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Mapping: Mark Bradford
“Mark Bradford transforms materials scavenged from the street into wall-sized collages and installations that respond to the impromptu networks—underground economies, migrant communities, or popular appropriation of abandoned public space—that emerge within a city.” – Art: 21
Mark Bradford graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia with a BFA and an MFA. Bradford’s work is inspired by his past work as a third-generation merchant worker. He works with videos and collaging to illustrate streets and crowds, while touching on immigration issues. Currently Mark Bradford lives in and works in Los Angeles, California.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/bradford/index.html#
Posted in Uncategorized
Techno-friend or Techno-foe?: A response to FRONTLINE: digital_nation
After viewing FRONTLINE: digital_nation, a project featured by PBS, I began to reflect upon my own perspective of our quickly changing digital and technological environment. Although I was unable to sit comfortably on one particular side of the argument, pointing a finger at technology for being positive or negative, I viewed my opinion more like a seesaw, bouncing between negative and positive views when it came to the impact of technology on our society.
The first issue I would like to address in this video would be the involvement of technology in the academic environment. After hearing Jason Levy, principal of a middle school in New York, South Bronx, say,”Technology is like oxygen, no one would have an argument that we should take the oxygen away from the kids,” (31:14) I’d have to say that his statement was a little far -fetched. Although technology increases the amount of information we have at our finger-tips as well as enabling the human race to do many things that were once beyond our own capabilities, it can also serve as a major distraction, especially in the school environment. For Jason Levy’s students, they were already facing difficulties with classroom attention span, therefore I personally believe that we cannot say that the technology, specifically computers, implemented higher test scores and better grades, but the actual change in teaching and learning methods grabbed the students attention which then lead them to become more active in school.
For myself, computers and technology play a major role in my education, major, and future career. As a digital art & design major, my studies more often heavily involve the computer and other forms of digital technology. My computer is an extremely viable tool in my education but at the same time it is a major distraction from my education and I believe the finger can mainly be pointed at social-networking. Facebook: friend or foe? Although Facebook is an amazing way to stay connected with friends and family, I think that the technology has become a little too excessive. There’s no reason why I would need to know what 500 Towson students are doing at every hour of the day from status updates on Facebook, but I do. My point is though, this online community takes up a major part of many students lives, and I know that without this technology I personally would be doing more constructive things with my time but I find the technology to be quite addicting.
Another statement I would like to contradict from FRONTLINE: digital_nation is, “Students of your generation write in paragraphs. In other words there isn’t this kind of connection between paragraphs, it’s like the paragraphs are kinda separate” (38:05). The woman in the video that was interviewing a few students at M.I.T. said this in response to the idea that students write in short paragraphs rather than essays because they are distracted by digital technology. I disagree with this statement because ever since middle school I’ve been taught to write in paragraphs, and I’m sure many other children around the world were taught the same. The idea of a 5-paragraph essay has been drilled into our brains with the introduction, three body paragraphs, and then ending with the concluding paragraph. With that being said, we cannot solely base a students writing style on their current setting and involvement in technology; we must also consider how the students were taught in the earlier stages of their education.
Although I did not agree with every point made in FRONTLINE: digital_nation, I do believe that it raises an awareness and addresses issues associated with our rapidly changing technological society. By first viewing this video I believe that children and adults can then go on to analyze whether technology is positively impacting their life or negatively impacting their life, and hopefully make adjustments from there.
Posted in Uncategorized
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