How Games Steer Us Through Life

Original article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/how-games-steer-us-through-life/#postComment

It seems that the number of younger kids, who are exposed to games (such as Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Fruit Ninja), is increasing each year. Virginia Heffernan -who wrote about how games steer our lives- states that games help to calm and release stress from the world. “Games…give a break from the feeling that you’re too dumb or too smart for this world”. However, I disagree. As a high schooler, I realized that I am consistently exposed to electronics: computer, ipod, cellphone. Sure, these can help me release stress and become my escape route from the reality, but what about other things that make up my life? These days, I have a yearn to go back in time when I had a leisure to walk in the park, to chat with my friends on a bicycle, to lay on the fresh green lawn and enjoy the breeze, and to have a long nice talk with my family on a picnic. It’s too early for children to rely on games to release their anxiety; they should roam outside and explore the world that is much bigger than the screen size of iPad.

Painting with Light

It was not until second semester that I got introduced to paint with light. For second semester, I took digital photography for my second elective. We learned about different photography terms and techniques. Towards the end of the year, we incorporated art in digital photography. This was painting with light. Our teacher told us how to make the shuttle slower and capture the light while we drew pictures. This could not be one with only couple of people. Also, we faced many difficulties. First of all, we couldn’t control the brightness of the background. This made us hard for the light to stand out from the background. Secondly, we had trouble trying to focus on the light. We had to make sure that everything was in focus before we start drawing. Last but not least, we had to draw or write letters backwards since the camera reflects the image backwards. We had to continue drawing without stopping, since we couldn’t know where to start from if we stop drawing. However, with all of these difficulties, I managed to take photos of lights.

I have also posted a video that my teacher showed us. The videos are done by Japanese photographers and painting with the light is the new hot topic in Japan these days. Because of painting with light, many companies are making colorful and funky lights.

These are also videos done by other people. The work they have done are truly amazing.