Happy Medium

Kyle Labak's Ach Mein Gott So I made a music video! Yay!  I wanted to use the platform of the music video because it's already a space in which experimental film is widely consumed, so in theory if Kyle became a famous singer, the messages that I'm trying to convey here would become part of the dialogue of this 'global village' that McLuhan expresses.  Betty Boop as the main subject just kind of happened - Kyle was adamant that she had to be a part of the project and I found that the material went very well rhythmically with the song. From there, everything kind of snowballed into iconic moments featuring women. I wanted to question whether or not those icons should be immortalized for the reasons that they are. For example, Disney's Cinderella represents the perfect form of femininity, the shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho is known to be one of the most horrifying deaths in cinema history (with phallic imagery), and Superman, our hero ...

The Beatles were a very influential and iconic band from the 70's (as you probably know). What you might not have known is that they changed everything about the music industry during their time. Before the Beatles, studio recordings were only important in that they could replicate the live performance, but the live performance was the most important part of being a musician. The Beatles started as a band like this, but slowly they began to mess with the technology available. In studio, they were able to layer tracks and perform multiple parts within one song. During live performances, they were limited by technology, so by 1966, they almost completely stopped giving concerts. The Beatles were important to McLuhan's idea of a global village too, because so many people knew about them. Many different times, their music transcended time and space through technology, like for example their first appearance on American television; 23 million people tuned in live, therefore cre...

The convocation brought up a lot of issues for me about interventionism, and both the positives and negatives surrounding the topic. Overall, I felt like he tried to fit too many concepts into 70 minutes and just mentioning problems without really guiding us to a logical solution. There is merit to addressing specific issues, but there were just so many problems brought to our attention, and I felt like he was only halfway finished at the end of 70 minutes. ANYWAY, as I was listening to his speech, I was struck by the excessive use of 'honor' without really defining what it is, and I think the same problem extends to the honor code here at Lawrence. What exactly does "The Honor Code" entail? We have this basic sense of conditions drilled into our head: don't cheat, don't lie, don't steal material from the internet, return lost items around campus. The general idea is follow the moral code of a virtuous person. Appiah's idea of honor is similar, excep...

This whole project was very exciting. My book turned out really well, but I wish my thesis had been more clear, because on the surface it looks like I had several different topics; I was critiquing capitalism, making my photos look almost like pages in a magazine. Within that critique, I wanted to highlight how much value has been lost for so-called sacred ideas or people, like Confucius, and how we as a society are so focused on the past (like the drum or the Latest News container) yet we can't wait for the newest technology. I kind of wanted to communicate all of that, so I hope it was effective and everyone kind of understood what I was trying to get at.  The print project was also very interesting, but less enjoyable and satisfactory than the book. My two prints, "Follow the Rules" and "$12.95 of Right" worked well together, and continued the critique of capitalism.  This was my first time being part of a gallery opening, and I have to say it was pret...

[Transcript from my book The Beatles and McLuhan ] Lennon: The medium is the message, you see. McLuhan: You know there's a hyphen in there, didn't you? Mess-age. Lennon: No. And then it was massage last time I heard it. McLuhan: And mass-age. Put the hyphens in and you have the real message. Lennon: Yes. Yes, very good. McLuhan: They, they were - it was always intended to have hyphens. Lennon: Well, I just got the hang of medium is the message, and then somebody told me, "Oh no, it;s the medium is the massage." McLuhan: And the mass age and the mess age. Lennon: I gave in. McLuhan: So, this is - you're trying to tidy up the message a bit. Lennon: Yes, yes... Ono: Yes. Lennon: We're trying to get it over in three-letter words.

RETHINKING THE IDEA: This is how I would think a computer would breathe if we gave it life. 

OKAY! I was unable to create a slideshow, but all of my photos are on flickr at this address: I Have This Thing About Boxes (That's the title) There were a few different ideas going on in my head at the time that I was shooting, but the main theme is consumerism and more broadly capitalism. The order is important, because the first photo you see is of my friend looking at a box, and she said, "I have this thing about boxes", which I thought was such a telling example of how much our lives revolve around things that don't really have any meaning (like small ornate boxes). Among that overarching theme, I also focused on an obsession for nostalgia that is present in American society. This is almost self reflexive in a way, because I also like to photograph old things--they're just usually more interesting to look at. In Mcluhan's book, he says "In the name of 'progress', our official culture is striving to force the new media to do the work of...