Ipad

After seeing peoples Facebook status's filled with comments on the ipad and hearing many people talking about it i thought i would see what all the fuss was about and checkout apples website. Not surprisingly it was the first thing i saw when i entered the website and decided to watch the video on it. On first glance i assumed it was some sort of graphics tablet but after watching the video i realised my assumption was completely wrong and that it was actually just a larger version of the ipod touch.
As cool as it looks and as fancy as it is i don't quite understand the point in it as everything you can do on it can be achieved on an ipod touch except on a bigger scale, i would understand if it was like a touch computer as then it would have a purpose of being more portable than a laptop but instead they've just made a less portable itouch. To be honest i think i'd rather stick with my itouch than forking out for a giant's sized version.
While watching 8 out of 10 cats last night the ipad unsurprisingly was a topic of conversation or shall we say the perfect opportunity for the comedians to come up with some wise cracks,
"There saying its brilliant because you can read a book on it, £500 to read a book on it, what happened to those other things we had, books, remember them?"as said by Jason Manford
"Its like someone inventing a wheel and a year later saying look i've invented a bigger wheel" as said by Jimmy Carr.
Completely agree.

Understanding Bourdieu

After Fridays lecture we were asked to read chapter 8 of Understanding Bourdieu and talk about the main points outlined. The chapter focuses on what makes art while touching on class and taste. It questions whether the talent for art is inhereted or adopted as a result of your class.
Bourdieu states that people who know a lot about art tend to be from a higher class therefore demonstrating that class could have something to with what makes someone an "artist". Despite this, being well educated about art doesn't automatically prove that you will have a talent for it or be anymore interested in the subject than someone form a lower class.
It is wondered why something is considered art and if it is because it is seen in a museum, or because the person who created it is already know as an artist or maybe because it is simply aesthetically pleasing, either way art is created to make a statement rather than to make a living, it is "symbolic rather than material".
Art is considered by the Frankfurt School writer Theodor Adorno, and sociologists of art, Arnold Foster and Judith Blau to be able to perform a "social magic" while Bourdieu disagrees and sees art as a sacred sphere of sculpture but what makes something art is clearly debatable and maybe there isn't a correct answer.

Briefs

Returned to uni on monday to receive the first of many briefs this semester, it was titled Pictorial Narration and indicated that we would receive a myth, story, tale or legend which we would then have to communicate through the use of a visual language.

After the "unlucky" dip had revealed i had the story Scott of the Antarctic i knew i had to research straight away. I didn't have a clue who he was or what he had done but after some googling, i recovered some information which stated he and some others had participated in an exhibition to be the first to reach the South pole, although he reached the South Pole sadly he was beaten by the Norwegian Amundsen and die on his return.

Once familiar with the story i had to think of ways of communicating this story visually and was a little stumped as at this stage as was slightly confused as to what was expected of me, but after talking to one of the tutors i was left with a number of ideas to choose from. This included using weather symbols, morse code compasses, Norwegian or horse/greyhound racing symbols.

I decided that using racing symbols would probably communicate the story the best as it was a race after all and Scott's team started off using ponies (similar to horses) and Amundsen's team used Huskys (similar to greyhounds) after arriving at this conclusion i am now left with how i'm going to use this form of visual communication to illustrate the story so that it can be recognised but without being too obvious.

The second brief was titled "The origin of food" and was recieved after a lecture from a member of the SCRI who are interested in supporting sustainable development and the production of healthy and natural food.
After another "unlucky" dip i was left with barley which i was then told i had to research in depth and create a mood board for the following tuesday. The research had to include something about our food source which we found to be interesting so that we could then communicate it in an A2 broadsheet . Having the mood board complete for tuesday seemed to be an almost impossible task considering it was the first week back and a few nights out were definitely deserved. Despite this i have managed to complete my mood board but i am struggling to decide which information i can take forward for my broadsheet as the product barley fails to interest me. Although it does have alot of healing properties and has been considered a super food which i suppose is kind of interesting, least i still have another day to decide :).

The third and final brief we received this week was to design a new app for the iphone, this has to be the most exciting of the briefs although it comes with a downside and that downside being this task is virtually impossible. Apple already have an app which can do pretty much anything you could ever want. Can't remember where you parked your car, "there's an app for that" , want to learn another language, "there's an app for that", want to keep an eye on your finances, "there's an app for that", need a new recipe, "there's an app for that", what to know every single cheese there is and which wines best complement it and "there's even an app for that" so as exciting as this is its going to take some serious thought and who knows i might even be able to come up with an original and useful app.

Avatar

If i was asked today the question i was asked on Friday, which was to name my top 5 films then this movie would definitely have been on that list.
I loved everything about it form the special effects to the story line itself, i think i watched most of the movie with my mouth open in awe. I was very disappointed when the movie had ended to hear the people behind me saying that they thought the credits were the best part of the movie, were they watching the same movie as me?

I was slightly confused by certain parts of the movie and struggled to come to terms with the fact you could actually transfer your mind and soul from your own body into an avatar (it is only a movie after all) but i think this made it all the more enjoyable as it made you talk about the movie long after it had finished and made the whole Avatar experience last longer.

I would definitely recommend it and in 3D as i don't know if they same experience could be achieved in 2D.