Trevor's Reading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j40jXmXzTU

1.) Do you think any of Graham Handcock's idea's in the video are plausible? Which ones, why?

Wow! I don’t know. This might be to far fetch for me to digest. Handcock’s idea on the encoding messages on our DNA from our creator of another universe is hard to take seriously, but at the same time highly interesting and curious to me and the ideas of religion and science role on the existence of mankind’s origin an old age and widely asked question.

2.) What "state of mind" do you mainly make your art in?

The state of mind that I am in when creating art is usually racing in thought with all my many questions and wonder. I usually tend to get lost in my work and the process that I am engaged within at the time. I like to think I do most of my art making intuitively and unconsciously. I can only say what it is I am doing until I am absolutely done.

3.) What do you think extraterrestrial alien art would look like, and/or what do you think extraterrestrial aliens would think of your art?

I haven’t the slightest idea.

4.) Do you believe its possible that quantum physics and spirituality are connected in anyway.

Possibly… because your body is made up of millions of atoms and they all hold enormous amounts of energy. So maybe when you die you aren’t completely dead just your identity and person, but your actual energy still lives on in broken up particles scattered in the earths body the soil. This kind of thinking can be found in multiple religious beliefs around the globe with just the wording and terminology slightly different.

Racheal's Reading

The Singularity is Near - When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

I am asking that you read Chapter 7: Ich bin ein Singularitarian and/or watch this video

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/motherboard/the-singularity-of-ray-kurzweil#

Would you like to be able to live as long as you wanted? If so, approximately how long do you think you would want to live? If not, what would be your preferred method of death?

- -To live as long as I wanted would be great, but it would have to be under different circumstances. I would not want to live forever in today’s world because there are so many issues that I believe are beyond us that we as humans could never solve the world problems. So, if I had to die I think it would be one of two ways that I would prefer to go in my sleep peacefully and painless or die while doing something that is adventurous and adrenaline rush running through me at the moment of death.

Do you think that it will be possible for machines to have consciousness in the future? Is there a fundamental difference between humans and machines that will always remain?

- - A machine to have a consciousness in the future… I can’t say that it will come, at least not in my lifetime. I do believe there will always be a line with being human and machines.

What do you think about Kurzweil's predictions? Do you think he is valid, totally crazy, or somewhere in between?

- - I think it is a nice dream but I am not sure it can ever be reality. Scientist though will always try to grow towards this and will get close to it I believe but I think it will always be just in theory.

Do you think it is important for humans to continue on a quest for more intelligent and faster technology?

- - I don’t know. I know technology has been a great help to mankind but at the same time it has been destructive as well. So maybe we need to just be mindful of this all.

Do you think it is important for you to understand and communicate with machines/technology/tools in order to make art?

- - I have realized it is very important to understand and embrace the present and I live in a world of machines and constantly faced with new technological growth that is part of my everyday world so I find it very important to know where you are in time and what is available.

Keeping the old and embracing the new mediums in arts is highly beneficial.

Do you see any connection between this reading and the things that I make?

- - The things (instruments) that you have been creating is very much connected to this idea of the next step for technology and I believe you and a large group of people are a part of this growth and question and pushing technology further to what singularity is all about. You have been creating instruments and turning yourself into one also in the process/ you are becoming that very “machine”.

Do you think it is important to think about the future, and to make predictions about technology? Do you think that artwork relating to this subject will affect the possible outcome of the future?

- - Yes! Art is a big catalyst for changing paradigms so why not the way technology is run and where it can go, art can have a big role in this movement.

Is this subject at all interesting to you?

- - Yes. I rather just discuss these subjects in person though, because these are the conversations that move things forward and writing seems so linear in a way to this subject. This is active and should be conversed in a group setting where it can be more effective.

Sandra Kurzban’s Reading

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/interior-semiotics

1. How would you feel and what would you do if your performance piece became an Internet meme?

- Well I am not exactly sure, it would depend if it were passed on with a negative critique of the content or positive and what I the artist intended. A positive and artist intention attached to it when becoming an internet meme would be fine by me because it is just another way of putting yourself out there in the media as an artist and creating a reputation for yourself.

2. People have created re-mixes of this performance, as well as images--most if not all a parody of this piece. As you view this article, do those images change how you regard the initial experience of the performance? Do they inform the work, or do they dismantle it?

3. If you just witnessed a performance piece that you do not understand or do not enjoy, would you applaud? Does the level of guts it takes to do a performance {like doing anything of a socially unacceptable nature} play into it? If so, why should it?

- I always applaud anyone that can get up there and subject there own body as their medium in front of an audience. That being said though, I may not always be applauding to the content, but for the guts it took to do it in the first place. I would expect to critique the work and determine how many out of the audience understood the reason for the performance and then pass it or fail it. I think the immediate applaud following after the performance good or bad is just standard and placed there in order to recognize the balls it takes to get up and perform in front of a large group of strangers. It is much more kind to applaud rather then to boo or subject the artist to more public humiliations.

4. So! Apparently you're a hipster! Are you going to try and prove them wrong or will you resign to the definition this anonymous society has given you?

5. Does this make you any more or less apprehensive about putting your work online?

- I am always weary to putting my work online in case it should be stolen or vandalized online. I would copyright and/or watermark proof work posted to protect my creative being.

6. Can an artist recover his or her respect from this kind of publicity with time? Do you think it matters in the art world?

- Sometime there is no point of return and the ones who make it out alive usually spend a long time laying work down to build themselves back up again. I do believe to a large part of the art world would judge based on certain amount of things that previously might have weighted against the artist and they take advantage of it but there are few in the business of art that really benefit.

7. Do I seem to be consciously careful not to gain that sort of attention from the audience that views my work?

8. What does my choice of this article tell you about my work or me?

- You care what people think about you and your work. As an artist I personally believe you should be conscious of what you put out there in the public’s eye and take social responsibility for it too.

Whitley Floyd’s Discussion:

http://www.2100science.com/Videos/Left_vs_Right_Brain.aspx

What do you think would happen to your work if severed your corpus callosum?

- If my corpus callosum was severed I am not sure if I would still be an artist or have interest in art as I do now. Being that I am an artist though I would have to imagine the work becomes very bland, and much more dry and literal, because I would no longer be seeing the world differently through the eyes of an artist who posses many filters.

Do you think that we as artist need both sides to be connected to produce work?

- I am sure there are people out there that could manage to do so, but I am not one of them. I need to be able to go back and forth left to right/ vice-a-versa during the creative process and pick from reality or my own world of things. SO yes I do believe one may need them both in order to be.

Which comes first for you, the image or speech?

- The image comes to me first and then straight towards interpretation. Speech takes me a bit longer to decipherer and is a much more abstract way of communicating at times.

What would happen to your work if you loss the ability to speak or recognize words?

- The loss of speech may be frustrating to deal with at first in the sense that I would no longer have the option to always give explanation with my work or even an intro to where I am in my process. This could become a great thing, not to be able to constantly give explanation but make work that stands alone and in some way or another speaks for me in replacing my voice with the visual world rather than the verbal.

Understanding how our brain works, do you feel as if you take the uniqueness of everyones brain functions into consideration while viewing other artist work while also keeping in mind how your brain functions?

- Yes I am always thinking about what the artist was thinking and maybe pick-up on a few pointers that I can apply to me own work.

Jeremy’s Questions:

1. Does the premise of condensing hundreds of religions and philosophies into one 2 hour- long documentary seem ill- serving to the history and magnitude of the subject matter?

--> No. This documentary is just one of the many platforms for having this discussion. Just because of the length of one documentary on this subject does not mean the conversation ends there. This was a well- rounded documentary that had various religions and many other non-religious viewpoints. It did not favor any one side, and merely gave you the principles to each one and their opinions.

2. Do you consider your religion or non-religious beliefs before creating art?

--> If I really look into this question and my work it would probably be mostly yes. This happens unconsciously of course because it just becomes a norm to me in my daily method of art making. I believe it is moral principles and making sure not to abandon them is usually what takes part in my process.

3. Sartre's understanding of life is that it reflects the experience of one's existence. How does your artwork reflect the experience of your existence?

--> How does my artwork reflect the experience of my existence? I like to think of art as a journal, a recorder of everything I feel and do. It also can hold a time or event that I have seen or lived through. In all that I represent through my artworks existence is part of my own and contains some part of my experience of being.

4. “The fact that we all suffer from the day we are born to the day we expire… is funny.” What part should humor play in the discussion of religion and mortality?

--> Well I do not know how to answer this question really. I do suppose it is funny that we all mostly strive to be better and spend so much time and money improving on the physical aspects of things.

MY READING IS Interactive and Participatory Art | Art21 Blog

Goode- Ignorance Is Bliss

Majority of this article is about the many people who are incompetent. Goode reviews Dr. David A. Dunning's research on this matter. Incompetent people are left blinded no other than by their own incompetence. So, this individual develops an "exaggerated self- perception" preventing them from moving forward in the self- improving department of life.

Later on Goode uses the phrase "social norms" and accuses it to prevent oneself from speaking truth right to the point with no sugar coatings. My only question is what exactly is qualified as the social norms used in the art of conversation and in the end is it not up to the one speaking to choose whether or not to speak truthfully? Goode also mentioned in the end of the article that it may be imperfect, but what is perfection?

In the end I believe we just need to look at the facts and what is right in front of us and take all this into account for whatever it may be then we can choose to discard it or not. There will be times that you will prefer to be ignorant and left with your blissful state of mind, and I believe that this can be a good thing to do according to what situation it is applied to.