Native Son

It often breaks my heart when I miss an incredible art event. And my heart is indeed broken today and may in fact be for the next few days. I've been finding myself almost hostile towards people on Facebook that saw Coco Fusco's performance on December 12 and 13th at the Studio Museum in Harlem Observations of Predation in Humans: A lecture by Dr. Zira, Animal Psychologist (study), 2013 - See more at: http://www.studiomuseum.org/event-calendar/event/coco-fusco-2013-12-12#sthash.cyWeUnBN.dpuf. My feelings boarder between straight out jealously and awe for their having seen a monumental event that continues the dialogue, of how “other” (in this instance black women) is perceived and experienced within our current economic and social structure largely governed, if not completely, by racist colonial histories. Where was I on those nights? I am not free to disclose. But I can say that on one night I was in a room with largely affluent straight white men talking about art....

Recently, I posted a link on Sophia Stewart’s winning a suit against the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers for copyright infringement. Stewart is an African American writer who sees too many similarities between her 1981 copyrighted screenplay “The Third Eye” and “The Matrix”. For ten years now, there has been a cloud of debate accusing Stewart's winning the suit as a hoax. What I have found interesting is the idea that the face of this billion dollar franchise is one of a black woman contesting existing power structures and turning it upside down. “Neo is really a black woman” should be a tee-shirt.

What's troubling about Fusco's performance and how it connects to Stewart's “hoax” is that the idea of other redefining visual culture is confined only to the walls of the art institute and the imagination. For me that's what has become frustrating about making art. The viewing of provoking pieces inadvertently highlights the commercialized tourist trap of the museum and blunt disregard of some institutes to accept funding even if connected to the disenfranchising of communities of color (ie: the Metropolitan Museum of Art's expansion funded by one of the Koch brothers). The subversive power of the artist to ask people to reconsider society's current evolution and reflect on where its going are sadly dulled and limited. I cannot comment on Fusco's performance, and as a long time fan, I'm sure it surpassed wonderful. Yet, I wish her ideas last week were part of a much needed critical look at how other is still regarded in media and how reconsidering it and giving other power can truly move progress forward. And this, reoccurring debate, addressed by writers like Franz Fanon, Arundhati Roy, bell hooks, Fusco herself and others is threatening. As we look at the treatment of the black female body, her militant and intellectual strength is not myth, it is our salvation.

With these thoughts I go into my next book, NATIVE SON by Richard Wright. The copy I have I got in Thailand in a small bookstore run by an American Ex-pat in 1998. It was sold to me by a Danish traveller who was watching the shop. 

A People's History of the United States

A Game of Thrones is back (like we need anymore Anglo/Celtic centered stories on TV)! But I still watch it. The diabolical family dysfunction is mesmerizing. How they got such a great cast is a secret worth selling. I bet that somewhere sometime, GOT will become part of some insane history book along with magical science. Better than creationism I suppose.

It was very hard to start reading again after Awakenings. Nothing has been as good; almost like trying to recreate having a good cup of coffee after travelling to the Spanish Caribbean or France. I was so satisfied. This being the case, I decided to scrap one of my rules. So, instead of having to read what automatically follows, I'm choosing the next book I read from my bookcase. That's how I landed with Howard Zinn's book.

One of the things, I loved most about Awakenings was that it tapped into my love of history, the lived history of the population so often over written by political and commercial agendas. There's nothing like reading Zinn on a long NYC subway through the boroughs: It's seeing the after effects of US history uncensored.

I've only read up to the Revolutionary War and boy do I want to sit in on my kids' history classes in the future. How can a true recollection of events be given an honest overview in order to prepare our youth to critically take part in improving their society? Is the average citizen capable of reconsidering historical happenings truthfully. It seems that everyone is either emotionally exhausted, vacant, or too over indulgent (and overworked, underpaid, and in debt) to be open to insight or even care.

If anyone has any questions about why recent initiatives have been taken to introduce more limits on citizen rights and perhaps offering the dialogue of disarming everyone including police and security guards along with the whole nation and army, I would suggest reading the first four chapters of A People's History of the US. Complete disarmament is never going to happen. So I guess I'm just writing these words because it's as close as I'm going to get to it ever happening.



Will read more and get back.

Call to the People: Pramoedya Anata Toer

I've been thinking about Junot Diaz's call to the people during the opening statements of the Facing Race Conference in Balitmore a few weeks ago. He confronted the audience telling them, “I’m telling you guys, we’re never going to fucking get anywhere—if you want to hear my apocalyptic proclamation which I would never repeat, but which I know you motherfuckers are going to tweet about—we are never going to get anywhere as long as our economies of attraction continue to resemble, more or less, the economy of attraction of white supremacy.” For days now, I've asked myself what other options are there. It seems that all others models have been erased or forced to compromise.

I re-started the Bookcase Project with Awakenings by Pramoedya Anata Toer. It is a 2 novel book about colonial Indonesia at the turn of the 20th Century. There's always a love story in the saddest of times. I think that it's because love tries to mend and fix even if in an imperfect way. Minke, an upper class Native, falls in love with an Indo- a half Native half Dutch girl whose mother was the young concubine sold by her parents to a wealthy Dutchman. In the story Minke struggles with his identity. ALthough he asserts his Native background and any injustice that occurs as a result of his being so, he surrounds his life with Europeans. He cannot write in Malay, the popular language, only in Dutch, the privileged language. I'm at a point in the book where he's been asked to write an article in English, a huge honor. His best friend, a Frenchman, suggests that he begin to write in Malay. Minke violently rejects the idea.

As I read through the pages forming pictures of what Minke looks like, I get a fuzzy reflection in my mind. I'm guessing it's because I have very few hispanic friends (if I have to count, it would be 2). Throughout my life I often felt like the odd: The Dominican kid who liked New Order and the Smiths while everybody else was listening to Dougie Fresh and New Edition. Growing up, I was raised with the belief that I was white (because of my hair), but hispanic. My parents made a clear separation between Hispanic White and European/American White. Children of the 1960's thought revolutions, my parents stressed that the Western Hemisphere/World was raped by Europe. Yet all the while we were still white. Minke mirrors some of my life experience: That limbo between a colonial existence and the existence that may exist beyond it. I am almost convinced that we have to go through it. My parents tried to have us avoid it. I think deep inside they knew we would inevitably have to go through the colonial mash-up existence (it is the world today) and did their best to help us pass.

Toer is an amazing historian. He was imprisoned during the Dutch and then again during the new Indonesian government for his political views. Since no books or paper and pens were allowed, Toer memorized and repeated his novel everyday to himself for two years until he was able to write it down in 1975. He writes about the class system the Dutch developed making me think that there might have been an inter-colonial conference sometime, where all the heads decided on what nomenclature to use in the colonies. For example, Toer writes about those terms used in the Indies: Indos, Natives, specific designations to North East Asians, Europe born Euros and Indies born Euros. They bear a huge resemblance to those used by the Spaniards. Everyone fought to be at the top and pass for White. When Minke loses his wife, I think he loses his hope to accept his being Native. Yet he also loses his hope to be a White. His White supremacist ideas have got a hold on him. Is there some alternative experience than having to go through the White supremacist model? If I look at my work, I think that it has been my way of getting through it.

new book case, new order

There has been a delay with the bookcase. It moved from our bedroom into the living room. All the books have been re-arranged and are on new shelves. I haven't been able to settle down and read as I just finished an artist residency with the Bronx Museum of the Arts. But I did pick up the first book and it's by James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son". The book I have was printed in 1968 and it came into my hands when I was 15 years old. My father's bodega is in Washington Heights and he often bought home books from tenants who moved or had passed away. Most were on philosophy, the black power movement, and progressive thought overall. Those books were a social study themselves. Because of the titles I got a sense of the people who lived in the neighborhood at that time. My dad has had that store since 1968 and seen the changes first hand most notably the lose of an active intellectual presence. Through the years, many have not survived the wear and tear of the economic times. Glad to have been able to hold onto this book. Baldwin does not mince words: He makes Beef Wellington with them keeping the meat just cooked enough, but red deep inside.

Apu Not Forgotten- On "The World of Apu"- briefly

With friends visiting from out of town and planning upcoming events, I forgot about Satyajit Ray's film "The World of Apu". The film is short and doesn't use the score to manipulate tears from the audience. It is a seamless fusion of word and image. A love story about a starving artist and fate. When I see corny trailers for contemporary films marketing obtuse love stories, they make me cringe. I see denial being peddled like crack during a depression. The movie begins with Apu having to drop out of school because he can't afford tuition. He's not too disappointed because he's confident that he'll become a successful novelist. A good friend invites him to his cousin's wedding to enjoy some food, drink, and have a good time in the country. When Apu arrives, the bride's mother is enamored by him. Thinking it odd, she dismisses it attributing it to Apu's good looks. The marriage is arranged. Nobody's met the groom who apparently comes from a good family. When he arrives, he is unstable and noticeably mentally ill. Whether out of desperation to marry off his daughter, the father insists that the groom's condition is due to traveling a long distance. If the girl isn't married as planned, she'll be forever disgraced. Someone has got to marry her. Apu being the eligible bachelor and not related, is the prime candidate and chooses to help save the girl's honor. They go back to Calcutta to his small roof top room and fall in love with time. It's amazing how when done by an amazing director/storyteller like Satyajit Ray, this obvious set up is beautiful and resonant. No, I don't want some one to do the Hollywood version or Euro-minimal deconstruction of Ray's film. It's perfect as it is. Yes, there is tragedy. Heaps of it. It's what makes it perfect and none of it is drab. Not one bit.

I tried reading Armes again after the film. And found “Third World Filmmaking and the West” drier than before. When I compare it to Robert Stam and Ella Shoat's “Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media”. Armes' book misses the Chutzpah.

The next book on the shelf is "Assassins", by Stephen Sondheim.....

More Soon

charulata

I'm a sucker for female protagonists. When I got an email alerting me that "Charulata" or "The Lonely Wife" was waiting for me at the library, I ditched "The World of Apu". Charulata is based on the novela by Rabindranath Tagore, "Nastanirh" (The broken Nest). It is such a beautiful film and I wish Armes had gone into better detail about just how wonderful it was. In his chapter about Ray, Armes like many film writers, gives a general synopsis of the film. He summarizes the story line and very quickly goes on to the next film as if trying to finish a term paper. He doesn't go into detail about the lighting for example which is one of the key elements that distinguishes Ray's filmmaking from others of this time (1964). It's high key and frames the characters so gently allowing for their actions to replace dialouge- of which there is little. Charulata's story is a classic woman's tale. It is also a pleasure to see a woman of color lead in a complex position, which ironically we see less of in the 21 century. She's smart and talented and married to a well-off intellectual. Without the need to work, she stays home and is so bored she relies on opera glasses for entertainment, using them to look out the window and even her husband. Ray frames the camera around the glasses illustrating Charulata's distance to her community, husband and general 19th century role of wife. It's a tragic love story heavily focused on how ill equipped Indian and Western societies are to supporting strong female role models. The film's story hits home. As an artist at home with 2 kids looking at oatmeal splattered on the wall, life borders between being an adventure and subdued.

Almost done with Roy Armes. He's not a colorful writer.

More soon.

Apu

This weekend I attended a great workshop at El Museo del Barrio. I was invited to participate in a Creative Capital Professional development workshop. During it I got into a conversation about culture background with a fellow attendee. As part of marketing, we're suppose to look into all avenues one of them being cultural background. My conversation was about how as second generation Americans we felt on the margins between our parents' cultural connection and the one we were born into. Education has tons to do with it. It is where all the propaganda, ideals, and beliefs begin to take shape. How does it affect how we make art? Moving along to "Third World Film Making and the West", I've found my way to the directors' chapters. First one up is- Satyajit Ray. Armes begins the chapter with a bit about his life going into some detail on Ray educational background. Ray was always made conscious of his bordering two cultures. From his stories to his camera work, the Hindu and the British merged through critic commentary. For Ray, it was just how he worked and saw the picture. I just got one of his most famous "The World of Apu". The version form the NYPL is dubbed, but on dvd with special features (bonus!) At 110 mins., I will watch it while the kids are napping. It's safe to say that Tinkerbell the Movie has nothing on this.

More soon

jackel hot hot

Last we met I had just gotten the film "the jackel of chochtel”. It was incredible. The filmmaking was far beyond it`s time. Sadly it seemed to diasappear into the obscurity of world cinema instead
of simply being regarded as a truly great piece of filmmaking. The film is about a man convicted for the murder of a woman and her five children.
While living in rural Chile, the two find each other. He was a wandering hobo and The woman recently evicted from her house after the death of her husband a farm hand on the land.
After a night of drinking, the two argue and ignited by something the woman said, the jackel strikes her eventaully killing her. He then goes on to kill the children all under the age of 8.
The film mixes real footage with fiction seemlessly bringing to question poverty, captialism, and lack of education as the leading factors to crime in modern society.
"Dead man walking" has nothing over this film. I was tempted to rent it but got discouraged at the thought of the over use of close ups in US films. That's one of the things I noticed most in The Jackel.
In order to include the complicity of legislation and society, the camera makeas a point to focus on the enviornment. We tend to blame the individual. This isn't new news and it's such aan important
role in how we aim to reshape the world if we ever get the chance. Seems hopeless. Part of the sucess of the jackel is it's honesty regarding the possible fact that it all will never get
the chance to reform. The story builds hope while thee jacakel iaas in prison and rehabilitated. He learns to read, write, gets counciling,
and time to reflect. Even when the brutal murder occured there was a moment where the realization hit and regret filled the moment.
The true tragedy after the deaths is the execution of the jackel and the perpetual penial system. It's not surprising the film was made in 1970 while Allende was president. It was a great moment in history
because something else was possible. Now before I get accused of being a commie freak I'm for a different progressive, intelligent, fair, humane, healthy, relational difference in our political, governmental,
and religious insatitutions. I wake hopeless most of the time if I've got to be honest. the jackel reminds me that there was a moment when
Cahnge became real let's hope Allende's history isn't repeated.

jackal in, art in

I'm just getting back from an art event meeting. It's for a big exhibition I'm a part of for El Museo del Barrio's S-Files 2011. We meet at Socrates Park in Queens. Very exciting. Yesterday I had another meeting after work for another exciting project funded by the Puffin Foundation at Brook Park in the South Bronx (more on my website). For both spaces I will be doing my "Illegal Death" piece. meetings are great. Talking to adults is great. The weather has been pretty melancholy though adding a bit more stress to my already stressful life. My husband is super taking care of the kids while I go to work. I feel bad at times because he hasn't gotten a break this weekend- neither of us have breaks actually. We work and watch the kids. That's pretty much it. Add my parents to the mix- and home- and it becomes a festival for shattered nerves. What we do for art. Makes emails from the NYPL so incredibly remarkable, as if I were meeting a lover.

I decided that in order to continue reading Armes book, I was going to need to watch some films referenced. So one is in and I'm updating my blog. More soon after I watch:

El chacal de Nahueltoro
The Jackal of Nauhultoro
Dir Miguel Littin (b.1942) Chile

Need to watch films to make more sense

Third World Film Making and the West by Roy Armes, is one of those books I wish I had read while doing my thesis in graduate school. The film references are amazing. Sadly though, I haven't heard of most the directors/filmmakers Armes writes about. The further I read the more I realize that I must see these films in order to make the reading more worth while and get a proper education in film as Armes intends his book to provide. I will now go to the New York Public Library and see what I find. I will post after watching a film.

Fight, fight, fight

15 years ago people were pegging digital tools as having the potential to change established systems and the dominant culture's influence in general. Until 2008, I didn't think it would happen. Obama's election was exactly what we had been hoping for when we first ran out to buy our first laptops in the late 90' hooking up our almost 256mb system to our phone lines and using the Internet. But the big revolution never came. Information wasn't changing our life styles or choices. We were too hypnotized by the glitz and overwhelmed by the plans we soon had to purchase to have the Internet. Storm clouds cleared when we elected President Obama and we were hopeful- then, we were not. In the last few months we have seen two governments toppled on the strength of Twitter, blogs, flicker, etc. People in Tunisia and Egypt shook things up and succeeded. Will things go array as they have here with conservative hew-haws holding on tight at all costs? Who would have thought that we would have lost the Net Neutrality War? The working class is still struggling everywhere and there are still starving artists. My Korean colleague died at the end of January because she starved to death. She was an amazing filmmaker and screenwriter who only had enough to pay the rent. Her thyroid condition made things much worse helping to sign her death sentence. To be honest, I would expect something like that happening here in the US. Our system of having artists help themselves seems to have spread.

In the latest essay I read from Digital Dialectic, “ 'We Could Be Better Ancestors Than This': Ethics and First Principles for Art of the Digital Age” by Bob Stein- the main point is to make tools accessible for everyone to make art, live, function because it is just unethical not to. Stein is a publisher and was part of the Voyager company who developed “Who Built America” a disc by the American Social History Project. Apple refused to distribute it with an educational bundle for schools when Voyager refused to edit the sections about abortion and gays (for Trekkies out there: can you see images of Captain Janewood refusing to comply?). The matter was resolved and Apple continued distributing it. I haven't looked up where Stein is now, but I don't think he is advising the president's people.

I naturally side with Stein on: keeping the system fair and changing the dominant culture's control over it, getting digital corporations to re-evaluate in bigger terms not just from the cash, Id and ego perspective, and to fight fight fight for what will make the world a better place from all aspects (spiritual, mental, and emotional).

Go get Linux!

Almost struck out, but along came a Russian

Thank heavens that Lev Manovich wrote an essay in this book (“What is Digital Cinema?"). If he hadn't I think I would have used the first of three strikes. The Digital Dialectic isn't a horrible book, I just feel that some of the writing isn't very seductive. I totally avoided the book for a few weeks. After a great start with discovering Buffalo Heads through the dedication, I found the first essay to be dull. Trying to alleviate the situation I jumped around but dozed off. Manovich was manna from heaven! He is so specific in his writing and gets to the point. His thesis pretty much is that digital cinema is a beautiful bigamous marriage between the photograph, painting and collage. His describing the loop as a function comparable to photography's capturing the decisive moment felt as if my brain had gotten a dusting. His essay seemed to be his book in a nutshell, and I wonder which came first.

I don't think I will read the entire book cover to cover. I've decided to select some essays instead. My next book is more theory so I may do this again instead of using a strike. The next essay will be on ethics and the digital world. Let's see how it goes.

More soon

Was I writing a blog or something?

Well I got sucked up into a vortex of holidays and grant submissions. I've managed to crawl to my bookcase and get the next book. It is another theory book. TO be honest, I wish I could switch it up for a fiction, but the inner nun in me has got me by the head with gun to stick with the plan. I must read what's there in the order that it appears in. sigh.

So, it's The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media edited by Peter Lunefeld. 1999 MIT Press.

When I see the dates on the New Media books I've been reading, I feel like Sam Tyler the lead character in the British TV series "Life on Mars". Seeing 1999, and the thought process that went along with the compiling of the book makes me assume that I already know everything that is about to be discussed in the essays. Rather arrogant. Why? It doesn't seem as if anything in the New Media field has advanced so much. If anything it seems to have reached a plateau. in terms of new projects, challenging ideas, ground breaking innovation....If anyone out there (hello, crickets) has suggestions send links please.

Lunefeld opens the book with a dedication, " To Gerald O'Grady for what he built". I found some exciting information:

Gerald O'Grady was a visionary it seems. A champion for the arts and the fusion of technology with it. His work on archiving the work of the Civil Rights era is incredible, and he received some impressive awards in support of it. How does it happen that a name like this passes along like a blur in our history when it should be a household name? In photos he looks like a Detroit car/ad man. Never would have pinned him for an art revolutionary. As I google here and there I can't help but want to go into one of my rants about how removed our society is from seeking solidarity with the arts. by this I mean making it possible for everyone to have the opportunity to work and explore without the stresses of living, surviving, and diving into life in 21Century NYC (or other urban trench).

For more on O'Grady read below. It looks like a new edition to the case. Also provides reason to get moving on the shelf.
Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973-1990
Woody Vasulka and Peter Weibel (Eds.)
Paper / November 2008
Images and texts document the legendary Department of Media Study at SUNY Buffalo when it set the world standard; a history of the program and examples of work by "Buffalo heads" James Blue, Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton, Gerald O'Grady, Paul Sharits, Steina, Woody Vasulka, and Peter Weibel.


More soon.....

and yet more theory to read

It has taken me forever, but I'm done with Lev. It is certainly a must read for all artists practicing today regardless if they use digital media to produce their work or not. The rise of digital media has truly changed how we relate to visual information largely because I think our relationship to sensory experiences in the everyday has changed. We have the ability to have entire control over creating a virtual world, simulating any situation we want, to whatever degree of perfection we care to have. As a result, the demand for artists to match this has tripled and our audiences have grown more fastidious. Perhaps this is why there are an overwhelming number of design programs on TV. The public seems to crave pleasingly aesthetic environments and programs give them accessible tools. Maybe all this simulation has led to a want for more real experiences. more performances. Forget Marina Abramovic. She's been around for a while, yet it is now that her work and the work of many other performance artists is in demand. Is it because she's met the required 30+ year career deadline? Or is it because the zeitgeist wants to experience the palpable again.

The next book is more digital theory. I don't think it will match Lev Manovich. He's an incredible writer and thinker. I will drudge. I don't know when the first fiction is coming up. I will have to look at the list again. I have a theory I will move faster through fiction....


copyright AliciaGrullon 2010

hard times. no time?

This is the most difficult project I've ever undertaken.
Sitting for 8 hours with a wet paper mask seems much easier
Have I lost my ability to read? Sitting on focusing on the pages is a chore.
I wonder if this has to do with the growing reliance on the screen.
We seem programmed if not brainwashed into looking at any screen for hours.
Have we fooled ourselves into thinking that just because we're researching or doing email that we're actively using our cognitive skills?
I think at times I think a bit then my brain wants to move on to the next topic faster than before.
I grab my mouse and hurry to the next site or link and remain there for a breath or 2.
To be honest, I donty like the Kindle (screen book) very much. A part of resists the idea of reading a book from a machine.
Or am I too proud to admit I need the screen. I've recently watched "Ran" Kirasawa's film twice without thinking that I was looking at a scrren too much.
I'm on the subway next stop I go underground. More soon.

post from crate battery low

I've masked my face while inside. My battery is running out and soon enough the top of the crate will open. I hear voices some familiar others not. It's getting hot. Soon enough. Soon.

live art, right now

So I'm in the crate re-enacting herny box brown's escape from 19th C plantation. He shipped himself by post to Philadelphia. I chose to take my phone with me and twitter, FB, blog while inside. How different would brown's journey had been had he had this technology. Twittering as he stopped at locations or riding on a cargo train knowing that as each day went he'd be closer to being free. And we'd be keep up to date, by the mintue reporting of an astonshing event

Live art, Live stream

My piece, "Illegal Art" streaming live from Soapbox Gallery 9/25 btwn 6:00 & 7:30 pm EST http://www.ventatsoapbox.com/live-feed.html

Manovich has been sitting in the bathroom for a few days now. The book stares at me when I go in to relieve myself or just get a quick mommy break. I've been getting these pains of guilt too ever since I walked into the bathroom with a Maire Claire magazine that I was force(well, just a little) to accept a free subscription of after purchasing a pair of shoes and dress at my local consignment store. Anyway, I read this article about women and technology. Apparently, many women are well below keeping up with their tech saaviness when compared to men. Rather than trying to figure out a solution ourselves, we will call a male colleague, IT guy, spouse, partner, friend whoever to fix whatever computer issue is plaguing our happiness at the moment. I'm having a hard time believing it. Say it ain't true Jo! I guess I'm having this reaction because so many of Manovich's examples are from women artists hacking away at new media projects. Was this just part of the craze during the late 90's? I mean, hey, the MOMA is still slow in catching up. Or are women just being overlooked, discouraged, etc from truly getting their hands dirty with technology. Maybe it's the Russian in Manovich that actively sought out women artists as examples. I found out recently that a good 45% to 50% of work shown in Russian museums are by women. MOMA still hasn't caught up and I'm a member.

"A Draft"- a piece of hyperlinks

Inspired by Manovich's rant on hyperlinks and my psychedelic visions of hyperlinks thereafter, I created this small piece consisting of links making up "The Gettysburg Address". I used this piece in the documentation of my last project "Illegal Art" for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. The speech has so much relevance today it makes me sick. Link to piece below:

A Draft

Hypermedia, Hyperlinks, Manovich

Some good friends were over this past weekend and we got on the topic of motherhood. Basically, most mothers forget about themselves. I know I have. At times, there isn't a minute during the day to put on a clean shirt. I find I'm most comfortable in a pair of baggy and would love to think about myself for an hour while indulging in a manicure/pedicure. Something has re-programmed in me to not think of me the individual but as me the group member.

I also don't think about what a hyperlink is anymore, I actually just look for them automatically when reading an online article, Tweeting, etc. It is interesting how Manovich asks how to analyze what a hypermedia link is. For me, it became mildly trippy experience. For instance, I don't think of hyperlinks at all in relation to Hypermedia and how hypermedia is “a network of information containing nodes interconnected to be relational links”. Nor have I considered hyperlinks to be independent from the contents in a document, separating themselves from all other elements and keeping their identity from blending in. (Manovich, p.41) Now looking at a page I see these hyperlinks reluctantly agreeing to be on the page free agents on loan almost. It wouldn't surprise me if we'd need to pay patent or royalties even for using them. New Media it seems reflects our individualistic society, our longing to be unique. Everything is customized to make us feel as if it were so. We receive recommendations from Amazon, Google, etc. based on information we've typed in and reconfigured through a game of what will most likely be perfect for us. It is easy to get lost behind the computer, on the Internet looking through our particular reading list, followings, and friends. We get into a zone: It is our time.

The Internet and revolution of interactivity was meant to give us more freedom. That's how it was billed. With the shift from constants to variables Manovich mentions came “choice” and “freedom” restructuring live assistance to menus of options and automated machines. This drive towards choice has led to many having no choice in the reconfiguration of their jobs. Makes me think of Jason Reitman film Up in the Air and the plot by the junior exec to have people fired over a web cam- easy, cost effective, and clean.

Our world today seems to be calling for a group consciousness, one that has to be fully aware of what is occurring around us. Social networking sites have really played a part in combining our post-modern tools and attitude with the constant to collaborate for greater good. Yet, I know one a many people who dislike it when their Friend on Facebook puts up a cause he wants to get everyone fired up about. Is it because our “me” time is being interrupted?

Where does art stand in all of this? I'm up to the part where I re-think what I'm seeing on screen as data.....