Event 1 - What's Next Lecture

        The term “What’s Next” could refer to a lot of things. However, Linda Weintraub used it to describe the future of art during her symposium.  In it, Weintraub describes art as “all encompassing”. It is in every aspect of our life even when we don’t expect it to be there. Whether it be science, history, math, or so on, art plays a roll in one way or another.  One thing that a lot of people do realize is that art does a good job of allowing us to slow down and take a breath to actually appreciate something for once in the world of constant movement. It also allows us to tap into the part of our brain that is responsible for intelligent thought.  Weintraub  describes how a  person is able to use their sensor details to describe information even if they don’t have full access to it. For example, if there is an object in a box, we are able to use the creative portions of our minds to think of generalities, and then narrow it down to certain specificities. So if a person were to shake a box, and there was something in there that didn’t make a lot of noise, the person could infer that it may be a somewhat squishy or pliable. From there, they could begin to think of actual objects that could fit this description. All of this information without every seeing or holding the object is quite incredible. 

As she continued on with her discussion, one interesting question she asked that still weighs on me is why some things are the shapes the they are. For example, why are we as people so obsessed with right angles, yet other organisms such as bees prefer different shapes, such as a hexagon.

While I nor anyone else has any definitive answer as to why this may be, it is certainly a fascinating conversation.

Continuing on, Weintraub provided multiple examples of artists who displayed how our lives have been effected by technology. One of them, Kal Spelletich used robots in different forms, all of which are praying. In her interpretation, the robots were putting their faith (a word often associated with prayer) in technology. During this time, she posed an interesting question which was because we allow robots to do everything in our lives for us already, would we allow them to take part in our most intimate facet of prayer?  It is really eye opening to think about how something as personal as prayer can be passed along to a robot should any person desire.

Spelletich's praying robots

           

        Finally, the last artist she discussed that caught my attention was Natalie Jeremijenko. She was described by Weintraub as a person who was strongly passionate about the effect pollution has on our world, and how artists may be able to help. One of her examples in particular was that Jeremijenko once pasted flyers of the human digestive system excreting pharmaceutical into the water supply of animals that have no defense. Although bold and maybe offensive to some, was almost certainly effective. And that is a lot of what art is about. 

A visual representation of the
different pharmaceuticals in a fish

Making a point about the world that many others would be scared to say. It provides a medium for thought, a platform for creation ,and overall, a benefit on the world that could not be measured in any single way.

        Overall, I found the event extremely thought inducing and helpful not just in my future for this class, but my life as a whole, which is why I would certainly recommend this discussion for any future students.