The Lost Continent and the Lost Will

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Tuesday, June 4, 2013

            It is from general knowledge the history of the great island or continent of Atlantis, a legendary geographical location, which existence is only based in beliefs, and not in scientific purposes.
Atlantis sky view depicted in the
televison series Stargate: Atlantis

            The legend of the “Lost Continent” is firstly reported in Plato’s dialogs, in which the wise philosopher of classic antiquity referred to an island that, locking a war with Athens (having the population of Atlantis tried to invade this city), was sunk “in a single day of misfortune”.
            However, the reports about this legendary place are related to a vast idealization about its technology. Some beliefs are based in the fact that Atlantis was sunk because its technology was so sublime that the Gods considered an arrogant attitude of such pride by the mortals that deserved its banishment.
Athanasius Kircher's map Atlantis
            Some theorists believe even that Atlantis had a similar or better technology than the one of the nowadays civilization. So, if that is indeed correct, the disappearance of that place wouldn’t provoke the disappearance of technological assumptions that could be used today?

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A Controversial Techniques of Warhol’s paintings

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Sunday, May 26, 2013

Andy Warhol reveals himself as the most eccentric of the already eccentric pop artists. However, some of his works are not so prominent to common knowledge. This Oxidation Painting, which remounts to 1978, is a relevant case of his eccentricity, work that demonstrates its so high insaneness.
In this mural, it stands out the representation of abstract characters, painted with the colors green and brown, in a predominant yellow and dark background. However, the boards related to Oxidation painting have an unusual origin: the physiological. In order to cause the oxidation of the metal covering a canvas, Andy Warhol invited some friends to expel urine to the canvas, causing the formation of mineral salts, with the reaction between the uric acid and the copper, the only considerable paint used to these works. Then, to contribute to an higher eccentricity, Warhol elaborated an hypothetic table which related the using of a variety of metallic background paints and the variation of the maker’s fluid and food intake.
This is a brief history of the beginning of the resurgence of the abstract paintings in the pop art, from the Abstract Expressionism of the 1940’s, by Warhol and also a brief relation between art and science, with a new possible controversial technique of painting.
 
Andy Warhol's Oxidation Painting (1978)

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A new ending stars a new perspective (Pay much attention to this story!)

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Thursday, May 9, 2013


         All the tragic endings have a seemingly good perspective, resultant from the insane eccentricity of the characters, after the awful effects of a determinate dysfunctionality. However, that aspect cannot be the good counterpart of the ending. Here it is the good (and perfect) ending of the film Rebel Without a Cause (or the ending that the fans like me would like, being me an individual who likes action):

(Jim heads for the entrance door of the planetarium.)

Jim: Ray Fremeck is still out there?
Ray: Yes, I’m here.
Jim: Turn off those lights! If you do, we’ll come out!
Ray: OK. Turn the lights out.
(The Policemen turn off the lights of the cars.)
Jim: You see, come on!
(Jim, John and Judy head out for the entrance door.)
John: Who’s that?!
Jim: Just a guy.
John: I shoted one of them.
Jim: That’s all right, you didn’t hurt him.
John: Those are not my friends!
Jim: Listen!
John: Make them go away!
Jim: Do you want I make them go away? Do you want I make that? OK.
Judy (Making the surrender side on the hands): Jim!
(Jim makes the surrender gesture.)
Jim: Ray, you make those guys get back? You don’t need to worry about anything. Here. (Shows the gun.) This is the gun the boy was keeping. So, keep the guys back. Right?
Ray: OK. I am coming right there.

(Ray comes close to Jim, talk. However, Jim resort to action and grabs the gun, making Ray Fremeck an hostage. The Policemen point out the guns to Jim.)

Policemen: Drop out the gun!
Jim: Listen! I have the lieutenant. Let us leave and he lives!
Frank. Jim, please!
Jim: Shut up, dad! I am done with my life. I am tired of the place you brought me. I can be young. But my sum experience of life thought me that the entire world is a bunch of hypocrites and sick idealists. I just want to live glad, without thinking in the sicknesses of society, in which the people are so egocentric that doesn’t care about a friend’s death, just to continue their miserable and habitual lives. That isn’t enjoying life. That is pure sickness. For me, there is no problem that he had shot a man! The real criminals are not the ones who become mad. The real criminals, the real mad people are the ones who leave the others behind. Even Judy, the girl who says she loves me, tried to convince me to leave this boy behind. Plato is the only one here who is special for me. Before I met him, my life was a mess, in which all my attitudes resulted of my age madness. With Plato, I feel I’m not the only. I feel my madness is not unusual. We are mad, but we are emotionally mad. So, we are going to leave. We’re going anywhere, to the county, to the woods, anyplace in which the sick ideals of the world should rule! The agony we lived on was our only trial!

(John heads for the place where was Jim. Holding Ray an hostage, Jim, alongside John, leaves the place of the Planetarium, heading for the right corner of the position of the police cars. Then, Jim finds a van and leaves the lieutenant on the local. The policemen are pursuing them, and a car persecution is initiated.)

Jim: You see, Plato. We did it. We are finally free!
John: I don’t know. I have fear.
Jim. Don’t worry. We’ll be all right. We just need to get away of the cops. Then, we can go wherever we want. Wherever the little minds of the world don’t have ru…

(The van collides with a white car. Jim and John, after flouncing, die on the local. Despite their ending, the boys were happy because they knew they advised the world to some warning issue: the oppression suffered by young people, the need of attention they have, the need of revolt, the need of getting the control of their life, without getting the mad ways. As the people surround the crash site, with cries of the relatives of both young men, the movie ends with the theme "Here’s to you", by Ennio Morricone [Being this a remake, I include a song of a film of 1971. Yes, I am kind comparing the two group of anarchists. Jim and John died, nut they made the perspective of the teenagers world more intelligible. That’s the happy counterpart of the original ending. The one who makes people reflect about the walls of society, and not just cry about a teenager’s madness].)

Here's to you - Joan Baez

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21st Century Icon's Slogan

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Saturday, March 30, 2013

This song and this specific band indicate the preferences of a model icon of this time.

Basket Case - Green Day

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The Science fiction regarding Technology

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Thursday, March 14, 2013

H. G. Wells
            The issues regarding Technology have gained a popular recognition by the influence of the science fiction genre. Emerging essentially during the 19th century, this genre is concomitant with the advancements of Technology and Science.
            Science fiction takes themes which are at the time often approached in society, as well as imaginative possibilities of what may occur according to scientific aspects. For example, Jules Verne explored the idea of travelling to locals at the outset impossible to reach, like the center of the Earth, and H. G. Wells explored the idea of time travelling.
Jules Verne
            However, the progresses in Science are determined by people mentality, which is intrinsically related to Culture. Although this genre is influenced by technological advancements, the fiction has also a role in the progress. An odd case of this fact is a popular belief that the moon landing in the Apollo program was an idea of the President John F. Kennedy, as he watched the sitcom The Honeymooners.

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The Perspectives about Globalisation

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Thursday, February 28, 2013



Allegorical perspective about Globalisation
            In a brief analysis, we would affirm that the most relevant advantage of the phenomenon of Globalisation is the possibility of integrating the ideals of peace and freedom, without compromising the status of economic and social independence of a nation. On the other hand, the most relevant disadvantage would be the possibility of Cultural Assimilation, if a country has not sufficient conditions to maintain its independence of a considerable dominant other.
            However, the theory of Globalisation is more embracing. The phenomenon of Globalisation would finish with the frontiers which separated each culture along History. According to this idea, it may bring stability or inconstancy, depending of the case. If there is the necessity to establish barriers, in order to avoid conflicts between two cultures, Globalisation wouldn’t be correctly practicable. For that reason, we cannot argue that this is not a so fascinating fact, as we agree fondly that a Globalised world would be a wonderful way to solve nowadays troubles.

 
BBC short film about Globalisation

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The Legacy of Martin Luther King

Posted by Miguel Castro Oliveira , Thursday, January 24, 2013

Martin Luther King
Since the re-election of Barack Obama in the last month of November, it is relevant to refer the historical facts inherent to the African-American Civil Rights Movement, from 1955 to 1968.
            Martin Luther King, the most prominent figure of this movement and the racial discrimination against African American people, was a man whose actions didn’t involve essentially any specification of his profession as a clergyman but a pure altruism and a thoughtful Activism.
            On 14th October 2012, it made 48 years since Martin Luther King II won the Peace Noble Price. His actions had a large contribution in the history of the United States of America, having made a reenactment of the values introduced in the Declaration of Independence.
            However, this man hadn’t only contributed to the modeling of the ideas of a nation. Whole the world recognizes today the glory of Martin Luther King.

“I Have a Dream” full speech

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