Fireside Chat

I really liked the Fireside chat. I don’t like over complicating things when it comes to these kinds of things. I also don’t like rehearsing every little detail beforehand as it leads to me being stressed, stiff, and not very genuine. I did know what I was going to talk about before I presented because I had prepared the slides and the topic. However, I wanted people to get an honest view at who I was and what I was presenting. The best way I have of doing that is by saying what comes to my head at that given moment. I hope that is what came across.

You’re probably wondering why I chose to talk about what I talk about. Alma, chapter 37, has one of my favorite scriptures of all time. “By small and simple things are great things come to pass…and simple things many times confound the wise.” This scripture has helped me through so much in my life. All of the little things that I do each and every day develop the kind of person I will become. The little things I do help complete a greater purpose. I may not be able to see the end and the beginning, and at times that may be overwhelming. But by doing my part each day I’ll be able to do anything I set my mind, body, spirit, and talents to.

I found the other fireside chat to, mostly, be insight into who my fellow students and friends are. We got everything from ghosts, dimensions of truth, to beatnik poetry saxophone slam on social issues. I didn’t agree with all of them but that’s okay. We don’t have to agree and we shouldn’t agree on everything. Everything would so incredibly boring if that was the case. There wouldn’t be the amount of creativity that currently exists if we agreed on everything. I’m sure our discussions in class have shown that. If I have gained anything from this assignment, or this class, it is that people will disagree and that is okay. We can still work it out and get along even if our beliefs, or views, collide and that’s great. I’m going to miss this class and there are very few classes that I can honestly say that about. It was some of the best of times. Have a great Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Concerned Citizen

We decided to do our Concerned Citizen documentary on Jeremy Christensen. Jeremy is involved within the community by playing video games for Children's Miracle Network hospitals. Each year there is an event called Extra Life, wherein gamers get together and do a 24 hour gaming marathon, and they get sponsors to raise them money, which is then donated to the Children's Miracle Network.

Jeremy got involved with this charity after Jac, his son, was born with a hole in his heart. They were scared, but they took them to Primary Children’s hospital, where Jac underwent heart surgery when he was still under a year old. The operation went well, Jac made a quick recovery. This was a very eye-opening experience for Jeremy and his wife, who were first-time parents. They didn’t know what to expect, and they certainly didn’t want anything to happen to their little boy. After the whole operation, Jeremy found out about Extra Life by listening to a podcast, and, feeling grateful for the healthy recovery of his son, found the perfect way of giving back to those who are in similar situations. Thus, Jeremy got a team together and has been participating in Extra Life for the past 5 years now.

Jeremy could have just thanked the doctors and gone on his way, but instead he decided that he wanted to give back. The Extra Life charity as a whole raised over $5 million dollars this year, thanks to the generous support from sponsors and other charitable individuals. Jeremy was already a self-professed gamer, and so the combination of raising money for a relevant charity and the opportunity to play video games for 24 hours made the idea appeal to him all the more.

We really wanted this documentary to focus on Jeremy’s motivation for participating in Extra Life, and that is why the story about his son is right at the beginning. We didn’t want this to be an advertisement for Extra Life, but to go inside Jeremy’s head and to see why he was doing it, and specifically what he was doing about it. I found it very hard to boil down the entire story into less than 3 minutes, because there is so much more to say about the topic than that. But I feel that what is in this doc makes it personal and we as viewers understand exactly why Jeremy is doing what he is doing. I thought that it was appropriate to show Jeremy playing games with Jac, and to wrap up the doc by having some shots of them playing games together and wrestling and having a good time. Because, at the end of the day, the documentary is really about the relationship that Jeremy has with Jac.

In ARLENE GOLDBARD’s article on human culture, she states at the end that, “In the grand scheme of things, a [thing] like this is minuscule. Yet just such human stories... provide the true test of our capacity to inhabit the future.” This reminds me of Samwise’s speech at the stone window in The Two Towers, where he says, “...there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fightin’ for.” While Jeremy himself raised only $500 dollars this year, which may seem like a drop in the bucket, it is still a valuable contribution to those who are in need, and will provide a better future for someone else’s child who is in need.

The News really sucks...Game for Change

Link to the game:  http://philome.la/FilmTravdc/game-for-games

I had a difficult time deciding on how I was going to do this week's project. I had decided a  long time ago that I was going to address violence in video games but with the restriction that we had to use Twine, my initial idea was thrown out the window. However I did manage to overcome this difficulty and came up with something informative, and hopefully still enjoyable, at the same time. Some might criticize the humor that I use as being insensitive or offensive for which I apologize, I did not mean offense with my sense of humor and that was not my intent at all. However humor has always been a tool in help people point out, learn from, and over come difficulties in their own lives and society.

The Twine game that I made explores the way that the mass media has portrayed, and is currently portraying, violence in video games while addressing the issue itself. I find people's lack of in depth research before developing their opinion very frustrating. It doesn't make them look good and it doesn't help spread concrete facts but instead perpetuates the spreading of half-truths and misconceptions. I tried to expose this trend with a sarcastic narrative in the game. While it is very short, I believe that it gets the point across and I hope that someone benefits from it with other important issues that come to their attention in the future.

I find that the issue that video games cause violence behavior to be based on a foundation of sand. It doesn't hold up very well when you really begin to inspect and test it. There many articles on news sites out there that point to video games as the source of violent behavior among youth and adults who use them. All of these articles that people point to are on the verge of being 10 years old. In more recent studies, such as this one which was published this year, show that violence lead to increased aggression. Other research has actually shown that overall youth crimes, including murder, rape, and assault, have all declined. This doesn't mean that video games caused the decrease in overall crimes but that they aren't a contributing factor in causing serious crimes. Some other articles in the past couple of years, like this one from the New York Times, are thankfully being more open with their opinion about what the real problem is. The problem is one that is compounded on so many other factors that it makes no sense that video games should be taking the blame.

World Building - What in the world have we done to toes?!

Team Members:
Travis Clark
Helen Butcher
Hadley Holyoak
Colton Elzey

When we were given the task to create a world in which toes act as sexual organs, our minds immediately jumped to popular culture and fashion. What position would the toe have in this world’s advertising? Would people even walk around on their feet? Shoes and socks began to take on an entirely new meaning. The BYU Honor Code and other religiously-influenced rules and regulations would be different. As we delved deeper into our discussion, we began to see the extent to which our unique reproductive organs would affect our new world.

The most jarring social discovery we made during our world-building was how saturated with sexuality our media is. As we tinkered with the media we consume daily (i.e. television, advertisements, websites, literature, etc.) we realized most of what we came across, no matter how innocuous it seemed, alluded to human sexuality. These sexual references ranged from vague innuendo to combative measures against STDs to the “sex sells” mantra parroted by unabashed advertisers. Our society’s subliminal sexual messages (and let’s face it-- not-so-subliminal messages) connect with media consumers on a base, biological level; sexuality is the timeless, universal aspect of the human experience. Sexuality drives our politics and not merely by way of scandal. Many of the divisive political issues within governmental, religious, and social hierarchies center around gender equality and sexual objectification. Women are voted for and not voted for because of the internal placement of their reproductive organs; centuries-old religious customs are deteriorating as individuals question why anatomy must affect spirituality; a college student’s performance art regarding sex crime legislation gains international attention as she advocates local change.  We kept these hot-button issues in mind as we constructed our new world and quickly realized that altering the location of our genetalia does nothing to alter the spirit behind our reality’s ongoing sexual dialogue; in a world where toes are sexual organs, our eyelines, not our focus, changes.

In his essay entitled “Design Fiction: a short essay on design, science, fact and fiction,” Julian Bleeker discusses how products of design fiction can only present selections, or corners of this new, imagined world. The author goes on to explain that these objects complete these fictional worlds because they encourage imaginative thinking. These small “windows” spark our imaginations, and we naturally fill the social gaps they leave. Theodore Twombly’s (Joaquin Phoenix) world within the film Her (2013) is an excellent example of how design fiction products can reveal something about the social landscape they’re found in. Like our group’s fictional world, Twombly’s world is marked by its members’ needs for sexual fulfillment. A pocket-sized gadget that houses an Operating System provides thousands of men and women with companionship, but as the film reveals the scope of the humans’ dependence on these gadgets, it becomes clear that the Operating Systems are a symbol of the culture’s isolation and social deficiency.

As world-builders, we embraced Bleeker’s design fiction concepts by creating artifacts that drew attention to various facets of everyday life. These products introduced a world with a completely different interpretation of the term “modesty” and an even more insatiable demand for shoe donations than what exists in our reality. Although our artifacts represent only a sliver of what this new world has to offer, their pervasiveness makes them “totems through which a larger story can be told, imagined or expressed.”

Newspaper article

BYU Honor Code

PSA/Charity Advertisement

Vic"toe"ria Secret Advertisement

Vic"toe"ria Secret Ad #2

Facebook Page

Textual Poaching

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS AN INTROVERT?

OR ABRAHAM LINCOLN?

OR GANDHI?

If there is one thing that I can identify with it is my introversion. I don't connect well with people in large groups, the bigger the group the worse. Small talk is difficult for me to keep up with which makes meeting new people a bit difficult. Ever since I was little, my introverted ways have been a topic of discussion among people other than my immediate family, more so during my two years in Brazil than any other time in my life. People look at me as broken or weird. People ask me why I don't talk and then begin to talk to others about why I don't talk much. Word of advice: that doesn't help. All that does is isolate us further.

I probably didn't do this assignment in the way that it was intended but this was the only thing I could think up. I wanted to use photographs to present my idea. As you can see most of the pictures are actual photographs while I also used a couple of popular memes. Why did I use memes? This week's reading states that it is the reuse of a text in ways that they were not intended that results in further meaning. These memes have been given meaning through their use on the internet and they are fairly well understood. With the memes the photos begin to take on new meaning as well. They enter a commentary that they were previously not a part of.

As I have stated in my images, introverts are pretty much the stereotype for mass murderers nowadays. We are seen as people who sit quietly in a corner by ourselves. We are seen as people haters and anti-social. When did this happen? Back in Abraham Lincoln's day, people who were introverted were seen in a positive light. They were thinkers. They were people who would observe a problem and then find solutions. It is only in the past one hundred years that the introvert has been seen as a social evil. Well sorry to break it to you but the introvert is just as good as the extrovert. Deal with it.

I'm not a mass murderer because I'm introverted. I don't hate people I simply don't feel comfortable in large groups. Sure I enjoy being alone but that doesn't mean that I don't hang out with people. I'm willing to listen to what you have to say and more than willing to converse, just please don't bring an entourage of people with you.

Webspinna Battle - A Battle of the Ages

Team Members:
Travis Clark
Michael Comp

The process of preparing for the Webspinna Battle took some time. We were unsure as to what it was that we would “fight” about. We discussed ideas like Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones (that idea was crossed of the list quickly) and more but nothing sparked our creative minds. It was then in our desperation that it came, Old Movie culture vs New Movie culture. What has changed and are those changes good?

The culture around movies has changed considerably since their debut. Movies back in the day were a special event. People would dress up in their best, go to a nice restaurant with their date, and have a good, yet very formal, time at the Movie Theatre. Movies were determined to be successful, or not, over a number of weeks. Movies nowadays are determined as successful on their opening weekend, if not their opening showing. Going to the movie theater is a daily event. Movies are in practically every household in the form of a DVD that was bought at the store, rented from a machine, or downloaded from the internet. Movie going is a much more casual experience. Do people still go out to dinner and a movie as a date? Sure they do but the experience is different now. The differences may not be for the better or for the worse but they are different.

One of our influences for this choice of “Old Movie Culture vs New Movie Culture” was the movie, Midnight in Paris. It’s a movie about a writer who finds a way to travel between the present and the roaring 20’s. Nostalgia plays a big part in the movie while the writer is caught between his love with the past and the present. The two are so different yet there are many times where we can find a compromise between them. The past informs the present and future. However it is unhealthy for someone to live in the past. Living in the past leads to people missing the great stuff that is around them now. One must look to the past to see where one can best go forward but one cannot stay there.

It is just as unhealthy to look only in the present and not the past. How can anyone do anything new when they don’t know what has been done? How can mistakes be corrected if no one cares to see what went wrong and correct them? The past and present go hand in hand. Both necessary and good.

Webspinna Battle Links

Charlie Chaplin - Maple Leaf Rag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt5eVgI6iTU

Frankenstein (1931) - Alive!!!! [10-20 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1qNeGSJaQ9Q#t=151

King Kong (1933) - Beauty killed the beast [15 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aZMA5Y1pwiY#t=184

Gone with the wind (1939) - Frankly my dear [3 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ5ICXMC4xY#t=10

Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939) [20 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aAjDmw6IrFg#t=139

Maltese Falcon (1941) The stuff dreams are made of... [10 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1kk3Xvw7jn0#t=179

Casablanca (1942) - Gin joints [5sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7IWLZcVU64#t=84

The treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) [10 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdZKCh6RsU&feature=player_detailpage#t=11

On the Waterfront (1954) I could have been a contender! [10-15 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uBiewQrpBBA#t=80

Spartacus (1960) - I'm Spartacus [5-10 sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCmyiljKo0#t=66

James Bond (Sean Connrey) Martini...shaken not stirred [10sec]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0t1_usmB30s

The good, the bad, and the ugly (1966) - cemetery music [possible background music]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wV0wPBYDQ6Y#t=26