Blogs

 The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories

5/1/2011

Krishnan Raghavan

Deus Ex Serendip: A “Heavenly” New Perspective on Some Familiar Issues

                                                       Crafting The Documentary Narrative

Hello classmates, professors, and visitors!

As the culmination of The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories, I have created a comic in dialogue with Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics that is meant to complement his work by both demonstrating how his ideas are useful and also highlighting some things that he left out of his theory of comics as a revolutionary medium.

Audrey Johnston
Evolution/Stories/Diversity
Professor Dalke & Professor Grobstein
Web Project #4

A Creative Conversation Between Three Texts

 One of the most significant ways in which I have learned from our class this semester is through its manifestation in other realms of my life.  As new themes evolved in our discussions, their appearance in my life outside of class has progressed into my social life, other class discussions, and I have even noticed their presence frequently in the newspaper.  I think it speaks to the nature of the course that almost every conversation we have had has followed me outside of the classroom and I know others feel the same way.  Even though, at first, I thought it was just a random coincidence that all of my classes were connecting and every day when I ope

In this course, The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories, I’ve learned about what could be considered the three main types of stories: there are non-narrative foundational stories, which are static, hierarchical in nature, eternal, and have no segmentation. There are narrative foundational stories, which are time sensitive, segmented, and there is a sense of movement away from the past towards the future. Third, there are emergent stories, which lack a hierarchy, have no segmentation, and are more explanatory. Each type mirrors the ways in which we have attempted to explain our presence on this earth. The Great Chain of Being closely resembles a non-narrative foundational story telling while the tree of life is similar to a narrative foundational one.

    Though this is a bit delayed, (I've finally learned how to post the video I wanted to post) I wanted to have a quick discussion on the Ouroboros. I've been rather curious about it even since we briefly discussed it in class earlier. When I think of the ouroboros, the ouroboros seems like an ominous symbol used by cults where the members, shrouded in dark cloaks, stand around a pit of fire and chant songs in Latin. I've become especially interested in the history of the ouroboros to see where it came from and what it even means. 

 The Evolution Tibetan Sand Mandala:

Perspectives on the Evolution of Life and Artistic Expression