Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Postmodernism

Postmodernism introduction:

  • Contrasts (From the past and present)
  • Old and new tradition
  • Hybrid
  • Take ideas from the past and translate them into modern thinking
  • Reality with a twist

Jean Baudrillard:

  • Nostalgia in absence of reality
  • Illusions
  • Contrast
  • Disney- ideas from the past created into something new/modern

Frederic Jameson- Postmodernism:

  • Double meanings
  • A play on realism
  • Van Gogh shoes with feet

Friday, March 24, 2017

A Review on The Shape of Time- George Kubler

One of the most important questions, in regards to genius, is whether nature or nature is the cause of someones talents. Kubler begins to compare two of the most influential artists, da Vinci and Raphael. He debates whether or not nature or nurture were the true causes for talent. Kubler believes that one cannot compare the two because they both have talent, and lived at different time periods. It's next to impossible to seriously compare the two since they are so different and exist on different points of the "Invisible Chain."

The ideas of those that came before heavily can shape the ideas of those to come. Kubler talks about an "Invisible Chain," of which it is a measure of time. Each artist is somewhere on this chain, their ideas come from those before and their current ideas shape those of artists to come. However, the artist is not aware of this chain, therefore, is only effected by the events that happened prior. Kubler believes this is because the time period an artist lives in strongly influences their life.

Kubler goes on to talk about the types of personalities which correspond well with art. Art has become a very social thing. Each unique personality can have a very different take on the same thing, thus why art is so important. Through art we can see what someone else sees or imagines.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A Review on Data Visualization- Edward Tufte

Humans are visual by nature, and by translating numbers into pictures or better visual images helps to aid those to better understanding what someone is trying to convey. An example of this is Google Maps. While most maps are very plain and two colors, Google helps these maps come to life through 3-Dimentional images. This creates a better understanding of the area and something people can closer relate to.

Tufte goes on to talk about the importance of connecting data and the visual aspect by saying, "All communication between the readers of an image and the makers of an image must now take place on a two-dimensional surface" (12). Tufte explains that the idea of the maker of an image has to make sense through their image for the reader. The image and the idea have to correlate together or else it won't make sense. Most of the idea not only has to do with the image but also the colors one chooses to use to correlate with it.

"Years and years of daily mapping led to this superb visualization, sunspot distribution in latitude, recorded for long time periods" (22). Not only does data visualization help unexperienced people in a field to understand a subject better, but it also helps those very familiar with something to become even more acquainted with it.

Visualizing data is very helpful to our everyday lives because it is a lot quicker and easier to just simply look at something and understand the statistics rather than read a long data sheet about it.