Rough Magic
When I first read the article written by Ivan Philips, I totally had no idea what is he talking about. I had to read for several times then only I can understand the general meaning of rough magic. I had learnt that media, history and culture were connected to each other. Since I am taking degree in interactive media design which involve media, therefore these principles are pretty essential as they can be applied on my future assignments. Rough magic is the ability to control and metaphor for the products of culture.
One word that really confused me is 'culture' because from what my high school teacher taught me, the meaning of culture is custom or belief. Instead of consists of one meaning, there are tons of meanings written in this article. I never knew there were so many meaning in one simple word. Culture also mean civilisation , pop culture, nature, conservative, growing things and much more. Apparently, according to a quoted statement by T.S Eliot in the article, today's standard of culture has retrograde.
However I agreed with Brian Sewell's statement that there are no highness or lowness in culture, in fact it is just a sign of cultural laziness. I think that every generation has its own culture, especially in 21st century where latest technology and infrastructure are provided anywhere and any time, everyone is using media.For instance, nowadays most of the people use digital painting instead of old traditional paintbrush painting. The result of digital painting not only can be paint as well as the traditional one but also convenient and less time consuming, the only difference of the digital and the traditional is the craftsmanship.
Overall we need rough magic as a tool to create culture
Dear SY,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 'rough magic' is more like a powerful spell which you do not know yet how to control. By reading more and thinking further, you'll have a more objective understanding of the various ideas and a more refined way of using your media skills. So 'rough magic' is I would say, what you need to move away from. Make your media knowledge and technique more scientific and artistic instead :)
Continue giving your opinions on what you have read. Careful with some of the vocabulary. People tend to say 'culture' degrades instead of retrograde. But in postmodern context, it's possible (something retro is looks back in time, while something degrade is becoming worst).
Do throw in relevant links. Consider illustrating images and charts which may be related.
Cheers,
DC