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

Medium Specifity - One Line

As you may have noticed, I have a thing for drawing. So when this Medium Specificity assignment came up I knew that I would do something with this medium. It wasn’t until yesterday that I got the inspiration to do what I did. Drawing is, in its purest form, just a bunch of lines that that convey some sort of meaning. Sometimes those lines can be a flower, a person, or a building. However I wanted to explore drawing at an even baser level. Could I make a drawing with just one line?

In our reading this week, McCloud’s “Setting the Record Straight”, the author explores the definition of comics. As I prepared to do this assignment, I took a look at the medium I was working with and began looking for the most basic definition of what a drawing is. It took a lot of thought considering there are multiple mediums that a drawing or illustration can use. Leaving behind the different mediums, the simplest, yet still far from perfect, definition of a drawing that I came up with is this:

A drawing is are a combination of markings on a surface that convey a message, meaning, or idea.

There are many techniques and styles that are used by illustrators in the making of a drawing. Shading, dots, even color in sometimes used. However the line is the most basic form of drawing. It has been used to convey meaning since the beginning of time. The alphabet is just a bunch of line drawings that we use to convey an idea, the combination of which conveys a complete meaning. You can write the letters T-R-E-E and someone will know that those four images together mean “tree”. 

I drew inspiration from an artist who goes by the name of Sir Shadow. He is known for his jazz inspired drawings that are primarily done with only one line. Are usual fairly simple yet are very elegant, showing a high level of skill and artistry. I don’t have that much experience in continuous one-line drawings like Sir Shadow but I gave it my best shot. Don’t be fooled. Although it might not look like it, the portrait that I drew is, in fact, drawn with one continuous line. In other words I didn’t pick up the pencil from the paper for the entirety of the drawing.

Through this exercise I found that simple lines can be very expressive and engaging. Though the drawing I did wouldn’t be winning any awards anytime soon, it is one of the first drawings of this kind I have done. It has its how sophistication and charm that other kinds of drawings lack. It is a part of the medium that can and should be explored further.

From Russian with Bananas... (A Historical Fiction)

Group Members:
Travis Clark
Sam Woodruff
Morgan Akana

We originally wrote this script as light, fun, humorous, spy story about a double-agent chimp.  We were researching historical facts about the early stages of the space race and found funny facts and cool espionage gadgets.  But as our research continued we found devastating catastrophes from both sides of the space race. One we chose to use was a devastating accident known as The Nedelin Catastrophe, the worst rocket related accident in history.  We also found reports of the mistreatment of the chimps, Ham and Enos. Accordingly our story was changed to fit more closely with real events. Our light comedic story of a chimp being a double agent suddenly became a dark, only slightly humorous look into the past.  The maturation of the story was indicative of our actual development in understanding this historical event.  Through the process our empathy towards those involved increased.  Looking at these events from a personal perspective changed them completely.

Along similar lines of thought, reading Satrapi’s “The Veil” shows that any news story heard on the television, read on the internet, or paper are accompanied and built upon thousands of micro stories. Simply reading a news story at face value is an injustice to all the people affected by it. How people react, or don’t react, says more about society than maybe the story itself. It’s not just a wild fire, robbery, political scandal, or a school shooting. The events are details in a bigger narrative. As we created this historical piece, it was important that although it was contrived, it made us think about how the people and, for our narrative especially, chimps may have reacted or felt in this moment in human history. Before we never thought about these individuals only the big events. The forces of Red vs Blue locked in an epic struggle of technological dominance, not the individuals involved, the lives they led, or the burdens they carried.

We have a tendency to overlook the individual in a broad context.  Robert Burn’s poem To A Mouse, in an incredibly moving way, helps us to gain some of that perspective of the importance of the individual back.  In the poem he discusses a time, when plowing his field, he turns up a mouse and it’s winter burrow.  By doing so he leaves the mouse for dead with no winter home.  Addressing the mouse, Burn’s says:

“I'm truly sorry Man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal!” 

Burn’s sympathy for this mouse is touching.  Many of us probably wouldn’t even notice this event or would react negatively toward a mouse in our field.  Burn instead, stops to talk to this mouse.  That is what writing this historical fiction piece did for us, and does in general.  It helped us to realize more than just the event, but the effects upon those involved down to the smallest creature and “fellow-mortal”  in this case chimpanzees.   

Legit historical sources:

The Nedelin Catastrophe (Soviet Rocket Explosion)

Rockets and People: Creating a Rocket Industry by Boris Chertok http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol2.pdf  pg. 597-633

http://releasechimps.org/chimpanzees/their-stories/ham

Documenting Processes...

Group Members:
Travis Clark
Taylor Davis

            Documentary is the documentation of events, people, and processes. It records the things we take for granted and takes them to a platform where they can be appreciated more fully in much the same way writers have tried to capture the sublime in their writings to give their readers a sense of awe for nature. This art of documentation provides us an opportunity to appreciate even the smallest and most ordinary of processes.

The texts that we drew the most inspiration from were the “Routine” videos by Mercadante. The videos were simple in their approach to everyday objects and routines most everyone experiences such as tying a pair of shoes. It was this kind of tribute to the simple everyday occurrence that steered us in the direction of recording the washing of a dog. It’s one of the events that happens so often in homes across the country.

An example of the way documentary showcases processes in our day are the various YouTube videos of street performers, specifically artists around the world who paint pictures before the eyes of a awed crowd. These artists paint landscapes or space scenes in a matter of minutes, and we see the entire process from beginning to end, having had no idea beforehand what the end result will be. For some reason, seeing this process, the transformation of a blank white slate into a one of a kind masterpiece, amazes us.

Now even though washing a dog is quite an ordinary task, it is still an interesting process with a beginning, middle, and end, and this is what we attempted to show with our piece. It documents as much of the process as possible in under two minutes, from the moment Skippy’s told he’s getting a bath to the moment he is rewarded for being good. This transformation is quite a simple one, from a dirty dog to a clean one, but it can still be very gratifying. There is something about creating something from scratch or changing or perfecting something to make it our own that we as humans find most satisfying, and knowing that we worked ourselves for an end result makes that end result more worth it.

Documentary is a way of relating that feeling to someone else; the wonderful feeling of bringing order to disorder. If used properly, it can make something as simple as washing a pet seem like quite a significant task, and this makes us appreciate the end result even more.

Round Robin Round-up...please standby for creativity...

Group members:
Travis Clark
Spencer Coakwell
Michael Comp
Scott Cook
Clark Davis

Montages, as DJ Spooky states, are “a reflection on the different paths information takes as it moves from one culture to the next, one individual at a time.” Montages combine many ideas from a variety of sources in order to create a single new idea. As we collaborated on the Round Robin assignment, these montage-like stories challenged our individual creativity with each new story that came our way. This process led to the creation of something that was very different than any one of us could have individually created, demonstrating that frankenstein-like collaboration will often produce a collected body of work more beautiful than its individual parts.

Each group member came with their own ideas, cultures, and backstories that led to the unique creation of the next part of the story. This resulted in a heightened form of montage, as the combined efforts of separated minds artfully weaved the pieces together into a work that transcends the sum of its parts. A montage that comes from only one source would not contain these many “different paths”. While this wouldn’t be bad, the stories would still not have had the same impact and variety had they not been a montage pulled from multiple sources.

In this way, our creation resembles the recently popular Ice Bucket Challenge videos. Though the new creations that ice-bucketers contributed weren’t as subtle or drastic as our stories, they were additions to the global ice-bucket narrative. Every contributor had their own spin that story developed in the videos which is why we enjoy watching them. They were all the same, but different. 

Some say that there are no original ideas. The ideas that were spun from the each individual, whether original or not, lead to a unique and truly one-of-a-kind series of tales that would be near impossible to repeat by chance. One mark of a great story is its impossibility of being recreated while still creating a “why didn’t I think of that” feeling in the reader.

    This type of collaboration creates something unique in relation to other storytelling mediums with how it combined these ideas. Most stories can be controlled in content and progression but due to the nature of Round Robin, the story takes on a life of its own. No thought can be constructed to form a rigid path or definite boundary for our narratives. This pattern mirrors our society’s perception and transference of narrative.

    In our modern society, this medium (Exquisite Corpse) and narrative construction is becoming pervasive throughout our society. Many stories we “read” are created through constant browsing of  Facebook, Google, Netflix, and montages. As we download information into our consciousness, instantaneously creating new meaning with fragments of information pushed through the filters of our life's experiences, we ourselves are creating personal montages daily. As each of us seeks to create stories that are equally valuable to the many parts they are composed of, the original narratives are transformed and we leave our proverbial fingerprints over everything. 

Deep in the forest, a mother bear and her cubs were hungry. Having slept all day, none of them had eaten anything...if only they could find some fresh mean nearby.

The good fairy blessed them with long term intelligence to find the food they needed. Too bad it had to be those little boy scouts.