Art 240 - New Media in Art Blog

I decided to tackle my final project on the concept of the global village.  The concept of global village intrigues me a lot because McLuhan predicted in the 60s.  We now live in this mass communication period that he predicted.  For my project, I made a short experimental video on the way global village is in our lives.  As I'm typing this, we are currently in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.  There is a lot of stuff we still don't know about it, but imagine if we didn't have the internet.  We get news and information about the outbreak daily from all around the world and it is only possible because of the power of the internet and global village.  I mainly took this project as a way to practice my editing because it could be considered a modern skill.  The prominence of YouTube also makes McLuhan's global village idea much more noticeable and cool.

I thought that the exhibition experience went well! What stood out to me was the whole process in which a gallery is set up. The exhibition was set up in the Mudd Gallery in the Library. It was a small room, but there was just enough space for all the pictures to be set up. We had to not only use our artistic and design skills in making sure the art is presented well, but also our measuring skills. We had to measure the placement of each picture so that it would look even and nice to the audience. We used nails and hammers to make sure the pictures could be hung up. What was most important was the placement of each picture. You have to consider the color and content, so making sure there is an easy transition that is pleasing to the eye is a must. All in all, the experience of setting up our exhibition was very fun and made me realize that exhibitions are an art in itself!

Bob Dylan I decided I would do my report on Bob Dylan. McLuhan and Bob Dylan have a lot in common in that they both have a counterculture view which was common in the 1960s. Counterculture was a movement that wanted to stray away from the long-held values of those in the 1950s. Movements such as the Civil Rights movement began to spring up and changed the views and attitudes towards those in the establishment. Bob Dylan is important to understand because his most notable songs like "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for this time period. The songs asked why things must be the way they are and why should we follow these old values. McLuhan covers this when he states, "The young today reject goals...That is, total involvement" (100). This is in direct reference to those participating in movements like the Civil Rights Movement. Instead of letting nothing happening, those in the counterculture generation wa