Response to Related Media (Video and Texts)

The related videos shed a bright light on the ideas that we are utilizing for this project and I think viewing them was a great way to get into the correct mindset to go about creating this film. The way Jimmy Wales explained Wikipedia's operation makes it clear that with this large pool of people (the internet) it is possible to not only make great change, but also spark creativity. I think Wales' presentation would be a good response to the "Does the Internet Make you Dumber?" article. That was also interesting to me. The author of that article made it seem like 100% of internet users multi-task 100% of the time and therefore lose their ability to focus as their brains adapt to their new habits. While I can imagine that a lot of people spend a lot of time multi-tasking on the web, it seems like a hasty generalization to assume that this behavior is so prominent that it could lead to the decay of human knowledge and ultimately its demise. 

I think the "Does the Internet Make You Smarter?" article along with Michael Wesch's presentations show otherwise. Not only are we able to share and gather more information than ever before, but we are able to collaboratively use that information to make new ideas and have a global effect with them. The important thing to keep in mind, as we are doing with this project, are the vast capabilities that people now have to work together. It is obvious simply from our presentations that we gave last week that the internet can easily be used as an educational tool, in a collaborative effort. We are making it our goal to use this same mindset in a creative way. It is in that sense that I think these related texts and videos could be be utilized in this project. Another important thing to keep in mind after reading the "Two Reasons the Term Crowdsourcing Bugs Me" article is that we must always maintain our group effort to choose the best ideas and work together among ourselves and the people we use to gather the various parts of this project to make it the best it can be. Because as some of the articles pointed out, the internet contains a LOT of information but a lot of it is misinformation. In the same way, we could end up with some great creative ideas and some not-so-great ones. We must keep ourselves and those we interact with in check to make sure this becomes a good representation of what crowdsourcing can be. 

Constructing the Universe Readings. 9-8-13

What is most profound about the sacred geometry in regard to the numbers three and four is that they have been chosen to represent so many things in life and the universe because of the mathematical principles that make them unique. For example, it was particularly interesting to think of how profoundly unique the number three is because it is the only number whose preceding two numbers' sum are its equal (1+2=3). That is the only time that occurs in an infinite numerical sequence. It of course makes sense that this number would feel whole, complete. In the same way, the number four represents squareness (in the way that the rules of a game are 'fair') because 2+2=2x2. These mathematical principles a representative of the way the entire universe works. For everything, it can be said that there is a beginning, middle and end. Every event can be divided into three parts. It was particularly interesting to me to think of the various degrees to which completeness is represented by three, and how in many cases if an event, item, sequence or object is missing a part that gives an incomplete aesthetic, it is off putting or dissonant. Musically, the lack of a note in a triad chord makes it feel hollow, too thick or too thin. But with all three notes, it sounds "whole." In the same way, adding a note that is not a part of the original chord's structure changes its meaning, it does not send the same message.

The number 5. The significance of five is that it represents rebirth, or regeneration, and the correlation between the number five and the various fives that occur in nature is very interesting. What was particularly interesting to me is that in nature, many of the occurrences of 5 that were shown in the reading, for example, the inside of the apple with its five seeds, also create the shape of a star. The shape that these things take always seems to be proportional. It is interesting the way these ideas came about. It would seem that ancient cultures saw these patterns, for example the five seeds in an apple, and also saw the symmetrical dimensions and shapes they often form and because these things are the regenerating features of various aspects of life, whether it be the five seeds of an apple or the five "legs" or the startfish, they assigned the number five to be representative of rebirth or regeneration, which is then given a positive connotation, and therefore now represents, power, status, or goodness.