Pixelgawker

pixelgawker started out last fall as an experiment. there was and continues to be a need for critical writing in the classroom as well as a forum to articulate observations, tendencies and sometimes frustrations about being a student and faculty. since then, this blog has slowly emerged as a focal point for conversation, rants and a good dose of perspective. Since August, traffic on this site has reached over 75,000 visits. In 2008 alone, our traffic was over 46,000. Numbers can be deceiving but what this traffic honestly depicts is a demand for content.

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I compulsively check my email countless times throughout the day. Logging onto instant messenger has become just as much a part of my daily routine as, say… brushing my teeth. The photo sharing world of Flickr has changed, dare I say ruined, my life forever. I’ve abandoned the coalition of desktop users and joined the laptop alliance. My computer follows me around, and to it, I remain perpetually “plugged-in” to the vast world that surrounds us. (more…)

I’m a transplant. I was born and raised on the southside of Chicago. Until I moved to Michigan 3 years ago, I didn’t know a tremendous amount about the state. Sure, I spent time at the beaches on the “west coast,” I knew that a place like Frankenmuth scared me and Detroit was a place that I thought I would never want to visit. I now work in Detroit and call SE Michigan my home. I commute downtown every day and live in the shadow of a city struggling to rediscover itself. To outsiders, Detroit is defined by high crime, misery (see Forbes) and a sinking automotive industry. To those same outsiders, Michigan is characterized by foreclosures and the mass exodus of unemployed individuals. Unfortunately, I have learned that most of these are accurate assessments. What I have also learned is that many of these characterizations can be applied to other states throughout the country. The difference is Michigan has done a better job of mismanaging their economy and a poor job of diversification.

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By: Megan Deal

Recently, I spent a solid half hour in the school cafeteria, chatting away with another student. We were table mates by default really, she approaching me and my unoccupied seats in a desperate attempt to find for herself a place to land and enjoy her lunch. I introduced myself, she did the same, and we proceeded to talk about a variety of topics ranging from Detroit to the over-priced sandwiches offered in the cafe. As we casually spoke to one another, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow…how nice; how exciting to be interacting with a student from another discipline.” Then, as we both described the structures of our respected curriculums, along with the type of classes that we each take, something happened. This girl, this seemingly pleasant girl, looked me dead in the eye and said: “You see, the thing I don’t get about graphic design is that you’ll do anything to make money…it’s like you sell yourselves out.”
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By: Megan Deal    This past week the CCS community was introduced to the premier issue of the student produced publication, Perspective. Perspective appears to be one student’s abortive attempt to unite the CCS student body, mixed with an amateur’s undertaking in DIY desktop publishing. If the “Top 10 Reasons Why its Sweet to be a CCS Student” hasn’t turned you away yet, the “Go Green” sex advice surely will. The eight page journal seeks to explore issues presumably relevant to CCS students, yet fails to move past the cliche. Where to eat in Detroit? How to make a salad? How to forward your email? This type of information, however pertinent it may be thought, is best left for the annual New Student Orientation, or at the very least on a flyer hung around the ACB. Lee DeVito’s insight surrounding controversial art shines the brightest, but is under served among the remaining inanity. If a student publication is to succeed, its creator must carefully assess the need of its audience, and consider the question of value. Perspective hasn’t concerned itself with either. (more…)

By Ken Blaznek
“I tell you one thing I don’t get. This whole nostalgia for the late 60’s, early 70’s that’s happening right now. The Black Crows wearing bellbottoms again? I don’t think so, ok? I wore them once, they sucked, I didn’t get laid, I’m not wearing them again!”
-Denis Leary

The above quote is from Denis Leary, one of the great comedians of my generation turned network tv darling. It’s from about 1994, when my generation was embracing 70’s cool. Bellbottoms. I wore them, in 1994 they were available for two dollars at Value Village and they were “sweet.” (more…)

by: Megan Deal

At some point during our elementary years, between sessions of cursive writing, and bouts of long division, we learned the proper way to structure a sentence. In the following years, we practiced and practiced, until our poor little minds were unconsciously identifying adjectives and composing compound sentences. Then, in our high school careers we were taught the best way to structure sentences into paragraphs, and then subsequently paragraphs into essays. We learned various rhetorical and stylistic devices that aided us in this process, until we were able to develop clear ideas into syntagmatically coherent sentences. Again, we practiced. Practice perfected. (more…)