Fly on a Wall

Fly on a Wall film making refers to a style of shooting in which the camera crew is as unobtrusive as possible. The people who are filmed are real people, not actors, and the situations they are put in are also real. As a huge fan of the reality show Survivor, I immediately associated this technique with the show, and as we researched this in class I found I was not alone. Among Survivor were other reality shows like Big Brother, Deadliest Catch, etc. All of these were referred to as using the fly on the wall technique.

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This is NOT the End

Hi! I am back again with another blog post! I’ll admit, I have been putting off writing my last few posts but it was only for the sole reason that I was out of ideas on what I could write about. I usually pick the topics I wish to explore in my posts beforehand and then at some point actually write said posts. The problem? I ran out of topics. But naturally, all writers block comes to an end. And now I have come to explain to you why this is not the end. Or at least not for me. As I have begun to write my final reflection about the INTD 288 course two things have come to my attention. One is that I really loved taking this class even though I usually felt more confused than anything. Two, I realized how this class introduced me to so many topics that I wish to explore more in the future. My second realization I feel is more important because as a student in the INTD 288 course, I am always pushed to dig deeper to find more knowledge and understanding of any given topic. Continue reading “This is NOT the End”

The Permanent Collection

A few months ago, our class had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Cynthia Hawkins-Owen in the Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery where she was able to give us a more comprehensive description and deeper understanding of everything that goes into running a gallery. I would venture that quite a few of us, including myself, were surprised at how much Dr. Hawkins-Owen does on a daily basis to bring together new and exciting exhibits!

In addition to teaching college classes, I believe Dr. Hawkins-Owen said that her job entails five primary responsibilities (each with a vast subset of other tasks), just a few of which are administration, curation, and maintaining the permanent collection. Getting out announcements, making and distributing posters, maintaining public relations, and keeping up with the online representations of the gallery and everything to do with it are all part of her administrative duties. In terms of curating, Dr. Hawkins-Owen must look for unique art and artists whose work she would like to display, she must communicate with the artists to gauge which of their pieces they actually want to show, attend meetings with the artists, their representatives, and others, help move art to and from the Gallery, go through each piece and record any damage or lack thereof, install each piece and take them down at the end of the exhibit, etc. The list goes on! I was simply shocked listening to Dr. Hawkins-Owen speak of the work she does, because so little of it is visible to us, the viewers, when we attend a gallery opening or go to admire these works. Continue reading “The Permanent Collection”

W.E.B Du Bois, Double Consciousness, Double Standards

         This semester, one of our required course texts was W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk. In the text, we were introduced to the term “double consciousness,” although perhaps some of us were already familiar with the term. However, for those who might not be familiarized with the concept, the term “double consciousness” works as a tool to express the complexities of the black experience. It delves into the assertion that as a person of color, one will always have a multi-faceted identity due to the injustices penetrated in the United States. Du Bois’ best describes this as the following:

“The sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn’t bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face (Du Bois).” Continue reading “W.E.B Du Bois, Double Consciousness, Double Standards”

Segregation & Progress

LaKisha Michelle Simmons writes in “Geographies of Pain, Geographies of Pleasure” that “segregation was tied to progress, not simply to tradition” (Walking Raddy 32). When the Supreme Court legalized segregation in the South through Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, segregation was institutionalized, through the guise of progress and the phrase “separate but equal,” as its definition suggests, to separate, to demarcate the black person. These words show just but one instance in which language has been euphemized or manipulated to justify, and veil, injustice. The newly developed urban space was an open space only to certain people. New public restrooms only served “the white people of New Orleans” (32). In 1902, progress in New Orleans and its modernization project was created in part by black people, the exploitation of their labor, but this “progress” and wealth was of and for only certain white people. Continue reading “Segregation & Progress”

Faith, Doubt, and the Big Machine

Yesterday in class when discussing in groups some of the ways Big Machine connected to large course themes, Andrew Weber brought up an interesting point about the concept of doubt. For me, doubt and faith have always been at odds with each other; however he said the opposite. He viewed doubt as an essential part of faith, stating that without doubt, faith is superficial. Just because we question religion does not mean we lack faith, merely that our faith is deep enough that we can ask ourselves about it without wavering.

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Living Epistle

There is no doubt to state that Steve Prince’s art has plenty and if not always, biblical symbolism. Steve Prince is an artist from New Orleans, Louisiana and a devout Catholic. He in many of his pieces incorporates the messages and symbols from the bible in order to illuminate the importance and the consistency of religion in our lives and specifically the Christian faith. He is at work trying to ingrain how faith is apart of our human existence and how we are in fact the flesh, bones, and evidence of such faith. In his piece Living Epistle, Prince speaks on the living letters that we all are, people read and sometimes misread our surfaces. But we as human beings of good reason have the words of God written on us and so we must never forget to live by his grace, and praise.

 

Living Epistle Linocut “50 x 37”

Learning How To Blog

Originally, I wanted to dedicate my last blog post to one of the lectures I attended this semester. However, I started thinking about my first blog and how different it is from the rest that I have posted so far. In this last blog post, I will discuss my experience as a first-time blogger.

Writing my first blog post was very difficult for me. One of the major things that made it a difficult experience was my perception of blogging. Before, blogging appeared to me as some sort of area for what many consider to be “free writing.” So when I was given the task to write 10 blogs I knew I was going to have the same experience I did in high school when I had to free write; I was going to be horrible at it. And my first blog post did not tell me anything different. However, the style was just as I intended, Dr. McCoy described it as “open and conversational and thus eminently suitable for a blog post.” So when I received the grade I did I then wondered where did I go wrong? Dr. McCoy’s response to this question was that I needed to “SLOW DOWN” or as she says in class, “now unpack.” I then thought to myself how it was possible to have my writing be conversational but to also unpack its content.

After receiving Dr. McCoy’s advice, I decided to take a risk by writing my third blog post in a more academic tone. I reminded myself of what a typical essay consists of:

  1. Introduction
  2. Topic sentences
  3. Analysis
  4. Conclusion

Now how would I include all these things in my blog post and keep it conversational? I knew my AP Literature professor told me that a good essay has both quotes and analysis threaded throughout a paragraph. So I figured that the best way to have a conversational blog post and still be able to unpack was to thread the conversational and academic aspect throughout my blog posts. Therefore, I would be fulfilling both parts rather than having to choose one.

I think there is more to learn as I continue to blog. I now know how to intertwine both the conversational and academic parts the I was missing. I am eager to continue blogging!