Full picture can be viewed at: http://aagam.deviantart.com/art/Urban-Paths-66942571

Movement. Travel. Time. One thing that has always interested me is the ability for living things, or non-living things (if acted upon), to move. At first we had only our feet; the only way to travel was the long, slow way, step by step over any type of terrain. Today, the way that most people get around is to by, obviously, walking (one thing hasn’t changed). One thing that has changed, even from 150 years ago, such a short period of time away considering how long we’ve been around, is that we no longer have to do anything by our own selves. Today, instead of walking large distances, people have other methods of transportation: bikes, cars, aircraft, and even spaceship. Technology has made it so that people who don’t even have the ability to walk (by that I mean people who are missing or have no legs) can now get around by using wheelchairs and of course, as mentioned before, cars, aircraft, (and even special bikes). Just think about what might be coming up in the future, too. Will it be possible to travel at speeds that are only possible in personal thought or science fiction? In today’s busy world in which the most important value to many seems to be always on the move, as fast as possible, our will and need to create something that will move us faster and faster will only develop more and more. I personally believe in 20 years we will have craft that will move at spaceship speeds, but they will be accessable to everyone.

Urban Paths was a picture I took back in November of 2006, however worked with in January of 2007. It was one of the works I placed in my portfolio that I needed for Ryerson New Media. We never had to explain what the photos meant, and since I really like this one, I decided I would explain a little bit about it and why I took it in the first place. Of course, the way I see this photo is through my own eye. This photo is open to interpretation. Although you may see what I see, you will probably see your own thing. I have asked people this, to look at the photo and tell me what they get from it, and pretty much every person gave me a different explination. Interestingly enough, no one gave me the identity that I am about to explain. The identity, personality, and message in the photo, although completely obvious when you hear about it, is actually hidden quite well.

The opening paragraph has probably given you a hint of what I am getting at. The city is an interesting concept: a small area full of many people. Toronto currenly has a population of around 2.6 million people or so, give or take a few thousand. The actual size of Toronto isn’t all that large. How is it possible that 2.6 million people live in such a small area? An even better example is how can 10 or so million people live in New York City, which is also a relatively small area? Another interesting question is the notion of expansion. Toronto is pretty full, yet people still are moving here and people will probably wish to live here in the future. There is only so much ground space, only so much area for homes, so what is the answer? Simple: build into the sky. New York, although small, can sustain the population of 10 million people because people live in apartments. Toronto is slowly turning into that, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all, but that’s moving off topic.

Ever take a look at how people travel? How does one get from a home here around the Lawrence Park neighbourhood down to Union Station, where I took this photo? The easiest and fastest way (usually) is by Subway. But what about downtown? Since space is so limited, we must utilize every single piece of space we have, be it on the ground or even in the air. Not every method of movement shown in this picture contains the use of walking, quite simply because in the hustle-bustle life of a city person walking just won’t cut it when you need to get somewhere in a hurry. Why do people take the subway to get to work? Is it because they are lazy or just aren’t physically fit to do it? Quite possibly, however I’ve always found the response of “I’m too lazy” to do something quite stupid, which is ironic because I say that to myself all the time. Everyone has the ability to get around the way that humans did thousands of years ago, but the whole point of inventing alternate ways of travel was so we could get places faster. It is just our nature, humans just don’t like to wait for things.

When looking at this picture I see movement through hallways in buildings, through the tunnels leading to various buildings and roads, by using the GO Trains heading out to all parts of the GTA, and even by using aircraft in the sky. Such a small picture this is, capturing such a small piece of life, but it is interesting to think that transportation, even a few hundred years ago, was more or less limited to using the feet. Although all of the transportation shown in this picture uses our feet in some ways (how else can you get to the Go Train?), transportation has gone from sore feet to high prices and high ideas.

Has the car, train, and airplane made us a lazy crowd? I certainly don’t think so. There are many people I know who use cars but are very, very active. Using the car to go everywhere, such as a few blocks down the street, doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone is lazy, that is just their own personal choice to do so. They could get up and walk down there if they wanted, but they choose not to, they choose to take that car just because it is faster. It completely depends on personality. I have never liked the word lazy because, to me, it just doesn’t work to explain actions. So use those feet, use that car, do whatever you wish. It is your life, it is your choice, you travel the way you wish. Our wants have given us technology, and technology is there for us to use. There are so many ways to travel, YOU and you alone can decide how you travel.

And now I shall walk up the stairs and get a tasty muffin. Or maybe I’ll get in the car and drive over to Red Lobster. Hmm…

Following the theme of an “invisible” reality in the universe, dark energy is the same as dark matter in the form that we cannot see it. In fact, unlike dark matter, scientists aren’t even sure if this stuff is real. Although both dark matter and energy right now are base line “theories,” dark energy can be described as a simple “guess” of what is going on out there. Dark energy is a theoretical form of energy that is “negative” to normal energy. Basically, it counteracts with the four universal forces (strong and weak nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational), especially gravity, essentially showing that dark energy is “negative gravity.” The universe may have been started from a big bang, where everything in the cosmos was packed into a singularity smaller than an atom. Seconds after the bang, the universe expanded at a very fast rate. It is roughly 13-14 billion years now from when the big bang may have happened, and most people would think that the expansion of the universe will have slowed down. Well, several billion years ago, thanks to the large gravitational influence of dark matter, the expansion of the universe was thought to have slowed, however now we see something startling, something that will probably lead to the end of the cosmos as we know it: dark energy is counteracting gravity, and therefore the universe is expanding, and it is expanding at an ever increasing rate.

We don’t actually know why the universe is expanding. Our understandings say that, thanks to the gravitational influence on the fabric of space (from solid objects and dark matter) should be pulling the universe back to a singularity. Dark energy is simply a theoretical force that is pushing things outward, stretching space by a faster and faster rate. Think of the universe to be a rubber sheet with a grid-like dot pattern on it (the dots being galaxies). As I pull the sheet outwards, the rubber will stretch, and the distance between our dot galaxies will start to get greater. This is what is happening in our universe right now: space itself is starting to stretch, and therefore clumps of galaxies are getting further and further apart.

This is what will bring the end to what we see. Eventually it is thought that this expansion will approach the speed of light. Galaxies will start to rush away from us by greater and greater speeds. Eventually, the gravity holding out galaxy will start to become null, followed by the gravity holding solar systems together. Up next would be the gravity holding planets and moons, and then finally the gravity holding earth together will also fall. Finally, atoms themselves will be pulled apart, and the universe will essentially ‘rip’ itself apart. This is one theory of the death of the universe, known as the “big rip.”

We don’t actually know where dark energy resides. We think that it isn’t very dense, and, because of that, it will be more or less impossible to detect in labs here on earth. Some scientists believe it fills empty space, whereas others believe that it is everywhere, including the area around us right now. Weird to think that an energy that may one day destroy this place may be residing right beside us; we can reach out and, although not feel it, theoretically ‘touch’ it. Some scientists believe that the actual effect of dark energy may change over time. As stated before, it doesn’t just “cancel” out gravity, it more or less “repels” it in a sort of way, making gravity more and more meaningless (remember, about 73% of the universe is possibly comprised of dark energy, and that is a vast majority). It could be possible that as time goes on, dark energy may start to form into dark matter, or its own attributes will change and it’s “negative” repulshion will become positive, meaning that it will no longer cancel out gravity and, instead, will work with it to pull everything together. If this were the case, the universe will start to move together at an accelerating pace, eventually moving at the speed of light, until it all forms into a singularity once again. This universe death theory is called the ‘big crunch.’ Upon the crunch, it may be possible for there to be a big bang, and everything happens all over again. The universe could have been born billions of times before, but then the question can be raised “when was it first born?”

This has always been very interesting to me. Maybe the idea of beginning and end is simply a human idea. Maybe there is no such thing as birth and death. Maybe there is no such thing as a beginning. We will probably never know how the universe began, when it began, when it first appeared, and that may be because the way the cosmos works just doesn’t interact with our brain. Think about it for a minute: how can it be possible that the universe was created from nothing? Even if it collapses into a big crunch, and then bangs out again, when was the first bang, and where did the singularity come from? If it came from another dimension, what caused that dimension to be born? Again, I personally believe that the human race will never understand this, as it is simply something that the language of our brain cannot interpret. Words are words, they are things that humans have made up. Words may describe concepts and what we see and understand, however, if we don’t understand much about the universe, and probably never will understand everything about it, how can there be words of termonology that will make us understand the beginning. Maybe if the universe does end in a big rip, where even atoms are pulled apart, how can it be possible for everything to just be ripped apart? Is your brain in a knot yet?

Although it can be hard to think about, it is pretty damn interesting trying to think of something that our brain just doesn’t understand (and simply for that reason). It is somewhat boring, in my opinion at least, to think and ponder things that already have answers in textbooks (hense my rant about the uselessness of many school courses). We may one day know what will happen to our universe, whether it will be the influence of dark energy to form a big-rip, dark matter causing a big crunch, or if the universe will just be here forever (once all of the stars blow up or die out, the universe will be void of everything except rocky plants and wandering black holes). Until that day, however, humanity has the ability to keep on thinking about these ideas. One day, maybe even during my lifetime, the answer to where it all began, and maybe even what could happen after the end, or if there is even a beginning or end, will be answered. Until that day, let the mind wander and let it ask it’s own questions: that is how puzzles are solved.

Have a good thanksgiving all.

-A Gam

Everyone knows that the universe is a mysteriuos place. We know very little about it, and we aren’t even sure if what we know is really correct. One mystery of the universe is the presence of dark matter and dark energy. Let me say now that I won’t be writing a scientific article here, this is simply for personal interest. Just by reading those words one would naturally get a sence of mystery. To put things very, very simply, dark matter and dark energy cannot be seen, however they make up the vast majority of the universe. Scientists believe that 73% of the universe is made up of dark energy, and 23% is made up of dark matter. To put things into perspective, all normal matter (planets, stars, asteriods, etc) make up only 0.4% of the universe! The remaining 3.6% is made up of interstellar gas. To me it is quite interesting that we cannot visually see about 96% of what is out there. This entry will focus only on dark matter (otherwise it will get way to long), so I’ll explain my views on dark energy in a later entry.

People have asked me before, “if we can’t see dark matter, then how do we know it is there?” Think of a black hole for a moment. Black holes eat up all of the light around them. Their gravity is so strong that even light, travelling at such a speed, cannot escape the hands of the death beacon. Since no light reflects off of black holes, we cannot see them, and we will most likely never see one. We know that black holes are around, however, because of the influence they put on objects that are unfortunate enough to get near to them (such as stars and dust/gas clouds). As this matter from the clouds or stars approach the black hole, they start to accelerate to speeds near the speed of light. Upon doing this, they give of tremendous amounts of energy in the forms of x-rays. We now know how to use these x-ray bursts to find where a black hole is located (radio waves may also be produced). So, although we cannot see black holes, we are pretty sure we know that they exist and where they exist. We can find the presence of dark matter in the exact same way, using a technique called gravitational lensing.

All objects with any sort of mass exert gravity on surrounding things. The more massive the object, the bigger the influence of gravity on other objects. Let’s say we have a cluster of galaxies, 10 Milky Ways for example, all in a relatively small area of space. Now, if we were looking at this cluster of Milky Ways, we would see something strange if there was a galaxy behind. The light being put off from the galaxy behind the cluster would be bent as it travels through this high gravity area of the galaxtic cluster. Think of it like putting a pencil in a glass of water (it looks like it breaks in two). So, the galaxy behind is completely distorted. Here is an example of what gravitational lensing looks like: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/the_universe/images/ab2218_sm.jpg Notice the weird streaks going in a circle around the bright galaxy near the center of the image? Those streaks are a galaxy behind, being completely distored.

We can tell the presence of dark matter in the same way. Dark matter does not interact with light at all. Some scientists believe that light simply goes right through this stuff (some even believe that dark matter is actually stuff caught in a dimension between our universe and another). Dark matter does seem to have a gravitational influence, in fact, it seems to have a very strong gravitational influence, meaning that dark matter must be very massive. The Hubble Telescope recently took a look at one part of the sky, and although it can only see light, it also detected the presence of dark matter through lensing. Here is the official image showing what hubble found (the bright spots are galaxies, whereas the blue globs are dark matter; sure is a lot more stuff out there than what we actually see isn’t there?): http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/sci_nat_enl_1168021092/img/1.jpg

So, is dark matter real? We honestly have no idea. Tests are showing that the stuff does seem to be out there, however, as mentioned earlier, we never know if we are right about anything when talking about our universe. Since we can’t see it, we will probably have a very hard time being 100% sure that it is out there. When it comes to this subject, I cannot offer a good opinion on whether I believe in its presence or not. Sure, the idea looks great, and there is more and more science that is showing that it is probably out there, and in a way I do believe that dark matter fills the universe. I am a strong believer that there are things out there that we simply cannot fully understand. The idea of 23% of the universe being made up of a matter that cannot be sensed in seeminly any single way except through it’s gravity effects on its surrounding stuff (light) is pretty mind boggling (and it gets even more mind boggling when the topic of dark energy comes into play).

If you have an interest in dark matter, or if this blog entry has given you an interest, then simply head over to wikipedia (don’t worry, their article on dark matter is pretty acurate) and read up about it. I hope this entry has not confused you too much, and I also hope you enjoyed reading it. Leave a comment if you wish.

-A Gam

If you know me then you probably know where I currently am. For those who don’t,  I am currently at Ryerson University in Toronto in the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Image Arts in New Media program.  There is often much confusion around what new media is, and now, a month into the course, I can safely say that I fully understand why people have no idea what new media is. I still am not 100% sure on what it is, mainly because new media is one of those terms that doesn’t have a direct definition. All of the profs I have have their own definition of new media. My personal definition is that new media is a form of art that users can interact with, relate to, and come up with their own opinions and discussion. As a new media artist, it is more or less my duty to open up new opinions on subjects and even change the way many people think about a particular event or thing. This can obviously be done through images (such as photography), but it can also be done through many other techniques (most of which I still have yet to learn).

As I mentioned above, a part of my job is to offer new opinions and experiences on subjects. Of course, to make opinions that actually have any proper regard to them, I do need to stay up to date with current events. This is what I have set up this blog for – not only others to read, but also for my own personal reflection on my daily activities and discoveries. Be it politics, astronomy, corporate, legal, whatever; If i have a view on it that is different from most other people’s, I will post it here. So, in short, this blog will deal with almost anything that I care about and feel I need to say something about.

I will try my best to write as much as I can. Writing is a valuable tool for anyone to have – the better the writer you are, the better the communicator you ultimately are. New Media is a form of communication, much like how film, photography, and journalism are. I do wish to mention that these posts will probably be written at night when I’m half asleep, so please do excuse any terrible grammar or spelling. Although these things are important, this is not a formal essay or anything like that, therefore it is really the idea that counts. If you read one of my opinions or rants, whether or not you agree with what I say, as long as you start asking yourself questions about what I have written, then I will be very happy.

Knowing your opinions about what I write about is also equally as important. Upon reading one of my blog entries, please feel absolutely free to leave a comment. Of course, if you think my opinion or rant is way out of line, say so in a _nice_ way. Harsh language and attacks won’t be tolerated on my blog and any comment that contains those will be deleted and no responded to (yes, I will try my best to respond to all comments left). If you do disagree with me, I would love to hear about it. I’ve always found the clash of different opinions to be interesting, and I’m sure some of my new media work will focus on that.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog and I do hope you bookmark or come back to this place often. Since I will be writing about current events, you may come up with good ideas by reading my entries for your own projects, essays, and so on, especially if you are in the Arts or Fine Arts. Thanks again and hopefully talk soon.

-A Gam