Reflections on Chapt 1-3

The artwork shown at the Siggraph 2000 Art Gallery gave me an instant curiosity in how artists create and challenge the culture and community. The interactive installation of Text Rain lets you lift and play with letters that do not really exist, which is a very interesting to capture. Its interesting to see Digital Artists adapting to a cultures new technologies and making it their own personal vision. Text Rain is defining a new culture by using a medium that is nearly immaterial. The idea that Text Rain provides a 2-dimensional , wireless system that allows user to interact seems magical especially for 2000.
The history of computers was interesting to me because for most of my early years I grew up with a word processor. The evolution of the greatest leaps and bounds has happened right in front of us. As computer pioneer Howard Aiken is reported to have said that we could only need five or six computers like the ENIAC. The Wooden Mirror design is a deeply moving concept. The idea that everything around us acting as a mirror and that every object in the world might reflect is strange yet impressive.
I, of course, related to todays art and design such as music videos, rock concerts, and everyday interactions. The use of music videos in the 80’s was an exciting medium to be involved in, but as the years went on the medium was almost eliminated with reality TV. Without MTV playing music videos, the focus was instead on video-game soundtrack, ringtones, and licensing. Then, interactive mediums started to get more popular with interactive text messaging for applications, voting, etc. In the last couple of years, music videos came back, but in another medium…the internet. What was needed was a technological leap forward, which came in the form of a broadband explosion and 3G. With those advances, sites like Vimeo, Vevo, MySpace, and YouTube were able to support high-definition video and advertising. Today, interactive mediums have been used in marketing, advertising, and spreading a message. Music videos used to be purely promotional, but now they can sell advertising in an around them.