For The Art of Instant Gratification, I am fond of the way that Stephen Joel Trachtenberg briefly describes the changes of photography since its birth in 1839. This essay also raises my interest in investigation more about the motivation of taking pictures.
Referring to the history of photography, The Art of Instant Gratification by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg discusses the significance of taking pictures for the masses. From the very beginning of photography, the legend that people relates the portrait to the soul is absurd though has its reason. The knowledge about themselves that most people gain at that period is not enough to explain the images made by photography. Except the mirror, it is the first time that people see their portraits in the images which is very clear and realistic. I still marvel at the magic of light and chemicals on the film today, let alone the surprise of people in early nineteenth century. People’ interest of collecting memory by pictures grows. But technological limitations make it difficult to accessible for the masses. According to Trachtenberg’s essay, until the end of twentieth century, photography became tangible. Today, new techniques allow digital recording images to enjoy a large population. Trachtenberg believes that although the technological development of photography changes many aspects of taking pictures, public’s desire of maintaining their memory remains the same.
The investigation about the significance of photography in this essay triggers my thinking about the meaning of taking pictures for me. Holding my digital camera in hand, I try to imagine the size and complicated procedure of processing film at early nineteenth century. How much effort was devoted to the improvement of photography and camera before we can easily press a button to share the images all around the world? It is true that the satisfy makes people enjoy capturing pictures and transmission of pictures through modern media everyday. We are provided opportunities to collect our memories in a most convenient way in history. The instant gratification serves as a critical reason that inspires the progress. It gradually leads to our dependent on photography today, which reveals that we tend to gain an understanding of ourselves from the images that we capture. The camera is an extension of human eyes following our choices on taking pictures. The way that I choose to take a picture results how the image would appear in many degree. When I was recording images for drift 2, for common subject matters, if I tried a different angle or distance, I would find interesting images. When I look at these pictures, I would find that I am following certain ways to watch this world. The image can be seen as a mirror which reflects my thought about seeing things around me. Watching other artists’ pictures also allows me to study their ways of taking pictures. The more I experiment on my photography, the more I learn about myself. My study leads me to more innovative and inspiring way of seeing the world.
Showing posts with label Reading Response. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading Response. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Free the Listening
--Listening to Myself Listen by S. Arden Hill
Listening to Myself Listen is an interesting article by S. Arden Hill. The hearing and listening are very common behaviors for us in our daily lives. But I was not aware the differences between them as well as the focus of listening until I read Hill’s article. The examples in Hill’s article are so familiar for me and maybe a majority of us. I am curious about what new aspects can be found in these common human behaviors.
Hill raises and discusses some questions about the hearing and listening in his article. These questions include the reasons and ways of choosing the focus of listening as well as the possibility to describe this process. Listening is a consciously or unconsciously interpretation of the sounds that we hear. The focuses of listening for individuals can be very different due to the differences on culture, listening skill, physical ability and interest. For a single listener, the focus can change according to the changes of environment. Hill briefly introduces to us how certain sound resources in a sonic environment impact on our focus of listening through examples. Providing these examples and background knowledge of ethnography, Hill suggests that in a sonic environment, the factors that influence listener’s selection process in listening can be extended to values of society. Because of the complexity and diversity of these factors, which frame our focus of listening within boundaries, it would probably become interesting when we play with the frame.
In fact, I began to relate Hill’s examples to my own experience when I read the first sentences. Through understanding of factors which have key influence in our focus of listening, I attempt to free myself to more possibility in listening. In my soundwalk, I tried to pay attention to those sounds that I don’t like and familiar with in my daily life. For instance, the mechanical sounds including siren and noise of elevator. Sometimes, in order to know about more sounds that I have not noticed before, I would record sounds as long as they occurred in my surroundings. I would collect the sounds unconsciously when I was walking. I didn’t feel anything special in these sounds when I was recording. However, when I listened to them after a while in a different environment, I found another aspect of the characteristics in sonic environment. It is not true that the siren and the noise can be more beautiful than music, but non-musical sounds represent other dimensions of sonic environment in real life and cannot be replaced by music. That is how I am inspired by Hill’s article in exploration of listening to sounds. By doing so, I also experienced the joy of playing with the frame of focus of listening. What is more, to break the frame and free myself to new areas are valuable practice for any other artistic creation.
Listening to Myself Listen is an interesting article by S. Arden Hill. The hearing and listening are very common behaviors for us in our daily lives. But I was not aware the differences between them as well as the focus of listening until I read Hill’s article. The examples in Hill’s article are so familiar for me and maybe a majority of us. I am curious about what new aspects can be found in these common human behaviors.
Hill raises and discusses some questions about the hearing and listening in his article. These questions include the reasons and ways of choosing the focus of listening as well as the possibility to describe this process. Listening is a consciously or unconsciously interpretation of the sounds that we hear. The focuses of listening for individuals can be very different due to the differences on culture, listening skill, physical ability and interest. For a single listener, the focus can change according to the changes of environment. Hill briefly introduces to us how certain sound resources in a sonic environment impact on our focus of listening through examples. Providing these examples and background knowledge of ethnography, Hill suggests that in a sonic environment, the factors that influence listener’s selection process in listening can be extended to values of society. Because of the complexity and diversity of these factors, which frame our focus of listening within boundaries, it would probably become interesting when we play with the frame.
In fact, I began to relate Hill’s examples to my own experience when I read the first sentences. Through understanding of factors which have key influence in our focus of listening, I attempt to free myself to more possibility in listening. In my soundwalk, I tried to pay attention to those sounds that I don’t like and familiar with in my daily life. For instance, the mechanical sounds including siren and noise of elevator. Sometimes, in order to know about more sounds that I have not noticed before, I would record sounds as long as they occurred in my surroundings. I would collect the sounds unconsciously when I was walking. I didn’t feel anything special in these sounds when I was recording. However, when I listened to them after a while in a different environment, I found another aspect of the characteristics in sonic environment. It is not true that the siren and the noise can be more beautiful than music, but non-musical sounds represent other dimensions of sonic environment in real life and cannot be replaced by music. That is how I am inspired by Hill’s article in exploration of listening to sounds. By doing so, I also experienced the joy of playing with the frame of focus of listening. What is more, to break the frame and free myself to new areas are valuable practice for any other artistic creation.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Mapping in a Creative Way
---This American Life: Mapping
For me, it is new that one of the class assignments is listening to an article from radio program. The article, This American Life: Mapping, introduced a new definition of the word map to us. I am interested in this article in that I am always curious about new concepts and new applications of traditional concepts. As a matter of fact, when I read the title at first I thought mapping was nothing new but a common thing in our lives. However, my attention was attracted when I saw Mapmaking means ignoring everything in the world but the one thing being mapped. I realized that I have never noticed the nature of a map. Then I clicked to listen and finished the listening.
This essay conveys an optimistic attitude towards creation by telling stories about people who make the maps by using five senses. Although we are very familiar with the maps and the way that people produce regular maps by drawing things we can see. We may not ever think about there are maps of sounds, smells, tastes and interesting sights in this world. Denis Wood made a series maps of his own neighborhood using different sights. One of his maps is an image of the stars and the sky, which if you were lie down in a summer’s night, you would see. I like this map because it makes me feel very warm and remind me of Andersen’s fairy tales. Another group of people map the world with smell. Their electronic nose can analyze the ingredients of the gas which is similar with what our noses do when we smell something. It is apparently that the electronic noses are much less sensitive because human noses have far more sensors. It may take at least ten years to become available for consumers because of the complicated techniques and high cost. But mapping with smell is a brand new way of knowing about our world. They are creative artists by doing so.
Since I don’t have too much experience in artistic creation, I think the information and ideas from this article is valuable for me. The imagination and creation in mapping the world in five senses encourage me to open my mind in exploration the relationship between us and our surroundings. In most situations, the artistic creation is emerged from an artist’s thinking about the traditional subjects in a new way. Therefore, I think the first step of creation is to attempt new ways when achieve a conventional task.
For me, it is new that one of the class assignments is listening to an article from radio program. The article, This American Life: Mapping, introduced a new definition of the word map to us. I am interested in this article in that I am always curious about new concepts and new applications of traditional concepts. As a matter of fact, when I read the title at first I thought mapping was nothing new but a common thing in our lives. However, my attention was attracted when I saw Mapmaking means ignoring everything in the world but the one thing being mapped. I realized that I have never noticed the nature of a map. Then I clicked to listen and finished the listening.
This essay conveys an optimistic attitude towards creation by telling stories about people who make the maps by using five senses. Although we are very familiar with the maps and the way that people produce regular maps by drawing things we can see. We may not ever think about there are maps of sounds, smells, tastes and interesting sights in this world. Denis Wood made a series maps of his own neighborhood using different sights. One of his maps is an image of the stars and the sky, which if you were lie down in a summer’s night, you would see. I like this map because it makes me feel very warm and remind me of Andersen’s fairy tales. Another group of people map the world with smell. Their electronic nose can analyze the ingredients of the gas which is similar with what our noses do when we smell something. It is apparently that the electronic noses are much less sensitive because human noses have far more sensors. It may take at least ten years to become available for consumers because of the complicated techniques and high cost. But mapping with smell is a brand new way of knowing about our world. They are creative artists by doing so.
Since I don’t have too much experience in artistic creation, I think the information and ideas from this article is valuable for me. The imagination and creation in mapping the world in five senses encourage me to open my mind in exploration the relationship between us and our surroundings. In most situations, the artistic creation is emerged from an artist’s thinking about the traditional subjects in a new way. Therefore, I think the first step of creation is to attempt new ways when achieve a conventional task.
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