Interesting Talk about the Southeast Asian Arts and Culture

Our class had attend a talk with SER a guest speaker all the way from thailand which is also a graduated student from The One academy, can say is our super senior. Actually I was quite worry that i will slept during the talk due to not enough rest and class in the morning section. 

Although is short period of group discusion but SER try his best to finish the talk. Is was a very interesting talk and i do learn new nation culture after the talk which help me in the future. I found that the thai culture interested me the most so i take some keyword from the talk and do some reading on it. And i would like to share some of the research and info that i found in some others website.

During the talk SER did mention about the thailand traditional culture dance.  Beside SER some of the lecture of mine also had been telling us about the Ramakien or in The Ramayana in India. Actually the Ramakien can be said as the evolution of the Ramayana, Base on  the understand of Thai people for the Ramayana in the pass they have change the outlook of the character base on their imagination from the original story. And nowadays Ramakien had become a traditional story in thailand.

The Summary of Story, Ramayana or in Thai Ramakien:
This is a story of good versus evil.  Our hero, Rama is a king.  The villain, or demon king Tosakan.  This epic tale is thought to established after the Thais occupied Angkor in the 15th century.  It has been an inspiration for painting and classical drama with usage of intertextuality. (feel free to refer back on my previous blog entry about intertextuality)

There are few main characters in this story.

Rama –  deep green face, is an incarnation of the god Visbnu Rama’s.
Sita – The daughter of Tosakan’s consort and incarnation of the goddess Laksbmi, remains loyal to Rama.
Lakshman – Rama’s loyal younger brother, is often shown in gold.
Hanuman – The white monkey, son of the wind god, is totally devoted to Rama.
Tosakan – The demon king of Longka and have “ten necks, heads and arms”.


Rama, the king of Ayodhya, was sent into exile by his stepmother. He and his wife, Sita and brother Lakshman went with him into the deep forest. The demon king, Tosakan of Longka (Sri Lanka), kidnapped Sita and carries her away hoping to marry her. Rama and Lakshman chased after try to recue   Sita. And they met Hanuman and volunteers his service, together they found more help to defend the demon king. On their ways, they faced a lot problem and they solve it together.  Finally, Rama defeated Tosakan and killed him. In the end Rama crowns his ally, Piphek (Tosakan’s banished brother) as King of Longka and returns to Ayodha.

Connotation: A traditional story
Denotation: The moral values within the story. For example, no matter how difficult there are to rescue Sita Rama will never give up.
Myth: how good versus the evil and show the power of goodness fight against evil to bring peace to the people.

i mention that this story has been an inspiration for painting and classical drama with usage of intertextuality. The example below is a example of intertextuality of the story Ramayana by Nina Paley (born May 3, 1968) is an American cartoonist, animator and free culture activist. The video below, it show that how she used the modern technology Adobe Flash to animate the story of Ramayana into a flash animation combining with pop music and modern art style  and make the whole into another new aspect which represent a movement of modernism. Trying to make a 'boring' traditional story to a more modern and iterative with the technology and software in the current modern society.

This full video premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 11, 2008. created by Nina Paley alone.

In conclusion, the different of  with thai myth is Hindu Myths are from vedic texts. They tell of Gods  with almost human like flaws and stories.
In Buddhism, it's more of a reverse. A human prince attains a higher state. Thai legends representations for the spirits that both help and hinder humans on their way to enlightenment, as well as a balance to other former beliefs.

                                                        

Extra information :

Beside that, i heard that SER had ask us that do we know what is the curl thingy on top buddha head. I think no much people know that. He said is snail, during the process how buddha having his meditation  he faced different kind of problem. One is the torture of the hot sun, and the snail climb up to his head to protect him from the sun. And this is how nowadays buddha head are sculptured like this.

From this point we can link the buddha's hair to the topic of connotation, denotation and myth.

Connotation: a normal curly hair style

Denotation: Snails covering on buddha to prevent him from the sun heat.

Myth: the process how the prince awakened and become a buddha.

Beside that i found some meaning about the buddha sculpture

Buddha statues have meaning from head to toe

by Janet Eastman, Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2008

Los Angeles, USA -- SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA was a prince in India around 500 BC who set out to discover meaning in the suffering he witnessed. Once he found enlightenment, he began to spread his philosophy. He became known as Buddha, a title, since given to others, that means "awakened one."

-A dot on the forehead brings wisdom and a third eye to see unity.
-A full mouth indicates eloquent speech. Long arms signify generosity.
-White, slender fingers symbolize mindfulness, precision and purity in every act.
-Round heels represent an even temperament, and fine webs between toes and fingers signal interconnectedness.

Realism: Plato The Allegory of the Cave

Plato the Allegory of the Cave was interesting. During this class the are a lot of thing flashing my head, i keep on thinking what is thing that are real, is it something that we can see is real, is it what what people been saying is real. 

But after the class, i understand that anything can be real. Is just in different way of mind set, they are different way to progress the 'real' object. In the example of plato's allegory of the cave, it show that the prison only see the object shadow and from their mind set they will think that shadow is case by the real object. For example maybe the prisoner saw the shadow on the wall is a cat, they will automatically say that the shadow is a cat shadow. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. But they wont realize what is the true object until they turn their head around and see what it really is. According to Allegory, when the prisoners that escape from the cave and they are shocked in afraid because what they think is real are not.  They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.

They are a lot of cases that happen in our life that are similar to prisoners. Newspaper and entertainment   news can transform a simple issues into something big just to make a better sales. For some people that are addicted to Facebook sometimes they will think the thing that share by their friend is real until they find out the truth. Sometime the thing that appear in front of us doesn't means is it truth. The is a sentence that quite similar to this situation "人不可貌相" which means we cannot judge a thing with it's appearance.

Also, and very importantly, Plato distinguishes between appearance and reality. It shows how sometimes what we perceive as real is only just an illusion, such as shadows or dreams. And this is in reference to the next area of philosophy, which is concerned with truth or reality, which is the light source of the plato cave. The person that escaped from the cave and find the light of the sun, the light of true reality, the light that cast all the fuzzy shadow on the wall. And from the light they will find out what is the object that cast the shadow on the wall. They will find out the truth.

Not all newspaper and entertainment news is trying to distort the reality. There are new medias that show the light to the reader or a hints to show the reader what is the truth behind the story or make them to find out the truth. For example the photo below that given a sample for analysis from my lecturer.

As we can see that there are actually both side of image. Each side of image itself can be the fuzzy shadow on the wall in the plato cave because the viewer only see one side of the banner on the wall. But the people who walk over the corner and see the other side of the image the will under what is really happen in the story. And they will start to question themselves what is the truth light of the image and they will start to find out the truth. Inside the image beside fuzzy shadow we can find out the light source as well. For example the tagline "see both sides of the story" is a hint for the viewer to find the light. When people see explosion the didn't know what is happen maybe they will think something was on fire but they don't know what cost the fire. And another side is a soldier standing guarding something but they dont know what is he guarding. Right until they walk around the corner and see the whole banner only know the fire is cause by war and the soldier is preparing for war.

This some funny photo that i think is related to Plato Cave. The man is like the prisoner he only see that beauty of the girl and when the kid was born he only realize that his wife did plastic surgery. but if the man find out the light which is the photo of the girl before she did the surgery what will the man do. He will be curious and start find out who is the person and question her wife to find out the truth. After he find out the truth will he still want to have the baby. But if he act like the prisoner in the plato cave and just believe on the fuzzy shadow which the girl she marry is not the girl in the photo he will be happy and may give a birth after they marry.


The plato cave can apply in many place. So people will like to be the prisoner in the cave to get away from the truth just to be more happy and there are people that want to find out the source of light and the truth behind the fuzzy shadow.

Redundancy and Entropy

Redundant and Entropy. Actually i don't know what is two theme actually means before Daniel class. When Daniel start using the word i was like what is it means, luckily he had do some explanation for the two words. For what i understand from his explanation is Redundant is the thing that is being repeated or something that is expected; and for Entropy is the opposite of Redundancy which that something that is really ramdom or something that we can't foresee or unexpected.

I had done some research on the two term. And most of the result is from communication and language.


Redundant, repetition of same sense in different words; "`a true fact' and `a free gift' are pleonastic expressions"; "the phrase `a beginner who has just started' is tautological"; "at the risk of being redundant I return to my original proposition"- J.B.Conant

example:

If all of us cooperate together, we will succeed.

In this sentence, the words cooperate and together have been used. But both these words convey the same meaning.

One of the two words should be dropped in order to make the sentence a correct one.

• If all of us cooperate, we will succeed.
• If all of us work together, we will succeed.

Both these sentences are correct ones.




Entropy, on the other hand, is a measure of the "disorder" of a system. What "disorder refers to is really the number of different microscopic states a system can be in, given that the system has a particular fixed composition, volume, energy, pressure, and temperature. By "microscopic states", we mean the exact states of all the molecules making up the system.

As a simple example, suppose that you put a marble in a large box, and shook the box around, and you didn't look inside afterwards. Then the marble could be anywhere in the box. Because the box is large, there are many possible places inside the box that the marble could be, so the marble in the box has a high entropy. Now suppose you put the marble in a tiny box and shook up the box. Now, even though you shook the box, you pretty much know where the marble is, because the box is small. In this case we say that the marble in the box has low entropy.

After understanding what it means, Redundant and entropy had been apply in interactive media as well.
In the system of a computer's softwares there are a lot of redundancy element especially exit, save and deleting information. Every time when we click, the software will repeat the same question over again to make sure whether we are sure with our decision so there are low entropy. For me i think that redundancy element is use to predict entropic cases. Like for event planning although the event is well planned they always create a contingency plan as a back up to make sure everything is all right, for example like a outdoor concert, all the electric supply is prepare they will always prepare another generator.

For entropic they are widely use in gaming and movie (especially horror movie) industry. Although the player is play the game but the don't know what will happen next or he expect something to come out but it doesn't; for horror movie, the appearance is always unexpected although the people know that is it  a horror movie but they don't know when or where it will appear. And this is the same result of the marble in a big box which is high entropy.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality; I search on the definition of at Dictionary.com, and this is the result: Intertextuality is  the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature; the way that similar or related texts influence,reflect or differ from each other: the intertextuality between two novels with the same setting.


What i understand about intertextuality during class is this " No Such Thing is Originality". The fundamental concept of intertextuality is that no text, much as it might like to be like what they be seem but references to and quotations from other texts.

From the note that given by Daniel Chong,  there had shown that the study of intertextuality include:
remakes, sequels, prequels within same media
translations between media, e.g. novel to film, film to computer game (and vice versa)
transition between genres, e.g. Seven Samurai remade as Magnificent Seven
relation of artefacts within a genre group, e.g. between different episodes of the same TV soap     opera, or between different TV soap operas
and inside the note this is the on line that i remember the most is 'nothing is ever truly original'  Daniel said it, Parody can be good example of intertextuality; an author's or director's that borrowing and refer some other's author's or director's work and transforms or modifying them to trigger humor facets to become parodies.

The link below is example of intertextuality that use in Film or movie.

Beside film the are other example of usage of intertextuality such how painting and poem and become a song 

this is a song by Don McLean - ( Starry, Sarry Night) that refer on Vincent Van Gogh's Painting, Starry Night(1889) and Anne Sexton's Poem, The Starry Night (1961)


The website had more example of intertextuality. Feel free to explore and you can find out something interesting
 http://valerie6.myweb.uga.edu/intertextuality.html

and let me end my blog with this song ! Starry Sarry Night

Cybernetics

When our lecturer talk about cybernetics i think that it is a very scientific term. Something that connect to cyborgs or something mechanical. So i do some research on what is cybernetics.

what is cybernetics by Paul Pangora

part 1

part 2

Cybernetics was originally defined in 1947 by Wiener as the science of communication and control in the animal and machine , and grew out of Shannon's information theory, which was designed to optimize the transfer of information through communication channels (e.g. telephone lines), and the feedback concept used in engineering control systems. Information and control technologies have gone a very long way since, especially through the introduction of the computer as an all-purpose information processing tool. Most of the presently most fashionable computing applications derive from ideas originally proposed by cyberneticians several decades ago: AI, neural networks, machine learning, autonomous agents, artificial life, man-machine interaction, etc.

While doing research i found this statement below, and prove that no only me that misunderstood the meaning, there are lot of people misunderstood too.

The term "cybernetics" has been widely misunderstood, perhaps for two broad reasons. First, its identity and boundary are difficult to grasp. The nature of its concepts and the breadth of its applications, as described above, make it difficult for non-practitioners to form a clear concept of cybernetics. This holds even for professionals of all sorts, as cybernetics never became a popular discipline in its own right; rather, its concepts and viewpoints seeped into many other disciplines, from sociology and psychology to design methods and post-modern thought. Second, the advent of the prefix "cyb" or "cyber" as a referent to either robots ("cyborgs") or the Internet ("cyberspace") further diluted its meaning, to the point of serious confusion to everyone except the small number of cybernetic experts.


However, the concepts and origins of cybernetics have become of greater interest recently, especially since around the year 2000. Lack of success by AI to create intelligent machines has increased curiosity toward alternative views of what a brain does [Ashby 1960] and alternative views of the biology of cognition [Maturana 1970]. There is growing recognition of the value of a "science of subjectivity" that encompasses both objective and subjective interactions, including conversation [Pask 1976]. Designers are rediscovering the influence of cybernetics on the tradition of 20th-century design methods, and the need for rigorous models of goals, interaction, and system limitations for the successful development of complex products and services, such as those delivered via today's software networks.

There are more information about cybernetics and it is hard for me to share out every information about it. Feel free to explore it if you interested with it.
this are some link that i found useful during my research to understand cybernetics

• http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/INTRO.html
• http://www.pangaro.com/published/cyber-macmillan.html
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cybernetics
• http://www.youtube.com/topic/EiMqiGkHtIg/cybernetics?feature=relchannel