Let’s drink wine!

Shall we have an end-of-semester drink after class next week? I think so. Do YOU think so?

Dear classmates!

Dearest classmates! Did anyone go to that Lonely Planet lecture a few weeks ago? I have class on Wednesday evenings, which always seems to be when events I want to go to are on…  I wanna know what it was like! Was there anything interesting? TELL ME PLEASE 🙂 XX

text/art/digital media

Back in the days when I spent most of my time on art, I particularly loved using text to combine the two things I loved most. The possibilities for text in art have long been explored by artists across all different styles and media, whether it’s as simple a relationship as illustration and story, or using the visual characteristics of the text to create images, or creating artist books, etc.

Sometimes the text is readable, sometimes obscured; sometimes it’s making a statement and sometimes it’s completely meaningless. Whether it’s playing on the visual appearance of the writing or the meaning conveyed by the words themselves, text and typography can be a really powerful way to add depth and intrigue to a piece of visual art.

Even though I sadly very rarely draw anymore, I still love seeing what other (real) artists are doing with text to play with these possibilities. And now there is a form of art called kinetic typography emerging- where video art uses moving text to emphasise, distort or embellish on the visual and audio effects.

free speech/ hate speech

I think I was Googling something rather pathetic like ‘why do men lie’ (which speaks volumes either about the men I foolishly fall in love with, or the pitiful level of desperation I’ve succumbed to) when I came across Dick Masterson’s Men are Better Than Women blog.

Now, I’m going on the assumption that this is meant to be ‘satire’ of some kind. Some more Googling has confirmed that Masterson is what is apparently known as a ‘troll’, meaning, according to Encyclopedia Dramatica:

any person who purposely causes controversy in a web community (by posting offensive and crude comments or provides advice) and disrupts shit for his own amusement to prove how extremely corrupt our society is.

Which doesn’t necessarily clarify whether or not he really believes what he’s saying, or if it’s some kind of twisted joke. But either way, it’s clear that his main goal is to piss people off.

Okay. So I really shouldn’t take the bait and get all angry about post titles such as Women Would Vote for Hitler and Every Woman is a Cheating Whore and Sexual Harassment: Deal With It.

I shouldn’t feed into his game by getting offended by policy statements such as:

Women are banned from MenAreBetterThanWomen.com not only because they’re annoying as fuck and the logical knots that I, Dick Masterson, tie around the million viper-like heads of feminism would make their fragile little heads explode — and get glitter and donkey shit all over the place; but women are also banned because they’re fascists.

Bret Easton Ellis on Twitter

I went to see Bret Easton Ellis on Friday night. As part of the lead up to the Writers’ Festival, he was being interviewed by Alan Brough about his new book, Imperial Bedrooms, at the Athaneum theatre. It was amazing, almost needless to say: ever since my first week of my undergrad degree when I was told by a creative writing tutor that I couldn’t be a writer unless I’d read American Psycho, Ellis has been one of my favourite writers of all time. And he was a brilliant interviewee- interesting, funny, talkative. But one thing that really struck me as a little odd (but interesting for this class), was that the conversation kept coming back to social media.

Self-diagnosis and cyberchondria

I know I shouldn’t self-diagnose, or use the internet for anything related to my health. I’ve given myself panic attacks over diseases I know I most likely don’t have, but that do vaguely match my symptoms. I know it’s not a good idea- but I still do it.

I’m not a hypochondriac exactly. Okay, well I am the sort of person who freaks out every time their period doesn’t start the second it’s due. The sort who always vaguely worries about freckles that might be skin cancer, about a nervous tremor that might mean Parkinson’s. And in an age where Uncle Google seems to have the answer to everything, it’s only natural that I’d turn to him with these paranoias too.

We <3 Apple

So, I have one of those shiny new iPhone 4 things. There seem to be two reactions when I tell people this. One is, ‘THAT’S SO COOL ISNT IT THE BEST THING EVER???’, and the other is, ‘Is it true that the reception cuts out when you put your hand on the side?’ Actually, I’ve experimented with that so-called ‘death grip’ a lot, and there seems to be no difference no matter where I hold it. Apparently this is more of a network problem, specifically, the US network AT & T. From my experience, I can assure you that Telstra has no such issues.

Now the iPhone 4 is sold out all across the company. Apple says there could be a three week delay for new orders as they struggle to keep up with the worldwide demand. Because as we’ve all noticed, people are going crazy over this thing. Crazy to the point of lining up for hours in the cold, wind and rain. And I feel a little guilty, because I just don’t care that much about it at all.