World Building: What if the modern world became one land mass?

Artist Statement: World Building

This week’s world building assignment brought up a lot of questions. So many, in fact, it took a while to narrow our group’s focus to a centralized tone and idea for our new world. Our what-if question, the thing that started all our speculation, was this: “What if there was only one world continent?” This is a pretty specific concept, but it was surprising how many possibilities stemmed from such a simple question. We had to consider how such a world might come into being, whether what we built would take place in the past or the future, and we decided on a future idea, inspired by scientists’ predictions of continental drift. 

We found a really great source for this at http://opengecko.com/geography/visions-of-continental-drift-on-fast-forward/. That provided all the geographical inspiration for Caitlin’s map. From there, we veered in a kind of dystopian direction influenced in some part by the tone of “Panem” in the Hunger Games. This thought, where we focused on the future and a kind of science fiction style of world, was further supported by the ideas from our reading of “Design Fiction” this week, which talked about where design fiction appeared most and was the most successful, particularly in the conclusion. It also discussed how design is the expression of an idea. We were able to integrate that into the world that we created. The idea is in the question, what if the modern world became one land mass? 

World building is integral to science fiction, and therefore it was a great medium to take inspiration from. We felt that the world becoming smaller and closer together would have an opposite effect culturally--nations would feel more threatened by each other and would draw away, possibly scared of losing their own identity. That fear would encourage less cooperation and more paranoia. Ironically the world would become less united the closer they merged geographically. This was the tone and feeling behind our ideas about border control, found in Chad’s newspaper, which would be a huge concern in a world where all borders touched. It also contributed to Julia’s black propaganda posters demeaning mixed-race people. When cultures are colliding and mixing, as demonstrated in the map and in some the country changes therein, they would tend to feel fearful about losing that culture. Such concerns would not only be cultural, but also practical. Diseases and weapons would be much more serious, and much more difficult to escape. Hailey showed this in a really interestingly commercial way with her advertisement for fashionable medical masks, a wise idea in a society with no water separating outbreaks, an era with no buffers.

What would happen if the modern world became one land mass? Life would be very complicated and conflict would explode. Nothing good would come from this scenario because of the pride and lack of understanding that is in the world today. 

Textual Poaching: The Godfather

Artist Statement

            The aspect of my identity I chose to represent in a textual poaching piece is my heritage. My Dad’s side of the family is Italian. My Grandpa immigrated to Boston as a kid. He married another Italian girl and raised my Dad in Boston. The Italian language diminished over the generations but the culture lived on. The food lived on. The energy lived on.

            The film, The Godfather, produced in 1972 represents Italian culture. It doesn’t exactly represent my family so I remixed some scenes with dubbed dialogue to more accurately represent my family and identity. The Godfather portrays an Italian culture that sees family as the highest priority. Your family comes before anything else. That is a similar characteristic I share with my family. The Godfather also portrays the very serious side of the culture. It shows the violence and danger in an Italian mob world. That part of The Godfather does not represent my family. So I remixed it.

            My family is loving, very affectionate, loud, and much less serious. Their lives are faster paced than those in The Godfather. They talk over each other rather than engage in very business-like talk. So to remix The Godfather I came up with a story that would represent my family and adapted it to some Godfather scenes. The story is about a family hosting a family reunion. Family reunions in my family are regular and a big deal. So I wanted to show some characters getting chastised for not showing up to the reunion, but in a loving way. I wanted to bring my family into The Godfather by creating a whole new plot. And I wanted Don Coreleone to represent my grandfather who we always poke fun at for being Don Coreleone. He is the overseer of the reunions and makes sure everyone shows up. The opening scene of two guys planning the reunion is similar to when my Dad or Uncle is planning the reunion and goes over the plans with my grandfather to get approval. I took the wedding scene and converted it into a reunion. My family reunions are very loud and fun. The scene after the reunion when they talk about the canolies is just like my family. We talk about food a lot, specifically Italian food and use exaggerated hand gestures as we talk about such a basic subject.

             The reading about Textual Poaching talked about how a toy means nothing until the boy gives meaning to it. The audience pumps more meaning into a piece than the artist ever intends. The readers aren’t supposed to just find the artist’s meaning but remix material to fit into the context of their lives. Then the text becomes more than it was before. I thought this is a very interesting way of looking at art. Sometimes artist’s get mad when the audience takes a different meaning from the piece than intended but I think it’s a very cool thing that anyone can create a variety of meaning from something. I took The Godfather and interpreted it in the context of my family, which is a huge part of my identity.

            Robin Skouteris’ PopLove is a great example of textual poaching. It is a mash-up of 24 big pop songs from 2012. The artist placed all the songs in the same key and ran running background track through the whole thing. It was amazing seeing how well so many songs fit together. It took a lot of creativity to put those songs together. And the visuals in the video represent pop culture today and the artists’ interpretation of these songs. The artist interprets these songs as fun and a means of expression of inner desires. It’s a celebration of pop music with its fast cutting and use of color.

            I really enjoyed exploring a new way of looking at art. By looking at it from the audience’s perspective art can reach many more people. I think as an audience member I will enjoy different art more if I don’t spend so much energy trying to search for the artist’s meaning but just feel what comes.

Medium Specificity: Film is Motion, Light, and Manipulation

Artist Statement: Film as a Medium

In my short video I wanted to explore three aspects of the medium of film. These aspects include, motion, light, and manipulation. These aspects celebrate the magic of film. Photographs for a long time captured exact moments of time. Then film captured the progression of time. Both are wonderful mediums. Neither is better than the other just different.

Film captures time through motion. The beginning of my film shows basic motion. At first it is difficult to interpret what is happening on screen but eventually the object is revealed. It is a fan. A fan has circular motion that is constant. Circular signifies the eternal. Film can penetrate through time and influence people decade after decade. Film captures a story within an eternal world. We see a beginning and an End of a never-ending story. Motion is the absolute foundation of the uniqueness of the film medium. It is the quick juxtaposition of images to convey meaning.

The next segment of my film celebrates light. Without light film would not be. The screen would be black. Light is what shows the story. It portrays the world. It moves between the characters. It is free yet framed by the cinematographer. Light communicates ideas and reveals the inner workings of characters. My piece shows some abstract close-ups of light. I filmed very literal things like lamps and ceiling lights. But I chose to keep the image out of focus so that the object didn’t distract from the light. The blue montage of light is a scene from the film, “The Avengers.” It’s close to impossible to guess that based on the images I captured. Again, with it out of focus, only the pure light of the scene is visible. All the props, characters, and scenery disappear. We can see with different eyes this way. The light segment includes short shots of a welder creating light with a tool. I chose to include this because people create movies and thus create light, or at least manipulate it. Light is within our grasp in the film world just as the welding torch is within the welder’s grasp. The last shot is of the sunshine stretching its light over canyon rock. This is the natural light, the light that gives life to all.

The last segment celebrates how film uses manipulation. The shots are not abstract like the rest of the film. Instead they are completely literal and bland yet they portray manipulation. I decided to show extreme close-ups of objects in a room. These objects appear very random and many don’t seem to have any connection with each other. As the shot sequence progresses subtle hints reveal possible locations for these series of objects. Then at last a full wide shot of the whole room reveals how everything exists in relationship to each other. It shows the space, the bigger picture that we are all itching to see. All the close-ups are manipulative because we are forced to see only what is in the frame. So the camera can control our perspective of a given world. Motion, light, and manipulation are only three of many wonderful characteristics that film embraces.

In class we watched the video of Moths. The artist just glued moth’s wings to actual film and ran the film past a lens. This celebrated the film medium as well because it showed the beauty of a moving image. There is also something to be said about the actual piece being done directly on film. Film, the material itself is something to celebrate. We also watched a dance video that celebrates the medium of dance as it progresses through the ages. No dance was better in any given time period, it was all just different. It was a cultural experience for everyone to associate dances with certain decades. There are many mediums of media. All are great and deserve recognition and thought. 

Artist Statement: Historical Script

This assignment was much different from the assignments we’ve had previously.  It was less art intensive than the others as this had a little more grounding in logistics and reality than did the Tiny Stories or the Music Mosaic which could be much more abstract.  Though different, it was something with which we are more familiar.  The collaborative aspect of this project was very helpful.  When writing the story, we all had different ideas about how to craft it and what direction the plot should follow.  This allowed for many more ideas to be passed around and a lot of decisions to consider.  Though at times it was tough to decide whose idea to go with, it was beneficial overall because of this collaboration. 

When Josh first thought of this idea, he was inspired by two different and unrelated sources.  A few years ago he watched the HBO series Band of Brothers which made him find an interest in WWII.  He began to learn more about it in school as well and he watched more war movies and documentaries simply because he found the stories incredible.  When given this assignment, straight off he knew he wanted to create a story that was somehow involved in the second World War.  However, he wanted to do something a little different that he had not seen before.  First he thought of a pilot in one of the B-25s and the perspective that pilot had during the Doolittle raid in 1942.  While this idea was formulating, a friend of Josh’s went to the theatre to watch the film Prisoners.  Just the name of the film changed his idea for the story to something about POWs and he didn’t want the perspective to be one of a prisoner but rather of the guard over them. 

Though we know relatively little about the Hell of war, we felt that the perspective of this piece is one that many don’t consider, especially from the point of view of the enemy.  Most of the time people view the enemy as evil and inhuman but this is not true.  The enemy is usually just a normal person who doesn’t want to be doing what they are doing. He is complex and so are we. This story has aspects of a psychological narrative. There isn’t a clear bad guy or good guy.  This is what we wanted to show.  We felt that it would be most interesting to look at an unwilling Japanese guard dealing with the horrible things that he’s had to witness. Taishi is the protagonist, struggling with a moral conflict. We didn’t want the effect investigated in the Fort Barnwell story to be part of this story.  The script shouldn’t be romanticized and it shouldn’t be seen through a modern lens.  A story such as this should be viewed in the same light as the time.  It should be, what you see is what you get. We feel this is much more powerful than showing it in a different and manipulated way. This story is intended to help the audience feel empathy towards the "bad guy." 

To write this script, we utilized the power of the internet with Google Drive.  Before writing, we got together to discuss what we thought the story should do and just to flesh it out a bit.  We then went to our respective homes and began writing on the same document on Google.  We found this to be very effective because we could all write at the same time and we could observe the others writing without having to be looking over their shoulder.  It allowed us to change things very quickly. The chat function also made it possible to discuss aspects about the story that we thought were good or possibly unnecessary.