Fireside Chat

Artist's Statement

My topic for the fireside chat was such a personal one, it’s hard to say if there was any outside inspiration. The closest thing would likely be Brené Brown’s Ted talk on The Power of Vulnerability, something that’s inspired me to put myself into my art, even when it’s difficult.

Affirmations were something I wanted to introduce to everyone because I’ve used them in my life and I know they work. At least, they work for me. I knew portraying that was going to be difficult, though, and I didn’t want to just stand there and give a lecture on how and why they were good things. Beliefs in general are incredibly subjective, and I had to be okay with that, purposely choosing to not include other testimonials, data, or any “reliable” support. In this case, my experiences were all that was needed to back up my claim, so I knew I had to show it instead of tell it.

The reading for this week, Susan Sontag’s article Regarding the Pain of Others, she discusses shock value in photography and the effect (or perhaps lack of effect) it has on the viewer. For my presentation, I didn’t want an element of shock per say, but I new it needed to be visual in order to be impactful. And in order for it to say what it needed to, it had to be authentic.

I chose roughly three types of media to work with: video, storytelling, and demonstration. I wanted the video to present affirmations in a positive way, since they are often looked at as bizarre, if not egotistical behavior. (At least, it certainly can feel that way when you do them.) The story needed to be there to set the tone and give context until I felt like I could demonstrate the affirmations and hopefully communicate that this was something incredible important to me.

Our recent topics in class—being aware of good work in the community, studying empathy, media’s ability to represent people’s beliefs and ideologies—has added another layer to my perception of art. Much like my goal to be vulnerable in my own work, I’ve realized how important it is to acknowledge the efforts made by other artists. I may not always understand it, or agree with their point of view, but that’s doesn’t disvalue their opinion or experiences. The fireside was a mélange of ideas, personal stories, creative representations, and individual interpretations of life. I feel that I’ve expanded or developed my viewpoints through that experience, which is perhaps the reason for art in the first place. 

Concerned Citizen

Artists' Statement

We chose to focus our Concerned Citizen project on a man named Samuel Bradshaw, who is the Project Director of Vineyard at BYU, which is a Y Serve program that is concerned with translation, transcription and documentation of LDS church records. Samuel, who has been in this position for years, is enthusiastic about his work and that of his organization, content in the help that he and his group are providing for the church. His choice to dedicate his time to this cause is no doubt a great help to the cause of furthering the work of the church and extending its outreach.

        We were impressed with the work he is doing because it is so prevalent in our general interaction with digital information, specifically in this case to church websites and resources, and yet it isn’t a task people would normally consider. Tagging words to images and providing hymns in other languages, among other things, are of course things that someone has to do, but people generally forget that integral step in the process. With the vast amount of information to be documented and dealt with by Samuel and those who do what he does, cataloging it all online is a heavy undertaking which we believed should have its turn being appreciated.

        Samuel’s general attitude, we thought, was wonderful in expressing his understanding of this program’s meaning and importance. While according to Goldbard’s Human Rights and Culture we, as the filmmakers, we should have been the ones to engage with people’s feelings about their work. As it so happened, Samuel was more than willing to engage with us. Going into the office we honestly were unsure of the direction this documentary was going to take. Listening to Samuel tell us very happily what their goal was as an organization helped us gain a better appreciation of his work.

        We modeled the documentary style on other typical examples of LDS informational videos, as it seemed appropriate for this content and for Samuel’s willingness, and that of his co-workers, to articulate the processes they worked by. As it is something of a repetitive process done digitally it helped a lot to have things dictated in order to recognize the value of their work. They were very appreciative of our interest as well, and asked that we share our finished video with them; we wanted it to be suitable for their own intentions, and wished to do them justice.

        In a culture so focused on expansion and record-keeping, the work done by the volunteers at Vineyard is without a doubt integral in the progress of providing ways for people to access church related documents and texts instantly through websites, apps, and other media; a humble undertaking with tremendous results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSlfT3JbyQs

Twine

I chose to do my Twine project on the topic of male objectification in our culture. I worried a little about my relevance to the conversation and wasn’t sure that I would be able to properly represent this issue. In order to do it the best way I knew how, I wrote it from the perspective of a male character, but based it on my own experiences and discussions that have led to this observation.

In ChimamandaAdichie’s Ted talk about the danger of a single story, she argues that if we reply on one source for our information, especially in representing a culture, the portrayal will be warped and inaccurate.  I often feel that how we discuss objectification in our media is also one sided. That in no way means that woman aren’t objectified, or that we need to abandon that topic in search of another, but I believe there are others area in this issue that I believe needs to be addressed.

Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones actress, in a HuffingtonPost article talks about how many of the men she works with are objectified in the industry, and often typecast by their physicality. We ourselves can think of examples without much imagination.  We all know the man-get’s-sweaty-has-to-change-his-shirt scene in films, or that moody workout where he does one crunch before wiping himself down with a towel. Muscle shirts, the boys’ locker room, slow-mo shots of the lifeguard, sex scenes, and the whole super hero genre waste no opportunity to display the male figure. Take the Kraft Zesty salad dressing commercials as an example. What I find even more disturbing is some people are fully aware of this objectification, but have no problem with it.

An article by Elite Daily is titled, “Why It’s Completely Okay To Objectify Men… No It ReallyIs.” The author goes on to explain that indeed, she thinks that male objectification is completely justified. She lists the damaging effects of how women are viewed in the media and how their image is considered a reflection of their worth. I, personally, have no argument with her there. But then she claims that the physical appearance of a man has no effect on his status as a person, and finishes the article with, “That’s why objectifying a woman carries a heavier, more noteworthy meaning. When you objectify a woman, you perpetuate the idea that her worth lies exclusively in her appearance. When I objectify a man, it’s just… fun. And that’s why it’s okay to do it.”

I have found this mentality—that sexual comments about men is okay simply because there is no consequence—appear far too often in my own conversations and experiences. Girls in a movie theatre cheering when whichever current heartthrob rips his shirt off is perfectible acceptable. A man commenting on the butt of an actress bending over is more likely to be condemned. That isn’t to say that we should stop fighting against the objectification of women. That is an extremely prevalent issue. Instead, I’d urge for an expansion of perspective to eliminate the objectification of both genders.

Twine Game: Invisible Standard file

http://invisiblestandard.neocities.org/Invisible%20Standard.html

World Building

Dystopian Egyptian Revival 

Artists' Statement

Julian Bleecker in his article Design Fiction states, “When something is “designed” it suggests that there is some thoughtful exploration going on.” He goes on to emphasize how imagination can expand when one seeks to physically design that world. In order to create a new world, we were forced to explore and define much more than we originally thought. Just by changing one event in history, we were required to project numerous differences socially, economically, politically, and so on in order to make the world seem authentic. Thus, we had source material from which we could truly make our imagined world come to life. Our new culture was born out of the ashes of a nuclear war in which Egyptian society survived and mixed aspects of modern technology with classical Egyptian ideology and culture.

Map of New Cairo

We as a group thought a descriptive and authentic-feeling artifact of this new culture would be some sort of damaged, rough copy of the new civilization’s city plans. As mentioned, the new Egyptians would be able to reverse engineer some technologies and retain certain skills, but we felt that (due to lack of resources) the new culture would revert back to papyrus and inaccurate drafting techniques. Thus, the map models itself after modern Cairo’s city structure, but presents certain changes and modern buildings in a rough style seen in early city plans. Logically, we used the outside sources of modern satellite images and older city plans for inspiration in creating the piece. Initially, we thought about labeling the areas so our audience would be able to understand what each area of the sketch represented and thus have a better idea how the new city was set up. However, we decided to maintain a sense of authenticity and label areas in a rough and corrupted form of Arabic as such a style would be more realistic. 

Modern Cairo

Example of 18th Century Novgorod Plan Style

New Cairo Original Plans

Desert Wear

We wanted to incorporate clothing into our project because of the unique perspective it would bring. This society, a dystopian world that decides to model its government after the inspiring success of the Egyptian empire, would have a very distinct blend of wasteland survivor and ancient religion. Pulling from the costume design of such films as Mad Max, Star Wars, and the animated short The Oceanmaker, as well as iconic tropes of Egyptian fashion, we created a mask that incorporates both worlds. It is practical in its use of keeping sand out of your mouth, but is adorned with Egyptian design made from broken pieces of lost technology.


Made From A Computer Motherboard and Linen

Model Wearing Mask

Prayer to Pharaoh

In Julian Bleeker’s essay Design Fiction, he writes about how design can lead to reflection of our work. As we decided on the history and details of our fictional culture, we had to focus on creating items that properly represented this society. This particular creation is cross between the Islamic call to prayer and a fascist propaganda program. New Cairo’s self-proclaimed Pharaoh has commanded the universal worship of the Egyptian Pantheon, a theology that reveres the Pharaoh as deity himself. Spreading a gospel of quiet subjection and unquestioning devotion, the Pharaoh perverts the established order of Islam into a hybrid pseudo-religion that combines the form of the Islamic faith with the content of ancient belief. Navigating the slippery slope of religious and political correctness was challenging, but the reflective nature of the design process allowed us to properly address the issues and circumstances that inspired our creation in the first place.

Wall Mural

Every time human being have inhabited a place, they feel the necessity to create art. This forms of art are usually related to the religious beliefs, history and the social environment. The first piece illustrates what happened before new Cairo was established, and combines Egyptian symbology and modern technology, the snake representing Apep, the evil spirit of destruction and darkness.The snake is placed right next to the image of a nuclear explosion which as we know is also a symbol of destruction and death. Both paintings are a representation of the most important aspects of this society, both religious, political and ideological.

Some of the inspiration behind the paintings are the Marsh scene tomb of menna and the facsimile of the Egyptian book of the dead.