Collective Identity – (Who are we) paper describing our identity/aesthetic as a group (Honors and Portfolio as one group). 5.28.10
As a group of talented young artist in Honors and Portfolio, our identity is a family of outcasts. Being artist we are seen as being different than the average person as well as our thought process. But when you put people with the same mind set and ideas these outcasts become a family or a community that grow and learn from one another.
We all share the same passion and desire to express ourselves through art. It is how we connect with each other and the world. We use each other in order to become better artist and maybe better versions of ourselves. And a family can never stop growing, the more we add to it, the better it will be.
Surveillance Camera as an Art Making Tool Proposal 4.27.10
For my surveillance camera proposal, I was thinking about the ideas and observations that I have gathered from the surveillance of objects in the still life and subjects in the classroom. Using the school’s video cameras would make an intereting art project for any art student. You would be able to watch people without their knowledge and capture on film what they are doing at that particular moment. I started thinking what if I created a series of sculptures or somthing kind of models that filled various hallways in the school during the da. I would watch and observe how people on the camera would react to something blocking their means of travel. These sculptures or models would be made out of several different objects but be big enough to be seen and smalll enough to fit in the school.
Some materials I would use would be recyled bottles of every size, scraps of metal, cardboard and etc. Each sculpture would be as high as the floor of the hallway to the ceiling and every one of them would have a different message on them. They will relate to the things I discovered while observing the class and still life. Including identity, gender, community, similarities and differences. And using the cameras I will be able to record the reactions of people passsing in the hallways where I set up my sculptures. It would be interesting to see the different reaction of these people that happen to be there at that time.
Art Room Surveillance Log 4.26.10
Art Room Log 1: Monday. 4.19.10
I decided to further my studies on subjects in their environment after being stranded on that island. Once I walked into the room these subjects were busy at work creating something I could not comprehend. All over the walls, there were strange markings hung up almost like pictures and words. I quick took photos of the markings thinking this was a fascinating discovery.
Art Room Log 2: Tuesday. 4.20.10
They seem to communicate by shouting across the room to each other and sit in various places in the room. It’s interesting to see them interact with one another. They were unaware of my presence as I continued to take pictures and write notes.
Art Room Log 3: Wednesday. 4.21.10
Several subjects were gathered around a computer screen perhaps communicating with other subjects outside of this room. Others kept to themselves painting and drawing on different surfaces. The head of the room wore a long fuzzy head dress and sat behind his desk with music I had never heard of to keep the subjects from stopping their work.
Art Room Log 4: Thursday. 4.22.10
None of the subjects looked alike in any way other than they were working unstop. Each subject had an unique style to them. One had a very vintage one. She wore alot of colorful items of clothing under a sweater. Took many pictures with her own camera of the room and painted lines on a piece of convas.
Art Room Log 5: Friday. 4.23.10
These subjects were working with all kinds of different objects to create somthing worthy for the head of the room to view. He seem to keep them busy with projects and papers to write on their individual blogs. I think I got all that I needed and I slipped out before anyone could see me.
Art Room Surveillance Prompt 4.22.10
Prompt: What are the ethical differences (if any) between the surveillance of objects and living subjects?
The ethical differences between the surveillance of objects and living subjects is their behavior. After my investigation in surveilling the objects in the still life, I came to realize that each one of them had a story to tell even though they could not speak for themselves. The expressions on the objects gave a sense of character and life when you studied them. Throughout the entire still life you found yourself getting lost in your imagination as you observed these objects.
In the surveillance of living subjects it is a little different than the objects found in the still life. These subjects not only have a story but can tell it through their habits and emotions. You can see more ethnicity in them because you, yourself are one of them and understand their movements within thier environment. These subjects you study have more depth to their personality than the objects. You have to adapt to the surroundings in order to observe them closely. In order to capture an image of them, you have to study their patterns and expect to have to change positions if necessary.
Surveillance Log 3.1.10
Surveillance Log 1: Monday, 2.22.10
Its been a week since my team and I crash landed here on this strange and unknown island. There has not been a lot of active that we know of yet but I can’t shake this feeling that we are being closely monitored. Each member watches over our campsite every couple of hours just in case. Since we lost most of our supplies in the crash we had to make do with what we had. But all there was to eat were stalks of corn, leaves and ocassionally striped blue fish. We have to figure out how to get rescued but until then we are stranded here.
Surveillance Log 2: Tuesday, 2.23.10
My team and I are all at wit’s end and being hungry is not helping the matter. I suggested we split up and cool off by exploring the island then meet back at camp before sun down. I struggled through the vegatation as light got dimmer and dimmer my feet carried me deeper and deeper into it. I eventually stumbled upon a clearing.
Surveillance Log 3: Wedesday, 2.24.10
I heard voices ahead of me, I lowered myself to the ground hiding in the bushes. Peeking through the bushes leaves I could make out what seemed like a tribe of oddly shaped creatures with straw like hair and wooden carved faces gathered around a man in a cowboy hat with his arms raised above his head. His peachie complexion shined against the sun’s rays. I watched in silence listening to the man in the cowboy hat speaking to the creatures. One of my team members grabbed me from behind pulling me away as we ran back to camp just as the sun began to set.
Surveillance Log 4: Thursday, 2.25.10
The next morning I had told my team what I had seen and at that point we knew we weren’t the only ones on the island. We began to observe them from a distance. The man with the cowboy hat seemed to be their tribal leader. We also discovered they were holding soldiers captive to be later sacrificed. What could we do?
Surveillance Log 5: Friday, 2.26.10
Suddenly One Foot G.I. Joe rides on his wooden pony with his partner Bat Half A Man came in as the wooden faced creatures fleed into the shadows. They had saved the capture soldiers and taken us to a near by base where we were flown out of there safe and sound in a military helicopter. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a dream land of our adventures.
Surveillance 2.25.10
Prompt: Where does truth and/or fact exist in the relationship between the surveillant and the surveilled?
From obsevering and documenting my surveillance over the couple of weeks I have discovered there is a depth of truth and fact that exist in the relationship between the surveillant and the surveilled. The more I studied the still life in front of me the more i understand about this relationship. And the more I begin to recognize the connections between the objects in the still life and how they relate to each other.
The truth and fact of the surveilant and the surveilled is that they can learn alot about each other and the surveilant depends on the surveilled in order to do their job in observing what is going on. The surveilant can discover new ideas about the world around them when watching the surveilled. It all relates back to culture and how we preceive their ways of life.
Game lingo reflection 12.18.09
For this game lingo project I addressed Pokémon and Dungeons and Dragons. Pokémon is the game of my generation that’s one of the reasons for choosing it. Another is because it was a game that my brother and I played together when we were younger. Dungeons and Dragons however had nothing to do with me. I picked this because I wanted to express the violence and obsession players develop while playing such games. These two games represent how people interact through these games and connect with others.
I thought I followed the directions very well, the two games may have not interacted with each other but it was obvious that both diptyches had something going on in them. My communication was between the two were easy to determine. The design however could have been better, using a stronger support for my project to keep it all together. The overall production turned out well and really showed what I was trying to get across about the two games and what they meant to me.
Some common responses shared within my group were on how I executed the entire project and well I used three dimensional object with text evident on them. Also the group discussion was very positive and everyone had constructive things to say about each of my pieces.
Game Language 11.18.09
Prompt: What two games have contributed to who I am and what might they “say” to one another?
For my interpretation of game lingo in my life are two games that have some similarities and differences between them. The first game I chose was a game I personally grew up playing which is Pokémon. This game has lots of information and lingo involved with it. I started to think about how this game influenced my identity. Collecting the cards helped me to connect with my peers and share similar interests and knowledge. It also showed how my brother and I bonded as kids and how through this game we came closer. Pokémon also brought out the nerdy and knowledgeable side of my personality.
My other game is Dungeons and Dragons. Although I never really played this game, I thought it would be an excellent example of how games can change people for all the wrong reasons. This game shows how players get so obsessed over a game and in return mix up fantasy with reality. It also shows how the violence in videogames nowadays reflects the behavior of players who play the game. Personally, this game relates to my obsessive quality as a kid and when I wanted something, I wanted it that very minute. The game is itself has its own language and therefore if you don’t speak the lingo you won’t know what those players are talking about.
Identity Cards: Reflection Paper 11.13.09
I enjoyed making each of the cards that represented the five topics of identity: culture, familial, stereotype, other and heroic. For culture, I wanted to focus on my heritage and the background of my family. I’m a little of everything but mostly, German, Italian and British. So I used an aspect of each of those to represent my culture. I also had ones that showed the idea of culture including race and religion, personally stories from the Bible that I grew up learning about. For familial, I wanted to show my unique family values through these cards. They related to the being the oldest sibling and how we need to stand together in order to keep the family running.
For stereotype, I did not just want to do my personal stereotypes but stereotypes given to people everyday. Some of them were obvious ones like the stereotype for blondes being dumb or artists being depressed and eccentric. For the other cards, these were more personal to me. I wanted to show how I felt like an other and what I would do to change that. Having a reading problem, I wanted to incorporate people who have disabilities and they being considered an other because they are different. Others were dealing with the fact of someone being different than the other people in the group. For the heroic cards, I focused on average human beings as heroes vs. the super heroes with capes take on the heroic role. I chose the police and firefighters as average heroes because my dad is a detective and they all risk their lives to safe others.
Heroic Identity Prompt
For the last and final ten cards I thought of how I personally could be considered to be heroic mentally and physically. Based on the experiences in my life I was able to think of several times where I felt I was heroic. But what makes a person heroic? When I think of heroic, your first thought is all the hero characters in your picture and comic books when you were a child. Then I decided to go a little more in depth with the meaning of hero and someone who can be considered heroic.
Being a daughter of an Abington detective, I have a lot experience with the police force and how much we owe it to the men and women who fight to keep us and the country safe from crime and violence. Being one of these brave citizens takes a lot of hard work and courage and I thought they should have their time to shine. I also thought about how I myself could be heroic. I always like the idea of someone overcoming something or staying strong when you are about to break. And I thought this idea does describe the very heroic side I have as a person and the inner struggles I have with myself. Then I began to think of certain people in my life that have helped me get through rough times: friendship. Friendship is a huge deal to me, and my friends are family and they are like a superhero’s sidekicks. These are some ideas I have for my heroic set of cards.
“Other” Identity Prompt
People are always stereotyped on whether its someone’s appearance, what they wear or simply what their backgrounds is and where they come from. Some are stereotyped because they do not fit in with a certain group such as groups in a school: Goths, artists, popular people, jocks and many others.
When I think about “Other” in a way of viewing myself and where I fit with my friends, family and groups. With my friends, I have a lot of variety in personality and how I fit in with each of them. My art friends are spontaneous and creative that may make me another in a group of my popular friends. Depending on who I associate with, tells where I fit in. But within a group, I can feel left out when friends share a joke that I do not understand or I’m not in the conversation. Another is when my friends are friends with other people and I just know them from my friend. In my family, being artist is misunderstood and questioned sometimes, especially on the explanation of what I’m trying to communicate to them. I feel a lot different than the members of my family. Therefore we do not always agree or understand the other.
These are some things that I consider to help define “other” in terms of myself. Through friends its always trying to be apart of the group but not necessarily apart of the group. And with family, it’s a means of misunderstanding and not being able to communicate with one another because we are so different.
Stereotypical Identity Prompt
Walking through the hallways of high school, you don’t have to stop and think about how others perceive you as you pass them. Personally those kinds of things you really don’t take in consideration until you are approached with the idea of being stereotyped because of the way you look, dress or your skin color or race. You are put into a group sometimes even without your knowledge and are officially stereotyped. In high school, it’s not hard to tell what groups are formed depending on common traits and interests.
This idea of being stereotyped for me was difficult to begin thinking about because I really don’t know how people perceive me as a person or what their personal opinions of me when they see me. To solve this, I started asking friends and family what adjectives they would use to describe me. There was a long list including: caring, reliable, creative, edgy, artistic, well put together and so on. This list will help me think of some interesting and creative ideas for my ten cards.
I think this set will be one of the ones I will struggle with because it’s based on the opinion of others reflecting on me and not my own personally feelings. I have to really think about how I am perceived and use the people who know me best and to make it interesting ask someone I don’t really know what they would stereotype me as. This ten cards is going to be a challenge but I think something new and unique will come out of each one.
Familial Identity Prompt
The word family means a lot to me and really makes up part of what my identity is. It influences my identity by the traditions and rules of my family. We have many roles given to each member of my family. We each have to do our part in order to keep the household running. This is what makes us a family.
For identity, the people that are related to you can influence parts of you as a person. With traditions and rules you can create a controlled and successful family but also unique with the many traditions you share just within your own family. Setting rules helps to the children learn and grow by using the knowledge they were taught to make the right decisions and find out for themselves how to live on their own. Traditions help families connect and interact with each
other on a greater level as a whole.
Being the oldest sibling in the family I’m given more responsibility and independence. As you get older you get more of it and open for mistakes. The oldest sibling is the role model of the younger ones and has to take care of them no matter what. This is important as the oldest to get to experience things for the first time to show an example to the other members of the family. Also in a family you have authority figures who make the rules and enforce them upon the others. Though we are related, we sometimes don’t see eye to eye on things. But all in all, we support one another and help them up if they fall.
Cultural Identity Prompt
The term culture takes on many different meanings depending on the perspective of that individual. Personally, when I hear the word culture, I think of home and where it is you come from. This is very important to me because we come from all different backgrounds and that this shows the diversity we have in America. Culture is a shared practice of values, beliefs and customs. This makes everyone unique and gives them something different to bring to the table.
Culture defines me in many ways. Growing up with all kinds of races and religions, you begin to think about the variety and identity of yourself and find out where you come from. Its an important piece of your identity that you carry with you all your life and how much it’s a part of you. And your culture can make you stand out from others. It’s interesting to find out what cultures make up you. For me, I’m a little of everything which gives me my wide variety in my own identity. Even if my family is not the most religious family, we still learn from the stories and knowledge we learn from the Biblethat helps us to be a better person and overall have a better life. You have the freedom to practice whatever religion you prefer and it gives you a sense of belonging to a group. This is what I think culture means and how it defines me.
