Randi on Homeopathy

I found this incredibly interesting video of James Randi on homeopathy on Youtube.

This video is from a lecture Randi gave at Princeton in 2001. He explains the history of homeopathy and "how it works" (not that it does as you'll find in this video).

The full video can be found at http://www.rationalresponders.com/james_randi_lecture_at_princeton_2001_2hours

I never felt the need to purchase or try homeopathic medicine, but it is interesting to see how this form of medicine came about (which was quite a logical idea looking at it from a historical point of view), however now it seems that it is nothing more than a con.

This is the sort of thing I feel people should be educated on as they don't know what they're wasting their money on, and there are some people out there who would choose this as an alternative to prescribed medicine which really could do some good.

I feel it's good to be educated on these things and finding information like this just convinces me more to pursue skepticism when researching or developing ideas for my own art.

A change of plan

I have felt indecisive lately about whether I should continue to use this blog to write about myself for my assignment for "Starting out". At first it seemed like a good idea to write about myself, but now I feel as if I would really actually like to use this as an oppurtunity to research things that really interest me.

Here is what I am deciding to write about, and I am forcing myself to make this a final decision as I need to motivate myself to say "this is what I am doing, let's get on with it" and hopefully I'll be able to approach this task with much more enthusiasm.

I am writing about the following:

Artist: James Randi

Institution: James Randi Educational Foundation

Publication: James Randi Educational Foundation Blog

Medium: Skepticism

That just leaves with a gallery of my choice to select to write about.

Now if you're wondering about my choices, the reason is this: I am a skeptic myself, and I have had an interest in skepticism for a while, including the work of James Randi. Now I have decided to use this as an oppurtunity to research James Randi, his work and organisation more along with the medium of skepticism as it is something that I wish to influence my own work in future. I hope to also do something to do with skepticism in my own "sonic art" and this is the perfect way to start on research to help me develop ideas of my own for a piece of art to work on in future.

John Frusciante and Me

For my assisignment for the "Starting Out" module for the BA Sonic Arts course at Middlesex

University I have decided to use this blog to write about myself as an artist. This has mean't

that for research the potential is there for me to research and talk about as many artists as I

wish and relate it back to my own practice as since it will all relate to my practice as an

artist, I am still fitting the criteria of the assignment by talking about my chosen artist still

(myself).
I believe that taking this approach has proven to be far more interesting and beneficial than I

originally thought. I initially approached this task with this concept because I felt that I was

doing something unique and interesting, but mostly because maybe I was just being lazy with this

module. As it turns out though, this is turning out to be an approach that is full of research,

learning and discussion possibilities.

I want to use this blog to provide research on artists, their work, and their processes of

development that I find interesting and how they have influenced by own practice, or if the

research is new to me, then how it may influence my art in future.

One artist that I have had a great interest in for years is John Frusciante.

I first discovered John Frusciante's music when I saw a short film by Johnny Depp and Gibby

Haynes called "Stuff". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_%28film%29 +)
This film featured a soundtrack by John Frusciante. The film can be found on Youtube.com at the

following address:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qx7oJ7-Xjpg

The soundtrack is made up of songs taken from Frusciante's first album "Niadra LaDes and Usually

Just a T-shirt".

This album has been very influential in my practice as it was entirely recorded and mastered by

John Frusciante himself:
"The specifics of Equipment used on Niandra are not all that clear. There are some obvious

elements there, such electric and acoustic guitars, as well as piano. But the surprising thing

is, is that John also plays Bass, as well as Banjo here. He recorded and mastered the album

himself, without much help from American Recordings."
- Taken from Johnfrusciante.com

I too record my music myself, and the mastering is the process of converting the recordings to

MP3 for public access or burning to CD, which I also do myself.

Also on Frusciante's website I found the following comment about this record:
"Fans of John's solo work, see his music as something so pure and honest, it can trigger any

expression and/or emotion. That's certainly what Niandra does! As an incredibly gifted man,

Frusciante can filter any emotion through his guitar and deliver something that very few artists

can, Pure Expression."
This is something that I too feel about Frusciante's music and it is a goal that I set myself

when composing. I try to focus on aesthetics when working with my music, trying to use them to be

able to trigger emotions, although I do not feel that I am as successful at this as I would like

to be.

"Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt" is an album that means a lot to me and has been very

influential to me and I plan to write in more detail on the subject in future.

In the meantime, for more information on the album - go to the following link:
http://www.johnfrusciante.com/music/niandra.php