Metacognition: Organizing my Desk

My goal for today was to organize my desk. My desk is the place that accumulates all of the mail I receive, loose school papers and any other piece of junk or trash that I pile on it. Before I cleaned it, the junk on it was probably the worst I've seen it. There was hardly a bare spot on it.

Before I took the task of cleaning my desk, I felt gross whenever I sat at my desk because there were piles of junk all around me. I would try to avoid the site of my desk as I moved my workplace upstairs, where I didn't have to look or be at my desk. while I was cleaning it, it was hard to determine what I should throw away and what I should keep. I didn't know what would be valuable and what wouldn't. I eventually turned to throwing away most of it because most of the papers I had saved on my computer. After I was done cleaning my desk, I felt very refreshed. I felt like a burden had been lifted. Because now there is more bare spots on my desk than occupied spots.

This project changed how my mind feels, by clearing my mind of all the junk that had been on that desk. My mind would feel very occupied when I used to look at it, because I would be mentally looking at everything on the desk, which was very distracting. Now since it is clean, I feel calm and open minded when I look at my desk or when I sit down at it.

After this project I now know where my one photo album is. I had been missing it ever since school started. And while I was cleaning I found it underneath a music book. This is very exciting because the photos in that album are very important to me. I am glad I found it!

Change of Mind: Film Documentary

Today in class we saw part of a film documentary. The documentary included everything from black and white films to more modern day color films. Before watching the documentary I have always been a hater of black and white films. Why? Because I simply don't understand the art behind it. This year in school I decided to take a black and white photography course, and with knowledge from this class and watching the movie today I have changed my mind on black and white films.

To start I now understand black and white films a lot more. In photography I learned that you can filter out the gray tones in a picture by using a filter. Today in the film they talked about how the overall feel of a film can be altered by the contrast of the picture (gray tones). This made me learn to appreciate black and white films a lot more. In a way they are harder to achieve than color films are. In black and white films the lighting has to be just right for the correct contrast and emotion of a scene to take place. Whereas in color there is a little more room for flaws. At the end of class today I realized that black and white films are an art in a sense. Which has changed my mind on how I view black and white films.

iMedia: Jerry Uelsman

Jerry Uelsman is a photographer that focuses on larger than life photography. By this I mean that not all of his shots are realistic but in each shot he takes, he is asking the viewer to consider something they haven't considered before. He also captures a sense of raw emotion in his pictures, that is very powerful.

The picture I have above is one of my favorite pictures by him. At first you see something that looks to be complete in a sense but then realize that there is a flaw, one of the chairs is knocked down. I take away different ideas and concepts from this picture. I first take away that there is never really anything that is perfect. When I look back on things in life I can denote times when things were close to perfect, but never perfect. I also take away that Uelsman is trying to communicate to us through the knocked over chair. Personally I am still searching for the answer to what he is trying to get across. The beauty of this picture is that it is so out of context that it forces you to think. Why did Uelsman set up this circle on a beach? Why is one chair knocked down? These questions remind me of the philosophical questions purposed to Sophie by Alberto. But overall this picture is refreshing to look at and helps me think philosophically.

Best of Today: Simplicity is Design

In class today we watched a movie on the Vietnam Memorial. The memorial was created by a Yale student. The design was simple yet complex. The simplicity of the design was the fact that it was a long black wall of the names of the men who had sacrificed their lives for our country. The complexity in the design was the fact that the wall used the collaboration of colors, chronological order and two walls coming together to express something more than just a wall with names on it. This memorial has a lasting impact on many because of it's simplicity.

At first glance I thought the Vietnam memorial was lame because it wasn't anything flashy. But after hearing the architect's reasoning and ideas and concepts around the memorial I grew to be astounded by it. The fact that the architect came up with something simple yet so powerful is astonishing to me. To come up with something powerful is hard enough but to create a work of art that leaves a chilling impact is amazing. The feelings and emotions she was able to express in this work of art without making it huge and flashy is a skill that not many of us have.

This memorial really struck me today because it gave me ideas of how to go about creating my own sculpture for the 21st century human. I am going to try to emulate the same concepts she put into her memorial, simplicity is design. This is a phrase that my mothers art teacher would recite to her, and today I finally understood it. I now know that most of the time something simple can speak more words than something that is not.

iMedia: Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is an issue that is left in the shadow of our culture. Many people are unaware of how Walmart gets its clothing so cheap, or how toys are made in china. I was first introduce to this growing issue last year at our school's showing of the movie Call and Response. The movie was filmed by a man who went to India to go into brothels and uncover the unknown secrets of human trafficking. The brothels thought he was another customer so they let him pay his fee for the night and he would then go and try to set his mistress free. What he didn't know is that the brothels addicted the prostitutes to crystal meth so they wouldn't run away. These facts shocked me as a viewer and I had to do something about it.

Unfortunately I haven't made much action yet. I have signed a few petitions that go against human trafficking, but nothing too major. I do however try to boycott places I know that use human trafficking as a way to achieve cheap labor. One of those places being Walmart. I don't do this to make a statement but to personally go against human trafficking. Aside from boycotting stores, one thing that is critical to spreading awareness on this issue is educating people about it. I tell many of my friends and people who I'm close to about this growing issue and ways to help make a difference. This issue may seem small now but if it is not stopped our future generation will be engulfed in it.

The picture above is a symbol for human trafficking. The people in the picture are not recognizable because they are behind a shadow just like how the issue is portrayed today. Americans and other people from the world simply do not know about human trafficking or push it behind a shadow and pretend it is not there. This is dangerous because it gives the false impression that it does not exist in the first place when if you walk down the street the bar you always thought was a bar is in fact not a bar but a whore house. In this picture you can also see a master of some sort next to the two girls. The crossing of arms gives the impression that the master is tense or not happy with the job done. This symbolizes the conditions the prostitutes are put through in the brothels. The picture is a good wake up call to take off the shadow and get a clear look of what we are actually investing our money into.