Shanken pg 193-202

On page 198, Shanken introduces another artist who I have researched who's name is Nam June Paik. Shanken refers to something that I heard before in one of the fine arts courses I have taken with Doug when he says that "Marshal Mcluhan's famous phrase 'Media is the message' was formulated by Norbert Wiener in 1948 as 'The signal, where the message is sent, plays equally important role as the signal, where message is not sent' (198). This to me means that let says I made a video for an art class, the video's content is one thing, while the media being the video also sends a message that it's digital. At least that's what I remember it meaning. On page 194, Shanken discusses Lucio Fontana and he says something that I would say is a pretty bold statement, "We live in the mechanical age. Painted canvas and upright plaster no longer have a reason to exist." I would agree that we live in a mechanical age, but I would not agree with what he said about a painting canvas be obsolete. Artists like Bob Ross have been phenomenal at creating great paintings and I still see it as a vibrant and still living medium. The statement from Fontana really discredits the art making medium of painting, which I thinks can sometimes be more beautiful than something done mechanically.

Bob Ross