Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin Was born on January 19, 1916 in Taplow, Buckinghamshire. Through out his life Gysin would become a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist. He is best known for his cut-up technique. The cut-up technique involved taking preexisting text from any sources and cutting it apart from its original order and rearranging it in a new way to form an entirely different meaning from the original intention of the piece. Collaborating with engineer Ian Sommervill, Gysin also invented the Dreamachine. The Dreamachine was designed to be viewed with your eyes, and operated by creating a flicker effect. William S. Burroughs has been quoted saying that "Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected."

Bauhaus & McCarthy

Bauhaus was a school of design operated in Germany from 1919 to 1933. Founded by architect Walter Gropius, the school had an immeasurable affect on the design standards for architecture that would set the foundation for the principles we apply to modern day architecture. The marked difference between the Bauhaus style and previous styles, was that the Bauhaus style didn't have ornament and ostentatious facades. Instead it utilized a balance between function, artistic, and technical means. In 1933 the school was shutdown by the Nazis and many of its faculty moved to the United States. Bauhaus teachings dominated architecture for decades

Joseph McCarthy was born on November 14, 1908 and he died on May 2, 1957. McCarthy worked as a US Senator for the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until he died in 1957. During the 1950's McCarthy became one of the most dominate visible public figure during the cold war. McCarthy made claims that there were numerous Communist and Soviet spies and sympathizers working inside the U.S. federal government and other outlets. Finally the United States censured McCarthy due to his tactics and inability to provide support for his claims. The term McCarthyism was developed in the 1950's to refer to McCarthy's practices and any other similar anti-communist movements. 

Grid Art Project

Dada Manifesto

     Beginning in the early twentieth century, Dadaism was an art movement that was spawned from the European avant-garde. Beginning in 1916, the Dada movement was a response to the horrors of World War I. Dada is generally known for its lack of conformity to the rules of classical art. Dada works utilized many different mediums, including visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design. Dada and those who fallowed Dada generally affiliated themselves with the radical left. The primary idea behind Dada was taking an object and decontextualize it from its intended use. As a result of the decontextualization that object could then be considered art. Furthermore Dada focused on using letters to create sounds or pieces of art work that would be pleasing to either look at or listen to but didn’t necessarily have any formal meaning. 

Video Games and Bullying

     Over the relatively short history of video games there has also been some controversy between children and parents regarding the addictive qualities that video games seem to possess. However, in more recent years a new debate has come to the forefront of the video game world of whether or not video games can actually lead to children becoming more violent. When video games first started to become popular the most violent thing that you could possibly do was shoot at some flying rocks with a triangle that some what resembled a space ship. Since then video games have become highly developed and complex. They now include blood and gore that seems so realistic that, to someone who doesn't know any better, it could almost be considered to be real. So as a result is this causing children who play these games to become more violent?

     I read an article on this controversial topic that was published by the Washington Post. The article explained that a study that had been done by Simmons College on children for ages 7 - 15 who play violent video games believe that some of the forms of violence that they are exposed to are "acceptable or even right." The study claims that this is the result of a lack of perspective of the victims in the games. In addition the study also found that children who are of the age 7 to 12 often play video games that are of the M rating. In conclusion, is it really the video games fault that some children are becoming more accepting of violence; or is the fault of the irresponsible parents who willingly will buy games for their children that are ratted for a mature audience?

Gates vs Jobs

Apple

it was revealed in Steve Jobs' official biogrophy why he chose to name his company Apple. In his early years Jobs worked at an Apple orchard where he adopted a diet cosisting only of fruit. He enjoyed the simplicity and fun nature of the name Apple so he decided to make that the name of his company.

Ray Kurzweil

Raymond Kurzweil, usually referred to as Ray Kurzweil is one of America's brilliant minds. Kurzweil has worked as an author, inventor, and futurist though out his life. However, while Kurzweil is commonly recognized as an advocate for futurists. His opinions and standings on the technological concepts he has have met with significant criticism from scientists and thinkers for his ideas. Growing up in New York City, Kurzweil showed a significant interest in computers and future ideas from an early age. In 1963 when he was only 15 years old Kurzweil wrote his first computer program. Later in 1965, he was invited to appear on the television show "I've got a Secret" that aired on CBS. On the show, Kurzweil preformed a song on piano that was composed by a computer he had built. The pattern recognition software that he created studied pieces by classical composers and then took what it learned from them and created its own song. More recently Kurzweil has been discussing how by the year 2020 we will have computers that will be powerful enough to be able to simulate the human brain. However, it wont be until the year 2029 that we will have actually completed the reverse engineering of the human brain. In addition, Kurzweil has also expressed interest in using computers to attempt a construction of a DNA clone of his late father.

Flip Book Project

The Shadow

     The Shadow first premiered on September 16, 1937. The show stared Orson Welles who was an up and coming actor. The Shadow was released before Welles created War of the World. In the program there was a man who was never scene but you only ever heard him. The characters name was The Shadow. The Shadow had many powers, such as great strength, defying gravity, speaking any language, unraveling any code, and becoming invisible with his famous ability to "cloud men's minds" that would aid him in helping people. The program was originally named "Detective Story" however, as a result of the popularity of the character The Shadow, the show was soon renamed after this star.

     In the episode of The Shadow that I listened to a young man was framed by two bank robbers to, not only assist in the crime unknowingly, but also to take the blame for the crime. As a result the young man was found guilty of several crimes and was sentenced to die in the electric chair. However, The Shadow saved the day by helping the young man provide the proof to show that he was innocent.

The Shadow

Radio and World of Worlds

     Over the last week we have been discussing radio and the impact that radio had on the world. On March 29, 1899 Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio message that would span the English Channel. However, it wouldn't be until 1916 that the idea of bring the radio into peoples homes would be introduced. One element that really helped to promote the utilization of the radio was World War One. In 1920 KDKA was the first radio station ever. Based out of Pittsburgh, the radio station broadcasted at  1020 kHz. However, I found it to be surprising that the first commercial wasn't aired on the radio until 1922.

     As with the introduction of most things radio caused some controversy at the beginning of its life. An example of the was the program entitled World of Worlds. World of Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama  anthology series. The program was fallowed a news bulletin format that suggested that an aileen invasion was currently in progress. In an attempt to add to the realism of the show it ran without commercial breaks. However, fallowing the airing of the programing that was a wide spread panic and outrage by listeners how thought that the show was a real news broadcast. News papers and prominent public figures described that shows format as being cruel and deceptive.

Earthquake Reaction

     When I asked my Mom if she remembered the movie Earthquake she said she did recall it. Her opinion of the movie was that it was not one of the greatest disaster movies; she thought that Towering Inferno was much better. My Mom did remember hearing from people who went to see it at the movies that you felt like you were in the movie because the sound was so loud and realistic. Other then that she didn't remember any other stories relating to the movie.