So, a bit of time and processing does the mind good. This fall was such an intense and jam packed event, that it is only now that I feel a real clarity. So, in the spirit of the New Year, I will reflect upon what I learned from this class.
1. Perhaps it is my own philosophical nature or the nature of my dissertation research (studying the impact of drawing on the brain using EEG measures) but I did not feel there were direct applications to my research regarding sharing content or new media forums related to this class. I did find a great deal of literature related to my dissertation applicable to new media issues, (particularly in regards to what it means to connect with others, and the impact of visual stimuli on the brain). The brain is a constantly evolving organ, and I think we are in a transitional period that we have yet to fully understand or grasp. I find it similar to not noticing a person gaining weight because you see them everyday; we don't know how different we are yet, because the change is happening daily and organically before our very eyes. But, just think about how plugged in we are..sounds, words, and behaviors are part of our daily lives that did not exist five years ago. We live our lives as if this amazing revolution is not happening before our eyes, but it is! To not reflect on this, to not ask what it means to be human today, is to have lived one of the most radical shifts in human history and to not reflect or bat an eye. Amazing!
2. I have been very ambivalent about the hands on analysis of these new media technologies. On one hand I would not have created this blog or my website for this class, on the other I have felt that the time given to these analysis would have been more appropriate spent on the ethical issues, social issues, and psychological/spiritual impact that new media entails. These tools may be irrelevant any day now, but the underlying questions have only just begun. Upon review of my work, my focus and approach to this class clearly reflects this bias. Having said that, I have been able to incorporate new media into my materials and media class that I teach, and used these concepts to stimulate some much needed new discssions in regards to what constitutes an art material and the role of art therapy in response to technologies. I was clear in my message that art therapy will not benefit from a stance as a last gasp of hands on organic creative art approaches..a kind of antidote to a new media world...which leads to...
3. convergence culture is a creative culture. This is quite a fascinating discovery to me. I showed the Jenkins video to my students and discussed his ideas at a College workshop on the impact of internet and computers. This class not only led to exciting discussions, but it helped make me look very smart (thanks to you for that!)
4. Finally, this class laid the format for what I hope will be the eventual publication on the ethical implications for new media for therapists. I sent this document to Lisa, and I look forward to your feedback and comments.
So in summary, I feel this class has impacted me more as a clinician than a researcher, but these parts of my identity are intertwined. I expect that I will be stewing over and applying what I have learned for a long time. The expressive therapies need to be pulled on board to the new media realities, even if we hop on kicking and screaming and pulling our hair out!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
my website
Of all the things this class has got me excited and jazzed about, creating a website is certainly high on the list. While its still a work in progress, here is the link:
http://thedaysyouwore.yolasite.com/
I hope to use this as a means to collect my interests as a researcher, musician, and visual artist. More to come!
http://thedaysyouwore.yolasite.com/
I hope to use this as a means to collect my interests as a researcher, musician, and visual artist. More to come!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Convergence Culture is Creative Culture
I am leaving inspired from a recent visit to a hard to describe outsider artists mecca in Wisconsin titled House on the Rock. I am uploading a video I made from the House on the Rock (I can not explain this place, but I can say that it has the worlds largest carousel (featured here). You just have to come visit.
In addition, I feel enlightened and inspired in regards to the debates around New Media. My students in the Graduate Art Therapy program were able to use videos and various new media outlets for their presentations in their Media and Materials class. New media and the internet were a huge part of our discussions this semester. My semester highlight was making in class animation videos in I-Movie, working with a visiting artist Lesley Gena. The students amazed me in their creative work (45 to 60 second animated movies that were unique and creatiev). I neglect not posting these events earlier, as I think it is not until now that I can see how to fully use this blog. It is only upon post semester high energy pace (welcomed stillness) that I have been able to fully appreciate how much I have applied this class to my role as an art therapy educator. It was an exciting semester. Art therapy's role in our current culture remains to be seen, but my students were wrestling with and embracing the shifts in technology. Art therapy has been uncertain as to how to fully use new media and how it fits as a creative means for expression. I also was able to give a brief lecture on participatory culture in response to a seminar at Mount Mary called dynamic discussions. The topic of the day was "Are you stupid?" and related to the impact of technology on the brain. I feel smarter in many ways and yes a bit stupid too. Such is life these days, such is the process of cracking open in the doctoral journey. But, at any rate, I was able to connect Jenkins with my interest in brain research (particularly mirror neurons). I am not sold entirely on participatory culture, but I do like the concept of its utopian ideals of user generated content. In my view a culture of convergence is a creative culture.
It will be fascinating to see where the cloud takes us. I for one have no intention of getting off the cloud and I am excited about the ability to connect with others in soo many ways. As a research tool, I do not feel new media impacts me greatly at this point, but I anticipate this will change and is largely a reflection of being locked in already with my process and methods. The ethical issues around email and new media are very rich and need to addressed more frequently. We are clearly in a time of transition where what it means to connect, to be close, and to be friends mean new and different things. Who better to address these fuzzy complexities than clinicians? I can also say that hours in front of computer screens and feeling plugged in has constantly has started to take a toll on me, even a times causing anxiety. It seems like there is just so much to keep track of from passwords to log ins, to multiple accounts and platforms. Convergence is still very hard for me to manage. Considering I didn't have an email in 2000, I feel I am doing well and quite amazed at how much time I spend in the cloud. Amazing. I think we look back at this time and say "That was the real shift". What stories will I tell my grandchildren?
In addition, I feel enlightened and inspired in regards to the debates around New Media. My students in the Graduate Art Therapy program were able to use videos and various new media outlets for their presentations in their Media and Materials class. New media and the internet were a huge part of our discussions this semester. My semester highlight was making in class animation videos in I-Movie, working with a visiting artist Lesley Gena. The students amazed me in their creative work (45 to 60 second animated movies that were unique and creatiev). I neglect not posting these events earlier, as I think it is not until now that I can see how to fully use this blog. It is only upon post semester high energy pace (welcomed stillness) that I have been able to fully appreciate how much I have applied this class to my role as an art therapy educator. It was an exciting semester. Art therapy's role in our current culture remains to be seen, but my students were wrestling with and embracing the shifts in technology. Art therapy has been uncertain as to how to fully use new media and how it fits as a creative means for expression. I also was able to give a brief lecture on participatory culture in response to a seminar at Mount Mary called dynamic discussions. The topic of the day was "Are you stupid?" and related to the impact of technology on the brain. I feel smarter in many ways and yes a bit stupid too. Such is life these days, such is the process of cracking open in the doctoral journey. But, at any rate, I was able to connect Jenkins with my interest in brain research (particularly mirror neurons). I am not sold entirely on participatory culture, but I do like the concept of its utopian ideals of user generated content. In my view a culture of convergence is a creative culture.
It will be fascinating to see where the cloud takes us. I for one have no intention of getting off the cloud and I am excited about the ability to connect with others in soo many ways. As a research tool, I do not feel new media impacts me greatly at this point, but I anticipate this will change and is largely a reflection of being locked in already with my process and methods. The ethical issues around email and new media are very rich and need to addressed more frequently. We are clearly in a time of transition where what it means to connect, to be close, and to be friends mean new and different things. Who better to address these fuzzy complexities than clinicians? I can also say that hours in front of computer screens and feeling plugged in has constantly has started to take a toll on me, even a times causing anxiety. It seems like there is just so much to keep track of from passwords to log ins, to multiple accounts and platforms. Convergence is still very hard for me to manage. Considering I didn't have an email in 2000, I feel I am doing well and quite amazed at how much time I spend in the cloud. Amazing. I think we look back at this time and say "That was the real shift". What stories will I tell my grandchildren?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
End of the semester break
Happy Holidays! Another semester down! What a year. I do love teaching and can't believe how much I continually learn from my students and the process. What a gig!
I am looking forward to a winter break where I will be snowed in and "trapped" with many interesting articles. Lit review here I come!
I am looking forward to a winter break where I will be snowed in and "trapped" with many interesting articles. Lit review here I come!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
art and the visual stystem
Continuing my summary of the literature in the field, the following outlines a hugely relevant article by Zeki and Lamb that proposes the idea that artists are in essence conducting research on the brain via their aesthetic choices.
Zeki, S. & Lamb, M. (1994). The neurology of kinetic art, Brain, 117, 607-636.
Zeki and Lamb postulated three “laws” supporting their credo that “All art must obey the laws of the visual system” (p. 607). The first law emphasizes the role of the cortex as opposed to the eye in processing certain elements of visual information. Where it was once believed that images were received in the brain fully formed, we now understand that our visual reality is in many was constructed in the cortex. The second law notes that the visual cortex is divided into “geographically separate parts” that are divided into functional specializations. Thus while our visual reality represents a “coherent picture’ (p. 607), this reality is assembled by different parts of the visual cortex each specialized for processing elements of a visual scene. The third law notes that these functional and geographic individuations reveal what tasks” have primacy” in vision” (p. 607). Thus, the structural and functional organization of “colour, form, motion and, possibly, depth” (p. 607) processing indicate their dominance in the visual system.
While Zeki and Lamb noted that “Aesthetics must involve a great deal more than the
stimulation of specific visual areas” (p. 607) they propose the idea that artists are have via their emphasis on different elements and qualities of their visual work, “almost certainly unknowingly, tried to obtain aesthetic effects by stimulating optimally only a limited number of visual areas in the cerebral cortex” (p. 607). Utilizing motion, for example, they propose the idea that art that explores motion and/or evokes the aesthetic response of perceived movement, undoubtedly achieves this effect via the emphasis and de-emphasis of the differentiated properties of the visual system.
“Implicit in our view is the more general supposition that, when executing a work ofart, the artist unknowingly undertakes an experiment to study the organization of the visual brain” (p. 608). Thus aesthetic responses of a work are linked to the ability of the artist to evoke responses from the brain. This is not to imply that these aesthetic responses are exclusively related to the different specialized areas of the visual system, but rather that the aesthetic hierarchy of a piece of art (in a sense what the image is about or evokes, particularly in the world of nonobjective art in which content may be communicated non-objectively) is likely reflected in the ability to target and therefore evoke the involvement of the functional specialization of the visual system.
Zeki, S. & Lamb, M. (1994). The neurology of kinetic art, Brain, 117, 607-636.
Zeki and Lamb postulated three “laws” supporting their credo that “All art must obey the laws of the visual system” (p. 607). The first law emphasizes the role of the cortex as opposed to the eye in processing certain elements of visual information. Where it was once believed that images were received in the brain fully formed, we now understand that our visual reality is in many was constructed in the cortex. The second law notes that the visual cortex is divided into “geographically separate parts” that are divided into functional specializations. Thus while our visual reality represents a “coherent picture’ (p. 607), this reality is assembled by different parts of the visual cortex each specialized for processing elements of a visual scene. The third law notes that these functional and geographic individuations reveal what tasks” have primacy” in vision” (p. 607). Thus, the structural and functional organization of “colour, form, motion and, possibly, depth” (p. 607) processing indicate their dominance in the visual system.
While Zeki and Lamb noted that “Aesthetics must involve a great deal more than the
stimulation of specific visual areas” (p. 607) they propose the idea that artists are have via their emphasis on different elements and qualities of their visual work, “almost certainly unknowingly, tried to obtain aesthetic effects by stimulating optimally only a limited number of visual areas in the cerebral cortex” (p. 607). Utilizing motion, for example, they propose the idea that art that explores motion and/or evokes the aesthetic response of perceived movement, undoubtedly achieves this effect via the emphasis and de-emphasis of the differentiated properties of the visual system.
“Implicit in our view is the more general supposition that, when executing a work ofart, the artist unknowingly undertakes an experiment to study the organization of the visual brain” (p. 608). Thus aesthetic responses of a work are linked to the ability of the artist to evoke responses from the brain. This is not to imply that these aesthetic responses are exclusively related to the different specialized areas of the visual system, but rather that the aesthetic hierarchy of a piece of art (in a sense what the image is about or evokes, particularly in the world of nonobjective art in which content may be communicated non-objectively) is likely reflected in the ability to target and therefore evoke the involvement of the functional specialization of the visual system.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)