Week 2 Lectorial

I’ve noticed that at the beginning of this blog, I had nothing on my mind.

I’ve also noticed that random things started to pop.

I noticed a nice Sportsgirl top that someone was wearing, my friend looking at his black Samsung while the other students worked on their laptops. I’m beginning to think if they are actually stressed out.

Rachel talked about the act of “noticing” in our lectorial today and explained that noticing allows us to learn, pick up ideas and the act of noticing itself inform future practices. We are encouraged to use it as a tool to learn and by consciously noticing whatever’s around you, we’re communicating with the media. Whether it is mediated or unmediated communication.

“Our lives are, to a more extensive degree than we care to think, infused with a process of inscription, producing printed or written traces..”

-Dorothy

What we were shown today, John Cage’s 4’33” (1952), has led to a heightened form of noticing.

Who is John Cage?

(1912-1992)

An influential composer

Why is he famous?

Because he composed a piece where a performer sits with a piano and performs a 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence…

and with his his idea of “There’s no such thing as silence”. His piece communicates the sound of his audience, the environment as well as the uncomfortability of confused/awkward audiences. He may have even communicated with his audiences through generating conversations in their brain while they sit in silence. A performance like this has led us to “notice” what’s with us.