Art speaks culture

See this art at the Crème de la Crème Show, Frisco Art Gallery, 8004 Dallas Pkwy, Frisco, TX 75034 Reception this Sunday Oct 23, 6:30pm

To get a take on a place in time, start with the art

What were they thinking?

Art is a star witness of culture through time.

The Ideas, values, struggles, grief, celebration, what was the human experience of the times. Technology was a part of it, primitive or advancing.

For all these, look to the art, official AND unauthorized. It talks.

For example…

Trajan’s Column

Trajan’s column was not the name of the emperor’s daily blog. It was more like a graphic novel wrapped around a tall pillar of stone.

Why? Because it was too much for an email and Rome had no internet access anyway.

The Story

It tells of the emperor’s great victories.

And….

It also speaks of his vanity and political standing, the skill levels of artisans and engineers using the technology available at the time. And the considerable labor devoted to such a structure for the sake of it. (the unauthorized story)

The Artist

Wikipedia lists the emperor Trajan as the builder. Somehow, I’m pretty sure he didn’t create the art work or chisel the stone all by himself. :-)

How about our culture right now?

What does the art of today say about our culture in this digital age?

Symbols?

Are there images or symbols of this digital culture that exist outside the glass?

Or is the entire record of this digital culture contained within a digital format?

Because, what if?

Asteroids or Armageddon

If something happens to the digital world - Will all cultural awareness go the way of those photos on that old laptop you broke? Or those Flash videos? Or you sister's old MySpace account?

Daleks, or Doomsday,…

Will it be Lost forever like when the ancient Library of Alexandria burned with no off-site mirroring or disaster recovery plan?

My dog ate the cloud

Dogs have been eating homework for centuries. One is said ro have swallowed an armada of space destroyers.

What the Fschwarz?

Throw the Future a Bone

Even the dinosaurs managed to leave pieces behind for us to chew on after that asteroid incident. God bless ‘em.

What do we leave for the future to remember us by?

A solid answer is sculpture

The Intertwine Zone

Submitted for your approval, a collection of ideas represented in a whimsical set of icons, with just enough narrative for a few anachronisms and misfit mashups might stand out - as they should.

Comical? Profound? Or perhaps just mildly amusing, depending on your point of view and whether your sense of humor has become twisted in the Tech Culture Intertwine Zone.

Tech culture series

This is one in a series on this topic that began with My Favorite Machine at Big Design 2011 in Dallas.

Making Art an Experience

Creating Collisions

These are intended to stir up memories of real experiences in the mind of the audience to make strong connections which are naturally fused with this present experience.

People are often inspired to share personal stories with each other about what they are experiencing. This becomes more than a piece art. It is an event,

Connect > Recall > Collide > Challenge

Really, it’s about people

To Build a Better UX

The social dynamics of these interactions are based on my many years studying and designing human- computer interactions in the business world. Art is my sandbox for further exploring the things i’ve observed that inspired me during my career of three decades in UX

Cool Nerds

Remember when cool was cool and nerds weren’t at all? Then suddenly one day without any warning whatsoever, nerds were cool. What? How did that happen? Well, I’m not certain exactly, but it did. And then Everybody wanted to be a nerd. Like me.

Sollid State Art

Here’s is piece of art that takes one small concrete step toward that goal. This six foot tall smart phone of steel speaks on the multiplicity of connections between technology and culture in this digital age

SKEUMORPHISM

It began with poking fun at Apple iconography emulating real objects. Objects mimicking screen icons was Irresistible.

Iconic Art & Artifacts

Each has its own story, almost in chronological order, like an ancient story carved in Trajan’s Column, which is quite a relief

Reality Check

At some point in the course of human events and the evolution of technology, actual outcomes should displace speculations

The future isn't the same

So here we are, one full generation into the digital age and what have we learned about technologies and culture that should replace those old fantasies about it?

It seems to me we are due for an update of our self awareness on these matters and this ought to be represented in the art as much as in every culture in every generation previously.

Meet George Jetson

Forget flying cars for the moment (and maybe self-driving cars too?)

The Jetsons nailed it on the future as much as anyone and probably better than most in terms of the cultural impact of technology.

Hanna Barbarra seemed to have a clearer view on future reality than anyone. It wouldn’t be the first time a cartoon had the edge on reality.

AI = Annoying Interaction

Nailed it

George Jetson's nemesis,

Intelligent robot shows up George Jetson's office. Its name is Uniblab. Not only is it threatening to replace George by appearing to outperform George, Uniblab tricks him into doing and sayings things that gets George fired on the spot.

AI, the Boss’s Favorite

The fact is, Uniblab is a poor performer exhibiting the worst tendencies possible in an employee. Yet the boss is so enamored with automaton that all these flaws are overlooked.

Tech gets a free pass

They got this one right. I’ve witnessed plenty of times when computers on the job made serious errors, lost data, wasted millions of dollars, and were forgiven without a flinch - All blunders that would be considered “career limiting” for a human.

The Jetsons on Telemedicine

This image was from an article about telemedicine for IT professionals. Do you think Hanna Barbara had any idea their cartoon might be used someday as a model of how such a system should work?

Jetsons demo TeleMed

Telemedicine was in its infancy. Then COVID happened and remote technologies suddenly became critically important. Dependency on these services remains strong post-COVID.

Who knew The Jetsons would be a best predicter of the future?

Humans are the moral crumple zone, taking the blame for failures of “smart technologies”.

The Enterpise Shuttle

The Shuttle Mamesake

In Star Trek the Enterprise and the Space Shuttle were two different vehicles. The Star trek shuttle or Shuttlecraft or was a smaller vehicle for traveling to and from a planet from space. - The same mission as the NASA Space Shuttle, the first named “Enterprise”.

USS Enterprise was the first NASA shuttle

Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour

Technology impacts culture

Technology impacts culture, sometimes according to plan. The genie keeps escaping and the world is never the same.

Culture directs and shapes technology.

Need and opportunity drive invention and discovery, sometimes according to plan.

The Intertwine

The chain of science and culture affecting one another is constant and deep.

It is a braided rope - A tangled web

This collection of icons is a cursory sweep across this rich topic.

A drive-by

The art piece

The Technology-Culture Interetwine

Material: Steel, concrete, aluminum, & stuff

This work is a mix of whimsical images with some serious overtones here and there. It’s but a small sampling of images on a vast topic.

For now, take it as a magnet for thoughts and conversation on this culture-tech intertwine and see all the interesting places it can go.

Thank you to:

Zoe, my art apprentice, a contributor to this art piece and a frequent consultant on numerous contemporary culture and technology topics,

Mary Belveal for ongoing support

VALA - The Visual Arts League of Allen

VAGF - Visual Arts Guild of Frisco

Frisco Arts Foundation

City of Frisco Public Art Board and staff

My Art fans and tech design network

Luigi and Slinky

Kudos to You

Wow, if you're still reading this ,you deserve some kind of a prize, I am grateful. I know there’s stuff on Netflix you could be watching or old Star Trek episodes on Me TV. I’ll leave you with my favorite little Twilight Zone video.

This art was recently featured in the Crème de la Crème Show

Frisco Art Gallery at The Discovery Center

8004 Dallas Pkwy, Frisco, TX 75034
Inside, next to the National Video Game Museum