For my english class this quarter I had to read The Wizard of Oz, which in the near end of the story has a scene with a hot air balloon, in which the "great wizard" ascends and leaves the land of Oz. I happened to be studying it at the same time as I read the assignment on ballooning, so of course the two linked in my head. The Wizard of Oz as a whole is quite an American story, and with the coinciding reading on ballooning I imagined sailing over Kansas, surveying the land, and the freedom of being carried through the air. The two writings made me think of how ballooning was such an essential pioneering endeavor that was the predecessor to much of our exploration of the land through the air. The freedom ballooning provided, both literally and figuratively was so fundamental, I think, to our sense of American liberty.
I read The Wizard of Oz too, and it definitely looks like the balloon in the story was presenting freedom. The balloon being the transportation to where the main character wants to go resembles the ideological importance of freedom in the American society.
I learned in class about how there was a sudden craze in having photographs taken after the tintype camera was created. I recognize a similar trend happening today with the selfie culture going on. The need for people to have a cheap self portrait of themselves seems to remain persistent from then til now.
That is true, but so does the fact remains that people want to 'capture' a memory of that time and place. Who they were with, who they were at the time, how they looked. People like to reminisce and such. Also, tintype back then was mostly used for pictures of loved ones who were about to head to war I believe. So that goes to say more of what I had previously stated, that people want to remember people how they had last seen them.
While thinking about how during the war times we had started to map out the landscape using ballooning and airplanes to gain the advantage of the war to how even now we are still trying to perfectly map out the world but digitally. It only amazes me how much effort we try to put into it. From back in those days where we would use aerial photography to secure precision, to these days where we use satellite images and Googles Street View cars to gain the images for precision on roads and road details, road signs, and such. Maps have been evolving much more than ever and we never really realize the difference until we open up our minds to thinking about it. Maps before only had one use, to see where something was. Now a days, maps are still used for that, but you can not only know where it is, but you can get directions, pictures of the place, ratings, comments, and have a navigation system guide you to where you need to be. It really is stunning to realize how far maps have gone, from paper to digital over the centuries of time. Even more amazing to realize, is how accessible it is to everyone by the touch of a single button. No one can really fear getting lost, unless you don’t have service or connection…
It is also important to remember that maps were not always used only to see where something was but like Dr. Kaplan emphasizes in lectures, for a variety of uses throughout time. They have always had different perspectives and shown different ways to look at things besides just finding where things are. For example, Old World sailors would use maps of the Mediterranean as well as astrological maps to help pinpoint where they were in the sea, and to safely navigate to shore.
I really love the Street View feature in Google Maps. It helps me to know exactly what to expect when I arrive at a place. Direction still works with bigger scales of maps(like highways), but when it comes down to finding your friend's place, it just helps so much to be able to get those information from street view mode.
In lecture, we’ve recently discussed aerial reconnaissance and the romanticism surrounding it, and given our makeup assignment about Google Maps, I wanted to talk about a recent YouTube video I watched. As some people may know, a lot of YouTubers post gameplays of various video games, and the video that I watched was made by a company called Roosterteeth. On this channel, they played an aerial simulation game. In this game, the members were able to build and fly their own plane. The excitement that they showed throughout the video reminded me of the romanticism Dr. Kaplan frequently talked about, and the fact that they remained excited despite the obvious fact that it was only a virtual reality really emphasized the charm Google Maps and Google Street View provides.
We so often think about the development of aerial reconnicance and digital mapping separately that I have never thought about how today these two are being evolved together, especially with the onset of commercialized virtual reality. Things like street view combined with virtual reality could really provide an awe-inspiring experience, a sort of technological sublime.
My parents are coming to visit me this weekend, and it is their first time coming to Northern California, so my mom is hell-bent on visiting Napa and crossing it off her bucket list. She told me she wanted to go up in a balloon and see the vineyards from above, and before taking this class I would have told her it's the same as taking a plane. Now I am much more inclined and open to view the California grid from a different perspective: closer to the ground and not in a pressurized cabin. I am most excited about not being in a cabin and feeling the wind and the sunshine on my skin, and I really hope my mom gets to feel momentarily liberated too.
In class and discussion we talked about the American Sublime and how it has changed over the years. I have thought a lot about how tourism has impacted the sublime, and I believe it has hindered the beauty of the sublime. Personally, I love to explore nature and go to beautiful places to observe the scenery. But more often than not, the location I am trying to access is full of tourists, typically you have to pay money (or at least to park), and the places are marked off or fenced in so you can not explore on your own. This causes the sublime to be less beautiful than it would have been 50-100 years ago when these destinations were not tourist destinations.
I agree with your opinion on the sublime and tourism. Oftentimes when I explore places in nature I imagine what it would be like to be alone and not surrounded by so many other people. When nature becomes a tourist attraction, I feel like it no longer feels as beautiful as it once did. We are no longer experiencing nature as it should be, but rather how people want it to be. Once nature becomes a tourist attraction, it seems to have been altered from its original state and is no longer as beautiful as it once was.
One of the topics we touched upon a couple of lectures ago was the idea of the “sublime.” This feeling of awe and and magnificence is something I love to feel, whether it is while looking at photos, paintings, or watching a movie. Much like the people of the 18th century, I love the feeling of being “small” if that makes any sense. The fact that you are a part of a larger world and can really feel it when you look at something is just such an amazing thing. For example, I recently watched the movie Pacific Rim, and that is a very sublime movie. The scale of the giant robots makes me feel very tiny, and it is very awe-inspiring to see how gigantic they are. The feeling of epicness that sublime imagery elicits also incites a feeling of adventure within me, like the painting of the wanderer on that mountain top overlooking a vast piece of land.
My favorite childhood movie was The Wizard of Oz, and in class talking about how hot air balloons gave people a sense of freedom reminded me of the end of the movie when Dorothy is about to go home to Kansas via hot air balloon. Much like how we discussed hot air balloons in class, the hot air balloon in the movie gave Dorothy freedom from Oz. For the entire movie, she just wanted to return home to Kansas, and in the moment, the only way she knew how to do that was by hot air balloon with the wizard (she didn't yet know about clicking her heels three times). There is a parallel between Dorothy, who finds the hot air balloon as her freedom from Oz, and people who were alive during the development of the hot air balloon, who view it as freedom and expanding their limits and knowledge. These uses of the hot air balloon almost seem like opposites, but they are similar in that they act as a way for people to find comfort in the unknown and expand their physical boundaries.
In lecture, we talked about hot balloons and reconnaissance. It is interesting to me that even though hot air balloon was first invented to make better maps to help people understand geography, it eventually was used for military purpose. This reminded me about our current situation, where our taxes are mainly used in the military aspect. Even though we first collected tax to develop a better city everyone could live in, now it's used for an offensive purpose. Indeed not all taxes go to military, but it is the top 3 expense our taxes has been put into.
For my english class this quarter I had to read The Wizard of Oz, which in the near end of the story has a scene with a hot air balloon, in which the "great wizard" ascends and leaves the land of Oz. I happened to be studying it at the same time as I read the assignment on ballooning, so of course the two linked in my head. The Wizard of Oz as a whole is quite an American story, and with the coinciding reading on ballooning I imagined sailing over Kansas, surveying the land, and the freedom of being carried through the air. The two writings made me think of how ballooning was such an essential pioneering endeavor that was the predecessor to much of our exploration of the land through the air. The freedom ballooning provided, both literally and figuratively was so fundamental, I think, to our sense of American liberty.
ReplyDeleteI read The Wizard of Oz too, and it definitely looks like the balloon in the story was presenting freedom. The balloon being the transportation to where the main character wants to go resembles the ideological importance of freedom in the American society.
DeleteI learned in class about how there was a sudden craze in having photographs taken after the tintype camera was created. I recognize a similar trend happening today with the selfie culture going on. The need for people to have a cheap self portrait of themselves seems to remain persistent from then til now.
ReplyDeleteThat is true, but so does the fact remains that people want to 'capture' a memory of that time and place. Who they were with, who they were at the time, how they looked. People like to reminisce and such. Also, tintype back then was mostly used for pictures of loved ones who were about to head to war I believe. So that goes to say more of what I had previously stated, that people want to remember people how they had last seen them.
DeleteWhile thinking about how during the war times we had started to map out the landscape using ballooning and airplanes to gain the advantage of the war to how even now we are still trying to perfectly map out the world but digitally. It only amazes me how much effort we try to put into it. From back in those days where we would use aerial photography to secure precision, to these days where we use satellite images and Googles Street View cars to gain the images for precision on roads and road details, road signs, and such. Maps have been evolving much more than ever and we never really realize the difference until we open up our minds to thinking about it. Maps before only had one use, to see where something was. Now a days, maps are still used for that, but you can not only know where it is, but you can get directions, pictures of the place, ratings, comments, and have a navigation system guide you to where you need to be. It really is stunning to realize how far maps have gone, from paper to digital over the centuries of time. Even more amazing to realize, is how accessible it is to everyone by the touch of a single button. No one can really fear getting lost, unless you don’t have service or connection…
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to remember that maps were not always used only to see where something was but like Dr. Kaplan emphasizes in lectures, for a variety of uses throughout time. They have always had different perspectives and shown different ways to look at things besides just finding where things are. For example, Old World sailors would use maps of the Mediterranean as well as astrological maps to help pinpoint where they were in the sea, and to safely navigate to shore.
DeleteI really love the Street View feature in Google Maps. It helps me to know exactly what to expect when I arrive at a place. Direction still works with bigger scales of maps(like highways), but when it comes down to finding your friend's place, it just helps so much to be able to get those information from street view mode.
DeleteIn lecture, we’ve recently discussed aerial reconnaissance and the romanticism surrounding it, and given our makeup assignment about Google Maps, I wanted to talk about a recent YouTube video I watched. As some people may know, a lot of YouTubers post gameplays of various video games, and the video that I watched was made by a company called Roosterteeth. On this channel, they played an aerial simulation game. In this game, the members were able to build and fly their own plane. The excitement that they showed throughout the video reminded me of the romanticism Dr. Kaplan frequently talked about, and the fact that they remained excited despite the obvious fact that it was only a virtual reality really emphasized the charm Google Maps and Google Street View provides.
ReplyDeleteWe so often think about the development of aerial reconnicance and digital mapping separately that I have never thought about how today these two are being evolved together, especially with the onset of commercialized virtual reality. Things like street view combined with virtual reality could really provide an awe-inspiring experience, a sort of technological sublime.
DeleteMy parents are coming to visit me this weekend, and it is their first time coming to Northern California, so my mom is hell-bent on visiting Napa and crossing it off her bucket list. She told me she wanted to go up in a balloon and see the vineyards from above, and before taking this class I would have told her it's the same as taking a plane. Now I am much more inclined and open to view the California grid from a different perspective: closer to the ground and not in a pressurized cabin. I am most excited about not being in a cabin and feeling the wind and the sunshine on my skin, and I really hope my mom gets to feel momentarily liberated too.
ReplyDeleteIn class and discussion we talked about the American Sublime and how it has changed over the years. I have thought a lot about how tourism has impacted the sublime, and I believe it has hindered the beauty of the sublime. Personally, I love to explore nature and go to beautiful places to observe the scenery. But more often than not, the location I am trying to access is full of tourists, typically you have to pay money (or at least to park), and the places are marked off or fenced in so you can not explore on your own. This causes the sublime to be less beautiful than it would have been 50-100 years ago when these destinations were not tourist destinations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion on the sublime and tourism. Oftentimes when I explore places in nature I imagine what it would be like to be alone and not surrounded by so many other people. When nature becomes a tourist attraction, I feel like it no longer feels as beautiful as it once did. We are no longer experiencing nature as it should be, but rather how people want it to be. Once nature becomes a tourist attraction, it seems to have been altered from its original state and is no longer as beautiful as it once was.
DeleteOne of the topics we touched upon a couple of lectures ago was the idea of the “sublime.” This feeling of awe and and magnificence is something I love to feel, whether it is while looking at photos, paintings, or watching a movie. Much like the people of the 18th century, I love the feeling of being “small” if that makes any sense. The fact that you are a part of a larger world and can really feel it when you look at something is just such an amazing thing. For example, I recently watched the movie Pacific Rim, and that is a very sublime movie. The scale of the giant robots makes me feel very tiny, and it is very awe-inspiring to see how gigantic they are. The feeling of epicness that sublime imagery elicits also incites a feeling of adventure within me, like the painting of the wanderer on that mountain top overlooking a vast piece of land.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite childhood movie was The Wizard of Oz, and in class talking about how hot air balloons gave people a sense of freedom reminded me of the end of the movie when Dorothy is about to go home to Kansas via hot air balloon. Much like how we discussed hot air balloons in class, the hot air balloon in the movie gave Dorothy freedom from Oz. For the entire movie, she just wanted to return home to Kansas, and in the moment, the only way she knew how to do that was by hot air balloon with the wizard (she didn't yet know about clicking her heels three times). There is a parallel between Dorothy, who finds the hot air balloon as her freedom from Oz, and people who were alive during the development of the hot air balloon, who view it as freedom and expanding their limits and knowledge. These uses of the hot air balloon almost seem like opposites, but they are similar in that they act as a way for people to find comfort in the unknown and expand their physical boundaries.
ReplyDeleteIn lecture, we talked about hot balloons and reconnaissance. It is interesting to me that even though hot air balloon was first invented to make better maps to help people understand geography, it eventually was used for military purpose. This reminded me about our current situation, where our taxes are mainly used in the military aspect. Even though we first collected tax to develop a better city everyone could live in, now it's used for an offensive purpose. Indeed not all taxes go to military, but it is the top 3 expense our taxes has been put into.
ReplyDelete