illuminated, illustrated?

so this afternoon was my first class of the semester.
history of visual communication.
my last required history course (after this, its all gravy?)
ive had professor Schoeffel before though.
but ive never had blog before...should be interesting.

now ive kept a /visual inspiration/ folder in my seagate harddrive since my
first graphic design class. yes, i may have dropped it once or twice
(or hundreds of times), and i may have unplugged it without properly
ejecting to my own horror, so suffice to say ive had to restart this collection
now TWICE. //shudder//
damn, and there were SO many images in those versions, damn.

so what does this have to do with my blog?
nothing, stop asking questions.
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i jest...
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this blog, if all goes according to plan (because even the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry),
should be the lovechild of what goes on in class and what i see outside of it; their juxtaposition (i love that word); their cross-pollination; the peanut-butter and jelly sandwich that comes when they meet.
//sorry i couldn't think of another multisyllabic word to describe that//

so the discussion in class today...
the origin of writing, the origin of recording history through the use of visuals.
phew? yea, you bet.
but the class IS called history of visual communication, so...as expected.
i mean, dont get me wrong, the cave paintings at lascaux are amazing.
staring onto that wall, knowing that some pre-historic cave man had been there,
thousands of years before you, that you. are. not. the. first.
the feeling is reminiscent of seeing a huge tag on the most precarious ledge of the tallest building in the most dangerous part of the the city. its been bombed, its been tagged, another artist was there before you, paving paths for you with krylon, only for lascaux, the krylon is mineral pigment from some nearby rock.
respect.
see, now i dont know what the three kids felt when they stumbled
into that cave in france with their dog, robot. (true)
but my guess is that they must have felt something similiar to what mr. wonder
did, exploring what no newyorker, no matter how native, sees.
the caves of new york city.

someone was there before you.

quid pro quo...

"you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake", Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, ch 17

credit to those who deserve it for the video
andrew wonder and steve duncan @ undercity.org