Communicating in Technology

Communicating in Technology
I’ve been fascinated by epistemology and communications theory since studying world view in college.  I used to be immersed in this stuff as teaching intern for a professor at the school.  This week I’ve unearthed hundreds of questions about technology and communciations as I am finally reading Amusing Ourselves to Death.

How has this blog affected my interactions, my communication?  If the invention of the telegraph reduced discourse to irrelevant headlines, how is the blog affecting us?  I’m sure I could find much already written on this subject.

Communicating in 3-D
And if I didn’t have enough to think about already, I’ve been pushed over a cliff into thinking three-dimensionally at Emily Carr.  I don’t know if the name of the class, Media & Materials in Art Practice, conjured up the term “3-D” in your mind, but I was actually quite thrown off by this upping of the bar.

I was suddenly required to make a cardboard sculpture and an item of clothing out of wire.  The cardboard sphere was a disaster – I was fussing for days about what a sphere had to do with graphite rubbings of bark and the ridiculousness of building anything out of nothing more than white glue and scraps of cardboard.

But I was able to pull it together on my paradoxical wire “Hands-Off Pregnancy Apron” – a deceptively cute little number covered in barbs at closer inspection to keeping prying hands off of a pregnant woman’s belly.  This idea was inspired by a pregnant pal who has been dogged by strangers’ sudden forwardness and invasion of her personal space.

Enter the Cube
So it seems that part of the allure in art is to connect unusual concepts and spend a lot of time wrapped up in thoughts about them.  Yesterday we made a cube out of plaster, and we have to carry it around all week with us.  (It reminds me of the high school parenting class activity where students had to carry a doll around with an egg in its head to prove they could parent a child without smashing its head.)  So given my preoccupation with communication and technology, I’ve decided to document my cube using my camera phone and its low-quality pictures.  Apparently this art project is just the kind of fodder that portfolio reviewers want to see in my sketchbook.  I’m going to try to post a picture of cube every day.

At the end of the week, I have to wrap my cube in something and then think of a good tale of why I chose that material.  So for that episode, you’ll have to join me next week.