critiques and caves

the past few classes and critiques have been so invigorating. here's what i wrote down on my paper during our critique of the free speech project in electronic media and culture (emac):

"this is what being in an art school is all about. the vehicle of the critique to take discussion anywhere - envoke thoughts that overwhelm and get the wheels in your brain turning. so much more powerful than a lecture hall or disconnected reading assignments. there are so many layers of meaning (what it evokes for the artist and their intentions, what others say about it, and then how it makes you feel) when you see before you say."

ben called me yesterday, for whatever reason. (actually, i think he just wanted to repeat some of the jokes he had heard from krienbring to a fresh audience.) he was half playing madden, half sharing with me his first two days of school. so sweet. he loves kreinbring (no suprise there) & mumbled something about reading about a cave. i freaked out... it's crazy to think that i read plato's "the allegory of the cave" as a sophomore, too. it's one of those good old xeroxed reading packets completely covered in notes that i pull out from time to time, and it always has new meaning. like today in elements of visual thinking. someone brought it up while discussing john berger's "ways of seeing." what a coincidence, kip. i guess the stuff you learn in high school really is important. (but then again, it is plato and not the periodic table.)