has been finished, which is what I think, Silko really intended this novel to do in the first place. She has succeed with me.

"Whirling darkness/ started its journey/ with its witchery/and/its witchery/ has returned upon it./ Its witchery/ has returned/ into its belly./ Its own Witchery/ has returned all around it./ Whirling darkness/ has come back on itself./ It keeps all its witchery/ to itself./ It doesn't open its eyes/ with its witchery./ It has stiffened/ with the effects of its own witchery./ It is dead for now.../ Sunrise/ accept this offering./ Sunrise." (Silko 242-244)

Blog Post 20; The Love Remains

I have now herd from about three men what it is like to go through war. I have had all of these three presenters in school and each of them have held a place in my heart. Each story is different and takes place in different eras, but their is one thing that remains; the pain that is felt when that solider comes home. Weather they lost family or friends to war, the hurt, guilt, and terror of the lives they have taken, and lives lost along side them, always come home. In the novel Ceremony by Leslie Maramon Silko, we see the main character Tayo, a war veteran of World War Two, fighting with the P.T.s and the knowledge of war after coming home, and trying to fight off the pain he feels for all of his loved ones he has lost. Even those Tayo's case in special in some way that he watched his cousin die in a jungle and came home to find his uncle dead, the pain that Tayo feels follows any solider . There is a quote within Ceremony in which Tayo reminds himself that they are not totally gone. That his family and all the friends and people that died still love him, even after death, they are not gone from his heart. I think this paragraph is very important and something I think every solider read and anyone how griefs for loved ones, friend or family.

"The mountain could not be lost to them, because it was in their bones; Josiah and Rocky were not far away. They were close; they had always been close. And pulsing over him as strong as it had ever been. They loved him that way; he could still feel the love they had for him. The damage that had been done had never reached this feeling. This feeling was their life, vitality locked deep in blood memory, and the people were strong, and the fifth world endured, and nothing was ever lost a long as the love remained." (Silko 204)

Blog Post 19

In the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, racism is a common theme discussed in the novel. Now that my class and I are close to ending of the novel, the pure hate that ringed throughout the first half of novel has begun to change to understanding the reasons behind of racism,  and why humans have created and continue hate each-other races'. Even though there is obvious reasons for why Tayo should hate the white man,  the race that took his culture, his home, his life, and in the end took his very reasons to live, Tayo has begun to see a new light. He sees that Whites are just humans as well, and there is more to racism then just hate. Humans have created racism and hate because they are afraid. Humans have been lying to themselves for centuries about other races because they are so afraid and don't know how to get rid of the fear, so humans have continue to think that the path they are taking must be true, the path of hating what they fear. If humans continue to think this way, there will always be hate, and we need to learn to stop lying to ourselves and others about what we are doing and what others are doing really and see what we all truly, humans.

"The Lie. He cut into the wire as if cutting away the lie inside himself. The liars had fooled everyone, white people and Indians alike; as long as people believed the lies, they would never be able to see what had been done to them or what they were doing to each other." (Silko 177)