A Different Kind of Lecture

Heading towards to lector hall, all I could think of was how boring listening to an artist say artsy things was going to be. I had previously sat in at some guest artist things and was bored out of my mind at most of them. However Gerry’s was different, I was surprised to be greeted by him and then asked what I wanted to be. I was caught a little off-guard but replied that I wanted to enter the video game industry. He too seemed a tad caught off guard at my response but gleefully continued on with a congratulatory statement. From that point on it was obvious that this guess artist/speaker was going to be different form the rest.

Unlike all of the other guests that have done talks, Gerry obviously shied away from a visual presentation and for good reasons too. His fluidity of subject and motion threw what he had to offer would not have worked well in the confines of a PowerPoint presentation.

His lecture started off by asking us a few unanswerable questions and giving everyone a chance to give their opinions. Eventually he started to talk on a media Theorist named Marshall McCluhan who answered all questions with more questions. One particular thing we were told to note for our teachers was his opinion on tools and their influences “We shape our tools, and they then shape us” instead of one of the predominant answers of we shape them or they shape us. This outlook on technological social evolution has been well proven in recent years by the internet. Gerry’s lecture emphasized that everything is in relation and that there is always a hidden effect of that relation. That hidden effect is what we must balance with the positives of the change when deciding to embrace new thing’s but is commonly overlooked.

Along with his theo-blabber there was some art hidden in there. He made note of how art has shifted in its position in society. It is now free to and has been a critique of society’s evolution. Art now serves as the sounding board for questions others are not willing to directly confront.

However out of everything said, there are two things I would like to quote that have resound the most with me.

“You do not learn in a room, you learn in the world” something I’ve believed for a long time.

And

“If you dream a dream alone, it’s a dream. But if you dream a dream together then it becomes reality.” That is and has always been the only difference between reality and imagination and will become even more truthful with time. (this needs something, oh i know! LINK)