Whoa. I just listened on Radio Lab about the Peter Pan author, J. M. Barrie, and people believe his physical growth was stunted from emotional stress - psychogenic dwarfism.
His mother's favorite child died. She was so distraught that she remained in bed for almost the rest of her life. He would come in the room and she would ask if he was the other son. His physical growth was stunted at that point on. The mother seemed happy that at least her favorite son would stay a little boy forever, Barrie yearned to fill the shoes of his departed brother. Very interesting considering the story he wrote about never growing up.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
2 new potential project ideas.
1. Graphically represent, or tell the story of, an episode of Radio Lab.
If I had assigned this to a class, it would be neat to assign each student a different one, and play them during class for as the students work.
2. Take a song and graphically represent the sounds. Come up with a representation that communicates what the sounds are - ie: Zoe Keating the Quantum Cello player.
If I had assigned this to a class, it would be neat to assign each student a different one, and play them during class for as the students work.
2. Take a song and graphically represent the sounds. Come up with a representation that communicates what the sounds are - ie: Zoe Keating the Quantum Cello player.
wnyc public radio, i love you.
I'm listening right now to one of the most inspiring things I've heard in a while. I'm listening to Robert Krulwich's commencement speech at Cal Tech this year. He's talking about the importance of approachable narrative for the masses in high-level intellectual discourse.
His manner or speaking is just that. It's approachable, beautiful, poetic, funny, and intelligent.
We live in a time where information is easily created and distributed. It's wonderful, but it's also frightening. False information can be sensationalized. It can be turned into compelling stories that hook the masses. Krulwich spoke of cheaply produced, beautifully, skillfully written text books in Turkey that are providing high school students with a creationist view of the world. There are chapters on "The Darwin Conceit." He said that 25 percent of Turkish people believe in evolution and 40 percent of Americans believe in it.
Though I really do trust science, I'll admit that I think it's possible that evolution could be wrong. I believe in it, and at the risk of sounding ignorant, I will say that science has been wrong before. BUT...and this is a huge but, I think it is absolutely horrifying to literally interpret a book that has been translated over thousands of years by cultures much more primitive than ours. I can only imagine that amount of errors that exist in those books. The number must be huge.
I also think it's horrible to condemn people to hell for not believing this information. I'm not sure I believe in hell, but who knows? Exists or not, I think it is plain mean to poison our collective conscience with these ideas.
Back to Krulwich, he spoke of the importance of sharing information that is tested, studied and true in ways that the masses can understand. To make it a compelling story. Don't be like Sir Isaac Newton (in his typical British snobbery) who did not care for common people to hear his scholarly idea. Be like Galileo, who published is information in ways that people can understand.
We don't have the answers and we probably never will. But why not keep trying. What else do we have to do while we're here on this earth.
His manner or speaking is just that. It's approachable, beautiful, poetic, funny, and intelligent.
We live in a time where information is easily created and distributed. It's wonderful, but it's also frightening. False information can be sensationalized. It can be turned into compelling stories that hook the masses. Krulwich spoke of cheaply produced, beautifully, skillfully written text books in Turkey that are providing high school students with a creationist view of the world. There are chapters on "The Darwin Conceit." He said that 25 percent of Turkish people believe in evolution and 40 percent of Americans believe in it.
Though I really do trust science, I'll admit that I think it's possible that evolution could be wrong. I believe in it, and at the risk of sounding ignorant, I will say that science has been wrong before. BUT...and this is a huge but, I think it is absolutely horrifying to literally interpret a book that has been translated over thousands of years by cultures much more primitive than ours. I can only imagine that amount of errors that exist in those books. The number must be huge.
I also think it's horrible to condemn people to hell for not believing this information. I'm not sure I believe in hell, but who knows? Exists or not, I think it is plain mean to poison our collective conscience with these ideas.
Back to Krulwich, he spoke of the importance of sharing information that is tested, studied and true in ways that the masses can understand. To make it a compelling story. Don't be like Sir Isaac Newton (in his typical British snobbery) who did not care for common people to hear his scholarly idea. Be like Galileo, who published is information in ways that people can understand.
We don't have the answers and we probably never will. But why not keep trying. What else do we have to do while we're here on this earth.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Contest.
Green Earth Contest.
Hmm.
Ideas...what does it mean to have a greener earth. my big concern is preserving human interaction with the earth that has existed for thousands of years. Somehow represent a timeline. Preserving the timeline. The earth will go on.
These don't seem strong. Keep thinking.
Hmm.
Ideas...what does it mean to have a greener earth. my big concern is preserving human interaction with the earth that has existed for thousands of years. Somehow represent a timeline. Preserving the timeline. The earth will go on.
These don't seem strong. Keep thinking.
Definitions.
Justin was urging me to start oil painting. I don't feel quite ready to start something yet, but I feel ready to start planning something – especially when I'm in Taiwan. I think I will have the time, inspiration, and focus to try to build something with my painting.
Here are ideas of which I might want contributing in some way to a meaningful body of work:
1. Change
2. Collage of Elements
3. Typography
4. Solution/Statement/Questioning
5. Elements that are extremely realistic
6. Complex
7. Taking figurative expressions and making them literal in their visual form
Brainstorm:
1. Haha...a literal Brainstorm about a subject of importance
2. Illustrating (in a fresh complex way) headlines from CNN.com
Anything I do would be in hopes that I could put on a show and have something that would apply to a graphic design portfolio.
Here are ideas of which I might want contributing in some way to a meaningful body of work:
1. Change
2. Collage of Elements
3. Typography
4. Solution/Statement/Questioning
5. Elements that are extremely realistic
6. Complex
7. Taking figurative expressions and making them literal in their visual form
Brainstorm:
1. Haha...a literal Brainstorm about a subject of importance
2. Illustrating (in a fresh complex way) headlines from CNN.com
Anything I do would be in hopes that I could put on a show and have something that would apply to a graphic design portfolio.
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