Retinal Persistence

Also known as "Persistence of Vision", retinal persistence was the belief that when we see things, that the image is imprinted in our retina for a few hundred milliseconds, until it faded. The scientists at the time said that this is why when images are played one right after another, that this is what gives us the perception of motion. However, this theory was proven wrong on several different points.
 The first is that we actually still see movement , even with only 10 frames per second. That is to say that if you were to flip through 10 photos, they would still look like they were moving. This disproves that it stays in your retina for so long.
The second point, as seen on " The brain from top to bottom" is that if we were seeing images that lasted so long, then what we see should be images on top of each other on our retina. I kind of think of it like an opaque old image at the bottom of a new image of what we're seeing now.
All of this was proven wrong by Wertheimer in 1912.
The new theory that they have today is called the beta effect. It basically states that when two images that are only slightly different in appearance are played on after the other, that our brain automatically puts them together into believing that it's a moving image.
Pretty nifty stuff!

I know that people online have used this to their advantage to make cute or funny gifs, with just a couple images. For example a couple cute ones:

And even one I've made for my own blog! :

And some funny ones: 

Abelardo Morell

Abe Morell is a very interesting artist with a unique taste. He was born in Cuba, but did most of his work in Boston. According to wikipedia, he is well known for doing camera obscura images ("an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.") It is usually done on landscapes and other places around the world, for example I know he did one piece in Italy. One very interesting piece of his is when he made a tent in Big Bend National Park in Texas. It was a very interesting piece that kind of transformed the surrounding landscape onto paper, into a kind of rough painting image. 

The other piece that I really liked was other on location piece that was also done in Big Bend National Park, Texas in 2010. Basically, he used his own light to make a humongous square on the side of a huge mountain. This makes a very interesting piece, it makes it look like an outside theater, where you could play movies on the side of a mountain. Also, it looks cool because it makes the mountain itself look more like a silhouette. 

Overall, I think his work is definitely an interesting process with very cool effects. The different outcomes that he gets is amazing and something that would be fun to try out someday. 

Stock Market Crashes & their technologies

The stock market crash of 1929 and the one in 2008 had many differences.
In 1929, there was a long period of time, in the 20's, in which it was doing extremely well and everyone was buying stock. Because stock represented capital (raw materials), and shares that almost all corporations in the United States owned, the fall of stock was a huge deal. In particular, the Banks had put alot of money into the stock with the help from deposits made by customers. When the stock market crashed in 1929, demands for goods fell because people were now poor and didn't have enough money to buy nice things, just the staples. This in turn made companies fall and banks.
In 2008, the main cause of the stock market crash was due to mortgage. Basically, people stopped fearing their loan companies and didn't pay back their loans, putting some banks into bankruptcy. Many different banks filed for bankruptcy that year, and were bought out by other banks. Such as, the Bank of America buying out Merrill Lynch for 50$ billion dollars.




As for technologies during 1929, the radio prices soared up to $125-150, and the first built-in radio for the car was made by Motorola. However, such technologies, in general (such as tv and film) were all given a second priority because of the costs of buying and viewing such things. People were more generally focused on buying food to support their families.
During today, however, we see a great increase in new technologies. The new smart phones are outselling regular video games , because of price and portability. Phones are usually something we take around everywhere with us - and the price for a game can be as cheap as 0.99$ or even free. As for video games, they usually only serve one purpose and can be hassle to take around - and very forgettable. Not only that, but the price for the console itself is pricey - the price of a smart phone that can do so many more things! Also, I think radio has slowly, over the years, died out because today, most people only listen to it in their car - traditional radio that is. We now have new and improved radios online or on itunes that are customizable and play only songs that we like. So there have been alot of changes due to price and preferences these days in technology.

Madama Butterfly Animation

This short,recreation of the opera, Madama Butterfly, was very beautiful. The characters were elegant and well played out. And the concept was done in a different way that let users still perceive the same idea. The whole animation itself was beautiful, with all the little details and I loved the fact that they used a Ken and Barbie doll to represent the Americans, and a Japanese -style doll to represent her.
The sound was brilliant and I feel like the opera wasn't too overpowering, and all of the effects matched what was going on in the particular scene. The sounds really captured the mood also.
The fish tank and the fish signified her baby inside her , and the water/fish tank was the body fluids; and when the tank cracker, that was her water breaking. The fish that came out was her baby. Why they choose a fish - I'm not really sure, maybe because it was different on the inside, and changed when the baby came out. So from a cute, fish that doesn't really do anything but swim around in the fish tank, to a baby that whines and grows.

My favorite part was when the mother was hanging on the string like a kite, and the boat came, and her eyes opened for the first time, in wonder and happiness. I think that was the best emotion ever.

Overall, this is an animation definitely worth seeing, it's short and sweet and has a very sad ending. But it's a great story and opera wrapped into an animated short that anyone can understand.

Popular Commercials and Bread and Circus

Commercials today sometimes depend on the past for music that relates and appeals to all types of people. Whether the purpose for using the music of the Baroque Era is one for advertisement that doesn't quite make sense, or for demonstrating a unique purpose through a touch screen, you can be sure that the classical music usually is known by everybody.

The first example I have is for Tokyo Gas, a company that is a
"Supplier for natural gas for residential and business consumption. (Google)"
The commercial itself is a bit confusing, especially since I don't understand Japanese. Basically, Beethoven (or a look a-like) comes out of a mans closet and sings the first four notes of his very well known song. He then proceeds to take a shower and then play the piano a little bit. I'm sure it makes sense to Japanese speakers, but it doesn't quite make sense to me.

The second video that uses one of Mozart's famous song, is a lot more understandable. It is a commercial for an LG Cookie touch phone, and the main part that we are looking at deals with a girl touching the screen, like she's playing the piano, and playing Mozart. It is really a very good way to show that this phone is 100% touchable and that is what makes it unique. 

One example of a current Bread and Circus (free entertainment to prevent turmoil and revolutions) is the Olympics. I think it is sort of a worldwide Bread and Circus, to bring all the countries/nations together and give them something entertaining to keep a certain peace. That may be why it is recurring, every 4 years, to make sure that we don't forget about other countries and people. 

Juan Carlos Delgado 2

We took another look at Delgado and his most recent show. If I remember right, all of it is encompassed in a room that is cold enough to keep the pieces he made frozen.
The first one that is shown on this website is a copper mold of his daughter. He made it, and then let it freeze in the room, with frost covering all of the face and hair, etc. It was a really cool idea and kind of portrays that art is "frozen" in time. Hehe.

The next couple of things that he has are jail gate bars that are frozen. However, for this piece he somehow made the bars alternate depending on the time, so some will be melting while others will be frosting. Again, a very, very neat idea!! I wonder if you're allowed to touch the pieces, I wonder if he made the bars themselves get hot, so you could touch one piece and it would be freezing, and the other would be quite warm. 

This last one is my favorite out of his show. It's a molded piece of his wife's hands that are holding fire. It's on the other side of all the frozen stuff, connected to the wall, and apparently in a place without much light - which makes alot more of a contrast, and alot more interesting to look at. The hands are kind of cupped and there is a single flame in the center, coming out. It's a really good and nice design. 

I also like how the fire reflects off the wall behind it, so you can see two of them. 

Farinelli

Carlo Maria Broschi was the real name of Farinelli, the most famous opera singers, especially in the 18th century. He was an Italian castrato singer - and according to everything I read, it was because he was actually castrated at a young age - so he would be able to still be youthful and hit the high notes as he got older. OUCH. According to some things I read online, it was actually illegal at the time and only allowed if there was a certain predicament. So after his father died (he was probably against it? and the family needed money), his family blamed it on a fall off of a horse. He debuted at the age of 15 and got very popular in Italy from there. Early on, he performed as lead woman roles, and in some cases was said to beat out a trumpet in sound and technique.

Throughout his career he was praised by many other performers for his voice. Johann Jachim Quantz, a famous German flutist said,
"Farinelli had a penetrating, full, rich, bright and well-modulated soprano voice, with a range at that time from the A below middle C to the D two octaves above middle C. ... His intonation was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty. Passagework and all kinds of melismas were of no difficulty to him. In the invention of free ornamentation inadagio he was very fertile."


He sang all throughout Europe such as in places like Naples, Bolgna, London, Spain, and Venice. Also, when Ferdinand VI, king of Spain, came into power he had such a great love for music that Farinelli became even more popular, accompanying the queen and the king with music. And in 1750 he was knighted into the Order of Calatrava. However, after Fredinand VI died, he was kicked out of Spain by the new king who despised music. He then retired in Bologna, a little bit lonely. 


Adding on to the fact that he had Post-Menopausual disease (Usually only found in women) was a very interesting discovery, found after uncovering his body in 2006. His remains showed that parts in his skull had not completely fused together and also had a hardening in the top front of the forehead. 
From the sceintists findings they concluded that


"Depriving Farinelli of his testes and their testosterone secretions not only resulted in the absence of male-type growth of the larynx, but also caused hormone-related pathologies."


Usually this disease is not harmful to the person, but in extreme cases can cause headaches, epilepsy, and dementia. However, records show that Farinelli did not suffer from any of these, at least none that were reported. 

There was also a movie made about him titled Farinelli made in 1994. (Both of the pictures are from the movie.) Maybe we should watch it in class... :)