Artists: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know

The next series of posts will be questions around art, artists and morality. As you continue to study Art history, you'll quickly find that artists and writers are, as the poet Lord Byron was described, "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know." In other words, artists have a reputation for being unpredictable, mentally ill, and even violent. We've already talked about Bernini and Oskar Kokoschka, but you can add people like Caravaggio (murder), Kurt Cobain (drug addiction and suicide), Edgar Degas (anti-semitism), VIncent Van Gogh (ear-cutting) and the list goes on.

Also consider more recent developments to fashion Designer John Galliano and film director Roman Polanski.

It's a discussion that will springboard us into the next unit. Read the questions and submit your answer, once again, in the comments section of each question. I'd like to see everyone participate this time.

Art and Morality Question #1

Hypothetical situation: You race into a burning building to find: 1) the last copy (there are no photos, reproductions or digital copies left) of the Mona Lisa (or another great work of art you like better) and 2) an unconscious man. You can only rescue one. Which one do you rescue and why?

Art and Morality Question #2

Is Art necessary (to life, to society)? If so, why? If not, why not?

Art and Morality Question #3

Does an artist have the freedom to depict any subject matter? Is there subject matter that should be off-limits no matter what?

Art and Morality Question #4

How does an artist's personal life influence your opinion of his/her work? For example, would you view/buy or even like the art of a convicted murderer or rapist?

Art and Morality Question #5

Does an artist have a responsibility to use his or her art to improve society? Give an example of an irresponsible artist whose art harms our society and explain why.

What is Watson?

Many of you have probably been following the Jeopardy! competition amongst Ken Jennings (Jeopardy!'s longest-winning competitor), Brent Rutter (Jeopardy!'s highest-winning competitor) and Watson (a computer) that began on Monday. The epic battle of man vs. machine finished last night. Read this New York Times article to find out the results and get some backstory behind Watson.

Also, read this article for further connections.

Once you have read the articles, answer the questions below by posting in the comments section for each question.

We'll be taking a look at your answers on Friday.

Watson Question #1

With more sophisticated artificial intelligence programs, robots (and other virtual beings such as video game characters) are fast becoming more and more human in their behaviours. Do you think this is a positive or negative development? Why?

Please post your answers in the comments section.

Watson Question #2

Why do you think it was necessary for its developers to give Watson a human name? (Why not call it, for instance, Trivia-bot 3000?)

Post your answers in the comments section.

Watson Question #3

Watson just beat two Jeopardy! champions at Jeopardy! Does that make it smarter than them? Why or why not?

Post your answers in the comments section.

Watson Question #4

Still, all Watson is doing is recalling information--it's stating facts. What can a human being do (mentally) that Watson can't?

Post your answers in the comments section.

Watson Question #5

Ultimately, Watson is an extremely efficient answer-producing machine. That's what it makes: answers. Is Watson "competing" at Jeopardy! if it doesn't know if it wins or if it loses, if its wrong or if its right?

Post your answers in the comments section.

Sample Post #1 - Irina Werning's Back to the Future

Irina Werning's fascinating series of photographic portraits, "Back to the Future" gives an interesting example of defamiliarization. It's very conceptual--she photographed people by recreating the look and pose of their early childhood photographs--but there's a formal component as well. By painstakingly recreating the "look" of each photo, she's making us think about the ephemeral quality of time, memory and photography--how we hold on to our past and our past selves.



The juxtaposition of past and present also forces us to slow our gazes down and look at, in great detail, the features of each face, and how time has changed them. That's defamiliarization in a nutshell.

Welcome to Grade 12 Computer Art

This is the inaugural post for the 2011 Grade 12 Computer Art class. Please create your own Blogger blog (you'll need to create a Google account, or you can use one you already have). Once you have done that, link your blog to this blog by clicking "Follow". This will allow me to access your blog and mark it.

Remember that the internet can be a dangerous place. Do not give out personal information--your own or other people's--in your posts. Try to remain as anonymous as you can throughout this assignment.