Touch the firehose of ds106, the most recent flow of content from all of the blogs syndicated into ds106. As of right now, there have been 92509 posts brought in here going back to December 2010. If you want to be part of the flow, first learn more about ds106. Then, if you are truly ready and up to the task of creating web art, sign up and start doing it.

  1. Seth Goodman

    Not Enough Yellow

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    DS106 Daily Create assignment in photography (#673 for 11/11/13). Details: Bonnard said, “You can never have too much yellow.” Prove it in a photograph. Learn more about Bonnard’s reasoning with his painting of The Yellow Boat (from the Tate). For this Create, I … Continue reading
  2. Seth Goodman

    ACWRIMOny Now

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    I recently discovered Laura Pasquini’s blog when I was directed to her post regarding Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). I particularly liked her selected graphic on the creative process which should in no way be construed as a confession regarding my own creative … Continue reading
  3. Seth Goodman

    Up With the Old and On to the New

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    Images, clockwise from top left (see below for URLs): (1) The Codex Bodleianus of theDiscourses of Epictetus, (2) The Discourses online, (3) details of the spine and frontcover crest to the Classics Club edition, (4) Epictetus, and (5) A Manual for Liv...
  4. Seth Goodman

    Entering A Zone

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    I watched a lot of TV (and a lot of Twilight Zone) at close
    range on a late-60s Zenith console just like this one. It
    also supported my Atari 2600 during that same time!
    I've enjoyed the various posts and mini-productions I've gotten to see today, this first day of the ds106 summer session: the ds106zone. As a fan of the original Twilight Zone series, I was already excited about the course theme but I didn't know what to expect...and actually, I aimed not to have expectations because that's what I cherished about The Twilight Zone way back then, as a preteen watching late-night TV, on what must have been a Zenith color television from the late 1960s. Back then, I wasn't trying to figure out who did what, what was "really" happening, or how it would end up. I was blissfully along for the ride; I was not yet a "problem solver." Truth be told, I was sometimes terrifyingly along for the ride too. So, with the start of the summer, I'm ready to be delighted and stunned and inspired by what this ds106 cohort brings to the canvas. So far…

    Brian gave his thoughtful face for the Daily Create, which was oddly similar to my own disturbed face...we both must have mysteries on the ceiling of our home offices. Also, Brian served up the design assignment How to Riker -- which reminded me that I had so much going on during the 1990s that Star Trek: The Next Generation passed almost completely under my radar. This brings up a little sadness because I was obsessed with the original Star Trek series when I was growing up but once I hit my 20s and college and beyond I became too "busy" for enjoyable pursuits….I was aware just enough to know what I was missing something. And this too reminds me of an essential quality of The Twilight Zone: various and recurring themes of loss and the complicated negotiations of grief that follow...eventually. This reminds me of the episode "Walking Distance" (Season 1, Episode 5). I have thought about it over the years which surprises because I'm pretty sure it left no impression on me at the time I watched it, over and over again; thanks to reruns, I'd seen them all about 6-12 times before high school. In this episode an advertising executive has the opportunity to "go home" again but, of course, he can't stay. However, by the end of the episode, he is reconciled...and looking forward, not backward. What reconciliation might await me in the ds106zone?
     Advertising executive Martin Sloan knew he had to "come back and get on the merry-go-round and eat cotton candy and listen to a band concert and stop, breath, and close [his] eyes and smell and listen..." Don't we all?

    Returning to the present, fellow ds106er and UMW student, Kara has already posted two GIFS, Hello New Friends!, which reminds me of the work of children's artist Todd Parr (but perhaps more unnerving) and the other a quintessential 80s moment: Tom Petty singing "don't come around here no more." I'm inspired by her jumping right in and sharing what she's developing as she's developing it. This reminds me that there were playful episodes of the Twilight Zone also. It wasn't all terror at 20,000 feet or cruel ironies in the final few minutes. There were also episodes about believing… as a practice and not just as a strategy. Here I am reminded of the episode "The Big Tall Wish" (Season 1, Episode 27) in which a young boy makes a wish for a boxer to win a come-back fight, which he does, so long as he can embrace such magic... ah, and there's the rub. The final words of the episode: "There ain't no such thing as magic, is there?", the boy asked the boxer. "I guess not, Henry", he replied sadly. "Or maybe...maybe there is magic. And maybe there's wishes, too. I guess the trouble is...there's not enough people around to believe...". I believe, in the ds106zone with Kara by my side (virtually), I can actually create a GIF.
    Sometimes it's just hard to believe. A washed-up boxer rejects the power of magic in "The Big Tall Wish."

    Still, ds106ers are posting, and tweeting, and blogging like a gathering storm. And then there is the unbelievably brilliant and unsettling Daily Create self portrait by John. This, for me, is the gut-wrenching essence of The Twilight Zone, the space "between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge." The moment when one realizes that the answer is not among the options under consideration; how confusing and terrifying and liberating. These amazing contributions and the many more to come will be a delight to me because my "problem solver" is not along for the ride. As for myself and this course, I do have some expectations, but I believe they will be the digital equivalent of getting on the merry-go-round, eating cotton candy, and listening to a band concert. And maybe, if I'm fortunate, my ds106 peers may be tempted to stop, breath, and close their eyes and smell and listen.
  5. Seth Goodman

    Turn-About

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    During spring 2013, I used this blog to host a project I executed for a graduate school course, in which I investigated the practice of a select population through their online activity during a period of time that roughly began … Continue reading

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