Monday, September 10, 2012

Responses to class discussion of The Railway Journey and Ai Weiwei

From now on I am going to do these posts immediately after class because there is now way to recreate those thoughts as effectively if I write posts almost a week after our discussions. This is me battling with coming to terms with the new-to-me technology (sitting down and blogging!) that is undoubtedly a substantial part of the way our class is to run...I shall improve!!

As for my response to my question concerning Ai Weiwei (does all art have to be critical of something or can it be celebratory instead?), I appreciated what was discussed in class, particularly about the environment Ai Weiwei is functioning in (China). I had realized when I wrote this discussion question that his environment and the corrupt functions of the Chinese government are what drives Ai Weiwei to create the art he does, but it was great to get a more in depth look at how art functions from the pictures of Joe's travels to China as an artist.

As for our discussion of The Railway Journey, I appreciated most the question that Michelle had pitched: since industrialization, modernization, and technology have annihilated our sense of time and space, is there any way to get that sense of time and space back? and I agree with her, that there is a way to get this sense of space back...maybe not literally, but physically and spiritually. As quite a few people pointed out, they believed that the only way to regain this time and space would  be a large-scale disaster/Armageddon that would destroy all industrialization as we know it, and would revert us back to re-inventing the wheel....but I don't think that this is the point.

We can't take away all that has been developed and constructed, or our awareness of this modernization, but we can physically travel to places that are not completely man-made and industrialized...nature, or what remains of it. It is hard to imagine pure nature when we realize that most of our ventures into nature are alleviated or made possible by man-made amenities like trails or campgrounds, and especially the roads leading to these amenities...it almost seems impossible to fully escape and regain a sense of pure time and space. But, I think this desire to escape to nature is common and innate...if this desire didn't exist, people would not have the desire to go bike-touring, to go hiking, or to sleep under the stars instead of in their home. Although our habits, belongings, and knowledge of how to live in an industrialized society will come with us on these journeys, our perceptions of the world in the present moments of being away from industrialization will undoubtedly change and be affected...we will have a preference of what "world" we prefer...the natural (as natural as it can be) or the man-made.

So, can we regain a sense of time and space completely now that nearly everything seems to have been touched by some tinge of industrialization? Maybe not completely, for we as humans (in our westernized society) are industrialized as a result of our living in this time and space. But, it is our desire to revert to nature and to reconsider a world (a time and space) outside of our urban society that I think is essential. And I agree with Michelle, that everyone has to find a way to regain this sense for themselves.

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