We never realize how much we use/think about maps and until we're confronted with them, like I am for the second time this year. In my writing class, we had to write paper over a place and look at maps about it. I can now tell you the majority of Lawrence, Kansas' history and involvement with the Civil War, being so pivotal and involved with the start.

The sculpture symposium was not as engaging as the previous symposiums in the last few weeks, though I believe that for people who want to go into the department, it helped get them excited for it. For me, it was sort of boring. I'm not really into sculpture so it was interesting in parts, but sometimes had the painting symposium vibe.

Also, at times, it felt that they were there to just put sculpture above all other departments. It was probably the opening statement of 'what do they hand Adele when she wins a Grammy?' and how they hand her the Grammy award sculpture 'not a CD, DVD, a painting.' I understand that sculpture is more than just what we see in museums and in history with the Venus de Milo and such, but that was sort of out of line to me.

The IA symposium was very interesting. I had an idea of what it was but the symposium broadened my eyes, in a good way, to what the field was. It's all very experimental and similar to coding, except based on the person viewing instead of the product already being in place and no further interaction.

My previous experiences with interactive arts were both with Arcade Fire. They came out with a music video for "We Used To Wait" working with interactive artists and web designers just to get the video working. The website starts by asking you to put in an address where you grew up or an address in general. Then many pop ups take over your screen as the music video/film unfold, dropping trees on the Google maps pictures of the said address with birds and a mysterious person running.

The Wilderness Downtown

And then later, for "Reflektor" they have your participation to change the lighting and effects of the music video. They even have a surprise webcam shot of the user towards the end so the user feels included in the music video. I remember showing it to my little sister and her face lighting up in excitement because she was in it. And then showing it to her over and over again.

Just A Reflektor

They work closely with Google and the Chrome Experiments which is just interactive websites where the user can control what is happening like a dark room which is just a poem that you sort of have a hand in creating. There are many interactive sites on their main. But I think I might take an elective in the IA department so I can make my own Arcade Fire interactive music videos.

Chrome Experiments

This is an example of ditsy design which is an all over design of mini elements that are simple and eccentrically silly and can be funny. I liked the daisies because while it could be argued to be a floral pattern, the inclusion of the butterfly and the daisies aren't the same size and some have stems, changes it from strictly floral.