Assignment 2

*reserved post*

Assignment 1: Discover the world of Leonardo da Vinci

Self painting of Leonardo da Vinci

During the Renaissance era in Europe, Leonardo da Vinci is considered as the important naturalist, scientist. humanist and also, an artist. Through all of his work he was able to approached scientific and artistic problems through a naturalistic, and skeptical perspectives.

His skills and abilities to elicit so much emotion with a few simple lines is almost unparalleled in the history of art. While people may realize that he as an important artist, though, they don't generally realize how important he was as an early skeptic, naturalist,materialist and scientific.

"Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large that which is small."

Leonardo da Vinci

Most of his artworks are seen to be religious. It is understandable since during his time, the biggest and richest institution was the Catholic Church.

Virgin of The Rocks, 1486

The Last Supper

As part of the renaissance era's artist, his art is not the religious medieval art. He emphasis more on humanity of human beings, using Christian types and mythology to convey secular, humanist ideas. The Christianity cannot be separated from his work, but neither can the humanism.

Da Vinci Code

It's movie time folks!

So last week's class, after lecture, we had a movie screening of Da Vinci Code. This movie was adapted from a movie written by Dan Brown, one of his best selling book. I would like to share the plot and summary of the movie taken from wikipedia.

The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard. The screenplay was written by Akiva Goldsman and based on Dan Brown's worldwide bestselling 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. It was produced by Howard with John Calley and Brian Grazer and released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on May 19, 2006. A man revealed to be Jacques Saunière is being pursued by a mysterious hooded character known as Silas (Paul Bettany) through the Grand Gallery in the Louvre in Paris. Silas demands the location of the Priory's clef de voûte or "keystone." Under threat of death, Saunière finally confesses the keystone is kept in the sacristy of Church of Saint-Sulpice, "beneath the Rose." Silas thanks him, and then shoots him in the stomach. Meanwhile, American symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who is in Paris as an AUP guest lecturer on symbols and the sacred feminine, is contacted by the French police, and summoned to the Louvre to view the crime scene. He discovers the dying Saunière has created an intricate display using black light ink and his own body and blood. Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) asks him for his interpretation of the puzzling scene. Silas calls a mysterious man known as "The Teacher", revealing that he has killed all four protectors of the keystone and that all confirmed the same location. He dons a metal cilice on his thigh and proceeds to flagellate himself with a whip for the sins of murder. Facilitated by Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, Silas then travels to Saint-Sulpice and is admitted by an elderly nun; left alone, he excavates beneath the floor of the church to find a stone saying only JOB 38:11. He confronts the nun, who quotes the passage: "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." Realizing that he has been deceived, Silas is enraged and kills the nun. Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a cryptologist with the French police, enters the Louvre as well and slips Langdon a message which leads him to the bathroom. There, Sophie meets him and tells him that he is being tracked, a GPS tracking dot has been (unknown by him) slipped into his jacket and that he is a primary suspect in the murder case because of a line of text found by the corpse ("P.S. find Robert Langdon"). Sophie however, believes that Saunière, who is revealed to be her grandfather, wanted to pass a hidden message on to her (Princesse Sophie, P.S., was the nickname he used for her), and that he had wanted to bring Langdon into the equation so that he could help her crack the code. Buying some time by throwing the tracking device into the back of a truck, the pair begin exploring the Louvre, finding more anagram messages that Saunière had left behind. Many of these relate to Leonardo da Vinci's art, and the pair find a key with a Fleur-de-lis behind Madonna of the Rocks. Langdon deduces from this that Saunière was a member of the Priory of Sion, a secret society associated with the Knights Templar. Pursued by the French police and cut off from the United States Embassy, the pair escape to the Bois de Boulogne where Langdon closely inspects the key. He notices an inscription on the side - an address. The address directs them to the Depository Bank of Zurich where the key is used for a safety deposit box. In the bank, they find Saunière's deposit box and open it using the 10 digit Fibonacci numbers in order (1123581321). Inside the box, they find a rosewood container, which contains a cryptex: a cylindrical container with five alphabetical dials which must be arranged in the correct sequence to spell out a 5-letter code word, in order to open and access the papyrus message inside. Using force to open the cryptex would break a vial of vinegar inside, which would dissolve the papyrus and destroy the message. Unfortunately, the police are called by a security guard and they are forced to leave. The bank manager, Andre Vernet, assists them in escaping by taking them as passengers in an armoured van to escape the routine checks of the police. In the back of the truck Langdon and Neveu have a lengthy discussion about the cryptex and Neveu says that her grandfather often played games with her involving cryptexes. Langdon says that the cryptex might hold valuable information or another clue about what they are trying to discover. Eventually, they come to a sudden stop and Vernet forces them at gunpoint to give him the cryptex. Langdon tricks Vernet and disarms him and he and Sophie escape with the cryptex in their hands. Langdon suggests that they visit his friend, Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen), for assistance to opening the cryptex. Leigh Teabing turns out to be an enthusiastic seeker of the Holy Grail, which he believes is not actually a cup but instead Mary Magdalene. Mary was pregnant at the time of Christ's crucifixion, and Teabing tells Sophie that the Priory of Sion was formed to protect the descendants of Jesus. Jacques Saunière was believed to be a part of this society and Teabing suspects that he was training Sophie to join it also. Silas, meanwhile, breaks into Teabing's mansion and attempts to steal the cryptex. Teabing uses his cane to knock Silas out and they escape again, taking the butler, Remy Jean, and Silas with them. The group escapes in Teabing's plane, following the next clue to London. Fache learns of their destination, and alerts the London Metropolitan Police to apprehend them at the airport. But Teabing manages to slip the party past the police with a trick of misdirection. The small pyramid beneath the Inverse Glass Pyramid removed from underneath, revealing that there is no chamber as shown in the film's closing scene. Teabing leads Langdon and Neveu to the Temple Church in London, which is shown to be a red herring. Silas is freed by Remy Jean, who is revealed to be a follower of The Teacher as well. The two take Teabing hostage, and Silas, believing Remy to be The Teacher, holes up in an Opus Dei safehouse. Remy is killed by the mysterious man after deceiving Silas. Silas is attacked by the police and, in the ensuing gunfire, accidentally shoots Bishop Manuel Aringarosa. In his grief, Silas dies in police-assisted suicide and Aringarosa is taken to the hospital, as well as being arrested by Fache for using him to chase Langdon. Langdon is betrayed by Teabing, who is revealed to be the true Teacher. He escapes with the Cryptex, and attempts to find the next clue at Isaac Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey, as Newton was another member of the Priory. Langdon and Neveau catch up with him, and chase him into the nearby chapter house. Teabing explained that he wanted to find Mary Magdalene's remains to prove he was correct about the Holy Grail and threatens to shoot Sophie if Langdon does not open the cryptex. Langdon responds by throwing the cryptex into the air. Teabing catches, but fumbles it, and it hits the ground, shattering the internal vial of vinegar. Teabing becomes distraught, as he believes the vinegar has destroyed the papyrus within the still intact cryptex. After Teabing is arrested, it is revealed that Langdon had cracked the code ('Apple', a reference to Newton) and removed the clue from the cryptex before throwing it. Using the clue, they travel to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland where Magdalene's remains had previously been hidden. The remains had since been moved, but they meet other members of the secret organization that protected her. It is revealed that Sophie is actually Magdalene's descendant and therefore is the current living descendant of Jesus Christ. They vow to keep her safe. Langdon and Sophie part ways shortly after. Back in Paris, Langdon accidentally cuts himself while shaving and the line of blood on the sink reminds him of the Rose Line. He follows the Rose Line and finds the location of the Holy Grail, buried under the pyramid in the Louvre. Langdon then kneels above Mary Magdalene's tomb as the Knights Templar did before him.

Sorry for the long summary. To conclude that all, this movie was about a murder investigation that led to a study of fine art and secret society that was founded during the medieval era, until they found of the existence of Jesus Christ's descendants.

Now what do I think about this movie?

After the screening, we had a sharing session among the entire 7 attendees, including our lecturer, Mdm.Forest. I thought the movie was a mockery to the entire Christianity saying that Jesus Christ was actually married to Mary Magdalene, and had a children which what is said to be in this movie as the Holy Grail, which is what they were looking for during the entire investigation, and also part of the murder motive.

Also, at the same time, it is interesting. The fact that the movie was using Leonardo da Vinci's art, painting and creation as the key and clue to solve the murder case was creative. Who would've thought that his painting, The Last Supper, till now creates arguments and studies of what was Leonardo trying to convey in this painting. Some said that Leonardo was in fact telling that Jesus Christ did however married Mary Magdalene, which sparks out the questions among the conspiracy theorists.

I bet not.

The Last Supper

Art Workshop by Mr.Kotaro

Last week we had a workshop hosted by Kotaro Tanaka, from Japan. He showed us some of his experimental photos of what he called the "unseen world".

Technical adjustments before the he started to talk.

In this photo, he was saying that it was actually a photography art but taken into a different way, at first I thought it was a painting.

One of sample pictures he showed us he described as "unseen world".

Couldn't snap other photos, phone was at low battery. Gotta save some to make some calls that time.

Mr.Kotaro was a very soft spoken person at that moment, so most of the time during the talk, I honestly couldn't catch what he was talking about (he didn't speak that much, maybe it was the language difficulties he had). I was able to concentrate on the pictures he showed us and understood what he tried to tell us.

So after he finished present us the slides, we moved on to our next activity, which we had to go outside and take pictures with our cameras of our own interpretation of "unseen word" and at the same time given an hour break. So we went outside, took a couple of shots of photos. I took a picture of sky with clouds.

This picture was taken at Cyberia apartment. My interpretation of unseen world, is beyond that blue sky shaded with clouds. What I exactly explained during the sharing session was that, beyond the sky is a huge space that is yet to be thoroughly traveled by us human with our current technology. We do not know yet whether we are the only living species in the entire space. We have urban legends and evidence saying that our sky is often traveled by UFOs or what we supposed to call as aliens.

So to conclude this post, I think it was a very informative workshop session. All of us were able to share our ideas of what we call as unseen world. Mr.Kotaro should be credited for trying his best to stand up on his own without a translator to share his knowledge of digital art and photography! :)

Petrosains Trip

-reserved post-

What is Media Art Technology?

Media Art Technology for me includes art that is created through technology, or an art that has been manipulated by the current technology that has been known to us for example, a still photography that has been photoshopped, a digital art that was drawn from scratch using digital illustration softwares, interactive applications created using computers softwares with scriptings and codings, installation arts that is merged with hardwares and arts, videos, fims, music, sound, and etc.

Our lives by majority is surrounded by media ; our mobile phones now can read e-books, listen to songs and watch videos, some of us have laptop carried in our bags, those stuff are high techs compared to the days when people don't have portable phones and desktops. As for me, I couldn't live without a desktop or my mobile phones, it's a pain in the neck.

Media technology do gives us an impact in our daily lives. Through a portable laptop or a PC tablet alone we have all the access into every single information that we want to look into. For me, I do use my desktop to play games, but also as an art student, I also do need it to do my work, mainly to create a digital art or my favourite, Flash Applications, or rather, a piece of media art technology. I could create a digital art only by using complicated lines of Actionscript 2.0 & 3.0.

mindmap.jpg

The Journey Begins..

Hello and welcome to my blog journal for Media Art Technology subject. This blog covers the journal that has required me to write the whole process of the class. Hopefully this will be a good start.