I am in a bit of a toss-up about virtual museums. I don’t know if I like them or not. Virtual Museums are very convenient because they can be visited without leaving the house, or traveling far away to get to them. Sure they are convenient but the experience is completely lacking. A virtual museum is nowhere near close to the personal experience of actually visiting a museum.
The virtual museum I checked out was the Smithsonian. I chose the Smithsonian because I have actually been to it a few years back. I wanted to see if the virtual museum was anywhere close to the real experience. It was better than I was expecting because it had all of the exhibits available to look at. It even had close up high-resolution photos that made it seem like I was personally looking at the exhibit.
Even with all of the exhibits available it was no where close to the real experience. especially when it came to the dinosaur exhibit. looking at a thirty foot T-Rex skeleton in real life does not compare to one on a computer screen. Where I get tossed up in whether I like them or not, is when it comes to museums that are out of the country and very far away. A virtual museum of those museums is great because they are not easy or cheap to get to in person. having a virtual museum of those museums is nice because a person can visit the museum virtually and save a great deal of time and money. they will not necessarily have the same experience as they would in person but at least they have seen the contents inside.
I really enjoyed my visit to the SAM. The last time I went was when I was really little. It was really nice to refresh my memory of it. I definitely enjoyed it more now.
There is something about the SAM that makes me feel as if I am in a completely different place. When I was in there it felt like I was not in downtown Seattle. I really liked that feeling of isolation.
When I first got there it was really slow, there was almost nobody in the museum. Since no one was around I really was able to take in the atmosphere. The feeling of the SAM is really warm and inviting, especially with the rich colors on the wall and the stunning hardwood flooring. Aside from the floor and the colors of the walls the lighting was just perfect. The rooms with the abstract bright artwork were lit brighter and the room with the less bright art were more dim. The lighting really created an individual atmosphere and ambience in each room.
My favorite part of the SAM’s atmosphere is the acoustics. The high ceilings really make the rooms feel warm especially when I heard the people walking around on the hardwood floor. Each footstep filled the room. The room that really made me say wow was the room with the 30 foot ceiling and the huge abstract art. Being an audio student the first thing I noticed in that room was the spectacular acoustics and not the huge abstract art. When I walked in the first thing I did was looked at how high the ceiling was, then I began snapping and listening to the sound of the room. After I was fully amused by the room I then payed more attention to the art.
The other room I enjoyed was the room with the American paintings. It was really warm and inviting, and I really appreciated the lighting.
Kindred by Octavia Butler is considered to be a science fiction but surprisingly there is not a whole lot of science fiction in the book. Really the only part that falls under this category is the time travel aspect of the plot. Even with the time travel it seems that this novel should be classified more of an adventure novel.
I think it is really clever how butler incorporates very minimal science fiction in Kindred. She introduces the reader to the time travel element right from the start but as the story continues, the time travel becomes less and less. Each time Dana travels back to the past she is there longer. Eventually the time travel is not the focus, the plot and story of the past is the focus.
What is interesting is that the majority of the story takes place in the past so naturally the readers are not thinking about time travel when they read about the past. That is why when the time travel comes back into the story it is very refreshing. Reading page after page about slavery and the past seems to suck the reader into the past more and more, but then butler slams the reader again with time travel aspect, ultimately refreshing the entire story.
With the minimal amount of science fiction in this story, it somehow works. Even though the majority of the book is in the past, the first initial time travel gets hooked in the readers head. They read about the past but in the back of their mind they know it is not the present.
Thinking about time travel is a really interesting topic. At some point in time everyone has that moment where they wish they could travel back in time, or possibly travel ahead in time. It has happened to me on many occasions.
When I think of myself in Dana’s position I can imagine many things that would “call” me into a time travel. Out of all of the ideas in my head, the thing I would want to call me back would be when I am thinking to myself ,”I wish I had done that differently from the start.” On many instances I find myself thinking and in a way regretting why I did something the way I did. For example a bad project or a few too many mistakes on a paper, resulting in a bad score. Or even a conversation that should have been thought about before it was said. To me that is what I would want to “call” me.
It would a second chance at something that did not go the way I had planned. So let me make up a scenario. So it is week 10 in the quarter, I have two choices, study for a huge final or go to a party with friends. I decide to skip studying for the final and go out with friends. On the day of the final I have not a clue on what the answers are, resulting in me failing the final and the class. So then at that point I am wishing I had gone back in time a week earlier and studied. Well if that was my “call” I would magically disappear and I would be back in time a week earlier so I could study for my final and pass the class. That in my mind would be a really great aspect of time travel.
Another thing that I was thinking of was time travel in to the future. The best example of this would be going to the dentist. I have never met anyone who enjoys going to the god awful dentist. How awesome would it be to just skip the whole entire event? Well I would love it.
Even better any event that was very unpleasant and painful, checkups, operations, shots, ect. I would also love to have a “call” when it came to these painful events. Life would be great. Another scenario, I have to get surgery in a week, the day of the operation arrives and bam I am in the future and the operation is done and over with. I would love the Dr.’s office if that was the case. I would never see them!
After reading the “Gender” section in Convergences, it really got me thinking much more about Kindred. Octavia Butler does a superb job in relating gender into the story of Kindred. What really stands out is how spot on she is when it comes to gender discrimination. I did not notice it very much until I read about gender in Convergences.
What caught my attention the most is how the vibe of the writing changes drastically when Dana is in the present time, and when she goes back to the past. When Dana travels back in time the story goes from really tamed to really timid. Dana arrives in the past and right away she is no longer equal to everyone else. She has to be very cautious and avoid being spotted. Where in the present time she can come and go as she pleases.
Aside from the fact that she is traveling back to the days of slavery there is much more discrimination going on. What stood out to me was how she was treated by the patrol in The Fire section. She was treated like dirt. It was as if the man had no intention of taking her with him and so she could be sold. She was just a piece of meat to him, no value whatsoever.
So it got me thinking, what if dana was a guy in the story. If she was a guy she would have easily been tied up and sold in a slave auction. The reason be, was the gender discrimination back in those days. It seemed as if no slave owner would want to buy a female slave, they wanted the strong men that could work on their plantation. Whose to say that a woman could not do the same work? That is the point right there that brings in the gender discrimination.
In The Fire section it is really made clear that the male slave is much more valuable than a female slave. Butler did a really great job in representing that in this section.
First off let me say what a strange imagination Octavia Butler has. When I first started reading Kindred I was really shocked how fast the story took off. I guess that is just the way books go, they have to draw you in someway or another. I was not prepared for this book at all. I did not know anything about the author, I did not read the back of the book, all I was going off of was my first impression of the cover.
As soon as I read about the part where Dana just vanished from the living room I had to stop and re-read the paragraph again. it through me such a curveball. One moment in time she was in a living room and then she wakes up on a riverside. It reminded me a lot of the movie Inception.
Now after reading researching the author a bit I can prepare myself for what is to come in this book. Just reading some of the summaries of the famous books she has written made me curious. They all sound so crazy and interesting. I am not much for reading but something about Octavia Butler makes me want to read her books.
Aside from the interesting sounding stories, I was very impressed on how many awards she has received. I have never even heard of some of them. They must be the Grammys for authors and books.
It is too bad that she passed away, she probably had some more award-winning stories brewing up in her head. They might have even been stories the next generation and generation to follow would be reading in their class.
What is Cyberspace? A better question is does cyberspace exist? People have been questioning cyberspace since the age of computer technology. They have wondered what cyberspace is and what is contained inside, as well as the capabilities of cyberspace. The real question is what is cyberspace?
I found this chapter to be really interesting. This concept of cyberspace is so foreign that it is hard to put words to it. It seemed that in the chapter many people looked at cyberspace as a common place, for instance an online web chat. They also said that cyberspace could be when people shop online and fill their virtual shopping carts. What really stood out and caught my attention was the idea of virtual worlds. Something about that screams cyberspace in my mind.
I have never been much of a gamer I am more of an outside person, so it did not surprise me when I had not known about the virtual game Second Life. I always hear people around me talk about games where they can control what happens inside, but nothing like Second Life. Second Life is really interesting and is in a way a really great achievement. The game ultimately allows the person to virtually create the world of their dreams, without any limitations. That is absolutely crazy, in a good way.
This in my mind seems like a virtual canvas, in which the imaginer can actually do or accomplish what they are thinking up in their head. This almost seems to good to be true. I thought it was really interesting how they did not apply any limitations to this virtual world. So if someone was imagining killing a innocent family, they virtually could do that in Second Life. That is a graphic example but it gets you to think about it. Besides the point of this new advanced virtual reality, the question that really got me thinking was the last page of the section, Where Will This All Lead?
That is a scary question to me, I do not want to know the answer to that. One question that seems to jump around is “what will technology be like fifty years from now?” I have thought of it and I am sure almost everyone has at one point. Personally to me if technology stopped right now and nothing new was invented or redeveloped I would be happy. What more do people need, There is the internet, cars, smartphones, computers and a whole lot more. This new age of technology people have created is really sparking up that scary question.
The way I see it is there is going to be a point where something tangible cannot be any more technologically advanced? Is That is then going to cause people to technologically advance less tangible items? Items such as virtual reality simulators like Second Life. That might not be so bad, but how far will it go? Will the people reach a point where technology gets so advanced that they create a virtual world in which we enter cyberspace to go to work or to the gym? Are People going to live in a small cell in which they wake up in the morning and enter some vortex into the cyber world? Will we make friends, go out on dates, and go to school in this cyber world? These are questions that cannot be answered. They are just the questions that come to my mind when I think about a future cyberspace. Like I said that is a scary question.
After reading the different sections on narratives I felt really intrigued by the mini-narratives section. The title “Mini-narratives” represents exactly what the section was about, basically something small that tells a story. What intrigued me the most about this section is how many times a day people are exposed to mini-narratives without even realizing. Something as simple as an open and closed sign in a business window, or possibly a sign advertising a big sale. A really great example I can think of is the State Farm slogan, “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there”. Eight words tell the story that they will be there if you are having problems, just like a good neighbor would.
Besides those examples, one great example that came to my mind when I read the mini-narratives section was a menu item description. At first I thought to myself that it did not seem like a mini-narrative. When I thought more about it, it became clear to me that it is a great example. A menu item description is simple and narrates exactly what the person will get if they choose it. Most of the time the description is ten words or less, so it really falls into the mini-narrative category.
Relating the menu item description to narrative storytelling elements is easy. logically thinking about a menu item, it obviously starts from a recipe or some form of a starting point. A recipe in my mind would be the story with too many details, it definitely does not belong on the menu. The person viewing the menu already has the basic idea that there is a combination of ingredients put together to create the dish. They do not want to read a full-page description about how many tablespoons of butter and how many teaspoons of spices went into the dish. Instead they want a short description that sums it all up. For instance, Herb roasted chicken breast with sautéed fingerling potatoes, honey glazed carrots, topped with a shallot red wine sauce.
Upon reading that, the person will get the complete story of how the dish is made without reading the entire recipe. It is still very detailed but it leaves out the unimportant details that really do not matter.
I really enjoyed this concept of a mini-narrative. I personally have never been a fan of reading, so I really like the concept of a mini-narrative. Mini-narratives also seem in a way, like an artistic style of storytelling. With just a few words and maybe a picture the story must be told.
After reading the introduction of Convergences I have come to realize that there is so much more being said in artistic works then I thought. The different points based on message, method, and medium are very logical in the sense of determining what the artists vision is or was. The idea that each of these points correlate to each other makes perfect sense. They all in some way build the idea or vision as a whole. Even further, as they discussed later in the introduction marrying the three together really convey and bring out the big picture of the piece.
The three key points are really quite easy to understand. The names alone are very self-explanatory. Starting with message, the message can be in many different forms. It can be out right obvious, for instance spelled out on a billboard or piece of paper. The author’s example of “will you marry me?” was a great example of something obvious. Aside from obvious the message can be internal. It may require some extra thought to really determine what the artist intended. A great example of this would be the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side”. The message is not as simple as the saying states, it is much deeper. The real message of this saying is that there is always going to be something better than what you have, but by appreciating what you have it wont matter which is better.
As well as message, method is also really easy to understand. Method is based on the idea of how the message is conveyed and expressed. The method is the composition, it is how the elements are arranged and how they relate as a whole. Many famous painters used method as their style. Their paintings all differ from one another but they all shared a similarity. Most of them were similar in their use of shapes and lines as well as color and pattern.
Lastly there is medium. Medium is probably the easiest to understand because of how standard and un-abstract it is. For instance a billboard, magazine, painting, photograph, letter, ect. Medium is the physical way the message and method is being presented. Medium is potentially the most important part because it is the way the message and method is delivered to the people. Some may ague otherwise but without a standard form of medium, the message will be quite hard to get across to the people.
Altogether as a whole these three points message, method, and medium work really great together. It almost seems that without the marriage of these three points the piece of work would be very scattered and almost confusing. The three build off one another and make it really easy to get the point across.
Just recently I have become very fond of the band Boyce Avenue. They are a YouTube band that I discovered during summer quarter. Like any other YouTube band, they perform and record many covers of songs that play on the radio today. What I really like about them is that every song that they have covered is really captivating and inspiring. I almost prefer listening to their cover over the original song. I just love the passion and emotion that they incorporate into each and every cover. Aside from covers they also have original songs that they have written, one that stands out to me is “Dare To Believe”. It is a heart-filled song full of passion and emotion that will give you the chills, in a good way.
“Dare To Believe”
It’s feeling like the time’s run out
But the hour glass just flipped itself over again
The sun is slowly sinking down
But on the other side a new day waits to beginIf you dare to believe in life
You might realize that there’s no time for talking
Or to just wait around while the innocent dieNo more
We’re gonna lose everything
If we believe all the lies
I may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
No more
This world’s running on empty
And there’s no reason why
You may fall but I know that you’ll help me believeWe’ve been in the dark for way too long
But when we turn around
We see a light shine through the haze
So forget about who was wrong
Because I’ve never been more ready to turn this pageIf you swear you believe in life
Embrace forgiveness
‘Cuz it’s all that I’m asking
Or keep holding out while the innocent dieNo more
We’re gonna lose everything
If we believe all the lies
I may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
No more
This world’s running on empty
And there’s no reason why
You may fall but I know that you’ll help me believeNo more
We’re gonna lose everything
If we believe all the lies
I may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
No more
This world’s running on empty
And there’s no reason why
You may fall but I know that you’ll help me believe
No more
We’re gonna lose everything
If we believe all the lies
You may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
You may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
I may fall but I swear that I’ll help you believe
If you swear you believe in life
No more
We’re gonna lose everything
Oh, I said no more
We’re so quick to lose everything
From the start of this song a feeling of sadness arises with the somber and minor key of the piano intro. As it continues to play the sadness begins to turn into a more uprising and inspirational feel. After the first time I heard this song I got the impression that it was about a moment of sadness and disappointment that is going to require an uplift and motivation to get back up. After a second listen through I knew that my first impression was right. The passion and emotion alone tells the story. With the combination of the lyrics, it all comes together.
digging deeper into the technicalities of the song is what really embraces the meaning of it. Starting with the piano, from the start the piano starts very quiet and draws you into the melody. The melody by itself brings the meaning to the song. It contains both factors of the song, the sadness and the call for an uplift. As the piano continues the dynamics begin to be much more emotional and uplifting because of the changes in volume as a whole. Aside from the change in volume of the piano, the emphasized chords really sway the direction of the song. In the intro the chords are very subtle and towards the end of the song the chords really ring out.
As well as the piano, the technique of the singing in the song reveals the message. The first verse starts out very emotional and sad sounding. As the song progresses into the chorus and other verses the level of emotion and passion ignites. The style and technique in which he sings brings on that inspiration. What I noticed that tied the emotion of the piano and singing together was his use of falsetto and vibrato. falsetto is that airy and breathy sound, most singers call it singing with your head. vibrato the fluctuation and pulsation of the voice that is heard in a sustained and note. He starts singing very naturally and then he gets very dynamic brining on a slight vibrato. He then brings it back down to his natural voice and ends the song with a strong and releasing falsetto. The technique of the song makes it sound so effortless and brings every aspect together.
I can go on for days about this song, it is very well written and composed song. The shire power and emotion of this song is what inspired me to listen to them more and more. Thank you Boyce Avenue!
![cyberspace[2]](https://wolkmatthew.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/cyberspace2.jpg)
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