Feed B

"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it."

I think that there are definitely two types of artists like mentioned in class. Those who make art to try to be purposely be seen by other to make some sort of impact or significant thought. And those who make art and who do not care whether their art is seen or not by a significant amount of people. Those who do not want their art to be seen by a significant amount of people and do not care who takes notice to their art do not necessarily not want to make an impact with their creation. Why do we make art? There are several reason to this question but personally I think people make art to express a certain experience of the author of the art piece. For example sometimes when I paint or sketch, I am an artist who does not necessarily care if my art because famous and is seen by a large audience but I do still make art to express certain experience, to convey a message, thought, emotion, etc. I think the whole Art being a mirror hammer idea can be interpreted in many ways. The way I see it is that a Hammer is something that crushes and can drastically break or change something. How can you exactly break something that is already seen as broken or corrupt.

MT Andersons book feed can be seen as a art piece and the message that seems to be provoked is how damaged our society and the people living in it is by showing our society and how digitalization represented by their feeds as an allegory of our present living with our technology and effects from our digital lifestyles. I think the way the book is written in a point of view of a teenager using "teenage" language appeals to a more younger audience. But its story and message is not just about teenagers and their corruption from technology but how the adults are as well. How the adults are fed into their lifestyle using the feed and allow and basically feeding their kids and allowing them to live being addicted to their Feeds. Sounds much like how most adults raise their children today. Going back to the interviews a lot of the parents mentioned that they do not care how much digital stimulation their kids get and let them go on facebook and play games and such. Not care and letting them swim deeper into their lifestyles of surrounding themselves with technology. I know my dad is not stopping me from watching television and being on the computer everyday. This is where I think a mirror can definitely at times be a hammer. It may not always be affective as a hammer, actually making an impact quick and drastically. For example when I watched myself on the videos (even though it was not exactly a mirror) I was able to see and reflect what I actually look like when interacting with technology. In seeing myself I was able to think about how technology has really effected me and I can either just say "whatever" and not really use a hammer to fix the problem because I am okay with it or I can make a change and shape myself into something different, to something that would be "better". Writing this actually makes me reflect back on everything and makes me realize how addicting I am to a lot of the technology I have and how much time I spent on it.

I do not really want to reveal what I am doing for the second Final Project but I have some ideas. I do not know if it would try to be a mirror reflect MY perspective of our digital lifestyles. From those who do see my art piece when I do it I would like my mirror to be a hammer but you never know. It all depends on the audience who sees it.