Goodbye dear class

It's time to say goodbye, this would be my last post in this blog. Time passed very quickly, especially when we enjoy the moment, I still have in mind my first day in this class, eight weeks ago already. In June, when the weather was cloudy and cold ;p

This summer class in Vancouver offered me to find people from different backgrounds. This is what made this summer so special and interesting. I really enjoyed to share this class with you, classmates and a teacher who come from Canada, Japan, Korea, Thailand, China or United Arab Emirates. I wish I have more time to talk with you. I really enjoyed this summer, it was like vacation for me I must say.

At this time, I also have in mind the slogan of the last Harry Potter's film, which I watched here in Vancouver: "it all ends". Not really all in fact: I think we can still keep in mind good memories from these moments.
See you all, someday, somewhere!

London's riot and The destructors

      This riot in London, which lasted several days, with its scenes of anarchy, is a terrible event which is very discussed in Europe. It reminds me the riot we had in France few years ago, in 2006, when people from suburbs burnt cars and defied the police just for pleasure.

In my opinion, a parallel we can establish between this breaking news and the short story The destructors is that in both cases, bands have acted. Indeed, in London, like in France few years ago, most rioters were people from immigration, notably from Africa and North Africa, who are not very integrated in the English society. Consequently, some create a communitarian feeling: it’s their community against the laws, against the police, against in fact the official authority which doesn’t give them the life they dream about.

I think there is a social cause of this riot.

Also, it could be said that riot is just a kind of game for rioters, a competition between bands where badly the goal is to break, burn and steal everything. I’m not sure there is a real social message shared by everyone in this event, even if there is a social cause of this riot.

Like in The destructors, for most rioters, they did it for the “thrill” of destruction, because of the emulation. All the bands wanted to show they exist.

Also, like in the story, rioters issued from the same community feel solidarity for the other members. But this solidarity exists unfortunately to create chaos aimed at the other populations.

I think this riot shows us there are really social and migratory pressures in England which modify the society itself. It’s not simple to integrate everybody, notably when the country is faced with economic problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsRwwQJdKjE&feature=player_embedded 

August 9, 2011

Well, time flies, it's almost the end for me. I'll go back to Paris next week, where I should work hard to finish me degree. Here I appreciate the peaceful atmosphere, the relaxing nature, and the sunny weather of August. It's like a vacation, it doesn't last enought.
I have been glad to meet  my classmates, other students, other cultures here. I have spent a good summer, and at this moment I'm a little bit sad even if I know I still have 10 days. Time flies.

TED: Helen Fisher studies the brain in love

In this speech, Helen Fisher talks about his research about love. All around the world, in every society, people love. They express it by singing, writing, dancing, or building temple in the jungle of Guatemala.

However, love is not always a happy experience, especially people are rejected.

What happens in the brain when we are in love? When we are in love, we have an activity in the base of brain which produces dopamine. It's part of the reptilian core of the brain. Love becomes an obsession.

Also, love provokes an activity in other parts of the brain which calculate gains and losses. 

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2001 : A Space Odyssey - my interpretation

What a surprising film, isn’t it? The entire end, after the disjuncture of HAL, overwhelms the viewer with images and questions, without speech, without word. Does the last sequence have any sense?

I had already watched this Stanley Kubrick’s movie, only once. I was surprised and I didn’t know what to think because in my opinion 2001: A Space Odyssey cannot be fully interpreted without some knowledge on the intentions of the director, on the original book, or on philosophy, science. Of course, we catch it’s a story about evolution. But this is typically the kind of film which becomes more valuable after many visions, when we can explain and set up one accurate analysis, among others. So I can understand that some people are disconcerted by this film.

Nevertheless, Stanley Kubrick was a real genius of cinema, and was able to treat a difficult philosophic subject which could lose the audience on an attractive way.

 I like how he sets a real malaise and suspense about the artificial intelligence HAL. Each of the appearance of the black monolith is really mysterious and scary, notably due to this strident music employed. The transition from our ancestors to the space with the bone turning is really famous.

Technically specking also it must be said how impressive the special effects are, especially for this time. More than 40 years after, they are still astonishing. The care taken in design of the ship is also another quality of the film.

So now, what about the meaning?

In my opinion it’s a film about the evolution of mankind which can be decomposes in three parts: the dawn of man, the proximate future in the space, and the final trip.

The black monolith is a symbol of the knowledge: each time it leads to a new step for mankind. Through the music from Strauss, "Thus spoke Zarathustra" there is an obvious citation of Nietzsche. The German philosopher has established the philosophic concept of "superman", the goal for humanity, what we tend to become. So all the film questions in fact our evolution. The baby at the end is a kind of rebirth, the development of new humankind. We can see also, in one plan, a conception in the space: the pod being a spermatozoon coming to conceive this "infinite". After all, Kubrick often shows in his other films some sexual details.

Concerning HAL and its dysfunction, I think it shows that humankind shouldn’t always rely on technology, which can lead to his loss, and have to focus on his own condition.

   

I have more doubts about what the black monolith is: it may be an alien artifact coming from one more developed species. I wonder if it is just an artifact giving the knowledge or a complete species itself. By it, our ancestors learned to use a bone as a tool. At the end, it was through it that mankind evolves towards a new stage.

Also, what about the room at the end? I think it's a kind of prison, where mankind observes his last moments, before evolving. It's worth to notice we can see the black monolith inside the room as well.  

 But the end is not really clear. Stanley Kubrick left its meaning in the hands of the viewer. Even though we are not able to have a reflection about this end, we can anyway appreciate the film, because Stanley Kubrick has conducted it. That's why this film remains among the masterpieces of cinema. 

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Bill Reid Gallery

    The Bill Reid Gallery is the second museum I've visited in Vancouver, after the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), considered as the Vancouver's best museum. In the MOA, we find in fact several cultures, Asian artifacts for instance, but the exhibit of First Nations art is the principal attraction. The totem poles, the traditional houses outside and Bill Reid's sculpture Raven and the first Men worth the visit.

This Bill Reid Gallery has been the opportunity to go into detail, with commentaries from our teacher Nathan. The Gallery is relatively small, but it is enough for keeping the interest of one audience.

To be honest, before discovering First Nations art, I expected older artifacts, expressing and showing a long history. Instead of that, we find works dating from the 20th century. Quite recent.

Nevertheless, I finally appreciate the display and the variety of the work from Bill Reid: jewelry, sculpture or painting. We were talking about beauty in the precedent post, and actually I must say I appreciate and find beautiful the craftsmanship and the skilled art showing in this gallery.

I think we see also that his work is recent with some strange components: a pair of buttocks in the Raven and The First Men, or some fights on the Black canoe (with a creature licking the feet of another one). I think he had fun while working on spiritual subjects.

It was quite interesting, as usual I think with a discerning eye, the pleasure would be greater. I'm learning on it.

Summary of a "Darwinian theory of beauty" - speech from Denis Dutton

     In this speech entitled” A Darwinian theory of beauty” for the website TED, the philosophy professor Denis Dutton explains us what is regarded as the principal theory of beauty:  how the beauty is universal and actually set in our evolved human psychology, according to Charles Darwin.

To begin with, he reminds us that the experience of beauty is a complex subject, notably because it comes from a variety of things: human beings, natural landforms or work of art and skilled human actions.

For a lot of people, the beauty would be in the eye of the beholder, in other words it would be in the culturally-conditioned eye of the beholder. That’s mean there is no universal beauty, but different beauties depending on our culture.

Nevertheless, Denis Dutton explains us there is a universal, cross-cultural beauty: it is engraved in our mind, and is one component of our Darwinian adaptation.There are two mechanisms of adaptation.

The first one is the natural selection, that-is-to-say changes in our anatomy or psychology by mutation and selective retention in order to adapt and survive in our environment.

The second mechanism is the sexual selection. To illustrate this point, Denis Dutton takes the example of the peacock’s tail: it doesn’t exist for the natural survival, but it is beautiful for attracting peahens and mating. So it is a question of reproduction.

So, beauty we feel results from the evolution and is a meaning to encourage us to do the most adaptative decisions.

A beautiful landscape is a good illustration: people from all around the world tend to like a particular kind of landscape, similar to the Pleistocene savannas where we evolved. This kind of landscape is universally regarded as beautiful.

Then, Denis Dutton talks about the artistic beauty. Once again, he asserts the beauty is not cultural.

For example, the first shell necklaces have been found from around 100 000 years ago. Older than that, there are the Acheulian hand axes, not actually made for butchering animals. Their symmetry, their attractive materials, the meticulous workmanship are beautiful for our eyes. It comes to works of art.

This art indicates desirable personal qualities, desirable for the opposite sex.

We have today new ways to amaze and amuse people: movies, music, painting, dance. But it ramains that we find beautiful skilled performance.

We finally see that beauty is in our mind and comes from our most ancient ancestors.