Contemporary Collaboration and a Sudden Need for Simultanious Critical Analysis

Several months ago I started using a Google classroom for my art students. Before starting the classroom I deciding to use the stream as a Q&A forum for critique and peer to peer feedback. Through experience doing similar collaboration with Google+ communities I found the open peer to peer sharing was really fueling work and creativity. I created a community for my post graduate level online courses in leadership last Spring as well and all of the students loved it.  We were able to get around several questions and help one another quickly in a easy to follow info posting stream.  

The collaboration and viewing of artwork intrigued me greatly though. This was profoundly different from a document and comment sharing community open for discussion on topics and ideas. We would be talking about digital images of artwork. NOT the actual artwork itself. This brought me to a key factor to address for the students. They should be aware that we are discussing the image of the work and not the actual work itself. I can only give feedback based on the photograph of the artwork as can any viewer. This is a limitation and a differentiation. This is exactly why all dual enrollment HS students and art school freshmen go why should anybody care about Mark Rothko and Frank Stella? They are looking at little bitty prints inside of a book surrounded by words that are supposed to somehow convey the living meaning and value of a painting that is enormous... 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide... for instance.  I have seen Rothko's and Stella's they absolutely stopped me in my tracks and took away my breath.  Rothko is much more spiritual and Stella is more industrial, yet they are monumentally astonishing in real life. Details cannot be conveyed through secondary means. This brought me to another debacle. Students like to use photo filters and other quick editing fixes to snaz up imagery. SO what I am critiquing takes on a double life. One as the drawing, painting etc. and another as the digital image of the work itself. Now I have to critique both. People, even my family have looked at me funny when I hold up flashcards for my children and they tell me it is a cow... I say no... It is an image of a cow :] It is crucial early in life to distinguish the difference between what is real... A cow in a field eating vs what is an image of something real. Movies, games television and magazines warp the minds of so many children and adults who live without a simple foundation of what is and what is just an image or a video. Videos are just series of images played in sequence. It takes some doing to get people to understand that concept as well. I suppose a whole lot of thought seeded out of the transition into online teaching and learning. Time seems to change but the principles of relevance stand strong. Rene Magritte said it a long time ago... "This is not a Pipe" or "ceci n'est pas pipe"

     

American Dream Part 1

In my elaborate imagination I came up with this video segment as a first part to to a theme that could continue evolving. 

Sony Products, software/hardware/etc.

I couldn't help but address a few things about Sony. The products I am most familiar with are video & audio editing programs. These are in my opinion outstanding! I have to add; in my opinion Sony could be one of the most competitive creative software companies running against Adobe & Corel. Sony programs are highend, high dollar, & high performance. The ones I have used Vegas Pro, SoundForge & Acid Pro have been the easiest as far as learning curve goes. They also are more streamlined and time efficient in regards to that. I can do some projects end to end with Sony in 1/3 or 1/2 the time they take on a Premier Pro & After Effects. In terms of competing with Photoshop, I have not used any Sony photography editing software, but I would like to test drive some.

Then there is the issue of cameras, file types, compression, and compatability. This is where Sony drops the ball. When I was at the national SPE conference in 2012 Sony had a booth there. I was toeing around the expo and overheard a fellow photog asking the Sony rep about a program that they could use to view AVCHD files on a Mac. He replied, "I'm  sorry but I don't know of any." I personally delt with that problem in 2008 when I purchased a Sony AVCHD video camera for a freelance job. My Mac had no idea what these files were. I called Sony and they were dead ended. I did some digging online and found a 3rd party software company in Australia that had created a converter. I don't recal the name offhand , but I purchased a license from them. Cool! Well sortof. Now I could convert to MPEG but the file size grew tremendously & conversion time was not flattering. As long as I kept shots short 1-3 minutes it went pretty well. Still I could not preview a file to make sure I was converting the right clip.... Major let down. Sony would only recommend Sony programs which only work on Windows & an emulator is more bs than it's worth so I lived with it & worked around it. Then years later...While looking for a file viewer I came across VLC media player. Woohoo it would allow me to preview AVCHD on my Mac. I recommend the free download to The fellow photog at the Sony booth & got into a brief chat with the rep. He made a note of the program & politely thanked me for my help.

Now that is out of the way. What about Sony computers? Everyone I touch I like!! So here is my suggestion to Sony: amazing cameras, amazing software, amazing computers.... So go ahead and create your own OS!!! Why not? Create a operating system for your computers that is performance & creativity based. Mac is falling into a fad of junk apps & slow your day down crap while windows required maintenance and leaves a lot to be desired in the high performance area. If Sony released a super fine ontegratable OS I would be very interested. Hopefully it could cut down the price of there software a little but none the less it could be huge. Could it run as a startup OS seperated in addition to your usual OSX, Win, or Lenox OS. Optimized for performance and editing alone. O my.. I get excited just thinking about something like that. No other programs running..slowing down your computer, and your progress, distracting you from your work. I suppose they could make a more general OS & only use it on Sony computers. This could also be amazing but could be much riskier than the before mentioned as a business move and investment. Either way I think Sony needs an OS all it's own.