Ring Cycle at the MET

I am not a fan of Opera so this video was a bit hard to watch. It was hard to sit and watch the whole video without skipping through it. I do not know what they are saying or doing in the video so I did not enjoy it. I will say I like the stage and those things that move up and down. I thought it was cool that when it was one of the ladies turn to sing she would slide down the wood. I'm not sure what the ladies where doing or what the props where but I found myself trying to figure it out rather than listening to the Opera. I think without the props maybe I would have focused more on the voices.

Cold play - A Capella

This video along with any other A Cappella song is truly impressive. I am amazed at anyone with a good voice never mind a voice and the talent to make a whole song with just their mouth. Not only is this guy's song/voice good but the video is impressive too. I don't know how he mad each individual sound and then put them together with himself also being in the video multiple times in the same shot. This is an example of art and technology, technology used to make the video but also the sounds by altering his voice. This reminds me of the movie Pitch Perfect where I first started appreciating A Capella; in the movie there was a bunch of people singing not just one though. I found some other cool videos done by other groups as well. This one I thought was cool because it goes through the evolution of music, and this group has done a lot of different covers of different songs. 

Transformation of Hamlet into a Video Game

The opera, Hamlet, is by the French composer Ambroise Thomas and words by Michel Carre and Jules Barbeir in 1868. It is an opera in 5 acts with the characters Hamlet, the prince of Denmark; Claudius, the King of Denmark; Polonius, the Chancellor; Laertes, Polonius’ son; Ghost of Hamlet’s father; Gertrude, who is Hamlet’s mother; and Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius.

In the first Act, the Queen is worried her son Hamlet does not love her since he is upset that she is marring his uncle so soon after his father’s death. Hamlet is later acquainted by his father’s spirit who tells him that he was murdered by the present King, Claudius. Hamlet’s father wishes for revenge for the crime that was committed. In Act two, hamlet tries to get a confession of the Kings crime; he wishes to have a play that re-enacts the murder of his father. Claudius orders for the play to stop, proving he is guilty. Act three portrays Hamlet sparing Claudius’ life because he is praying, and finds out that Polonius was in on the murder of his father. Ophelia, Polonius’ daughter, is suppose to marry Hamlet but he refuses after hearing this information. In act four, Ophelia goes mad from heart break and drowns herself. In The last act, Act five, Hamlet feels bad for how he has treated Ophelia but does not know she is dead. Laertes, returns for his sister’s death and challenges Hamlet to a dual. Hamlet gets wounded but before they can finish the fight Ophelia’s funeral interrupts it, and Hamlet then realizes she is dead. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears again and reminds Hamlet of his duties; Hamlet kills Claudius.

The game I have come up with has the same characters as the opera; Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, Ghost of Hamlets father, some guards, Polonius, Laertes, and Gertrude. I kind of combined a different version of Call of duty, with Tap Tap Revolution, and Temple Run. There are six levels and an option to play easy, medium or hard. The difference from easy to hard is easy is harder to die then if you choose hard.

 In the first level, the player is Hamlet and it takes place in Elsinore Castle in Denmark, where Hamlet is approached by his father’s ghost. He is told he has to help revenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. Then it will take you to the front of the castle where you have to choose between two paths. One will take you to a room where you will find a box; in this box is a variety of different weapons. It only includes weapons from the 1800’s and they will be randomly picked; you can return to this box at anytime to switch your weapons. If you choose the other path you will have to fight a series of guards. It will be almost impossible to beat the guards without a weapon. Once you die you will be taken to the beginning again.  

The next level, after you beat the guards, you will be taken to Hamlet’s mother who will be trying to capture you; if she does capture you, you will be killed with kisses. Without hurting her, you will have to try and get to the theater room. Once you get to the theater room, you will see the play of the murder of Hamlet’s father. While this is happening, you will need to hit the right notes on the piano so that you keep the audience entertained. To do this there will be four sets of piano keys and when they light up you will have to press the right ones as fast as you can. If you miss a note a little bar with the audience happiness level will go down; you are aloud to miss four notes before you fail and the audience leaves. If you pass the play you will see Claudius run out of the play.

The next level will start with Claudius and Polonius talking about how they both worked together to kill Hamlet’s father. While this is happening you will have to try and escape without them seeing you. There will be a highlighted path for you to take, but on this path there will be obstacles that consist of guards you will silently have to kill by breaking their necks or stabbing them.

The next level starts out with you refusing to marry Ophelia. You will then have to chase her dodging trees and boulders that stand in your way. At the end of the chase you see Ophelia jump into the water. You will have to jump in and try to save her in a certain amount of time before you and her die from lack of oxygen; to add to the difficulty there will be a shark swimming after you. You will not be able to save her, she will die.

If you do stay safe away from the shark, you will enter the next level. In this level you are in the cemetery near Ophelia’s grave where you will have to fist fight Ophelia’s brother. Once you beat him, your father’s ghost will appear again and you will have to run back to the castle.  Here you will have to kill Claudius. This is the last level so this will be the hardest level to beat.

           

Madama Butterfly

This video took me by surprise. I am not into opera but I found this video really interesting. From the beginning it caught my eye because the main characters are dolls; then these dolls start making love rather detailed. I was surprised that the video started like that since there was so much time left in the video left even after the man left. It kept me wondering what was going to happen next. Then what also got me thinking was how abstract it was; her baby started out as a fish and then they were attached by a string and flying each other like kites. I later realized the string was the umbilical cord. Through out the whole video, even though it was dolls, the emotion felt real especially at the end when her love rips the umbilical cord from the mother without even looking and takes her child with his new family. The mother doll walking off set and disassembling herself really resembled and triggered the emotion of the hurt she was feeling. I'm a bit confused on the over all meaning of the story since the end is the same as the beginning with the butterfly on her head, but overall I enjoyed this video and it kept my attention forcing me to listen to the whole opera song. 

Art and Technology

According to google this is the definition of art and technology:

Art : "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."

Technology: "the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry"

To me art and technology meanings either using technology to create art, like using a 3d printer to print your creation.  Or creating art out of technology like making a beautiful art installation out of moving lights. From my own experience, art and technology a lot of the time go hand and hand; specially with all our advancements in technology. 

Foucault

I thought it was interesting learning that the prisons where made in and oval shape so that the guards could see any of the prisoners at anytime. I agree that prisoners should never know when they are being watched so that they make smarter decisions. People that have committed a crime and are in prison, I think have lost their privilege of privacy and deserve to be under high surveillance. When it comes to ordinary people, I do not think it is right to keep them under surveillance when they have not done anything to make them a suspect of any crime. This actually scares me; thinking how powerful the government is and how they could possibly be watching us at any time. It does not scare me because I am doing illegal things, which I'm not, it scares me because I don't know who's watching me or when. There are cameras all around us like laptops, phones, IPads, etc., what if I am changing and someone is watching me through one for those cameras. This surveillance concept on our society now creeps me out; I don't want to have to cover all my cameras when I don't want to be watched. In all I think the U shaped surveillance is effective but principle of always being watched is only effective in certain instances.

Diva

"Diva," was an interesting movie but I was pretty confused at some points. First off I thought the main character was creepy, and obsessed with this opera singer. The way he went about his obsession with her was a little bit psychotic. There where two recording tapes involved; one was incriminating someone and the other was a tape recording of an opera singer that had never been recorded or ever heard herself sing. It just got confusing keeping track of everything at some parts. I do enjoy watching old movies, sometimes, to see how things have changed since then. In this movie the difference in technology is brought to your attention. Besides it being an old movie, so the camera technology doesn't give you the best quality, the cars were a lot older than today. It is amazing how far we have come in the style of cars but also the technology of cars. Instead of rolling up windows manually we can click the button once and the window will go all the way up automatically. Instead of stick shift we have cars that you push a button to start; they even have cars that drive themselves. What also demonstrated how far we have advanced in our technology, is the tape recordings. Now a days it would be very hard, close to impossible to not have people record your music, since it is so easy. Anyone could press a button on their phone and record something; they have pens that record things, microscopic cameras, etc. With the tape recording it also brought to my attention how harmful situations could be avoided. If this lady who made the incriminating recording had an iPhone she could have recorded herself saying what ever she wanted and sent it to some electronically to help her; or she or anyone could post it to the internet for everyone to see. The gap in technology was interesting to see, but what was really lovely was the art, the music from this amazing opera singer. Her voice was just incredible and I thought it was crazy she never heard herself sing.