Concerned Citizen

It's hard to feel that the arts are slowly filtering out of the school system when you live in Provo, Utah. Music especially seems intrinsic in the Mormon culture, with every other child able to play the piano or sing angelically. However, more and more arts education is leaving mainstream school systems in favor of more "practical" skills such as sciences or athleticism.
In our reading in class this week, it says "Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefit." It continues on to discuss the progression of cultural rights in general and their ability to allow self-expression in ways that make sense to us. However, if this cultural and media-literacy is to disappear from schools, that ability to express in any particular medium that might benefit one specific person the most deeply will disappear. For example, in this class I often find myself frustrated by my lack of previous instruction and skill, and if I had come into it with more outside knowledge, I might feel more prepared to tackle these projects. However, with my limited arts education, despite extracurriculars all through grade school, I still find myself unable to express the intentions of my mind.
While this is a very concentrated example, and many people are not arts-minded and would be frustrated in an educational system that forces any sort of medium down their throat they aren't naturally comfortable with, the exposure to this kind of culture can only benefit students as a whole. Though perhaps a general knowledge of classical music or historical paintings won't help a surgeon as he operates, it just might allow him to put a family at ease with small talk using such facts that are separate from the medical situation entirely. The knowledge of these artistic pieces can create an empathy that a scientific background alone could not possibly allow.
Our concerned citizen, Daysha Lassiter, speaks about her worries of an ever-shrinking emphasis on the importance of arts educationally, specifically that of music education. As a junior in her pursuit of a Bachelor's degree in music, she speaks of the benefits she sees in musical education on students as an emotional output that would be deprived in an artless education. Multiple scientific studies back up her theory on the benefits of musical education especially, showing increased test and language scores for those who participate in musical endeavors as well as the typical school work. We felt this issue was incredibly relevant, and Daysha's conviction was powerful enough to adequately address this issue.
When we filmed Daysha, we didn't want to focus on much other than her and the little pieces of her through her surroundings. Like with "Rusty" that we watched in class, we wanted the focus to totally on her, and felt her words were more important than any sort of film picture could be. We didn't want to over pack it with b-roll footage that might cause wandering concentration, and felt using primarily establishing personality shots did more towards that than some of the other clips we had would.
Though large scale political movement may not be possible, many people like Daysha are urging for the return to funding and aiding arts programs.  VH1, a cable TV channel devoted to music, has created the Save the Music Foundation which provides educational and scholarship opportunities for children unable to find it in their local schools. Through these movements and those that continue to come with increased passion and public movement, we might be able to bring arts education in its entirety to schools.

Holla @ Hunter, my fellow project skank!

Protest Poster

It took me a ridiculously long time to finally decide on a topic that I felt I could somewhat accurately represent graphically. There are so many different issues that I am passionate about, but the one I really feel is the least represented and understood in society is mental illnesses, specifically depression.
The greatest issues surrounding most mental health is the idea that it's completely controllable, "all in your head." In his TEDtalk "Confessions of a Depressed Comic," Kevin Breel says "there's this pretty popular misconception that depression is just being sad when something in your life goes wrong...Real depression isn't being sad when something in your life goes wrong. Real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right." Culturally, the more natural reaction to mental illnesses is a pushing away or feeling uncomfortable, like the person you previously thought was "normal" now has some kind of tumor or deformity to them now. Others push to just get over it already and move on. The discussion has been minimal, and it's always more of a shameful topic than other diseases. In some ways, it's more "normal" to suffer a physical disease like cancer, or the flu. But disease of the mind is largely ignored though vastly more dangerous.
However, mental health has become a more popular topic lately than it has previously. With media like the Oscar-nominated Silver Linings Playbook coming forward, a movie focused on the coping with mental illness, the issue is pushing more and more into the public eye. The movie focuses on a man with Bi-Polar disorder and a woman suffering from depression and a sex addiction and their ability to cope with, though not overcome, these mental illnesses. Wildly successful, the discussions began in an attempt to understand this more foreign concept.
Furthermore, with so many gun control issues lately, many people are turning to the source of the problem rather than blaming gun distribution. This could be a way of deflecting attention from the gun-specific issue, but the fact remains that many more people are beginning to recognize that mental health isn't simply something we can push under the table to discuss another day. Many have expressed that, had mental illness been something we addressed with more normalcy and social acceptance, many of the people who commit these shootings could have had these problems addressed and avoided the loss of lives. The push to recognize it as a serious and valid issue has become stronger.
For class we watched a TEDtalk about a woman from Nigeria learning to become strong in her cultural identity. She grew up on English literature, and then proceeded to write in a similar way. She warned against the "single story" that is so popular in today's society, and I felt the concept was especially powerful in regards to mental health. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke of her adopted point of view, of playing in the snow and eating apples, something she learned through the popular culture in her media. Similarly, much of the depression discussion is based on a single point of view of the solvability of the problem. I feel this "single story" mentality of those who are happy now or just made better with positivity or something is often pushed forward than that of the stark reality of an uncontrollable mental problem.
I have personally been on the receiving end of the social stigma regarding depression. I have struggled with it for a long time and am only recently recognizing how many of my personal habits are formed to compensate for or are a result of this. I have a hard time accepting that it's not something you "get over" or move past one day, and that mentality has hindered me frequently. It's not something I can will away, though there I feel like it is a great weakness for me and hard to accept. My attitude toward it, and that of many others, is a result of the societal stigma's I'm addressing in my poster. I chose depression as a specific mental illness especially because of my personal relation to the topic. Often, especially in Mormon culture, we're given the happy, shiny version of the world. We convert others because we're just so happy. We love Disney ideals and being sunshine and daisies. I wanted to contrast that mentality with the popular Peter Pan from Disney, and one song in particular- "You Can Fly." I felt the juxtaposition of this simple solution of thinking "any happy little thought" was particularly powerful with the struggle of depression. I wanted to represent society with the colorful Peter, and contrast it with the bleakness of depression to show the struggle of the oversimplification of this huge social issue.


For my social media feedback, I didn't get too much commentary on the content of my ad, more about how the graphic design wasn't good. However, I posted it in my tumblr, and I was surprised how many reblogs and favorites I got. However, most of the people who did reblog or favorite had kind of creepy blogs that were more glorifying depression, so I'm not convinced my message came across, or if some people are just creepy.

Webspinna Battle

R.S. BATTLE:

Richard Simmons vs. Robin Sparkles

Hair Do

Richard- I Love You

Richard Happy Birthday

Dolphin shorts

Sweatin to the oldies

Disco Sweat

Don't Tell Me

Richard Sound Board

Let's go to the Mall

PS I love you

Sandcastles in the Sand

Robin Soundboard

No one asked you Patrice song

Patrice Complilation

Let's get physical

Stronger

Move Your Body Beyonce

O Canada

            As we considered this project, we found it difficult to come up with a topic for our Webspinna battle. It wasn’t until we discussed different personas in class that we arrived at a solution. We realized that we would be more effective if we focused our theme on our personas and not vice versa. Through this focus, we were able to discover and play with the question of why personas are created and maintained.

            Our personas for the Webspinna battle were Richard Simmons and Robin Sparkles. We found this particularly applicable as both are technically created personas themselves; Richard Simmons was originally named Milton and Robin Sparkles is the stage name of a fictional character in the television series How I Met Your Mother. We also wanted personas that were very different from our normal selves. With these personas in mind, we began choosing our clips and links.

            We chose links that were iconic of our personas. We wanted our personas to shine through and not necessarily our song or clip choices.

            Much like DJ Spooky’s Rhythm Text we didn’t want our performance to be dictated and controlled by the order of our pieces. Rather, we chose a beginning and an end, and let the rest happen spontaneously. This created some confusion and discord, but the project seemed to call for it. This contrasted with our personas, people who meticulously controlled their public appearance and identity.

            The performer Lady Gaga is a master of creating a persona. Her stage name is based on the Queen song “Radio Gaga” which Brian May wrote to illustrate the “messagelessness” of their songs. In much the same way, Lady Gaga has created a persona which mocks fame and the purpose that we tend to put behind music and art in general. Although our personas did not go this far, we did mock the idea of personas with our over-the-top outfits, which were so different from our normal selves.

            Through this, we discovered at least partially why personas are created. Through our taking on the personas of Richard Simmons and Robin Sparkles, we were able to be people, do things, and wear clothing that we normally wouldn’t.

            In conclusion, although we both were fairly hesitant to begin with when we read the description of this project, we were able to discover at least to some extent why and how people create personas for themselves. We also were able to develop personas and use this to perform in ways we wouldn’t if we were acting as ourselves.

S/O to Seth Owens, my partner!

World Building

This week’s world building assignment brought up a lot of questions. So many, in fact, it took a while to narrow our group’s focus to a centralized tone and idea for our new world. Our what-if question, the thing that started all our speculation, was this: “What if there was only one world continent?” This is a pretty specific concept, but it was surprising how many possibilities stemmed from such a simple question. We had to consider how such a world might come into being, whether what we built would take place in the past or the future, and we decided on a future idea, inspired by scientists’ predictions of continental drift. We found a really great source for this at http://opengecko.com/geography/visions-of-continental-drift-on-fast-forward/. That provided all the geographical inspiration for Caitlin’s map. From there, we veered in a kind of dystopian direction influenced in some part by the tone of “Panem” in the Hunger Games. This thought, where we focused on the future and a kind of science fiction style of world, was further supported by the ideas from our reading of “Design Fiction” this week, which talked about where design fiction appeared most and was the most successful, particularly in the conclusion. It also discussed how design is the expression of an idea. We were able to integrate that into the world that we created. The idea is in the question, what if the modern world became one land mass?     World building is integral to science fiction, and therefore it was a great medium to take inspiration from. We felt that the world becoming smaller and closer together would have an opposite effect culturally--nations would feel more threatened by each other and would draw away, possibly scared of losing their own identity. That fear would encourage less cooperation and more paranoia. This was the tone and feeling behind our ideas about border control, found in Chad’s newspaper, which would be a huge concern in a world where all borders touched. It also contributed to Julia’s black propaganda posters demeaning mixed-race people. When cultures are colliding and mixing, as demonstrated in the map and in some the country changes therein, they would tend to feel fearful about losing that culture. Such concerns would not only be cultural, but also practical. Diseases and weapons would be much more serious, and much more difficult to escape. Hailey showed this in a really interestingly commercial way with her advertisement for fashionable medical masks, a wise idea in a society with no water separating outbreaks, an era with no buffers.

What would happen if the modern world became one land mass? Life would be very complicated and conflict would explode. Nothing good would come from this scenario because of the pride and lack of understanding that is in the world today.

Textual Poaching

Living in Utah after a 15 year departure from the culture was a bit of a shock for me. I had moved to Texas when I was 5 from my birth place of Salt Lake City. When I decided to come to BYU, I wasn't completely prepared for the new values and cultural expectations that would greet me here along with the regular struggles of going to college.
I had been single all through high school which had allowed me to develop my personality separate from someone else. I noticed that a lot of my friends, when in a relationship, would take on a bit of the personality of whoever their significant other was at the time, while I would continue in my own way for better or worse. Previous to coming to Provo, I had heard about the almost predatory dating scene and in my narcissism was prepared to ward off all sorts of creepers everyone told me would soon present themselves. My actual experience couldn't have been more different.
I struggled to find a niche in Provo. I found my strong personality turned a lot of guys off here. Many were shocked that I said what I meant and didn't dance around behind codes or hidden meanings. More than once my freshman year I was told I needed to be more reserved in my opinions if I wanted to make things work with a guy. I needed to learn to hold my tongue.
However, because of these freakish experiences, I had to decide who I wanted to be. It wouldn't have been difficult for me to conform to some of those ideals. I could have easily put my head down and accepted the things and people in front of me. But I didn't. So when we were assigned to take a piece of media and make it our own, I decided to focus on this experience that I feel helped solidify who I am today.
We read in class a chapter about "how texts become real" which is usually when some aspect of that text becomes something we not only love, but accept and use in our lives. In 2008, Beyoncé released Single Ladies and took over the airwaves everywhere. Her dance moves started millions of fan videos and every radio station played it at least every other song. I began listening to it facetiously because my brother hated it, but soon it became something of an anthem for my friends and I. Similarly, my high school was also swept up by The Creep and between the two, we had my dating history summed up. Because of my experiences, these two texts felt very relatable and thus amplified my affection for them. So combining these, I decided to take the assumption I had about Provo culture, or the creepers, and match it with what I had to decide to be, which was more of the "single mentality." Together, they create a piece that is more personal and specific to me than they would alone.

Medium Specificity

This week in class we've been working on medium specificity. This concept in creation and art is frequently used in relation to modern art, but isn't exclusive to it. In my understanding, this idea is challenging the boundaries of any specific medium, like that of John Cage and music, or Andy Warhol and prints. We used many different examples in class, showing some modern art pieces, and cartoons breaking the fourth wall, but I admit I still found myself frustrated to break the boundaries of any mediums that at best I was adequate at within it's normal constraints. 

So as I began thinking of this, I decided it would be interesting to break down something that is already considered conventional and beautiful, well beloved by many and widely acknowledged as art. After thinking of many different things, and partaking in many interesting class discussions throughout the week, I began to think about letters and words, and how one lends itself to another, but apart they aren't necessarily valuable. Composition is what gives power to letters and then words, though each word has its own connotation and definition and each letter has its own value. But it is the way in which we arrange these that gives them power.

In order to portray this, I picked a poem I felt almost everyone knew- Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." From there, I began distorting the poem by giving it certain limitations, starting with removing all repeated words. Though I probably should not have been, I was surprised by how few words really needed to be removed, and how the poem's message was still largely recognizable without some of those key repeated areas. However, much of the compositional beauty so intrinsic to poetry was lost through this method. Each word by itself didn't necessarily change the poems basic meaning, but it did add to the overall rhythm and cadence.

Next, I decided only allow each letter to appear once in the poem. As soon as it came up, I deleted the rest of that letter. I was actually surprised how quickly each letter was eliminated so early in the poem, and that only x and z remained by the time the poem was complete. These letters cumulated to create this fantastic poem that so many have memorized and loved, but without being put carefully into the words they can create, these letters mean nothing. The poem is completely worthless. The whole is completely dependent on the parts, while the parts are worthless if not composed into the whole.

I also decided to delete everything but the punctuation in it's place within the poem. As I completed the steps to these other processes, I found myself really liking the way these remaining letters and punctuations appeared by themselves. Though they don't mean anything, they hold their own sort of beauty and artfulness in the way they remain on the page. These random markings are the remainders of a great work of art and are often overlooked, but alone they create their own sort of art form.

Finally, I decided to just look at single words from the poem. One of my mother's most endearing and yet usually frustrating traits is her inability to spell words, largely due to her own doubt. She writes out a word correctly, and then stares at it, and slowly starts to think the word can't be spelled right because it looks so wrong. When you take one word and repeat it over and over in your head, and read it on a page, it starts to feel so warped from what you originally thought of. Similarly, when you look at many modern paintings, like that of Jackson Pollock, originally you may just see random splatterings and think nothing more of it. But as you look deeper and feel more, you start to recognize something in it that wasn't there before. Though letters and words have been formed culturally to represent some thing or meaning, in their most basic form they're nothing more than scribbles that are useless unless composed properly.

Medium Unspecificity.