Weblog 5

Not too long ago I played a video game called Red Dead Redemption 2. This game is produced by a famous studio called Rockstar who also made one of the most famous and popular series of games called Grand Theft Auto. I never really enjoyed this. To make it short, Grand Theft Auto takes place in a big city similar to Los Angeles and we play gangsters. The strength of Rockstar games is that the player is free and can do pretty much anything he wants, which often means killing everyone and bombing everything. And so, when I started Red Dead Redemption 2, I was skeptical. This game takes place in the end of the 19th century when America was getting civilized and bandit gangs started disappearing. We play a character named Arthur Morgan who is a member of a gang. At first, it is a classic Rockstar video game, we heist banks, kill anyone who's in our way and steal with no regrets, but it quickly evolves. Throughout the story, the game confronts the player to the families of the characters they've killed and other events like that that makes you realize all of the harm you've done. Of course, you did harm in a fictional world but you still did harm. You start regretting choices you made weeks ago and you go on a redemption quest. What is crazy about this game is that you don't actually have to go on that redemption quest. You could simply continue playing the game as a terrible person but I don't know anyone who played the game and chose to continue to kill and steal like it was nothing. That is what makes Red Dead Redemption 2 that special and unique. This game is so well written that it truly makes the player question his behaviour and actions. The characters are endearing and when one of your friend in the story dies you almost feel it like you have actually lost a friend. I did not think it was possible to truly feel connected to a video game character before I had the chance to play Arthur. Sometimes I go back and play the game again but it is never as special as it was when I played it for the first time.

The advantages and disadvantages of having a "relationship" with Google Bard or Chat GPT

The matter of artificial intelligence have gain a lot of popularity in the last few years. It is a technology that is evolving really quickly. Of course, some people like to analyze the situation and imagine a future where AI have taken over and dictates our lives. Some people go as far as predicting that one day, AI will take so much space in our daily lives that we won't feel the need to meet new people and take part in social gathering. However, I think it is important to remember the most important aspect of our existence. We are and will always be human beings. It means that we will always have those primitive needs such as social relations. I don't think that humans will ever feel fulfill solely by the company of an AI. I think that in the future, AI could be a useful tool for people who feel lonely and for people who struggles making friends but I don't think it will replace social interactions. Another aspect of the AI that is discussed is the way it will forever change the education system. Thankfully, there aren't any powerful enough AI that are able to write very good essays that are accessible to everyone. However, I think that in the future, the AI will evolve and be able to answer very complicated questions and write very good essays. I think that it is very important that the education system adapts itself and find ways to teach students. As much as I hated some of my classes, I can't deny that school as taught valuable lessons and I will forever be grateful that I had the chance to learn all of that. I am very scared of the future and I hope that kids continue to invest themselves as much as I did in their assignments. Tools like ChatGPT will help them a lot, maybe even do all of their work, and so I think that the next generations will learn a lot less. I hope that the future students understand how important it is to learn and don't chose the easy path.

SLEEP NO MORE

The concept of immersive theatre introduced by "Sleep no more" gave a breath of fresh air to this old art. During a presentation, the spectator has to be active and make choices as to where he wants to go and what he wants to see. The people in the audience feels apart of the story. In classical theatre, the audience simply watch the story. It can be a very interesting story with well constructed characters but it won't have the same effect. In a play like "Sleep no more", because the audience is physically involved in the story, they feel a stronger connection to it and to the characters. I think that in the time we live in, it is a great idea to modernize theatre because it is a beautiful art that for a long time struggled to innovate and so lost the interest of its public. On the other hand, there are other art forms that are gaining interest. The video game industry is growing every year. It attracts people because it has the power to involve the player. When you play a video game you are not watching a knight fighting a dragon, you are the knight fighting the dragon. I think immersive theatre is able to take the strength ht of video games and apply it to this old type of art. Plays like "Sleep no more" are able to attract a younger audience that will learn about theatre and learn to appreciate it. It is by modernizing and adapting an art to the new generations that it can travel through time.

Diane Arbus

My favorite picture was the one where we can see four people in a field. The picture was taken by Diane Arbus. The subjects are dressed as scarecrows. They wear masks made out of paper bags so they don’t show any emotions. The costumes look like they’ve been homemade, they look cheap, which makes the subjects look like they are kids trying to be scary.  The subjects are not all wearing the same costume. The two on the left are wearing a simple white costume with a basic paper bag for the mask. The third one from the left is wearing a totally different costume with bat’s motifs, he is also the only one who’s mask is not made of paper bag. As if he was trying to be a part of the gang but did not have the proper costume. He feels like an impostor. The one on the right has the same costume as the first two but fancier. His mask has more details and his costume is black. He looks like the chief. It is hard for me to feel emotions when watching pictures because I don’t feel a strong connection to them but this picture makes me feel uncomfortable. I think the photographer made an incredible job at creating a weird and scary environment. Because the subjects are looking directly at the camera, it seems like they stare at the person looking at the picture as if we were not supposed to see this. We feel like we just interrupted something we were not supposed to see. It looks like a secret group planning something in a field where no one is supposed to see them. I really like this vibe and I like the fact that the person looking at the picture feels included in the story.

Even in our most creative phases, we are still governed by rules

Writing can present itself in many forms. It is up to the writer to choose which one is the most appropriate one for his idea. You can write about anything you want because the only limit to what we can create is our imagination. However, there are certain universal rules that must be followed such as grammar, punctuation, and syntaxes. These rules are there to keep every form of writing comprehensible. The word order can totally change the meaning of a sentence and that is why we must have a common agreement on which order to use in which case. However, those rules are not laws. Nobody will prevent you from breaking them. Sometimes thinking differently can be the best option. If a poet wants to write something about the period where you start maturing and seeking independence, he will use the kind of vocabulary that we use when we are in this period of our life. He might use some words that aren’t “real” words or some expressions that aren’t grammatically correct but that teenagers often use. In this case, breaking the rules would be more appropriate than using a formal vocabulary. After all, teenagers love breaking rules! Rules are there to guide writers but not limit them. Someone who follows every rule will end up writing a text that is clear and comprehensible, but it doesn’t mean it will be good. Rules shouldn’t be your guideline when writing a text but rather something you can refer to when you feel lost in your words and sentences. While writing this text about rules, I probably used the word “rules” way more than the rules would indicate is appropriate but screw the rules!

Poetry

Writing can be very personal and private. Some text leaves no room for imagination so everyone can understand the meaning of the story. Poetry however is a freer way to talk about a something. When reading a poem, the reader is free to interpret every word as he wishes. It enable him to have a stronger connexion with the text since he can interpret the meaning as something that is close to him. For example, when reading a poem about love, everyone will associate the verse to their own experience. Everyone will recall their own pleasant memories. The reader won't experience the same kind of emotions when reading a classic love story about two people he doesn't know. He will be able to enjoy it but not in the same way. Poetry also enable the writer to say things without actually saying them. It is easier to talk about a traumatic experience without literally referring to the source of the trauma. Someone writing about their experience of police brutality will probably prefer to use another word than "police". A word that doesn't directly talk about them to not give them credit but also a more powerful word.

Genius

Throughout history, the people who have been called geniuses are often people who are incredibly intelligent such as Albert Einstein or Alan Turing. Those men were incredible mathematicians and scientists. However, the definition of genius can't be limited to this type of intelligence. Someone who's not good with numbers could still be a genius. For example, some musicians are highly skilled and have a unique understanding of music and it makes them geniuses. Bob Dylan was considered a genius. Some athletes, like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, are also considered geniuses because of their creativity and their amazing abilities that makes them so dominant in their discipline. What those people all have in common is that they all discovered or did things that no one even thought was possible. We often associate the word "genius" with intelligence which is not wrong but we should also add the word "creativity". Albert Einstein would not be so famous and probably not even considered as a genius if he hadn't invented his famous formula or if he hadn't discovered the theory of relativity. Of course Einstein did not invent relativity but he was the first to think that such a thing could exist which takes a lot of creativity. Geniuses are highly intelligent people who often are the most creative person in their domain. They do not see the limits that others impose on them.

Define creativity

Defining creativity is a lot more harder than I thought. Creativity is that concept that everyone knows without having it to be explained because it is so vague. Yet it is present in all spheres of our lives. In my opinion, to be creative is to think differently than how we are expected to do in a given situation. A creative painter finds new colours, shapes and tones to illustrates a scene that has been painted thousands of times before so his final product is unique. You can be inspired by someone else's work and still come up with something of your own. Creativity is when you go beyond the limits of what has already been done. However, creativity is subjective. What is creative to someone isn't necessarily creative to someone else. Our background and past experiences shapes our way of thinking and seeing the world and therefore shapes our creativity.