Response to Electronics Alive

Okay, so I've gotta say I've really enjoyed the show thus far.  If I can somehow make it fit into my schedule I plan to go to the lecture about glitch art as well but I went to the reception as well as David Andrade's lecture and both were amazing.  I have to say I'm not a fan of Fountain, despite that being the centerpiece of the first lecture, but the overall topics addressed were really intriguing and I appreciated the different perspective.  I have to say as someone who really has a passion for digital art, for technology, and for working with 3D software the exhibit has made me really happy.  There have been many times where my friends, peers, and sometimes even my mentors would tell me that what I'm interested in isn't "real" art and that I'm not an actual artist and it's always been really discouraging.  For instance back in my freshman year of high school my art teacher hated me because I drew Anime.  Now it wasn't that I only knew how to draw Anime, I knew realism too but she despised Anime and refused to allow me to draw Anime in my own sketchbook telling me it was horrible and didn't require skill at all.  I quickly made enemies with her and disobeyed everything she told me.... also my realism was good enough that she knew she couldn't fail me so I walked out of that class with an A.  Though after that year she left the school to go teach elementary schoolers... poor kids... I may have made her pretty annoyed.  But I don't respect people who don't respect others so that happened.  But this art show has made me really happy because it's the opposite of what so many people have told me.  I don't really have a favorite piece, although all the animation is great and the Buddha sculpture that hums is really cool.  I actually have a really cool story though, when I was deciding what school to go to I emailed David Andrade about his thoughts on going to UT and his experiences in the industry and today I got to hear him lecture and shake his hand and thank him which was super cool to me.  So I'm super excited to have gotten to do that and look forward to keeping in contact with him.

Week One

I could not find Juan Carlos Delgado because apparently his name is very common.  However, I did read the article on art vs. design.  What I've walked away from this reading with, is that design carries intent, it's calculated whereas art does not inherently need that calculation.  For instance abstract art can consist of random brush strokes and colors meant to do nothing but portray emotion, or sometimes just to look good.  Design implies the thought of what should go where, what components are needed.  Design can be art, and art can be designed but they are two different things despite their easily overlapping.
Raul Cuero is a very interesting person and even though the overall message is supposed to be about creativity, I more so took a message of mindfulness from it.  I'm already applying creativity to everything in my life, I live creativity.  Being mindful is something everyone should do.  It involves not judging a book by its cover, consciously being aware of what you are doing and what you are thinking, etc.  When you're aware of yourself, your thoughts, and the people around you, everything becomes much easier for you.  Creativity and creative problem solving in particular which is what Raul talks about mostly, become much more natural when you are mindful.
I'm not going to lie, I'm incredibly confused by what I'm supposed to be learning from all of the seemingly random links in third section of the calendar.  I love music.  Literally (and I say this the way the word is meant to be used not for hyperbolic effect) the only mp3 player that can hold my music library is the original iPod Video/iPod Classic.  I have probably over 100 Gbs of music.  I can't say Opera is really my thing, the concept behind the aesthetics of the Sacrificium album are interesting to me, but I don't know how it ties in to everything yet.  And then in the middle of the links is a Katy Perry music video.  I'm not the biggest fan of Katy Perry, although after listening to that song I might give her a shot, but I did love the aesthetics of the video accompaniment.  The images are very evocative and do a great job of storytelling.  There are a lot of music videos that are done just to grab attention, and I didn't feel that one was one of them.  And then we go to Die Antwoord which I assume is a group/musician, from Russia or one of its surrounding countries.  At this point all I'm seeing is a commentary on femininity among all of these videos, but how this ties in to all the Opera specifically is beyond me.
I am so very confused by all this information and sensory input.

First Impression

My first impression of this class is that it's pretty odd. From reading the first article about the definition of episteme and techne, I have got to say I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be taking away from this class.  I'm hoping we stay away from stuff like that in the future, because otherwise this class seems like it'll be interesting.  I tried to read the article and although I looked at the words and read them I didn't interpret a danged thing in that article.  It was a bunch of random fluff to me.  I was tempted to read it again but then I looked at it and decided there was no way in hell I was gonna read it again.  Personally, I love art and technology and I'm a techy as well as an artist.  In stuff like my 3D Animation I use technology to accomplish art.  So I can see the purpose of this course.  Mostly, I'm just looking forward to the projects because I'm not really a lecture person.