Blog Feed
Phoenix Models Casting Calls
Posted by Shakeelah Finney in RWR-001 onAnybody looking to be in the world of fashion.
Everybody wants to be considered pretty and what better way than to have your face represent beauty in every aspect of the word.
If i were to do this again i would have a video incorporated with the casting card
State of the Union
Posted by Douglas Herman in AMHIST-008 onWhile we watch Obama deliver his State of the Union Address comment in this chat to express your opinion(s) on the topics he discusses, and the plans he lays out for the country.
-Post Questions if you are unsure of what he is talking about
-Clarify the questions others have if you understand
-Express your opinion on what Obama discusses
-Express your opinion on comments your peers make
-Comment on the data visualization to the right of the video clip
-Direct your comments at specific peers to clarify your posts
Inglourious Basterds: Film Review by Matthew Scuderi
Posted by Matthew Scuderi in DVSR-002 onThe “Basterds” That We Could Have Used In WWII!
Film: Inglourious Basterds
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Cast (Stars): Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz,
Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Mélanie Laurent,
and Eli Roth
Released: 2009
A
Jewish-American squad thirsty for Nazi blood and violently scalping and beating
Nazis to death are on a mission to assassinate leaders of the Third Reich in
this epic fictional story. Lead by Lt. Aldo Raine, (Brad Bitt) the group of
Nazi scalping Jewish-Americans known only as "The Basterds" set out
to kill as many Nazis as possible in the midst of completing their mission. The
role of Brad Pitt leaves the audience fascinated by his Tennessee accent,
ruthless behavior towards the Nazis, and strong characteristics as the leader
of the Basterds. In all the roles assigned to the actors, they are effective in
creating character through dialogue, facial expression, and motion.
The
movie starts like a classic movie from the late 60s or 70s with the credits in
a classic western (stencil like) font and classical music that sets the tone of
the movie as a classic itself. Prior to the opening scene, text reads,
"Chapter One: Once upon a time… in Nazi-occupied France." The
effectiveness of the style in which the film is formatted with chapters allows
the audience to feel a chapter-by-chapter story being told to them, rather than
just a straight story. With the use of chapters (a technique used in many Tarantino
films such as Pulp Fiction) in the film, Tarantino is able to designate
the setting, time period, and/or location as well as allow the audience to
predict what will happen next based on the titles of the chapters, which leads
the audience into the story with curiosity.
The
opening scene shows a dairy farm with dairy cows to the right and a small house
to the left from a distance. From the distance, you can see grass all around
leading up to a man between the house and herd of cows chopping wood, which is
the sound, the audience hears as the scene opens and progresses, followed by
the year on the bottom of the screen. With the year popping up at the bottom,
you would guess that this story is non-fictional if you didn't know beforehand.
The camera switches its point of view to the man chopping wood and the scene
begins, pulling the audience's interest in as Nazis on motorcycles and in a car
approach from the distance. While intense action is not the run of the movie,
Tarantino interests the audience with the build up of music that is fitting yet
strange since it seems classical and Spanish/western with the acoustic guitar.
The lighting of the scene outside is bright, but tends to change when the
camera shows the inside of the house. Audio in the film is definitely heard
from the camera’s position, which makes the sound of the scenes real and within
certain proximities.
In
the first chapter, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) meets with Perrier
LaPadite, (Denis Menochet) the owner of the dairy farm to have a discussion
about the "Jews" that were living in the area and whether or not
LaPadite was hiding Jews or not. While the conversation is somewhat long and
awkward at moments, it is at the very least boring. To spice up the scene, both
characters constantly do things while having a discussion in the house. LaPadite
eventually breaks down after Col. Hans Landa questions him enough and he is
found guilty of hiding Jews. The colonel calls in his soldiers that came with
him and they begin shooting up the floor and one Jewish lady manages to escape
and run down the field. She is spared as she runs off into the distance while
the colonel aims his gun at her and refuses to fire. The scene's end the fades
to black with the same audio of birds chirping bleeding into the transition
introducing the second chapter.
As
the second chapter’s first scene opens, Lt. Aldo Raine briefs the
Jewish-American soldiers about what their mission is (to kill Nazis) and the
scene takes on a variety of effective angles, one of them behind the soldiers
standing straight in line and passing behind each soldier as the lieutenant
briefs them on the objective of their mission. The style that Tarantino uses
for this film, like many others, is a jump from one time period to another
without mention or notification at times, which allows the story to progress
without causing the audience to loose interest. In the scene after the
briefing, a scene with Adolph Hitler comes next and lighting is significantly
dark to add to the “evil” tone of the character. In many of the scenes of the
movie, there are comical things happening in the background or in the scene
that are not directly noticeable, such as the midget painting Hitler on a wall
in the background as he screams about the Basterds and how they are killing all
of his troops. The scene then leads to a soldier named Butz that is a survivor
of an attack by The Basterds.
As
the soldier tells the story of how he and his regiment were attacked by The
Basterds, the scene transitions back and fourth to the scene of the ambush and
Private Butz talking to Adolph Hitler about what happened. After the chapter is
over, chapter three begins with a woman named Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie
Laurent) who is taking down letters from her theater when a Nazi soldier named
Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl) at night (setting is dark). The two discuss a
little and have a brief conversation until they meet again later on in the
chapter. Shosanna discovers that Frederick is in fact the star of a movie
called “Nation’s Pride” that he wants premiered at her theater by high Nazi
leaders, including Adolph Hitler. Against her will, Shosanna has to air the
movie, but she and her friend Marcel (Jacky Ido) plot to burn the theater down
after the film is shown.
For the first three chapters, the film consists
of the main set up for the Basterds and Shosanna and Frederick and by the
fourth chapter transitions into the rise of action, in which things start
coming together for the Basterds and they plan out how they will execute their
mission to kill a bunch of Nazis along with leaders of the Third Reich in the
Shosanna’s theater. In this part of the movie, most of the action is brought
out until the middle and end of chapter five. In chapter five, the climax of
the movie is brought out and nearing the end of the movie, the resolution. The
way that the film is set up is in the beginning there is some action, in the
middle there is more action, and at the end there is a lot of action. There are
also moments in the film where narration comes in to explain things such as the
past of Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) and how nitrate film is flammable.
While the film is not exactly set up in the
standard or common form with a build up, middle with a major conflict, climax
at the near end, and then resolution, it certainly follows this outline towards
the end of the film. In the first act of the film (the set up), the audience is
instantly brought back to 1941 in France and throughout the movie, the audience
experiences the realism of the situations with the props, costumes, and acting.
The first act however, does not exactly set up a goal for the protagonist,
other than the fact that he wants to kill as many Nazis as possible. Because of
the way the film is split into stories of different characters and at different
times, there is no major focus on the protagonist(s).
As we are taken though act two, conflicts for
the characters come about, but develop drastically into the third act, when the
climax hits. I feel that the second act was the meat of the film so that many
things could build up to the climax and the way that the movie ends. Here in
the second act, the audience gets the full perspective of how the conflicts for
the protagonist(s) of the movie are set up rather than shooting straight to the
climax and then showing how it all went down later on, which is a technique
that has been proven effective in many films, but is very difficult to pull
off. In act three of the movie, the climax is reached, but only through slow
development that keeps the audience anticipating how the plan that the
characters came up with will flow. The climax is not met abruptly, but it
builds up and the characters focused on keeps shifting to provide the audience
with knowledge of what is happening to each character.
Once the climax of the movie does come about,
the action cools to the aftermath quickly with a scene with Lt. Aldo Raine and
the antagonist. The ending is very unexpected and somewhat disappointing when things
don’t go the way they were predicted. However, as a very popular aspect to many
films, the unexpected final scene is what makes the movie transition smoothly
into the ending credits.
For the majority of the movie, each chapter is
a jump from focus on one character to another until the last chapter. Lighting,
for just about all of these scenes, gives the movie a medium tone of
seriousness and a sort of interesting dullness, as lighting is realistic.
Everything that goes into the scenes of the film is realistic and planned in a
fashion that allows characters to act as though all situations are real. Sounds
comes directly towards the camera’s position, which makes you feel like the
dialogue is directed towards you and that things are making the correct sounds
that they would from various distances. There are very few elements left
untouched in this film that contribute to the effectiveness of the acting, storyline,
visuals, action, and so fourth. I believe this is a film that just about anyone
interested in WWII and history would enjoy, even though the story is fiction
and surprising with its twists of facts. I for one thoroughly enjoyed this film
along with many other Tarantino classics such as Pulp Fiction & Reservoir
Dogs.
State of the Union
Posted by Douglas Herman in AMHIST-007 onWhile we watch Obama deliver his State of the Union Address comment in this chat to express your opinion(s) on the topics he discusses, and the plans he lays out for the country.
-Post Questions if you are unsure of what he is talking about
-Clarify the questions others have if you understand
-Express your opinion on what Obama discusses
-Express your opinion on comments your peers make
-Comment on the data visualization to the right of the video clip
-Direct your comments at specific peers to clarify your posts
Advanced Art Quarter 2
Posted by Tamatha Lancaster in ARTADV-001 onWhen I found out that we had to take 200 hundred pictures, I was shocked because I didn't know how I was going to take 200 pictures in a week. But when you actually do it, it's not that hard and it goes quick because you're having fun taking pictures. After taking 200 pictures we had to photoshop 5 of them. The reason for taking 200 pictures is because you would get a variety of different pictures, some will bad lighting and focus and some with good lighting and focus. When I found out that I had to photoshop some pictures, I was excited because I was learning something new. I didn't really know how to use photoshop and this was my chance to learn.
When I photoshopped my pictures, I chose five of my favorite pictures. And then I did different things to my pictures. For one, I took a picture of my hallway then photoshopped a creepy little girl in it, for another it was a picture of my aunt and I photoshopped my face into it and made her eyes red. For the next one it was a picture of me and my two friends and I photoshopped us into a concert. I took a picture of me and then put bubbles in it. And the last one I took a picture of me and my friend and then put leaves in it.
The hardest part of this assignment was taking one pictures and photoshopping it in another because when I tried to crop it out, parts of the picture was getting cut out because my hand wasn't that steady. Also I had to get the right background or picture because sometimes it would be too big or small. Another thing that was difficult was making my aunt eyes read because the red was going on her skin and it wasn't even.
I didn't have a clue what to make when I found out that I had to make something off the internet. At first I was going to make a piece of clothing, then I was going to make a picture frame, and then I finally decided that I was going to make a phone booth. The reason I was going to make a phone booth is because a phone is something I can't live without. Also because a phone booth is something no one would think to make.
The whole process while making the phone booth was easy. First I got an old shoe box and then covered the outside of it with paper because the outside couldn't be painted without it. Next I took a mix of blue and black and painted the outside and inside of it. Then I took the bottom of the box and cut it down some so it can be the part with the numbers on. I cut pieces of paper out with the numbers, star, and pound sign on it and glued it to the box. I then glue the piece with the numbers on it to the bigger box and painted the whole thing. After that I took the base that my perfume was on because it looked liked a phone and painted it black. Then I put a string at the end of it and connected it to the bottom of the box.
I wasn't shocked or hesitant of making a large clear object because we did it before. So it's not like I don't know what I'm doing. But making a larger clear object does make me more confident of making one. I was happy that we had to make a larger clear object because this one of my favorite assignments. And since I already made one before which was smaller, I wanted to make one with an object that I didn't use yet.
To make the larger clear object, first I decided which clear object I wanted to draw. Then I decided to do a object that looked like a measuring jar. Then I took a piece of charcoal and shaded the whole paper black. Next, I started to draw the object. I took an eraser and erased the parts that were clear and places where it was lit. Then I darken the places that were dark on the object and then made a shadow for the object. Lastly, I made a table like figure for it so it looks like it's not floating in mid air.
I love to draw so copying a master piece is one of my favorite assignment. When I was looking for a picture to copy, I was searching for something that wasn't to hard or to easy. I finally found a picture that was called "Donkey and Cart". I decided to choose this picture because it was something that I've never done before so I was welling to try it.
I started with the end of the picture and when I was done with the end, I did the front then the middle; this part is just the donkey, cart, and the man. After doing that I did the rest of the pictures and then put the details in it.
JFK civil rights act
Posted by Nashrah Malik in AMHIST-007 onQuarter Review
Posted by Matthew Ferry in ARTADV-001 onFor this quarter I did three assignments and started on a fourth My first one was creating large clear objects, which was challenging for me. Drawing well shaped geometric shapes has never been a specialty of mine; while it was very difficult, I enjoyed being able to find weak spots in my abilities in my artist. The other technique I saw a weakness in mine was shading on large objects. I'm able to do shading easily on smaller objects, because I'm working with less space than I was on this piece. Getting proportional shading was a difficult. I enjoyed this assignment a lot, because it showed where I can improve.
After doing this assignment, I decided I’d do another charcoal piece. For this one, I did an alligator eye. Alligators are one of my favorite animals, and their eyes are pretty incredible looking. The primary color of the eye is a picture of gold, black and brown, giving it a foggy look. I especially enjoyed this project, because I was working with something I'm comfortable with.
My third project for this quarter was creating a piece of art out of recyclable items. For this, I decided I'd create a lamp shade out of book pages. My original idea of what would happen was a light would turn on, then the shade would illuminate many different letters throughout the room. I couldn’t get mine to do this, because I had to use another piece of paper as a foundation to hold the pages together. I also couldn’t shape this well, because the paste caused the pages to develop creases. I enjoyed doing this because I was using resources I’d otherwise not use to create pieces.
My fourth project for this quarter was designing shirts with spray paint. I’ve always enjoyed spray paint art since I saw Keith Haring’s mural down South Philly street. I decided I’d create an Olympic ring template for the Olympics this upcoming year. I used cardboard for my cutouts, which was the most resourceful, but very unaidful towards making my prints. The shape that the rings came out in weren’t circles, but distorted circles with edges. After I finished spray painting that, I decided I’d do something that had sharp edges. I decided to go with a triangle for this. The triangle came out much better than the Olympic rings did, due to the sharpness of its shape. The cardboard wasn’t able to retain its shape well after undergoing the spray paint though. If I were to redo this, I would use stencil paper, which is being used for my next art project. For this stencil project I'll be creating cut outs, then spray painting them. I have several ideas, one of which is a stencil of New Gingrich with the words "VOTE STRUDEL" under it.
Isabela Aznar- Quarter 2 art reflection.
Posted by Isabela Supovitz-Aznar in ARTADV-003 onProjects we did:
The first project that I did was a project that was suposed to be half of a picture of my face, and half of a cartoon version of my face together making a whole of my face to show contrast. This was drawn in charcoal and colored pencils. below is an image of the final piece and what half of my cartoon face would like in comparison to my actual face.
The second project Olivia and I did was a Tim Burton inspired animal of our choice, with any colorful art materials we wanted. I decided to paint a wolf and then go back and do parts of the background and face in pastels. I chose to do a wolf because they are my favorite animal. Below is the sketch and the final version.
Another project I did individually (started in class, finished at home) was a drawing of a girl smoking a cigarette with the words "society told me to" underneath. I did this because Philadelphia has the most underaged smokers in the United States and I feel as if the pressure to do so can really come from peers and society.
Overall, I think Olivia and I grew a lot together this quarter as artists and have really helped each other see art in a new perspective.
History Quater 2 Benchmark Reflection - Student Rights (See Sean Moss Page for Blog)
Posted by Jesse Weinberg in AMGOV-003 onBenchmark Reflection
Posted by Sade Skelton in AMGOV-003 onTo See The Entire Benchmark Click This Link http://scienceleadership.org/blog/LBGT_Rights_by_J-Long-S-Skelton-B-Thompson
Reflection
Posted by Sekai Harris in AMGOV-003 on- http://bit.ly/xtoQR5 (Link to video)
My partner and I chose this topic because it was something that caught both of our attention. We both love art and believe that censored art is something that has a deep meaning. I really liked that we could be creative with our projects. I felt as though we could go anywhere with it and expres ourselves. The one challenging thing was trying to tie it all in together. The most interesting thing that we investigated was "Piss Christ" because learning about it's background was very challenging because many people find it sacreligious. This project could have had more time put into it. The one place we ran into trouble was trying to upload it. On thing that went well with this project was gathering the information. If I had to do something over I would pick a different topic because it was hard to find things to speak about. I learned that many things in our world are looked down upon but have a deep meaning and people don't seem to be ready for it.
Q2 Benchmark Reflection
Posted by Tariq Smith in AMGOV-003 onEnchanted Video
I chose the topic of freedom of speech through censorship of music because this is something that affects my life in an important manner. Music is part of my daily schedule and when it is censored from its original state in my opinion it makes the music unoriginal and taints the music.
What I liked about this project was the fact that I could take something that I am passionate about, and use creative means to educate others on my opinion all the while academically fulfilling ones needs on a specific amendment. The most challenging project in my opinion was how to incorporate music with history and vice versa.
The most interesting fact that I investigated was while watching the C-Span footage of Joe Biden making a speech and seeing how the first amendment actually related to music in my living conditions
This project could've been improved by making the information that was conveyed slightly more academic. Although there were no requirements for how academic it had to be for the competition, for class I felt I could've incorporated more than just Joe Biden.
I had much trouble when trying to come up with lyrics for the actual song we created because I wanted them to have controversy as well as be appropriate for a large competition like C-Span
What went well with the project was the fact that my group members and I all share an unusual type of creativity that when joining forces, it makes for a final product that others are often amazed by.
If I had to do it all over again, I would do a podcast with instead of an actual self-made music video.
I learned that everywhere throughout history and politics can relate to my everyday life in some way shape or form.
Quarter 2 Benchmark - Student Rights
Posted by Sean Moss in AMGOV-003 onHere is the Link to our Video Hosted on School Tube.
Citations
"C-SPAN StudentCam 2012 - Downloads." C-SPAN StudentCam 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.studentcam.org/cspan_downloads.htm>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon "Student Speech - Recent Court Cases, Issues and Articles | American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/student-speech>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon Sutton, Marsha.
" Restricting students from freedom of speech - Del Mar Times | Del Mar Times ." Del Mar Times | The Latest News from the Community of Del Mar . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.delmartimes.net/2011/01/20/restricting-students-from-freedom-of-speech/>.
We wanted to look into the subject of Freedom of Speech and one of the controversial issues standing is student rights. The actual rights are not written expressly for the youth under the age of 18. Given that they are minors and in a school system that has varying rules special to each school, we wanted to get the opinions of students on what they believe their rights are and how they'd feel if the freedom given was restricted more than it is now.
The most challenging part of this project was getting the interviews and getting questions that would pull out the most intriguing answers. The length of the video was a problem i ran into and he to pull some last minute stops to get it to be an appropriate time.
I wasn't actually aware that student's rights were not a part of the constitution nor an amendment. Even after the first case regarding the rights of a student, Tinker vs. Des Moines, the supreme court ruled in favor of the students however after that many cases have taken separate courses depending on the judge or subject regarding the issue. The first amendment states "
Keyword being "the people", not age appropriate, or just 18 to 88. It says all persons. But since school's make regulations against certain articles of clothing and practices in their halls it is basically unconstitutional to tell a student he isn't allowed to do or say something but that still butts heads with the authority of the school system so there can't be a law undermining the regulations a school puts into place."Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Adding to length and wider range of opinions and subject matters as well as narration from us the creators could make the video better all around.
Finding people who had something to say was relatively easy. Each person has an opinion of how the schools are run and each has a strong reaction to "how would you feel if you couldn't" questions.
Adding better materials. The editing wasn't hard but having something to edit was a problem that we ran into.
Ib.Rid's Reflection
Posted by in AMGOV-003 on- I picked this topic because I have frequently felt perturbed toward any censorship to the arts. I liked the freedom we had along with the amount of information we could use. However, finding any specific information is rather difficult on google about somethings. I found interesting the explanation for certain artist such as andre serrano who expresses his art not from the crude images of poses, but the liquids that he uses. We had a problem converting it and finding stuff. The fact we both found decent information about our topic means it wents well.
Benchmark Reflection
Posted by Lamaya Mapp in AMGOV-003 onFor the Student Cam benchmark, my group and I decided to focus on the First Amendment but really nail the thought of freedom of religion. In our group we realized that we all have completely different thoughts of religion. To some of us it was important and to the rest it wasn't so much. After having a discussion about religion, we then wondered how would we feel if someone told us we didn't have the right to believe in whatever we believe in. This is why we decided to make our project about freedom of religion.
The best part of this project was reflecting about how this Amendment effects society in a positive way and actually giving our own personal opinion about certain situations. In our case, we mainly focused on our religions and an debate about two completely different religions and their views about each other beliefs. The most challenging part was to say exactly how I feel and what I think without being offensive. I strongly dislike the thought of religion (but not the thought of Jesus and God or any higher power) so it was nearly impossible for me to explain how I felt and why.
What was interesting to me was the fact many people believe in things such as Agnostic theism and feel more how I feel about religion. During the early 1900s the people were more religious than people are today. I always thought that many people was always religious. I also thought that it was interesting that not many people.
This project could have been improved by allowing people to be very vocal about how they feel and not have any limitations. I think our video wasn't the best it could have been, with more work done to it, I believe that our video has the potential to be much better.
If I could redo this project, I wouldn't hesitate how I feel about religion, that's why I have this right. I wouldn't be blunt, and I won't down talk any religion but I thing raw feelings would have made this video better.
Q2 Benchmark Reflection
Posted by Jasmine Gladden in AMGOV-003 on- Why did you choose this topic? We choose this topic because we felt as though many students in school don't feel as though their freedom of speech is granted to them.
- What did you like about this project? What was most challenging? I like the most about this project was recording people and asking them how do they feel about freedom of speech in general. I like this part the most because you got to hear things from different perspectives and got to see how people can voice how their freedom is given to them. The most challenging part was getting the cspan video that was related to our project. This was hard because we had to make sure we could tie it back to our main point.
- Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated. I think the most interesting event was when it came to interviewing Ms. Hull about freedom of speech. This was interesting because she took it over the top and opened up more doors for our topic and have us look at things a little differently.
- How could this project be improved? I think the only thing that we could improve is the number of people we interview about freedom of speech. I think if we had more people it would've been better. So all and all I think we would have to improve on our timing.
- Where did you run into trouble with the project? The only trouble we had was really converting the video we made to come up correctly of slate. Other than this we really didn't face any problems.
- What went well with this project? I think the project went well over all because my partner and I work well together. We both put forth the effort in to the project.
- If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?I think the timing process would be changed. If we timed it better we probably could've had more people lined up to be interviewed and it would've made it better.
- What did you learn? I think that freedom of speech is important to teachers in school just as well as it is important to the students. If they don't voice their opinion then they can't be heard.
Right to Bear Arms
Posted by Robert Broadwater in AMGOV-003 onQ2 English Ad BM: Make-A-Wish Foundation
Posted by Zayd Alsardary in RWR-002 onBenchmark reflection
Posted by Tyler Hankinson in AMGOV-003 on
What did you like about this project?I like that in this project every member of the grouped picked each others brains to find out their outtake on religion and everyone just listened to everyones outtake
What was most challenging? I think the most challenging was putting what we talked about onto the actual video because when the camera starts to roll things change- Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated.
I think the most interesting fact that I found out was peoples take on atheism - How could this project be improved?I think if we would have explored other videos of other religions it would have brought a different out take instead of the you believe or dont believe
- Where did you run into trouble with the project? I think that the problem that the group ran into was how we would discuss our feelings into the camera
- What went well with this project?The research
- If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?
- What did you learn?I wouldn't have waited so late to start recording
LBGT Rights by J.Long, S.Skelton & B.Thompson
Posted by Brooke Thompson in AMGOV-003 onReflection
When choosing a topic for our project we wanted
to choose something that meant something to all of us. We felt as though it we
were going to make a video about something why not make it about something that
has an impact on us. So we collectively decided to make a video based around
LBGT rights and the 14th amendment of the constitution because we each have
friends that are either LBGT. And we see how there treated everyday because of
their sexuality. When creating the project I liked the actual filming the most
and coming up with the concept of the project. The most challenging part of the
project by far was agreeing on ides with my group members because we had ideas
that conflicted with each other. The most interesting fact I found when
creating this project is that same sex marriage is only granted in 6 states
across the US. I found this interesting because in the 14th amendment it states,
"No state shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States".
But the states do just that. They take away the rights to marriage.
I feel as though we put together a quality project but I do
think there is room for improvement. For starters I would only work with one
person and I would or myself because I feel as though our ideas conflicted. We
ran into trouble with the project when getting everything finished on time. After
completing this project I learned that everyone isn’t granted the rights, as they
should be.
"Maybe She's Born With It" Advertisement- Nia Berry
Posted by Nia Berry in RWR-001 onQuarter 2: Emma Hohenstein
Posted by Emma Hohenstein in ARTSR-002 onAfter completing my painting I felt a little blank because I had sort of exhausted my visual powers. As a simple project I took out linoleum blocks in order to abstractly replenish my ability to view things artistically. It was not something I expected to require quite as much work as it did. It was a long, methodical process and I have a scar or two left over from the harsh tools. I wasn't too satisfied with my final product, even after a few variations of it and that dissatisfaction was what lead me into my next project.
Previously I had worked on wood block cuts so I wandered around the engineering room looking for something large to cut onto. The closest I found to a block of wood was an old, particle board table with lots of left over holes from the legs. Excitedly, I carved a large figure in repose into the wood. I found out as I carved and accidentally perforated the board that the table was hollow and full of honeycomb cardboard. I punctured the back behind the figure so often that in the end I began to peel off the board completely. With this project I feel like it completely had a life of it's own and the more I worked on it the more it asked of me. But the more I did the more complete it also began to feel. I still don't think that it is as finished as it should be. I really appreciate the emotion that is so expressive in it, the way the color and the shapes work with the holes and carved areas. I would really like to attach small LEDs behind the body and have light that comes through the holes and around the edges.
Large Clear Object
Posted by Samuel Sirochman in ARTADV-002 onQ3 Benchmark - Deaf Evolution
Posted by Catherine Nardone in AMHIST-008 onIn the third year of the Civil War, there isn’t much to look forward to. In a time of distress, nothing seems possible, but yesterday was something different. April 8th, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln approved the Columbia Institution college status. This action, although unnecessary, made the Columbia Institution the first college for the deaf. Many people look down upon the deaf and think that they are dumb. However, many can not say this because of the fact that Edward M. Gallaudet is allowed to award degrees to his students. This shows that the deaf community is to be respected in a huge way, considering that Abraham Lincoln signed the bill.
Edward Miner Gallaudet didn’t always want to be the president of the Columbia University (later called Gallaudet University, in honor of E. M. Gallaudet’s father Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet). In fact, he wanted to be a banker. His father encouraged him to become a teacher of the deaf, but still lead Edward in the right direction. After his father died, a man named Amos Kendall told Edward about an opening as a superintendent of a school. He took it and became very successful. After that, Edward was looked at as having an altruistic soul; a colleague once said, “Several times when Dr. Gallaudet wanted appropriations, while I very much desired his success, I felt that he had undertaken more than could be accomplished; but somehow, under the influence of that earnest zeal, that even temperament, and the strong arguments which have always characterized his efforts, before the close of the session he would get practically what he desired.” Edward Gallaudet does everything in his power to make his college the best it can be to his staff and his students. He is a selfless person that wants to improve the community and the standards of the deaf.
Edward’s story goes back before he was born. His interest with the deaf started long ago as well. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet saw a little child standing in a playground. He wonderd why she wasn’t doing anything. He went over to her, and noticed that she couldn’t hear. He began to gesture to her. That little girl’s name was Alice Cogswell. Thomas helped her learn new things. He was later approached by a man named Laurent Clerc who was from France who taught Thomas a new form of Sign Language to teach. They established a new school and it attracted a lot of students of many different varieties and backgrounds. This was the beginning of a new era of Sign Language.
A “UNIVERSAL” LANGUAGE
Sign Language was not always here. Sign Language was not always popular. Sign Language was not always used. But, it’s different now. From France we have a whole different language. It’s helped so many people learn to communicate their ideas through so many different outlets such as schools, jobs, and other things.
Laurent Clerc was the best student in the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets, and he was taught by Abbe Sicard. With Thomas Hopkins Galluadet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America. Since then, sign language has really taken off. In Martha’s Vineyard, which is an island off the coast of Massachusetts, has one of the most famous population of deaf people. Through inbreeding and a genetic mutation deafness became present and was around for over 250 years.Sign Language is continued to be thought of as a universal language, when its not. Though people all over the world sign, there is no one language for all the deaf. In Brittan, there is British Sign Language, in Australia, there is Australian Sign Language. Even though signing is worldwide, there are different variations of the language.
Because of Laurent Clerc and the doings of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, there wouldn’t be a standing for the deaf in America. Right now Gallaudet is the only deaf college in the world, and it’s home to many of the deaf population who want to go out and make something of themselves. Gallaudet University would not be here if it wasn’t for the collaboration of Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, in addition to his son, Edward Miner Galludet.
CLOSED CAPTIONING
It’s 1972, and accomplishments for the deaf are sort of unheard of. However, yesterday, a huge event happened for the deaf community and those who are hard of hearing. The first television show that now has closed captioning is The French Chef on PBS. This is a monumental achievement for the deaf community. Other shows that have these features Zoom, Once Upon a Classic, and ABC World News Tonight.
Deaf are now flocking to the stores to buy their new decoders to transmit the closed captioning onto their televisions. Due to this surge in appliances, the companies who provided the decoders did not want to sell more, until more people bought them. But the people did not want to buy them until there were more closed captioned shows. It’s a chicken and the egg situation.
Although the deaf liked the closed captioning, they wanted more programs to have this amenity for them. Later, though the companies who provided closed captioning gave more shows that had the captions on screen.
The deaf were pleased about the fact that they could access more shows that had closed caption. There wasn’t anyone who was against this, since a lot of people can benefit from words being on screen. Not only did the deaf benefit but people who didn’t know English could learn how to speak it/read it. It’s an amazing accomplishment and it’s going to be around for a long time.
Donna Survillo CSPAN - 14th Amendment & Reflection (Q2 Benchmark)
Posted by Donna Survillo in AMGOV-004 onI liked that we got to relate this project to ourselves and why these specific topics were important to us as a person. I really enjoyed the fact that we had a wide variety of topics to choose from and we were able to pick anything from the Constitution. I had a few challenges during the process of this project though. My partner and I split up because of personal reasons and she continued on with the original topic we were focusing on, so it caused me to choose another topic. Another challenge I had was that I'm not so good with video cameras and movie making so I had A LOT of trouble handling that. It was hard for me to get help because I knew I was falling behind and I didn't wanna cause anyone else to fall behind, knowing that it is benchmark season. So my project is late being turned in, but it still got done.
The most interesting fact that I learned was that a lot of times, people don't know that they all get the same rights; even if they are from a minority group. A lot of people believe that because they are a minority, they are not allowed to have the same rights as everyone else.
This project, specifically mine, could be improved by being turned in on time. I could have used my time more wisely and asked for more help when I needed it to be able to get it done on time. I could have also asked for an extension for a couple days and stayed in touch with my teacher who knew what was going on with my partner and I. I ran into trouble with my partner and when it came to technological things, but that was pretty much it.
Overall, a lot of things went well with this project. I learned a lot about the rights that I have as a minority. I also learned a lot more about not only my culture, but a lot of my classmates/friends cultures as well. But if I could do this project over, I would most definitely use my time more wisely.