Alfredo Jaar:// “Words Devour Words and They Leave You in the Clouds.” ‘Memories of Underdevelopment’ —[Jaar c.1990 / ‘Homage’ Alea c.1968]

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Proffesor Jennifer Geigel Mikulay. May 17, 2010 Herron Her–H400 C14311: Art History, Criticism and, Conservation; Topics & Methods in Art History, Site Specificity/ Contemporary Art — Research Writing by Benjamin M. Doyle

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Much of Alfredo Jaar’s work is due largely in part to culture and the conflict that surrounds it. Born in Santiago, Chile, 1956, Alfredo Jaar lived through a military coup d’état staged by General Pinochet who mobilized his military to rise against the presiding democratic commander and chief Salvador Allende. Having grown up in a strict authoritarian dictatorship, he later immigrated to America in 1982 to work for SITE an architecturally based firm. Now, Jaar continues to do his work out of his studio between New York, NY and Barcelona, Spain.

With consideration for his past history, it is no surprise that the majority of his work is vastly influenced by war, globalization, and advocating political activism in both the first and third worlds. Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and filmmaker responsible for projects of or relating to multiple municipalities. Many of his works can be found here there and everywhere in countries all over the world in places like the biennale’s of Venice, São Paulo, Sydney, Istanbul, Kwangju, Johannesburg, and Seville as well as film documentaries and exhibitions in Kassel.

Fareed Zakaria:// “The Post–American World.” And, ‘The Rise of the Rest.’ —[Doyle c.2009/ ‘Research Writing’/ Review c.2013]

An author by a number of other titles such as; “The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad”, “From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America’s World Role”, as well as the co–editor for “The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World” — CNN news correspondent Fareed Zakaria, offers up an interesting and, unparalleled perspective the modern world, the current state of affairs and also a bi-partisan view into America’s shifting geopolitical position in the world of tomorrow.

When we look to his book, The post-American world, at the very start, Fareed cites an appropriately selected quote found in A Study of History by Arnold J. Toynbee that may as well serve as a preface towards the following pages within:
“Growth takes place whenever a challenge evokes a successful response that, in turn, evokes a further and different change.  We have not found any intrinsic reason why this process should not repeat itself indefinitely, even though a majority of civilizations have failed, as a matter of historical fact”(    ).

VC2

I made this VC2: a short film; w/ Flash, for class in J–School, Ernie Pyle Hall at Indiana University School of Journalism — Fundamentals of Mass Communications Jour–J200….

James Burke://”Burke’s Brains.” And, how ‘Lemony Squeeks, Gin, Tonic and, now Yellow Canaries.’ —[Doyle c.2009/ ‘Research Writing’ Review c. 2013]

In a presentation titled “How Technology is Changing the Way We Think,” James Burke, a well known science historian gave a speech in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater at 7p.m., Monday the 16^th of February 2009.  The event was sponsored by the IU School of Journalism.

In it he discussed what he likes to call “The Future of the Future,” or rather how data is collected and formatted today provides the opportunity to open doors for an unimaginable wealth of information. Furthermore he cites some interesting facts like how “brains have more cells in them than the number of known atoms in the universe,” and compares them with the likes of which each cell stores a specific type of information depending on where it is located within the brain. If each cell represented a particular a brain and a brain represented a node in a network nodes containing a given amount of knowledge and experience, then imagine the unbridled power of our collective consciousness would unleash when we develop the ability to access it in this way. As a matter of fact we already have, it is called the world wide web.

According, James Burke and many others, the vast majority of ‘brains’ as he so affectionately calls them, remain unused. The human brain is composed of a highly sophisticated set of fatty cells; it is comprised of about a hundred billion neurons, roughly 10,000 synapses and thousands of interconnected axons all of which are constantly transmitting, receiving and storing memory. Although, as we may well already know due to current studies and further scientific research, we really only use some ten percent of it consciously. However, much like the human mind, with recent developments concerning information technology and Burkes knowledge mapping the internet will make it possible to store very large volumes of information. In a nutshell, Burke explains that in the same way that axons connect synapses and the synapses to neurons in our brains work, so to do computers, internet and people who use it.

A progressive supporter of science, James Burke is as the Washington post has quoted, “One of the most intriguing minds of the western world,” sitting in on his lecture is proof enough of that. He argues the point that knowledge has been highly valued since before the concept of time was created.