Fireside Chat

I believe that this last assignment was one of the coolest activities and experience I’ve had during this year. It took me a while to figure it out what belief and story I would say to the class, because I think I have many beliefs, and many stories, so I wanted to share something appropriate that could transcend.  Once I figure the topic and the style, I thought that talk about my traditions, and background would be interesting to share with my good class.  I decided to dance because body language can be as powerful as any other kind of language. Combining my black and white video with me dancing was a melancholic way to introduce my topic about the importance of traditions.

“I believe in the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, I believe in the power of traditions.”

I only focus my performance on one tradition, maybe a different one to the rest of the class, but with this I only wanted to point out that my tradition can be a powerful as any other tradition.

For the rest of the presentations, I’m speechless; they were so thoughtful and clever. I think that we all try to do our best, and if bearing our souls was necessary we did that.  I’m so grateful that we were in a safe environment in which we all felt comfortable to share sacred things for us. There were some performances that were very simple in terms of media use. Although, the story and content of the information was so rich! Probably anything else could have polluted the whole thing. I enjoy doing this presentation, and also I believe I got to know better each one of my classmates. A couple of times during the performances, my heart rejoiced for the wonderful amount of truth in only one room. 

Concerned Citizen TMA112

Our documentary "Driven" is about Pablo Quintana from Santiago-Chile, and currently an American citizen. Pablo lives in Salt Lake City and is on of the executive directors of a non-profit organization called Hispanic Community Connection (HCC).  He saw a need three years ago. Pablo found out that Latino community needs help passing the driving test in English. Himself and other associates founded the non-profit organization - HCC, that helps people from Latin community of different ages to get a driver's license teaching from the driving handbook in English and Spanish. This program not only help Latinos with their driving license, also help them to be more integrated to society here in Utah.  Pablo Quintana designed a teaching method based on a year of experience and many other ESL programs.  He realized that older Latinos have some limitations that were not considered on ESL programs.  Because of that He invested many hours with the Latino community working with other professionals figure in out the best way to teach this specific group of people.  This small initiative changed Pablo’s life and the life of those who have taken this course.

We called this short film “Driven” because it shows how one person can make a different being driven by one cause in order to help the Latino community.When we were shooting we decided to shoot some of the students to portray their frustrations and maybe how Pablo feel about them.  Also we shot some sheets of paper in the wall, which had some words on them- like "Learner", "Failed", etc. That also adds to visual language of our project. Furthermore, we wanted to make a picture of the kind of room this people is preparing themselves and how they react to it.  We did some sit down interviews with Pablo, we asked him to tell us how he feels about what he is doing, about his hopes and expectations for future, and how it all started for him. We struggle a little bit with the location, Latino Mall was one of those location, and the other one was the DMV He told us that at first he didn't even know if this initiative was actually going to work.

When we went to a location (Latino Mall) where students were getting ready for the test, we filmed some clips of the environment to make the audience feel closer and more understanding to what must feel these people. First time we saw the students we thought that they looked very friendly and in their eyes we could see this urge of this little but important thing-getting a driver license. As we were working on the project we could see some of the happy students going out of the DMV, the ones who passed the test and the way they looked at Pablo, I could tell how big of a difference he is making in their lives, we could tell it's especially making him happy.

 We think this issue is very important, but we don't think a lot of people even think about its existence. We hope our documentary will help some people to understand something new and to appreciate more what they have, since for these people even such a small thing as driver's license is crucial.

PROTEST POSTER

I selected the issue of Sexualizing Children on Fashion because I have a niece who is five years old and loves to pose for pictures. I made this poster and posted with privacy settings to discuss with a couple of adults, also in the TMA 112 class. I even hesitate on posting this picture because; even though I took it I don’t think is a picture that should be posted freely on the web because of the provoking pose of this five years old girl.  I love taking pictures, and I’m usually looking other professional’s work related to photography, I’ve started to realized how media, in especial the fashion industry is sexualizing children with the style of pictures. Make up and the poses represent a far more adult person than a child. Also, nowadays children are promoting teen and even adult clothe, depicting a fake reality of how a woman should look, or the size it should be compared with the size of a little girl dress like a grown woman.

With that information in mind, I looked different organizations which support this issue, the one I came across is www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org that is concern of many issues including the “End of Sexualization of Girl and Young Woman in the Mainstream Media.”  One popular case of this is the young girl Thylane Blondeau who poses for the Vogue magazine in very questionable poses and clothes being 10 years of age.

In short, I had many different reactions about this picture, since the effects on kids of working on the fashion industry leading to anorexia and an early sexual activity to the effects of these kind of publicity or pictures on pedophiles.  Serious consequences that for others commenting on the web, talking about my project, did not see the great deal on this, and they even liked the picture. I guess it depends with what kind of eyes a person can look at this picture, although I believe that thinking that all people would be able to see only what we see is also very naive.  Innocence cannot be represented with make up, as well as a child shouldn’t be depicting a grown woman. 

Webspina

Restaurant

http://www.inbflat.net/

Ode to salt

American Sabor

Webspinna was the BOMB! I had to confess the process of looking for different sounds took me more than I expected because I started listening a wide range of different sounds, and later I realize that I got nothing… After having fun with my homework I started to feel very frustrated because I couldn’t find something that show something that I wanted to shared with the class. I finally decided to kept it simple and I used the sound of a restaurant, bflat.com website with a poem of Pablo Neruda “Ode to Salt.” After that, I utilize some tropical rhythm to complement this more reflective and calm moment with a “Murga sound” or a Latin rhythm.  Making the transition was really hard, but I tried to kept the flow of the whole piece as part of a whole in the class, and furthermore ending with some restaurant sounds. My piece was about: a different culture, food, and serenity. I looked at these elements to balance my composition and also a way to portrait the importance of balance in life.

Even though I rehearse a couple of times before “performing,” it was a bit difficult to manage to control volume the mouse and other buttons to push and to make things work.  I realize how well some of my dear classmates did, there were some remarkable presentations for me as was Camlyn. I believe her presentation told me a lot about herself, with some blues and street sounds, I kind of went to Chicago or a big city in a small neighborhood with her presentation. Daniel’s webspinna was very intense, and I was glad to hear that kind of intensity and almost pain on his selection of sounds, I found that there is a lot of energy and constrained in Dan’s personality. I believed art can be a great mirror, or maybe an exit to show feelings and maybe  a different reality in a healthy perspective, even though it can get us out of our comfort zone.   Kristin did an amazing job on mixing sounds, as well as Scott.  There where other presentations that were plain fun such as Gina’s webspinna that made me want to dance, and actually I did dance on my chair though, but still isn’t it? I really enjoyed the informality of the event, as well as the respect of most of our classmates, staying and paying attention to the different presentations. Now I wonder how really sound the whole piece… I think we should all have it!  

Medium Specificity

Artist Statement

This collage praises the uniqueness of having only one frame capturing motion, also depicts certain critique to what a picture can do.  Photography has the distinctive quality of capturing one frame as a moment in time. With this characteristic in mind, I wanted to demonstrate the effects of having a picture of ourselves. In the collage we can see a family in an art gallery who is looking at themselves posing for a picture. The family is dress in the same way that in the picture, and all of them are reunited almost giving some admiration to this piece of art. A moment in time brings memories that only the people who were in the picture can remember, also people who is watching this picture can relate to this as if they can be this family.  The critique in this collage  is that sometimes we use photography as a narcissist way, especially with the social networks or other new current new media. We use this to portray an image more than reality, pictures can serve a  medium of both things, reality or fiction. The fact that they are looking up to their own picture is a sign of a certain vanity.  These are only assumptions of this work, but maybe this family must have a terrible conflict, but the way they want to portrait their lives is as if they are happy and united. On the other hand, they are looking at themselves to remember how important is family for them, and the fact that all of them are looking is a sign that they are still united. Only one frame in photography can bring countless memories and feelings, the singularity of this medium  has impacted on people in such a way that many families reach a photographer and have a picture of their own family  in their wallet, house, Facebook, and many other places only- to remember or bring memories from the past to the present. 

Social Media Adaptation

For access to our project, go to Google+. Enter username: nickcarrawaycrv password: gatsby12 . Nick’s feed is the best place to view the entire project chronologically, but his profile will also function pretty well.

Artist Statement:
After exploring through a few different mediums of social media we decided that Google+ would be a perfect platform for “The Great Gatsby” to be adapted to. Google+ offers many features such as “Circles” for groups of friends and also “Hangouts” for gatherings. What also played into our decision to use Google+ was that when it was first released it was a “by invite only” application. In other words it was very exclusive which fits well with the exclusiveness found inside the book. Google+ also allowed us to tell the story simultaneously from multiple perspectives.

Here is the main process of what we did to adapt the story to the new medium. First we created new Gmail accounts for each of the characters and then made them each a personalized google+ account as well. Since Nick Carraway was the narrator of the book we made sure that all the posts were public to him, but private to the characters that wouldn’t have known the content. We went through all the major events of the book in chronological order through events, dialogue threads, and hangouts.

The Google+ format has a variety of different posting types, which added a variety to the story that even other social networks would not afford. For example, the distinction between hangouts and events allowed us to show a difference in larger setpieces like Gatsby’s parties and smaller moments, like phone calls and private gatherings. These features also gave us the ability to detail who could see individual posts, and the private or public nature of certain moments is integral to the way this story is told. If every moment had been made public, critical moments in the plot would no longer make any sense, which is the true challenge of adapting to a social network.

The last great challenge we had to pull off was the collaborative aspect of this project. Even alone, this project would have been daunting, with management of multiple social media accounts being necessary. In execution, we had to plan an outline of our version of this story in great detail before we even began posting. The timing of the posts had to match exactly, or else the entire project would be out of chronological order. We were forced to be constantly relaying information to one another, which made for a collaborative process that was not only instructive, but vital to our success.

Textual Poaching

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jul/03/featuresreviews.guardianreview27

“I think it says a lot on identity, and who we are and what makes us up- basically the core and confusion of the human condition.” This is one of the feedbacks that I received with my textual poaching, this reflects indeed what I want to say with this drawing-I’m a human being. I felt inspired by Pablo Neruda a Chilean poet, writer, diplomat, and politic leader, but most importantly a humanist. I chose one of his books, “20 Poems of Love and a Song of Despair.” The line written in my drawing is part of this song of despair that shows the uncertainty of love and how fragile and volatile this can be. The line “love is so short and forgetting is so long,” represents current times in which I believed I have already lost something that I thought it would last. Love is something that make us feel more humans, and for many, love is something that cannot be comprehended. Especially the kind of love that a person can receive from a couple from a relationship. I agree with many of these insecurities and desires of change, of wanting to move forward and keep looking for love described in this poem. Although Pablo Neruda expresses very well the disappointments and struggles that someone may have in the search of the romantic love.  I also firmly believed in a lasting love that makes me feel more human, something that connects with the divine and inspires me to press forward- Gods love. Furthermore, is the love I can have with my family as an eternal family. I draw this piece looking myself at the mirror without looking to the paper, and I portrait different angles and expression on my own face. This means that there are many emotions and stages on life, and all this experiences and feelings help me have a better understanding of my own humanity. I also connect this with the portrait of Pablo Neruda Nobel price of literature and intellectual eminence that for most of the time spend time with ordinary people. These people were always his inspiration, and for me as well, people around me help me shape what I am now. I’m full of different vulnerabilities and emotions that form my character, this is a process  that would last all my life. Pablo Neruda explores this idea of being humans, woman and men with different emotions, and its components. Even though I put myself on a mirror to draw, Pablo takes me also to a mirror in which through his work I can evaluate my own humanity. 


Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms. I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too. How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her. 
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her. The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tries to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms 
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
 and these the last verses that I write for her.


From Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, published in a new edition this month by Jonathan Cape 

Historical Story

Artists' Statement:

This work attempts to place itself in the 1920's in Chicago, during the Prohibition era.  Though it is pre-Depression, it is set in a poorer area of town, in a family with no father and only the oldest son working.  Originally, we had the idea that this would be a Mormon family, but after doing some research, we found that the probability of a Mormon family living in Chicago in the 1920's was very little, and decided instead to base the family's belief system after those commonly held by the members of the Women's Temperance Union, typically very religious women whose main concern about Prohibition was providing protection and empowerment to women, rather than restricting the rights of individuals to buy alcohol.

When we first envisioned the story, we had a clear beginning and a clear end.  We wanted Charles to be working, without his mother's knowledge, at a speakeasy, which would clearly be at odds with his mother's belief, as well as his own core beliefs, and in the end, we wanted him to reconcile those beliefs.  What we found was the lack of a strong conflict.  Originally, we had Charles finally just telling his mother, and the two of them having a conversation, but the tension was low and there was no interesting conflict.  The rally and riot were added to increase the stakes, as well as the decision to make Charles the sole provider for the family, instead of having a father figure, who was absentee from the script, providing some sort of fall-back.  Also, in the development of the script, we toned up the tension in the end between Charles and his mother, instead of having a cheesy resolution, so that the burden would ultimately rest on Charles to make his final decision.

To place the script in the setting, a large part depended on proper dialogue.  Appropriate slang was used for the age, though we didn't want to overwhelm the reader with unfamiliar jargon, just using enough to give the dialogue authenticity.  The script reading done in class was a great check on this, especially when appropriate accents were utilized while reading, and helped us to nail the dialogue down.

It was interesting to construct a narrative that isn't drawing from personal stories, or those shared by others, like many of the examples shown in class.  Authenticity was a little harder to achieve, but in the end the result is something that is definitely plausible, and could perhaps echo situations that existed in that time period. 

Genealogical Artifact

I remember as it were yesterday when my dad took me to the store to electronics, and asked, will this camera work for the movie you are intending to make? I could not believed that finally I was getting a video camera. I was laughing alone picturing the magical things I would do with my little new gadget. By that time I knew almost nothing about cameras, I just had the idea of filming, directing, acting and writing. Although, technology was not my strong area, I needed that gadget so bad, and my family was providing it. Happiness was a small word to describe my real feelings in that exact moment in my life.  

The camera that my father bought was a Canon ES75 and it will use 8mm to record on tape. I was fourteen years old, and it was almost ending my first year in high school. My friends and I had the idea about making a horror film due to the popular films, Scream and, I know what you did last summer. Those films were exiting and entertaining, I really wanted to do something like that, and according to me something much better!  Before having my camera, I borrow one of the three cameras available for the whole school. It was almost impossible to get one. Now, I had my own camera, and I felt that making a film was a reality instead of a teenage dream. Because my idea of making a film was so popular in my class, I made all my class to act on the movie, even my teacher and the principal were part of this film.  It took me a year to shot and then edited the whole film.

Post-production was a pain, rapidly my camera became an old gadget and with 8mm there was no way to export images to a computer, at least nothing that I knew. I had to edit everything with VCR system; I really don’t remember how did do it, all the slow motion scenes (were far too many), also the insertion of the music, and other details. I cursed my camera, and at the end of the process I loved it again.

I was regularly carrying my “Canon,” it accompanied me on my trips with my friends to the beach and other places, mostly in every single year until I graduated. I have tapes of long and deep conversations, some silly moments with friends, and many shots of my first love.

During high school, I shot the horror film called “Almost Real,” a romantic comedy “Six Grades of Separation” that was fairly an excuse to kiss a bunch of girls (I was also part of the cast). My friends and I also recorded a yearbook in a documentary style, the main goal was to create a catharsis of nostalgia while watching us saying good wishes and expectations for the years to come-we totally succeed, even the bad boy in the class was wiping his tears away. My camera was a faithful asset that makes my high school experience unforgettable. I have countless tapes, full of secrets, laughs, tears, confessions, and many memorable moments that are a proof that what I had lived during my teenage journey was real. My camera is not only a way to record my history, but it is a legacy in itself. I still have that “Canon,” I didn’t have the heart to sell it… it is priceless for me anyway. 

Artist Statement:

With this chronological artifact I felt very connected to my teenage times, in which I had so much time hung out with my friends. Through my selection of my artifact portrait how I found my way to keep those fond memories to myself and also a way to get to introduce myself to my class during high school. By that time cameras were neither cheap nor popular in Chile, and the fact that my dad invest on that camera due to my interest on film was a great demonstration of care for myself.  Even though I got many experience with this artifact, I felt that 500ish words to describe this was a little short, I might have taken some more time to make some more specific details maybe about my experience with the camera. With my writing style I’m trying to give a quick picture to the reader about the value of this object that got old pretty fast. Although the fact that by the first year the camera was not the ultimate gadget, I still wanted to kept because it became part of my journey on my high school life, and I felt that changing this, it would draw another cycle that was not ready to close, at least until I graduated from school. 

Process Piece

Audio Recording on Tuesday morning

The Process Piece assignment gave us various ideas on how to express a concept in a narrative story. What caught my attention was the concept of laughter, and how it changes throughout different stages of life. I wanted to show to the listener the age of a person by only hearing his/her laugh. In addition, I also wanted to experience the difficulties that might or might not get a laugh of a person. This Process Piece is basically a chronological analysis of the evolution of laughter through age.

Something remarkable with this project is that at the beginning as a group we make some guesses on differentiating different ages and maybe some different nationalities or cultural background.  Although we came up with things that I didn’t expected, the idea of laugh came as a universal concept.

Laughter transcends cultural background, and also nationality. The chronological order that we gave to laughter tells a story in itself going from the process of a from baby to an elder person.  The process was very interesting and fun, while it was very easy to get a laugh from a kid; it took a while to make laugh a teenager. We decided to include the LOL laugh instead of a real laugh because I believe that the expression says a lot about this new generation that mostly laugh through the phone via text.

Following our search of laugh on different ages, after the teenager stage, the older they were the easiest was to get a laugh from people.  Elder people and babies or kids, have a lot in common and no matter where they come from I’m very sure that the results are going to be very similar.

The definition of universal make the perfect fit for the concept of laugh in the world.  According to the dictionary is affecting, or done by all people or things in the world or in a particular group; applicable to all cases. This is what laugh can bring to all people, it makes no segregation.

Thick Description: From a Grocery Store to a Movie Theater

It’s been over a month since I haven't visited this place, and now my refrigerator is completely empty. My stomach is sick of getting food from restaurants. I make my mind after a week of struggle, I finally get into my car, and drive to the grocery store. 

I believed I’m a very peaceful and easygoing person most of the time, I almost can be under the category of being a people pleaser, but in my defense, I just like and tolerate people, I said people not grocery stores, at least not now! I pulled my car as close of the store as it can be. At the entrance of Maceys my eyes automatically lower the saturation of my sight and everything looks opaque, even though there are plenty of colours, the composition in itself is not visually appealing for me. Is there something about this place that it just doesn’t suit me, probably the tacky font choice of the advertisements, or maybe the simplicity of it. Everything on this place fulfills the mission of commercializing in the best way the products that the store is selling it.

While I walk through the store, is inevitable for me to not observe people buying stuff and doing their thing, the slow pace of their steps make it the journey even more horrorific. Is like putting zombies around it, but even worse because sometimes those zombies may establish a small conversation with me. What  I mean is that  sometimes I know some of the people walking in the grocery store.  I cordially greet and after a couple of minutes of conversation there is an awkward moment when both parties have to say good-bye. This good-bye is because of the need to get stuffs done, and the part that bugs me is when I keep finding this same person over an over again in the grocery store. There are three options of things we can do in this situation. Number one, move your head as a sign of, Hey! Is like saying hi repeated times, and eventually follows another small conversation. Option number two, simply ignore the other person and keep shopping. Option number three, avoid that person.

Following this small  interaction, I would remembered talking to another friend that also didn’t like supermarkets,  “If I would have to go to hell, I bet living in a grocery store would be my worst punishment.” This means that for me, there is some kind of chaos in the boring organization of the products that are labeled in every rack and make the experience unpleasant. Furthermore, the music that is played kills any author, and as much as I enjoy jazzy music, this enormous wacky warehouse of consumerism is destroying all Michael Bubble CD’s and all Jack Johnson songs.

 I may confess that I have laugh of myself many times about this rear feelings that I have towards such a normal place.  And I haven’t even mentioned the funny smell of a grocery store…

Once upon a time this place was my hiding place, I guess my antagonist relationship with grocery stores is not out of nothing, but from a tight bond with this place during my childhood. I used to love going grocery shopping with my dad. I would enjoy helping him, going to the kids section and play a little, and later on, going to the bakery and eat lemon pie or crème brulee. Most of all, I would enjoy accommodating groceries in the car while my dad was driving home, I would play and create with toilet paper and cereal boxes, a house or a spaceship. The grocery store was the place in which my imagination would flow and would create an adventurous and unique universe. When I was about thirteen years old, I change this place for a movie theater, and all the experiences that I had in a grocery store would translate to a movie theatre.

“Because, going for grocery shopping is just like going to a movie theater.” The great difference is that in Maceys there is only place for horror and opaque themes. On the other hand, in a movie theater it depends of my own mood.

This assignment served me as a way to analyze an uncomfortable relationship with a grocery store. After a couple of years, my vision changed about doing grocery shopping. It may sound cranky and radical my description, but for me nothing is that terrible. Although there is still some tension and avoidance to this specific place in question. Trying to avoid going to this place is trying to avoid my basic needs, and let the idealize world that exists in my head make a stop for an hour. This place is a constant reminder that I’m a human and I have basic needs to cover. The bizarre relationship with this kind of buildings talks about a restrained of my own need of not being labeled and let myself walk trough life without restrained. The feelings that I had in my childhood are proof of a possible reconciliation with this place.

There is also a period of transition that without previous meditation I didn’t notice. This transition is when I replace the fantasy and the joy of doing grocery shopping for according to me, “a cooler place,” is going to the movie theater. This may indicate that there can be different stages of love, hate, and indifference to certain places in our life, but they are still being part of it. After all, I do have to make a list for the things that I need, because failing in doing so, would make me come back sooner than I expected to Maceys. 

MUSIC MOSAIC TMA 112

Le Jour d' Avant - Yann Tiersen

Le Jour d' Avant by Yann Tiersen  represents a huge flow of different feelings in a journey that starts in a little street in Santiago-Chile. This  is about emotions during my summer time. In the first part of the song there is a solitary accordion that later on is going to be accompanied by fairy sounds that enrich the song. On these first part on a slow tempo, mi mind goes into these world mixed with an urban scenery and some fantasy that transcends nature. These three first pictures are a reflection of  those uncertain feelings of finding a new journey that is connected with the past. As I already mention this is not a linear narrative, but more that a torrent of emotions that are a reminder of many memories throughout my life.  Following the in crescendo on the song  many instruments are exposed with  an upbeat melody, as an almost depiction of a circus, using brasses, accordions, violins,etc.

When the music is in its peak, the center piece of the photograph The kitchen, bring all the history and stories looking to a semi-open door that invites the viewer to come in and rejoice, even though now is only an abandon house. Colors in each picture are purposely orderer due to the relation with the music, mood, and  different emotions. This order is basically showing how life has so many tonalities, moods and  each one's journey has precious individuality. This reminds me part of my culture and my family history, music, food, and parties are all involved.  With that, the rhythm started decreasing and the mood is changing until getting to and almost horrific emotional outburst that rest on the last note of the song. 

The last picture is an overwhelming composition of a self portrait with everything that is going on my mind for this next step to come in my life. This may be crowded and a bit dark, but the little colors that are shown express some significance. There is a painting of a women, this is my mother and the painter of this is my father, the other colored is a symbol of my country. These two things make me go beyond any challenge or fear.  It may be and odd finale on the song of Yann Tiersen, but for me is like  being in a dream in which we are only waking up after a long lived life.