Research Day Response.

The project that i watched was Melissa Rodriguez' video on the Sustainability of old westbury. Her documentary was started with a campus history, and morphed into a description of what the administration is doing to make the campus more eco-friendly.

Net Neutrality.

Being hardwired into the world is a necessity these days. In the world where instant information is at your hands, being the last to know, is being left in the dust. If you can thrive without information, please tell me this way so i can be ignorant for the rest of my life. I do make a small moment of each day without the constant barrage of information to sit, and reflect, but it is small, and timed only for my own relaxation.

Net Neutrality is a sticky issue to contend with. Left with a choice between the corporate world and the government gaining control of the internet leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. the corporate world will sterilize the world, only for more access, leaving niche markets very expensive and hard to recieve. while Government control will begin to fine and police every website looking for content that might offend the general masses. While i believe in democracy of the people, there are way to many loopholes that can be used to generate false numbers on either side for the government to control, making it a sinkhole for taxpayer money. while the peoples content is destroyed, and sanitized for mass consumption.

Role Of Survelance.

In this world i have come to accept the fact that we are now watched more, than we aren't. And we enjoy it most of the time. In my average day, i pass at least 50 cameras that i notice, and countless that i don't. The Highway's are watched by the news companies, the stores i frequent are covered with cameras to catch me if i steal, the red lights have cameras in them to make sure i don't run them. I am not happy about it, but i have come to accept it, when the riots come i'll be in the sewers with the mole people.

Persuaders

Heroes.

Ways Of Seeing

Ways of Seeing is a movie about the mechanical reproduction of artwork, it tries to show how the original loses something after being digitally or manually reproduced. or how our brains take the specialness of the original, and make it mundane.

Soldiers Without Swords

For 150 years black newspapers gave a voice to the voiceless in the african american community. providing debate, among the community, as well as a place to vent.
after the civil war the freedom to be read, became a welcome commodity.
after the civil war 500 black newspapers began circulation around the country.
later an expanding community turned the black newspapers into a sustainable and profitable business model. with many of the papers going on to purchase their own printing presses.
as the war ended popularity for black run newspapers had reached a record height of 2 million papers sold.

Style Wars

Style wars is a all encompassing battle of the world, through the hip hop culture. Who can get their tag highest and most visible. It visualizes a multiple battlefield of combatants, the community, the law, and warring graffiti artists.

First it examines the community verses the greffiti artists themselves, setting up the graffiti artists as villains.

then as it goes into the lives of the graffiti artists, it shows regular people making what they consider art, and just trying to get the most views of it. Using trains and walls as an almost propaganda for their own names.

Obviously, the police, and the people in power don't like it, so they use their own media campaign to rally the community against it. using posters, political press conferences, and commercials to sway opinion.

not only do the graffiti artists have to deal with the law, and public opinion, there is a modicum of in-fighting between crews, one in particular is the anarchist. "cap" is just covering up the already established artists work with his own tag.

the movie was meant to show an inside look at the graffiti world, but instead i think it shows a compelling look into 1980's culture as well.