Shnazzy Jazzy

As early as the beginning of the 1800's 'blackface' portrayal by actors had become a staple in the entertainment industry. Many people have claimed various reasons as to why the 'blackface' came about and the most prevailing of all is to exemplify and expand the typical segregated ideologies to the theater and eventually film and television. The 'blackface' allowed the entertainment business to remain segregated and still be able to have the role of the degraded black man by having their white actors mask or paint their faces along with an accent to their lips made them appear larger creating an almost ape-like look for the actors.

Personally, the beginning of the Nineteen Hundreds is what I see to be the greatest era of American history. Business was booming, the ability of the stock market to crash was out of the question and increased immigration brought together more cultures than ever before.

Although the United States were seeing much of their population prospering there were still many people being suppressed and demoralized. Music was a quick and easy escape from the troubles of poverty that many musicians and their followers were faced with on a daily basis. Regardless of how skilled this new generation of musicians was they were poor, often black and mostly disregarded. So they played were they were allowed and took their style to the streets. Their trumpet sounds gathered small crowds of passer-by's and eventually the attention of the local bars in their area. The most of the bars happened to also be sex houses and it was the site for the creation and expansion of jazz. According to some, the musicians wished for the music to be called 'Swing' yet their place of employment would not allow for it. When people went to these bars to pursue the women they called this "getting jazzed", they took this name and applied it to the music that would accompany them "getting jazzed" and it stuck for good.

Soon this would all change regardless of what their skin color was, almost. The stock market crash on October 29th brought all progress to an abrupt halt. With businesses booming the country felt confident in their system of stocks and loans were easy to come by regardless of whether the lender had the money or not. When the value of the stocks began to fall it sent the country into a panic and the population lost its trust in the system. Rapid selling and closing of stocks in the market are said to be main reasons for the inevitable collapse.

The days that mark the collapse are referred to as 'Black Thursday' and 'Black Tuesday' (October 24th and 29th, 1929 respectively) again a subtle degraded remark towards the black community. Unbeknownst to me the stock market crash of 1987 occurred on Monday, October 19th is also referred to as 'Black Monday'. So even seventy-eight years later the degraded name of a terrible event is posted again. So from Blackface actors to the southern black musicians which could only start in brothels at best up to the two worst stock market declines in history coined simply as a "black" day in history.

Prior to this post I was unaware of the events of the 1987 crash so I hope you learned something new today as well! See you next time.

First Day of Art 211

I am continuing this blog to be used in conjunction with my Art 211 class, Art and Technology. I am excited for this class and the new knowledge it will bring. Hopefully the classroom environment will be changed soon enough to allow for ease of learning but either way I am looking forward to the coming semester and sharing my new talents.

Sail Away

Catching Up

So I slacked a bit in the posting department over the summer but here we go again with another year (my last year in fact) and I hope for this one to be a bit different and over the top. I would like to start off the school year by posting a few projects from last semester as well as some new photos from a couple great photography opportunities I've had. Enjoy.

Tom Igoe Lecture

I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by ITP professor Tom Igoe, a specialist in Physical Computing. Professor Igoe brought up a lot of new and innovative ways to connect the physical world in which we live to the digital world that we have built up all around us.

In his lecture, Professor Igoe discussed a few key points to the progress and ability to publicize physical computing. His first point is that the physicality of the design of a new device is very important; that the behavior of the device correlates to its fundamental structure and design. In this he states that the designer needs to understand not only what the device will do but also how it will perform its tasks. Secondly he talked about conviviality. The basic idea that all modern digital devices talk to other devices; this talking or communication could be via bluetooth, wireless Internet or a direct connection. It is the designer's job to choose the right methods of communication to compliment its construction and behaviors.

After many examples of his students' work the lecture began to focus on the idea of openness. Professor Igoe spoke highly about their own ways to promote openness stating that the design plans for all of their projects are easily accessible to those who wish to become involved. He feels that instead of designers protecting and hiding the designs of their hardware and physical construction of devices they should be open with these plans and overall this will help drive innovation, new ideas and move closer to connecting the physical and digital worlds.

I saw Professor Igoe's lecture as beneficial and a helpful look at the possibilities to create art and useful devices combining ordinary household items with the brain power of computer chips. If you ever have an opportunity I suggest you attend or do a little research of your own on these great new ideas in Physical Computing.