The Audience and Myth of Entertainment           

      This chapter was one of the most interesting to me but also very difficult for me to understand. The way that ideas were presented to me was very chaotic. I didn’t like how It would describe an idea for a couple of sentences and then drastically next another concept. It was like I got too wrapped up in the author’s inner thought process that I wasn’t able to grasp as quickly as I would have liked about his concepts. But after reading certain sections over and over I started to interpret in my own ways what he was trying to explain.

The chapter opens up about how we perceive things in the new age such as “Nature” and “vision” and how language is the substitute of vision. By examining the reality that we are living in (Palo cybernetic age) Nature itself is now the solar system and our “ reality “ is the invisible environment of messages as stated in the reading. This statement sparked a question for me, if our reality is a construction of commercial media how much do we actually think for ourselves, or create things ourselves? Is anything really original?  Later on in the book it went in more depth about the concept of loosing our ability to progress-evolve. We are in its place trained to crave plot lines we already know the ending to. That also made me think again, is anything really “original?” Does everything come from something that we relate to in the protagonist character and feel their emotions?

As the importance of vision expands within the beginning statements of the text, art and its relationship to knowledge and experience develop. The author brings up about a man who is a philosopher, geologist, Paleontologist, and Jesuit by the name of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who coined the term “hominization” – the process by which the original protohuman stock becomes increasingly more human, realizing more of its possibilities. Alongside this term in mind, Youngblood looks down upon commercial cinema or television.  Entailing that it is not capable to inflate upon existing consciousness; it ratifies the current. Which made me wonder if we are just living in a repetitive media reality that we think is expanding but actually isn’t? He resolves the opening idea by stating that art is the essential instrument in the development of the aforementioned consciousness. To be quiet honest I had no idea what he meant there and wished he had elaborated a little more. What Youngblood is implying that commercial entertainment is not art? I feel that commercial entertainment is an art. Art just a painting on the wall or a sculpture its any creative medium that is used to interpret or being meaning to a subject; and commercial entertainment does so.

           

 A quote that stood out to me in the text was from Physicist P. W. Bridgman that said, “the true meaning of a term is found by observing what man does with it, not what he says about it”. I interpret this not just for what it is saying but also in reference to time as I read further into this section. I also truly understand what he means my this because as an artist- dancer you find the true meaning in the work by observing not just by what someone may say what a piece is about. You interpret your own understanding of the work and go from there.

 As for the last thing that caught my attention in the reading was P.W. Bridgman’s reference of the true meaning of a term and Toffler’s reference to time. I learned that time can be translated into so many different things including time sensitive. Durability does not allow one to relate to the present situation. In retrospect this concept comes in full circle, when thinking about popular art- commercial entertainment.  That art is fixed in time to appeal to an audience living in that moment. When you look at time era’s art is adjusted for the time period and media continues to be persuaded by the demands of society. As these concepts arise, Youngblood propose that everything must be redefined to understand the circumstances:

What is “creativity” when a computer asks itself an original question?What happens to our definition of "environment" when our video extensions bring us the reality of the solar system daily?

 What is “intelligence” when computers are a virtual extension of the brain?   And so on.   Also it made me wonder if we are in solar system that is ran solely by the perception of things that our just a fully extension of who we are? Is technology- media an extension of how we think?

            One of the last statements that stuck to me in the chapter that provoked much thought for me was about Commercial media.  The commercial media is very good at understanding how to trigger humans emotions in the most unique ways; Such as smoking commercials, food commercials etc.  Commercial media is good at triggering the five senses and persuading us into what ever the statement is, true or false. In contrast, Art provokes thoughts and feelings.  Where as useful information accelerates alteration. Superfluous information prevents alteration. In lieu of this if it becomes to redundant the information can become lost or become misinformation. In today’s society a lot of times I feel that media gives misinformation. They give some information but there is a sense of changed or re-altered information that becomes false.