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.