This A M E R I C A N l i f e

As I began listening to the introduction, I immediately began thinking of the novel "White Noise" by Don Delillo. The novel displays critique of an American society governed by white noise: the constant fear of nuclear war, technology, the metaphysical bond of relationships and how that effects they way in which we perceive the world, etc. These outside influences, that seem to be so incogito, so descrete, yet they provide such a profound influence on our day to day lives. This is where they were getting to. An analyzation of the unconscious OCD within all of us.

The first Act was an introduction to the more familiar map. A physical and mathematical representation of one singular idea and how that interprets or effects the sphere around it. Pumpkins, for example, were explained as a reference to the economic status of that household, or yet a reference to the participation of which the household within the community. Street signs, specks of light and underground systems were all mentioned of a way of mapping our sphere. It all reminds me of the existential principal of how everything is connected in some manner. Like they said, "the community is almost like a living organism", and yet it is. If you were to print each map on a transperancy and then overlap each one, it would ultimately, with the cooporation of each individual map, create a group, a whole, a community, a more understandable and functional representation of our world as we know it.

I really believe strongly in the interpretation of the droning sounds around us and how that effects the sphere around us. As someone who has studied music, I believe that the musical principle of consonance and dissonance rings true within all the scopes of life. It is that push and pull, light and dark, it is the contrast, yet the balance of opposites that ultimately creates one harmonious chord. Denis wood ultimately believes that the machines and constant noises around us have a significant effect on the way in which we perceive the world. Much like the progression of a pop song pumps you up while you work out, the constant combination and mundane humming of your appliances may drain your mood.

I didn't particularly connect with the act of mapping the world through our senses.. I see the purpose in mapping our senses with a machine or computer, but I didn't see how it related to the entire program. However, the way in which the computer mapped in individual smell can be relayed to the way in which our own brain maps in smell. The complexity and esoteric nature of how that mapping is done can, maybe, ultimately explain of how the mapping of our own brain is so esoteric.

What I've noticed that most of these individuals seem to be very intelligent, almost autistic in some sort of way. They pay attention to the most minute details of the sphere around them, and in that they had discovered something very obvious yet hidden. The man who ate at every restaurant on Pico discovered something organic by following a mathematical route or map.

Does all this relate to the idea that the world is indeed, through all the chaos, something very mathematical and organized. I think it is...