I found this text very exciting and relatable because it puts today’s society into perspective and how media is very much an important factor. Technology and media is changing the way people do and view things, perspective and people will always be changing due to new updates in the way media is used in society. A part that really caught my attention was the “your government” section because what McLuhan is saying is what i’m actually seeing in my everyday life. McLuhan writes “The public, in the sense of a great consensus of separate distinct viewpoints, is finished… It is instead, merely given packages of passive entertainment. Politics offers yesterday’s answers to todays questions.” I believe what he is trying to explain here is that people pay most attention to is what is most entertaining or whatever makes uninteresting headline or a good meme. For example, in presidential debates highlights, what is seen most is not really the stance’s that the candidate or their initial points, what gets hi lighted is usually a retaliation or a snarky comment made by one of the candidates to another. Another part of the text I found intriguing is “your family” section, because in today’s media we are all a collective and basically a large extension of your family. We are all constantly in contact, sharing opinions and experiences. McLuhan writes “The family circle has widened. The world pool of information fathered by media- movies, Telstar, flight- far surpasses  any possible influence mom and da can bring to bear. Character is no longer shaped by two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.” I agree with what he is saying because through media is where we grow up together as a community along with your real life friends or just people speaking on experiences or giving advice, just doing everything the general idea of parenting includes but through media. I agree with this text and think this will be the model for the rest of time as media continues to grow and expand to help build character and shape who we are.

If I could create a tool to fix a problem, I would create a huge net that would be attached to a submarine that would collect all the trash and waste that is left in the ocean. it would have to a metrial that stays sticky underwater so that whatever garbage it catches would stay on easily. This would be one step closer to a cleaner planet and saving animals that live at sea.

Usually, when you think of new media or at least when I think of new media I tend to just think about photoshop or media programs like adobe etc. When in reality “new” media dates back to the 1800’s starting with the Analytical Engine created by Charles Babbage. But what really caught my attention in this early era was on page 23, when Manovich speaks on the first motion picture was produced in 1893, in Edison’s “Black Maria”. The reason i found this interesting was just because I did not know Thomas Edison had anything to do within media and film, so to find out he actually laid down the platform for the production of the first 20-second motion picture was new information for me. This led to a short series created by Edison for the Kinetoscope, which is an invention that peaked my interest. It was really the first version or “prototype” of a projector and was only able to be seen by one person at a time.

Then, the next section of the reading i found interesting was when Manovich got into more recent technology and speaks about Transcoding. On page 47 Manovich writes “Comparing new media to print, photography, or television will never tell us the whole story. For although from one point of view new media is indeed another type of media, from another it is simply a particular type of computer data, something stored in databases, retrieved and sorted, run through algorithms and written to the output device.” This stood out to me because i take the viewpoint that believes new media is indeed another type of media, and it’s it’s own seperate type of art. I would not be able to see it the other way because it’s not as simple as just an input to recieve an output, there is a thought process and an idea behind the actual outcome.

A$AP Rocky

Drake

Gunna

J. Cole

Action Bronson

Benny the Butcher

Jay-Z

Cam’ron

Kanye West

Mac Miller

Meek Mill

Playboi Carti

Travis Scott

Lil Wayne

In this article Jerry Saltz tries to break down being an artist into the simplest way possible by giving an outline of 33 lessons to help shape and really capture your artistry. It is an interesting read and one of the rules that stood out to me is lesson 6. This lesson is called “Start With a Pencil”, which sounds pretty simple but is deeper than just grabbing a pencil and drawing something. Personally, I think that I am a terrible artist but the way Saltz describes it makes it sound easy and it really is just that simple as grabbing a pencil and drawing something. All the stress of whether the outcome is good or not is internal stress. He says “Tell yourself you’re simply diagramming, playing, experimenting, seeing what looks like what…Get very quiet inside yourself and pay attention to everything you’re experiencing. Don’t think good or bad. Think useful, pleasurable, strange.” The main thing Saltz focuses on is really just feeling out the whole process, mentally cancelling opinion out and just moving freely on the surface making something new, not good or bad, drawing whatever comes to mind. He also speaks about physically being open to trying new things like switching hands, drawing on different surfaces, and draw inspiration from everywhere even things you dont see. I found this so interesting because I always said “I wish I could draw” but in reality there is really nothing stopping me. I have recently been looking for ways to channel more of my creative side and when Saltz breaks it down he makes it sound so easy and that’s because it really is as simple as starting with a pencil and a paper. I think this article can be useful to anyone not just people trying to become artists but anyone who is just looking for motivation to start something new or gain a new perspective.