The Boar in Richard III

            Richard III is referred to through out the play as a boar. Historically, Richard’s royal symbol was a boar. Unlike his brother Edward whose symbol was the sun, which reflects the royalty view that they are godly. Richard’s symbol represents a fierce and hideous creature. Just like the boar that destroys the obstacles in his path, so does Richard by killing the people who cared for him and crushing the dreams of the citizens of England.

            In Elizabethan time, the boar was a popular animal to hunt due to its aggressive nature. But some laws Privatized certain land and animals for hunting only for royalty. The boar was one of the creatures that only royalty could hunt. In the play, Richmond is the one who kills Richard because only a man who is equally royal could kill the boar.

            The Elizabethan period also enforced a natural hierarchical order. On top was God then royalty and higher society, then peasants, and at the bottom were animals. Richard’s symbol is placed on the lowest tier of the order, which makes it strange that he is made king and corrupting the system. It only makes sense that to restore order in England, Richard must be removed from the throne to replace order in society.

            However, Richard’s character is even lower then a raging boar because he lacks all humanity. Richard and Anne have a discussion about even how beasts have pity. Richard claims he has no pity meaning that he is not a beast or human. The audience can come to the conclusion that Richard is far worse then any beast, he is an unnatural creature. Through out the play Richard refers to himself as ugly and unnatural looking and so do other characters. Margaret mentions that Richard was born with teeth. This might indicate that he is something other than human and that is why he does not have human feelings.

            Comparing Richard to a boar is more of a compliment then he deserves. His viscous acts of killing the people closest to him and not feeling any remorse proves that he is lower on the hierarchical order than an animal. Shakespeare has taken the aggression of the boar and combined it with a heartless soul to create Richard III. 

War of Roses (Richard III)

             Richard, Duke of Glouster, begins the play by telling the viewers that the House of York is in power. His brother, King Edward IV, is the one leading York House to power. The War of the Roses is the underlying historical context of the Shakespeare play, Richard III. I am interested in learning about the War of the Roses to form a better understanding of the influences and mindset of the characters and the audience during the time period that the play was performed.

            The War of Roses consisted of  two branches of the Royal House of Plantagenet. The houses of York and Lancaster competed for the throne of England from 1455 and 1485. The war ended with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond coming into power and founding the House of Tudors. Henry Tudor united the House of York and Lancaster, even combining the symbol of the white and red rose into an emblem of a red and white Tudor rose.

            An influence that the battle between the houses could have affected was the courtship of Richard III and Lady Anne. Lady Anne is part of the Lancaster family. Richard’s alliance with Lady Anne might help him get both the approval of his own house and the House of Lancaster.

            History not only plays as a background setting in the play but was also an influencing matter in the presentation of characters in the play. Queen Elizabeth I was in power at the time, who was a Tudor, of the writing and performance of Richard III. Shakespeare wanted to please the royal family because they could influence the success of his career. Due to this pressure Shakespeare portrays Richard III as a horrendous villain in order to make Henry Tudor appear in a much brighter light. If Shakespeare did not show the devilish side of Richard III as much as he did then Henry Tudor would have looked less heroic. Even though the history of England has swayed the representation in this play due to the fact that the characters he was writing about were still alive and influential. 

Wikipedia Experiment

I attended Cherry Creek High School. For my edit I went to my high schools wikipedia page and added myself to the list successful individuals who have graduated from Creek. I wonder how long it will take for them to take this off.

GigaPan ("Hybrid" Art)

  http://www.gigapan.org/

             Hybrid art is a contemporary art movement in which artist work with frontier areas of science and emerging technologies. During my numerous art classes my understanding of hybrid art was the process of combining two different mediums to create one piece of art. I learned about the traditional forms of hybrid art but in the 21^st century technology has presented itself in art. Technology has transformed they way we view and explore art. Artist now undertake research projects, view results in a new way, and use these results to evaluate the social implications. Today’s artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can imagine. This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It also opens up a number of challenges, choices, and decisions for artists

            The GigaPan is a piece of art that can only live on the computer. It cannot be displayed in a museum or over the mantel. To appreciate the beauty and creativity of the GigaPan you must see and interact with it online. This breaking edge technology of photograph mixed with the controls of the computer form to generate the largest projection of the world.

            First we need to fully understand the concept of the GigaPan. GigaPan is the newest development of the Global Connection Project, which aims to help us meet our neighbors across the globe, and learn about our planet itself. GigaPan will help bring distant communities and peoples together through images that have so much detail that they are, themselves, the objects of exploration, discovery and wonder. They believe that enabling people to explore, experience, and share each other's worlds can be a transforming experience.

            GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gig pixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gig pixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gig pixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas.

            The Gigapan process engages with the user in four steps. First you can search and explore all the panoramas that are available on the site. Exploring the scenes that others have posted and discovering what they found. The second step is to start creating your own content for the site. You will be included into the community of GigaPan. The third step is to create your own Gigapan creation. There are special GigaPan robotic cameras but apparently the use of a high-quality digital camera will do. The process is really taking hundreds of pictures and stitching them together to create one large image. The last step is to share your creation.

            While exploring the site I found one very interesting GigaPan. Created by Davis Bergman is a large photo of President Obama’s Inaugural Address. Bergman photo description is “I made this Gigapan image from the north press platform during President Obama's inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. It's made up of 220 images and the final image size is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 mega pixels.” This amazing picture gets more interesting when you and able to zoom in on any area of the picture and get a clear picture of the President speaking. You can zoom in and out of the picture and explore the details of the scene. Each artist can select a few zoomed in images that they would like the view to investigate. In this example, there is a picture of a man taking a picture of the president, or a picture of a man that looks like a version of Frankinstein. The pictures can entertain the viewer for hours, but also allows the viewer to discover the world though the GigaPan.

            All in all, the GigaPan is current example of hybrid art. These interesting picture allow the viewer to play with the image and see all the pieces of the art up close. The GigaPan truly allows the viewer and artist to explore the world and see the things that aren’t possible with the human eye or without the tool of the Internet.

Hacker, Crackers, and Open Source (Presentation)

The Hackers Work Ethic 

Summary:

• “The hacker finds programming intrinsically interesting, exiting, and joyous.”
• “Hackers program because programming challenges are intrinsic interest to them. Problems related to programming arouse curiosity in the hacker and make him eager to learn more.” 
• Hacker Life-style: “Hackers can do almost anything and be a hacker. You can be a hacker carpenter. It’s not necessarilty high tech. I think it has to do with craftsmanship and caring about what you’re doing.” 
• “Flesh-life”: Outside of their jobs they continue their joyfulness
• Example: riding naked on horseback 
• People once believed that technological advances would somehow make our lives less work centered. But in reality “work is, and will be for the foreseeable future, the nucleus of people’s life.” 
• Before the protestant ethics: 
• The answer to the purpose of life was Sunday
• Viewed work as punishment
• Believed that in Hell you had to complete useless work
• Protestant ethics: " It is an obligation which the individual is supposed to feel and does feel towards the content of his professional activity, no matter whether it appears on the surface as a utilization of his personal powers, or only of his material possessions.”
• Turned work into a blessing not a punishment
• Himenan believes that the hackers work ethics resembles more pre-protestant work ethic "hackers want to realize their passions, and they are ready to accept that the pursuit even of interesting tasks may not always be unmitigated bliss."
• Hackers realize that all of the job might not be joyful but it is necessary. Even though its not all perfect hacking is still their passion.  

May The Source Be With You

Summary:

• “We live in a world with ‘free’ content, and this freedom is not an imperfection.” Listening to music, watching movies, and telling jokes all without the permission of the directors.
• Monopolies are copyrighting for the sake of their own interest and not for the good of society. “Before the monopoly should be permitted, there must be reason to believe it will do some good-for society, and not just for a monopoly holders.” 
•  Lawrence Lessig’s believes that dated codes should be free to the public. While the public is able to freely view other sources it is illegally to access source codes.
• The Open Source Movement is comprised of individuals who believe that software should be produced altruistically. Is approach to software development allows anyone to obtain and modify open source codes. 
• Lessig is proposing that Congress creates an incentive for companies to donate their codes to conservancy, so that others can use the outdated codes to produce an updated version.
• “The consequence of this enclosure is a stifling of creativity and innovation.”  

Discussion

• Is using material created by other producers considered theft? 
• Do you agree with Lessig and the Open Source Movement?
• If hackers didn’t exist do you think that technology would be as advanced as it is today?

Websites that Change the Way We Communicate

Perez Hilton

Website:

http://perezhilton.com/

JStor:

http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf9/pdf/2008/SPH/01Sep08/34392078.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=34392078&S=R&D=ufh&EbscoContent=dGJyMNXb4kSep7E4zdnyOLCmr0iep7VSsqq4Sq6WxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGutk6uqbFQuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/fashion/29perez.html

Four Square:

Website:

http://foursquare.com/

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/technology/internet/19foursquare.html

Myspace:

Website:

http://www.myspace.com/

Business Week:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50/b3963001.htm

Mad Men illusion