Month: October 2014

Based on Russolo’s ” The Art of Noises”, he defined what noise was by comparing from the past to the present. He stated how noise used to be very primitive; a silent and remote sound that could be heard simply from the street outside. Now, he described noise as something that is very loud and prolific due to advanced technology such as machinery. A machine such as a bull dozer to a mechanical pencil sharpener are two different tools yet they produce two very distinctive sounds. Even one’s footsteps create sounds that can be heard. One aspect that Russolo wanted to emphasize was music. Music is an extension of noise that is organized by tones and rhythms to create a sense of emotional response to the listener. He used the term Musical Noise that creates bigger, acoustic sounds with high quality and variety. He stated.” We must break at all costs from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise sounds”. He wanted the break the silent noise and branch it out to create a variety of different sounds and tones . However, we are not capable of doing that alone. Machinery is a broad term that he keep repeating throughout the article so instead he chose to use the word instrument. An instrument is a tool that helps produce sounds and in order to create music, we need to form an orchestra. Symphony is an elaborate composition  for an orchestra; musicians work together to create  music through a variety of diverse instruments. It is a combination of machinery and noise to alter the pitches and tunes . Eventually, we will be able to distinguish over three thousand sounds.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/guy.html

I can hear different instruments being used like a trumpet or a triangle . The change of pitch changes throughout.

According to Warks “Hacker Manifesto”, he is trying to portray different perspective of a hacker. He is not interested in blaming about the job of an actual hacker who steals people’s information but he just wants to show how hackers are like in terms of creating information. One section that I found interesting was when he described how hackers are related with Information. He stated that while we have complete access to information 24/7, he is arguing that this actually impedes us from being creative and release our full potential. One quote he said was, ” It is the hacker class that taps the virtuality of information, but it is the vectoralist class that owns and controls the means of production of information in an industrial scale”. It seems that he is defending what an actual hacker is here but more about how hackers prevent free expression since everything is privatized.

http://youtu.be/j24EPpoJtVE

Based on the excerpt, Brick and Cameraless Animation, one quote that really stood out to me was , ” Animation enables me to give magical powers to things. In my films, I move many objects real objects. Suddenly, everyday contact with things that people are used to acquire new dimensions…” Since I grew up watching animation whether its from cartoons or from movies, I always thought that they magically come to life. However, I realized that it’s a tedious process that requires advanced technology to bring the inanimate object to life. One of  my childhood shows was Tom and Jerry; a cat who constantly tries to capture the mouse but the mouse always outsmarts the cat. In reality, cats will always try to chase the mouse by scaring it away but animators make it more entertaining by enhancing their characters’ capabilities to the next level. For instance, Tom tends to injure himself whenever Jerry runs away so Tom may get a big bump on his head with birds flying over him. That is what’s so unique about animation. You can do what ever you want to make your character stand out. To me, there are no boundaries in animation, no strict rules that you have follow. An animator’s goal is to go beyond what is expected and do something unexpected so he or she could wow the audience and bring them away from reality. Animation starts off from ideas and sketches and with several alternations on the computer program, you can add or delete certain things. The sole purpose of animation is to make your ideas and characters move. Swankmajer also stated, “Animation challenges the orthodox understanding and acceptance of our existence”. He is saying how animation allows us to break the mundane rules and distort to make it more visually appealing to the eye.