Overall, I think
A Whole New Mind (Can't seem to underline the title?) is a very interesting book. It presents a very interesting concept and view of the future.
I can't really say that AWNM has changed my view of life or the future, but I do think that its clarified it a good deal. I think that most of what I do I try and do in a unique way. For me, I don't think its as much about doing it better or faster then a computer, but simply doing it better/faster/different than anyone else. As an artist, I need to find ways to make myself stand out from the crowd and be unique. If I can't find a way to do it differently, then whats really the point in doing it at all?
One of the most valuable lessons in AWNM is that you need to put spirit into the things you do. You need to find meaning in what you do, or find a way to bring meaning INTO what you do. You need to find a way to have fun or enjoy the things you do, or at least find a reason to keep doing them if you can't find any way in which you enjoy doing them.
I've found that for a long time there are really simple small things that you can do towards making life better for yourself. Sometimes things can be small (like decorating a cubicle at work.) If you're happier in your work environment, you'll probably work better and faster in it. As a student in highschool, I hated quiet study periods. When its quiet, my brain is free to barage me with thoughts of "i'm sooo bored, " "boy this is stupid", etc, etc. I almost can't work in a quiet study. But give me an ipod, and I can work just fine. Or what about the idea that you don't even have to study in a study period at all? What about the value of talking with friends, laughing, and relieving stress? Can't people see that there might be more value to 45 free minutes then just sitting and trying to study?
I don't really think that this class has changed my working or thinking methods that much over the course of the semester. The only new thing we did this semester (for me) was the stop-motion animation, and I've worked on one before (albeit a little more crude and helping a friend on a final project. . .). I've done a lot of work for "New Media" before. Some of the things we've seen are really cool; I like Neumans idea and the way he displays his video, but there's no way right now that I'd ever get the capitol to be able to afford even one of those screens. . .
I've had a really cool idea using this image (stare at it for about a minute. . .nothing jumps out, I promise)
(Click to view fit to browser window)
I'd love to have a gallery where this image is running on 10-12 different monitors, all synced to play it at the same speed, so as you wander around the gallery, it slowly begins its fade to black and white, and totally toys with peoples minds.
I like a lot of the ideas for New Media, I just don't feel that I've had time to really explore it enough. (By time, I don't mean an hour here or there. . .I mean time as in a year or two. I'm only 19, there's a lot of things I haven't had time to do (yet.) )
Some of the work we've seen has been really cool, but arguably there is just as cool work out there on Youtube, Vimeo, and the rest of the internet by "no-name" people. Maybe that IS the future of New Media, since almost anyone can create it now.
I like some of the ideas that Pink lays out in his book, but I still find it to be a little overly optimistic. Maybe its not optimistic, but a little disconnected. Some of his ideas are great, like the laughing clubs, and the idea that story and narrative can be really powerful. But some of his other ideas just don't seem to fly.
Like GM being an "art company." Its a few years after Pink wrote the book, and I don't see great success from GM at being an art or car company. Here's a short story that might help illustrate my point.
My town recently got Main Street re-done. They did a fairly nice job, concrete sidewalks, with brick inlays about a foot from the curb. And they put in these nice bump-outs for people to cross the street, and the curb cuts have these granite posts on either side of them. Well, it looks sorta nice. . .but they lost about 10 parking spaces. The snowplow drivers hate the bump-outs because they might hit them with their plow blades. I can just imagine the sidewalk plow guy trying to navigate the granite posts sticking out of the sidewalk near every curb cut.
Does it look good? Maybe. But does it function well? No. So who's responsability is it? Should we complain to an designer who has no skill at engineering, or an engineer with design sense who doesn't understand snow removal?
It is very (critically) important that we start thinking about design and function and ways to make people happier in everyday life by laughing using stories, and having empathy for our fellow workers. But we can't forget the L-brain entirely. I mean, what would we do without L-brained thinkers who write the code for Photoshop? Who design the sensors in our digital cameras?
