Professor Elam

Friday Dec 3, 2010

But none of that really bothers me.  I understand better than you might think that the nature of western man is constant innovation—for good or bad.  No, what bothers me is that we've used all these tools to turn our lives into something that's measured based on productivity.   Volume.  Throughput.

I heard a great actor speak two days ago.  He defined art.  It's not about which lens renders hairs on the kitty photo the sharpest or who's got the best toys.  And it's certainly not measurable.  He defined art in this way:  Art teaches us what it  is to be human.

But this is a problem because art is notorious for being unmeasurable.  And in a society that values ranking and measuring above all else it gives one the feeling that art, which teaches us what it is to be human, is being replaced more and more by craft just for the sake of craft.  And the craft is powered more and more by precision, performance and production and less and less by ideas and translations of human experience.

It starts in school.  We, as a society, need to give as much weight to the study of art and art history, music and drama as we do the math and science courses.  We need to make sure our kids are as content literate as they are process literate.  I can assure you that, as technology becomes more and more pervasive the real value; the "gold",  will be content.

Multitasking?  I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in…..

Kirk Tuck, Visual Science Lab

I am adding a new link to the sidebar, Kirk Tuck's Visual Science Lab. Kirk is an Austin based photographer, part time UT instructor and author. I attended one of his portrait workshops and learned a good deal. I have advocated a course, indeed an entire graduate degree,  emphasizing Design . We have an active Art Community here in San Antonio but hardly any university takes advantage of it. 

I have come to realize that Art History is in fact a record of a society's reflections on itself. its pictures, sculpture and now still photos and motion pictures are a reflection of its human experience. The Egyptians had a rigid hierarchy to their society. As a result all the sculptures and even the pyramids have a structured, rigid look. As society advanced, the looks became more real and then finally with the Impressionists, less real. 

The trick is to harness all this technology for some good. I agree with Kirk, with all our computers decision making is no better than it has ever been. But the iPod and IPad are great inventions as is the digital camera. But what will we do with them?  I hope you enjoy exploring Kirk's blog, and are inspired to think more about design and creativity.