Mp3’, Mp4s, Music that we come to love and share amongst our own loved ones have come under threat by anti piracy laws . Laws that remove the freedom to share artistic creations to one another with no capital gain other than our own of enjoyment. Companies like Itunes feed into this need to share and listen to these musical works by putting a price tag on a 6.6 – 10 megabyte song , Enforced because of the possibility of Money . In my paper I will be analyzing Episode 4 of Ways of Hearing “Money” By Damon Krukowski. He makes some very interesting points about how File sharing has changed the way we hear sounds and music and how money is a necessity for artists and musicians, but it seems to be more important to larger companies who simply profit off of these artist’s talents.

Have you ever thought that you had a great sense of time, that you can guess the time of day simply by how it looks outside? I thought did! Recently my concept of time has been called into question. Here’s a little back story about my life. I Work in a small Private animal Practice in New York City with no windows, it was raining all day and I stayed in and worked through my day. Hours upon hours have passed, and not once have I stepped out or checked the clock, all I knew was once the last patient is gone, I can go. So, after a crazy day, I checked out my final patient, I gather my things and I’m just glad to be on my way home. I step out my hospital and BAM its darkness. Whoa I must have worked till 8 pm today …makes sense not uncommon at all and it felt as if I worked for that amount of time. As I wondering I shuffle through my bag for my cell phone. Only to see it was 5:50..It’s weird that one can feel so sure about their own concept of time depending on what you are doing. You can feel like you have worked for only a set amount of time and as people we largely use how it looks outside to reference time .My cellphone gave me a reality check and I should probably use a alarm clock from now on because I clearly cannot rely my own assumptions of time.

P.S Another way Time will get all warped for all of us , Its Fall Back! Daylight Savings Time is over and its time to turn the clocks back one hour on November 3rd

When one thinks of modern images of wealth, a lot of the imagery comes from social media. Pictures of men and women posing in front of pools, decorated homes, extravagant vacation spots all dawned in beautiful outfits while they stop to capture this singular moment for all to see.

Very much how Berger’s discusses the Oil painting in art history. Berger’s claims that oil painting was made as displays of wealth and status. The painted men & women decorated in frills and lace, bountiful fruits upon banquet tables , animals and acres of lush land all show heavy significance of the commissioners act of displaying their wealth throughout their home for other to see and note the amount of wealth the owner of the painting has. Wealth that can be recreated in oil paint and purchased as if they own everything with the painting making them seem richer.

Paintings and photos alike created to the intention to flash their wealth and experiences, except now its faster and cheaper than ever to bring the illusion of wealth and in social media that’s all that is needed. A phone with camera, and a how to look rich on Instagram tutorial. So serious look it up and you can find all you need to make yourself the next wealthy digital socialite. I don’t believe we are any different from the time when we commissioned oil painting to show off to our riches. I just feel like now you don’t actually have to be rich.

Since I was a child, I have been raised to be modest, to not show “too much skin.” Skirts should not go passed your fingertips, and shirts must have sleeves or else “You would be a distraction”. A distraction to who? To Boys, To Men. Ironic since our most revered historical Paintings are almost entirely based upon nude women. Berger discusses the idea that nude oil paintings despite their beauty all stem around the male gaze showing the perception of women at that time period.

Women lounging about in her everyday life, posed ready in waiting with a longing seductive gaze toward the viewer who was meant to be presumably a man. Berger makes a distinction between nakedness and Nudity that might clarify this idea further “To Be Nude is to be seen as a work of art, to be Naked is to simply be without clothes.”  To summarize, Nude is intended to be seen as an object by a spectator, left to be judged. These Paintings were a representation of that era’s societal view against women.

Women of today are progressive; we have more rights and a voice. However, we still are battling to gain respect from the male gaze. Society still sexualize women ,some blatantly, some without realizing, making judgments from the clothes she chooses to wear, assuming the amount of clothing she wear equals the level of availability she has.

Women have been trying to fight against these ideals and one way this is being done is through Slut Walk. It is a March where women gather to raise awareness to society against blaming women’s clothing,professions and prior consensual relationships, as an excuse for sexual assault,and to effectively end rape culture. The attire worn is typical of what society deems too revealing such as exposed navels , low cut shirts , shorts , mini skirts , bras or pasties . Their minimal clothing is to combat the stereotype that women’s bodies and what they wear justifies the verbal physical sexual and societal abuse they would receive when wearing revealing clothing . What a person wears should not be a way to excuse the assaulter and blame the victim, and just cause you wear revealing clothes does not mean you should be thought of as less than a person.

ENG 101: Blog Post #1

In Berger’s first Episode of Ways of Seeing, he touches on the use of cameras use to convey a conversation with its user yet took away a sense of truth, originality and personality from paintings and potentially real life. This piece aired back in the 70’s, the height of color television. I felt that his ideas towards cameras and their use was justified. From Advertisements, television, movies, magazines, to the news. Cameras brought images from around the world to bring about a new way of living and communicating. Society has embraced it so much that, in present day we are still surrounded by its images. We use the combination of words and imagery to give us our most basic of information and state it as fact. This new format of communication is easy to understand, you watch, and the assistance of words, music and imagery builds the scene for you.

The news is broken down to a mere 60-minute segments on a click of a button. Yes, we are more well informed and understand so much more about the world and people around us but with this grand invention comes an invitation of grand misuse. The news reports brutality in poverty-stricken areas alongside the celebrity puff pieces, molding its unknowing viewers to feel on the edge. To feel the need to remain informed out of the fear as opposed to knowledge. I have been asked personally so many times “is the Bronx that scary?” “Is the Bronx as dangerous as they say it is?” they ask me these things because rather than show the positives of the Bronx they will show images of crime, murder, drug use, homelessness and death.

The evidence of its impact even shows on your Google searches.

What isn’t being shown is the community trying to help one another in the community centers, the important landmarks and beautiful parades and art that flow throughout the Bronx.

The news finds a way to amplify the bad in a community struggling to survive without sharing its accomplishments, because good news means less views. I felt this topic and the images of the Bronx was closely related to Berger’s opinions back in the 70’s because even though cameras helped the world learn about each other , the use of imagery can be used to manipulate its viewer negatively about the world.