Fluxus

The Fluxus art movement happened in the beginning of the 60's.  It was influenced by the Dada, Bauhaus, and Zen movements, and promoted an artistic expression of social and political activism.  Fluxus artists used humor, gags, and spontaneity.  Some of the Fluxists were Joseph Beuys, John Cage, and Yoko Ono.

DADA

Dada was an art movement that started in Zurich around World War I and became an international movement.  It was based around the idea that there were no boundaries and no rules.  It was abstract and wasn't supposed to mean anything.  The art was anti-conformity, anti-establishment, and was meant to get a reaction out of the viewer.  They called the movement "Dada", because it sounded like baby talk and did not have any significance to anything.  Collages were a popular aspect of Dada.

Grid Project

For the grid project, i got an old tennis racked I found at the thrift store and used it's grid as a guideline to string beads.

(Left- Front View) (Right- Back View)

(Bottom - Up Close)

Movies as Video Games?

I think that studios come out with video games based on movies as a way of marketing.  Also, their main idea is to make the player feel like they are in or somehow a part of the movie.  Movie and gaming junkies would find this sort of thing appealing, especially for the James Bond movies.  Everyone I know that grew up with a Nintendo 64 gaming system remembers the 007 GoldenEye game, which was based on the movie.  However, these days I do not know many people who buy video games based on movies.  It seems redundant in today's culture to have games based on movie.  People yearn for new things.

An article I read in the LA times by Ben Fritz explains how games based on films on are cheap to make and poor quality.  But, if a film has the marketing budget for it, they will make games because enough are sold to make a profit.  In the last few years, less games based on movies are being made.  This is due to the fact that gaming is become more high-quality, therefore they can take up to three years to make (much longer than it takes to make movies).  They have also become more expensive to make.  Because of those factors, it makes sense that films are having less video games based on them.
Full Los Angeles Times Article

Tetris

Mostly everyone today knows what the game Tetris is.  I grew up playing it on my Game Boy, the original Nintendo, then Nintendo 64 and now I can play it on my phone.  It is a game that has evolved with the times and is popular among all age groups.

In 1985, Russian scientist Alexey Pajitnov developed "Tetris", a game made for the Electronika 60.  It was soon ported to the IMB PC, which spread it's poppularity throughout the world.  The game eventually was licensed to Nintendo, which sold millions of copies for the Game Boy.  Today, people can play the game on many different devices, including cell phones.

The name "Tetris"derives from the greek word "tetra", meaning four.  Each shape has four blocks that fall from the top of the screen.  The objective is to make the pieces fit together to form lines.  When lines are formed they disappear, and as you keep playing the pieces fall faster and faster.  Under different studies, the game itself has shown to make the brain operate more efficiently.

Radio Days

On otr.com, you can listen to a bunch of old radio show broadcasts.  I listened to a show called Amos 'n' Andy.  This particular episode was about how Andy helped a girl named Ruby to make Amos jealous by telling Amos that Ruby had a date.  The show was amusing, and I appreciated the old-fashioned wholesome humor.  I also liked the people that were chosen to be the voices of the characters.  They were raw and real, and their tone was perfect for the story.  It was, however, difficult to listen to because of the sound quality .  Also, growing up in a generation where we always had a visual to go with the dialogue, I found it to be a little hard to follow sometimes.  I had to cut out any other distractions around me and really focus on what was being said, especially because there were a number of different telephone conversations, it got a little confusing.  Despite those few things, I thought the website was a cool gateway to the past.
OTR.com

wired.com

Wired.com is a website that people can go on to find out about the latest technology.  It has a number of news articles and different blogs.  I liked this website because of how many different sections there were to it.  You can find articles about a number of things ranging from culture to cars, jobs, science, politics, and even product reviews.  I've been looking into buying a nice digital camera for a while so it was useful to me to have those product reviews right at my finger tips.  It is nice to have so much information right in front of your face... perfect for those people who like to be up on the latest technology and products.

wired.com