Spiral Jetty

Today we watched Smithson's Spiral Jetty. I am supposed to pick an specific aspect of the film and relate it to the whole film. I choose the sun. Smithson shows it at the beginning of the movie. The sunspots are really similar to the spiral jetty. Also there is a shot at the end of the film from the helicopter that is of the spiral jetty with the sun reflecting off the middle of it. This makes me relate the spiral jetty to more than just the great salt lake but the whole universe. It gives it a broader lens to be viewed from.

So what i really thought about during this whole film was this question: who do we think we are? As humans do we have complete dominance over nature and do we have the right to change it permanently as we please? Did Smithson consider the possible side effects to the ecosystem of the lake? if he did and found that nothing would be poorly affected then i guess i will back down (even though he permanently altered the lake, side effects or no). I can't look for artistic metaphors and find meaning in which way i draw a spiral if right in front of me is a cocky human being, altering nature for his own means. Humans think they can do whatever they want with earth because they think they the "right" to it, like we are better than anything else. When is see that blatantly in front of me, i get distracted from metaphors and deeper meanings. Maybe Smithson did think about this stuff though and maybe i'm just worked up because i just saw the film, i just thought i'd put my ideas out there. i think exploring creativity and expressing deep ideas is a great, wonderful thing, but i also think that there is something that goes beyond that: our need for humbleness as a finite race of mammals and our need to understand our place in the infinite world around us.

Please don't actually watch this video and just take my word for it that it will make your head explode. This video is of a girl with too much time and poor judgment, talking about her wonderful self. This relates to Alex Bag's video because Bag criticized the mindless, brainwashed young person by dressing up like one and this youtube video is of a real live brainwashed young person! Both video's encourage you to look at yourself, the only difference is what side the video maker is on. Really though, don't watch this video. i almost cried.

-jack