Reflection

My sketch, while approached as a fun and striking interactive piece, ended up representing some of the issues surrounding today’s dissemination of information online, such as information overload and an increasingly short news cycle. To do so, I used only letters, numbers, and symbols that are typed by the user. For each frame, I randomly assign a color to every character drawn on the screen to help emphasize the hectic and overwhelming nature of information online. This piece is intended for anybody who uses the internet, especially social media, as their primary source for news and information. I was likely driven to the fun and interactive side of this piece by a past of playing games online, many of which were meant to be visually overwhelming. The underlying messages sprouted from both a history of using social media for news myself and from several courses that I have taken at Duke, such as Text Mining & Meaning, which have highlighted the inherent issues of information overload and internet sources.

What is Art?

The level of tedium and repetition involved in Wolfgang Laib’s work with pollen was particularly perplexing. Yet, when he explained his approach and reasoning for his work, I began to understand. It isn’t just the solitude that has drawn him to spend decades slowly collecting jars of pollen. For him, the repetition brings stability to a world in which change seems to be the only constant.

In making my sketch, I related to the mindset of Hillary Lloyd. She did not seem to go into any of works with a particular meaning or overarching goal in mind. She seemed more interested in making works for their own sake and the uniqueness of that individual moment. Thus, she never edited her short films. Similarly, I began my piece without any particular goal or direction in mind.