Bbenzon
Description
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 7356 )
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Japan's Special Envoy, Yokio Fushiki, Makes Strange Bedfellows at Madam Wayquay'...
Posted on 20 July 2014
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Collective Creativity
At long last the venerable New York Times is beginning to catch up with New Savanna. I've been blogging about collective creativity for awhile now, and... Read more
Posted on 20 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Michael Nielson: The Artist and the Machine
From the post, which is about images produced through scientific instrumentation: While Super-realism isn’t new, that doesn’t mean it’s yet in the artistic... Read more
Posted on 20 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond Spindling and Mutilation: Shouldn't We Recover Machine Translation for th...
Here's a nice standard-issue history of the digital humanities from NEH, tracing us back to Fr. Busa: The story of digital humanities often begins with another... Read more
Posted on 20 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Patterns and Literature
So, patterns. Some patterns operate on the time and scale of sensory perception; we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste things in the course of everyday life. Bu... Read more
Posted on 19 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More on Blogging in the Academic Blogosphere: The Birth and Development of...
Much of the work on OOO (object-oriented ontology) was developed (and critiqued) in the blogosphere. Part of the critique was that you cannot properly do... Read more
Posted on 19 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Five Friday Fotos, Cosmos Series
Imagine a big bunch of photos arranged in a large multidimensional space where each dimension is some aspect of the image, whether subject matter (animal,... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Value of Blogging and Social Media for Academics
I absolutely believe – see Alan Liu tweets below – that blogging and other social media can be invaluable for academics and, in particular, are central to the... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Parties I Have Known
If you’ve ever been to a really good party, or a happening nightclub scene, you know what I’m talking about. And I’m not even a party person. But I know a good... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Urban Design Center: the West Facade Evolves
I first photographed the Urban Design Center on July 25, 2011. I took a good many photographs in the following month, for coverage and to get a feel for the... Read more
Posted on 16 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Inside Sandy Looking Out
I took this photo the day after hurricane Sandy rolled through Jersey City. The power was out in my apartment and the City, of course, was pretty much shut down. Read more
Posted on 16 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In Praise of Women’s Hands
Bless in a congregation, because they are so numerous, those industrious schoolgirls, stitching their alphabets; and the deft ones, with needles at lacework,... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Book Review: The History of the Kiss! The Birth of Popular Culture by Marcel...
The review in brief: How should we make sense of the iconic act of the kiss? How and when did it become a vital sign of romance and love? Read more
Posted on 15 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Book Review: Anime: A History by Jonathan Clements
The review in brief: Japanese animation is at the nexus of an international multimedia industry worth over $6.5 billion a year, linked to everything from manga... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Sky is Falling: The Apocalypse and the Anthropocene from a Traditional...
The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert. Harvard University Press. November 2013. Tyler Cowen: "For those who are willing... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I Became Interested in Graffiti
This post is old, probably from 2007, I forget exactly, and the original is no longer on the web, so I can't snag the date from there. I am an independent... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
2500 Posts: What Have I Been Doing at New Savanna?
The oldest post on New Savanna is dated April 14, 2010, though it consists only of a broken link to a Nina Paley cartoon. I have this vague sense, however,... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jersey City and Mana Contemporary: A Dynamic Duo, Maybe [2499]
Consider this post an update and amendment to my report, Jersey City: From a Skate Park to the World, and embedded below. With the emergence of Mana... Read more
Posted on 12 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Group Dynamics: Jamming Jazz [2498]
About a decade ago I jammed with a bunch of guys – yes, guys – on Manhattan’s upper West Side. None of us were or had been professional musicians, as that term... Read more
Posted on 11 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers up from Below [2497]
* * * * * I'm counting down to post #2500. Three more to go. Read more
Posted on 10 July 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
