.014 [hello, hybrid]

first of all, let me tell you i actually love this hybrid project...
by far, it is my favorite writing assignment
[even if my grade reflects otherwise, i will still not regret the countless late evenings/ all nighters devoted to this paper....
actually, if i were to add in the hours of note-taking and reading from the novel i chose to manipulate, Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, i would say that i have hundreds of hours invested in this project...
wow.
i have read and reread and reread this novel [about 6 times]
i have scanned every page for parallel syntax, frequently used words, similarities between cities, any small mentioning of a character other than Khan or Polo (i.e. man, traveler, visitor, stranger, etc.), details of color, rhetorical questions, phrases that relate to philosophy, possible metaphors, actual metaphors, content i found humorous, content i found to be bland, and i even wrote down all of the profound statements that i thought were interesting philosophical quotes....
you name it, i've done it.
my book is completely vandalized....
but it is a good sort of graffitti, intelligent, i would like to think
but graffitti nonetheless...
which reminds me of my other graffitti project, the one that actually IS a project.
my vinyl graffitti project for 2D design was also one of my favorites of the semester...
i got to play around on the computer, design something that i thought looked cool....


AND HERE IS THE BEST PART:


i got to put it on whatever surface i wanted, wherever i wanted in moreau.
so i took a little bit of my life story, mixed it in with some song lyrics [i'm sick of your name in lights] and posted it up on the dressing room mirrors in the basement of moreau.
:]
i cannot wait to see the actor's reactions....
oh, graffitti







[update: 12.09.09]
so as much fun as the graffiti was to create...
it was about that much fun taking down.
[not.]
i had to take it down two days later.
it took three and a half hours.
and it wasn't even legit graffiti, like spray paint.
good idea.
but no longer fun in my mind.

.013 [oh, the power of it all]

Omishto was obviously named appropriately, because she is just as her name says "one who watches." However, this begs the question, does a name or title define a person, or does the person define a name? I mean, if Omishto's father had not named her such, would she still be as perceptive as she is? Or would she have neglected the part of herself that was more of an outside observer, and focoused more on the parts of herself that were more drawn to community and a longing for acceptance? Would this have changed her admiration for Ama, and made Omishto look up to her mother more?

[My name, for example, means "universal". It is german, and comes from Emmanuel, which is a name used in the bible for Jesus. If you wanted to take it one step further, you might look at my middle name, which is noel, and discover that Emma Noel looks mighty similar to Emmanuel.]

[This was a very clever wording technique, courtesy of my parents.]

I watched Across the Universe a couple of hours ago, and I found myself listening especially closely to the Thanksgiving dinner scene, where Max and his uncle are arguing about what truly matters in a man's life. Max says something like, "why is it always what are you going to do? what will you do? what will he do? why doesn't anyone ever ask who I am?" and Jude says something like, "surely it's not what you do, but how you do it?"

[Good call, Jude.]

Although this statement was made to simply diffuse a family quarrel, it really got me thinking about what exactly a name means to a person, and what exactly a person's impact on the world is going to be, with respect to what they do...

In Omishto's case, it is certainly how she does what she does, rather than just what she does. This goes along with the difference between the different court systems mentioned in the novel; the American court system seems to only care about what a person does, while the tribal court system gives more weight to the "how you do it" part.

Honestly, I think that both outlooks are completely necessary when glancing at the easy [this word is quite literally so soggy with sarcasm that it may, in fact, be dripping mess] question of the meaning of/one's purpose in life.

So what do you think?

Is what you do really who you are?

or did Jude have it right?

Should we consider, not what we do, but how we go about doing it?

.012 [my name's not baby...]

So today I was thinking about what I could possibly write for the in-class essay about names in Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy, and I was coming up with the most random connections possible. Most of them were complete BS, and there was no way I could turn them into an essay. In fact, I still have no idea what I will write about, although I have been tearing through the book for a few hours now...

As I was thinking about names in general, a friend of a friend who is in a band randomlyadded and messaged me on Facebook saying,

"So I hear I am not supposed to call you Emily?"

[nice one-liner, band guy]

I of course said "Yes," and when he asked why I said, "I don't know really...it's just not my name. Everyone always assumes that Emma is just short for Emily, like its the lesser version of the two, when in reality my name is better so......."

He agreed, so I think we can be friends ;]

Silly as it may seem, that simple question really got me thinking about why my name is so important to me. I mean, it's only four letters, it's pretty simple, and nowadays [thanks toFRIENDS and the Harry Potter movies] it is pretty common. I think, though, that a name is much more than just a few letters put together, or a way of identifying a person. I think, just like Hannah mentioned in her blog, that a name directly represents the person to whom it is given. If a person with one name is really annoying, then that name will forever have a negative connotation in my mind because I am reminded of the annoyance every time I hear it. It is guilty by association, I suppose. For instance, when I was little, I was bullied by a girl named Deleny; thus, every time I hear that name, I feel myself cringe. And although I have never met an Emily I don't like, I still have an aversion to the name because it is simply too much alike to mine. I wonder if this happens to other people? Like do girls named Beth hate it if people think their "real" name is Elizabeth? I have no idea, and it probably does not matter...

I like my name, and that's all there is to it. Just don't call me Emily.

.011 [sleepy hollow]

Last night as i perused the channels, attempting to find a movie that would satisfy both of my needs to a.) keep me awake, and b.) entertain me just enough that I could kind of procrastinate without being completely there, I decided to watch Sleepy Hollow. No, this movie could not be found on tv, as most things cannot, so I decided to watch it on my laptop...at three in the morning. As I watched the macabre and quirky romance between Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp, I realized that Lives and Times must really be getting to me. I realized that by the time Depp's character is performing autopsies on the headless bodies in the Hollow that I was analyzing his character in the context of one who is displaced. Thank you Lucy, for forever ruining what could be a simply entertaining Tim Burton film. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

HOWEVER

I suppose making connections like this cannot be all bad right? I mean, now I can have a fuller and deeper understanding as to why Depp's character falls so fast for Ricci's character [because she is the first person he meets] and why he is so committed to disbelief of the "headless horseman" tale [because it is not from his direct culture].

Maybe next time I watch one of my favorite movies I can also attempt to apply some of the themes we talk about in Lives and Times into the plot.....

OR maybe I can just forget about all of that and watch my late night [early morning] movies in peace.

.010 [ohhhh-thel-o]

In high school, after we read Othello, I thought I had absorbed all that I possibly could from the drama. Symbolism, prose v.s. regular dialogue, symbolism character analysis, and did I mention symbolism?

....honestly I thought I knew it all backwards and forwards....

HOWEVER

After discussing the drama with a whole new group of intelligent individuals, and watching a movie inspired by the Shakespeare classic, I am beginning to think that Othello can offer more each time it is read. Its interpretation only depends on the group to which it is passed off to. Needless to say, I am so interested in what Rose has to say about the movie "O" and its reference to Oden, the Norse God....

.009 [othello]

I was just thinking...

After our in-class discussion today I discovered that if I were to make my own version of Shakespeare's Othello as a movie, it would be justalittlebit different from the ones that are currently out.

First off, Othello's character would be played by a person who is literally painted black (like how Mickey Rourke was yellow in Sin City). Second, Desdemona's character would be played by dakota fanning and conversely painted white. Every character would have a slight tint to their skin and their wardrobe, depending on who they are. It would take place in Italy, as usual, but the setting would always be dark, and gloomy. Also, I think I would try to make it kind of macabre, like a Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino Film. For example, in the scene where Othello tells Desdemona that her bed is a deathbed, I would have the bed be in the shape of a coffin, and when she is murdered, I would then cut to a view of the strawberries on the hankerchief bleeding off of the fabric.

.008 [omfg]

John Heartfeild.

Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin, 1932

John Heartfeild is a German artist, whose main work protested the Nazi army and its leader, Adolf Hitler. After looking at his work and researching his life, I found some interesting tidbits, like the fact that his name was really Helmut [just a slight change from John, right?], and the fact that he grew up in the aftermath of WWI. The Second World War, and the Nazi army inspired most of his photomontage work. Eventually, Heartfeild was kicked out of Germany for his controversial work, and he moved to England to continue to spread his message through art.

The first thing that interested me about my artist was all the titles of his photomontages. This particular piece is called, “Adof, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spits Tin.” This title caught my eye, and when I looked at the work of art I was happy to find that I could make sense of it. I chose to analyze this particular piece because it really made me wonder about its meaning. The image of Hitler with his usual expression juxtaposed with an internal view of his ribs, swastika heart, and coins was really intriguing. The work is a depiction of Hitler, shown with an internal view of the “gold” he “swallowed”. I was then able to infer that the “spitting tin” part of the title meant that Hitler took all the good, and gave bad in return.

The positive/negative space relationship really works for this piece because it is so bold that it really draws the viewer in. The colors of the image are also really interesting. The image is a sepia tone, which makes it resemble a photograph even more. I also like how the title of the piece helps the viewer understand [possibly] the artist’s intent.

Just like Andy Warhol’s pop art, this piece shows a noted [notorious] character, with a different spin on his image.

This particular piece is so successful because it mixes a message that people can relate to with a really well-done art style that is both unique and interesting to look at. This piece encouraged me to look at the rest of John Heartfeild’s work, and hopefully it will inspire others to do the same.

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