For my final idea essay I felt it would be appropriate to present a video/slide show that has a whole bunch of ideas thrown in it. Basically this video is trying to make those in the U.S. understand just how fast the world is moving and how we are not quite as great as we think we are. On the one hand this is an eye-opener that is designed to make you think and ponder the issues that the video brings up. On the other hand though, I feel that this video is trying to instill a sensation of fear because the meaning of these phenomena is so unknown. This presentation uses aesthetics to prove a point; that the world is changing and, as the title states, shift happens. By using visual representations of the issues at hand they are able to personalize the message so that it has a specific aesthetic affect on the individual.
The real clencher is at the very end when it begs the question “So what it all mean?” and gives no answer but instead leaves you to find out for yourself.
First reaction: the fear the video seems interested in generating is a geopolitical one -- Americans afraid of being overwhelmed by the Chinese and Indians. These stats feel ever so vaguely ethnophobic.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that first reaction, much of the theme of technological growth seems here to play off Ray Kurzweil's idea of the "singularity," the moment when the evolution of computing power is so large that the very nature of humanity will change. It a mix of sci-fi fantasy futurism and mathematical models of (exponential) growth.
But back to "art." Is this "presentation" art? Not for me. Certainly it is visual and uses aesthetic elements of design (ala Postrel), but this is not an aesthetic object.
It is interesting, though, in that is makes an argument using the generic materials of video. I am willing to wonder if this kind of text is not the future for us. We are certainly become a less text-literate society and more focused on the visual/auditory medium of film/video. Maybe by 2050 books will be gone and we will do everything by watching screens. Of course, this video is actually quite text heavy, so a more hybrid word/video/sound sort of composition might end up being the most likely form of communication.