iMedia: let yourself feel

let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

This is a computer generated video made by Diácono to accompany the song ‘Ljósið’ by Ólafur Arnalds. It is now the song's official music video. On how the video was created; “I first imported the audio and set up 2 sounkeys layers, one for the piano and one for the strings. Then I worked the particles and the particle subsystem and linked things like the emission, the turbulence, the velocity, the spin amplitude and the strenght of the fields to the soundkeys outputs. Then I set up the colors with 2 different palettes, and well, after that there was a lot of trial and error in order to achieve what I was looking for. There’s a lot of randomness involved in here, so there was also a lot of luck, of course.” He used programs "Adobe After Effects, particular v2, soundkeys and a little starglow".

This is a wonderful merging of sound and image. Diácono created the video, in essence by setting up rules for the gaseous substances to make them respond to the music. Although he used complex rules already existent in the programs available, those too are governed by probably pages and pages of computer code. In the physical world all reactions and happenings are governed by natural laws, thus making this work of art follow a trend much art seems to follow; imitating nature. That is, the rules/laws that govern the visualization for Ljósið were created by humans; they are artificial. One could make it a point to argue that all things regarded as art mimic the 'real world'. For example: Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It being a painting follows rules (principles and elements of design), It also mimics the world as Bosch saw it (changing from paradise to hell).

Music also, follows this idea of rules. However, music, although the rules are created by humans and for the human ear, but they are a standard set of rules found within music theory. These rules do nothing to affect the natural world, but they serve as a guide to the 'real' physics-related rules of vibration and resonance.

This music video exemplifies two things; mimicry of the natural world by being established upon artificial laws, and also, ideas of symbiosis. There are three examples of symbiosis going on: the video + the music, the piano + the violin, and the red + the blue precipitates/gases. Each one of these is like Yin and Yang. They compliment each other, although being significantly different and behaving in different ways.(i.e, the piano provides a sort of rhythmic support while the violin has more of a melody, the red gas orbits and winds in and out while the blue bobbles in the center). Taking on a much larger scale, perhaps it reflects on if religions and nations were to

then perhaps something calm and beautiful there would be.

Connection: King Lear~Adolescence

Shakespeare's Lear acts much like the way parents of teenagers sometimes do. His three daughters being the teenagers, although their exact ages are not clear.

Lear wants his daughters to follow his agenda, involving all of them loving each him, and pretty much doing what he tells them to do. However, they have their own plans (they being Goneril and Regan). These include

Dialectics: Education and Freedom

Education is meant, well, educate children. And people (because children aren't people). Yet, at the same time, public education (and private for that matter) tends to work like a prison, with lunch periods, and other periods determined by an orderly bell, every student has a number, etc etc. Freedom, synonymous with liberty, is by most students a preferred choice, yet it is relatively polar to education. However, being free (defined by being able to do what one wants, when one wants to) doesn't inhibit learning. One can be free, and still learn, study, read, whatever, the only difference is, that it is no longer imposed upon to have to learn. One of Einstein's quotes (probably paraphrased) "Imagination is better than education". This means, quite frankly, that creativity and 'smartness', problem-solving skills, etc, and all pertaining synonyms trump the prison-like system for educating youth.

The reciprocal is also true, that education doesn't necessarily imply the imprisonment of students. As long as the students want to be a part of the system, and perhaps even to learn, then they are actually free. So it is in fact possible to enjoy the fruits of freedom, and at the same time have the structure of eduction present to increase one's intelligence. If it is one's choice to be part of something they would have to be part of anyways, technically, they are acting by their own will, even though they couldn't act otherwise.