Oct. 12th Journal

October 12, 2010

The references to social media are so ever present that I can hardly keep up with all of them to even mention here.. and I want to grasp them. The New York Times is full of articles daily that I cut out and collect, but want to mention a few. On the first page of the Arts section there is an article on a young violinist, Sarah Chang, who cancelled her violin performance that was to be with The Detroit Symphony Orchestra because of comments on Facebook. Apparently orchestra players went on strike against the management and she felt caught in the middle. She seems to have been very disheartened and drawn into a fight that had nothing to do with her talent or music but used her and revealed personal information about her on the web. It seems that she felt threatened and maybe was in some way, so she did not go there.

This brings up a CNN special that I saw over the weekend on Cyberbullying on the occasion, four, of several recent suicides of students due to being attacked on emails, cell phones. Some were college, some high-school, and a middlescholler. Having worked in several middle schools over a ten-year period even before this bullying with media devices, I am saddened to see the huge use and effect on children and adults as well. Youth are so vulnerable to being singled out or being different and not included that I am disturbed to think that they can be badgered anonymously and constantly. On the CNN program they had a reformed bully speak and he said he had no idea how harmful it was, but just liked the power he felt and would not have stopped it unless confronted and made aware, luckily he felt empathy. I am reminded of the groups I did and how effective they can be over time in hearing what is going on and getting involved in helping those being bullied. Several youg people felt this would not stop as there was no way to stop texting bullying and other media means of harassment. Adults need to be aware and involved and initiate action and not just let kids work it out themselves. The recommendations from a psychologist and several others knowledgeable in behavioral sciences were to have permanent programs in the schools, starting the earliest years and continuing, that dealt with the school as a whole community. Everyone had to be involved, from the principal, all the teachers who needed instruction, as well as parents. I know this is true, first hand and unfortunately felt many principals did not understand the problem or mental health issues and denied and avoided any problems. The results can be disastrous as we are seeing. Funding for mental health professionals to be in the schools, where children spend so much of their time, has practically dried up and is not seen as a priority. Funding after 9/11 did bring a lot to the surface in lower Manhattan, which included many projects and China town with lots of poor immigrants.

The contrast of thinking of artistic ways to use media for art making and for imaging research in creative ways is in sharp contrast to thinking of how other minds think to use tools that are amazing in allowing communication on many levels which can be about learning and as Jenkins said in his articles and U-Tube video we are a participatory culture now with these at our disposal. This also brings to mind the Courant article on scholars using tools that make research so possible, exciting, and far reaching in it’s breadth in this age of digitalization of materials and the negative aspects of corrupting principles of scholarship. I do wonder about this, as kids in school are unaware unless their computer teacher or librarian or teacher really stresses this and calls it. How they can separate school standards and requirements and personal use and behaviors, which may become blurred as there are so many sources available.

At a recent discussion with the director of an art museum, I was interested that he said only 5 to 10% of the art history-art criticism scholarly library collection would be available in digital format. He said this was true of most museums with materials in print. Some fields perhaps will not therefore have everything available on the web. He felt books would still be needed and the past publications valuable and the bulk of knowledge and that original research would have to seek them out.