relational society

what i have observed that people really want is to relate to each other. so we build all these increasingly complex channels to do so, such as cell phones, emails and such, (creating a wider network) and mediums such as fashion, trendy books that we all adhere to so as to have common ground. we want to relate to each other to build relationships. the widening network allows us to be pickier about the relationships we build, but maybe it sets our expectations too high about what's out there and we become frustrated.
people critsize globalization for creating a homogenous society. saying its a negative thing. but if our goal is to relate to one another, and we do this by having things in common, why wouldnt we want a homogenous society? arent we on our way to achieving what we want?
we are becoming more homogenous: we are interbreeding and looking more like one another. doesnt darwin encourage diversity? is this what drives us to be individuals? where did individualism emerge from?

more ideas to develop

- our reproductive desires are manipulated by "the man"- population control is necessary which leads to: availability of contraception, emphasis on the self- futuristic novels all have aspect of population control

- communist sentiment- how communist leaders are villified by capitalists

body art

I've been thinking a lot about tattoos recently, as the end of a "chapter" of my life approaches, and it got me thinking about the kinds of things that people choose to print onto their body.
The first question that people always ask is, "what does it mean," and immediately try to interpret how the personal meaning relates to the image. I have come to the conclusion that a personal meaning could not be translated into a single image, and if you found one that does, there would be no need to print it on your body so that everyone can see it. If you are aware of the meaning that the tattoo has, it does not have to be related to the image.
So, the image needs only to have aesthetic value because it is after all, a body adornment, something that you do for other people. It is a way to make your bosy more unique as well as more visually pleasing. It is interesting that "abstract" tattoos are not more popular, as they became mainstream after the modern art movement, so I would think that people would have moved away from such straightforward visual representations. Actually, rather than being realistic they tend to be a shorthand for what they represent; merely a symbol. Symbols are laden with symbolism (obviously) but the meanings are varied from person to person. Except for the clearly socially contructed meaning of the symbol, personal experience is always altering the meaning.
A symbol is not even an effective way to get your message across, so why even both trying to get a message acros when art is so subjective nowadays? Get art for art's sake. The pattern and decoration movement should be the inspiration for tattoos because now that it is no longer radical, the reason for getting body art is purely aesthetic.

ongoing art questions

- if art is completely subjective, and its interpretation is completely up to the viewer, what is the point of making art? what is the role of the artist? the viewer in turn becomes the artist

-according to jean baudrillard, the artworld has become the only original piece of art. it is a consipracy that everyone agrees upon. according to regina gleeson, we are moving away from physical art, and there is increased cirulation of information through people- "people as medium"
so to be a true artist today, you have to play with/explore people and the artworld itself- more specifically, artists.
therefore, the role of the curator has become more important, because they are the ones that contextualize the art (artists) by choosing what art to put in what location. the artists in turn merely represent what they actually make/what message they try to get across
so, how do you make meaningful "artworld art" that is is accessible to the general public and does not just become ironic commentary that only artworld insiders understand (meta-art)?

push the limits of your comfort

we fill our heads with distractions so that we can avoid looking at the world (playing music that says stupid things)
we invest so much money and resources into creating increasingly elaborate distractions- big budget movies, vacation resorts, entire virtual experiences that remove us further from the ugly, sad, boring truth
when a beggar asks us for money, we ignore them and continue on our way
we dumb things down to relate to other people, because we all want to have things in common and create bonds- talking about obvious things like the weather, telling stupid stories
we mollify our guilt by reading articles or watching documentaries to exapnd our horizons, and we get riled up momentarily, express our outrage to our equally intellectual and conscious friends, then continue about our daily life because it is easier
we accept the priviledges that have been unfairly awarded to us at birth
we are creating a society that is more and more comfortable, making us lazier and causing us to think less and easier to control


i want to push my comfort level everyday in different senses:
physically- taking the stairs, letting my stomach get hungry
mentally- reading material that makes my brain work to exercise it even when it is lazy
emotionally- saying things that i would not normally say out loud, not being passive, not holding back
disciplinarily- creating goals and deadlines that i keep, to strengthen my willpower

try to filter out the fluff in life, do not be scared of experiencing the hard life, try to see things for how the really are.

three posts

-how we can avoid being ethical in an increasingly globalized society- where our products come from,

-we are becoming aware of the effects of our rampant consumerism, but rather than changing our ways, we are making ourselves feel better about it- ecological products

-how we are controlled: our desires are molded by "the man"- our desire to bear children, how we are moving into a more virtual world because we are running low on resources,

-we are not really individuals- simply social contruction for economic progress. we clump into masses and follow anyone with passion and a direction

-drugs: in your mind (even though the mind is a social contruction) changes in synapses and such make it so that you perceive reality in a different way, but the synapses just happened to be wired this way so you see the world like you do normally, but its still all in your brain

-how we cannot know the properties of other things- we can only view them through what we know- hawks

-reflection on how living in spain (learning spanish and speaking portuguese) has affected your idea of linguistics

here we go