Aesthetics: November 2007 Archive Page

Here is the beginning of a poem that recent SHU graduate Moira Richardson read at her father's funeral this morning.

I am the twinkle in your eyes,
Eternal laughter sparkling,
Strong and silent,
My father.

Someone bought a collection of old slides from a second-hand shop, scanned them and posted them online, then got in touch with the photographer -- who had tossed them into a trash bin 30 years ago.

I was an artist in Vietnam and served with the Department of Information, Mac Headquarters. During my time there I shot hundreds, if not thousands, of 35 mm slides and photos. Years ago we moved from Siloam Springs Akansas to Hawaii. I had boxes and boxes of slides, photos etc. I had all this stuff in storage for years and upon moving decided it was time to move on and get rid of it. I tossed all the slides and numbers of photos in a dumpster by the alley of our old business - Grantree & HIll Gallery and Framing in Siloam Springs. You are the second person to contact me that purchased slides at an antique shop in Arkansas. She was a professional photographer and appreciated my work also. It seems someone had to climb into the dumpster, sort them out and then sell them to a shop where you and others purchased. What a story. I appreciate your interest and my time in Vietnam was needless to say a life experience.

Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke at Stanford last June:

Entertainment promises us a predictable pleasure--humor, thrills, emotional titillation, or even the odd delight of being vicariously terrified. It exploits and manipulates who we are rather than challenges us with a vision of who we might become. A child who spends a month mastering Halo or NBA Live on Xbox has not been awakened and transformed the way that child would be spending the time rehearsing a play or learning to draw.

If you don't believe me, you should read the statistical studies that are now coming out about American civic participation. Our country is dividing into two distinct behavioral groups. One group spends most of its free time sitting at home as passive consumers of electronic entertainment. Even family communication is breaking down as members increasingly spend their time alone, staring at their individual screens.

The other group also uses and enjoys the new technology, but these individuals balance it with a broader range of activities. They go out--to exercise, play sports, volunteer and do charity work at about three times the level of the first group. By every measure they are vastly more active and socially engaged than the first group.

Hmm... multiplayer online games do involve social skills, teamwork, leadership, and many other things that I would consider a social activity, rather than passive entertainment.  The culture of gaming is a spectrum, like all cultures.  It includes those who sit slack-jawed before the screen for hours, mesmerized by bits; but it also includes those who trade tips and write reviews online, and those who write fan fiction, remix videos, or teach themselves 3D design so that they can build their own game levels. The child who, inspired by an encounter with a computer game, spends a month learning how to draw with a 3D design tool can be awakened and transformed as much as a child who spends a month drawing with pen and pencil. 

But I do share Gioia's humanistic assumption that technology is best understood and most welcome as one element of a rich and diverse society, rather than a replacement for human interaction.

Thanks, Mike, for the e-mail.

Spit & Polish:

When this game was first released in 1880 it was so hugely popular in taverns and inns that the bank of England was forced to mint more threepenny bits to keep up with demand.

Gotta love the mustaches and bowler hats.