Wednesday, April 27, 2011

ARTkive: Robotic, Erotic, Electric.... Google Translator Sings!

Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:23:07 -0700
From: Casey Chin
Subject: For Our Artkive
To: William Nericcio
Hello Professor Nericcio!

This is my first email to you this whole semester, so I'm kind of excited that I found something that reminded me of the course. I have an account on this blogging website called, Tumblr. I am not sure if you have heard of this before. But anyways, as I was searching on Tumblr, I came across this post:


http://caseychin.tumblr.com/post/4999762483/justincarlocruz-google-translate-singing-s-m

It is Rhianna's song "S&M" being "sung" by Google translator. This just reminded me of the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra. Well, I hope you enjoyed listening to this! Thank you for your time!

--Casey Chin
English 220 (Bender).

Myriam Gurba's INTRO Beats!

Of Insomnia, Psychology, Narcotics and More...

I was tossing and turning, couldn't sleep--probably nervous/excited about the Myriam Gurba visit in class later today.  So I thought I would write and thank the class for such a compelling, useful seminar last Monday--your contributions were 1st-rate, top-shelf, etc and I am in the debt of those of you who carefully prepared and contributed for sharing your views/ideas. I learned a lot about Dahlia Season Monday.

Thanks!

On another note, a very moving note from one of your peers came in to a GTA and myself that I wanted to share; it touches on themes covered Monday in class, but is interesting, useful, and revealing in other ways as well:

Hey ******! (And Professor) I just wanted to share a few things that I thought about both during class and after class, but didn't have the courage to say in front of my peers! I am also going to copy Professor Nericcio on this so he can see as well!

First, in large lecture, the subject of suicide had been brought up when discussing Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. Yesterday I was on a website "Stumbleupon" which takes you to different websites that are intriguing, weird, strange, absurd, and different. One of the things I came across was a forest in Japan called Aokigahara Forest, which is apparently the resting place for thousands of bodies. It says that so many people have committed suicide there that they now do annual sweeps of it to clean the bodies out. Pretty weird... Here are two different links to stories on it:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5rvm0r/www.cracked.com/article/181_the-6-creepiest-places-earth

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-19/world/suicide.forrest.japan_1_suicide-taro-aokigahara-forest?_s=PM:WORLD

Also, in small section we were talking about both the overmedication today's youth and misdiagnoses [associated with this pharmaceutical overload]. I have personal experience with this. I suffer from pretty bad anxiety, and am medicated for it to make it better, but at first multiple doctors kept telling both me and my parents that I had depression and were giving me medicine for that (which didn't help at all). The connection between the two that they saw was that the anxiety sometimes causes me to get really worked up and stressed out, so much that I get down on myself, which they thought was depression and didn't even acknowledge the anxiety portion. The depression medicine made me extremely bipolar, have fits in public (to the point where I would start crying all the time, in class in high school, in restaurants, and more). Eventually they figured it out and began treating me for anxiety, which has since helped a lot more.

I also deal with migraines and a sleeping disorder, and sometimes I do feel like I am being overmedicated. Between vitamins to help my brain activity and all the prescriptions, I take about ten to eleven pills a day, which sometimes feels like a whole lot, especially for a 19 year old girl. I often want to just stop taking them all, but I know they help reduce my symptoms and acutally do help me.

Finally, to sum up this long email, there is a song I heard a long time ago about that talks about medications in America. Some of the song is somewhat inappropriate, so I will only send the relevant lyrics and you can decide if you want to look up the rest! It is called "Underwear Goes Inside Your Pants" by Lazyboy.

Some key lyrics:

You know we have more prescription drugs now.
Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad.
I can't watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases.
Like: "Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?"
Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it.
Half the time I don't even know what the commercial is:
people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean.
I'm like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that?
That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy.

That is all! Have a great rest of your day/evening!

Yours,

*********



Here's a video of Lazyboy's song:

Monday, April 25, 2011

Robots Robots Robots...

a cool new tumblr site i just ran across.... hit the robot for more



Another Suggestion from Amy....

Subject: Kseniya Simonova's Sand Drawing, Ukraine's Got Talent
From: Amy Monzon          monzon.amy AT gmail.com
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:27:2
To: "Bnericci@mail.SDSU.edu" <bnericci AT mail DOT SDSU DOT edu

Performance art?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5bdMyOWLHg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Charlie Brown, Meet Gregor Samsa--or a funny thing happened to Peanuts when it ran into Kafka

From: Katrina Vangelas
Subject: Good Ol' Gregor Brown
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:52:39 -0700
To: William Nericcio

Hey Dr. Nericcio,
While procrastinating I found these comics and thought you would enjoy them http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/creative_writing/metamorphosis/gregor.html they are by R. Sikoryak.
See you tomorrow,


Katrina Vangelas. 





click to enlarge

Kafka, Re-visioned

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:54:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Erika Goeriz
Subject: Re: Extra Credit and New Artkive postings and a request....: ENGL220-CX-Spring2011
To: William Nericcio


Hi Professor,

I came across this eerie visual rendition of Metamorphosis. Thought I would share it!


Erika Goeriz



Our Robotic Erotic Electric Class is FULL of Talent

Here's a note from one of our talented robots that just came in...

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:00:05 -0700
Subject: In Response: SPO
From: Damian Luna
To: bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu

hi prof,

i wanted to show you a remix i mixed myself of a britney spears song
i mixed it with a dub step track which a genre stemming from electro house music.
its fully of electronic noises, bleeps, etc...
i thought it might flow well with the theme of our class

http://soundcloud.com/srfresco45/britneys-beautician



feel free to play it in monday before class :)

thank you

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Banksy-esque Street Art....

Another one of your colleagues just sent this in....

Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:10:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Katy Sirota
Subject: street art
To: William Nericcio

Professor Nericcio,

I was on the website "stumbleupon" and ironically stumbled upon Juxtapoz Magazine (which you suggested we view), and discovered street art from a French street artist, OaKoAk, who's work reminds me of Banksy. I know you'll enjoy.

hit the image for more...


Katy Sirota


ps: just for laughs http://betterbooktitles.com/post/1198458014/ghostworld

Kieslowski-Like Dance Performance from San Diego

One your rad-hip colleagues just zapped me this missive; be sure to check out the video:

Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:09:55 -0700
Subject:
From: amy monzon
To: bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu

Hi Prof!

I was watching some videos of a recent hip-hop dance competition and this video is of Mariel Martin and Keone Madrid dancing to "He Won't Go" by Adele. The dance community in san diego is just amazing, and i could probably send you endless videos of all sorts of dance pieces but i thought this particular video was fitting for class because we just finished watching La Double Vie de Véronique... and many of the elements in this number reminded me of the film and how we tend to discuss "the other self" and dopplegangers in class a lot. I thought the Mari and Keone did an amazing job (as they usual do) and I hope you enjoy it! :]

-amymichele.

Robotic, Erotic, Electric: ARTkive Gallery

more musical roboticism forwarded to us by our robotic chum, Dom Versoza...

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Preparing for STO | aka Michael Buchmiller



Opposite, a cover in honor this week's "reading"--the CD boxed set by the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (aka, Michael Buchmiller and the Robot)...

It is a striking project--one part "text," one part album, and one part performance, as we will see Wednesday when the Robot and the Mad Professor invade our classroom.

How to prepare? Think of the boxed-set of CDs as you would any other music your ears consume--but then, think of the project as a kind of "statement," an intervention, an indictment: does it have a goal? a target?   Is it a weapon? More pop cultural detritus... or something more.

I look forward to our discussion tomorrow--in a way, it is the culminating apex of our bizarre, semester-long experiment.

For those of you 'confused' by Buchmiller's "art," think of him as a techno Edward Gorey, an aural/musical Tim Burton, a 21st Century Edgar Allan Poe, with a sense of humor....

One other analogue for Buchmiller's twisted psyche?  Jared Hess, of Napoleon Dynamite fame; click below for more....

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Robotic, Erotic, Electric: ARTkive Gallery: Required Viewing Addition




Who is Sir Ken Robinson?

Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has worked with national governments in Europe and Asia, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, national and state education systems, non-profit organizations and some of the world's leading cultural organizations. In 2005 he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s Principal Voices. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts. He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the new global economies. His latest book, a New York Times Best Seller, ‘The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything’ (Penguin/Viking 2009) has been translated into twenty languages.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Robotic, Erotic, Electric: ARTkive Gallery: Ashley Morgan's Art


Your colleague Ashley Morgan has wicked talent and amazing eye; she prefers adapted self-portraits, many that place her within re-rendered masterworks (recall here both Magritte and Panter's use of parody); here's three of her canvases:




"C3PO Devouring his Father"; compare to Goya's here