• The introduction and chapter one of this book dealt with an overview of contemporary art and art history.  Some of the most important concepts I got out of the reading are as follow: to always be critical and to expand your viewing horizons, to never accept something because it is simply called “art” and to widen the way you think and see.  I believe that all of these concepts are of upmost importance for an artist, along with any art viewers, to have.         
•    Contemporary art, from 1980 to present, can be broken up into, but are not limited to, six different themes: time, place, identity, the body, language, and spirituality.  Art must be analyzed with many factors in mind, including material, form, subject matter, technique and content.  And how does each of these factors affect the end result of a piece.           
•   In addition to the traditional paintings, drawings, sculptures comes a new breed of art as well.  This new breed includes performance, text, computers, digital media, video, film, audio, and installations.  Because every aspect of our past and present affects art, it has become our “visual culture”.  It is no longer solely displayed in museums and in houses, but it is everywhere and anywhere.  Art is a temporal parallel with history, both constantly switching.  Including such eras as postmodernism to post structuralism to feminism.  With a world that is in a constant state of change, art must evolve and develop as well. Leo Tolstoy writes, in an essay about art, “[art] is one of the conditions of human life…it is a means of union among men”.  Art has always been in human history and always will be.  After all art is the creative outlet used to widen viewpoints, initiate debate and catalyze controversy.  Art is the connection between the real and the unreal, science and emotion and it is a connection between cultures.  It has multiple purposes from aesthetics to a propellant of controversy to a personal expression.  Art is meant to evoke emotion, whatever type it might be. We, as viewers and artist, must be the ones to ask what is art, how do we and should we view and interpret it, are there limits to art and if yes, how to push the limits. 
• Tolstoy, Leo http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXOL-HUfWM&feature=related

One thing that was mentioned in Chapter One was the influence of computers and the internet on art. While a new media and method of communication was created, the internet also made it much easier to borrow, plagiarize, or outright steal artwork. In your opinion, does modern technology help or hinder the artist? How so? What can or should be done to minimize the negative effects of technology?