The Smiley Face

I have to admit, no smile (smug or otherwise) appeared on this face. From the general hopping back and forth from subject to subject, and the almost ambiguous ending it seems the writer is almost just as confused as I am as to the mental and psychological implications of the smile, but with more research. Yes, some facts were interesting, but how many more times does the mysteriousness of the Mona Lisa need to be mentioned? I think people should start moving towards the scientists view of taking things at face value. No one has any one specific reason for having smiled, I don't know even know I do it sometimes. This can correlate with some artwork as well. We (or just I) don't always know why it is I'm picking something to be my subject or its significance, but I know I like the look of it. The man who created the smiley face had his reason, da Vinci had his reason, but unless we are the creator we can't really make a statement as to the reason; no matter how much research has been put into it. As I hinted before, I liked the scientific information of this reading, but a lot of the content just fell flat for me.

Ectoplasm: Photography in the Digital Age

Having just ready Geoffrey Bratchen's piece "Ectoplasm: Photography in the Digital Age," I've pushed my thoughts on the future of photography into a new realm.  Many people have begun to notice the effect digital photography has on the world, form alterations of paparazzi photos to more renowned sources such as National Geographic or Times magazine. The thing is, we know this is happening, but we have yet to hear from artists how they feel of this increasing digitization, at least I haven't. As mentioned, the idea that one may no longer be able to see a difference between what is real and what is a hoax has increasingly begun to scare me. Not only have we seen issues stem from this (can one not help but mention the eating disorders of this generation), but I fear there will be an ever increasing amount. As a person who prefers truth over fabrication I find it unequivocally disturbing to find that what is supposed to be real has been altered and fabricated. Yes, it allows for a stunning image, but intellectually and emotionally does it hold up on its own? This was an enlightening and almost fear-inducing article that has once again brought out the passion of discovering the truth, especially regarding photographs.

Ernesto Pujol Walk #1

The exhibit at Lightwork by Ernesto Pujol titled "Walk #1" was a little disappointing to me. I thought some of the imagery was interesting to be because of the imagery of death and decay with is a subject that I come back to time and time again, however he didn't have a lot of variations of his images. His back was always to the camera, hands held together, looking at a part of the cemetery. I liked the craftsmanship of the mirrors, but I felt the words added a hokey feeling to the images, as well as being simple obvious words to begin with. I believe there should have been a little more variation in the imagery to help make the exhibit successful.