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.