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I don't really remember the inspiration behind my artwork. I painted what I felt like painting at the time. My photography is on a different website and is broken down to different categories. I took pictures of my surroundings and things I wanted to remember. 

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http://heathernowakcampbellphotography.weebly.com/

​Aaron V. Johnson

Mentor: Mr. Mark Miles

Summary: 

For my senior capstone I co-directed and managed the stage design for a play written by Julia Boyer.

Abstract: 

My role comprised of rehearsing with Julia and the cast of the play, blacking out the windows in the drama studio, moving the stages from the school cafeteria to the third floor drama studio, hanging up curtains, and managing the stage lighting. My responsibilities differed from Julia’s as I worked behind the scenes while she managed the actors and the props. Originally, Julia and I planned to sell tickets to the play, titled Office 309, but in the end chose to make the three performances free to the SLA community during two Friday lunch periods and one final performance after school on the same day.

Annotated Bibliography:

"How To Direct a Play." Squidoo. Home Entertainment and Theater, 2010. Web. 1 Feb 2012

 

This website gives helpful insight on how to direct one’s first play. Helpful ideas include finding the cast as soon as possible, hiring a crew of at least three people, depending on how large the set is, and creating a production concept. The most important piece of information I received from this website is the importance of a production concept. To do so, the director or writer needs to think of a piece of artwork or writing piece that ties to the core of the entire play and explain it to the cast and crew. This artwork or writing piece should make everyone understand the ideas behind the play and what types of feelings to create during the production.

 

"Martenson Edward." Theater Management. Yale School of Drama, 2010. Web.

 

This website incorporates the idea of audience involvement with the characters’ points of view. It gives the example of giving a brief survey to the audience in advance, before completion of the writing of the play so the writing is relatable and draws people in.

 

Chaikelson, Steven. "Theater Management and Production Concentration." . Columbia University: School of the Arts , 24 September 2010. Web.

 

This website talks about process goals needed during the production of a musical or play. A key concept that is mentioned several times in the document is the importance of collaboration. The writers explain that collaboration is important because directing a play takes an ample amount of time and the work should be split in half to avoid stress. Also, more than one opinion tends to be helpful when working on a play or musical because theoretically “Two heads work better than one.”

 

Brookes, Fran. "The Production Manager." Theater Education. Education Theater Association, 27 December 2009. Web

 

The article, “The Production Manager” is a detailed step by step process on everything from set crews, characters, to guidelines for directors and writers of play productions. The article also tells the story of two people who work together to make scripts and produce them in front of a live audience. One of the writers also works as the manager while the second doubles as the stage manager. Together they have created an amazing duo that produces up to six plays a year. The two are interviewed by Fran Brookes where they talk about their strengths and weaknesses while working together.

 

"Behind The Scenes: Production Management." . Shakespeare Production Management, January 2012. Web.

 

This source is a brief explanation and step by step guide book on how to produce the greatest theater production possible. The first step is to hire and work with people you trust and can rely on. The second step is to find a space that is cost effective and that will also gain valuable customers and audience members. The third and final step is to create something concrete that you are proud of and want to share with the world.

 

Artist Statement: Abstracty Motion. 

I choose to use very vibrant colors for this piece. I found that to me abstract meant bright and for that I used the brightest charcoal pastels I could. I started off with a simple drawing that I did not know where I was going with. It was simply just some circles and swirls never ending in pencil. That was my goal at first. I wanted the piece to at first show some sort of motion happening, without the traditional circle, black and white wheel that looks like is moving. Then I wound up taking those swirls and coloring them with black charcoal pastel. I did not like that very much, so the next time I tackled the project I had used black paint, turns out that came out very good. Some how a very brilliant idea came to my head and I just thought of vibrant, bright, and appealing. I realized that abstract meant vibrant, and striking to me so that is just what I did. This is my final piece. 

An abstract piece that shows motion in a very odd way. 

Artist Statement: Dandelion Dreams

I decided to freely draw something I just came across on Google when I was looking up flowers randomly. I studied a picture of a dandelion, it took my attention and I  tried to replicate it the best way that I could. I concentrated on the dandelion and on a 8 x 11 sheet of paper I drew it on paper. It turned out to be a simple drawing of a dandelion in pencil on a piece of brown construction paper. I know if I would of pushed my artistic thinking I could of been dead on with the dandelion and add color to the flower but all in all I still end up being very content with what I came up with. 

Artist Statement: Leaves

During class one day, I doodled in my book. Excuse me, I found a project I could turn in for Advanced Art however. I drew a leaf. A very pretty leaf, one that is of elegance. Haha. This leaf then bloomed into flowers of leaves. In my notebook I tried doing this in pencil and in pen. I personally felt more connected to the leaves drawn in pencil. That started this piece right here. I first started with one leaf and started making bunches of flowers all over the page with them. I loved the pencil so much I kept it just like this. Because I had chosen a yellow flimsy piece of paper to work on I wanted to add a touch of shading and smudging of pencil to fill in such openings. The piece turned out to be very good in my opinion. I loved even more how it came about just by the boredom of a class for me. 

Artist Statement: Leaves Part II

Apparently I like leaves, and as a fan of nature, I then turned this project into a project dealing with leaves as well. However I have also received this idea from a formally drawn sketch of leaves. I wanted to replicate my own version and this is what I came out with. It took me about two hours, a few differently sharpened pencils and a huge eraser to finish this.  I wanted the leaves to look like the ones you would pick up on the ground just walking by to school. I examined the photo, and took a mental note of the curves, crevices, and gentle lines and strokes. There is always room for improvement however I can say that this piece did come out the best of my ability. I say this because I was so focused on the leaves, that I forgot to really examine the stem that connected each of the leaves. I figured that if I was also to even attempt to color this in I would deter the image and be unpleased with the turnout. I like simple, modern, and plain - straight to the point things so this was a challenge studying the littlest details but on a good note this was a piece made by me and even has my very own signature. 

Artist Statement: Culinary Arts; Baking and Art

Even though, I was not marked off for the 25th of May for my Advanced Art Assignment, I still manage to create and whip up some art. I love baking. Baking is what I love. It is that simple. My Capstone Mentor, Ms. Carmen Castro allowed me to work with her on one of her cake orders for a regular customer of hers. Ultimately, the cake was a fisher man that was in his boat sleeping, not even realizing that he is fishing out the lake a whole car! The theme of the cake was just beautiful. As far as it pertains to art, I helped create the decor of the cake. I made a bucket, an S.O.S. life saver wheel, some worms, and the fishnet. I also made a fish that managed to not end up on the cake but that was okay. In order to do such things I used rolled out white fondant that I had to sculpture and mold into these various things. This indeed was a challenge, however I still managed to create artwork. For the bucket, I rolled the fondant into a ball and then simply stuck my finger in the middle of it to create an opening. I then shaped the fondant into a nicely shaped bucket. I then rolled an extra piece of fondant to create a handle to my bucket. Once that was finished I took some black food coloring and water and created the color gray to paint the bucket with the paintbrush. I did this thing with all of the things I created. For the S.O.S life saver wheel I simply rolled out a piece of fondant and took some red dye and place 8 strokes on it. Very simple and easy. The worms had to be my favorite to make. I ended up with five small pieces of fondant and I just rolled it, then swirl them to form the worms. Then I took the brown food coloring dye and brush some on the worms. I placed the worms in the bucket. AHHHH! Awesomeness. For the fishnet, I simply just flattened a piece of fondant and took a necklace of "Jerry Springer Beads" and embedded them into the fondant to make the print. Lastly, I have a fish. It didn't make out to be apart of the cake but I did make one. It is shown below as well. This had to be my favorite art project of the year. It included the elements of art and baking. Two things that are inevitably added to the career of my dreams... 

The four pictures in the painting above was suppose to depict abstract emotion. The purpose was to draw what I was feeling. Each picture depicted my moods the different days and how I felt. I focused on this because it was my main aspect of drawing. There was a lot of blending of the oil pastels in all the pictures, but the last. In the first picture I also made eraser marks in the red portion to make a different texture than I was used to. Overall, I feel like these pictures set the tone of my life lately. 

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1BxIf_3X29KF09bLDq-kJjaDehIlUIbPaXTICcpAJvWM

here is the link incase it doesn't show at the bottom

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  My point of Divergence was for George W. Bush to never become president.

2. Al Gore would become president and instead of everything going downhill things would get better. Like the war wouldn't last as long as it did.

3. I liked that we got to change something. I thought that trying to make all of the events exact and have them make sense most challenging.

4. I never knew that George W. Bush did cocaine or got arrested for drunk driving.

5. It can change if things get better or worst.

6. I could've also included a video or something digital.

7. I would start it a lot earlier.

​Hola, nosotros somos los voces inocentes y el misión de el sitio de web es educar otros sobre el guerra civil en El Salvador. Nuestra proyecto explicaría como los derechos humanos que eran violado durante la guerra en El Salvador. Por favor, lea las páginas en el sitio de web y aprende sobre la lucha de la gente en El Salvador.

La Link: https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/e4-u8-voces-inocentes-proyecto/home

Personas en grupo:

Ruben Burenstein
Gina Dukes
Chelsea Starks
Whitney Washington

For this assignment, my point of divergence, was that during the Mexican American War, Ulysses S. Grant was killed in battle. This eventually led to the loss of the United Stats in the Civil War. This change drastically changes the history of America. As if this were true, here is a mock wikipedia page depicting the history of the new United States of America. 


Reflection:

For the fourth quarter benchmark for American History we had to choose a Point of Divergence(POD) in America and envision how the US would be different today due to this change. For my POD I chose to make Ulysses S. Grant die in the Mexican American War. This would eventually cause the Union to lose the Civil War because he could not be a leader in the war. Many changes occurred from this loss by the US; the Confederate states seceded, the United States completely cut itself from the outside world, offered no help in WWII, the axis powers won WWII, Germany gained control of all of Europe and North America, The US and CSA rebelled against the German power, and only became the US again in 2007. The United States in 2012 is a country rebuilding itself, reestablishing it's government and global reputation. It consists of 18 states and is not known for luxury. It is only similar to the real 2012 in that the citizens are free people. 

This project showed how important one event can be in history. The smallest change can affect so much. One man's death, in my scenario, changed an entire world's history. There were also small decisions that I envisioned for the project that I could have changed, and then a completely new America could have been created. Every decision made by someone could effect everyone else on the planet and no one has any idea what will happen. This project taught me a lot about why it's important to make the right decisions because it could affect everyone, everywhere. 

The project, in it's entirety, I am very happy with. The project guidelines allowed us to be very created and do almost anything we wanted with American history. I love the timeline I created in my project. I created a very different and dramatic story for America. There are only a few things I would change if given the chance. I would make it look more professional by keeping the design consistent through all on the pages and documents. I also would have added for detail to my historical events. Overall, though, I am very proud of my end product. 

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We also had to create three fictional primary sources for the project. The sources are directly available through the document but for your convenience, these are the Direct links to the files. 

New American Flag
New York Times Article
Proclamation of Peace and Secession

This quarter I tried to explore different types of mediums and styles. Rather than sticking with what I usually do (pencil with shading); I tried to add more color in my drawings. I usually try to focus on figure and face drawings, but I also tried some other things, like graphics and cartoons.
I'm not too good at abstract, so for my first drawing, I tried drawing a ballerina. I usually try figure drawings to try to improve the proportions I use in my drawings and to try to develop my own technique when drawing clothing. 
I stuck with drawing ballerinas and attempted to display abstract motion. I tried to add some color to the drawing to display a mix of emotion and a type of path of movement. I first drew the piece in pencil, then colored the ballerina silhouettes with permanent marker.
I wanted to practice drawing features and shading on faces. The face I drew isn't proportionate; it was my way of practicing the way the features look (I feel like I am still terrible at drawing lips) and practicing the shading, particularly around the eye area.
I wanted to draw something different than what I usually do, so I tried to draw something that is like a graphic. I really wanted to draw a fountain pen, so I let that influence my drawing. It was mainly black, so I decided to add drops of red ink on the pen.
I wanted to do something colorful, so I drew the dark magician girl. I didn't want to use things that I had at my disposal, so I actually colored it using highlighters and pens.
I saw a picture like this online. There was more to it, but I've been wanting to draw an owl, it was only in black and white and I wanted to add a lot of color. I drew the owl by sight, then inked in the lines with sharpie and colored it in with colored pencils.
I was drawing a face, but I found that I could not draw eyes that I felt fit the face right, so I decided to make it kind of abstract by coloring the girl a strange color and adding a colorful background

​ My Point of Divergence was to have Christopher Columbus, the conquistador of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, not be able to go on his voyage. During 1476 Christopher Columbus was almost killed during a shipwreck. But luckily he survived and went on to voyage towards the Caribbean, believing it to be a route to India. He sailed under the Spanish government, which lead to his findings being claimed as Spanish Territories.

One change made by one individual can change the lives of many. If Columbus hadn’t colonized Puerto Rico, then there would be no Spanish on the island of many skins.

I believed that if Columbus had not discovered the Caribbean Islands then others during the time would have. For example, it the alternate past I made, John Cabot, and English sailor, would have gone in a similar direction. John Cabot was the explorer that I had put toward finding Puerto Rico. This would lead to Puerto Rico being an English colonized settlement. Since Englishmen would have discovered Puerto Rico, the name that was given would have been in English and the main language learned would have been also been English. Some of the most significant points would have been Puerto Rico being named St. John’s Island after Saint John the Baptist. _­

My favorite part was researching and learning new facts that I didn’t know, such as John Cabot’s expeditions. Also I enjoyed creating Primary Source documents. The hardest part was finding Primary Sources about such old topics, many were websites announced that the documents had disappeared or been ruined.

The most interesting facts I researched were the reasoning behind why Puerto Rico wasn’t a state, and about the Spanish- American War. During the Spanish American war Puerto Rico was used as a military base for the Spanish and French. If Englishmen had colonized Puerto Rico it would have been used as a beneficial military base for America due to its position in-between North and South America. This would have lead to Puerto Rico being acknowledge at a higher priority rather than a territory of America, similar to the situation with Hawaii. In this alternate past, Puerto Rico or St John’s Island would have become a state because of recognition of its position during the war.

To improve this project I would have enjoyed turning this into a television interview. I could have asked questions about how Puerto Ricans thought that the change would have affected their land, and staged actors talking about the alternative past and future. I would have used both videos and shown how life would have been different for both cultures. 

Primary Sources

First Link

Second Link

Third Link

my point of divergence(pod) is when stonewall Jackson was supposed to die. i rewrote it that he didn't die but instead live to help change the out come of the civil war. This change would make the confederates win their independence and separate from the union states. stone wall would have helped win the civil war by leading a charge across union territorry to washington DC. they would have worn down union troops and help end the civil war.  going into this project i decided that picking this point in history would have a huge impact on where things would go from there. Because rewriting history to have stonewall live changes so much more then the size of a country it creates a whole new country and changes the way people developed and grew the country. 

I invision that the way things are in 2012 if stonewall would have helped win the civil war would have been a lot different. first of all the united states of america wouldn't exist. there would be two separate countries one owned by the north one by the south. the civil rights union would have never happened in the south because the slaves wouldn't have been released until cost would have out weighed the need which i predict would have been in the early 1900's. people who werent white would probably be treated very poorly and many laws will be made against them. there would also me a more in state government in the south then we are used to now.

i wish i would have put more time into this project i feel like if i worked on it a little bit longer it could have been a really goo product. it was interesting thinking about how such little a change could make such a big impact. i really liked the idea of this project it really makes your brain have to think harder about a certain event. i feel like it leaves you wondering what if things had been alittle bit different what would we be like today. i feel like the most challenging part of this project was thinking about which event you could change to make the impact that you wanted 

To view the final product click here.

*What if the Wright brothers received a toy boat rather than a penaud helicopter as boys.*

• My Point of Divergence (POD) comes from sources providing the initial interest of flight by the Wright brothers. The interest has came to the wright brothers when they were just boys. I did more research on this topic and found out it was due to a penaud toy that they received as children. I decided to change the penaud helicopter to a toy boat and analyze how this might effect the future. 
• I envisioned the Wright brothers becoming more interested in floating devices that transport people across large bodies of water. From this interest the boys will discover the "Shoes that walk on water" theory by leonardo Da Vinci. They will make this theory into reality and the invention will be beneficial to modern day. 
• I enjoyed creating primary sources. Throughout this whole year we have been collecting primary sources from the internet and it is interesting to create our own for once. This was a relief and enjoyable task for me to complete. 
• The most interesting piece of evidence that i investigated must be leonardo's shoes that walk on water. I found this as a strikingly ridiculous idea but yet possible. I then decided to create a point of divergence involving the shoes rather than exterminating the invention of planes. 
• Technology is a huge component of history. As technology progresses there are new ways to settle on land as well as protect our land. In this specific POD our 2 individuals have taken the concept of walking on water and used it to help guard the nation's borders. 
• Our 2 individuals have taken the concept of walking on water and spread the invention all over the world. This means the invention by these 2 men have been manufactured and distributed in large numbers. This contribution leads to a systemic change that benifits our nations military. 
• I believe one individual's decision can greatly effect history's landscape. As one person makes one decision, others then view the future in a parallel perspective. If this decision were to be slightly different. Every other perspective will change as well. For example the wright brothers were influenced by the penaud helicopter and Da Vinci's perspective of flying. If Leonardo Da Vinci did not have these ideas, the wright brothers will never come across the possibility of flight. 
• This project can certainly be improved in the effect aspect. If i were to have more time i would create more primary courses that are more modern. For example the tragic events such as september 11th or pearl harbor will never have taken place. This will then change the way we view our nation's security. 
• If i were to do this project all over i would jump straight to Da Vinci's view of flight and erase it from history. Even though my final product does not revolve around Da Vinci's view of flight, i believe it will still be further investigated by someone other than the Wright brothers.

Click Here for "Created Primary Sources". 

            Overall project was what if the Judge that was judging the case died and another judge took his place. In 2012, American citizen realize things were getting old and the segregation wasn't what the Amendments stated. It was time when it was difficult for me to get my thoughts on paper. I really liked the fact that I had to think hard to accomplish this project because when I think about things, I started to understand the point of it and why it’s important.

Some interesting facts I came across was when most African Americans students had to walk 7-10 miles just to get to school they are being forced to attend. Each individual changed history, even though there were some illegal things happening, some people were happy the way African American was being treated. Also it seem like most Whites was okay with the way things were "separated but equal".

 I was confused through out the entire process of putting it together and every time I asked someone they would tell me they are confused too. Show examples more of how things should look like and set up work time with you for help.

I would change the time, I wish I had more time, it not even that I didn't use my time wisely but some people just learn differently from others. This project was one of the project that I really needed help with because things just wasn't clicking correctly, but as days went by, I figure out ways and researched more about unclear things and got it done.

 Click here to view my project.

 Check out my website!

Point of divergence - What if the Wright Brothers were never inspired by Otto Lilienthal? I chose this as my point of divergence, as Lilienthal inspired the Wright Brothers to create their flyers with persistence, always building on what went wrong before.

The Wright Brothers not creating the airplane means that technology would not have advanced as it did, meaning planes that could carry heavy bombs would not have been created, meaning the Cold War would have never began from the dropping of the atomic bombs. This would have changed the flow of the United States political system, as Lee Harvey Oswald would have never have been a Marxist, meaning JFK would not have died for his opposing views. All of the Kennedys would have been elected till the 1988 election, when Bush Senior would win. The Gulf War would have still occurred, as would 9/11, as planes would have surely been developed by then. If the airplane were not to have been invented, there would have been politically peace during the era of the Cold War.

I enjoyed this project. Taking an event and manipulating it, altering history was awesome, and reminded me of the butterfly effect; showing that with one small change in history can completely rewrite the world. This was also the most challenging part for me, as it was difficult for me to find a specific event to focus on; I had a ton of ideas that I really wanted to work on, but I felt like this would have given a fairly interesting future. The Wright Brothers being so moved by Lilienthal's pioneering to create their own experiments I found was particularly interesting, as it shows just how much someone can inspire another.

This showed me that the actions of a single human being can directly curve history as we know it. By taking out something, you're taking out someone who could have contributed to something larger, inspired someone else, or helped others create a network that would later inspire. Individuals make changes and cause progression, as apparent by this project. These individuals can also cause systematic changes, causing new ideas to flourish that can lead a movement or a group. These systems influence individuals, such as Lee Harvey Oswald, who following the Marxist philosophy killed JFK, causing a changed caused by an individual, with change brought to that individual by a system.

Looking back on this project I really enjoyed it. Thought, if I were to have done it again, I would have chosen a different topic. I was particularly interested with two topics; How history would be different if the atomic bombs dropped on Japan failed. The other being what if the Cuban Missile Crisis was not stopped in time. I would certainly like to do one of these topics, and maybe even a way to combine both of them...

The point of divergence  was when Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated on March 30th, 1981. He was shot in the lung right outside of the Washington DC Hilton hotel by John Hinkley. I changed this event and made the shot fatal (in the original event was inches away from his heart) and Reagan dies after surgery. The future I imagined was a bright one, Reagan ruined America's economy because of his famous "Reaganimics" plan that only benefited cooperations( the rich). I believed that George H W Bush wouldn't have choose the same plan, but would have just raised taxes. In the future since George W Bush is never elected we don't go to war with Iraq, which only helped our economy. For 2012 the economy is stable and prosperous. The education system is incredible because America did have a surplus of money to give towards education.The only problem in America is the amount of homeless families that has continuously grew because funding for welfare is modicum and very selective. 

I enjoyed learning about the Reagan policies because I didn't realize his presidency was so pivotal in American history. He changed a lot about the economy and foreign relationships. I thought the most challenging part was deciding how to present the project because their was just so many ways to do it. I also thought just thinking about a different future was difficult. I thought that researching how each individual event and person affected another event that would ultimately change the future was extremely interesting. 

I felt that any change will effect the future , even if it is just a small impact or huge. For example if  the systematic change was that "Reaganomics" never happened, our economy would not end up in debt. I felt the same way about individual change because as I showed in my benchmark with the absents of Reagan our future was completely different. Well one decision can change everything, for example Bush made the decision to fight a war, which hurt our economy. If Bush would have made a different decision than perhaps Americas finanical situation would be completely different.

I thought that if i had a timeline in my project that would help with describing the future. I tried to include some of the history in my magazine like I would specify which president helped that event happen. The timeline would have just added that extra bit of understanding. If i had to do my project over again I would have done way more research and started it earlier, not to say I didn't spend hours just reading about the history, but I also feel like I missed some important events. If I would have started just a week earlier then I would have had more time to do research and create the best project. 

Time Magazine benchmark.

Source 1 and 2 click here

Source 3 click here.

My project was suppose to be a chapter from an alternative history textbook for young children.  My point of divergence is that Abe Lincoln passed away when his mother fell ill from milk poisoning. Lincoln could have easily fell ill as well and thus passed away with his mother. As a result of Lincoln dying the nation would have accepted the ideas of Stephan Douglas. Douglas believed that each state should be able to choose if they want slavery or not. Without Lincoln to debate this idea with Douglas the nation would have accepted this idea. In 2012, the nation be free for the most with only Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana still permitting slaves. However, the nation will be very strict about the conditions the slaves may be kept in. I enjoyed this project because I was able to see how Lincoln's one action, holding the Lincoln-Douglas debates, changed the world. Stephan Douglas made a good argument for why America should follow him but, Lincoln made a better argument back. If you removed Lincoln, Douglas' argument would have stood. I wish this project would have been longer. I felt rushed to make my product and my product suffered.  I felt like we focused a lot on the yellow paper and planning and not actually working. I also think that if we are working on planning we need to plan how we want to present it.

This whole project has been both interesting to do and fun to learn things that I didn’t really know before. I made this video to bring awareness to people who don’t know about this topic or who don’t care about it. Here is the petition that I would like everyone to sign if they are against corruption and unjust censorship in the world. Here's my survey results if you haven't seen it yet and my bibliography.

 

After getting enough signatures I want to go and send it to someone like the mayor or even the state representative to show them that some people do care about what happens. So thanks for tuning in to my blog posts and hopefully a change can happen sooner or later. Until then try to make a change of your own and figure out ways to be heard and seen.

​

In 1733, German-American printer named John Peter Zenger accepted an offer from James Alexander to publish his editorials criticizing New York's governor at the time. Alexander founded the New York Weekly Journal and published the first issue in November of 1733. The Governor being criticized went by the name William Cosby. Cosby attempted to have the publication shut down several times with the court's help, but eventually put out a 50 pound reward to the person that could identify the authors of the editorials and order Zenger's papers to be burned publicly. With the help of his attorney general Cosby issued a warrant for Zenger's arrest. Zenger spent 8 months in jail. Cosby attempted to select jurors himself, but that was dismissed and twelve townspeople were picked. 

The trial began in August of 1735 on the terms that the paper was producing "seditious libel". It was true that Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, Zenger's lawyer had no law to support his idea that the truth could be defensive for a libel charge. The trial could be said to have been the most famous 'jury nullification' in history, which means a jury has the power to serve  verdict of 'not guilty' because the disagree with the current law rather than actually believe the person is not guilty. Needless to say, the jury did not make a judgement on the existing law or the facts, but what they thought of the law itself. This is thought to be the building blocks for Free Press in the Bill of Rights.

My point of divergence is that the jury does rule a guilty verdict and the existing British law is not challenged. 

I liked being able to pick something I was interested in. I had the freedom to choose  a topic that conceded my because I am a journalist. The whole project was interesting in that way, but the jury nullification is what I find interesting. As well as the fact that Zenger was just the publisher when we never wrote a single word. He did not set out to be a champion of free speech, but simply a printer doing his thing. 

The individuals in this situation seem to make the impact but it is really the individuals joining together as the jury and as the public in a print protest of the power they disagreed with. Free Press is a systemic change. If this was the only thing to be changed, I believe someone or some people would have eventually made free press happen but countless other things would have been affected in the mean time. 

The resonating changed I thought about was elections. If press were not able to use their privilege of reporting facts, even when unpleasant the results of many elections could have changed. 

If this project could have been improved it would have been to find more sources. It was very difficult to locate primary sources from the 1730's. Honestly, if I had more evidence I could have used more. 

If I could do it over, I would have done even more. I like the idea of the magazine, but there isn't much content. Because I am a journalist I didn't like feeling as if the project was only half done with a single photo, article and cartoon. ​

Video diary by a girl in 2012.

My point of divergence in the US is that Rachel Carson, the biologist whose book, Silent Spring helped push forward the environmental protection effort, and combated the use of a dangerous pesticide DDT, instead never switched her major. From my research, I found that that Carson had originally planned to have an English, but later on switched to biology. Without Carson being the voice against the environmental impact of DDT, I envisioned the future to have all of the results of the use of DDT- but ten-fold. There were 3 major things that I decided would come about from the excessive use of DDT: 1. Malaria would be eradicated. When looking for DDT sources I came across several sources that ask the same question that I pose. Apparently, those sources spoke of a Malaria free world if the pesticide had continued to be in use. I saw a graph that showed a very sharp decline of deaths of malaria, but then an even sharper increase after the brief decline. I concluded that Malaria is directly affected, so Malaria would have to be gone in the world DDT is still used. My second major thing: the prices of fish are sky rocketed. My third major impact is also within my second. The fact that fish prices are so ridiculously high is because their aquatic habits are contaminated with runoff containing DDT. That is explained when the character I portray say that she can't even swim in the ocean. The result from the contaminated water is that the majority of the fish have died off, making them endangered. Yet they are still for sale (greediness of humans anyone?). 

Those were important details in my portrait of the future. I can say that I wish I had made my video journals look more...personal. I wanted them to look plain and seem almost impromptu, because I was supposed to be a random spewing of thoughts. Hence the reason why I didn't add things like transitions and stuff. I wish I could have given my character a more personality of my own- I hope remnants of myself didn't shine through too much. So I think if I were to do it again, I would make a person dramatically different from myself.

Aside from that, from this project I've realized the immense impact that little events have on our world. It makes me think of all of the world's great and evil leaders- how much things would be different if these people took different roads in life. I'm aware that we would would live in an entirely different world. I also realize that our world is the way it is because of the same people stayed tenacious and never let go of the vision that they had in mind. Mind you, that can be good or bad. Though regardless, it teaches the ever-repetitive lesson, "never give up", which mostly lives up to the praise that it receives.