What is Art?
In a world torn by political, ethnic and religious conflict, only art has the power to unify, inspire, elevate, and heal. Our institutions make claims on our attitudes and loyalty; it is intrinsic in their nature to direct our energies towards fulfilling their collective goals. They are self-perpetuating. By limiting our perspective, they often divide us from each other. At the extreme, they may even split us from our deepest and most authentic selves. Though serving in many cases, a positive purpose, institutions are agenda-driven. Thus they may steer us away from self-knowledge and personal responsibility when emphasis on image, hierarchy, dogma or power, overrides more constructive human concerns.
Art, on the other hand, both the making and the viewing of it, encourages us to view the world in new ways, as well as to look into ourselves. A world without art would be intellectually and spiritually barren. Imagination makes all things possible, and art is the most profound outgrowth of the human imagination that is not subservient to external purposes (though of course, there are exceptions). Therefore, even in its all its confusing flux and diversity, art is perhaps the “purest” phenomenon among human endeavors.
On a personal level, the richness and mystery of life have intrigued me since I was a child living in rural Pennsylvania. I reveled in the sensuous beauty of forests and rolling hills. Read the rest of this entry »
Plasma TV’s have been a common household name, first exploding on the market in the late 1990’s. Compared to what customers were used to, plasma TV display screens were very quickly applauded for the better digital quality that they brought about. Larger plasma televisions can be purchased with size’s up to one hundred and three inches, which make for an excellent movie watching experience.
The study of media in education implicitly assumes that each medium entails some particular attributes that matter in learning depending on the symbol system it involves. Media are our cultural device for selecting, gathering, storing, and passing knowledge on in representational forms. Representation, as differentiated from direct experience, is always coded within a symbol system. If one attempted to remove picture from film, cartography from maps, or language from texts, what would be left? Media without symbol systems are as inconceivable as mathematics without numbers. If symbol systems are central to media of communication and to thinking, then the interactions and interdependence between the two systems cannot be disregarded. For an example, it is possible that symbolically different presentations of information differ as to the mental skills of processing that they require. It is also likely that the major symbol systems of the media cultivate mental skills differentially and that one learns to use media’s symbolic forms for purposes of internal representation.