The Art of Origami

                                                           

Origami

 

 

 

 

      

 

 

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside of Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since evolved into a modern art form. The goal of this art is to transform a flat sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques, and as such the use of cuts or glue are not considered to be origami. Paper cutting and gluing is usually considered kirigami.

The number of basic origami folds is small, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The best known origami model is probably the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints. Traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (1603–1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper or using nonsquare shapes to start with.

Dance

 Runaway

Kanye West has pushed past the art of touching multiple genres in his music. He has strived to create his own with controversial lyrics, dance in his videos, and subject matter.

In Runaway the dinner scene represents Kanye’s relationship with the hip-hop industry and audience. Here, he attempts to revive his art by reintroducing himself after a long hiatus, as he brings the Phoenix to dinner with him. The Phoenix, as a manifestation of his music, looks different than everyone else (the ballet dancers) at the table.

Once dinner is served, the Phoenix begins to panic, because she is shocked that everyone at the table has no problem eating one of her kind. This represents the cannibalistic nature of hip-hop and the industry. An art form that once had a set of rules is now indifferent to commercialization and has no problem eating itself.

This music video is a perfect illustration at how the form of dance can be used to move a culture, represent a message, and show the flexibility that it has.

Cinema

                   INCEPTION (click here)

A thief who steals corporate secrets through use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.

The best two camera shots are in the rotating hallway and during the epic snow mobile chase, the use of long, medium and close shots where key to making Nolan's (Producer) inception movie a visual thriller.  He also uses bridging and lighting in the tilting bar scene. But the hallway scene has to be one of my favorite camera shot along with the bursting environment and slow down of time affect.

Despite unprecedented use of computer-generated special effects in this film, virtually every scene was either a real place, or based on a real place.

I personally enjoyed the movie because it was so multi-dimensional. The movie really made you think, and it kept building. Also, it was very suspenseful and action filled with a grandiose film score.

Below I have copied an original size screen shot of a virtual world that was created by one of the architect students in the movie which allowed the architect to manipulate the environment in any fashion. Here she is taught to fold a city street on top of the street she is standing on, causing a mirrored affect above them. 

Highly recommended movie  

The Iliad 

The story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege; the earlier events, such as the gathering of warriors for the siege, the cause of the war, and related concerns tend to appear near the beginning. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles' looming death and the sack of Troy, prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly, so that when it reaches an end, the poem has told a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War

In Book I

It is the year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age. Two emerging nations begin to clash after Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband, Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles, the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans. But they come to a stop by Hector, Prince of Troy. The whole movie shows their battle struggles and the foreshadowing of fate in this remake by Wolfgang Petersen of Homer's "The Iliad."

Music

OUTKAST

Arguably growing from an increased impatience with progress toward equality among black Americans in the 1990's and a resulting militancy and rage, rap music focused on ideas of violence, anger, and aggression and featured half-spoken lyrics and strong, complex rhythms.

MS. JACKSON (click link)

B.O.B. (click link)

HEY YA! (Click link)

Outkast is an American hip hop duo formed in 1992, in East Point, Atlanta, Georgia, composed of Atlanta-based rappers André "André 3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton.

Sound, Pitch Dynamics, Tone color, Beat, Rhythm and Harmony are just the beginning of what makes Outkast music popular and influential.  In the early 90's Outkast influenced music in a unique way. Although rap was looked at as violent and aggressive in the late 80's early 90's, Outkast took their aggression and turned it into a funky, pop, genre that touched all age groups and demographics.  

As OutKast deepened the sophistication of its frequently life-affirming lyrics and broadened its musical eclecticism, it never lost its unique sense of humour. The group’s image also became a signature, especially the increasingly flamboyant wardrobe of Dré (renamed André 3000), and their theatricality and stylish music videos became OutKast hallmarks.

In short... Outkast was music I grew up with and continue to listen to because of their wide range.

Architecture

PEROT MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE

STRUCTURES Identified 
- Cantilever
- concrete
- Line, Repetition, and Balance
-  Steel
- Scale Proportion

Architect Thom Mayne, is famous for breaking the mold, and his latest building is no exception. Sheathed in panels of textured concrete, it consists of a five-story cube, fractured at one corner and set atop a sweeping plinth planted with Texas grasses. Slashed across the cube’s exterior is a dramatic glass-enclosed escalator, which whisks visitors to the top-floor entrance to the exhibits.

The building features a 54-foot continuous flow escalator housed within a 150-foot glass casing that extends diagonally outside the building cube. To maximize sustainability, the building also features LED lighting, off-grid energy generation technology and solar-powered water heating. Skylights were installed to draw natural sunlight to the atrium and to the other spaces

Discobolus

This marble statue is one of several copies of a lost bronze original of the fifth century BC which was attributed to the sculptor Myron (flourished about 470-440 BC). The head on this figure has been wrongly restored, and should be turned to look towards the discus. The popularity of the sculpture in antiquity was no doubt due to its representation of the athletic ideal. Discus-throwing was the first element in the pentathlon, and while pentathletes were in some ways considered inferior to those athletes who excelled at a particular sport, their physical appearance was much admired. This was because no one particular set of muscles was over-developed, with the result that their proportions were harmonious.

A number of ancient discuses of either marble or metal, and of various weights, survive. Little is known of the distances achieved in antiquity, though an epigram celebrating a throw of 30 metres (95 feet) comes as a surprise in the modern world, where the current world record is just over 70 metres.