Fear...

Fear. What is Fear?

I think Fear is an evolutionary feeling we have towards things that are dangerous, or that we perceive as dangerous.

What I find really interesting about Fear is that when we evolved our prefrontal cortex we evolved the ability to plan things out in our minds. With that ability comes the ability to Fear something that has not happened yet, or may not happen. This reticence towards certain actions based on Fear is something that must be distinctly human because there must be something about the outcome of that action that is not agreeable.

For example. Talking to a room full of people is widely regarded as one of the most difficult things one can do as a human. It is one of the biggest fears people mention. What could go wrong? Well, for starters you may forget to put on pants that day. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? What if you forgot your whole speech and just stood up on stage for ten minutes in silence? That is a possibility, isn't it?

Now, those things are not likely to happen, but in our minds we are able to envision them.

Why Do We Have Fear?

This Fear we have brought with us up the evolutionary chain only serves its intended purpose some of the time. The rest of the time, it is mostly a hindrance.

By overcoming Fear, or the perceived threat of some sort of inconvenient discomfort, we may be able to accomplish goals better and faster.

Takeaway 9

I am writing this as I just finished kegging the tequila beer I mentioned as a part of my previous assignment. Oh man, this is going to be tasty!

Anyway, today was a really great way to start off the week and welcome a renewal of energy toward getting things accomplished. It seems the end of another semester is in sight... didn't we just start last week?

One of the most powerful things brought up in class a couple times was the quality of the things and people around us as opposed to the quantity. Something that I have learned is that everything in our lives requires constant attention and maintenance, otherwise it will come into a state of disrepair.

Or in a more streamlined version "everything around us is in a constant state of entropy".

Entropy - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder

The things we choose to not take care of will gradually fall apart. This is true of all things. Relationships. Cars. Pets. Roads. Guitar skills. I could go on but I think you get the picture...

Another thing brought up today was a surprising lack of people who knew who they were. Now, that is not to say that I am the most confident person in who I am. But I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the previous experiences that have shaped me into who I want to be.

I know who I want to be, but ultimately its the future that makes me nervous.

Maybe that was the point of the exercise; to challenge us to look into the crystal ball of the future and see the kind of people we wanted to become? Or maybe it was to take stock of all the experiences we have had and try to make sense of them all and amalgamate them into a singular person to better understand ourselves?

Man, I don't know if I will ever understand existentialism...

Two Questions

Who am I? Why am I here?

I am a person who is creative and can motivate other creative people to make some cool art together.

In September of 2010 I co-founded a record label with some friends. Now, as cool as that may sound it was actually a terrific failure. I say terrific and not terrible because I learned so much more in it's failure than I would have had we succeeded.

The label was focused mostly on recording hip-hop and rap artists out of a small studio located on Market Street. These were artists who would come to us needing studio time and we would charge them, that is how we made our money. I can say in confidence that about 99% of the 'artists' who came through were simply thugs who were trying to cement some sort of credit to their names by sounding hard on tape. It was pretty obvious that most of them had no talent.

With that being said, I did get some cool opportunities from my job. I got press-passes for free to concerts with other perks. I got to work with the 1% of artists who were actually good. And I got to be surrounded by musicians who had passion for their craft.

I left the company I helped to create in July of 2011, we were pretty much a zero-income company at that point and were unable to pay our studio rent. It was a sad day, but I had seen the writing on the wall.

While my label, Heroic Music Entertainment, as it was called, was doing it's thing on Market Street, I was also doing my part to keep the low-end of a rock band called The American Night held down. In 2010 I had just moved back up from Bloomington after attending Ivy Tech and Indiana University. The American Night was a band from my hometown whose members just happened to be living in Bloomington too. When a spot opened up, I auditioned and was given the part.

It. Was. Awesome.

This experience gave me so many new opportunities.

Probably the best experience was recording our album. Through a connection we were able to connect with Bob Kevoian from Bob and Tom. He liked us so much he payed for some studio time with a great engineer and producer Alan Johnson. The album sounded great, and we could not have gotten a better product or a better mentor.

I strongly recommend checking out our songs here

I also have to give a shout out to Alan Johnson who has the most beautiful recording studio in the world.

Unfortunately, as with most music groups, fame and fortune was not in our cards. Our drummer ended up moving to Louisville which made our twice weekly practices almost impossible. We decided that it was time to call it quits. So we packed up our songs and bid each other the fondest of farewells. We still see each other all the time, however getting everybody all in the same room together is almost impossible.

So, to answer the Two Questions. I would say that these are the experiences that have dictated my current path on my journey of life the most. They serve to remind me that I am capable of creating cool things with cool people and that everybody can play a part in the story that is me.

Takeaway 8

I am surprised I haven't thought of this before. Class Take Away meet my favorite Take Away Show.

I just wanted to share a little moment of synchronicity I experienced just then.

Okay. Now with that out of the way-- I experienced way more emotion from trash then I thought I would. Ever. Seriously, I got choked up at some points.

I am really jealous of Vik Muniz in the way he can inspire people to improve their situations by showing them his vision. It seemed at multiple point that people doubted Vik's vision for this two year project. But he powered through their doubt and was able to convince them that his project was worthwhile and constructive to his subjects' lives.

Not only that he DID improve their lives. That was the most amazing. To see their lives improving and how they left the garbage - or even why they returned. It was almost an expose of the human condition and how people view their happiness.

Takeaway 7

Whoa...

I feel like it was so long since our last class meeting. We had a lot of built up things to get out. Which was really good, as it turns out.

I thought the class was quite receptive to my project which was really cool! It seemed like a majority of the class got a laugh out of the donkey butt, which was okay too.

David's project touched me the most. I think it resonated with me so well because it seemed like he was down about it. He mentioned something personal that happened in his life recently, but he still managed to keep the alteration and the transformation of the book positive. I think it also stuck with me because it was entirely white and I imagine him as a super colorful type person which is awesome and so indicative of his awesome personality.

Altared Book and Bliss

What is your opinion of combining technology and the human body as she did in the video?

This delves into an insanely interesting field to me – transhumanism. Whereby we are augmenting our daily lives and routines to the point it is plausible that we will eventually begin augmenting our bodies with it as well.

I think it is an inevitable outcome. The fact is we can improve technology to the point we can essentially control our own evolutionary path as humans. Those who are technologically augmented will be more physically fit in their new increasingly mechanical environments.

Is it a good thing? I am sure most naturalists will say no. I think that there will be fantastic failures. Disastrous outcomes of experimental procedures are a definite possibility. But in the end, the result will be a positive gain for the continued existence of humanity. So long as the technology we create has the ultimate goal of doing and being good, then ultimately it will be good.

What is your opinion of combining a media arts and science project with your own body?

This is something that has never crossed my mind until now. I have always just assumed that our projects we created in MAS existed in a digital realm. They existed to be viewed and perform their functions wholly separately from our physical bodies. But using our bodies in conjunction with that could prove to be a fantastic undertaking.

I feel like any projects I would undertake using my body would only be a creation of art in a more traditional sense. A painting, a picture, a sculpture etc. It would be something I am interested in doing, but I have not thought critically about it and have no ideas for a project at the moment I write this.

How similar were other students’ ideas to each other?

The other students seemed similar, but it seems everybody put their ideas into their own words. There are some ideas that are pretty prevalent throughout the posts, things like burning it, freezing it, tearing pages out etc.

How similar were other students' ideas to your own?

Other students’ ideas were similar in some regards. I found some synchronicity throughout much like the other student’s answers were similar.

What stood out to you?

“Oneirophant” has a post: I made a grid system on the book, and then ‘carved’ or cut down to individual words to create a ‘single page’ that either would become a story, or became some kind of ‘vision-board’-esque thing.

I think that is a really cool way to change the book. It is using the books story to make a new one.

What is the purpose of looking at each other’s posts?

Looking at others’ posts force us to consider the synchronicity and serendipity of our posts.  There will always be congruent ideas amongst a group and there will be unique ideas too. The beauty of it is being able to appreciate both.

I decided to create a pinata out of my book. Included are some pictures of the progress. The "candy" of the pinata is oragami flowers and cranes out of the images and tables in the book and the "confetti" is random snipping of inspiring or interesting words.

I created a pinata because I felt I didn't really get anything out of the Wordpress class. So now, as I have changed by book, I can finally get something out of it.