Chebucto Regional Softball Club

There is some interaction between these common place and comforting falsies:

* More history keeps happening the closer you get to the present.

* The Decline of ...."

These are based in similar statistical issues. It's all sampling errors.

1. When comparing works of the past with what is made today nearly always there has been an increase in both volume and diversity. Today we have MORE music, more books, more art, most of it isn't very good.

2. We tend to compare what survived from the past, the most enduring and best work with the average work of today. (Architecture and furniture do this often.)

3. Related to #2 what is popular now, may not be what ends up defining the era when we look back.

4. Leave them kids alone.

"The Fall of Modern Literature"

I encountered this phrase in the context of someone complaining about fan fiction. But, you can find this sort of notion about many of the arts: it could be "the decline of hip hop" or maybe "the decline of TV series" or just "the terrible state of the modern teen"

Or if you find those absurd what about "the decline in manufacturing quality" ?

Ah. Maybe that one has a point?

These pro-nostalgia arguments may vary in validity but they face common hurdles.

@Asbestos

I haven't paid much attention to him if I'm honest. I just find the way people talk about Jackson Pollock to be frequently irritating. Either it's someone who just doesn't even want to try to see non-representational art, or they have so much to say it feels a little absurd and I start to sympathize with the "my kid could do that" crowd.

Personally I like that he made big paintings. They are really large! It's overwhelming the canvass swallows you.

It's nice.

Next question.

There was an art history professor at my college who annoyed me with how he'd go on and on about the "masculinity and power of Jackson Pollock" and I was like "I don't get it. How are paint splatters ... masculine?"

"Well if you only saw a video of him painting you'd get it."

"Ok."

Anyway I still don't get it. Or maybe I do if the professor had confused confidence and skill with "masculinity."

(This was 25 years ago. I can hold a intellectual grudge. Ima send him this video.)

Watch this tiny little whisp of a person who moves with total confidence.

There is a point where she draws a line and steps over it with her back foot ... without looking back.

I also enjoy how she pushes the onlookers back with the pigment powder.

She's making this like she's got sixteen more of them to do today.

@alexwild

This angle always makes ants look like spiders. I hope as I do other illustrations at other angles I will get a better hand on their geometry.

I think her face has the right personality, so that's a good start.

When I have a good mix of images I will think about making a video about some of the most interesting passages in the book.

I also want to create a map of the expedition of Wawa-quee, her scientists and armies from South America to the NYC public library.

@tortuguita @alexwild

I started the first book three times and just couldn't get into it... (it's so grim and political in that first chapter, and I don't know the history well enough to get a sense of the 'authorial subtext') but with this in mind I might make it trough.

This is the reference:

Atta laevigata

Atta laevigata is the largest of the leafcutter ants. Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

(www.alexanderwild.com)

There is a scene in “Consider Her Ways” where the ants read by running over the text in books. This was so delightful I drew it. The photos of Atta laevigata by @alexwild were very helpful. #art #antart #atta

(In the book this is the ant named Wawa-quee)

@Retreival9096

@Phosphenes
I wanted to make a suggestion that would make the power imbalance caused by one group having control of the surveillance data and how they are released apparent.

As soon as these people imagine every ordinary person in command of such footage? Arranging it to tell our own stories? Then suddenly they find surveillance odious and invasive.

They decided to just turn the cameras off rather than try my egalitarian surveillance experiment. (that may be for the best)

@dobetterinstitute

I also hope that the fediTV list could help people find what is worth supporting directly— based on what people are really watching.

@bri7

There should also be a hashtag on such posts so they can all be filtered out for politeness or found when wanted eg #fediTVTalk #fediTVTalk_peerTube_0001 ?

ooh this is fun to think about—

@mina

I find posting what I watch on the shared list, forces me to think a little bit more about what I watch.

If I watch something I don’t want to put on the list I think: WHY am I watching something that’s so low quality that I wouldn’t want the people I know to watch it as well?

Looking at all of the videos I’ve watched since this began makes me think about how I’m using my time. It’s a bit of accountability some of us might do together.

I promise if you watch a lot of youTube this is dead simple and easy.

If you don't watch a lot of youTube? Honestly good for you. But what do you watch?

If you watch videos most of the time it's:

@astronomerritt

I knew a guy called "Abe-e"

His first name was A
Last name? B

A B

@burnitdown

I wouldn't mind more history.

One of the reasons I'm suddenly interested in sharing videos is directly related to AI.

I worry that I might watch a video and not know that it's AI.

A lot of AI is very obvious to me, but that doesn't mean that I can't be fooled. When we look at things together and discuss them we stand a better chance of catching deceit.

This is the invite link to fediTV. You can add videos on youTube by clicking "save" when you are watching them:

INVITE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTh3hv32NLhrPBgOXrUgwp6BQaC94lt9n&jct=HNo63JsyzJgiqq4wtxlQLw

3/3

Imagine a shared playlist that pulled everything from the FediverseTV playlist on youTube, but you could also add peertube, nebula, and other videos to this super list.

And maybe it had a way to comment and discuss the videos.

This sounds deceptively simple. Online applications tend to fail to catch on because it's too hard to log in, you need to make a new account, or there isn't an easy way to adapt use into the ways people already use tech.

This wouldn't be a small project at all.

2/