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Currents Magazine

Flipping the Script: Challenging Motifs in Literature and Film

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From the opening pages of Genesis to the opening scenes of Western movies, media has traditionally associated light with positivity and darkness with negativity. Across literature and film, authors and directors use literal light and darkness to suggest figurative meanings about characters, plots and themes. Villains sneak in shadows, dwell in dungeons and cloak … [Read more...] about Flipping the Script: Challenging Motifs in Literature and Film

Seeing the Value in Dark

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Cemetery flowers in "Dark Spring" | Photo courtesy of Katherine Parsons Out of the darkness, bright tulips bloom. Others wilt and whither. In "Dark Spring," Digital Art Professor Katherine Parsons' art project, she explores how cemetery flowers reflect both life and death. This VR experience for Coaxial Arts in downtown Los Angeles focuses on the relationship between … [Read more...] about Seeing the Value in Dark

Silhouetting Sound: Light and Dark in Music

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Art by Jordan Smith. Milan Loiacono contributed to the reporting in this piece. Music has the ability to elicit a wide spectrum of emotions. It can create suspense in a film scene. Evoke nostalgia from a middle school dance. Help someone cry through their first heartbreak. Music as an art form is an experience, a mood, a feeling. Musical styles express … [Read more...] about Silhouetting Sound: Light and Dark in Music

Night Shift and the Science Behind Blue Light

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Photo by Milan Loiacono. Modeled by Daniel Lee.For many, it's the first light one sees in the morning and the last light one sees at night. Glowing devices make communication easier and knowledge more accessible. However, using screens for prolonged periods in the evening may cause the decline of cognitive and communicative abilities.In 2015, Bank of America conducted a … [Read more...] about Night Shift and the Science Behind Blue Light

Astrophotography

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At night, a camera is blind. It faces the inky darkness of a pitch-black sky or the stark contrast of city lights and struggles to focus, let alone choose an exposure. "Auto" is useless. Night photography is thus a test of a photographer; they must know how to set a shutter speed for several minutes, how to freeze the motion of stars in the sky, how to ‘paint in’ the … [Read more...] about Astrophotography