Wonder, the Universe, and the WWW

I suppose it would be appropriate to begin my Art & Wonder blog by describing what wonder is to me at this point in the semester. Wonder is expressed through awe, astonishment and curiosity. It is provoked through the revelation of an item of knowledge, an image or some other medium that was unknown beforehand and is outside of the realm of what one believes to be normal, common knowledge, and oftentimes is labeled as bizarre. There is another side to this, however. It is also possible to wonder at things that you already know to be true and to exist but are nonetheless inconceivable. An example of this would be our universe--the vast expanse of existence beyond what we can see, even with telescopes, that we know to be there, but still cannot conceive of its grandiose nature. I think this site can explain what I mean. Each speck you see on this site is a galaxy... we hardly know all there is to know about our own.

http://www.aip.de/groups/galaxies/sw/udf/swudfV1.0.html

I think that the internet has had a very distinct impact on the expression and abilities of wonder. There are an enormous amount of websites that may produce wonder in the information they offer or the images they show. This is a phenomenon that is much akin to Wilson's cabinet of wonder, for information is very easily forged and images are very easily photo-shopped. While we can surf the internet and find wonder around every .com, we have to be skeptical as well. There is much to be learned and seen on the internet, and each thing we see will expand the boxes we live in as far as what we know and consider to be possible. There is so much to learn about the world, its people, and the universe that surrounds us that I don't think that the internet can have the effect of numbing us to the wonder we can experience, but rather allows us to experience more of it. I hope to cover many aspects of the wonder that we can experience through the internet and in our every day lives through this blog. I think the fact that we are using the internet as a portal to express our perceptions of wonder is a great idea; it is a very appropriate tool filled with wonder in and of itself.