Reflection

okay, so this week I finished up the first draft of my paper, which is a huge relief. For the most part, all of my ideas are on paper and now all that is left is to sort them out and add a little bit more detail. I had my conference already and in conjunction with my peer review I know how to take my paper to the next level. I also got my interview questions back from my art history teacher which makes the whole thing a lot easier. Sadly, the timing for this paper was inconvenient in that my art teacher was on spring break. This week I'm probably going to touch up my paper before it's due this week. I don't think it'll take too long, a few hours at most. Surprisingly, the outline actually helped. I'm not really one to use outlines, but it just made each step along the way a bit shorter.

This week

We spent some time on our piece of rhetoric that are due next week. I showed my idea and I think it came out pretty well. I also did some peer review and helped others out with their pieces of rhetoric.

I need to focus a lot more on my paper, I have an idea, but I haven't spent the time planning it out. I need to dive deeper into my sources and send out my interview questions to my NPO. The art teacher I've decided to contact is willing to help me anyway I need so that's convenient. I'll probably send the questions to him this week so that I wont be in panic if he takes a little longer than anticipated.

Last Week

I missed my blog post for last week, but we basically focused on creating our two pieces of rhetoric. I decided to create a couple of bumper stickers advocating the arts funding cause. We took a quiz and further drafted our research papers. Not too eventful of a week, but as an aside allergy season has begun and it's making me miserable.

In class collage

How does this collage represent my identity?
Going from left to right. The first image is the Dominican flag, which obviously illustrates that I'm half Dominican, this ties in with the second image of the 1966 Olympic games which is a iconic image from the civil rights era (the other half being black). The third image is a skyline of Manhattan because I'm a New Yorker who has been temporarily relocated in Charlotte (which is illustrated by the next picture). On the second line, there is an image of Jean-Paul Sartre, he is my favorite philosopher and writer of various works of existentialism (I identify as an Existentialist). The next picture is a coffee barista, this is a two-fold image, first and foremost it's there to represent that I'm a philosophy major and this will probably be what I'll end up doing because of it (ha ha) and it also shows that I'm a coffee enthusiast. To the right of this, is a picture of Bill Hicks, one of the most inspirational people to me and my favorite stand up comedian. I included him because I'm a huge fan of his work and because I love stand up comedy in general. The last image on the row is a demotivational poster entitled "Pretension" because I apparently come off as a pretentious ass. I recognize this, but it's not intentional. The next row is a surrealist image to illustrate my love for art and surrealism in general (take from that what you wish). The next image is a picture of the Democratic donkey with the Communist hammer and sickle superimposed over it. I put this up as a joke because I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and one of my favorite things to do is read anti-liberal hate mail (I guess that means I'm a masochist as well). The final row starts off with an image of a juggler because I am a juggler as well and painfully good at it. The next image is a picture of a girl covering her ears and screaming, this is to illustrate my anxiety issues, which I blame on my brain never shutting up (I picked a female because, again, I'm a bleeding-heart). To the right of this is an image of the reddit alien because I'm a redditor. With this comes most of the usual stereotypes associated with it (eg, spends too much time online, no girlfriend, liberal, argumentative, etc.). Last but not least, I posted a picture that is meant to illustrate my love for science and more specifically cognitive science. I hope to get into a cognitive science, neuroscience, or cognitive neuroscience (yes there's a difference) program for my graduate studies.

What are the links between images and identity in our society? (What types of images do I identify with?)

Pictures are worth a thousand words. This statement is cliched for a reason. You can get across so much with simply an image. Not only is there the surface level literal interpretation of the picture, but then there is the thoughts that are attempted to be conveyed, and lastly the subconscious reasons for why the person choose the images that they did. Because of the depth, it allows for a lot more information to be expressed with a lot less time and energy. Our society, even if not explicitly, recognizes this, and societies in general have recognized this since the invention of cave paintings. As such, people try to construct an identity through images, whether they're in person, online, or some other media. Take for example the stereotypes in our society. You have goths, hippies, hipsters, thugs, frat/sorority types, etc. Everyone has an "identity" that they're trying to illustrate, and images, whether concrete or a more metaphysical idea of your self, are inseparable.

I tend to find that there are two types of images that I identify with. Either they're gritty, and trying to illustrate a more "real" aspect of life, or they tend to be surrealist, sort of idealistic depictions, where the imagination or an ideal is first and foremost.

America 24/7

We were assigned to read an article entitled America 24/7 and we were supposed to guess what the images would be. So when I think of the real face of America, I think of the average, lower middle class person of small town middle America, I think suburbia, and I think of apartment buildings packed to the brim in cities. Maybe a bald eagle, all of our corporations, and other iconic American cultural images. I looked at the images and I'm not really shocked to see images of day to day, blue collar people, weird cultural images, and skanky girls. I'd say he definitely did a good job at capturing our country, he managed to do exactly what I envisioned.

As for an image that represents America to me. I can only think of one image, but it's comical and I'm not entirely too serious when I post it

It's comedic and incredibly biased, and a bit offensive, but I really can't think of any other image so I have no choice but to post it and still keep the integrity of the project. Now, with this being said, I recognize that my urban, northern, perspective is completely different from the perspective of the vast majority of the country, but there's always going to be differences of opinion, so I might as well keep the tradition going.

Ordinary picture

Recently in class we talked about how images represent reality and how you can construct whatever reality you want based on the images you create. Coincidentally, I was reading Simulacra and Simulation and he pretty much addresses the same concept. I suppose one of the perks of being a philosophy major is that every class manages to coincide with what you're doing or have done in some way or another. Anyway, I was tasked with uploading an image of how I act ordinarily and was supposed to talk about how this relates to the pictures I show the world. Conveniently, the way I act in private is identical to the way I act in public, so my ordinary picture is also my facebook picture. Fancy that. I've never been one to act a certain way just because there were people around, I'm strange, but we all are.

Capitalism: A Love Story reflection

We've been watching Capitalism: A Love Story in class this week and basically it's Michael Moore's documentary on the evils of capitalism and the detriment it is on American Society. As is typical to his work, it's stuffed with appeals to pathos in the hopes to flood you with empathy so that you accept his point, coupled with appeals to ethos by constantly showing how the every day person, just like you, was affected by whatever it is that he's making a documentary against. He shows the problems of deregulation and the damage that it has done to the american middle and working class.

I have seen this movie a couple of times prior to this, and though I agree with Michael Moore, I'm going to criticize him because it's boring to talk about all the ways in which you agree with someone. I personally find his constant appeal to emotion to be simultaneously his best and worst trait. I cannot watch his documentaries more than a couple of times before I find them annoying to be frank. He uses this recipe for his movies that is like 75% pathos, 15% ethos, and 10% logos. Though this works wonders the first time you watch one of his films, it draws you in and you cannot help but agree with him, after a couple times you begin to view it as sensationalist vacuity. I love what he does, he incites passion in people on issues that probably wouldn't have cared about otherwise, but I actually do care about these issues and I dont really like how light he is on the facts and his disregard to counterarguments. With all that being said, there could have been worse ways to spend the week. At least I wasn't watching a movie from the opposite camp all about the glories of capitalism and lasse-faire economics.

My MIP

Okay, so I've pretty much decided what my project is going to be on. I'm going to explore the lack of funding in the arts in CMS and the surrounding schools. I'm probably also going to relate this to the general attitude regarding humanities funding found in Universities, but at this time I think that'll be a minor issue I'll briefly cover. It's an issue that will interest me, but I'm also pretty sure that it'll be a difficult one to find an answer to resolve.

Dr.Minslow offered a couple of her collegues for me to interview which was nice and I have a couple high school art teachers from an adjacent county to CMS that would be more than willing to take interviews from me (I was an art nerd in high school). I'm pretty sure I could find a bunch of articles on this topic and I know for a fact that worst case I can find loads of articles on the lack of humanities funding. Now that I have a topic in mind the project is slightly less daunting, all that's left is actually doing it...

Decisions Decisions

I'm at an impasse. I cannot decide what I'd like to do my Major Inquiry Project on (henceforth referred to as MIP). I'm torn between doing something lighthearted or doing something productive for the betterment of society. North Carolina on May 8th is voting on Amendment 1, a bill dealing with same-sex marriage in the state. Now, I'm not a homosexual myself, but my father is a male dancer so I've grown up around many, and I have many friends of the persuasion. It's an issue that I feel is very important and is one of the last civil rights hurdles for our country to cross. It being such a major issue, I'm sure I could find an NPO and lots of articles and information regarding it, and I could probably contribute positively to the cause. With this topic I'd also get to see immediate results since the voting is being held right as the semester ends, and I could easily put this on a resume. With that being said, I'm also very interested in the arts and I'd like to explore the art/music/dance scene in Charlotte. It would give me an excuse to go to art galleries and listen to live music and things of that nature. Not to mention, I have some experience in the area from helping my father's dance company do various tasks and book shows. I could however also work on a slightly more serious aspect of a lighter topic and focus on the funding cuts for the arts in North Carolina or more specifically CMS schools, and the impact that this will have on the children and the future. Lots to think about.

Class Reflection - 1/20/12

This week in class we covered how to rhetorically analyze images, advertisements, or any other medium that is presented to us. This was accomplished by viewing various political cartoons, street art by the artist Banksy, and a variety of advertisements. As a class we studied the techniques used and their intended purpose and/or audience. We also briefly covered thesis statement construction for the purpose of rhetorical papers.

Though neither of these topic were new to me, it's always good to review. previous English classes of mine have gone over roughly the same material, but with that being said, I haven't had an english class since spring semester 2010. So, I could probably use a review on some aspects of my writing.

Rhetorical analysis

This is an image that I had posted to tumblr a few months ago. It's a surrealist digital painting by a Hungarian artist by the name of David Szebenyi. The image wasn't a political cartoon per se, but it carries the weight similar to that of one. It's an image of a tower of garbage completely engulfing the planet Earth. It's making a statement about the level of pollution present on our planet. In our current world, we're no longer limited by geography, there is a more global mindset, and as such, artists in Hungary and people in the United States are facing similar issues as members of the same planet. It's a single image, and there are no text, but it takes the "a picture is worth a thousand words" axiom to heart. The contrast between the monochrome of the pollution and the vibrancy of the planet Earth, in addition to the disproportionate amount of garbage, conveys more than any one-liner about how we need to limit our waste. It's over-the-top in nature, but that cartoonish feel manages to balance the importance of the message with levity to make the message viable to the viewer without appearing "preachy". The image in itself does not refer to any specific people or icons; however, that's the genius in it. It manages to be all inclusive without casting blame on anyone in particular.

Myself as a writer/reader

I find myself writing and reading quite often actually. I've been an avid reader my entire life, and in recent history, I've been writing quite a bit more as well. I frequent an irc chatroom filled with a sizable number of people my age with far too much time on their hands, this leads them down paths of intellectual curiosity and ultimately it ends up with nightly debates on topics like religion, politics, science, and/or philosophy. In addition to this chatroom, I've frequented discussion boards since I was 11, and spend far too much time on a website known as Reddit. This website is probably one of the largest discussion boards on the internet and serves as a hub for many of the happenings occurring on the internet (as well as 4chan, but we try not to mention them). Typically, I write as I'm writing now, in a casual manner, but with enough spelling and punctuation that it could pass for "formal" if need be. When I was younger (around 15) I made a conscious decision to type as if I were writing an essay for school at all times in an effort to improve my writing because my lowest section on my SAT was my writing section, and it hindered me from meeting the goal I had set for myself prior to taking it.

As a reader, I'm quite voracious. I always have been. The difference with my reading habits is that I haven't always been interested in reading things that have served any intellectual merit. When I was a child, I was heavily into non-fiction (still am), but around ten or eleven I got my hands on manga (japanese comic books) and the next five or six years of my life and thousands of dollars went into this endeavor. Luckily, when I was around 16, I found a multitude of free online websites that allowed me to get first hand translations of the web comics as they came off the presses in Japan. That, and the fact that many of the series that I had been so fascinated with ended, so it gave me a lot of free time to explore other avenues (currently only 3 are left). Throughout this period I spent far too much time on the internet (as mentioned above), and this led to lots of reading on various topics; however, it was never really my explicit intention to go online because I wanted to read something. When I was seventeen, I began my freshman year of college and around this time, my interest in non-fiction began to bud again because of the lack of manga reading. I've spent many hours reading what most would find heinously boring (e.g. philosophical essays, dry nonfiction science and history books, etc.) but more recently, I've been trying to find some literature that might allow for me to "lighten up" a bit. I've started reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series (science fiction novels about the budding of a intellectual utopia on the outskirts of space and the challenges it faces as it blooms into a Galactic Empire), some books on pop culture like "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", and various novels that have been recommended to me in high regard like "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. For both my reading and my writing, I do so because I find myself incredibly bored all the time. I dont watch much television anymore because most of it sucks (if I want to watch a television series I'll watch an entire series online, in one sitting practically), and because of various circumstances I have a small group of close friends, all of whom live at the very least 2 hrs away.