Grock Insight

So as usual, my magnificent blogging ideas have sufficiently diminished since returning home from class because most of them have left my head already (which is sad so because I had such high hopes).

I guess the main points that stood out to me the most from class today, centralized around the concepts of insight, and grock. (My father always said I was comma happy, so do, not, mind, all, of, the comas, I use).  As I mentioned in class, it absolutely astonishes me how Vannevar Bush (p.s. sweet name…hold please I am going to go google the name meaning…rarrh! I can not find a name meaning behind Vannevar which makes me even more curious than my initial curiosity…I suppose I will come back to this later)  Anywayyyy back to where what I was talking about…How in this great vast world that we live on did Vannevar ( I will refer to him by his first name as opposed to his last name because his last name makes me think of our current president…boourns!).  WOW THIS IS SO TANGENTY AND MESSY….REMIX! 

In class today we discussed Vannevar Bush and his innovative insights that saw decades into the future for ideas for technological developments that would help us for the future.  Vannevar came up with a machine called a Memex (which has not yet been invented but is similar to our present day internet).  The purpose of the Memex would help solve the faults of human memory and how we get from place to place with ideas and information.  The Memex would be a solution for the flood of information in the world because it would record associations, and keep track of ideas.  My amazement is how someone writing in the 1940’s could have the insight to see enough into the future to think of something like that.  I mean, usually the furthest I think into the future is what I will be doing in the next 5 minutes.  It would be different if Vannevar thought of it during our internet era, because it would be less impressive, but he thought of it BEFORE the internet even existed. HOW DID HE KNOW!?! How could he predict so far into the future of the types of technology we would need?  This brings me to next concept of Grock. 

As defined by Dr. C., the term Grock refers to getting it all at once.  An intuitive grasp of something that allows you to fully understand it, like it hits you and you just get it.  It is hard to explain to others.  I suppose Vannevar experienced a moment of grock when he dreamed up the notion of the Memex (to me, a grock moment reminds me of a eureka moment where the little light bulb switches on over your head).  This grock concept has me worried because will I ever experience a moment of Grock?  Will I be able to make to make that “pole vault” leap that will allow me to have an idea click and allow me to run wild with it?  I like to think that I experience small moments of grock when coming up with ideas for art projects because once I get an idea into my head I just go nuts with it and I pursue it until it is completed.  My hope for this New Media class is that I will experience grock in relation to the project we have to choose to be presented at the class final.  As of now I feel rather helpless at the thought of coming up with a grand idea like Vannevar had.  I am not really familiar with much of the internet language (widget, rss, etc.) so I do not know how I would go about creating something using all of that internet stuff to make a website better or ahhhh I can’t even write what I am trying to say.  I like to think I am an imaginative and creative person but I just feel so stupid that I can’t think of an idea to do for the class project.

 For the project I would like to take influences from things I am passionate about/inspired by/interested in.  For me, this would have to be photography.  Tonight I was introduced to Flickr.  It would be interesting if I could make something in flickr but I don’t really know what that means and how would I do it?  The idea I have been brewing since the first class was to come up with some sort of online critique website (which could come in handy for virtual class rooms or online art courses) where you could combine concepts from SecondLife, and Flickr to have this place where artists could upload their work and have people comment on it with constructive criticism, or there could be a feature that allowed users to draw on the piece to help point out things they would change or do differently…not really such a great idea I guess because there is no way I could ever build something like that.  Hmm until next time, here are some photos from tonight.  CIAO!!

*Somone forgot their hair clip.  I have never seen a hair clip like this before.  It reminded me of a Cicada (you know those insects that make a ton of noise in the summer time)* 

*Mmm nothing like a well balanced meal of artificial preservative glucose crap!  I always feel bad about myself after I eat food like this*

*This could have been ours for the taking!  My brother realized the vending machine door wasn’t shut all the way so he opened it.  Inside we saw the temptations of “free” glorious snacks, and also there was a fat bag of quarters that we could have snagged, but being the upstanding citizens of society that we are, we closed the door without taking anything*