Fireside Chat

Overall, I thought that fireside chat went pretty good.  To begin my process, I started thinking, “What do I believe in?” As I started brainstorming, I found it was actually hard to come up with something that I could turn into a multimedia presentation.  At last, I decided on doing mine on the negative effects of manipulative relationships.  I do think this is a very serious problem that can be prevented if people are cautious and self-aware. I reflected on my own experiences with this subject in my own relationships as well as seeing many friends being manipulated and taken advantage of.  I wanted to show others the seriousness of what happens in these relationships and that they are a huge problem.  I was inspired by Pinkhossov’s photos; they are a collection of photos showing 4 different settings and 4 different ways people pray.  It is all the same action, however the pictures are all incredibly different.  I also was inspired by the multimedia play “Gone Missing” that BYU put on a couple months ago.  It was a culmination of stories of people that had been interviewed about what they had lost.  I knew I did not just want to share my own story; I wanted to show everyone else’s too.  As I continued through my process, I started interviewing my roommates and friends about their experiences with this subject.  It was interesting to see people’s reactions.  I clipped together a video of what my friends thought on the matter, as well as created some narration taking bits and pieces of my story as well as others and making it into one. I thought the final performance went well.  However, after watching everyone else’s I was flooded with new ideas with what I could of done.  While I think there are many other stories I could of told instead, I loved hearing everyone else’s beliefs.  I thought it was a great way to end the class.  It was amazing to hear what everyone had to say and how different each performance was even though we were all given the same assignment. 

Concerned Citizen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw6gw240_iQ&feature=youtu.be

As we began brainstorming who and what to film for our project, our thoughts turned to our friend Barett who contributes to the community by participating in chemistry magic shows for elementary school students. Growing up I remember getting excited to miss class to go to assemblies no matter what the subject or focus.  As a result, we thought Barett would be interesting because he is helping kids become more excited about chemistry, a subject that many students dread.  As for a theme and how we put our film together, Star Wars just happened to be what was happening at the science show and we just really wanted to show how this was impacting the kids.  We have a lot of shots with children and we wanted to share the excitement they had. The music becomes more serious as the conversation with Barett becomes more purposeful and reflective. At this point Barett begins talking about how a lot of science jobs are going overseas and that he wants to instill within children a desire to pursue science as a career. Whereas the music before is lighthearted to fit the party, the more serious music occurs as we want the emphasis to be on how important this actually is. In Arlene Goldbard’s article Human Rights and Culture: From Datastan to Storyland she discussed how stories can change culture. Barett, too, feels that the story of science can help change our nation’s culture to a more science oriented people. Frontline: Digital Nation is a documentary that is seeking to make a change in a similar way. It recognizes the use of technology, but also how it is consuming our world. By sharing stories from people and their experiences with technology the documentary hopes to help us become more informed and act on that information.  Barett hopes for the same thing regarding chemistry.

Protest Poster

Depression is a mental illness growing exponentially, however the world is still ignorant on the subject.  There are still many unknowns that revolve around this disease.  This scares people and leads to judgments.  I have to admit I used to be one of these people.  I thought depression was just something made up.  You can just choose to be happy.  However, depression is not this simple.  After living with someone close to me suffer from depression, I gained a new perspective on this invisible disease.   It is a silent epidemic that is a serious problem.  It is not just something people can snap out of.  The symptoms can be grueling and there is no one set cure.  Many do not realize the severity of this issue.  There is a stereotype that follows depression; they are sad people who just need to get over their problems.  However, like Chimamanda Adichie said stereotypes are a problem not because they are untrue, but because they are incomplete.  They make one story the only story.  So many are uneducated on the subject of depression; all they know is the stereotype.  This leads to judgments which only make the victims more isolated and fall deeper and deeper into their depression.  It is our responsibility to educate ourselves in this disease before we point fingers or judge others.  After researching this issue further in the public domain, there are many posters that exist.  Many display sad, lonely people surrounded by words like agony, misery and worthless.  One poster in particular helped to inspire my poster.  Unicef advertised a poster with a little girl blindfolded by depression with a knife to a teddy bear (Unicef Poster link).  While looking at these posters I kept seeing this common theme.  They presented the victim.  This is useful; people need to be exposed to this.  However, I think the problem runs deeper then just these victims.  So many in this world are ignorant on this issue and are quick to judge.  We need to find a cure for depression, however we need to stop this judging that is only making this epidemic worse.  My poster reflects not only the victims of depression blinded to happiness, but those blinded by their judgments to the severity of this problem.  After work shopping my poster on facebook, I was grateful for the comments that helped edit my text to be short and concise.   

Webspinna

Some links for my webspinna...

--> http://www.soundsnap.com/node/12155
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http://www.soundsnap.com/casiopaya1
--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXRN_cPRjYk
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http://www.soundsnap.com/digital_skrew2
--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQJg5fP0U8 
-->
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/goal_sound
-->
http://www.openculture.com/2011/01/shel_silversteins_the_giving_tree_the_movie.html

After going through DJ Spooky’s “Rhythm Science,” I thought it was so interesting how just changing the order of paragraphs and phrases could change and give new meaning to an essay.  I knew this is what I wanted to do with this Webspinna project, exploring the Internet and giving meaning to different sounds.  As I began to explore, I started to realize how many remakes of different songs there are.  For example, “You Spin Me Round” by the band Dead or Alive was popular in 1985 and was brought back in 2009 when Flo Rida incorporated it into his song “Right Round”.  Incorporating this idea into my Webspinna, I also kept reflecting back to things from my childhood.  I remember watching the old 60s Spiderman cartoons with my brothers, reading The Giving Tree with my mom, and watching the World Cup with my dad. I wanted to show a part of who I am.  I incorporated the old Spiderman theme song, but then switched it up and threw in the new version of the same song by Michael Buble.  I ended with the end of The Giving Tree when the old man sits down on the tree stump.  This represents where I will eventually end up in life because of my accomplishments, but also because of all my parents have provided and supported me with. I wanted to try and show the progression I have made and will make in my life. I thought the whole process was so much fun and a great learning experience.  I practiced at home many times to get it perfect, and it was such a rush performing it in front of the class just like any performance in front of a crowd. Last Friday, I felt like such an artsy person sitting in a dark room listening to loud sounds all night, but it was such a neat experience.  I loved getting together with my classmates outside of class.  I really feel like there is a unity that has been established within our class.   We have created an environment where I am comfortable sharing my ideas, thoughts, and creative projects.

 

 


 

Medium Specificity

Right from the start, I knew after looking at the description for this assignment I wanted to focus on cake decorating.  And after reading McCloud’s comic “Show and Tell,” I knew I wanted my project to stand on its own with little or no words at all. I immediately thought of a space ship.  It is similar to what a kid my bring to show and tell and fit perfectly with my train of thought.  During our workshop we talked about all the different elements of cake decorating.  One stuck out to me: cake decorating is always becoming bigger and more extensive pulling in different types of materials and art styles into one.  My thoughts went to the show Cake Boss where they are continually adding new mechanics and art into their cakes. For my project, I wanted to stretch myself.  For most of the cakes I have done, they have been simple rectangle or circle birthday cakes.  However, I wanted to try something new.  I wanted to make a sculpture cake.  This went perfect with my idea of making a spaceship.  Not only is the cake world becoming bigger and better, so is my skills as a cake decorator.  The space ship is symbolic of cake decorating in the world and in my own life reaching new heights, pushing the limits of what you can do with cake. However, after stacking my eight layers of cake and carving it into a spaceship, it decided to come falling down.  And after a couple hours of trying to figure out a way to fix it, I was left with only crumbles of cake.  As it was getting late, I debated on whether to make a completely new cake, but decided against it.  Instead, my roommate gave me the idea of making a huge cake ball.  So I got my crumbs and frosting, smooshed it into a ball and covered it with chocolate.  I did a little piping on the top to make it more appealing to the eye because I think piping is such an important element to cake decorating.  However, I think the most fundamental element of cake decorating is the ability to think on your feet.  Cake can be temperamental and you do not always have time to rebake and make an entire cake.  Usually a final product is still being demanded, so you must use what you have and make the best out of it. This is what I was forced to do with my project. Overall, I'm not exactly happy with how it turned out, but I have a finished product. 

Hi my name is Rebecca Viazzo and I'm Italian - Textual Poaching

Hi my name is Rebecca Viazzo and I am Italian.  My dad grew up in Italy and did not move to the United States until he was 15, so I have real Italian blood.  I grew up with the heated Italian arguments with my dad, screaming at the television when Italy won the World Cup, and my cute, little, old, Italian grandma putting mounds of homemade ravioli on our plate until we were literally going to explode. 

Thinking about what to do for my textual poaching project I thought back to our class readings.  I remembered Kalman’s photos and the “Retrospect –An American Classic Revisited.”  I knew I wanted to take something familiar, but make it my own.   I’m Italian.  It is in my blood.  It is in my name even. I knew I needed to find something that represented Italy.  With the Italian culture being so rich in beautiful art and architecture, I knew the hard part would be narrowing it down to just one. Looking back to a family trip we took to Italy a few years ago, I tried to remember all the beautiful art we saw there.  The Sistine Chapel, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the beautiful architecture in Venice and Florence, just to name a few.  However, I narrowed it down to the Roman Coliseum.  I knew I wanted to do this because it was my past but it is also my future.  I have been called to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Italy Rome mission.  Not only is this where my family and heritage are, but it is where I will be for the next year and a half loving and serving the people. I decided to put this on in the form of makeup on my face because my Italian heritage is so much part of who I am. It is something that I carry with me everywhere.  The Italian flag is my heritage and the Coliseum represents the creative side of me that is influenced by the Italian culture in my life.