FIRESIDE CHAT

A Balance must be found between finding new ways to be creative and knowing what medium best projects our artistic voice. The fireside chat really made me think about my own artistic voice and if I am becoming too comfortable in my art.

            When I first started thinking about this assignment it was not to difficult to come up with my topic. The frustration showed itself in how I was to represent this idea. So first let me explain what my topic really meant to me in more concrete words. I think for a long time and even now one of my greatest fears is failure. I have worked hard my whole life to be a kind of jack-of-all-trades. The down side to this is I’m not all that great at anything, the upside it that its hard to really fail in front of people when you are okay at most things. This fear comes from being a consistent failure growing up. I failed at the sports I tried I failed at many of my intellectual pursuits and I failed in most social settings. I head one talent one skill. I could draw. When that came up in social settings for a moment I was cool I was not the underdog. Thus started my pursuit to know about everything. If I heard about a video game I had to play it if I there was a new toy or game or ripstick thing I had to have it. I don’t feel like this desire is uncommon maybe just the level to which I perused it.

            I stared to really see some of the flaws of this way of living as I learned about the Dunning Kruger Effect. More or less it just explains the fact that those who are really bad at something or really dumb about a thing are often likely to overestimate their ability and thus not recognize the greatness of others. The more I thought about this to me the first step in breaking this effect is failing. Once we fail we are more likely to estimate the level at which we at accurately and also we gain a greater appreciation of those who truly excel.

            I think in this way I could have had a better presentation. My original idea was to fail at something in front of everybody. The problem was first that I could think of a good way to do this and second I thought it might be to “boring”. So in many ways my portraying failure through something I’m good at invalidates my ideas. Then again there is something to be said for my true artistic voice and the fact that I portrayed this idea through something that is not only true to me but is also something I used to fail at.

Pioneer Books

When you think of a concerned citizen the first thing that pops into your mind is someone who is out doing physical service to make the community better. However, it is important to understand that there are many different ways to serve the community, no matter how small the service may be. For our documentary we interviewed a normal person in our community who is making subtle efforts to enlighten the community with more knowledge about books.

Travis works as a manager for Pioneer Books located in downtown Provo. He is a devoted citizen who cares about the people in the community and making sure that people have access to all kinds of books. He believes that people should read because they want to, not because they have to. We feel that this belief is what every community needs. Pioneer books is an easily accessible book store with thousands of different books at a low cost. This is makes it much easier for the community to become more involved literarily and increasing their connection to the arts. It acts similarly to Storyland as talked about in the article “Human Rights and Culture” but is not as complicated. Storyland is more of an artist collaboration to improve the connection people have with the arts, while Pioneer Books is more of an outlet for people to connect with the arts. Both, however, are there to help the citizens.

The way we approached filming the documentary is similar to the short film “House”, by Eams. The short film is shot in a way that shows the beauty of the home in a simplistic way with different screenshots. This style emphasizes the peacefulness and tranquility that can be felt in the home. We wanted to stylize our documentary so that it would depict Pioneer Books as a warm and friendly environment where one can come to read and educate themselves. “House” doesn’t have any interviewees or dialogue which is where it differs from our documentary, but they both use a specific style to show the effect a place can have on people.   

In the future we hope to see more people taking advantage of the cheap, yet accessible book store in order to further their education in the arts. Hopefully by exposing this business and the people that work there, the community can know of its existence and benefit from it.

Every Sunday

Ill be honest I was not super exited about this project at first. Every project we have done speaks to me differently and as I tried to start on this one it just wasn’t speaking to me at all. I loved The TED talk we listed to about culture and at first I thought that is what I would be doing mine over. I just hate to do my projects on the same thing as the example art for the week. The same thing almost happened for medium specificity and I’m glad I came up with something new. So I spent a lot of time trying to think about what I could do that would speak to me enough so that this project could become meaningful to me. That’s why I liked depression quest so much. Not only did it speak to me it was clear it mattered to the person who created it. So I was trying co come up with something both topical and personal. Sunday morning I was listening to a podcast called Welcome to Nightvale. In the middle of each episode they play a not so well know song. Some times they are great sometimes not. This morning’s was so good it almost brought me to tears. The song is called “Jew for Jesus” and it is about, as far as I can tell, a man’s desire to be saved and then afterword’s the fact that he missed his old life. While I cant directly relate to this it spoke to me and gave me the idea of doing something about my religious experience and how difficult it has been since I have been at BYU. “Every Sunday” is about someone who struggles with anxiety about the culture change form the religion he knew growing up to what it looks like in Provo. He struggles with being forced to go even though he wants to go on his own. It is based on some feelings I have but more so its about feelings I have seen close friends around me experience. I wanted to show how easy it is to judge those in Provo by how well they live the culture and not by their testimony. In the end I made sure that no matter what you did you ended up in the same place. I wanted the person playing to feel as helpless as those who want to do what is right but have trouble taking the last step.

In his essay on design fiction, Julian Bleecker explores the relationship between science, fiction, and design. Essentially, Blecker concludes that the three are invariably connected when it comes to how we perceive, understand, and create the world around us. If we look at today’s artifact culture as an example, we are surrounded by items that help us function smoothly in society. Cars allow us to get around, beauty products make people look younger and more attractive, psychological and social sciences inform us how other people work, textbooks teach doctors how to fix bodies, etc. One of the most fitting representations of our culture is, perhaps, the magazines such as Time or Cosmopolitan that synthesize our advertisements, trends, theories, and sexual attractions into one concise representation of our world.  

So what if our world were different than it is now? What if we changed something fundamentally and watched a new culture, a new design, a new magazine develop from the results? Our group decided to develop this new design culture in a world where people woke up in different bodies every day.

The first cultural design element that would change is our experience of human aesthetic. Suddenly, we wouldn’t have the constancy of our bodies to rely on every day. Our group figured that body shape, size, color, etc. would lose most of their significance. Makeup as an enhancer of physical features would, therefore, be useless. People would, however, be looking for ways to distinguish themselves every day. A name tag, of sorts, constructed with cosmetics. Instead of relying on faces for recognition, people might depend on individual makeup branding. Makeup could be used to identify individuals. Rather than a tool to mask imperfections, or enhance human beauty, it would be a form of self expression, and identity. Individuals could have a distinct makeup style or technique to be recognized by others, perhaps even having a color or symbol that is uniquely their own.

Fashion in this world would be drastically different than our own. Fashion models, and practically the industry itself would be obsolete. Because of the change of body size and shape, comfort and versatility would be people’s key concern. Some might choose to use baggy clothing piled on to suit their current size, and others would opt for a sort of one-size fits all mantra with elastic jumpsuits or one pieces. Pressures from media to be a certain size or shape would no longer be a concern.

With our ever changing aesthetic and cosmetic insignias, we would need a different convention for defining attractiveness. Perfume fits the bill. Scent is a non-visual element, yet it plays a major role in human magnetism and sexuality. We decided that if all visual cues for allure were gone, scent alone would define youth, fertility, and beauty.

Since we would not be able to control our changing bodies or their internal health, health care in our hypothetical world is based on the idea that body transitions aren’t all that comfortable. If we lived in a world where everyone’s body was constantly being altered, it would be logical that the healthcare system would try to make those transitions as painless as possible. Most health would be devoted to giving sedatives to people who experience painful transitions.

Psychology introduces another interesting aspect of a changing society. How do people rationalize individual identity with such a liquid physical representation of self? How, more specifically, can parents teach their children self esteem when the idea of ‘self’ is so abstractly disconnected from anything concrete? At least for this issue of our magazine, we decided to focus on the development of a consistent sense of self as a spotlight issue in psychology. This focus on psychology helped us to think about how in a world so different from our own that in reality the emotional struggles might not be so different.

WEBSPINNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we were talking about the Webspinna project in class the week before we were to do It I was honestly very confused. I looked forward to dressing up, being creative and performing but I just did not understand what we were actually doing. I was kind of frustrated for a bit about having such little direction. Now that all is said and done I am really grateful for the lack of direction because it helped to foster creativity and get my mind going. It kind of reminds me of the difference between 2001 a Space Odyssey the book and 2001 A Space Odyssey the film.

The book gives specific descriptions and explanations of most of the concepts and ideas and even goes as far as to explain the purpose of the monoliths. The film on the other hand gives little to no explanation of anything happening at any point. While I don't think one way is better than the other ( I honestly prefer the book) it's hard to deny that the film is more successful in getting your mind turning and thinking in ways that it has rarely had to think before. This push was what made the experience such a fun event for the class. We were all in the same boat of confusion and it made it easy to share ideas and interpretations.

Our internet pirate vs. FBI warning battle started, oddly enough, with a costume idea. Kyler knew he wanted to dress up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and a day later he came up with the idea of cyborg makeup. Neither of us really knew what to do beyond that point, though. Cyborg Jack Sparrow? How would we sculpt a grand conceptual battle from that?

The ultimate idea birthed itself from our readings about plagiarizing, copying, and ‘borrowing’ other people’s art for our own purpose. The line (if there even is one) between Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence’ and the dozens of other works he referenced, quoted, and cited is very thin. Lethem’s essay depended entirely upon our foreknowledge and associations with other pieces of literature. So. Was it original? Was it clever? Was it Lethem’s own work, or did he….. pirate it?

With these questions rolling around in our minds, the only logical interpretation of Kyler’s costume idea was internet piracy. Our webspinna battle would be a decisive fight between the scumbags of digital downloading and the high morals of the FBI Anti-Piracy warning. Right vs. wrong. Dark vs. light. Property rights vs. free access and rights-free media manipulation.

Ironically, we relied on that free access and rights-free media manipulation to pull off our battle. We took other people’s creations and blatantly misappropriated their meaning, intention, and result for our own selfish use. Our web battle spun itself into an original anti-piracy ad made exclusively from pirated materials.

And if that doesn’t represent art, I don’t know what does.

In "How Texts become Real" the concept of investment giving meaning was addressed. As I read this I was able to relate greatly.

I immediately thought of my time as a young boy in Argentina and the emotion connection that I had the television show Batman the Animated Series. I went to an argentine school and was not only the only foreigner but for the first year or so could not understand any of the conversations happening around me. Each day I would wait patiently to go home and watch Batman. He was also alone, he like I, was surrounded by a strange world in which he did not fit in. To the general public he was a crazy man in a costume and to the costumed villains around him he was their bane. Through all this I began to relate to him and those that fought along side him I pictured myself as Knightwing. He to was alone working separately from Batman but always knowing he had an ally somewhere in the night. This gave me great comfort and helped me as I slowly began to learn the language and make friends.

To this day I have a strong emotional connections to Batman. While I like the films they have much less meaning to me because they do not have that value I gave them as a child. It has less to do with content and more to do with the meaning I have given to it. In fact I much prefer to read Deadpool comics.

         For this assignment I wanted to draw from my experience with the piece. I wanted to create a piece of art much like those that I would make as a child. I made sure to use construction paper glue and children’s scissors. I wanted to have this art that was so familiar to me represent the negative experiences I had as an outsider. I was made fun of often would associated the schoolyard bullies with the villains on the television. I placed them around me as a child dressed as Batman. I then took lines from the villains on the show and put them through several rounds of Google translate before lastly translating them to Spanish. This was the Spanish is how I heard It broken and confusing yet still full of cruelty.

THIS IS NOT A SONG

This is Not a Song is my attempt at making sense of the difference between music and between what one would call “a song”. It is an attempt to address the difference between art thats primary purpose is to be enjoyed and art that’s primary goal is to make a specific point. John Cages 4’33” helped to inspire a lot of my initial thoughts abut this. Silence is a great starting point for this conversation. Silence is an important part of music and is arguably a piece of music itself. That having been said entertainment and enjoyment are not a huge part of the concept of music being silence. Another source that addresses this point of the space in-between music is at the beginning of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. The central unnamed character enters this space in a dream like state in the beginning of the novel. He finds people there preaching and addressing ideas, more specifically topics pertaining to religion and race. This stood out to me as a testament to the importance of there being layered meaning in music as an art form but not necessarily as a form of entertainment. As I began to write the song I spent some time thinking about how straightforward I wanted to be with in expressing these ideas. I thought about McCloud’s Setting the Record Straight. I liked that the he used a very straightforward approach to express his ideas. He choose to speak directly to the audience. I knew I wanted that at some point but not throughout. There is part of the song where the lyrics directly address the confusion. I ask, “ what is the difference between music and a song?” I give certain suppositions but do not try to define. I leave it open, as “art” usually does. I also use more subtle approaches to address this idea both through lyrics and song. At one point I try and bridge the gap between song and painting by implying that describing a painting is the same as painting one. Underneath that a deep bass drum can be head which is actually me beating on one of the canvases of a painting of mine. I use many non-musical items like this to push the idea or theory that everything is music. Among these items are a waterbottle, a bowling pin, a hole puncher, scissors, and even the pages of the book Invisible Man as I read and sing from it. The last portion of the song addresses the opposite of the first. Where as the first is a pensive speculation of the ideas of music art and silence in regards to music the last third of the song address the opposite. Thru yelling and loud noise it tries to make sense of the emotional side of music, it is less subtle in both sounds and lyrics. The piece tries to address the nature of music and hopes to be music while failing o be a song.