The Last Class

Even though Carl, the speaker at our last class, was mostly speaking to you digital arts kids and not the architecture kids, I thought it was a really interesting presentation.  This is mainly because of how his advice relates to what we've been reading, especially the Guy Debord stuff. While there are some connections between our two fields, there seems to be a widening gap between how we network and share information.  I guess what I'm wondering is....are you guys REALLY going to do all of that stuff?  And if so, how would there be any time left over to do the work you're trying to promote?  I never thought I'd agree with my father's viewpoint that technology is a negative force in our present society, but it's beginning to become overwhelming, at least for me.  

I spent three years after undergrad working at an architecture firm to gain experience and, hopefully, a more directed vision of the path I would like to take in the field.  While some of the experiences I had at the firm were amazingly unique (travel, travel, and more travel) a lot of time was spent parked in front of a monitor.  I like to think that over those 3 years I made a lot of progress in becoming efficient with various computer programs, and honed and developed a set of skills useful in the field.  But I can say one thing for sure, I don't want to spend the vast majority of another 3 years after I graduate parked in front of a monitor.  This can't be the way we are supposed to live and connect to each other.

I'm not anti-technology but I sense  something important is slipping away, and I keep thinking of Guy Debord's spectacle.  I was really critical of his ideas at first, thinking that a statement like that can't be made to blanket all of modern culture and that the individual is more important.  But maybe it's inescapable.  I mean think about it, we take vacations....from what?  From this.  Ironic.  It also seems like a very ironic twist that art and digital media are mixing the way they are.  It really begs the question of what is real and what is not.  

Now I'm just rambling.  Time for happy hour.