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The Monster Within Us

Violence in contemporary United States culture is deeply rooted and often happens among teenagers and this is most likely because of the influence of violent games. Violence, an act of aggression, a monster in our society,  isn’t just as simple as it sounds like. It isn’t just limited on physical abuse but can also be verbal abuse, sexual assault, or social isolation. These sides of the monster exist in every aspect of our current culture.  Looking at America, it is a well-developed country, it still has a relatively high crime rate and due to the Right to Bear Arms, it is a legal to possess a gun, which makes the situation even more dangerous when it comes to teenagers. These rules and regulations often serve as the nutrition for the growth of the monster: Not only did they not stop the progress of this outrageous trend, but they also approved the general public in practicing these savage acts. On top of them, most of the teenagers don’t have self discipline and are easily influenced by peer pressure and all forms of media such as TV, Facebook, Youtube…..The  influence of the monster can easily gain access into their lives through this broad network of social media.

As the technology keeps on advancing these days. Technical issues such as resolution, graphics were no longer any problems. TVs, computers, electronic devices are the ones which gain the most benefit from this evolution. Through these platforms, the monster is able to expand its influence even further onto the rest of the world. Especially for the companies that make videogames. In order to grab costomers’ attention (mostly teenagers) They use their advanced technology as an advantage to try to develop the most realistic game as possible, to make the players feel like they are actually in the game. However, as the games get increasingly realistic, all kinds of concerns appear from the parents and social scientists, critiquing about the downside of it. Young people, especially male teenagers, are playing more violent and bloodier videogames than ever before.  If  someone continues to play this type of videogames for several years they will eventually get used to the bloody and violent acts and scenes in the game, therefore becoming more indifferent to them when later viewing it in real life. Also, the gamers become less bothered by the brutal content. The true intention for the first person shooting videogame, originally designed by an unknown developer around 1970s to 1980s, was to get the US soldiers to get used to the killing scenes in warfare. In now days, with the influence of this monster in the industry; teenagers are not only free from any responsibilities and consequences in virtual killing, but are also free from moral judgement by the rest of the society. Its is widely believed by the majority of the people, especially parents, that by playing violent videogames does cause their children to be violent. And this could be public media’s fault, since videogames has often been misunderstood as one of the major explanations for a cruel act done by a serial killer. Chris Ferguson, department chair of psychology communication at Texas A&M international University, argued that most of the writers who wrote this kind of misleading article had no evidence or any proves about their points, many are observational approach that does not prove cause and effect nor correlate with the real world violence. These essays with no backbone supporting their thesis often become one of the major false publications in order for the monsters to spread in the culture. Although videogames such as “Call of Duty” don’t cause violence but they do cause aggression to some certain extent. It has always been one of the most important elements for humans to entertain themselves. If I propose that “Most of the games are originally violent”, people might disagree with the idea. However, if they looked back to the history, games that contain violent elements were throughout the ages. Chess is a stimulation of a battle on a board. Monopoly, economical violence between peasants and the landlords, trying to bankrupt each other. Battleship, a game designed to sink the opponent’s navy power. On the other hand, some popular sports such as american football and wrestling are also games that demonstrate physical violence. Some people watch them because they are entertained by the physical beauty of violence displayed by the athletes. After all, people are just finding different ways to justify their action, while attempting to either unleash that violence in a “socially accepted way” or projecting it onto some other activities. Why do they bother spending this much effort on dispatching violence onto other subjects? Because none of them wants to get abandoned by the society like a monster, no one wants to be the outlier.

Even it’s been proven that playing videogames doesn’t simply transform a teenager into a killing machine, but it is still one of the factors that makes them aggressive.Craig A Anderson, a psychologist says, None of these extreme acts, like a school shooting, occurs because of only one risk factor; there are many factors, including feeling socially isolated, being bullied, and so on,” said Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University. “But if you look at the literature, I think it’s clear that violent media is one factor; it’s not the largest factor, but it’s also not the smallest. That is the real reason why the society is prohibiting this monster from growing in the culture, because along with other risky factors. Intense gaming could trigger their children’s aggression. Or else why would their be rating for videogames? The whole rating system serves as a chain to keep the monster under control while still giving people a limited access in order to vent out their anger and aggression.  According to the “Antisocial Effects” in psychology, people, especially children, can get influenced easily by observational learning and they are not easily unlearned as adults. For example, TV, computers are all powerful sources of this type of learning. The author stated, “While watching TV, children may learn that bullying is an effective way to control others” (322, 323) Through public media, millions of people could get influenced globally. According to Darren Waters, a writer on BBC News, “ There is a link between videogames and arousal and a link between arousal and violence. But there is no link between videogames and violence. It's just another medium.” From a psychology point of view, teenagers can learn from the videogames through observing that simply killing people doesn’t get them into trouble or brings them punishment, which then creates an illusion to them that murdering others isn’t that outrageous after years of exposures to brutality. For little kids, it is very likely for them to mimic the scenes from the games or TV which demonstrates the effect of violence viewing under a long period of time. In other words, this monster does not have a positive correlation with the inclination in violence; however, it does play a major role in the development of the people of our society.

In conclusion, there is a monster living in every single one of us, throughout the entire society; and because people don’t want to be exiled as a monster, they often take different actions to dispatch the violent desire onto something else. That is exactly how the monster is created. We might think that the monster only exists in practicing violent acts; however, it is everywhere, it is contagious, it is even driven by any decisions or actions that we take.

Works Cited

Benedict Carey, “Shooting in the Dark” The New York Times. Science, 2013. Web. 19 November 2014. Darren Waters, “Shoot first, ask questions later?” BBC. BBC News, 2006. Web. 16 November 2014. David G. Myers. Psychology. Michigan: Worth, 2010. Print. Margaret, Robertson. “State of Play: Violence and video games” BBC. BBC News, 2007. Web. 20 November 2014.

The Red Dragon, “Do Video Games Cause Violence” Youtube. 18 December 2012. Web. 16 June 2008

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What makes us humans?

What if one day, people can n o longer tell the fakes from the real? What if one day, people can no longer tell the reals from the fake? What if one day, the boundary between fakes and reals no longer matters? In the movie “Blade Runner” directed by Sir Ridley Scott, Rick Deckard constantly found himself stuck in between this difficult moral dilemma where he slowly loses humanity while pondering what makes them a “human”. In 1982, the technology was so advanced that there is almost no difference at all between a robot and a normal human being; however, as robots slowly acquire emotions and individual mindsets, they become dangerous. To solve that problem, the government and the Tyrell corporation came up with a solution of giving the robots a 4 year life span which eventually leads to a disastrous outcome towards the end of the movie. The entire plot of “Blade Runner” revolves around a single concept of “Where is that thin line between humans and robots?” without giving out no direct answers because Sir Ridley Scott wants the audience to figure it out themselves.

In the near future 2019, people had already gained the technology of living on other planets and Earth became a abandoned planet for the ones who are either disabled or unqualified to migrate. On the other hand, a company called Tyrell corporation started mass producing robots who are extremely similar to the humans,even better in some extent. They are faster, stronger and don’t have to rest at all. Soon enough, the robots begin acquiring individualities which makes them disturbed by the fact of being slaves by some species who are not even as capable as them. As soon as the Tyrell Corporation found out this lethal issue, they modified the programming of the robots  and gave every single one of them a 4 year life spam in order to avoid further conflicts; however, there are still some rebellious robots who managed to escape and fled to Earth. In the movie, Rick Deckard’s responsibility as a blade runner was to chase down these “skin jobs” and made sure there’s no robots hidden in the human society. Throughout the investigation, he used this device called Voight-Kampff machine (it captures emotions which robots need time to simulate) to see if one is a robot or not. As Deckard slowly humanity in the process, the robots were slowly gaining it. Deckard found himself trapped in this thought of “if it takes so much effort and examination till the point that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference, then why do we have to eliminate the robots? They are essentially humans only with a slight difference in simulation emotions. This worry exacerbated as he met the love of his life Rachael who was implanted with false memory, this is extremely difficult for Deckard as he had spent all his life chase down replicants and now he fell in love with one himself. On the other hand, the robot called Batty further highlighted this problem as he came back to Earth searching for a way to prolong his life span only to find out that there was no such way. After going thru the 5 stages of grief, he came to realization that everything would eventually be lost in time, including him. At this point, we can say that Batty is no different than another human being, he could think, act and had the urge to survive. Then again, where is the boundary between a human and a robot?

In the end of the movie, Deckard found an origami unicorn left outside his door as he was about to make the escape with Rachael. What does this unicorn symbolize? It suggest the possibility that Deckard is a replicant too because how could anyone know that an unicorn once appeared in his dream if his memory wasn’t implanted in the first place. This theory creates a dark and twisted irony of how a replicant spent all its life to chase down other replicants. It also serves as the answer to the ultimate question that in the end, there is no absolute difference between a replicant and a robot; because what is the point of telling fakes from real if one can’t even validate the quality of being real?

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Playtest reflection

Living in the twenty first century where nothing seems to be impossible, people often find themselves stuck in a gap between the grand schemes of “virtual reality” and “reality”. In a certain extent, the invention of VR technology really revolutionizes  the way that people think or perceive the world; with the help of a simple device, anyone is able to throw themselves in the virtual reality and relive their lives with a completely different identity, background… Unfortunately, in the end of the day, VR isn’t an everlasting world. People still have to wake up from it and embrace the true reality; however, what if there’s a technology that can insert someone’s consciousness in the virtual reality perpetually? This is where the line between real and unreal starts to fade, people begin to lose grip on the sense of time and space, which leads to confusion towards what’s real and what’s not. Throughout the entire episode of  “Playtest”,  the director keeps on warping different layers of reality in order to lead the audience into this dilemma of choosing a “reality” to believe in.

In the beginning of the episode, the director first introduces us to the first layer of reality which we automatically assumes to be the “real” one. As the plot pushes forward, we were then introduced to several other “realities” where our protagonist, Cooper entered a cognitive video game. This highly advanced video game is invented by a man called Shou who is the one that invited Cooper to join the playtest program. Although he is totally aware of the danger and side effect of this product, he still paid people to be test subjects reluctantly. Unfortunately, Cooper was completely outside of the situation and fell into the trap innocently. Overall, this trap is simple yet extremely dangerous. The target is often mislead into thinking that they are just testing an up coming game for a well known company; however, they didn’t know that they are actually risking their lives on these “harmless games”. Meanwhile, several games are usually presented in order to sync the target’s consciousness into the deepest cognitive layer, causing him or her to lose sense of reality. Sooner or later, the target will most likely either give in toe the virtual reality or experience a severe mental breakdown after waking up to the truth. In the episode, Cooper went through both of the scenarios where he first gave in to the video game but then died out of shock after being triggered by the phone call from his mother.

Throughout the entire plot, I believe that Cooper went through three layers of “reality” before realizing the outrageous truth behind it. He entered the first layer as the assistant installed the mushroom onto his neck. However, before this entire procedure even happened, the assistant asked him a series of questions including asking him to turn off the phone which Cooper clearly did not follow, this careless action then brought upon him a lethal disaster later on. During their conversation, I was intrigued by one of the line when the lady recorded the time “5:38” right before she initiated the program, why is the director showing us this scene? It seems so random yet critical while the audience still don’t have any clues about the significance of the time. After Cooper passed the small little test in the white chamber, he was then introduced to the head of the company, Shou for a deeper assessment where he was directly linked to a machine with a wire;  this is where I think the second layer happened. While still unaware of the situation, Cooper entered an imaginary old house where he was required to stay for one night alone. During the process, several allusions popped out from his subconsciousness in order to scare him but none of them was real. Unfortunately, everything went into a chaos as Sonja appeared and stabbed him with a knife which inflicted pain that shouldn’t exist in a virtual reality. This action caused Cooper to have a severe panic attack and asked to leave the program, while discovering how he would be trapped there forever. Fortunately, the technicians came and got him out of the program as the assistant explained to him that it was all just part of the “program” and that he was finally free to go home; this then lead to the third layer of reality. As Cooper arrived home and found his mom dialling his number, he came into realization of how it was just another fake reality. The frustration soon destroyed his cognitive activities which caused brain death. Ironically, it is only when he died that the director pulled the audience back to the real reality where everyone was still in that small white chamber. Everything was still the same, except this time, Cooper’s dead. The assistant then looked at the clock again and recorded the time “0.04 sec” which made everyone realized how all these different layers of virtual realities all happened in a blink: that Cooper never actually left the room nor did he meet Shou.

It is only I finished the entire episode that I fully grasped the horror of the confusion between realities, because it is so hard to notice the realness of it that people can easily get lost in different layers of consciousness. It is almost like a dream which one can not tell the beginning nor can one guess the ending of it. Most importantly, if this virtual reality has a perpetual nature, it would be almost impossible for anyone to distinguish the difference between reality and virtual reality anymore.

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The Matrix

Have you ever thought about, that everything around you is not real? Have you ever thought about, that you are not in control of you life? And have you ever wondered, who is the real one controlling everything behind the scene? These are the questions that kept on flashing across my mind while watching the movie “The Matrix” The concepts introduced in this film have not only changed the way I perceived the world, but also introduced me a new way to look at everything. Even though I am perfectly aware of the fact that it is just a film and nothing in it is real, I still can’t resist that disturbing feeling when understand what “The Matrix” is all about.

Throughout the film, there was one line that shook me the most which was “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony” I chose this quote not only because it was the introduction of the truth to Neo but also because of the dark satire behind it. In the entire human history, we have always been relying on the support from the machines  to survive. Now our fate is to be consumed by the machines as batteries in order to keep them functioning.  To me, I think this is a brilliant way of thinking as it reverses the perspectives between humans and machines, and further introduces a possibility that we are the ones that are being used by the machines. When Neo “woke up” to the reality from his cel, the imagery depicted in the film was so powerful that I had goosebumps all over my arms. I could not believe that this was something that was made 18 years ago. From the sound effects to the editing, everything was executed professionally which resulted in the absence of time gap when I was watching this film.

The Matrix can be seen as a creation of the mind, the digital projection of our mental selves, where people live in the “wonderland” unable to wake up to the truth. Neo, was once before just like anyone of us. He was trapped in the artificial reality, blinded by the programs and fake codings until the appearance of Morpheus. Throughout the movie, the presence of Morpheus and Oracle serve as a watershed that marks the transition in Neo’s life. First, Morpheus informed him the dark truth behind the humanity then the Oracle further strengthens the concept by informing him that he’s the one (indirectly, as what Morpheus said, “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path) that Neo was born inside the Matrix and is the only person who has the power to destroy the system and free humanity. Personally, I am not very interested about how he is gonna achieve this grand plan since my mind is still lingering around the concept of “The Matrix” In the movie, Morpheus got captured by the agents and is then interrogated by Smith. Smith told him that humans are just like virus, we overtake and expand; however, this theory could work both way between the technology and the human race: Human creates machines. Human creates virus. Computer overtakes human. Virus overtakes computer. There seems to be a subtle pattern among this grand scheme of chaotic system. In order to break out from it, people need a saviour to rescue them.

In the end, “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony” is a concise yet powerful quote which sums up the core value of the film. That people have been using the machines for all there lives, and none of us would have expected ourselves one day being overtaken by the computer. It is ironic, it is dark, but most importantly, it is the truth.

Now, which pill do you wanna take? :)

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Why so Serious?

Joker, one of the most popular characters in the DC universe, has always been a controversial figure due to his tragic story and behaviors. Noticed how I addressed him as a “character” but not a “villain”? Because some people, including me, believe that Joker is not just a heartless psychopath who kills people for fun; he is more than that. This meticulous side of Joker is  presented in several works including the classic comic series “The Killing Joke” and the more recent movie series “Batman: Dark Knight Rises”, where the viewers find out that he has depth of character. Meanwhile looking at the article “Monster Culture” written by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, it is not hard to notice how Joker is shaped into the image of a villain because of the twisted culture in Gotham city. It is true that he has kill several people before, but that is not exactly the main cause of the severe fear from the citizens. People are afraid of him because he doesn’t fit into any of the categories established by the society.

While the general public payed most of their attention on the character under the spotlight: Batman ; many have missed the one hiding behind the curtains, making everything into reality. If it wasn’t for Joker, Gotham would’ve fallen into a madness way before the success of Batman. Throughout the years, the city was filled with crimes and corruption. no matter how capable Bruce Wayne was, he couldn’t have done it if Joker didn’t eliminate all the organized crime plus the corrupted government officials. In some way, these two characters work as a double edged sword: They both maintain Gotham in an order of peace, except one acts with justice while the other acts with injustice. Unfortunately, the society is only willing to accept the bright side of this solution and choose to ignore the Joker who is in the dark. Because he is not one of them, because he doesn’t fit into the social norms, because he is challenging the rules set by the government……because he is Joker.

In “Monster Culture”, the author talks about how the monster is the harbinger of category crisis and always manages to run away. Well, the story of Joker fits into this criteria perfectly. He is never caught by the batman and would alway return with not just stronger power, but also a more cunning plan. On the other hand, the presence of Joker serves as a warning to the Gotham City’s system. It indicates that there is a loop hole or else Joker wouldn’t have fallen out of the categories and be treated as an outlier. In several occasion in the comic series “The Killing Joke” (It is known as one of the most classic comic about the origin of Joker) It depicts an exclusive side of Joker where he is more rational and has a tragic nature. Throughout the story, he keeps on emphasizing how “All it takes is one bad day”, meaning if it wasn’t for the death of his wife and him falling into the chemical vat. He wouldn’t have became the same person as he now. On top of that, he actually jumped into the vat himself in order to run away from the Batman. Talking about Batman, the same thing could be applied on him as well. All it took was one night when his parents got murdered for him to become who he is today. Although these two characters stand on the two opposite sides of the spectrum yet they have extremely similar characteristics. In the end. they are just two tragic figures who went on a different path after a horrendous event. The only difference is how people view them: Batman is able to get accepted because he fits into the “hero” category; however, Joker isn’t so fortunate since people don’t know where he belongs and fail to understand his behavior. This phenomenon then causes fear because everyone is scared of things they either can’t grasp or understand.

Meanwhile, the presence of Joker serves as an warning of what would happen if one gets rejected by the society; and because people are afraid of the consequences, they usually dwell on the boundary, reluctant to make the move. It can be seen as either a good thing or bad thing, on one side it is beneficial to the entire city since the decline of crime rates due to fear. On the other side, this “monster” prevents development. People get too afraid to step outside the box that they choose to stay in one place which causes the advancement of the city to be on halt. People might think that, “ Why would anyone want to become a psychopath such as Joker?” In the movie “Batman: Dark Knight Rises”, Joker seems to be motivated by the desire to crush corruption since he imprisoned and killed most of the crime source which actually benefited City of Gotham in the long run. On top of that, he proves how there is still a good side even within criminals by displaying the two ships in the movie. In the end of the movie, Dent become the mayer and Gordon gets promoted……All of these wouldn’t have been possible if Joker didn’t come up with such a meticulous plan. Also, Gotham managed to stay in peace for years until the appearance of Bane. These actions all leads to one conclusion: That there is an error in Batman’s principles which would sometimes cause more people to be killed.

In conclusion, everyone has the potential or possibilities of becoming the Joker because all it really takes is one bad day. Apart from how Joker often executes his plan with madness, it still suggests the society a possibility of saving the city of Gotham; however, people fail to categorize this character which leads to the creation of the monster. Now let’s think about this, is Joker the mad one or is the whole city mad?

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Remix project idea

For this project, David, Sean and I will be making a video on a speech called, “The Power of Vulnerability”. We will film a video first based on the content of the speech and then do a voice over on it to further emphasize on the message of our “remix” video. The whole project should be around 2.5 min long. 

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The Monster

In the world that we live in today, people believe and act as if there are “monsters” everywhere, among us, and even inside of us. This phenomenon is caused by anxiety and guilt which often lead people into objecting anything that defies with the general public’s opinion, a “difference”. Unfortunately, people continuously refuse to acknowledge this fact because the truth is: There is never a monster, only a projection of our cultural body which is built upon fear against differences.

Throughout the history, people had always showed tendencies at revoking disputes that they either couldn’t accept or understood. Whether if it’s about culture, sexuality or ideology, as soon as people found it to be against the nature, they forbade it. The creation of vampires, especially Dracula serves as a classic example of how people dispatched their anxiety onto some certain subjects in order to justify their fear. People would believe that vampires and homosexuality were conjoined, and so was AIDS, because they couldn’t and didn’t want to accept such radical ideologies; instead, they created the vampire figure to blame this problem upon and to find a way to eliminate this  “difference”.

On the other hand, the major factor that makes the “monsters” so feared by the people is its refusal in participating the categorization system set by the society. People have always been frightened of the things that they can’t grasp or understand, so when something can’t fit into any of the systematic structure, they panic. Unfortunately, the monsters are usually the harbingers of category crisis and the fact that people choose to ignore it only exacerbates the situation. Personally, I think the appearance of the monster invites multiple assumptions such as the need of exploring a new method of exploring the world. People shouldn’t disregard it just because it rebukes the traditional knowledge. Instead, we should face our fear and embody it with an open mind. Sadly, our current society hinders such development by farther distorting the true appearance of the monster: any religious, political or cultural differences are demonized. For example, the Muslims and the native americans were once portrayed as savages who lacked humanity, and the whole purpose of doing so was to gain support from the general public.Following the majority has always been one of people’s natural tendencies, they would follow any believes blindly as long as they are on the more appealing side; however, this is exactly how so many people got killed during the mid centuries because villagers would believe anything the church said and followed their orders. Widows were often burt to death during that age due to the false believe of the existence of witches. On the other side, African Americans were treated unfairly due to people shallow understanding towards racism. After all, the whole idea of the “monster” did not just get created out of no where, but through a process of extracting various fragments from all these events and assemble them together. By keeping the monster locked within the darkest side of our society, people are now too reluctant on taking any risk in order to explore the possibilities. They are not only afraid of the uncertainty, but also afraid of becoming the next monster just because they are different from the rest of the world. No one wants to be that outlier who is abandoned culturally, religiously and politically. Looking at the bible, some of the stories inside often demonize other races or cultures to enforce a strict notion of group sameness and anyone who disobeys it would be seen as wicked and impure. Under such circumstances, it is absolutely difficult for anyone to be willing of losing all kinds identities just for that slim opportunity of steeping out of the cage. However, just because people are not willing to doesn’t mean they don’t secretly desire a change in the system. From time to time, people are unconsciously attracted by the monster and want to destroy that thin wall between culture and category. As a substitution, people would lash out this desire during carnivals such as Halloween where people dressed as demons at night. It is one of those rare occasions when no one would judge each other since everyone is a monster. All of these actions suggest the possibilities that monster offers different identities. It can be personal, sexual, national, psychological……In other words, monster exists in every single one of us, waiting to be awakened.

In conclusion, our society created the monster under the pressure of the categorizing system, yet we continuously choose to banish it simply because the fear of its uncertainty. Even though there is a monster within us, our pathetic selves still do not embody it due to the lack of recognition. However, I think our society has no reason to be so shallow minded since the existence of the monster invites a method of perceiving the world from a whole new perspective. Not just on the cultural aspect, but also on others such as gender, politics, religion…… Now think about this, are you the monster or is this ignorant society the monster?

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4″33″ by John Cage

Before we find a music video and get into the grand idea of post modernism, we have to stop and think to ourselves, “What is music? What defines music? and how to define music?” These questions kept lingering in my mind as I browsed through YouTube, channel by channel; suddenly, a bold yet eccentric idea emerged: What if I chose a music video that is completely silent?

The video “4”33”” is an art piece produced by John cage in hopes of reviving people’s awareness towards the very definition of “music” and breaking the boundary between art and performance. Ever since its debute, the opinions of the public have been polarising greatly. On one hand, people are calling it a brilliant piece that is challenging everyone’s understanding towards music. On the other hand, others see it as a reckless joke coated by the names of art. However, no matter what people say about “4”33””, this four minute video definitely introduces a radical perspective which makes people reconsider about the quality that makes music a “music”.  

“4”33”” is a music piece composed of 3 movements and according to each of the movement , no instruments should be played. Therefore, this piece is filled with nothing but silence as no one will be performing it; however, that is exactly what makes this piece so brilliant. First of all, we need to acknowledge the fact that it isn’t strictly a music piece due to the absence of audio; but rather a music that acts like an artwork. In the black and white video, we can see John Cage coming up onto the stage in his tuxedo, sits in front of the piano, and then closes the lid. The auditorium is soon taken over by a silent yet awkward atmosphere. For the rest of the video, John Cage just sat there firmly and performed very little actions that had nothing to do with the piano. After 4”33” of “performance”, he then stood up and left the stage without saying a single word. Not to mention that this who act was completed without him even touching the keyboard. This “Silent Concert” soon became one of the most controversial art pieces of all time. However, does this piece really carries no means of “music” at all? The answer is no. In the world that we live in, we are constantly surrounded by all kinds of sound source that are ignored by our perceptions. For examples: the sound of people breathing, the sound of leather shoes tapping the floor, and the sound of clothes touching each other…..These are all easily neglected “music” that we choose to disregard under certain environment such as auditorium. According to John Cage, just because we think that it is completely silent, doesn’t mean those mere noises don’t exist.” During the performance, he offers the audience a thought provoking  way to re-experience their senses of hearing. On top of that, John Cage bestows them the rights of choosing what they want to listen to. One can either listen to the sound of another coughing (as what happened in 1:10) or even listen to their own minds. The thing is, under the influence of modern world music industries; people are now overly used to listening to pop culture music and treat it as the only source of music. By participating in “4”33””, the audience gains a moment of salvation through into the void. Treating the performance as a blank sheet of canvas and recognize this unique concept by filling up the white space with imaginary “music”.

Throughout the video, it is very hard to make any assumptions based on visual observation. Not only because this is a piano performance, but also because John Cage barely makes any movement at all. In fact, he only moved three times during the piece which highlights the significance of the the silence. Meanwhile, the entire video is filmed in black and white which takes away most of the distracting factors that would hinder the experience. After all, John Cage wants this work of sound to have nothing to do with him since he wants us to focus all our sensational feelings on to the music itself. As what W.A. Mozart once said, “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” By performing this act of art, John Cage is reminding people the fundamental aspect of music that has been long forgotten by the public. And if we listen to our surroundings carefully enough, we will discover that music is everywhere: among the noises, out on the streets, and even between you and me.

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Assignment #2: Deconstruct an image

    This is an advertisement that came across me while I was reading a magazine couple years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the magazine, nor do I recall the date; however, this powerful advertisement left a strong impression in me which lingered in my mind for a long time. When I first glanced at the advertisement without paying any extra attention to it, I thought it was just a cliche advertisement telling people to raise public awareness; however, that is exactly what makes this advertisement so brilliant. It requires a certain level of observation in order to find out the outrageous truth behind the deceiving question. In the advertisement, we can see two girls with different ethnicities sitting right next to each other. From their outfit and the background, we can assume that they are both elementary school students sitting in the library. Despite these obvious characteristic, it is the items they are holding that emphasizes the powerfulness of this ad: a book and a gun. On the left side, the african american girl is holding “Little Red Riding Hood” and on the other side, the white girl is holding a rifle. Based on the text on the upper part of the ad, it is offering us readers a chance to decide which item is banned by the government. Normally, the majority of the public would choose the gun without any doubts; however, the smaller text at the bottom of the ad reveals the outrageous truth behind this “obvious” choice: “Little Red Riding Hood” is actually the one banned due to the depiction of alcohol.

    Overall, the advertisement has a symmetrical composition where the girls and the items are placed on each sides of the picture plane. The set up suggests a form of  decision making which forces the reader to choose which side to agree with. The text above their heads reenforces the whole concept of decision making by showing every word in black and white except for the part “Guess Which One” which is colored in red. By doing so, it gives the reader a powerful focal point when first looking at the advertisement. Meanwhile, the background gives people a clue about the context which has something to do with children. Lastly, the children’s book and the rifle creates a strong contrast that quickly grabs people’s attention, not only because one item is in white and another is in black, but also because these two items carry completely opposite purposes: one is made to enrich people’s knowledge and the other is made to take people’s lives.  On top of that, the presence of the firearm seems absolutely odd in a scholarly setting such as school.

    In conclusion, this advertisement successfully uses people’s nature of curiosity to force them into making an “obvious” decision of, “oh! Of course the gun is banned in America…” but later discover that the book is actually the one that’s banned. This contrast leaves people with the strongest impression while delivering a concise yet strong message.

[kennethkuh-blog]

Assignment #1: De-volution

Kenneth Kuh Critical Practice 1 (Monday) 1/17/2016

You Say You Want a Devolution?

Today in the world that we live in, everything is changing in such a rapid pace that one can hardly keep count of. Everyday, a product could be replaced by another new model of its own; however, is our modern world really that different from the past? As what Anderson stated in the article, “…although the advancement in technology has flourished since 1992 and brought a radical change to our society, the same 20 years has barely changed at all comparing to any other 20 year periods.” I believe that our contemporary culture is currently deprived from innovations and is sincerely in need of a radical change.

After reading the article, I couldn’t help but to ponder about how us human race seems to be on a halt in advancement which makes it keep on repeating what has been happening throughout the recent past. Unfortunately, such phenomenon doesn’t only appear in technology, but is also happening in multiple aspects of our culture as well such as architecture, fashion and entertainment industry. From 1992 to 2012, the rapid change in these fields seems to be slowing down till the point where it provides almost no distinctive difference. A person with a 1900s fashion style can completely blend into our modern society without being called as a freak. An old fashion film can seen as a stylistic approach towards filming. On the other hand, such thing could never possibly happen if it were in 1970s -1990s or even 1930s -1950s. Why? because instead of embracing the recent past,  the people at that time kept on seeking for distinctive change that would set them apart from other eras.

Now the question is, why are we stuck in this situation where that very thin line between 2012 and 1992 is slowly blurring into nothing? For me, I think of it as an unfortunate result of the society’s highly accepting attitude towards the past. In fact, there seems to be an inclination in how people constantly look backwards for inspiration and later call it the “process to modernism”. Meanwhile, some might argue that there is nothing wrong with learning from the past; however, it becomes a disturbing fact when people grow fixated on it and refuse to acknowledge such problem. Recently, this trend has gotten so far down into the root of our society, which makes us unaware of all the chances that we are giving up upon when we could’ve made an approach towards a change. In this modern world with all the advance equipments surrounding us, there should be no excuse for such halt in the development of our culture; and yet, all people are doing is using these precious resources on dreaming about the past; recreating old fashion music, images and TV series.

In conclusion, I think we are facing away from the future because we have reached a limit in advancement where we could no longer accept any new changes. Throughout the past couple hundred years, our ancestors had always been working on developing a better culture and society; however, now that we have reached the end of the road, we no longer no what to do.  In other words, we are too used to the inventions from the past which makes us unable to think outside the box and take a leap towards the “change”  that will mark the difference between 1992 and 2012.