Sharing Art

Art in all forms has been a way of bringing people together and invoking an emotion. Art will always be used for that, but the way people view art has been changing. There used to be an elite culture associated with arts. The artists were rich and the people who viewed art were too. In order to have the supplies to paint or make a film, someone would need a lot money. Then when the art was displayed in a gallery or in a concert hall, people would dress in their finest clothes and pay to go see it. In Presspauseplay, Moby says "50 years ago, people didn't make things. People would go to photography exhibits. They would go to record fairs. They would watch movies. Now everyone is a photographer. Everyone is a musician. Anyone can make a film". The elite culture has disappeared. Everyone has access to the tools to make a more or paint an amazing picture. And now everyone can see the art. Art is shared with everyone. Sean Parker, co-creator of Napster tells interviewers "the vision behind Napster, in the very early stages, was to just come with a system that made sharing of mp3's so easy that a housewife or grandmother in Iowa could do it". Music is illegally and legally downloaded everyday all over the world. We all have the means to do it and music can reach many more people.

Is this widespread access a bad thing? If everyone can make videos and posts them, how do we know which ones are good? Andrew Keen says "a you Hitchcock or young Scorsese wouldn't make into the movie business today. They'd slap up their films onto YouTube and it would get lost in the ocean of garbage". It may be harder to stand out but it doesn't make the art any less important. Every video means something to the person creating it even if it just a good memory now. Art is made to capture a moment or emotion and that is what all of the YouTube videos do. They are not all Golden Globe winners but they are art. Another debate in the advancing world is if a computer can be considered an instrument. Almost every imperfect sound recorded can be fixed with computer editing and many artist depend on that. Nick Sansano is a music producer and sees this happen more often than not. "Younger musicians and some older ones... rely too much on technology. They give a sub-par performance and expect the technology to compensate for it..." (Nick Sansano). I think it is still music. It is still an idea that people are choosing to share with the world. It is different but that doesn't make it bad. There is a lot to be said for those people who can play an instrument exceptionally well and produce record without any help. It is hard and they will always be admired for being able to do that. Those people who aren't that talented might have the same passion but are unable to express it. That is where technology helps. It allows people that are not as talented to still express themselves in the way they want. Human error is no longer our sole limitation.

PressPausePlay

I have never been a film person. I don't sit still long enough to really watch a whole movie let alone analyze it. That being said, I found the movie we started today, PressPausePlay, very interesting. It brought up a lot of good points that a lot of people are interested in. With everyone being able to make music on their computers today, how do producers stay in business. Recently there has been a hipster fad, where we are almost going back in time. Records are in and the classics are better than ever. People have always had respect for classic and timeless musicians but they listened to more current music. With this hipster era, producing music in a studio makes more sense. They want the 'old sound' instead of the more electronic new sound. I don't know where I fall in the debate. I like both the new and the old ways of making music. They can both create great music that can reach thousands of people.

It also gives people an overload of options. We are exposed to so many types of art, good and bad, through media. A terribly filmed video might go viral on YouTube while a great one is only viewed a handful of times. How do we as a society decide what is good and what is bad? There are personal preferences and it changes depending on the mood of that person. How are people able to stand out against everyone else? Today celebrities have to have a huge social media base to stay at their popularity level. If they hide from the media and don't constently promote themselves to their fans they will fade away. The attention span of society today has shrunk. We only watch something for as long as it entertains us. Then we move on to the next piece and forget we ever saw the first. The overload of artwork in various forms makes it a lot harder for people to stand on their own and get the worlds attention.

Finishing the Ceremony!

We finished Ceremony!! Some of my questions are answered but I still have so many. There are two parts that confuse me the most. The first is when Robert comes to visit Tayo. "'They want you to come home. They are worried about you. They think you might need the doctors again... Old man Ku'oosh and some of the others are wondering too why you haven't come. They thought maybe there might be something you should tell them...And Emo is has been saying things about you. He's been talking about how you went crazy and are alone out here. He talks bullshit about caves and animals'" (Silko 228). I started to question the reality of Tayo's situation. Robert is concerned about Tayo but he doesn't want to agree with Emo. Does he secretly agree with him? Is Tayo really imagining the spotted cattle? Most of the novel is through Tayo's perspective and there is no way to tell how reliable he is. There are points where he is more clear than others but I don't know if what he says is true or only what he believes is true. Tayo could be running around the open spaces chasing imaginary cattle and talking to himself. Maybe Emo is the more sane one of the two.

The other part that confused me was when Emo, Pinkie and Leroy attack Harley. The whole story that Tayo tells seems a little off. I understand that Emo is somewhat evil and doesn't like Tayo because he is a racist but would he go that far? They kidnapped and tied Harley up. "Pinkie held [Harley's] leg, and Leroy cut a whorl from the bottom of his big toe. Harley screamed hoarsely; the sound trailed off to a groan" (Silko 251). They were all friends!? How can someone do this to someone they were friends with? The they just laugh and leave. Tayo doesn't kill Emo because he can resist witchery and he is on the path to finishing his ceremony. I question the reality of the whole encounter. Tayo is dehydrated, exhausted and hasn't eaten in a day or so. Anyone can start to imagine things after being out in the desert all day.

The Spotted Cattle

In Ceremony  Tayo is represented by the spotted cattle. Josiah takes care of the cattle  in the beginning and he enlists Tayo to help care for them. Tayo has always been lost and alone and taking care of the cattle would help him find himself. By caring for the cattle, Tayo was caring for himself. When Tayo went to war with Rocky he lost himself again. His native ways didn't work with warfare. How were the Japanese any different than him? They were all beings on Earth from mother nature. They were all human. While Tayo was away the cattle ran off. They were as lost as Tayo. Tayo is sick and feels invisible when he returns. He lost himself and doesn't feel alive or human.

Tayo talks to Benito, a healer, and decides he needs to search for his lost cows. He headed out on his journey and found them. "The spotted cattle wouldn't be lost any more, scattered through his dreams, driven by his hesitation to admit they had been stolen, that the land - all of it - had been stolen from them" (SILKO 192). Tayo is realizing that he needs the cattle to be happy and cure himself. The cattle needs to be taken care of in order to feel better. Tayo is finally taking care of himself and trying to get better instead of letting the pain be dulled by alcohol. He has denied the pain for so long and tried to ignore it until it goes away. His pain won't go away and Tayo finally does something about it. The other veterans may be happy to drink their lives away but Tayo wants better and to get it he has to find himself. Not the man he was before the war but the man he is now. War and life changed him and the cattle grew with him. They were taken by a white rancher and had a new experience. Now they are back with Tayo who will care for them.