Lytro's Light Field Cameras

     The first of these new cameras are boasting the ability to adjust the focus of your photos after they've been taken. They're simple, compact and going to priced around 400 dollars and feature 8 to 16 gigabytes of storage or 350 to 750 photos.  The camera is able to adjust the focus post shooting because it captures the subjects entire light field in a proprietary file format. The pictures are not measured by megapixels instead by the number of rays of light recorded by the sensor called "megarays".  These models have 11 mega rays which is said to be approximately 22 megapixels. 

     But if you ask me the most exciting thing about this camera is that since it can focus at anytime there is no auto focus motor, which is the cause of that annoying shutter delay that's in every point and shoot on the market today. This means more open eyes and less tired mouths sustaining the word "cheeeeeeeessseeee."

Remixing, and keeping things fresh.

 
      After watching that documentary on remixing (RIP: A Remix Manifesto), I feel like the recording industry is heading in the right direction. (Wether they like it or not.)

      The internet is all about sharing information. It has regulated the recording industry where our governments have failed us. While less money is made from record sales, musicians are still making money from live performances and must be seeing an increase in ticket sales because of internet exposure. I think of the it as a giant tax break for everyone.

     Having said that this documentary is more about the creative commons license than anything else. In terms of sampling I agree with the documentary's view that ideas and works of art should be allowed to be remixed and appropriated for cultural reasons. I want to see culture evolve. I dont want someone to own the rights to it, allow it to get stale, and then sell it to me over and over.

     But what shocked me most was the potential negative impact of patents on drug medication. If Girl Talk doesn't get to use a couple samples I dont think people see the impact but if people are denied affordable health care because of copyright laws the problem becomes evident. This is where the documentary hits hard.

Animals

     Most of the art I enjoy and make focuses on some representation of animals. I'm not really sure why I find animals fascinating. It might be because we never really know what they are thinking or would like to say. Art can give them a funny voice, smart ideas, and strong feelings and bridge the lack of dialogue between humans and animals, at least in a fictional or fantastical way. Here is one of my pigeons with a top hat.

This pigeon to me, says "Hey kiddo" in a 50's New York accent. What is he saying to you?