| Thursday, October 05, 2006 |
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This blog probably takes the award for Most Links Ever...
Learn about anamorphism - the art of creating distorted images that are visible only when viewed in a special manner. Links to pictures are contained within the article. If you just want to see pictures, click here to see the sidewalk drawings of Julian Beever and here to see those of Kurt Wenner.
Nobody's Watching - supposedly a reality TV show about a pair of buddies, Derrick and Will, who approach a TV station to make their own sitcom because there are no funny sitcoms on TV anymore. But in reality, it's a sitcom about a pair of buddies making their own sitcom. Watch the pilot here...I think it's funnier compared to the other videos (like this one), which are still funny but funny in a stupid way. The whole idea is brilliant, though. Someone most probably involved in the production posted videos of D&W on YouTube, making some people think these guys actually exist. And then they set up a webpage which is supposedly made by D&W themselves. They create a MySpace profile. They even appear on the real Emmys as fake valets in an attempt to get on TV; but they're really pretending to pretend to be valets on TV! Oh man. I really love this idea of pretending to pretend to be something! Actually, they never insist that D&W are real; they even have a forum on their webpage in which someone reveals the actors' real names. And then you see that some people really thought that D&W were real people! Haha...a TV station making a sitcom about two guys trying making a sitcom. It's totally postmodern! The idea of breaking down the boundaries that used to separate reality and the media, pop culture and art, the author and the reader. The idea of things not having a fixed structure but being always in flux and in the process of becoming. [Read the Wiki entry]
Still on the topic of postmodernism, there's also the whole saga revolving around lonelygirl15 on YouTube. She started vlogging (video logging) about three months ago about her personal life, until it was fans eventually discovered that she was only an actress. The series is still continuing even though everyone knows now that it's not real. [Read the Wiki entry]
Oh man. I think I can write an essay on postmodernism using these two productions! Buffy was much, much harder. In fact, if you think about it, the sidewalk drawings I mentioned earlier can be considered postmodern too, since the drawings are changing and fading even as they are being created.
I've even found postmodern theories in Psych research articles on identity! Didn't get to read them, but I can imagine how it goes: My identity and personality are constantly in flux, and I use, create and interact with media for different purposes and with different results. Ok, frankly, after gabbing on for so long, I myself have only a vague idea of what defines postmodernism, since there is as yet no universal agreement on its definitions. What I do know comes from the articles I read for my essay on Buffy and postmodernism, and that was one prickly essay because I was so confused initially by the definition. And I'm still rather blur about it.
Last but not least, a random freaky video of an Einstein robot:
http://geekologie.com/2006/08/albert_einstein_robot_learns_t.php
Really should be getting back to my assignments now. :X |
posted by esther @ 3:57 PM  |
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