tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35169667198853748832024-03-05T01:57:31.324-08:00New HorizonsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-30358578958078378622012-06-13T19:43:00.003-07:002012-06-13T19:46:49.168-07:00Never say never...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMneIPzOPOcXP0WTnfNZMhyphenhyphenPAFJJ1Nw6-KJyfjV0XlHpsaE0c87nVSCCUzVzdnXa0ydkZjtzjjm4ux0zmTo0pCflF0yQQnH7FrFYjDm5Y-fisl8C4BAHg91tahZIv3BX4QhcT82IhWfk/s1600/webinar-big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMneIPzOPOcXP0WTnfNZMhyphenhyphenPAFJJ1Nw6-KJyfjV0XlHpsaE0c87nVSCCUzVzdnXa0ydkZjtzjjm4ux0zmTo0pCflF0yQQnH7FrFYjDm5Y-fisl8C4BAHg91tahZIv3BX4QhcT82IhWfk/s320/webinar-big.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I was wrong again. I didn't think it would really work. I thought there would be like three people at our end-of-the-term webinar. And digital media proved me wrong again.<br />
<br />
I am constantly amazed by the power of digital media in connecting people of similar interests and creating a habitat wherein they can share their ideas and collaborate. It was so neat to hear everyone's ideas today, to respond to their questions, and to feel their excitement. It really was enlightening and refreshing. There is nothing in a traditional research paper that compares with the feeling that I had when the webinar was over-- that feeling of "just a minute more" or of "is it really the end?" I've loved the journey. I've found new light and new inspiration in the vitality of the internet, and I don't ever want to go back. Really, I've discovered so much about myself and about the creative process, and now, my task is to go forward and implement all the things that we've been learning. This is kind of a short post, but I'll end it now in just saying how great a blessing the webinar was for me. It is the defiant "I can" in the midst of a sea of uncertainty, and it will be something that I look back to for years to come as I embark on my quest of digital discovery over the rest of my life. So glad to have been able to take part.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-84612216526210874622012-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:002012-06-12T08:50:01.722-07:00The Fountainhead of Human Creativity<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyNArQaaiF2-vdrNG3pazsZPs8DYdo9AHucViRtx7rPnQwZKkPc5gl_UqSutfAqsypBrBuFdvUrx1VlPWyo9vYC-SvfB_HkSspYDfw456Rc0kdhdPPm5BFvQ01i0KmCx4jYfhrtSLDDMQ/s1600/Fountainhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyNArQaaiF2-vdrNG3pazsZPs8DYdo9AHucViRtx7rPnQwZKkPc5gl_UqSutfAqsypBrBuFdvUrx1VlPWyo9vYC-SvfB_HkSspYDfw456Rc0kdhdPPm5BFvQ01i0KmCx4jYfhrtSLDDMQ/s400/Fountainhead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 200%;">I'll be working to integrate more of the primary work into my analysis, but for now, this is the final draft of the research paper that I wrote for my digital literacy class.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><b>The
Fountainhead of Human Creativity</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> From
the very genesis of recorded history, mankind has sought to create,
to bring his thoughts into reality and to leave his indelible mark
upon the world around him. For some civilizations, that has meant
erecting massive monuments to gods and men; others preserved their
ideas and culture through literature– within epics and songs and
the tales of the past. In the modern, globalized era, however, the
rules of creativity are changing. Especially over the last few
decades, the desire to create has taken on new forms as the Internet
and other digital media resources have made accessible the realms of
thought and creativity for the world as a whole. Ayn Rand, in her
landmark novel, <i>The
Fountainhead</i>,
investigates the concept of creativity, championing the individual
creative ideal and warning against the collectivization of creative
thought. Rand died years before the invention of the Internet and a
great many other modern digital resources, yet her commentary on
creativity and thought abide today as a lasting monument to the human
spirit of creativity. A thoughtful study of digital media through the
lens of Ayn Rand's <i>The
Fountainhead </i>clearly
reveals the value of independent creativity and unveils digital
media's role in providing a new and living medium through which
creative thought may find expression.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The
value of digital media in the creative process has been debated often
in academic spheres, and there yet remains a dichotomy between those
advocating collectivism and those of an individualist
persuasion. Doctors Kylie Peppler and Maria Solomou of Indiana
University, in their study of creativity through online, social
learning spheres, propose that creativity manifests itself as a
broad, “socially determined process.” Peppler, in commenting on a
blog post by the author, states, “Creativity is really about
learning more about what has been done and posing something new from
your unique vantage point...” While social interaction certainly
plays a role in the formation of an individual creator's ideas, this
concept of collective creativity represents a false paradigm and
discords sharply with the individualistic ideas presented in Rand's
work. Creative progress finds its footings in the efforts of
individuals rather than those of a collective and unified body. Each
individual creative endeavor represents the labors and strivings of a
single person or a small group of individuals, and collaborative
projects are simply the summation of these individual efforts
(Shoshana Milgram Knapp, personal communication, May 25, 2012). Many
modern scholars, like Alan Kirby of Oxford University, have spoken
out sharply against the idea of collective creativity, stating that
globalization and the development of social media have caused much of
modern 'creativity' to become “unreal, trite, vapid, conformist,
consumerist, meaningless and brainless.” Others have taken a
different approach in their denunciation of the ideal of joint
creativity. William Thomas, for example, a Randian scholar associated
with the Atlas Society, proposes that while more interaction is
possible through the medium of the Internet, creativity itself is
actually isolated and individualized as part of the process (personal
communication, June 2, 2012). The value of creativity as a whole,
then, rests in the potential of individuals to create and innovate.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Ayn
Rand's ideological foundation finds its abode within this
individualistic realm of thought. In <i>The
Fountainhead</i>,
Rand presents the oppositional creative ideologies of Howard Roark
and Peter Keating and in so doing provides a contrast that leads the
reader to a fuller understanding of the value of individual thought
and creation. Expelled from his architectural academy for
non-adherence to classical forms and styles, Roark embodies the
independent fire of creativity and innovation. As such, he remains,
throughout the novel, an entity unto himself– a brilliant and
unapologetic creator. Keating, on the other hand, relinquishes his
innate sense of creativity in exchange for social acceptance,
rehashing the same antiquated styles and passing off Roark's
brilliant designs for his own when a real bit of innovation is
necessary. These oppositional, almost one-dimensional characters can
be related to two extremes within the online world: while a great
many employ digital media to create and innovate, others use it
simply to recycle existing memes and ideas, passing them off as their
own in the pursuit of the ever-elusive “Likes” and +1's (Fand
488). Steven Mallory, a lesser character in <i>The
Fountainhead</i>,
recognizes at one point the fallen state of those who embrace this
latter, attention-hungry and hollow creative ideal, stating that in
following after it they “kill some part of themselves. They change,
they deny, they contradict–and they call it growth. At the end
there’s nothing left, nothing unrevered or unbetrayed; as if there
had never been any entity, only a succession of adjectives fading in
and out on an unformed mass” (452). Rand's contrast is too
polarized, too black-and-white to represent the span and production
of creativity, yet her argument holds true: a person may, by virtue
of his own integrity and dedication, come to discover his creative
identity and make a gift to humanity through the works that he brings
to life (Young). If, as author Joyce Carol Oates writes, art
constitutes “a genuinely transcendental function—a means by which
we rise out of limited, parochial states of mind,” a person, though
perhaps inspired by the creators whom he emulates, will not be able
to fully discover his creative potential until he steps beyond his
safeguards of second-hand creativity.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Scholars
of digital literacy sometimes receive this idea of personal
aspiration and discovery in creation as foolishness, painting the
independent creator as a creature of the past, a dying breed. Others,
like James Montmarquet, a Randian scholar from Tennessee State
University, conversely declare the need to reclaim the independent
creative ideal. In his article, “Prometheus: Rand's Epic of
Creation,” Montmarquet describes the state of the so-called
'Promethean creator' as that of an “endangered species,” a being
that because of the pressures of conformity and orthodoxy placed upon
him, trembles on the brink of extinction. Digital media, however,
offers a new promise and a haven for the creative self, granting
access to a rich habitat wherein the independent creator can develop
his ideas and grow in his ability to convey meaning through creation.
Recent years have seen the genesis of new forms of expression and
renewed courage to create as the Internet has injected life into a
dying ideal. If, in fact, there remains a hope for the Promethean or
Roarkian creator, if there is to be new life for the independent
creative ideal, then it courses through the veins of digital media.
Indeed, the Internet, in rekindling the dying embers of creativity
and original thought, has become a veritable fountainhead of creative
expression, a well of living water to quench creation's thirst.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">In
order to truly draw from the well of creativity that is the Internet
and other digital media resources, the student of digital literacy
must come to understand the potentialities of the medium. For Howard
Roark, granite was not <i>just
</i>granite.
It was a medium and a muse, a block from which could be hewn great,
triumphant walls or delicate, airy sculptures. He viewed the terrain,
the resources, the space not as mere materials but rather as a sort
of language of expression; armed with this perspective, he sought to
incorporate into his work the integrity of each of these elements.
For the modern creator, the Internet is the new and living medium
through which creativity finds expression. Digital media frees people
from the limiting confines of their immediate environs and opens the
way to a world unknown and almost magical in its possibilities. Roark
remarked, “I thought of the potentialities of our modern world. The
new materials, the means, the chances to take and use. There are so
many products of man's genius around us today. There are such great
possibilities” (E-book 466). Indeed, in coming to more fully
understand the role of digital media in the creative process, one
realizes its potential in providing a dynamic mode of expression for
creators.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The
digital world supplies creators with a means whereby to discover and
share their creative ideas. Joseph Tabenkin, for example, a young and
aspiring musician and Rand enthusiast, uses Youtube and other social
media sites to promote his band's music. He has used his experiences
with social media to begin a professional career in music. Audrey
Mereu, another Youtube user, shared her thoughts on <i>The
Fountainhead </i>in
an online book review, a process which played a distinct role in her
coming to understand her own individual ideals (personal
communication, 14 May 2012). In some sense, digital media can serve,
as did <i>The
Fountainhead </i>for
Mereu, as a tool in the self-actualization of creators. Some find
their voice in making and posting videos online; others take up
blogging and uncover a new bourne of expression and thought. Yet
others discover a sense of wonder and imagination in online photo
galleries and 3D environments. T<span style="background-color: white;">he
world of digital media, however, is not just a filing cabinet,
apathetic towards its contents and unconcerned with whom contributes
or what they have to say but is rather a living, breathing organism
that expands and adapts and finds life in the contributions of
millions and millions of independent creators from all around the
world. The call of the creator, then, is to express, however
clumsily, the yearnings and trepidations of the human soul, to
capture in words or music or images an emotion, a thought, a
realization. Indeed, it is in the summation of these independent acts
of creation– these words, these images– that the Internet truly
finds its soul.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">As
a creative medium, the Internet and other digital media resources
serve as both a source of inspiration and a means whereby creativity
can be shared. Creative expression itself represents only a small
portion of the creative process, and as such, the Internet holds
inestimable value in its potential to expose creators to new ideas
and to contribute to the formation of their respective creative
identities (Wallas). With humanity's collective knowledge and
experience available at the click of a mouse button, creators, now
more than ever, can find inspiration in the muses of modern media.
Emily Coleman, a student studying digital literacy at Brigham Young
University, echoed this sentiment, stating, “there are countless
people who never would have dreamed of creating anything except that
they saw someone else do it... [T]he Internet is a source of
inspiration, if not the actual creativity itself.” Digital media
resources do not, in themselves, <i>cause
</i>people
to become more or less creative. There is, for example, no magical
link that upon clicking makes people suddenly burst forth in song or
pen a line that captures the enigma of the human soul. Nor does there
exist a website that instantly drains a person of all sense of
creative vision and compels him to post pictures of cats with
misspelled subtitles. Rather, the Internet gives mankind the ability
to enact his creative visions by providing access to both the
resources and audiences necessary to realize his specific creative
endeavors. James Montmarquet commented, “Machines will be common to
a free and an unfree society,” to one fed by or starved of
creation's lifeblood (personal communication, May 25, 2012). “If,
then, a difference emerges... it must be something that an
individual, or perhaps collection of individuals do, by way of using
the machines for creative purposes.” For individuals and
collectives alike, these machines, these new media, serve as vehicles
along the road of creative progress and discovery.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Some
have argued that the Internet and, more particularly, social media
actually detract from the creative spirit, founding their argument
upon the 'rehash and recycle' culture that has evolved on social
media sites like Myspace and Facebook. The Internet, however, is not
at conflict with creativity. Rather, it serves as a medium, like
stone or paint, that can be used to bring life to an idea or an
emotion (Sorenson). One Facebook user, Stella Knickerson, expressed
her thoughts on the matter, stating, "New technologies have no
power to change who people are at the core. If you could somehow
objectively measure pure 'creativity,' I don't think the internet
would change what's inside of people" (personal communication,
May 22, 2012). Indeed, the modern creator must look to his inner
creative vision in determining how he will make use of digital
media's potential, as did Howard Roark:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">He
looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He
looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a
streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground.
To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky... These rocks,
he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and
my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn; waiting for
the shape my hands will give them (4).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Digital
culture has spawned a variety of forms of new media that creators and
innovators are able to harness in developing and sharing their ideas.
Recent years, for example have seen the birth of Minecraft, an online
'block world' wherein players extract virtual resource blocks to
construct any imaginable virtual object. One Minecraft user
captivated Rand enthusiasts in crafting a true-to-form, block replica
of Atlas, the namesake of Rand's paramount work, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>.
This and other similar re-adaptations to new media formats are
broadening the scope of creativity and expanding digital society's
ability to experience ideas through various forms of art and
expression. The point in utilizing digital media, though, is not so
much about novelty for the sake of novelty as it is about both
recognizing the things that digital media can do for creativity and
learning to make maximum use of these advantages (Fand 489). As Adam
Sorenson, a student of digital literacy, stated, “[T]he creator
takes the spark that is already there and uses digital media as one
of his mediums, just as an architect uses many different materials.
The person already has the creative spark, but... digital media
allows them to amplify that spark and disseminate its effects across
the world."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">To
a certain extent, the use of digital media itself represents a
departure from the doldrums of conformity and creative stagnation.
The way of the modern philosopher, of the thinker, of the dreamer, of
the revolutionary lies not in arcane tomes in forgotten libraries but
in the living, breathing atmosphere of the now, in the coursing,
pulsating vitality of modern media, of innovation, of change. In <i>The
Fountainhead</i>,
Ayn Rand proclaims the value of individual creation, encouraging her
readers to break away from stale and unfeeling orthodoxy in deference
to personal vision; she invites the reader to deny the structured
arbitrariness of conventional form and thought in favor of authentic
innovation, presenting the reader with the character of Howard Roark
as a far-off, creative ideal, a goal to which man might aspire. Algis
Valiuenas, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, carried
on this idea:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.98in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">These
great figures are meant to inspire readers to go out and do likewise.
When an unnamed young man with sublime but indefinite longings sees a
summer resort designed by Howard Roark, he feels a strength that will
sustain him in his ambition to realize his vision, whatever that may
be. “Don't work for my happiness, my brothers – show me yours –
show me that it is possible – show me your achievement – and the
knowledge will give me the courage for mine.” Rand wants to send
tremors of possibility through her readership (62).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Go
and do – Rand's message to all creators. Ultimately, creativity is
a manifestation of the human soul and intellect, and the Internet
acts as a facilitator of that creativity, a vehicle through which the
creator can infuse personality and soul into his work. The ideas of
others will, of course, inspire and shape a creator's ideas, but each
creator must find within himself and within the world about him–
within the sea of digital media and whatever is to follow– the
courage, integrity, and confidence to go forward with his labors and
bring the spark of creation to the world.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Works
Cited</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Coleman,
Emily. “Re: At One with our Creative Ideal: Paper-in-a-Post.” </span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">New
Horizons. </span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;">30
May, 2012. Online. 30 May, 2012.
</span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Fand,
Roxanne J. "Reading the Fountainhead: The Missing Self in Ayn
Rand's Ethical Individualism." <i>College English </i>2009:
486-505. Print.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Hickey,
Alan. “Pseduo-Modernism: the Conformity of the Collective.”
<i>Bravely Becoming a Part of the New World. </i>May 29, 2012<i>.</i>Online.
3 June, 2012.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Hunt,
Lester H. "Thus Spake Howard Roark: Nietzschean Ideas in the
Fountainhead." Philosophy and Literature 2006: 79-101. Print.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Kirby,
Alan. “The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond.” <i>Philosophy Now
</i>2006. Online.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Mereu,
Audrey. “Book Review: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.” <i>Youtube</i>.
June 28, 2011. Online. 7 May, 2012.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Montmarquet,
James. "Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation." <i>Journal
of Ayn Rand Studies </i>2011: 3-18. Print.1 May, 2012</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Peppler,
Kylie A. and Solomou, Maria. "Building Creativity: Collaborative
Learning and Creativity in Social Media Environments." On the
Horizon 2011: 13-23. Print.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Powell,
Robert L. "Ayn Rand's Heroes: Between and Beyond Good and Evil."
2007. Print.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Rand,
Ayn. <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1943.
E-book.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">---.<i>The
Fountainhead</i>. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1943. Print.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Rand,
Ayn. Dir. Henry Blanke. Perf. Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond
Massey. <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video,
2006. DVD.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Sorenson,
Adam. “Re: At One with our Creative Ideal: Paper-in-a-Post.” </span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">New
Horizons. </span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;">30
May 2012. Online. 30 May,
2012.</span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Tabenkin,
Joseph. “What For ft. Barry Quinn - Joseph and The Familiar
Strangers.” <i>Youtube. </i>1 May 2012. Online. 7 May, 2012</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Valiunas,
Algis. "Who Needs Ayn Rand?". Commentary 2005: 59-62.
Print. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Wallas,
Graham. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
of Thought. </i></span></span><span style="color: black;">Oxford:
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926. Print.</span>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Young,
Cathy. “Ayn Rand at 100.” <i>Reason</i>. Reason Mag. , March
2005. Online. 22 May, 2012.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-21008481607629556472012-06-11T12:06:00.002-07:002012-06-11T12:06:25.964-07:00Learning Outcomes Revisited<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've been thinking about the different learning outcomes that we had as our goals for my digital literacy class, and it has me reflecting back on all the different things that I've been doing this semester to try to meet them.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<ul class="outcomeContainer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; list-style: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1.5em 2em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 19px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="outcomesTitle" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Learn and Follow the BYU-Idaho Learning Model</span></span><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9659134368412197" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: medium; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1) Prepare</span></span></b></blockquote>
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<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">-I've done my best to be ready for discussion in each class period, and I've worked at making sure that I complete assignments on time. I've learned a lot not only from the things that we've covered in class but also from independent study. I studied <i>Amusing Ourselves to Death</i> and read pretty much anything that I stumbled upon that had to do with blogging and digital media, and I've worked to not just do what was required.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9659134368412197" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Teach One Another</span></span></b></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">-I've been consistent about contributing constructively to other classmates' work and have tried to post numerous comments on everyone's work throughout the semester. I contributed research materials and ideas to my cohort members and others throughout the research process. In terms of my own research and learning, I have shared my research with as many people as possible, as evidenced by the almost 1,200 blog views that I've gotten over the course of the term. I've shared things that I've learned in class with friends, roommates, my mom, and others, and I have advocated blogging to a number of writers that are working on getting their works published.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9659134368412197" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Ponder and Prove</span></span></b></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">-I've tried to make digital media a major part of my life, especially over the course of the term. I've thought a lot about the implications of digital media and tried to use digital media in new ways (E-books rather than regular books, Google hangouts instead of regular get-togethers, collaborative work through GoogleDocs). I have tried to embrace digital media in multiple forms in creating <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/binary-art.html" target="_blank">2D art based on the premise of binary art</a>, creating a <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/fountainhead-integrity-of-innovation.html" target="_blank">video blog</a>, composing and <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-my-feet-wet.html" target="_blank">recording a song to Youtube</a>, experimenting with various programs and engines (Wordle, Icerocket, Twitter, GoAnimate, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Prezi), creating <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/fountainhead-wordles.html" target="_blank">Wordles</a> (and <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/family-proclamation-to-world.html" target="_blank">for various purposes</a>) and <a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KveWRqcsNyC" target="_blank">GoAnimate videos</a>, creating "<a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/TMVPdiTrymP" target="_blank">Samemes</a>," and in my blogging, I've really tried to put as much of myself out there as possible.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="outcomesTitle" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Write Substantially and Publicly About Literature</span></span><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my writing, I've tried to address not just my class or my friends but the world as a whole. I've drawn from a number of academic and non-academic </span><a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-promethius-to-nietzsche-research.html" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">sources</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in my writing, and I've done my best to engage people from all spheres of influence through Facebook posts, Google+ updates and links, sharing of my developing research ideas, requesting feedback from scholars and enthusiasts through direct email contact, posting questions on Twitter accounts/groups, </span><a href="http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/medivhs-tower-411/internet-ethic-creation-216607/" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">posting questions on online forums</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and sharing my writing with family and friends through my blog</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I have made numerous invitations to scholars to comment on my work, as I did in this letter to Dr. Kylie Peppler, a professor involved in digital studies:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 19px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Dr. Peppler,</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I'm a student at Brigham Young University, and I have been studying Ayn Rand's </span><i style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">The Fountainhead </i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">as part of an independent research project for a class on digital literacy. I recently stumbled upon your article, "Building creativity: collaborative learning and creativity in social media environments," and I was really intrigued by the things that you had to say there as pertaining to creativity and collaborative creation. It's something that I've been looking into specifically with Rand's 'ethic of creation' as a sort of lens through which to view the digital media culture. I wrote a blog post today about Quest Atlantis on my research blog, </span><a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #1155cc; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" target="_blank">http://baylesgreg-<wbr></wbr>eng295.blogspot.com/</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">, and I would love to hear some more of your thoughts as to how digital media stifles and/or stimulates creativity and in which direction I might be able to go with my research. Thank you so much for your time.</span><br />Sincerely,<br /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Greg Bayles</span> </span></blockquote>
<div style="line-height: 19px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I wrote similar letters to the authors of every article that I read in my initial stages of research with the exception of one, whose email address I wasn't able to track down. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I </span><a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/06/reworking-creativity.html" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">ended up revamping my research topic</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/at-one-with-our-creative-ideal-paper-in.html" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">a number of times</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to make it more substantial and more engaging (more controversial, in some regard) so that it would be something that people actually cared about, and I shared that process through my blogging. I wrote mass emails to everyone in my contacts lists online asking them to read my blog and respond, and I got back lots of responses from friends and family (as well as a few from unexpected visitors!).</span></span></div>
</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="outcomesTitle" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Develop Research Skills</span></span><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: medium; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I used a number of different traditional and non-traditional resources in researching my topic. I went to the HBLL and looked on the shelves for pertinent books, and when I wasn't able to find any, I found a librarian who just so happened to be a Rand fanatic. She suggested some good books for me to check out. I used a number of academic search engines through BYU's subscriptions, and I contacted the authors of articles that I found to dig deeper into the topics that they address in their writing. Here's another instance of a successful scholar contact:</span></span></b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">
<b style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: medium; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></b><br />
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">
<b style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: medium; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr. Montmarquet,</span></span></b></div>
<b style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: medium; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">
I'm a student at Brigham Young University, and I have been studying digital literacy through the lens of Ayn Rand's <i>The Fountainhead </i>as part of an independent research project for a class on writing (digital) literary criticism. I recently stumbled upon your article, <span style="line-height: 20px;">"Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation,"</span> and I was really intrigued by the things that you had to say there as pertaining to the demise of the ideal of the 'Promethain creator.' This is something that I've been looking into specifically as I've sought to understand better the ethic of creativity and the ways in which digital media stimulate and facilitate creativity. I feel that the internet is a great enabler of creativity and is, in some sense, rekindling the dying fire of creativity. The rules of creativity are changing, and the digital media, it seems, is at the heart of this, especially in matters of collaborative work. I am still very much so in the first phases of research, so I've been posting some of my findings and thoughts on my research blog, <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://baylesgreg-<wbr></wbr>eng295.blogspot.com/</a>; I wondered, though, if you might be willing to share some of your thoughts as to how the internet has changed the creative process. Is the role of the great modern creators still more so individualistic, or is creativity becoming predominantly a social, collaborative process? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I hope to hear from you soon.</div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">
<div>
Sincerely,</div>
<div>
Greg Bayles</div>
</div>
</span></span></b></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I began my searches in social media, searching through Google+ and finding communities of online Objectivists. I found an <a href="http://www.theatlasphere.com/" target="_blank">Objectivist dating service</a> in addition to tons of people talking about Objectivist ideas, especially with regard to politics and economic philosophy. I found an enthusiast named Patrick, or rather, <a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/ggkjwvXXJZs" target="_blank">he found me</a> when I posted a <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-need-to-talk.html" target="_blank">shout-out to Objectivists</a>. YouTube yielded <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/wvirginiaboy?feature=g-all-f" target="_blank">another</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9O5RJSTwa8&feature=plcp" target="_blank">few </a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Nhk-3C5TY&list=UU7Uzi9BePz8Qz1cSgAY0wJQ&index=10&feature=plcp" target="_blank">enthusiasts</a>, two of whom responded through YouTube message services. Facebook yielded similar finds, among them an enthusiast whom I contacted on accident and whom I asked to write a guest blog:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 19px;">
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Robert,</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 19px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">So sorry if I caught you off guard. I was looking for some way to contact Dr. Powell, and when your name popped up on Facebook with references to Objectivism and Ayn Rand, I thought to myself, "How many Robert Powells can there be that are posting about Rand?" Apparently the answer is more than one.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">I really like what you said as to the role of the creator and the implications of digital media. It's amazing even to think that we, two seemingly random strangers, are able to carry on a conversation through digital means. It is, in some regards, a miracle.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">This is maybe a shot in the dark, but would you be at all interested in contributing content to my research blog? I've been thinking of having a guest enthusiast blogger talk about his/her experience with Rand's literature and his/her thoughts about creativity and the internet, and I really like the direction of your ideas. Don't feel pressured or anything, but if that'd be something that you'd like to do, I could set it up, and I'd be really glad to hear some more of your thoughts. In any case, though, thanks again for your response. Have a great day!</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">-Greg</span></span>
</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent;">He agreed, but I haven't heard back from him in a little bit now. Not really sure what happened, but he hasn't been active on Facebook since we last talked, so we'll hopefully hear back from him and get things going again. I used Twitter and found a bunch of people, also talking primarily about politics or economics, and I asked questions there in Objectivist groups to try to get people talking about creativity and digital media. I posted on an <a href="http://so%20sorry%20if%20i%20caught%20you%20off%20guard.%20i%20was%20looking%20for%20some%20way%20to%20contact%20dr.%20powell%2C%20and%20when%20your%20name%20popped%20up%20on%20facebook%20with%20references%20to%20objectivism%20and%20ayn%20rand%2C%20i%20thought%20to%20myself%2C%20%22how%20many%20robert%20powells%20can%20there%20be%20that%20are%20posting%20about%20rand/?%22%20Apparently%20the%20answer%20is%20more%20than%20one.%20%20I%20really%20like%20what%20you%20said%20as%20to%20the%20role%20of%20the%20creator%20and%20the%20implications%20of%20digital%20media.%20It's%20amazing%20even%20to%20think%20that%20we,%20two%20seemingly%20random%20strangers,%20are%20able%20to%20carry%20on%20a%20conversation%20through%20digital%20means.%20It%20is,%20in%20some%20regards,%20a%20miracle.%20%20This%20is%20maybe%20a%20shot%20in%20the%20dark,%20but%20would%20you%20be%20at%20all%20interested%20in%20contributing%20content%20to%20my%20research%20blog?%20I've%20been%20thinking%20of%20having%20a%20guest%20enthusiast%20blogger%20talk%20about%20his/her%20experience%20with%20Rand's%20literature%20and%20his/her%20thoughts%20about%20creativity%20and%20the%20internet,%20and%20I%20really%20like%20the%20direction%20of%20your%20ideas.%20Don't%20feel%20pressured%20or%20anything,%20but%20if%20that'd%20be%20something%20that%20you'd%20like%20to%20do,%20I%20could%20set%20it%20up,%20and%20I'd%20be%20really%20glad%20to%20hear%20some%20more%20of%20your%20thoughts.%20In%20any%20case,%20though,%20thanks%20again%20for%20your%20response.%20Have%20a%20great%20day!%20%20-Greg" target="_blank">old video game forum that I used to frequent</a> to see if I could get any response there, and that yielded some interesting opinions.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My research extended as much as possible into real person-to-person interaction as well. I talked with as many people as I could about my research topic to hear their ideas, and I even managed to set up a face-to-face interview with a Rand enthusiast here at BYU! I sent lots and lots of emails to scholars and enthusiasts and actually had pretty good response rates. I got back responses of some sort from five different scholars, three of which responded more than once over the course of my research. For non-scholarly contacts, I got the most feedback from friends and family members, who actually contributed pretty regularly.</span></span><br /> <br /><b style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">4. Perfect Ideas Socially</b> ,
<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;">5. Gain Digital Literacy, and </span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;">6. Address Changes to Literary Study</span><br />The last three learning outcomes, I think, are covered pretty well in my responses to the first three, but I'll reiterate and add a couple of things. As I've mentioned above, my research focus changed a lot over the course of my study of digital media through The Fountainhead. I began with the intention of covering the topic of the power of one in bringing about chance, as augmented by digital media. I then changed my focus to the Randian virtue of self in creation, which, based on feedback from classmates especially, eventually evolved into the self-actualization of the individual creator through digital media. Then evolved into the power of the individual creator but with emphasis on how digital social environments influence and contribute to individual creation. <br />I've already listed a bunch of things that, I think, manifest that I have grown in digital literacy, but some resources that I haven't mentioned yet are Diigo and Evernote, both of which I began using as part of the class. I also got a re-introduction into RefWorks, which is a really valuable citation resource. I've been active and open about expressing my thoughts as to digital literacy and how literacy is changing as a result of modern technology, and the process of researching and blogging has really helped me to become knowledgeable about the topics on a first-person basis.</li>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-2263142917946294772012-06-09T01:35:00.002-07:002012-06-09T01:35:24.996-07:00Coming to a Close...It was kind of a bittersweet moment meeting with Dr. Burton and my research group today to discuss our papers. We've worked really hard on our research over the past 6 weeks, and it's been almost the sole focus of everything we've been doing for at least the last month, so it's weird thinking that it's all pretty much over. I've really enjoyed the research process, though it is a lot higher-stress than traditional research. I felt really pressured by time and by other people's ideas throughout the process, and that kind of wore away some of my patience little by little.<br />
<br />
I have been thinking a lot about why we did all this-- why we recorded our research experience through blogging, why after a month and a half of digital media our professor asked us to go back and write a traditional research paper, why it's been important to get social proof and all that. I had a tough time getting into the digital age, and I've had an even tougher time trying to get out of that mindset for my research paper (it's been difficult to drop the I's, me's, we's, etc.). I think that was really the point, though. We've talked so much about how much digital media can add to a research project, and we've experienced the freedom of blogging (and the joy of social response). I think, in the end, Dr. Burton doesn't want us to ever go back to 'just another research paper' again. And honestly, I don't want to go back either. We've learned to see the life and the reality and the importance of digital media in the learning process, and now, we're going to be cast back into a sea of educators and students who are oblivious to the experiences that we've had, people that will tell us that traditional methodology is the only way to go. Well, this isn't the end of it for me.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
I've been really trying to figure out classes and stuff for this coming summer term, and I've been at a bit of a loss as to what I should do. I decided in the end that I would take just one class and then work as usual over at the chem stockroom, and that would give me some time to recuperate from the last year's worth of courses. Anyway, I had thought of taking the online course, as it's like $200 dollars cheaper, but then I saw that my class was being taught by the head of the digital humanities department and would have a focus similar to that of my current class. I have felt for a while that the things that I've been learning in that class are things that will be necessary for me later in life, and I felt really strongly that the on-campus course was the one that I needed to take, even if it was going to cost me an extra two hundred dollars beyond what I would already be paying for my course.<br />
<br />
I think maybe the thing that I love most about the whole process is just the humanity in it all. You feel, when you are on the Internet or researching through social media, that your creation has a life, a meaning. You feel that other people actually care about it, and you're ready to share your ideas with the masses. That's what social proof is all about, though. In the end, it makes you feel legit because of all the things that you've worked toward.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-10250407346932515582012-06-08T14:20:00.000-07:002012-06-11T00:41:25.994-07:00Take 3: The Fountainhead of Human Creativity<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Greg
Bayles</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Research
Paper</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr.
Gideon Burton</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6/8/2012</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
Fountainhead of Human Creativity</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">From
the very genesis of recorded history, mankind has sought to create,
to bring his thoughts into reality and to leave his indelible mark
upon the world around him. For some civilizations, that has meant
erecting massive monuments to gods and men; others preserved their
ideas and culture through literature– within epics and songs and
the tales of the past. In the modern, globalized era, however, the
rules of creativity are changing. Especially over the last few
decades, the desire to create has taken on new forms as the Internet
and other digital media resources have made accessible the realms of
thought and creativity for the world as a w</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">hole.
Ayn Rand, in her landmark novel, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">,
investigates the concept of creativity, championing the individual
creative ideal and warning against the collectivization of creative
thought. Rand died years before the invention of the Internet and a
great many other modern digital resources, yet her commentary on
creativity and thought abide today as a lasting monument to the human
spirit of creativity. A</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
thoughtful study of digital media through the lens of Ayn Rand's </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
clearly reve</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">als
the value of independent creativity and unveils digital media's role
in providing a new and living medium through which creative thought
may find expression. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
value of digital media in the creative process has been debated often
in academic spheres, and there yet remains a dichotomy between those
advocating collectivism and those of an individualist persuasion.
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Doctors
Kylie Peppler and Maria Solomou of Indiana State University, in their
study of creativity through online, social learning spheres, propose
that </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">creativity
manifests itself as a broad, “socially determined process.”
Peppler, in commenting on a blog post by the author, states,
“Creativity is really about learning more about what has been done
and posing something new from your unique vantage point... ” W</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">hile
social interaction certainly plays a role in the formation of an
individual creator's ideas, this concept of collective creativity
represents a false paradigm and discords sharply with the
individualistic ideas presented in Rand's work. Creative progress
finds its footings in the efforts of individuals rather than those of
a collective and unified body. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">E</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ach
individual creative endeavor represents the labors and strivings of a
single person or a small group of individuals, and collaborative
projects are simply the summation of these individual efforts
(Shoshana Milgram Knapp, personal communication, May 25, 2012). </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many
modern scholars, like Alan Kirby of Oxford University, have spoken
out sharply against the idea of collective creativity, stating that
globalization and the development of social media have caused much of
modern 'creativity' to become “unreal, trite, vapid, conformist,
consumerist, meaningless and brainless.” Others have taken a
different approach in their denunciation of the ideal of joint
creativity. William Thomas, for example, a Randian scholar associated
with the Atlas Society, He proposes</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
that while more interaction is possible through the medium of the
Internet, creativity itself is actually isolated and i</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ndividualized
as part of the process (personal communication, June 2, 2012). The
value of creativity as a whole, then, rests in the potential of
individuals to create and innovate.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;">Ayn
Rand's ideological foundation finds its abode within this
individualistic realm of thought. </span>In
<i>The Fountainhead</i>,
Rand presents the oppositional creative ideologies of Howard Roark
and Peter Keating and in so doing provides a contrast that leads the
reader to understand more fully the value of individual thought and
creation. Expelled from his architectural academy for non-adherence
to classical forms and styles, Roark embodies the independent fire of
creativity and innovation. As such, he remains, throughout the novel,
an entity unto himself– a brilliant and unapologetic creator.
Keating, on the other hand, relinquishes his innate sense of
creativity in exchange for social acceptance, rehashing the same
antiquated styles and passing off Roark's brilliant designs for his
own when a real bit of innovation is necessary. These oppositional,
almost one-dimensional characters can be related to two extremes
within the online world: while a great many employ digital media to
create and innovate, others use it simply to recycle existing memes
and ideas, passing them off as their own in the pursuit of the
ever-elusive “Likes” and +1's (Fand 488). Steven Mallory, a
lesser character in <i>The Fountainhead</i>,
recognizes at one point the fallen state of those who embrace this
latter, attention-hungry and hollow creative ideal, stating that in
following after it they “kill
some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they contradict–and
they call it growth. At the end there’s nothing left, nothing
unrevered or unbetrayed; as if there had never been any entity, only
a succession of adjectives fading in and out on an unformed mass”
(452). Rand's contrast
is too polarized, too black-and-white to represent the span and
production of creativity, yet her argument holds true: a person may,
by virtue of his own integrity and dedication, come to discover his
creative identity and make a gift to humanity through the works that
he brings to life (Young). If, as author Joyce
Carol Oates writes, art constitutes “a genuinely transcendental
function—a means by which we rise out of limited, parochial states
of mind,” a person, though perhaps inspired by the creators whom he
emulates, will
not be able to fully discover his creative potential until he steps
beyond his safeguards of second-hand creativity. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Scholars
of digital literacy somtimes perceive this idea of personal
aspiration and discovery in creation to be foolishness, painting the
independent creator as a creature of the past, a dying breed. Others,
like James Montmarquet, a Randian scholar from Tennessee State
University, conversely declare the need to reclaim the independent
creative ideal. In his article, “Prometheus: Rand's Epic of
Creation,” Montmarquet describes the state of the so-called
'Promethean creator' as that of an “endangered species,” a being
that because of the pressures of conformity and orthodoxy placed upon
him, trembles on the brink of extinction.
Digital media, however, offers a new promise and a haven for the
creative self, granting access to a rich habitat wherein the
independent creator can develop his ideas and grow in his ability to
convey meaning through creation. Recent years have seen the genesis
of new forms of expression, renewed courage to create, as the
Internet has injected life into a dying ideal. If, in fact, there
remains a hope for the Promethean or Roarkian creator, if there is to
be new life for the independent creative ideal, then it
courses through the veins of digital media. Indeed, the Internet, in
rekindling the dying embers of creativity and original thought, has
become a veritable fountainhead of creative expression, a well of
living water to quench creation's thirst.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
order to truly draw from the well of creativity that is the Internet
and other digital media resources, the student of digital literacy
must come to understand the potentialities of the medium. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
Howard Roark, granite was not </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>just</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
granite. It was a medium and a muse, a block from which could be hewn
great, triumphant walls or delicate, airy sculptures. He viewed the
terrain, the resources, the space not as mere materials but rather as
a sort of language of expression; armed with this perspective, he
sought to incorporate into his work the integrity of each of th</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ese
elements. For the modern creator, the Internet is the new and living
medium through which creativity finds its expression. Digital media
frees people from the limiting c</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">onfines
of their immediate environs and opens the way to a world unknown and
almost magical in its possibilities. Roark remarked, “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
thought of the potentialities of our modern world. The new materials,
the means, the chances to take and use. There are so many products of
man's genius around us today. There are such great possibilities”
(E-book 466). Indeed, in coming to more fully understand the role of
digital media in the creative process, one realizes its potential in
providing a mode of expression for creators. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
digital world supplies</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
creators with a means whereby to discover and share their creative
ideas. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joseph
Tabenkin, for example, a young and aspiring musician and Rand
enthusiast, uses Youtube and other social media sites to promote his
band's music. He has used his experiences with social media to begin
a professional career in music. Audrey Mereu, another Youtube user,
shared her thoughts on </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
in an online book review. She a process which had had in defining
her as an individual</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(personal communication, 14 May 2012). In some sense, digital media
can serve, as did </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">for
Mereu, as a tool in the self-actualization of creators</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
Some find their voice in making and posting videos online; others
take up blogging and uncover a new bourne of expression and thought.
Yet others discover a sense of wonder and imagination in online photo
galleries and 3D environments. T</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">he
world of digital media, however, is not just a filing cabinet,
apathetic towards its contents and unconcerned with whom contributes
or what they have to say but is rather a living, breathing organism
that expands and adapts and finds life in the contributions of
millions and millions of independent creators from all around the
world. The call of the creator, then, is to express, however
clumsily, the yearnings and trepidations of the human soul, to
capture in words or music or images an emotion, a thought, a
realization. Indeed, it is in the summation of these independent acts
of creation– these words, these images– that the Internet truly
finds its soul.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">As
a creative medium, the Internet and other digital media resources
serve as both a source of inspiration and a means whereby creativity
can be shared. Creative expression itself represents only a small
portion of the creative process, and as such, the Internet holds
inestimable value in its potential to expose creators to new ideas
and to contribute to the formation of their respective creative
identities (Graham Wallas, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
of Thought</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">).
With humanity's collective knowledge and experience available at the
click of a mouse button, creators, now more than ever, can find
inspiration in the muses of modern media. Emily Coleman, a student
studying digital literacy at Brigham Young University, echoed this
sentiment, stating, “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">there
are countless people who never would have dreamed of creating
anything except that they saw someone else do it... [T]he Internet is
a source of inspiration, if not the actual creativity itself.”
Digital media resources do not, in themselves, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>cause</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
people to become more or less creative. There is no magical link that
upon clicking makes people suddenly burst forth in song or pen a line
that captures the enigma of the human soul. Nor is there a website
that instantly drains a person of all sense of creative vision and
compels him to post pictures of cats with misspelled subtitles.
Rather, the Internet gives mankind the ability to enact his creative
visions by providing access to both the resources and audiences
necessary to realize his specific creative endeavors. “Machines
will be common to a free and an unfree society,” to one fed by or
starved of creation's lifeblood (James Montmarqet, personal
communication, May 25, 2012). “If, then, a difference emerges... it
must be something that an individual, or perhaps collection of
individuals do, by way of using the machines for creative purposes.”
For individuals and collectives alike, t</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">hese
machines, these new media, serve as vehicles along the road of
creative progress and discovery. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Some
have argued that the Internet and, more particularly, social media
actually detract from the creative spirit, founding their argument
upon the 'rehash and recycle' culture that has evolved on social
media sites like Myspace and Facebook. The Internet, however,
is not at conflict with
creativity. Rather, it serves as a medium, like stone or paint, that
can be used to bring life to an idea or an emotion (Sorenson).
One Facebook user, Stella Knickerson, expressed her thoughts on the
matter, stating that, "New
technologies have no power to change who people are at the core. If
you could somehow objectively measure pure 'creativity,' I don't
think the internet would change what's inside of people"
(personal communication, May 22, 2012). Indeed, the
modern creator must look to his inner creative vision in determining
how he will make use of digital media's potential, as did Howard
Roark:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.98in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">He
looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He
looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a
streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground.
To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky... These rocks,
he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and
my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn; waiting for
the shape my hands will give them (4).</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Digital
culture has spawned all sorts of new media through which creators and
innovators are able to develop and share their ideas. Recent years,
for example have seen the birth of Minecraft, an online 'block world'
wherein players extract virtual resource blocks to construct any
imaginable virtual object. One Minecraft user captivated Rand
enthusiasts in crafting a true-to-form, block replica of Atlas, the
namesake of Rand's paramount work, </span><span style="color: black;"><i>Atlas
Shrugged</i></span><span style="color: black;">.
This and other similar re-adaptations to different media are
broadening the scope of creativity and expanding digital society's
ability to experience ideas through various forms of art and
expression.</span><span style="color: black;">
The point in utilizing digital media, though, is not so much about
novelty for the sake of novelty as it is about both recognizing the
things that digital media can do for creativity and learning to make
maximum use of these advantages </span><span style="color: black;">(Fand
489)</span><span style="color: black;">.
As Adam Sorenson, a student of digital literacy, stated, “[T]he
creator takes the spark that is already there and uses digital media
as one of his mediums, just as an architect uses many different
materials. The person already has the creative spark, but... digital
media allows them to amplify that spark and disseminate its effects
across the world."</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">To
a certain extent, the use of digital media itself represents a
departure from the doldrums of conformity and creative stagnation.
T</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">he
way of the modern philosopher, of the thinker, of the dreamer, of the
revolutionary lies not in ancient tomes in forgotten libraries but in
the living, breathing atmosphere of the now, in the coursing,
pulsating vitality of modern media, of innovation, of change. In </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">,
Ayn </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rand
champions the value of individual creation. She encourages her
readers to break away from stale and unfeeling orthodoxy in order to
be true to one's own personal vision, inviting the reader to deny the
structured arbitrariness of conventional thought and form in favor of
authentic innovation. She presents the reader with the characters of
Howard Roark as a far-off, creative ideal, a goal to which man might
aspire. Algis Valiunas, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy
Center, carried on this idea: </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.99in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">These
great figures are meant to inspire readers to go out and do likewise.
When an unnamed young man with sublime but indefinite longings sees a
summer resort designed by Howard Roark, he feels a strength that will
sustain him in his ambition to realize his vision, whatever that may
be. “Don't work for my happiness, my brothers – show me yours –
show me that it is possible – show me your achievement – and the
knowledge will give me the courage for mine.” Rand wants to send
tremors of possibility through her readership (62).</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Go
and do – Rand's message to all creators. Ultimately, creativity is
a manifestation of the human soul and intellect, and the Internet
acts as a facilitator of that creativity, a vehicle through which the
creator can infuse personality and soul into his work. The ideas of
others will, of course, inspire and shape a creator's ideas, but each
creator must find within himself and within the world about him–
within the sea of digital media and whatever is to follow– the
courage, integrity, and confidence to go forward with his labors and
bring the spark of creation to the world. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; page-break-before: always; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Works
Cited</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Coleman,
Emily. “Re: At One with our Creative Ideal: Paper-in-a-Post” </span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">New
Horizons.</span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
30 May, 2012. Online. 30 May, 2012.
</span></span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh</span></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fand,
Roxanne J. "Reading the Fountainhead: The Missing Self in Ayn
Rand's Ethical Individualism." </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>College
English</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
2009: 486-505. Print.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hickey,
Alan. “Pseduo-Modernism: the Conformity of the Collective.”
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Bravely
Becoming a Part of the New World. </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">May
29, 2012</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>.
</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Online.
3 June, 2012</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hunt,
Lester H. "Thus Spake Howard Roark: Nietzschean Ideas in the
Fountainhead." Philosophy and Literature 2006: 79-101. Print.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kirby,
Alan. “The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond.” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Philosophy
Now</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
2006. Online.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3516966719885374883" name="eow-title1"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3516966719885374883" name="watch-headline-title1"></a>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mereu,
Audrey. “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Book
Review: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Youtube</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
June 28, 2011. Online. 7 May, 2012.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Montmarquet,
James. "Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation." </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Journal
of Ayn Rand Studies</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
2011: 3-18. Print.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
1 </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">May,
2012</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Peppler,
Kylie A. and Solomou, Maria. "Building Creativity: Collaborative
Learning and Creativity in Social Media Environments." On the
Horizon 2011: 13-23. Print.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Powell,
Robert L. "Ayn Rand's Heroes: Between and Beyond Good and Evil."
2007. Print. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rand,
Ayn. <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1943.
E-book. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">---.
<i>The Fountainhead</i>. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1943. Print.
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rand,
Ayn. Dir. Henry Blanke. Perf. Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond
Massey. <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video,
2006. DVD.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sorenson,
Adam. “Re: At One with our Creative Ideal: Paper-in-a-Post” </span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">New
Horizons.</span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
30 May 2012. Online. 30 May, 2012.
</span></span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">https://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299/posts/KwMy2TKFWUh</span></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3516966719885374883" name="eow-title"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3516966719885374883" name="watch-headline-title"></a>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tabenkin,
Joseph. “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">What
For ft. Barry Quinn - Joseph and The Familiar Strangers.” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Youtube.
1 </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">May
2012. Online. 7 May, 2012</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Valiunas,
Algis. "Who Needs Ayn Rand?". Commentary 2005: 59-62.
Print.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Young,
Cathy. “Ayn Rand at 100.” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Reason</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
Reason Mag. , March 2005. Online. 22 May, 2012.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-22571857429487699822012-06-07T00:40:00.001-07:002012-06-07T00:40:48.240-07:00Getting Off the PlaneI'm coming up on a year since I got back from Ukraine.<br />
<br />
At first, honestly, it was pretty hard to be back. I was kind of angry at the world for the first little while, and I felt like I didn't really understand people and no one really understood me either. I wasn't prepared for the loneliness that follows a mission. I wasn't prepared for everyone else's apathy. They really just didn't understand... likely still don't. I wasn't prepared for the American "How are you?", which is really just another greeting to be reciprocated and then forgotten. As I stepped off of the plane in Sacramento, I wondered if it had all been just a dream. Two years in Ukraine. Two wonderful, magical years in Ukraine. But no, I still had all the memories and-- yes-- I could still speak Russian. It must not have been a dream after all. But there's something about that first step off of the airplane that sends you reeling back, and you're flooded in a sea of memories and emotions, and it certainly feels a lot like a dream. And you wonder why, if it was so amazing, you ever had to come back. And you bear the concourses of people asking you how it was and wanting to hear only a "Great" -- nothing more. And you've been moving at a hundred miles a minute for the last two years, and now you have nothing to do because everyone's at work and all your friends are at school, and you're looking for a job at the end of June when you know that likely no one will hire you for the month and a half that you have remaining before you, yourself, head up to school.<br />
<br />
And then someone does, and you wonder why, because you can see that he has all the help that he could ever need at the warehouse, and then you realize that he gave it to you purely as an act of kindness just because he knew you needed something to keep you busy and to help you through the long days. And you feel the anger start to go away. And your friend gets back from Moscow, and that helps a lot, but then you're off to school and you meet lots of new people, and the loneliness goes away. And you start into classes and you find a job and your free time goes away, but then you realize that there are a lot of great things to do and great people around you, so your sleep goes away and your free time comes back. And then you get through the first semester, and your nostalgia goes away, because it's Christmas, and you're surrounded by people, and the fire's warm, and you only sometimes think about the people without heating in their homes, somewhere in a dreamland far away. And you only half think that it would have been better to just take all the gifts and sell them and send the money to the poor who were everywhere in Ukraine and who, no doubt, huddled out public sight. And then winter comes, and you remember all the cold days that you spent outside, and your fingers ache just thinking about it, and your toes are always cold. And you get through winter classes, and somehow you did well, and you're excited for spring.<br />
<br />
And you're finishing up your other classes, and you're not married, by the way, and you don't even have a special someone or anything like that either, and you thought that maybe you would have by now, but you've met a lot of really cool people, and you at last feel, after a year, like you finally belong somewhere, and you finally feel like you're fully home. And you finally get off the plane, and you start your life again. And it's a good life. And you're just grateful... and happy again...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-77109891654916436702012-06-06T12:43:00.000-07:002012-06-06T12:43:03.347-07:00Take 2: The Fountainhead of Human Creativity<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Greg
Bayles</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Research
Paper</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr.
Gideon Burton</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6/5/2012</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
Fountainhead of Human Creativity</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> From
the very genesis of recorded history, mankind has sought to create,
to bring his thoughts into reality and leave his indelible mark upon
the world around him. For some civilizations, that has meant erecting
massive monuments to gods and men; others preserved their ideas and
culture through literature, within epics and songs and the tales of
the past. In the modern, globalized era, however, the rules of
creativity seem to be changing. Especially over the last few decades,
the desire to create has taken on new forms as the Internet and other
digital media resources have revolutionized the realms of thought and
creativity for the world as a whole. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: #ffff00;">Ayn
Rand, in her landmark novel, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="background: #ffff00;">The
Fountainhead</span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: #ffff00;">,
investigates the concept of creativity but warns against the
collectivization of creative thought, indicating that in following
after and yielding to the opinions of others, the creator compromises
his virtue of self and betrays his individual creative identity.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
However, a</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
thoughtful study of digital media through the lens of Ayn Rand's </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
clearly reveals the value of independent creativity and unveils
digital media's role in providing a new and living medium through
which creative thought may find expression. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Scholars
seem to be at odds one with another as to the value of independent
creativity and the role of the Internet in stimulating or said
creativity. Doctors Kylie Peppler and Maria Solomou of Indiana State
University, have suggested, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">“...more
recent scholarship on creativity has recognized the genesis and
development of creative ideas as being part of a broader, socially
determined process (13). Commenting on a blog post by the author,
Peppler added to this idea, stating, “Creativity is really about
learning more about what has been done and posing something new from
your unique vantage point... this goes against the common myth of the
lone artist in our sense of creativity. Rather creativity (like
learning) happens when we're seeing and building off the ideas of
others.” This concept discords sharply with the individualistic
ideas presented in Rand's work, and other modern scholars have
similarly spoken out against this idea of collective creativity. Alan
Kirby, for example, an Oxford professor involved in digital studies,
suggests that globalization and development of social media have
caused much of modern 'creativity' to become “unreal, trite, vapid,
conformist, consumerist, meaningless and brainless.” Interaction
with the masses, he claims, seems to compromise depth and meaning
within the creative process, "mak[ing] the individual's action
the necessary condition of social product" (Hickey). William
Thomas, a Randian scholar associated with the Atlas Society, takes a
different route in his negation of the ideal of collective
creativity: “[T]</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">he
internet has drawn people together and allowed them to live more
independently at the same time... one can often live where one wants,
and work the hours one wants, and do jobs that otherwise wouldn't be
available, but the price is less interaction across the board and
more individual work at an individual pace” (personal
communication, June 2, 2012). Thomas proposes that while perhaps more
interaction is had through the medium of the Internet, creativity
itself is actually isolated and individualized as part of the
process. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It
will be noted, of course that definitions for creativity differ from
person to person. Indeed, as Peppler and Solomou explained, “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Central
to a system's view of creativity is the premise of how the extent and
longevity of a community's permutation of new ideas ultimately
defines each idea's value as a creative act” (14). </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Peppler
and Solomou, in their study of creativity through Quest Atlantis, an
online social learning environment based around the architectural
premises of the </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead,</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
noticed that certain constructive ideas were first realized and then
rapidly disseminated among the users. Based on these findings, they
conjectured that one person's creativity spread abroad is equivalent
to many people expressing creativity simultaneously. Solomou
described t</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">he
use of digital media as “a very powerful way of enhancing
creativity,” and advised, “The emergence of ideas and their
development seems to be better enhanced through collaborative
practices rather than merely individual work” (personal
communication, May 23, 2012). While perhaps true that ideas are more
easily disseminated through the Internet and while collaborative
works may find a ready home within the online community, Peppler and
Solomou's conclusions drawn from the Quest Atlantis experience
represent a false paradigm. While users may find expression in
adopting and sharing ideas conceived by others, the process is not
one of direct creation but rather of collective recognition of a
single or small number of creative acts. The words of Shoshana
Milgram Knapp of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
serve as a corollary to this idea. She affirms, “many creative
endeavors require the work of more than one person, but this does not
mean that each of them does not create independently” (personal
communication, May 25, 2012). Rather, each individual component of a
creative endeavor represents the labors and strivings of a single
person or a small group of individuals, and collaborative projects
are simply the summation of these individual efforts.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;">Ayn
Rand's ideological foundation finds its abode within this
individualistic realm of thought. </span>In
<i>The Fountainhead</i>,
Rand presents the oppositional creative ideologies of Howard Roark
and Peter Keating and in so doing provides a contrast that leads the
reader to understand more fully the value of individual thought and
creation. Expelled from his architectural school for non-adherence to
classical forms and styles, Roark embodies the independent fire of
creativity and innovation and remains, throughout the novel, an
entity unto himself, a brilliant and unapologetic creator. Keating,
on the other hand, plays the game of popularity and people-pleasing,
compromising any sense of personal creativity that might have once
existed within him by simply rehashing the same antiquated styles and
passing off Roark's brilliant designs for his own when a real bit of
innovation is necessary. The differing, almost one-dimensional
characters represent two extremes in relation to people in the online
world – those who use digital media to create and innovate, and
those who, to a lesser or greater degree, use it to recycle the same
old memes and ideas, passing them off as their own in the pursuit of
the ever-elusive “Likes” and +1's (Fand 488). Steven Mallory, a
somewhat minor character in <i>The Fountainhead</i>,
recognizes at one point the sad state of those who embrace this
latter, attention-hungry and fickle creative ideal, stating that in
following after it they “...kill
some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they contradict–and
they call it growth. At the end there’s nothing left, nothing
unrevered or unbetrayed; as if there had never been any entity, only
a succession of adjectives fading in and out on an unformed mass”
(___). Rand's views on
the matter are, perhaps, too stark, too black-and-white, for the vast
majority of people, but her general concept holds a sure beauty and a
certain truth: a person may, by virtue of his own integrity and
dedication, come to discover his own creative identity and make a
gift to humanity through the works that he brings to life (Young).
If, as author Joyce
Carol Oates writes, art constitutes “... a genuinely transcendental
function—a means by which we rise out of limited, parochial states
of mind,” a person, though perhaps inspired by the creators whom he
emulates, will
not be able to fully discover his creative potential until he steps
beyond his fears and his notions of second-hand creativity. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some
perceive this idea of personal aspiration and discovery in creation
to be foolishness, painting the independent creator as a creature of
the past, a dying breed. Tennessee State University's James
Montmarquet, on the other hand, declares the need to reclaim the
independent creative ideal. In his article, “Prometheus: Rand's
Epic of Creation,” Montmarquet describes the state of the
so-called 'Promethean creator' as that of an “endangered species,”
a being that because of the pressures of conformity and orthodoxy
placed upon him, trembles on the brink of extinction. Digital media,
however, offers a new promise and a haven. If there remains a hope
for the Promethean or Roarkian creator, if there is to be new life
for the independent creative ideal, then it courses through the veins
of digital media. Indeed, the Internet, in rekindling the dying
embers of creativity and original thought, has become a veritable
fountainhead of creative expression, a well of living water to quench
creation's thirst.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
Howard Roark, granite was not <i>just</i>
granite. It was a medium and a muse, a block from which could be hewn
great, triumphant walls or delicate, airy sculptures. He viewed the
terrain, the resources, the space as living, and armed with this
perspective, he sought to incorporate into his work the integrity of
each of these elements. <span style="background: #ffff00;">For
the modern creator, however, the Internet is the new and living
medium through which creativity finds its expression.</span>
Digital media stretches the mind, frees people from the limiting
confines of their immediate environs, opens the way to a world
unknown and almost magical in its possibilities. Roark remarked, “<span style="color: black;">I
thought of the potentialities of our modern world. The new materials,
the means, the chances to take and use. There are so many products of
man's genius around us today. There are such great possibilities”
(E-book 466). The digital world supplies</span>
creators with a means whereby to discover and share their creative
ideal. Joseph
Tabenkin, a young and aspiring musician and Rand enthusiast, uses
Youtube and other social media sites to promote his band's music and
has been able to use his experiences with social media to begin an
actual career in music. Audrey Mereu, another Youtube user, shared
her journey through <i>The Fountainhead</i>
in the form of a video book review: “The
Fountainhead was the first book that truly inspired me to define the
morals I want to live by.” In some sense, digital media can serve,
as did <i>The
Fountainhead </i>for
Audrey, as a tool in the self-actualization of creators.
Some will find their voice in making and posting videos online;
others will take up blogging and uncover a whole new world of
expression and thought. Yet others will discover a sense of wonder
and imagination in online photo galleries and 3D environments. T<span style="background: #ffffff;">he
world of digital media, however, is not just a filing cabinet,
apathetic towards its contents and unconcerned with whom contributes
or what they have to say but is rather a living, breathing organism
that grows and changes and finds life in the contributions of
millions and millions of independent creators from all around the
world. The call of the creator, then, is to express, however
clumsily, the yearnings and trepidations of the human soul, to
capture in words or music or images an emotion, a thought, a
realization. </span><span style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(Add something here to tie back into main thesis)</span><span style="background: #ffffff;"></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"></span>As
a creative medium, the Internet and other digital media resources
serve as both a source of inspiration and a means whereby creativity
can be shared. Creative expression itself represents only a small
portion of the creative process, and as such, the Internet holds
inestimable value in its potential to expose creators to new ideas
and to contribute to the formation of their respective creative
identities (Graham Wallas, <i>Art of Thought</i>).
With the knowledge and wisdom of the ages at the click of a mouse
button, creators, now more than ever, can find inspiration in the
muses of modern media. Emily Coleman, a student studying digital
literacy at Brigham Young University, echoed this sentiment, stating,
“there
are countless people who never would have dreamed of creating
anything except that they saw someone else do it... [T]he Internet is
a source of inspiration, if not the actual creativity itself.”
Digital media resources do not, in themselves, <i>cause</i>
people to become more or less creative. There is no magical link that
upon clicking makes people suddenly burst forth in song or pen a line
that captures the enigma of the human soul. Nor is there a website
that instantly drains a person of all sense of creative vision and
compels him/her to post pictures of cats with misspelled subtitles.
Rather, the Internet gives mankind the ability to enact his creative
visions by providing access to both the resources and audiences
necessary to realize his specific creative endeavors. “[M]achines
will be common to a free and an unfree society,” to one fed by or
starved of creation's lifeblood (James Montmarqet, personal
communication, May 25, 2012). “If, then, a difference emerges, by
her lights, it must be something that an individual, or perhaps
collection of individuals do, by way of using the machines for
creative purposes.” <span style="background: #ffff00;">(Add something here to tie back in)</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some
argue that the Internet and, more particularly, social media detract
from the creative spirit, founding their argument upon the 'rehash
and recycle' culture that has evolved on social media sites like
Myspace and Facebook. The Internet, however, is not at conflict with
creativity and rather serves as a medium, like stone or paint, that
can be used to bring life to an idea or an emotion (Sorensen).
One Facebook user, Stella Knickerson, expressed her thoughts on the
matter, stating that, "New
technologies have no power to change who people are at the core. If
you could somehow objectively measure pure 'creativity,' I don't
think the internet would change what's inside of people."
Indeed, the modern
creator must look to his/her inner creative vision in determining how
he/she will make use of digital media's potential, as did Howard
Roark:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.98in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">He
looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He
looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a
streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground.
To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky... These rocks,
he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and
my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn; waiting for
the shape my hands will give them (4).</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Digital
culture has spawned all sorts of new media through which creators and
innovators are able to develop and share their ideas. Recent years,
for example have seen the birth of Minecraft, an online 'block world'
wherein players extract resource blocks and from them are able to
construct basically anything that they can imagine. One user
captivated Rand enthusiasts in crafting a true-to-form, block replica
of Atlas, the namesake of Rand's paramount work, </span><span style="color: black;"><i>Atlas
</i></span><span style="color: black;">Shrugged.
Similar re-adaptations to different media are broadening the scope of
creativity and expanding digital society's ability to experience
ideas through various forms of art and creativity. </span><span style="color: black;">It is, of course, not so much about novelty for the sake of novelty
as it is about both recognizing the things that digital media can do
for creativity and learning to make maximum use of these advantages
</span><span style="color: black;">(Fand
489)</span><span style="color: black;">.
As Adam Sorensen, a student in digital literacy, stated, “[T]he
creator takes the spark that is already there and uses digital media
as one of his mediums , just as an architect uses many different
materials. The person already has the creative spark, but... digital
media allows them to amplify that spark and disseminate its effects
across the world."</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">To
a certain extent, the use of digital media itself represents a
departure from the doldrums of conformity and creative stagnation.
T</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">he
way of the modern philosopher, of the thinker, of the dreamer, of the
revolutionary lies not in dusty tomes in dustier libraries but in the
living, breathing atmosphere of the now, in the coursing, pulsating
vitality of modern media, of innovation, of change. In </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">,
Ayn </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rand
champions the value of individual creation, encouraging her readers
to break away from stale and unfeeling orthodoxy in creating, to be
true to one's own personal vision in denying the structured
arbitrariness of conventional thought. She gives the reader the
larger-than life characters of Howard Roark and other creators as a
far-off ideal, a goal to which man might aspire. Algis Valiunas, a
Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, carried on this idea: </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.99in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">These
great figures are meant to inspire readers to go out and do likewise.
When an unnamed young man with sublime but indefinite longings sees a
summer resort designed by Howard Roark, he feels a strength that will
sustain him in his ambition to realize his vision, whatever that may
be. “Don't work for my happiness, my brothers – show me yours –
show me that it is possible – show me your achievement – and the
knowledge will give me the courage for mine.” Rand wants to send
tremors of possibility through her readership (62).</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ultimately,
creativity is a manifestation of the human soul and intellect, and
the Internet acts as a facilitator of that creativity, a vehicle
through which the creator can make infuse personality and soul and
life into his work. The ideas of others will, of course, serve their
purpose in shaping a creator's ideas, but the creator must find
within himself and within the world about him, within the sea of
digital media and whatever is to follow, the courage, integrity, and
confidence to go forward with his labors and bring the spark of
creation to the world. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Randomness
to potentially incorporate</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
value of the Internet and digital media in the creative process is
perhaps best summarized with the simple affirmation of an online
blogger:</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
"[m]y voice matters" (Anderson, personal communication, May
22, 2012). </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
best thing about creation is that voice of humanity within it.
Creation is great not because of the end product but because it
captures a little piece of the human soul and causes one to realize
himself a little bit better than he previously might have.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I
have felt a little bit like Michelangelo inserting Charon into the
Last Judgment</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why
is truth made a mere matter of arithmetic--and only of addition at
that?”</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">...each
individaul must discover the truth and come to his own existential
self-realization (Powell 64)</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Something
inherent within us all. I don't think anyone can teach the kind of
creativity that a child exhibits, and I feel like people trick
themselves out of their creativity and their imaginations as they get
older and start to care more about what other people think.
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">realizing
our individual creative ideals</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">he
wanted to stop, to lean back, to feel the reality of his person
heightened by the frame of steel that rose dimly about the bright,
outstanding existence of his body as its center.” [Creative
endeavors as an extension of the person]</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">He
studied Roark and the house with the same meticulous scrutiny; he
felt as if he could not quite tell them apart.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Birchbark
letter – captures a very personal aspect of modern-day life rather
than just big events</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Roark's
problematic clients insist upon big, fancy facades, with useless
collonades and superfluous ornamentation --> digital extensions of
the ostentatious facades proliferated in Classical architecture.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone
has their own destiny, their own calling in life, and it's up to us
to discover it and then bring it into reality.</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Societies
are created from the minds of individual men. In quoting Nietzsche,
“...In the final analysis one experiences only oneself” (Thus
Spoke Zarathustra 173) (Powell 64)</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">"[t]he
architecture of the mind" (Cashman)</span></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-1538451411469292362012-06-04T12:32:00.002-07:002012-06-04T13:53:17.959-07:00The Fountainhead of Human Creativity<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Greg
Bayles</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Research
Paper</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr.
Gideon Burton</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6/4/2012</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
Fountainhead of Human Creativity</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> From
the very genesis of recorded history, mankind has sought to create,
to bring his thoughts into reality and leave his indelible mark upon
the world around him. For some civilizations, that has meant erecting
massive monuments to gods and men; others preserved their ideas and
culture through literature, within epics and songs and the tales of
the past. In the modern, globalized era, however, the rules of
creativity seem to be changing. Especially over the last few decades,
the desire to create has taken on new forms as the Internet and other
digital media resources have revolutionized the realms of creativity
and thought for the world as a whole. Ayn Rand, in her landmark
novel, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">,
investigates the concept of creativity but warns against the
collectivization of creative thought, indicating that in following
after and yielding to the opinions of others, the creator compromises
his virtue of self and betrays his individual creative identity.
However, a</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
thoughtful study of digital media through the lens of Ayn Rand's </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">
clearly reveals the value of independent creative thought and unveils
digital media's role in providing a new and living medium through
which creative thought may find expression. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> In
<i>The Fountainhead</i>,
Rand presents the oppositional creative ideologies of Howard Roark
and Peter Keating and in so doing provides a contrast that leads the
reader to understand more fully the value of individual thought and
creation. Expelled from his architectural school for non-adherence to
Classical forms and styles, Roark embodies the independent fire of
creativity and innovation and remains, throughout the novel, an
entity unto himself, a brilliant and unapologetic creator. Keating,
on the other hand, plays the game of popularity and people-pleasing,
compromising any sense of personal creativity that might have once
existed within him by simply rehashing the same antiquated styles and
passing off Roark's brilliant designs for his own when a real bit of
innovation is necessary. The different characters represent two
extremes in relation to people in the online world – those who use
digital media to create and innovate, and those who, to a lesser or
greater degree, use it to recycle the same old memes and ideas,
passing them off as their own in the pursuit of the ever-elusive
“Likes” and +1's. It is interesting to note that Keating
recognizes his own poor state in embracing this latter,
attention-hungry and fickle creative ideal, stating that those who
follow after it “...kill
some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they contradict–and
they call it growth. At the end there’s nothing left, nothing
unrevered or unbetrayed; as if there had never been any entity, only
a succession of adjectives fading in and out on an unformed mass.”
Rand's views on the
matter are, perhaps, too stark, too black-and-white, for the vast
majority of people, but her general concept holds a definite beauty
and a certain truth: a person may, by virtue of his own integrity and
dedication, come to discover his own creative identity and make a
gift to humanity through the works that he brings to life. Similarly,
if, as author Joyce
Carol Oates writes, art truly is “... a genuinely transcendental
function—a means by which we rise out of limited, parochial states
of mind,” a person, though perhaps inspired by the creators whom
he emulates,
will not be able to fully discover his creative potential until he
steps beyond his fears and his notions of second-hand creativity.
Some modernly view the independent creator as a creature of the past,
a dying breed. James Montmarquet, for example, in his article,
“Prometheus: Rand's Epic of Creation,” discusses the state of the
so-called 'Promethean creator' as that of an “endangered species,”
a being that because of the pressures of conformity and orthodoxy
placed upon him, trembles on the brink of extinction. If, however,
there remains a hope for the Promethean or Roarkian creator, if there
is to be new life for the independent creative ideal, then it courses
through the veins of digital media. The Internet, in rekindling the
dying embers of creativity and original thought, has become a
fountainhead of creative expression.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> For
Howard Roark, granite was not just granite. It was a medium and a
muse, a block from which could be hewn great, strong walls or
delicate, airy sculptures. He viewed the terrain, the resources, the
space as living, and his creative works sought to incorporate the
integrity of each of these elements. For the modern creator, however,
the Internet is the new and living medium through which creativity
finds its expression. Digital media stretches the mind, frees people
from the limiting confines of their immediate environs, providing
access to a world unknown and almost magical in its possibilities. It
provides creators with a means whereby to discover and share their
creative ideal. Joseph Tabenkin, a young and aspiring musician and Rand
enthusiast, uses Youtube and other social media sites to promote his
band's music and has been able to use his experiences with social
media to begin an actual career in music. Audrey Mereu, another
Youtube user, shared her journey through <i>The Fountainhead</i>
in the form of a video book review. She remarked, “The
Fountainhead was the first book that truly inspired me to define the
morals I want to live by.” In some sense, digital media can serve,
as did <i>The
Fountainhead </i>for
Audrey, as a tool in individual self-actualization.
Some creators will find their voice in making and posting videos online;
others will take up blogging and uncover a whole new world of
expression and thought. Yet others will discover a sense of wonder
and imagination in the verdant groves of online photo galleries and 3D environments. T<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">he
world of digital media, however, is not just a filing cabinet,
apathetic towards its contents and unconcerned with whom contributes
or what they have to say but is rather a living, breathing organism
that grows and changes and finds life in the contributions of
millions and millions of independent creators from all around the
world. The call of the creator is to express, however clumsily, the
yearnings and trepidations of the human soul, to capture in words or
pixels an emotion, a thought, a realization. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"> </span>As
a creative medium, the Internet and other digital media resources
serve as both a source of inspiration and a means whereby creativity
can be shared. Creative expression represents only a small part of
the creative process, and as such, the value of the Internet in
exposing creators to new ideas and in forming their creative
backgrounds is inestimable (Graham Wallas, <i>Art of Thought</i>).
With the knowledge and wisdom of the ages at the click of a mouse
button, creators, now more than ever, can find inspiration in the
muses of modern media. Emily Coleman, a student studying digital
literacy at Brigham Young University, echoed this sentiment, stating,
“there
are countless people who never would have dreamed of creating
anything except that they saw someone else do it... [T]he Internet is
a source of inspiration, if not the actual creativity itself.”
Digital media resources do not, in themselves, <i>cause</i>
people to become more or less creative. There is no magical link that
upon clicking makes people suddenly burst forth in song or pen a line
that captures the enigma of the human soul. Nor is there a website
that instantly drains a person of all sense of creative vision and
compels him/her to post pictures of cats with misspelled subtitles.
Rather, the Internet gives mankind the ability to enact his creative
visions by providing access to both the resources and audiences necessary to realize his specific creative aspirations. Some argue that
the Internet and, more particularly, social media detract from the
creative spirit, as some contributors tend to rehash and recycle the
same content over and over without any intent to create for themselves. The Internet, however, is not at conflict
with creativity and rather exists a medium, like stone or paint, that can
be used to bring life to an idea or an emotion.
One Facebook user, Stella Knickerson, expressed her thoughts on the
matter, stating that, "New
technologies have no power to change who people are at the core. If
you could somehow objectively measure pure 'creativity,' I don't
think the internet would change what's inside of people."
Indeed, the modern
creator must look to his/her inner creative vision in determining how
he/she will make use of digital media's potential, as did Howard
Roark:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.98in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">He
looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He
looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a
streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground.
To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky... These rocks,
he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and
my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn; waiting for
the shape my hands will give them.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Again, within Rand's words is perhaps an excessive intensity, but her
idea holds true, that mankind, in coming to realize the potential of
a medium, can accomplish great feats in the realms of creativity and
thought. With regard to digital media, it is not about novelty for
the sake of novelty but rather about seeing the things that the
Internet can do for creativity that traditional methods cannot. As
Adam Sorenson, a student in digital literacy, stated, “[T]he
creator takes the spark that is already there and uses digital media
as one of his mediums [<i>sic
recta</i>
media], just as an architect uses many different materials. The
person already has the creative spark, but... digital media allows
them to amplify that spark and disseminate its effects across the
world."</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"> To
a certain extent, the use of digital media itself represents a
departure from the doldrums of conformity and creative stagnation.
T</span><span style="color: black;">he
way of the modern philosopher, of the thinker, of the dreamer, of the
revolutionary lies not in dusty tomes in dustier libraries but in the
living, breathing atmosphere of the now, in the coursing, pulsating
vitality of modern media, of innovation, of change. In </span><span style="color: black;"><i>The
Fountainhead</i></span><span style="color: black;">,
Ayn </span><span style="color: black;">Rand
champions the value of individual creation, encouraging her readers
to break away from stale and unfeeling orthodoxy in creating, to be
true to one's own personal vision in denying the structured
arbitrariness of conventional thought. Ultimately, creativity is a
manifestation of the human soul and intellect, and the Internet is a
facilitator of that creativity, a vehicle through which the creator
can make known his thoughts and dreams. The ideas of others will, of
course, serve their purpose in shaping a creator's ideas, but the
creator must find within himself and within the world about him the
courage, integrity, and confidence to go forward with his labors and
bring the spark of creation to the world. The value of the Internet
and digital media in the creative process is perhaps best summarized
with the simple affirmation of an online blogger, offered up by one small person in a very big world:</span><span style="color: black;"> "[m]y voice matters."</span></span></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-28399731290284967962012-06-01T12:26:00.000-07:002012-06-01T12:26:17.808-07:00Reworking CreativityI've had a really fun time getting to hear different people's takes on creativity as I've been researching for my digital literacy class. As I've received feedback from other people, I've been able to rework my ideas and my emphases little by little, and it's been neat to see the evolution of the topic. It will, perhaps, come as no surprise that I am yet again shifting my focus in a slightly different direction, but I think that this time will likely be the last (or at least I hope so, based on the impending due-date of Monday the 4th!).<br />
<br />
I began investigating how digital media influences creativity, and that was really interesting, but in the end, I found myself asking, "So what?" about everything that I was writing. I felt like it was all a statement of fact, something that anyone with two eyes and a brain could have figured out. I then shifted my emphasis to how digital media is changing the standards of creativity, and that, too, was short-lived. At the beginning of this week, I decided to tackle the individualist creative ideal of my primary-text author, Ayn Rand, a move that, I think, worried my professor a little bit. I originally changed because I felt like it would be a much more provocative topic, and that certainly proved to be true. I've had a tough time trying to figure out exactly what to write about, though, because on one hand, we're learning about digital media and collaborative creation and all sorts of stuff like that, but on the other hand, <i>The Fountainhead </i>champions an individual creative ideal and de-emphasizes (and even bashes) input from others in realizing our creative works. I have realized over the past month or so, though, that really, the conflict that I see between these two ideals is the conflict that exists within me. I've been <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-my-feet-wet.html" target="_blank">trying to get my feet wet in digital media</a>, but it's been a foreign experience for me, in a lot of regards. The transition, though, I think, is not one unique to my experience, and I feel like a lot of people could really benefit by using modern digital media. That's why I wanted to shift the focus of my paper.<br />
<br />
In researching and writing my paper, I still want to talk about creativity on an individual level, and I still really want to touch on ideas of self-actualization and finding one's creative identity, but for a lot of people, a big part of that process of self-conceptualization is taking place or will take place in the realm of modern digital media. So, I want to focus more on how digital media can aid us in realizing our individual creative ideals, and I want to show that the Internet is not oppositional to creativity but that it is a medium, like stone or paint, that can be used to bring life to an idea or an emotion. It is in light of creation that we truly begin to see ourselves and realize our potential.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-50214633018056501172012-06-01T03:10:00.000-07:002012-06-01T12:37:28.153-07:00Getting My Feet Wet...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<br />
This is a song that I put together to try to convey some of the thoughts that I've been having about creativity and expression lately. I've been studying <i>The Fountainhead</i>, by Ayn Rand, and in it, Rand really emphasizes the idea of individual creation. I wanted to extend that to encompass more so the ideas of self-actualization through creation and of finding one's own creative voice through use of digital media resources. Feel free to leave your thoughts or to browse the <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/friends-for-fountainhead.html" target="_blank">research</a> and <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/at-one-with-our-creative-ideal-paper-in.html" target="_blank">writing</a> that I've been doing lately. I hope you enjoy!<br />
<br />
<br />
Where is the fire<br />
That Prometheus stole,<br />
That burning desire<br />
To create and be made whole?<br />
What wonders and myst'ries<br />
Can this Brave New World hold for me?<br />
'Cause I'm standin' at the edge of the sea,<br />
And I'm just learning to swim.<br />
<br />
An endless ocean before me,<br />
And the waves a rumblin' by,<br />
I long for solid ground<br />
And miss the clear blue sky<br />
But I'll find myself inside the deep, deep blue.<br />
Yeah, I'm standin' at the end of the sea,<br />
And I'm ready to swim.<br />
<br />
I'll set my fears aside<br />
And set fire to the sea<br />
Give life to soul and mem'ry<br />
And let creation break free<br />
And at last, I'll find myself inside the flames<br />
And at last I'll find myself again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-57545915918709894852012-05-31T00:20:00.000-07:002012-05-31T00:20:19.539-07:00The Spark of Creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vHVRwjxL5L4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
I've been looking for a good rendition of this song, and I think this one does a good job. I first heard this song in "The Pink Palace," an apartment that I lived in while serving in Ukraine as a proselytizing missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My missionary companion was a theater and performing arts major, and he loved to sing. One day, he broke out randomly into this song, and I was mesmerized by this idea of the spark of creation. I've been thinking about creativity lately as I've investigated the influence of digital media on the creative process, and I feel that the message presented in this song encapsulates perfectly <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/at-one-with-our-creative-ideal-paper-in.html" target="_blank">some of the ideas that I've been trying to get across in my research</a>. So, please enjoy "Spark of Creation" from Stephen Schwartz's "Children of Eden," performed here by Stefani Wood, and if you're interested in finding out more about my research, check out my previous posts on the right side of the screen! I'd love to hear your thoughts!<br />
<br />
EVE<br />
<div>
<br />
<div>
Beyond,beyond</div>
<div>
It sounds full of wind and mist, doesn't it</div>
<div>
It means other things exist, doesn't it</div>
<div>
Beyond, beyond</div>
<div>
It says Adam leave your list, doesn't it</div>
<div>
Father why does my head feel this joy this dread since the moment I said</div>
<div>
Beyond!</div>
<div>
<br />
I've got an itching on the tips of my fingers</div>
<div>
I've got a boiling in the back of my brain</div>
<div>
I've got a hunger burning inside me, cannot be denied</div>
<div>
I've got feeling that the Father who made us</div>
<div>
When he was kindling a pulse in my veins</div>
<div>
He left a tiny spark of that fire, smoldering inside<br />
The spark of creation, is flickering within me</div>
<div>
The spark of creation,is blazing in my blood</div>
<div>
A bit of the fire that lit up the stars</div>
<div>
And breathed life into the mud, the first inspiration</div>
<div>
The spark creation</div>
<div>
<br />
I see a mountain and I want to climb it</div>
<div>
I see a river and I want to leave shore</div>
<div>
Where there was nothing let there be something, something made by me</div>
<div>
There's things waiting for me to invent them</div>
<div>
There's worlds waiting for me to exploreI am an echo of the eternal cry of<br />
Let there be!<br />
<br />
The spark of creation, burning bright within me</div>
<div>
The spark of creation, won't let me rest at all</div>
<div>
Until I discover or build or uncover</div>
<div>
A thing that I can call, my celebration</div>
<div>
Of the spark creationThe spark of creation, may it burn forever</div>
<div>
The spark creation, I am a keeper of the flame</div>
<div>
We think all we want is a lifetime leisure</div>
<div>
Each perfect day the sameEndless vacation</div>
<div>
Well that's alright if you're a kind crustacean</div>
<div>
But when you're born with an imagination</div>
<div>
Sooner of later you're feeling the fire get hotter and higher</div>
<div>
The spark of creation!!!</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-54521023987379326052012-05-30T11:47:00.001-07:002012-05-30T13:44:39.633-07:00At One with our Creative Ideal: Paper-in-a-Post<ul style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyNArQaaiF2-vdrNG3pazsZPs8DYdo9AHucViRtx7rPnQwZKkPc5gl_UqSutfAqsypBrBuFdvUrx1VlPWyo9vYC-SvfB_HkSspYDfw456Rc0kdhdPPm5BFvQ01i0KmCx4jYfhrtSLDDMQ/s1600/Fountainhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyNArQaaiF2-vdrNG3pazsZPs8DYdo9AHucViRtx7rPnQwZKkPc5gl_UqSutfAqsypBrBuFdvUrx1VlPWyo9vYC-SvfB_HkSspYDfw456Rc0kdhdPPm5BFvQ01i0KmCx4jYfhrtSLDDMQ/s400/Fountainhead.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just as the sun's rays flow into the figure and become part of his being, so also is the light of creativity an element within every individual, illuminating his soul and urging him toward his dreams.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>While the Internet and other digital media resources certainly
facilitate collaborative efforts and provide a worldwide stage whereon
creators can display their work, the creative process remains a largely
individual endeavor, as evidenced in Ayn Rand's landmark novel, <i>The Fountainhead</i>.</b></span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"></b><br />
While it will be noted that a vast multitude of history's great thinkers developed and tested their ideas at least to some extent in social spheres, the ideal of creation has always been more so about self-actualization than about yielding to the opinions of others. Rand brilliantly expresses this idea in <i>The Fountainhead </i>through Howard Roark's non-conformist architectural style and unwillingness to compromise his creative integrity. For Roark, architecture is not about pleasing a customer or accruing public acclaim but rather about maintaining one's innovative integrity and staying true to the identity of the creative work as an entity. Peter Keating, whose career represents the diametric opposite of the Roarkian ideal, yet described those who compromise their creative ideal in yielding to others' opinions as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When you meet them, they’re not what you met last. In any given hour,
they kill some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they
contradict–and they call it growth. At the end there’s nothing left,
nothing unrevered or unbetrayed; as if there had never been any entity,
only a succession of adjectives fading in and out on an unformed mass.</blockquote>
<br />
With the birth of the Internet and other digital media resources, we have seen how ideas in their infancy can take on a certain vitality of their own as projects garner support from enthusiasts and collaborators, but at its heart, <span style="font-size: large;">every creative endeavor represents a piece of the creator's soul</span>. One must first discover it within oneself and then breath life into it through pen or paint. Only then, by virtue of his creativity and willingness to sacrifice, can the Promethean creator set the world afire with his creation. Dr. James Montmarquet, author of <a href="http://www.aynrandstudies.com/jars/v11_n1/11_1toc.asp" target="_blank">"Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation,"</a> remarked that "[t]he architecture of the mind is conceptualization and consciousness; conceptualization is at the heart of any cognitive advance." Ultimately, creativity is a manifestation of the human soul and intellect, and the Internet is simply a facilitator of that creativity, a vehicle through which the creator can express and share his work. The ideas of others will, of course, serve their purpose in shaping a creator's ideas, but <span style="font-size: large;">the creator must find within himself the courage, integrity, and confidence to go forward with his labors, pursuing his dreams even when everyone else tells him that he can't. </span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Digital media resources do not, in themselves, <i>cause</i> people to become more or less creative. There is no magical link that upon clicking makes people suddenly burst forth in song or pen a line that captures the enigma of the human soul. Nor is there a website that instantly drains a person of all sense of creative vision and compels him/her to post pictures of cats with misspelled subtitles. Rather,<span style="font-size: large;"> the Internet gives mankind the ability to enact his creative visions</span> by providing access to both the resources and audiences necessary to realize his specific creative endeavors.<br />
<br />
Stella, a friend of mine, explained this idea, saying, "New technologies have no power to change who people are at the core. If you could somehow objectively measure pure 'creativity,' I don't think the internet would change what's inside of people."<br />
<br />
What's really inside of people -- inside of every individual -- is the ability to think and to create, to call forth a little piece of our imaginations or our dreams into reality. We don't have to chase after the age-old aspirations of our grandfathers or follow the trends of our neighbors and friends, and it just doesn't make sense to waste our time living out someone else's second-hand dreams when we might, with a little effort, attain that which we ourselves desire. <span style="font-size: large;">The stage is yours</span>, and now, more than ever, you have the tools to realize your creative dreams -- the Internet, the wisdom of the ages at your fingertips, and a wealth of other digital media resources ready to augment your creative abilities. <br />
<div>
<br />
So, if there's been a song rolling around in your head for a while or a line of poetry that's been haunting you, let it free. <span style="font-size: large;">All you really have to risk in it is finding yourself</span> and perhaps helping someone else to do so as well. Let me know about the dreams <i>you're</i> chasing.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-72502557302775935242012-05-28T21:55:00.000-07:002012-05-28T21:55:36.811-07:00Moving Toward an Understanding...<div class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjk1DZGrI4ZMKW5Sv5DnTPBBB2n33CzcvDvkIBzEEL7RAkngw5zD0tHC7PdkW4EJjATxXouRHco8EwfOGtRA8rgU-ROh8GQNLWf0GqhXTyTMlkD7Mtk5ZedfSNa1-0IcQoO0bZMMY48KM/s1600/atlas+shrugged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjk1DZGrI4ZMKW5Sv5DnTPBBB2n33CzcvDvkIBzEEL7RAkngw5zD0tHC7PdkW4EJjATxXouRHco8EwfOGtRA8rgU-ROh8GQNLWf0GqhXTyTMlkD7Mtk5ZedfSNa1-0IcQoO0bZMMY48KM/s200/atlas+shrugged.jpg" width="200" /></a>So, I've been thinking a bit about my research topic, and it's been interesting to see the different viewpoints come in from friends, peers, enthusiasts, and scholars alike as to how digital media influences creativity. I wanted to post a couple of the responses that I've gotten, in part as a way for me to organize and recall some of the thoughts that I've had lately and in part so that you can hear the different opinions, because I feel like some of them are pretty interesting. Anyway, here's one from my friend, Xiaojia: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I think it all really comes down to privacy. What do you want to be known, shared, if you want credit, etc. Possibilities are quite endless in both cyberworld and the physical world. And so many things can go between the both. The physical world may give you more privacy than the internet so that could lead to people feeling freer (that doesn't look like a word 8D) so they'd be more open to experiment. But anonymity on the internet could also encourage people to share without feeling the consequences (or at least a decent amount of consequences as a hard copy can create sometimes idk that's open to debate haha).<br />
You should check out <a href="http://postsecret.com/">postsecret.com</a> if you haven't already!<br />
In the end the internet is just a resource.</blockquote>
There's a couple of ideas here that I want to touch upon: the first is this idea of privacy and expression, an idea that I've been discussing with my mom these past couple days. She's been working to publish a children's story, and I keep telling her that she should post a rough sketch of it on a blog or something so that she can get feedback and start to get people talking about her stuff, but she worries that if she posts it, someone will snatch it up and publish it before <i>she </i>can. That's one part of the internet that you really can't change: it's out there. People will see it. People will interact with it and judge it and change it, and in the end, it might not end up where you had originally intended it to go. I think that's one of the amazing things about the internet, though, as well, that you post something and it takes on a life of its own. If you're writing just for the money, then it's understood that you risk a lot in posting original content, but I've been really impressed at the fact that some bands work on donations alone and are thus able to offer their music for free (or for a price determined by each individual downloader). We are seeing a shift in media rights, an exodus in the direction of freeware and open-source software, and with it, we are witnessing the birth of a different breed of consumerism, a system fueled by the media Medicis, the thousands of private patrons of the arts that each put in their small sums in support of creativity.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrt-H7nw3i2br8U7tiZzmI2thhtWmBXXP3labF1JWFOZHanTxEbrohyr3QizoqG0uKcgPym4J_Yf6SvMybCLgwK7gbnhxICx0NwsoEIEqXqd6f1KxxYFr3WPmQDuofLiatfcXW_c_lDA/s1600/the+fountainhead+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrt-H7nw3i2br8U7tiZzmI2thhtWmBXXP3labF1JWFOZHanTxEbrohyr3QizoqG0uKcgPym4J_Yf6SvMybCLgwK7gbnhxICx0NwsoEIEqXqd6f1KxxYFr3WPmQDuofLiatfcXW_c_lDA/s200/the+fountainhead+resized.jpg" width="200" /></a>The second idea is one expressed in Xiaojia's final closing sentence. She remarks that the Internet is just a resource. James Montmarquet, author of <a href="http://www.aynrandstudies.com/jars/v11_n1/11_1toc.asp" target="_blank">"Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation,"</a> stated this same idea by saying "machines will be common to a free and an unfree society," or as I understand it, a society wherein creativity abounds may use the same resources as one wherein creativity is absent. The Internet is simply a facilitator. The more I have studied creativity and the internet, the more I am convinced of this fact. The Internet does not, in itself, cause people to be more creative or less creative. There is no magic link that makes people suddenly burst forth in song or pen a line that captures fully the enigma of the human soul. Nor is there a website that instantly drains a person of all sense of creative vision and compels him/her to post pictures of cats with misspelled subtitles. What the Internet offers is an increased potential to influence the world through our creative endeavors. The role of the great modern creators is still more or less individualistic, but the Internet and other digital resources offer the creator the option to combine his/her creative works with those of other minds, and as a result, creative efforts -- especially those involving digital media -- are daily becoming more and more social and more and more collaborative with each passing day. The ideal of creativity remains the same, but the potential for both inspiration and collaboration abounds.<br />
<br />
I have kind of worried over the past years that creativity was dying. It seemed to me that all we ever saw was rehashes of the same hackneyed story, poorly made sequels to old classics, and mediocre story lines to garnish what I'm sure were supposed to be cutting-edge graphics. Montmarquet wrote about this idea of the death of the Promethian creator, and it was one that really piqued my interest. As I've looked into it more, I don't know that I would say that creativity is gone or has fled -- I think maybe it is just taking different forms, and the Internet is opening my eyes to the wonders of human innovation and thought.<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-69747984396356334122012-05-25T12:04:00.005-07:002012-05-25T12:04:59.764-07:00Friends for The Fountainhead<br />
For the past couple of days, I've been talking about <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/social-discovery-scholarly-response.html" target="_blank">what I've been up to</a> in terms of <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/experiments-with-social-discovery.html" target="_blank">social discovery</a>. For me, social discovery has been an interesting journey. I've been up to 3 in the morning most nights this week, reading articles and blog posts and dissertations and writing hopeful messages to strangers, hoping that they'll take interest in my work. There were definitely some frustrated moments, especially by Wednesday night, when I had received word from only one of the many scholars that I had attempted to contact. But things are looking better now, and I am realizing more and more what kinds of things I need to do to get people involved in my work.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaO5rkUuOoW5orv2F5SZ4kMISnUlgvJ1-l6R6HXLA61tTJDo700DBguXT_oEJGNw2gosdWb3__xQuZwEzxD7UomT9XquBQ49SpTZ157Vse5DWu_psW0Ybci6Dy9WD-_wi_Xn73uf4e98/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaO5rkUuOoW5orv2F5SZ4kMISnUlgvJ1-l6R6HXLA61tTJDo700DBguXT_oEJGNw2gosdWb3__xQuZwEzxD7UomT9XquBQ49SpTZ157Vse5DWu_psW0Ybci6Dy9WD-_wi_Xn73uf4e98/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a>The scholars that responded to my emails were the ones whose research I had shared on my blog, and I wrote a personalized letter to each of them asking them to comment on my work. It was neat to hear back from them so soon after emailing them (one responded the next day, and the other the day after that). I was worried that because classes are out for the summer, professors would be away from their work or vacationing or otherwise indisposed, but things are turning out just fine.<br />
<br />
For the next couple weeks, I'll be following up with some of the contacts that I've made and will be trying to distill my ideas into a more powerful and clear message that I can share as I seek more opinions on creativity in Ayn Rand's <i>The Fountainhead</i>. I hope to be able to branch out more into the realms of creativity and digital media in a general sense and hopefully get some experts and enthusiasts talking about <i>The Fountainhead</i> as a creative epic.<br />
<br />
Anyone, on to my list of potential interested parties, collaborators, and contacts:<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b>- Robert Powell -</b> I met Bob accidentally on Facebook while trying to contact a Dr. Powell who had written one of the articles that I had been studying. Bob and I got talking, and he turned out to be a bit of a Rand enthusiast. I asked if he would be interested in posting a guest blog, and I got a response back today in the affirmative, so he'll be showing up here in the next little while. I'm really excited about this!<br />
<b>- Shoshana Milgram Knapp - </b>Dr. Milgram is a leading Randian scholar who presented a <a href="http://educationviews.org/2010/02/09/an-interview-with-shoshana-milgram-knapp-the-philosophy-of-ayn-rand-lives-on/" target="_blank">lecture series at the Smithsonian Institute</a> on Ayn Rand in 2010 and who teaches <i>The Fountainhead </i>and others of Rand's writings as key works in her courses at Virginia Tech. I found Dr. Milgram Knapp through an Ayn Rand writing competition, and one of her lectures was posted online. I really enjoyed it, so I sent her an email and got back a response just this morning. She replied with a number of questions for me to look into and provided an interesting perspective on media and creativity.<br />
<b>- Adam Helland -</b> Adam is a BYU student, and I set up an interview with him through Google+. He has read <i>The Fountainhead </i>three times and considers it one of his top 5's. I met up with him yesterday evening, and we chatted about his ideas on Rand's works and creativity.<br />
<b>- Joseph -</b> I found <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9O5RJSTwa8&feature=relmfu" target="_blank">one of Joseph's songs</a> posted on an Objectivist dating service's feed, and I messaged him through Youtube. I heard back from him a couple days later, he seems to have really been influenced by Rand's works. He wrote his song based on some of the thoughts and feelings that he was having while reading <i>Atlas Shrugged </i>for the first time.<br />
<b>- Maria Solomou and Kylie Peppler - </b>I've been looking into Quest Atlantis, an online social learning environment based around the ideas of Peter Keating and Howard Roark, two of <i>The Fountainhead</i>'s characters. Dr. Solomou and Dr. Peppler were involved in getting QA up and running, and they published a really interesting article about the impact of social media on creativity. I wrote to both of them and got responses back from both as well! I was really excited about this. Also, just yesterday, I got an approval email for a guess pass to QA, which is kind of cool, as younger students (like ages 9-16) are typically the only ones allowed on the site for safety purposes. I sent an application stating my research interest, though, and I now have access, so I'll be exploring that later today hopefully.<br />
<b>- Alexander - </b>About a week ago, I posted a <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-need-to-talk.html" target="_blank">shout-out to Objectivists</a>, and I wasn't sure if I would really get anything, but I woke up one morning to find a message from Alexander saying that he had found my blog while searching for info on Ayn Rand. We shared some thoughts, and he had a lot to say on America and the direction that it's heading. He seems to be really passionate about Objectivism and has some really sound ideas as to the Internet and creativity.<br />
<b> </b><b>- James Montmarquet - </b>I came across Dr. Montmarquet's article, "Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation," and it really sparked my interest. I wrote him asking him to comment on how the internet has changed the creative process, and this morning I received a really interesting response comparing the Grecian ethic of creation with modern creativity and Rand's ideal of innovation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3PQGThMp37OFvQaklALKQKn8o80srk1t6wmKHJw93U_iAgN8aUXZa7-g6yPJvTIoJXQyCrG8lxcwJlJmm9FnjxbveIPNxeFEfVewb3XqYgUitjGx_yKz2zKbG3kWSmKej1e0mOU1reM/s1600/136px-Objectivist1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3PQGThMp37OFvQaklALKQKn8o80srk1t6wmKHJw93U_iAgN8aUXZa7-g6yPJvTIoJXQyCrG8lxcwJlJmm9FnjxbveIPNxeFEfVewb3XqYgUitjGx_yKz2zKbG3kWSmKej1e0mOU1reM/s1600/136px-Objectivist1.jpg" /></a>I've had kind of a hard time trying to really decide what I want to talk about in my research, but the different viewpoints of enthusiasts and scholars is really helping me to see both sides of my arguments. I think when all's said and done, I'll end up focusing on the idea of creative individualism as augmented by digital media, using the <i>The Fountainhead </i>as a vehicle to advocate both personal innovation and digital collaboration. I may touch on <i>Atlas Shrugged </i>in this, as its conclusion has a lot of ideas that fit into the general scheme of my research. For now, though, things are moving forward, and I really am excited about social discovery. Who woulda thunkit? :) <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-43666606618548856212012-05-24T23:47:00.002-07:002012-05-24T23:47:29.316-07:00Social Discovery: Scholarly Response<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmaYGJUvNiKuV2bh8venBytWLINrwOaBzu01AarELslzvaF9cVmr9P7ByKhNzuIhr9QIvVxUM8IP7fOlUdV86-bW7Lij_A3O5SyUklMRljLsR-4CHL9QZZyRli9dZkLln4TASgmaIBI5Y/s1600/25-ayn-rand-vertlarge+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmaYGJUvNiKuV2bh8venBytWLINrwOaBzu01AarELslzvaF9cVmr9P7ByKhNzuIhr9QIvVxUM8IP7fOlUdV86-bW7Lij_A3O5SyUklMRljLsR-4CHL9QZZyRli9dZkLln4TASgmaIBI5Y/s320/25-ayn-rand-vertlarge+(1).jpg" width="190" /></a>Yesterday, in my post, <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/experiments-with-social-discovery.html" target="_blank">"Experiments with Social Discovery,"</a> I talked about my efforts to get friends, peers, and enthusiasts involved in my research project, focused on Ayn Rand's <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Today, I'd like to continue on in detailing my efforts to contact professors and scholars in fields pertinent to my area of research. It's been a rough road so far, but I'm hoping that I'll get some good responses sometime soon.<br />
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I've sent emails to a few pretty renowned Randian philosophers, and while I haven't received any response back, I'm still trusting that something good will come of it, and I'll have been glad to wait a little bit. Leonard Peikoff, founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and author of <i>Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand,</i> uses a number of different digital resources to propagate Objectivist ideas, so I figured that he would be a good person to talk to about creativity, the Internet, and <i>The Fountainhead</i>. I left a message on his <a href="http://www.peikoff.com/" target="_blank">website</a>, and now I wait.<br />
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I messaged Shoshana Milgram Knapp, a leading Randian scholar who presented a <a href="http://educationviews.org/2010/02/09/an-interview-with-shoshana-milgram-knapp-the-philosophy-of-ayn-rand-lives-on/" target="_blank">lecture series at the Smithsonian Institute</a> on Ayn Rand in 2010 and who teaches <i>The Fountainhead </i>and others of Rand's writings as key works in her courses at Virginia Tech. She has a number of online resources, among them a great <a href="http://aynrandnovels.org/learning-more/the-fountainhead/fountainhead_milgram_lecture.html" target="_blank">lecture</a> investigating <i>The Fountainhead </i>as a modern classic and explaining how the novel can be used in contemporary learning. I'm still waiting for a response, but again, I have high hopes.<br />
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I've read a couple of articles by scholars from the Ayn Rand Institute and the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights and emailed their authors, but again, no luck as of yet in terms of responses. I tried emailing the authors of all of the articles that I'll be using in my research paper, and with only a few exceptions, I've been able to track down email addresses and sent off messages. I actually got some really good responses from a couple of the professors. I made a <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/quest-atlantis-creative-voices.html" target="_blank">blog post</a> recently where I gave a review of Quest Atlantis, an online learning community dedicated to the interplay of ideas presented in <i>The Fountainhead</i>; I was pleasantly surprised to receive responses from <u>both</u> of the professors responsible for the article that I had referenced! I seriously jumped for joy tonight when I saw the second response, as I've been really worrying about this whole social discovery thing, and it's only now starting to work for me.<br />
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I had kind of funny "scholarly response" tonight through Facebook. I had tried to find an email address for a Dr. Robert Powell, the author of one of the articles I had read, but I could only find a Facebook post. I figured, "How many Robert Powells on Facebook can be avid fans of Ayn Rand?", so I took the chance and messaged him asking him to answer a couple of questions on the relationship between modern media and creativity. I was very excited today to get a response from him, only the response was a little bit different from the one that I expected:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mr Bayles,<br />I think you've confused me with someone else - I'm not a "Dr" of anything (PhD, MD, etc). I am something of an Ayn Rand fan, though. I think the role of the creator has not become any more or less individualistic than it has been in the past, but, as technology has changed (and at least in theory improved), there is the potential for creative acts to be more collaborative. Imagine ancient Greeks collaborating on a play across more than a couple of miles separation! </blockquote>
I had to chuckle at this, but I was glad to find another enthusiast with whom to discuss Rand's works. We'll see where this next week takes me. I've had a lot more success in social discovery than I had originally anticipated I would have, and that's been a great encouragement. Late nights deliberating over what to write payed off, I guess. Also, interviewed a BYU student today about his feelings on <i>The Fountainhead. </i>Was able to contact him through Google+, and had a fun little chat about his experience with Rand's works. <div>
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Oh, additionally, I got approved for guest account to Quest Atlantis, so I'll be diving into that this weekend and seeing where it takes me in terms of my research. Anyway, that's all for tonight, but things are looking up for social discovery...</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-23352821436356365032012-05-24T00:07:00.000-07:002012-05-29T22:10:02.069-07:00Experiments with Social DiscoveryI've been trying my hand at this whole social discovery thing -- basically using the Internet as a resource to find people interested in the same things as you are interested in and then trying to get them involved in your learning and research process. I'll preface this by saying that this has been something completely foreign to me, but I guess actually <i>doing </i>the hard things is what makes them easier and/or natural in the end. Anyway, I've been trying to reach out to people in different online social settings to try to get feedback on my research, and honestly, I've had a tough time getting people to respond. That is really making me think more and more about my research topic, though, and I am thinking more and more that I would like to make it a more argumentative topic, one where there are definite diametric stances and where some people, on reading my research, would want to jump in and state their view of the matter.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAt97XizwpwJxMsyOQ-MYD0JGiSisIT3NGRAXVGfo36le_fYy6-CaDydEqT5YSK3jQWY7Lo47xP_KLCghJ6xLYuJOhus58unuA0qi-F42Ue0ncet5g7mtR-3f67fTYRj5Mg68zlj9c2hQ/s1600/googleplus-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAt97XizwpwJxMsyOQ-MYD0JGiSisIT3NGRAXVGfo36le_fYy6-CaDydEqT5YSK3jQWY7Lo47xP_KLCghJ6xLYuJOhus58unuA0qi-F42Ue0ncet5g7mtR-3f67fTYRj5Mg68zlj9c2hQ/s200/googleplus-logo.png" width="200" /></a>I started my attempts at social discovery on Google+, and I managed to find a lot of people generally interested in Objectivism but not really any that expressed acute interest in <i>The Fountainhead.</i> I can't say that this was entirely unexpected, as people generally focus more on Rand's monumental work, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>, the sort of pumped-up-on-steroids version 2.0 of <i>The Fountainhead</i>, this time based around an aspiring railroad tycoon among others. I didn't get any response from people that I had contacted personally, and those that I added to my circles in hopes of receiving a reciprocal add remained silent. One day, sort of in desperation, I wrote a <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-need-to-talk.html" target="_blank">call-out to Objectivists</a>, and a day or two later, I got my first response, from a young man named Alexander. He had been searching for info on Ayn Rand and had stumbled upon my blog. We exchanged messages a little bit, and he seemed to be open to talking. It was something little in terms of the grand scheme, but it was something big in my process of social discovery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhXX0n_GT7CpG7Ln4VJWxjvA_FaF5LXeXL7k3nNLKkujbypfQCiZDzlZI2BswaG7JDnPSpBAXyjuHDKVFvR_CIXrNJkLt0OJ_xuIMB4Rm3NYz_eXCvtFP5y74Nd5Lkxu_-bqR2Y7oD0E/s1600/youtube-logo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhXX0n_GT7CpG7Ln4VJWxjvA_FaF5LXeXL7k3nNLKkujbypfQCiZDzlZI2BswaG7JDnPSpBAXyjuHDKVFvR_CIXrNJkLt0OJ_xuIMB4Rm3NYz_eXCvtFP5y74Nd5Lkxu_-bqR2Y7oD0E/s200/youtube-logo.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
I guess really my first response, though, was really a little bit before that, from a musician whose <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c9O5RJSTwa8" target="_blank">song</a> I found on Youtube and shared<span id="goog_2028526005"></span><span id="goog_2028526006"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a> a couple of weeks ago. He (Joseph) responded to a message that I sent through Youtube, telling me that he had written the song based on <i>Atlas Shrugged. </i>I was excited to find out, as I had had suspicions that was the case. Anyway, it was neat to connect with him and to see that people are creating media content based on Rand's works.<br />
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I had sent a message to a young woman named Audrey in response to her <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Nhk-3C5TY" target="_blank">book review</a> of <i>The Fountainhead</i>, and she wrote back the next day, telling me of her story with regard to Rand's works. She said she had always had ideas similar to those in Rand's work, but it was only upon reading <i>The Fountainhead </i>that she really felt inspired to concretely define the morals that she wanted to uphold. I've come across a lot of other people with similar sentiments and have gotten to hear their stories through videos and blog posts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgodRkUK1bTFW5QToWyKZwNGvhO3LVtekfgj2wr5p5E4WC4r4vBC8aUexyGNqlvMGbg0mhboYhm-izLitu3fH_fzjjI4s1J9HvjYoScMAkXCgOsrIIBUPHppNJIZ2HNKcc-CkSuWrT7U8/s1600/twit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgodRkUK1bTFW5QToWyKZwNGvhO3LVtekfgj2wr5p5E4WC4r4vBC8aUexyGNqlvMGbg0mhboYhm-izLitu3fH_fzjjI4s1J9HvjYoScMAkXCgOsrIIBUPHppNJIZ2HNKcc-CkSuWrT7U8/s1600/twit.jpg" /></a>I tried my hand at Twitter, and that gave me some success I guess. I found lots and lots of people talking about <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/objectivismnews" target="_blank">Objectivism</a> (thousands!), but it seemed that most were interested more in Rand's political ideologies. I found a few people that I thought might be more specifically interested in the work I was doing, but none of them responded when I sent messages to them. I follow some <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/objectivismtalk" target="_blank">Objectivist feeds</a> now, though, so that, if not a source for social contact, has at least been an information source, a sort of river of ideas and connections to modern events, and that's been good for my research.<br />
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It was about at this time that I discovered an <a href="http://www.theatlasphere.com/" target="_blank">Objectivist dating service</a> and online community, and while I haven't had the time to really delve into the resource that that represents, it has been neat to see how many people are so actively engaged (no pun intended) in Objectivism. There are tons of people on there posting about Objectivism, and the site gives access to some people's blogs and other resources. That's actually where I found Joseph's music, there on one of those blogs.<br />
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I've worked recently to get more people reading my blog and contributing, and while I've some trouble with the latter goal (perhaps owing to the fact that a lot of people haven't read <i>The Fountainhead</i>), I've been able to reach people through personal email, Facebook, and other resources. The other day, I sent out a mass message to all of my email contacts asking them about what inspires them to create and inviting them to read and comment on my blog, and I was pleasantly surprised to get four or five responses back within an hour's time. A couple of them gave me permission to share their thoughts:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So what inspires me to create and share is the possibility of having what I say and/or do be spread throughout the entire world. I mean that's why I have two blogs and two twitter accounts, because I feel that as an individual my voice matters... Because of the internet I don't feel like I have to run for public office or rub shoulders with journalists in order to let my voice be heard. I feel like through the merit of what I write and share, I can be noticed by those who can make it possible to share what I say in a more credible platform (newspaper, talk show, etc.) -Brian</blockquote>
I really like the last line, and I think it sums up pretty well some of the ideas that have been going through my head recently as pertaining to digital media. Kehnin, another friend, responded to a query about the internet's potential to stimulate or stifle creativity with the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is an interesting question because i think that all the information can support both ideas, with the same argument basicly. With social media we are able to experiance more and more new things, but as that happens the populous becomes more homogeneous.<br />
So, perhaps on an individual level we become more creative, but as a race we become less creative. That is my take on it.</blockquote>
That idea of individual creativity is one that I've been investigating a lot in <i>The Fountainhead</i>, as it really emphasizes the idea of the Promethian creator, the single person who, by the virtue of his/her bravery and willingness to sacrifice, brings light to the masses, be it in the form of fire (as was the case with Prometheus) or some other thing. I'll close this post with one final quote, an interesting response to a Facebook shout-out that I made a few days ago. The first part especially really made me think:<br />
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I believe that new technologies have no power to change who people are at their core. If you could somehow objectively measure pure "creativity," I don't think the internet would change what's inside of people. However, the internet does make new sorts of creative work viable; for example, it encourages collaborative works, and gives more people access to more raw material. It also may inspire people to be creative who might not have been if it weren't so easy to share their creativity and partake of the creativity of others. It's a tool. -Stella</blockquote>
Well, there's some food for thought, I guess. I've done some other social discovery with Prezi, Slideshare, Quora, and a number of Objectivist communities, but this post is getting to be really long, so I'll close now and post again on my other efforts and my most recent attempts to find scholarly social proof. But alas, that will have to wait until tomorrow. So, good night, and thanks for reading!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-20709825969548279042012-05-22T19:35:00.001-07:002012-05-23T00:19:50.647-07:00Quest Atlantis: Creative VoicesSo, maybe I'm having a little bit of a nerd moment, but I'm really psyched about some research that I've been doing recently, and I wanted to share something that I found. <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1906436&show=abstract" target="_blank">One of the articles</a> that I read through while researching <i>The Fountainhead</i> mentioned an online game-community called Quest Atlantis, which, from what I understood, was basically an online game world centered around the diametrically opposite architectural ideologies of Howard Roark and Peter Keating, two main characters in <i>The Fountainhead</i>. Well, I've come to find out that it's not just that -- it's like a whole community dedicated to teaching kids, age 9-16, important values and skills through a fun and engaging online world full of quests and adventures and all sorts of stuff. The architectural aspect is just one little part of it! This is the kids' schoolwork, to play games and build buildings and solve problems, and it is all really cool.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUiMnnqt5InT0MncgjImxXWgUvpK5_LzlYEYcZLS9ZcfkRBYz3w_tcKPneFtJ5EHvd8OtgQ8nNtnCsZLWHlbhilZJLCuQghVVzkO6N4ILPRtEEwQphh5v9lOmouKA_qO-L8QB9hEs9z8/s1600/Qville-Stockmarket21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUiMnnqt5InT0MncgjImxXWgUvpK5_LzlYEYcZLS9ZcfkRBYz3w_tcKPneFtJ5EHvd8OtgQ8nNtnCsZLWHlbhilZJLCuQghVVzkO6N4ILPRtEEwQphh5v9lOmouKA_qO-L8QB9hEs9z8/s200/Qville-Stockmarket21.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUiMnnqt5InT0MncgjImxXWgUvpK5_LzlYEYcZLS9ZcfkRBYz3w_tcKPneFtJ5EHvd8OtgQ8nNtnCsZLWHlbhilZJLCuQghVVzkO6N4ILPRtEEwQphh5v9lOmouKA_qO-L8QB9hEs9z8/s1600/Qville-Stockmarket21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"></span></a><br />
I was interested to find out on the <a href="http://questatlantisblog.org/mission/" target="_blank">official QA blog </a> that students have independently established hotels and shops and advertising companies and even a functioning stock market! Pretty unbelievable. Students are currently working on developing a legal system for this online world, as money and regulations have recently become more mainstream. Teachers are able to implement this amazing resource as a way to teach and reinforce a number of really positive lessons, listed in QA's mission statement:<br />
<ul>
<li>Creative Expression – "I Create"</li>
<li>Diversity Affirmation – "Everyone Matters"</li>
<li>Personal Agency – "I Have Voice"</li>
<li>Social Responsibility – "We Can Make a Difference"</li>
<li>Environmental Awareness – "Think Globally, Act Locally"</li>
<li>Healthy Communities – "Live, Love, Grow"</li>
<li>Compassionate Wisdom – "Be Kind"</li>
</ul>
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I feel like these are the same lessons that I am still learning and relearning every day. I wanted to touch for just a moment on the architectural aspect on QA, because I feel like it, above all else, reflects the ideas that I'll be addressing in my research...</div>
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In their article, Peppler and Solomou explain the general scheme of the Architectural unit:</div>
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In the Architecture Unit, Questers become acquainted with the opposing ideologies of Rand’s novel when they meet both Roark and Keating at an architecture firm. In order to begin apprenticeship at the firm, Questers have to identify their values as they relate to integrity and social alignment, resulting in their choice to join either Roark’s team (which has less constraints on the types of buildings they can build but with fewer city contracts) or Keating’s team (which has more creative restrictions but is guaranteed more money).</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghseGQI4aTnwEw-L1IjAp0zMwOD1tDbZMZEYqpWKqP4bXpZjzZ8ROA-ZXNaamshbPrkoQPhTUu5K007n0NHWDiory_DMKXjEEBlw6WyzXM1AreTGx9KchyphenhyphenFktSR59YnlVOk5_sOxEGb3o/s1600/mushroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghseGQI4aTnwEw-L1IjAp0zMwOD1tDbZMZEYqpWKqP4bXpZjzZ8ROA-ZXNaamshbPrkoQPhTUu5K007n0NHWDiory_DMKXjEEBlw6WyzXM1AreTGx9KchyphenhyphenFktSR59YnlVOk5_sOxEGb3o/s320/mushroom.jpg" width="320" /></a>Students in Roark's firm have access to a number of shapes, styles, and textures, while members of Keating's firm are limited to rectangular buildings, straight lines, and a defined array of traditional patterns and textures. Peppler and Solomou note that though ninety percent of the creative resources are common between the two firms, each developed a distinctive creative ideal, almost wholly independent from the other. Students in Roark's firm, when the idea of mushroom-shaped houses was presented, quickly picked it up across the online community. This provides interesting implications as to the nature of creativity and the sharing of ideas. Truly, the QA world provides a revealing look into the nature of creativity and the future of online interaction and learning.<br />
<br />
So, the take-home message: the rules of creativity and innovation are changing, and in this ever-changing world, the internet is become more and more valuable as a tool for understanding and implementing ideas as pertaining to creativity and creation. Find out more about QA at <a href="http://questatlantisblog.org/">http://questatlantisblog.org</a> and read about students' experiences at <a href="http://myquestatlantis.edublogs.org/">http://myquestatlantis.edublogs.org/</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-49032813560880717122012-05-21T11:31:00.001-07:002012-05-23T00:39:16.428-07:00From Promethius to Nietzsche : A Research Bibliography for The Fountainhead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHRpNligtz-UqS3QOxnSiF7okl4cjXTTX19bG5OLYPtYeZSN0D6Avdu4zh0lO1VW3I2ejxgzdmHGf8ONb-J50l4oBuNBBQub-9IM4EiIstAkud4dh0iyMZPsBY20xnThs6nsWnxGHfDg/s1600/prometheus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHRpNligtz-UqS3QOxnSiF7okl4cjXTTX19bG5OLYPtYeZSN0D6Avdu4zh0lO1VW3I2ejxgzdmHGf8ONb-J50l4oBuNBBQub-9IM4EiIstAkud4dh0iyMZPsBY20xnThs6nsWnxGHfDg/s320/prometheus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Tweethis Statement: In a world of conflicting values in the realms of expression and innovation, digital media has emerged as a powerful player in the creative process and has reignited the fires of creativity both for individuals and for the collective web-populace.</b><br />
<br />
Branden, Nathaniel. <i>My Years with Ayn Rand. Ed. Ayn Rand</i>. 1st ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Biography</li>
<li>HBLL Bookshelves</li>
<li>The revealing story of Branden and Rand, whose relationship began as student to teacher and progressed through friendship to lovers and finally to adversaries. A very personal account of Rand's character and persona from the perspective of someone once very close to her.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Cashman, Mark. "Does Information Technology make Us Smarter?: If so, how; if Not, Why Not?" ACM SIGCHI Bulletin 1995: 52-3. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article</li>
<li>HBLL Online Database</li>
<li><a href="http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/580000/570125/p52-cashman.pdf?ip=128.187.73.9&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=104423253&CFTOKEN=67093345&__acm__=1337606419_6e9d0f95476f635518842c599a8490b7">http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/580000/570125/p52-cashman.pdf?ip=128.187.73.9&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=104423253&CFTOKEN=67093345&__acm__=1337606419_6e9d0f95476f635518842c599a8490b7</a></li>
<li>Gives a psychological approach to information technology as applied to creativity, conceptualization, and consciousness.
</li>
</ul>
<br />
Fand, Roxanne J. "Reading the Fountainhead: The Missing Self in Ayn Rand's Ethical Individualism." College English 2009: 486-505. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article
</li>
<li>National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Database and MLA Bibliography</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ncte.org.erl.lib.byu.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/0715-may09/VM0715Reading.pdf">http://www.ncte.org.erl.lib.byu.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/0715-may09/VM0715Reading.pdf</a></li>
<li>Discusses a professor's experiences in presenting <i>The Fountainhead</i> in her Literature and Popular Culture course and investigates the creative and controlling personality and ideology of Howard Roark. </li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><br />
Heller, Anne Conover. Ayn Rand and the World She made. 1st ed. New York: Nan A. Talese, 2009. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Biography</li>
<li>HBLL Bookshelves</li>
<li>An overview of Rand's life, beginning with her troubled childhood in St. Petersberg and taking the reader through her emigration to the U.S. and along the path of her career in writing and philosophy. Also discusses the cult of Objectivism, particularly evident among younger generations.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Hunt, Lester H. "Thus Spake Howard Roark: Nietzschean Ideas in the Fountainhead." Philosophy and Literature 2006: 79-101. Print.<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article</li>
<li>Project MUSE and MLA Bibliography</li>
<li><a href="http://philosophy.wisc.edu/hunt/nietzsche&fountainhead.htm">http://philosophy.wisc.edu/hunt/nietzsche&fountainhead.htm</a>
</li>
<li>Discusses (you guessed it!) Nietzschean ideas presented in <i>The Fountainhead</i> and gives some interesting commentary into academia's views of Rand.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Montmarquet, James. "Prometheus: Ayn Rand's Ethic of Creation." Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 2011: 3-18. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article
</li>
<li>Referenced on an Objectivist blog</li>
<li>Obtained through HBLL's Inter-Library Loan from Baylor University</li>
<li>An evaluation of the virtue of self-interest presented in <i>The Fountainhead </i>as contrasted with Aristotelian self-love. Explores the "ethic of creation" and discusses the death of the Promethian ideal of creation. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Peppler, Kylie A. and Solomou, Maria. "Building Creativity: Collaborative Learning and Creativity in Social Media Environments." On the Horizon 2011: 13-23. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article</li>
<li>HBLL Online Database</li>
<li><a href="http://sfx.lib.byu.edu/sfxlcl3?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2012-05-22T18%3A45%3A29IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-emerald&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Building%20creativity:%20collaborative%20learning%20and%20creativity%20in%20social%20media%20environments&rft.jtitle=On%20the%20Horizon&rft.btitle=&rft.aulast=&rft.auinit=&rft.auinit1=&rft.auinitm=&rft.ausuffix=&rft.au=Kylie%20A.%20Peppler&rft.aucorp=&rft.date=2011&rft.volume=19&rft.issue=1&rft.part=&rft.quarter=&rft.ssn=&rft.spage=13&rft.epage=23&rft.pages=&rft.artnum=&rft.issn=1074-8121&rft.eissn=&rft.isbn=&rft.sici=&rft.coden=&rft.object_id=&rft_dat=%3Cemerald%3E10.1108/10748121111107672%3C/emerald%3E&rft.eisbn=&rft.pub=Emerald%20Group%20Publishing%20Limited&rft.place=&rft.date=2011&rft.edition=&rft_id=">http://sfx.lib.byu.edu/sfxlcl3?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2012-05-22T18%3A45%3A29IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-emerald&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Building%20creativity:%20collaborative%20learning%20and%20creativity%20in%20social%20media%20environments&rft.jtitle=On%20the%20Horizon&rft.btitle=&rft.aulast=&rft.auinit=&rft.auinit1=&rft.auinitm=&rft.ausuffix=&rft.au=Kylie%20A.%20Peppler&rft.aucorp=&rft.date=2011&rft.volume=19&rft.issue=1&rft.part=&rft.quarter=&rft.ssn=&rft.spage=13&rft.epage=23&rft.pages=&rft.artnum=&rft.issn=1074-8121&rft.eissn=&rft.isbn=&rft.sici=&rft.coden=&rft.object_id=&rft_dat=%3Cemerald%3E10.1108/10748121111107672%3C/emerald%3E&rft.eisbn=&rft.pub=Emerald%20Group%20Publishing%20Limited&rft.place=&rft.date=2011&rft.edition=&rft_id=</a>
</li>
<li>Investigates social media's place in the creative process; lays out the general idea behind Quest Atlantis, an online architectural social community based on the diametric ideologies presented in Rand's <i>The Fountainhead.</i> Discusses the idea of collaborative creativity as evinced in the Quest Atlantis online world. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Powell, Robert L. "Ayn Rand's Heroes: Between and Beyond Good and Evil." 2007. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>PhD Dissertation (Scholarly Article)</li>
<li>HBLL Online Database </li>
<li><a href="http://search.proquest.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/docview/305328847/fulltextPDF/136D5013ADA72588498/1?accountid=4488">http://search.proquest.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/docview/305328847/fulltextPDF/136D5013ADA72588498/1?accountid=4488</a></li>
<li>Examines the romantic and existentialist aspects of Rand's works and discusses ideas of existential self-actualization and of collective information bases. </li>
</ul>
Sciabarra, Chris Matthew. <i>Ayn Rand: Her Life and Thought</i>. Poughkeepsie, New York: The Atlas Society. 1996. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Monograph</li>
<li>Found through Wikipedia</li>
<li>(Still trying to get a copy of this. I've found excerpts, but the book itself is $200 from Barnes and Noble, and I haven't been able to find it elsewhere. Maybe through ILLiad) </li>
<li>A biography about Rand's upbringing and the foundations of her philosophies within a reactionary anti-Communist experience and an eventual relocation to America.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Valiunas, Algis. "Who Needs Ayn Rand?". Commentary 2005: 59-62. Print.<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>Scholarly Article</li>
<li>HBLL Online Database</li>
<li>Recommended by Adam Sorenson</li>
<li>Discusses Rand's impact on various aspects of society -- especially on pop culture -- and introduces some of Rand's foundational philosophies with regard to the self. </li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
As for a scholarly/archived edition of <i>The Fountainhead</i>, neither I nor two humanities librarians have been able to find anything. I'll keep looking, but for now I am focusing on a companion text that should provide comparable scholarly commentary on the work:<br />
<br />
<br />
Gladstein, Mim Reisel. The New Ayn Rand Companion, Revised and Expanded Edition. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticuit. 1999. Print.<br />
<ul>
<li>Companion reference</li>
<li>HBLL Bookshelves</li>
<li>Scholarly commentary on a number of Rand's novels, including character analysis, theme evaluation, analysis of historical and fictional elements within the novels, and criticism for each of the novels.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
Bibliography and Sound Recordings. Ayn Rand Institute. Online.</div>
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Bibliography</li>
<li>Found using "Special Collections" tag in a Google search.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_archives_biblio">http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_archives_biblio</a></li>
<li>A list of primary and secondary resources as to Ayn Rand's writing and philosophy.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
In general, this process of compiling sources has been a good one for me. It's been a bit of a stress trying to find specific types of resources, and I honestly feel that it's dampened my excitement for the subject, but in other regards, I've really come to life. I've stumbled upon a lot of psychology and philosophy as I've been reading, and it's been fun to revisit some old friends in that regard. Getting some of my sources together has really helped me to see that I want to focus more so on the psychological aspect of my research, so I've been looking for literature that corresponds to that.</div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-22575878027379979032012-05-18T23:41:00.002-07:002012-05-18T23:41:52.078-07:00Research QuestionsWell, I've been throwing around a bunch of ideas for a thesis statement for my upcoming research paper and wanted to get people's takes on the different ideas. Some questions that I've been looking into include:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b id="internal-source-marker_0.12829242669977248"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the value of digital media in the modern creative process? </span></b><b id="internal-source-marker_0.12829242669977248"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are the rules of creativity and innovation changing? </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the role of social media in self-actualization?</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the power of an individual to bring about change when armed with digital media?</span></b></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am leaning heavily toward the first, though all of them are kind of interconnected, so I could touch on all of them potentially. I feel like the first is most pertinent to my novel, <i>The Fountainhead</i>, but at the same time, it goes in opposition to what is said in the book, so my research would represent a refutation of Rand's ideals. Kind of murky waters for the moment being.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which topic do you like best? Any ideas for a better one?</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-77497889534826936132012-05-17T15:56:00.001-07:002012-05-17T15:57:35.147-07:00Thoughts on Research...I stumbled upon <a href="http://reason.com/archives/2005/03/01/ayn-rand-at-100">this article</a> while researching <i>The Fountainhead</i> the other day, and I thought it provided a couple really savvy insights into social response to Ayn Rand's philosophies and works. Among other things, the author talks about Rand's totalist mentality as a source of friction between her supporters and her detractors, and that's an idea that I've been toying with recently in my study of online interactions between Rand's friends and foes. It's been really interesting seeing the dynamics of social involvement in Objectivism, and I am wondering if I might be better off doing my research paper on just that (though it would likely distance me from the actual primary text to some extent). In any case, check out the article! If nothing else, it provides a good overview of Rand's influence and place in modern society.<br />
<br />
And, just as some food for thought, an idea taken from Rand's "Man's Rights":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action—which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.) . . .</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-sVDkZ3Zqe5VGb6F3KbTKwuY4qjj_NPi-h9WqPJSggcKNicAO5jMMw4AfulgnsXOeXW0U5QXoCDLvFKMmRgk205wC9nwQW-1SqD61oynZ0wj3zvaGLTiU6AM8PfnaKy6GpQi036zNeo/s1600/declaration-of-independence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-sVDkZ3Zqe5VGb6F3KbTKwuY4qjj_NPi-h9WqPJSggcKNicAO5jMMw4AfulgnsXOeXW0U5QXoCDLvFKMmRgk205wC9nwQW-1SqD61oynZ0wj3zvaGLTiU6AM8PfnaKy6GpQi036zNeo/s320/declaration-of-independence.jpg" width="304" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-62317400276438091102012-05-16T23:59:00.000-07:002012-05-17T13:35:09.536-07:00We Need to Talk...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/c9O5RJSTwa8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe>So, this video was posted on an Ayn Rand social networking site, but I still wasn't really sure whether it had been written with one of Rand's characters in mind. I was able to get in contact with the artist, though, and he affirmed that it was inspired in part by <i>Atlas Shrugged. </i>Anyway I really like the ideas presented in the song... and the vocalist sounds sort of like John Mayer.<br />
<br />
I've been digging to try to find some social contacts with regard to <i>The Fountainhead</i>, and I kind of hit jackpot tonight with the social networking/dating service. I actually ran across an obscure reference to it in a scholarly article and thought, "Really? REALLY? They have a dating service for fans of Rand's stuff?" And sure enough, they do.<br />
<br />
I feel like it's been somewhat difficult to track down fans of Rand's philosophies because of the nature of her philosophies themselves. One of the primary tenets of Objectivism is that you find meaning in yourself, and you don't really rely on the opinions of other people. That's all fine and dandy, but it just so happens to be a huge obstacle in terms of my efforts to practice social discovery. How are you supposed to use social media to discover others and get social proof when the people whose opinions you're seeking are philosophically disinclined as regards both social discovery and social proof? Well, it's been a struggle, but I feel like I might finally be getting somewhere, little by little.<br />
<br />
So, for all you Objectivists out there, send me a message, drop me comment, toss me a +1, just anything to help me know that there really are Objectivists out there using social media. We need to talk...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-17031292011354826032012-05-15T22:33:00.000-07:002012-05-15T22:35:00.827-07:00Living YOUR Dreams<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">I've had a tough time really trying to express a couple of ideas in my research of <i>The Fountainhead</i>, but I think I've found a quote that kind of sums up a number of my thoughts on the matter:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders why he's unhappy.</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> -Ayn Rand, </span><i style="color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Fountainhead</i></blockquote>
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_N2urOyk8tmb975X-C6nQdPeujw4HVPqLkro2n_QztQg6DUAHeol3G7-v1BkUZFScblVGltsww_BtlIiti8IczGR3vPFtDsKrpZvvciuBiL4din4chkAbmWirDc-66fVcxU-5RHgLKsU/s1600/dreams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_N2urOyk8tmb975X-C6nQdPeujw4HVPqLkro2n_QztQg6DUAHeol3G7-v1BkUZFScblVGltsww_BtlIiti8IczGR3vPFtDsKrpZvvciuBiL4din4chkAbmWirDc-66fVcxU-5RHgLKsU/s320/dreams.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">I've been trying to encapsulate this idea the whole time, the idea that an individual can seek his/her <i>own</i> dreams and still contribute positively to society, the idea that we don't have to chase after the age old aspirations of our grandfathers or follow the trends of our neighbors and friends. Each member of mankind is amazing, and each member of society has something special to contribute, some new innovation, some novel creation. It just doesn't make sense to waste our time living out someone else's second-hand dreams when we might, with a little effort, attain that which <i>we </i>ourselves desire more than anything else.</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-348912948295524052012-05-14T22:37:00.000-07:002012-05-17T13:38:17.096-07:00Rand, Roark, and the Digital Media Revolution<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_Mx7F3aaeLwCAhKFHkO0ZKqMLjZuuPOKQA5OGBqJEypJtV7rg3JjgAItW_dmJI5cXR7sMSgHa4D18k9X3AqtijrlJb2N559RGlxwowKVEKDkxbgZghcCdcXy5ovMDH8IGnXxpgSU7tQ/s1600/Colonnades.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_Mx7F3aaeLwCAhKFHkO0ZKqMLjZuuPOKQA5OGBqJEypJtV7rg3JjgAItW_dmJI5cXR7sMSgHa4D18k9X3AqtijrlJb2N559RGlxwowKVEKDkxbgZghcCdcXy5ovMDH8IGnXxpgSU7tQ/s320/Colonnades.jpg" width="320" /></a>I've been thinking a lot about what kind of relationship Howard Roark, the main character of Rand's <i>The Fountainhead</i>, would have had with modern digital media. On one hand, I guess the Internet could have really helped him all those times when he is looking for clientele and trying to make his work more publicly known so that he could build more buildings, but on the other hand, Howard represents one of the most solitary and cold personalities of just about any book that I've ever read, so I have to wonder how much he would have cared for the social aspect involved in modern digital media. He was never one to really care about what other people thought of him or his work, and he was never one to think much about others or their work, so the idea of "Likes" and +1's and views would likely come off as superficial and pathetic to him. I noticed as I was reading that all of Roark's problematic clients insisted upon big, fancy facades, with useless collonades and superfluous ornamentation, and I feel like Facebook pages and profiles and all that would be, to Roark, simply a digital extension of the ostentatious facades proliferated in Classical architecture. Roark is about the real and the now, the stone beneath his fingers, the grass beneath his feet, the eyes that turn away from his unvarying gaze, and it seems to me that the Internet would be, for him, too immaterial, too fickle, too false.<br />
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Rand, on the other hand, would have likely utilized digital media as a way to disseminate her ideas. Leonard Peikoff, the leading Randian philosopher and founder of the Ayn Rand Institute, uses all sorts of modern media to teach about Objectivism: he has online lectures, podcasts, videos, etc., and he encourage those with questions to email him. I actually emailed Peikoff asking him about his thoughts on digital media and The Fountainhead, and though I haven't heard back yet, I'll be interested to see what his thoughts are on the matter... What about you? What do you think?</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-35936532480222615732012-05-13T18:31:00.000-07:002012-05-13T18:31:10.662-07:00The Family: A Proclamation to the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In 1995, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued <i>The Family: A Proclamation to the World</i>, a document containing valuable truths as to man's nature and stating God's word concerning marriage and familial relationships. I didn't really realize how important all this was until I was about sixteen, but then it came to really mean a lot to me, and it in some senses saved me. My family growing up had it's problems, perhaps like every family, but the truths contained in this document have helped us to be stronger as a family unit and have helped me to know what I will need to do as a husband and father to provide for the spiritual, emotional, and temporal welfare of my family. I really do love it. Read the full document <a href="https://www.lds.org/family/proclamation" target="_blank">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3516966719885374883.post-33711346013712646612012-05-12T14:59:00.001-07:002012-05-17T13:28:51.857-07:00Revisiting "Acolytes and Adversaries: Public Response to the Fountainhead"In my post, <a href="http://baylesgreg-eng295.blogspot.com/2012/05/acolytes-and-adversaries-public.html" target="_blank">"Acolytes and Adversaries: Public Response to the Fountainhead"</a>, I talked a little bit about the polarization that Ayn Rand's works seem to create among followers. In reading an article in the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/16/magazine/tm-13537" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a> on <i>The Fountainhead</i>, I was impressed by some of the author's thoughts on why Rand's work hasn't hit it big among the general populace:<br />
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College students might love Rand's books, but few will ever stumble across her on a syllabus. Academic philosophers don't acknowledge that she ever existed. Even those who love Rand's books tend to dismiss her most loyal followers as crackpots. "I've read 'Atlas Shrugged' a half-dozen times; a great book, just terrific," says Michael Shermer, who publishes Skeptic magazine from his house in Altadena and who wrote a chapter, "The Unlikeliest Cult," on Rand's die-hard followers in his book "Why People Believe Weird Things."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUHeAWkjVn2f_2SFO27Y7SpU7FRxSVATYB78IFv7vGdc62DaHxAtoGFqOfY537vxGARWCklYmLFLk91MnsvTyOBi_QtqshyphenhyphenEAUdn-1z2Ke7LQL9FOT_oHoZN_n6Ojosnvlvhd3jApdUHc/s1600/blackandwhite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUHeAWkjVn2f_2SFO27Y7SpU7FRxSVATYB78IFv7vGdc62DaHxAtoGFqOfY537vxGARWCklYmLFLk91MnsvTyOBi_QtqshyphenhyphenEAUdn-1z2Ke7LQL9FOT_oHoZN_n6Ojosnvlvhd3jApdUHc/s320/blackandwhite.jpg" width="320" /></a>"I love that black-and-white world view, heroes and villains," Shermer says. "But as a scientific tool to model the world, it doesn't work. People are not all good or all bad; they're complicated. The Randian world is black and white. It's fantasy. How can they hope to appeal to mainstream America with their philosophy when they have these weirdos who project it?"</div>
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Peikoff and other Randians don't want to appeal to mainstream American if they have to compromise. Their role model, after all, is Howard Roark, the brilliant architect-philosopher of "The Fountainhead," who blows up his own building rather than see his design debased.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As Berliner explains: "Orthodox objectivism is a redundancy. It's just Objectivism. Some people like to have Objectivism and at the same time indulge their whims. What it holds, it holds as an absolute. A lot of people are psychologically uncomfortable with that. They want to water it down, compromise it, add their own stuff, and think that they're still Objectivist."</span></div>
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Perhaps it is this "black and white" mentality that isolates a lot of people from Rand's ideas, creating characters that while noble (or despicable) are yet not quite real enough to be able to relate to. Perhaps it is the uncompromising ardor of Objectivists, coupled with a perceived sense of superiority, that makes people apprehensive when it comes to Rand's ideas.<br />
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I feel like people assume that in order to benefit from the ideas presented as part of Objectivism, they have to approach Objectivism from an Objectivist standpoint -- all or nothing, in or out, no compromise. The fact is, whether or not we agree with Objectivist economic policies, there are many great ideas contained in Rand's work as pertaining to creativity and innovation. Though we may not like the egotist mentality of a great many of Rand's main characters, there is meaning to be found in her ideas of strength of character, integrity, and a desire to create.<br />
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Objectivism is founded primarily on the virtue of reason, and the first act of reason is to acknowledge truth, from whatever source it may come. That doesn't mean that we accept blindly anything that is told us or anything that is written in a book; it simply means that when we recognize truth, in whatever form it may appear, we ought to have the courage to accept it and make it a part of our lives.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0