Posted by Aaron Springer on May 27, 2009 under N485 | 
It is my honest opinion that I am a cork floating on a sea of mediocrity. Unique, but so small as to be hard to notice against the background.
Don’t get me wrong. I have known this for some time; it is a part of my nature as is the question, “Why not?” and the complete Beatle’s collection.
Tonight in class, we discussed games, and other new media forms. We discussed a floating sphere which is beyond the technology of the Air Force (as far as I know) and we discussed art versus paid work.
I create because to not create would make me sink into the formless void which is the great majority of humanity. If I can make a few bucks doing it, all the better.
I suppose that was what I gathered from the class tonight. Sure, it’s a depressing thought, but what drives creativity than a desire to be noticed?
Posted by Aaron Springer on under General, N485 |
The other day, I was given a door
An odd thing to be given, to be sure
It was a way, a path
One side here, the other there
My compatriots returned the door
I wonder if they understand
The door they returned was a physical thing
But the door we were given was not
The door sits near me
Some would say mockingly
I would say invitingly
The door can be so much
But it may just be a way point
On a much longer journey
The door was permanently open
As a mind should be
The door was a simple idea
An old idea
A useful idea
Someday, I hope that my ideas
are simple, and old, and useful
I do not care if my name is remembered
As long as my art, be it what it may
moved a hand, a mind, a heart
Posted by Aaron Springer on May 20, 2009 under N485 |
Oddly enough, the majority of what I learned tonight was after the teacher left for the evening. Now, don’t get me wrong; the teacher was still the reason for the learning, but it was the actions of the other students that taught me a great lesson tonight.
After diascussing the fifty question assignment, the teacher posed a question to us which required a lateral thought pattern. The question:
“You are driving. You come to a red light. Now, how do you keep going without breaking the law?”
Some of the answers were a bit… lateral, but some required redefining words, outside the normal cultural context.
Then, we were given an assignment. The assignment had very open ends, and I fear that, as a class, we came up with one of the easier solutions to the assignment. I won’t go into details; suffice to say, I did not wholly support the final outcome. However, it was a class effort, and I suppose it taught me that any team I am a part of may come up with an idea I don’t like, but I should support anyway. This happened during Intro to Digital Film during the last project, but I stood behind the group, even though the video was not the best we could do.
We had an infinite number of options, but several in the class were stuck in the mindset that we had very limited options.
I suppose that is the purpose of this class. I try to think out of the box all the time; it annoys me somewhat when people do not use their imaginations to the fullest. I need to learn to work with the group, even if I think that the group can do more.
Posted by Aaron Springer on May 18, 2009 under General, N485 |
Today I finally won my freedom.
I shall try to relate the events in order, as I am quite excited about the prospects of the world before me.
The man pulled me from the cold after quite some time wishing I could shiver. He set me down, and we moved quite quickly to another location, where he picked me up and carried me to a place with many voices. Some I recognized from before, bt one I did not.
The female voice that I remembered from before was there, and, once again, she spoke of art, and design, and other such topics. The conversation had the feel of friends together for the evening, but she did step in and remind of various points. The new voice rumbled from behind, and when the woman said we could take a break, it was not the man’s hand that picked me up, but the owner of the other voice.
He took me somewhere, and I saw my chance at escape. As soon as I felt him go, I reached out to find someone else to take me away, away from the rocket and the people who ate eggs and the danger I was facing.
When I was safely in the hand of the person who was my savior, I encouraged her to take me to where I would not be eaten. I must say that this was the scariest part of my escape, as I fell for quite a distance before coming to a rest on what felt like a soft surface.
I fear this will be my last communique with my readers. My future is uncertain, but I look forward to it with anticipation and hope…
I must apologize. I didn’t realize my blog had been comandeered by my egg. I am not even quite sure how this last entry was made. But, there it is.
As for the class after the egg took its leave, we watched a DVD of artwork that I find quite fascinating. I wasn’t partial to the artwork myself, but, then again, I can be quite a critic when I need to be. The artist was interesting, as I felt like he was trying to break free, through his art, of the bonds he percieved within the world, but he seemed to be reenforcing the bonds within himself. Perhaps once one names something, one has control over it.
To boil it down, I feel as if this class session reemphasized that the goal of New Media is to channel creativity into a profitable venture without losing too much of the core of the creativity itself. In English, don’t let the dollars wipe out the idea.
Posted by Aaron Springer on under General, N485 |
The “man” has told me “It takes much training to be ready for a rocket launch”.
I am still unsure what a rocket launch is, as the images in his mind are a jumble of images, none of which I understand. Thrust/weight equations. “cardboard tubes” and dozens of other images and sequences of images assail me when I try to query his mind about them.
He is waiting on the “rocket” to be delivered. In the mean time, I have been working with him, as much as I can. Today, he is designing what he calls a “centrifuge” in which he will test others like me to see how much acceleration we can handle. From him, I learned my shell is three layers of calcium carbonate. I fear losing my shell. In fact, I fear this whole endeavor. On one hand (A phrase the man uses a lot in his mind), I am ethereal. I am very temporary, both in mind and in body. On the other, as a sentient being (based upon the mind of the man, I am forced to concede that I must be sentient; although if half of the beings in his mind are considered sentient, I am not sure I would want the label), I value my existence.
That reminds me. I have found a most disturbing fact about the man and woman, and “people” in general. They eat eggs (that is their name for what I am)! They crack open the shell, and scoop out what is inside, cook it over extreme heat, then consume the result. When I first saw this in his mind, it horrified me, but when I found that only eggs that cannot hatch are eaten, I felt slightly less so.
There is so much I do not understand about the “world” yet, and quite a bit I cannot believe. The man lives with a “woman”, his “wife”, who is home only in the evenings. She goes to work at a “library” during the day. She has not held me, so her mind is a mystery to me.
I am going to work at convincing him to do something with me that it is a little safer. I, as yet, have no idea what that is.
