Fireside Chat

        My performance for the fireside chat was inspired by a Clint Eastwood movie i watched last semester. The movie was titled Invictious. When I heard the poem while watching the movie, it instantly became one of my favorite poems of all time.
     
    For my art medium, I chose to represent this poem by memorizing it, and then reciting it while showing an animation of images that relate to each stanza of the poem.

Here is the link as a reference
http://prezi.com/gcmsc-ja7glg/untitled-prezi/

"Out of the night that covers me black as the pit from pole to pole" - I chose an image of the night sky because it shows the vastness of the universe.

"I thank whatever Gods may be for my unconquerable soul" - I showed an image of the night sky except this image had a man looking up at the heavens as if he is thanking God.

"In the clutch of circumstance i never winced nor cried aloud" -  I chose this image because often no matter how hard we paddle against the current of life, our circumstances pull us into horrific circumstances. Its up to us to choose how we react to these circumstances.

"Under the bludgoings of chance, my head is bloody but unbowed" - I chose a picture of a man sinking in waves because there are times in life where by chance waves of trials come upon us and we must to everything we can to keep our heads unbowed below the waters.

"Beyond this vale of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade" - I chose a picture of sand dunes because life will never give us rest or shade until we die and part the veil.

"And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid" - I chose a picture of this hiker because he has hiked a long ways and yet he is still looking up at his goal to reach the top of the mountain.

"It matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments the scroll." - .Even though bad decisions put us in desolate territory, we still have the power to pave our own path and get out of the territory.

"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul" - A picture of a statue being set free seemed to  visually exemplify this stanza the most because once we realize that we can choose our fate and how we feel, it liberates our souls

I was really moved by James McBrides story and how he came to the realization that he did not need to define his identity with his race.

My experience Darren helped me see the realization of the truthfulness of the poem Invictious. This is a story that I will always remember because Darren taught me that we are the master of our  fate and we are the captain of our souls.

Concerned Citizen

Service: Nicholas Whipple from Joshua Chappell on Vimeo.



The concerned citizen we chose to document was a BYU student named Nicholas Whipple. Nicholas is a mechanical engineering major who in his spare time is a participant of a volunteer group that constructs prosthetic legs on campus. This special organization meets together every week to learn how to make these artificial legs so that they can eventually travel to different places around the world and teach doctors how to build them for their patients who are in need. We selected this particular individual because Nicholas is a concerned citizen who really shows an interest in helping others. He doesn’t get pay for what he does and doesn’t think so much about how this experience will benefit him so much, but rather how it will make a difference in the world. Nicholas also told us how he would much prefer spending his time doing something meaningful and selfless as opposed to just watching television or playing video games all day. 
For the project, we decided to film the subject and process using hand held camera work in order to capture the realism and emotion of this concerned citizen’s story. We wanted the audience to feel as if they were a part of the documentary and be able to really relate to Nicholas. One of the things we tried to avoid was simply filming the process of making an artificial leg from beginning to end because we did not what that to be the main focus. We wanted the film to be more about Nicholas, who he was, and why he was involved in this program. It seemed as though getting to know him personally was much more important than seeing how prosthetics are made. We did interview Nicholas but we decided to only include his responses in the background. This felt much less distracting cutting back and forth from him in the workshop and him being interviewed. Also, his comments as voiceovers made it look more like this is not only what he was saying but also what he was thinking. In the end, we also included some Youtube clips of the group traveling to Ecuador last year, the people they helped, and how it changed those people’s lives. We watched to really show how this group is making such a huge difference in the world and how it has blessed others. 
Our documentary relates to this past week’s reading as it refers to creating something special, sharing it with our fellow men, and inviting others to join in doing it as well. Nicholas mentioned how being a part of this program has helped him so much and persuades the audience that if they do the things he does, they will feel the same way. 
This film also relates to other forms of media as we now more frequently view individuals from all over the world post snippets on the Internet about their personal lives. We especially see this with the “I’m a Mormon” campaigns as they describe who they are and some of the things they do in their spare time. This kind of new popular form of media is helping society become more comfortable and out spoken about who they are and that causes the viewers to create some sort of connection with these people and feel as though they are more involved with what they’re watching.

Protest Poster

Artist Statement

This winter was unforgettable. I have a good friend that is from Kodiak Alaska and for an entire week she compared the temperature in her home town to provo. She said that on most days, it was colder in Provo than it was in Alaska-IN JANUARY!  

There are several factors that influenced me to make this poster. 

I am from Mesa, Arizona and this is the first winter I have experienced in Utah. I feel that being from Arizona Influenced me to make this poster because the cold in Utah is more unbearable for me than it is for a native. Growing up the coldest it would get during the winter would be around 30 degrees. However, after going through this winter, Arizona weather seems like shorts and sandals weather compared to Utah.

The issue that I wanted to raise awareness was inspired from remembering a AM radio talk about the "air problem in Utah". The activists talking on the radio proposed that cleaner air in Utah would stop the inversion and make the climate a little warmer during the winter. Although I agreed about the cold weather being the problem, I did not agree with the solution because I felt it would not make a significant difference. 

Another factor that influenced me was remembering all the hype about global warming during the 90's and early 2000's. It seems that nobody is raising much awareness about this issue anymore. To add a twist to my poster, I decided to put words on the poster that proposed global warming as the solution to the "cold air problem" in Utah. 

To sum it up, I feel that comical art can influence the way people perceive certain issues. When I posted my poster on facebook yesterday, I got a few comments and several likes from people that thought it was funny.

Webspinna

http://vimeo.com/58912692

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5X4kGhAtU

http://vimeo.com/43455552

http://grooveshark.com/s/House+By+The+Sea/1fhCx5?src=5

http://grooveshark.com/s/Asturias+Isaac+Alb+niz/2KnBC3?src=5

http://grooveshark.com/s/Somewhere+Over+The+Rainbow/1S3ElK?src=5

http://vimeo.com/1284717

Artist Statement

Usually when I set out in creating Art, I usually have a theme in mind that shapes my art; however with this assignment, I really didn't see the theme until after it was created.
For the past few weeks I have gone through some personal struggles and just over the last few days have regained the confidence and hope that I wanted. I conclude that each song and sound was a reflection a phase as I went through this experience.
The first sound i used as a foundational layer was static. The static represents imperfection. The audio piece made the overall piece sound as if the music was trying play over the static and compete for the audiences attention.

The piece starts out with some sounds that are abstract sounding. Whenever I hear unnatural sounds it always makes me think abstractly. The struggles I have experienced over the past few weeks have caused me to dig inward and to look at myself abstractly rather than dogmatically.
The second music piece is House by the Sea by Iron and Wine. His piece starts out with abstract sound but then turns into cohesive music. This could be a reflection of what happens when I dig deep and assess my inner character-- I discover what I am really feeling.
The third piece is a classical number by Asturias. For some reason listening to his piece makes me feel stressed and anxious which is what I realized I had been feeling over the past couple of weeks.
The last piece was Somewhere over the rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. When I listen to this song, i feel peaceful and happy. This piece represents how as I kept searching deeper,  I eventually was able to push out the anxious feelings and replace then with the feelings of piece that I so desperately wanted.
To sum it up, I feel that this webspinna represented the theme that we will always have imperfections despite how we feel, hoever even though we cannot always control some of our imperfections, we can control how we feel.

Medium Specificity

A   Jonathan Lives a normal life. Nothing Exciting ever happend to him
      B   One day, an inciting incident happend in Jonathans life. An antagonist, force of nature,                              and character flaw caused a big conflict in Jonathans life.
          C   This incident started to escalate
               D The incident continued to escalate for quite some time
                    E  As the incident grew, so did Jonathans character. His flaws began to vanish
                        F However as he grew, the antagonist continued to oppress him.
                           G As the antagonist oppressed him, so did the forces of nature.
                               H Despite these hardships Jonathan worked hard to overcome them
                                  I One day as he was working hard against all these forces, a huge crisis emerged.
                                    J The antagonist pulled ahead of Jonathan in the race to be the victor of the story
                                        K As the antagonist did so, Jonathan notices his character flaws.
                                            L The forces of Nature work against him.
                                               M Jonathan has a huge test to prove himself worthy of the victors title
                                                    N Through the test, Jonathan triumphantly wins the victor.
                                                M' Jonathan again has another huge test to prove his worthiness
                                            L' Because he doesn't pass it, this leads to a crisis.
                                        K' The Antagonist once again exposes his character flaws
                                    J ' The Antagonist becomes the victor of the story
                                  I' This led to a huge crisis as Jonathan worked hard to overcome them
                               H' Jonathan worked hard to overcome the crisis, but in vain.
                           G' The forces of nature oppressed him just as much as the antagonist was.
                         F' As Jonathan continued to be oppressed, his character shrank.
                      E' Ultimately the incident at the beginning caused Jonathans flaws to resurface
                   D'  The incident descalated for quite some time.
               C'   The incident stopped growing.
             B'   The inciting incident vanished.
          A'   Jonathan is back to the same normal life he lived at the beginning of the story.

Artist Statement

For my medium specificity I chose to explore a chiasm narrative. These narratives are found in ancient hebrew texts. My piece above puts traditional story telling elements into the format of a chiasm.  

In "Show and tell" the author tells the history of the gulf between pictures and words and how over time the gap vanished. Just like people in the past perceived the role of pictures and words differently, so did they with narratives. A chaism is a great example of this. In ancient hebrew texts chaisms have a unique way of telling a theme. 

The narrative of Jonah is a great example of a chaism narrative. Jonah starts out not wanting to obey Gods command to preach to the people of Nineveh. After running from God on the seas, he is swallowed by a whale. While he is in the whale, he is humbled and decides to do what God commanded him to do. After he preaches to the people of Nineveh and they repent, Jonah becomes angry because he is envious of the Lords mercy on the people. He leaves the city and decides to die in the desert just outside the city. God plants a tree by Jonah to shade him. The next day, God destroys the tree with worms. Jonah becomes more angry and wants to die. The narrative ends with God trying to teach Jonah. In this narrative Jonah struggles until he is humbled to the point where he aligns his will with Gods when he is in the whale. However when the chaism reaches its peak when the people of Nineveh repent, Jonah becomes envious, and becomes prideful. The narrative finishes with him having nothing and being prideful, similar to the state he is in at the beginning of the narrative.

I feel that a chaism narrative is a unique way in which to tell a story because most modern narratives show the progression of man where chaisms show the progression and digression of man. It combines comedy and tragedy into one story. I feel that an audience can learn valuable lessons from seeing one character progress and the digress back to their original state. The chiasmus narrative can also be inverted, having the character start out good and happy, digress to a low point in the story and then, be restored to the same happy norm at the beginning of the story(The story of Job is a great example of this).  

To sum it up, chaisms are one of the many forgotten ways of communicating a theme to an audience.

 

Textual Poaching

Creative Statement

This is famous photo taken during the great depression(minus my poaching). The photographer could not hace captured reality of this scene any better in this photo(see Seeing And Writing, John Long p. 684) I inserted myself into the back seat of the car. This pictures has meaning on a broad level and personal level.
Due to the recession our country is in right now the number of people living in poverty has soared. The Middle class is dwindling in America. In some ways we are experiencing some of the same things people did during the great depression. Although there are no soup lines anymore, there are millions of Americans on food stamps. The mis represented billboard reminds me of media today that misrepresents the lifestyle of most Americans. In most commercials today families live in perfect homes with white picketed fences. For example, the church used to air commercials where families looked extremely cliche' and did not reflect what society really was. 

My reasoning behind putting myself in this photo is on a more personal level.

Before my mission, especially during my childhood, I would often complain to my dad that we were poor and he needed to earn more money so we could travel more. In elementary and middle school, I has friends whos families were traveling to place like Hawaii or the Caribbean for vacation while we would just go to my Grandpa Bobs house. That was my thought process until I went on my mission. I went to Kentucky which is the second poorest state in the country. In one of my areas there were tons of poor African Americans that lived in small run down apartments and had lots of children living in them. These children seemed to be more happy then I was growing up and I had so much more then them. When I got home, all the things I took for granted in the past were now significant in my life. My Dad had a Job, we had two cars, we lived in a house - things that families in my mission didn't have at all.

Manifesto

Artist Statement

Are manifesto is very broad and allows many interpretations of how to explore
and present art. If a piece of art explores are mediums and the senses through its
presentation then it is a part of this movement. This movement is trying to enable a
greater connection between art mediums and the senses they use. Several art mediums
only involve one sense but when we partake of art are minds think and recall various
sensations and memories. This led us to the piece for the manifesto.
Our piece begins with each member of the group viewing a piece of art (which
the audience can’t see). While they view the art a montage of visuals and sounds are
presented on a screen behind them. Each member has their own montage. The montage
represents what they are thinking while they view the art. Next we will then give the
audience sticky notes and explain that we want them to create, write, art with their sticky
note when we show them the piece of are we were viewing. The audience will then have
2 minutes to be inspired by the art and produce something onto the sticky note and put
this sticky note on the white board. We then will discuss with the audience how we are
influenced by what is around us and how this affected them in their creation. Also, we’ll
observe the similarities and differences in the audience’s art and the manner in which
they assembled their art together.
Also, our piece sought to explore connections between the physical and the
metaphysical. Also, it was exploring how are thoughts are shaped by what we sense
around us. When coming up with this idea we were influenced by the piece which first
inspired Melissa (which was Trey McIntyre’s The Sun Road). We then we all influenced
by countless memories and thoughts which fueled our discussion. We were also
influenced by the reading with the discussion of remixes since our thoughts are remixing
sensations from are past influenced by are present. Also, we were each influenced in the
creation of our montage which we will each briefly describe.
Jeff: For my movement manifesto montage, I immediately thought of a baseball
when seeing the sphere. Once the image became a baseball to me, I pictured scenes from
one of my favorite films, Moneyball. I saw the scenes where we saw in slow motion
various shots of batters at the plate swinging at a pitch. From this, I found different slow
motion shots of a batter, catcher, outfielder, and pitcher all with the baseball. Also, the
shot of the catcher is from this year’s World Series, where my favorite team, the Giants
won! This is my thought process when looking at the original image of the sphere.
Melissa: The process I went through when creating my montage was I first made
a list of my thought train when I saw the images. The image first made me think of the
pixar short Red’s Dream which is a unicycle, which made me think of the Boise Art fair,
which made me think of lemonade, summer wind, tumble weeds and of New Mexico,
coyotes and their howling, moon, rockets, an observatory, then Bruno Sand Dunes,
etc. For my montage I didn’t even complete the whole list I made since my montage
was getting lengthy. Most of this train of thought I listed are made up of memories and
associations which my mind quickly connects and jumps through. My montage is a

demonstration of how the minds trail of thought can be sparked by one thing and then led
through a series of memories and thoughts to something completely different.
Claire: My montage reflects the tangential associations my mind makes when
introduced with a thought, memory, or idea. My train of thought when I initially saw
the triggering art piece was very similar to my representation; I was reminded of
music, lyrics, sounds, smells, particular moments in time and emotions. Each of these
associated memories led to the next in a way that makes absolute sense to me. I think it is
fascinating how this montage could have gone on indefinitely.
Josh: My montage artist statement: Whenever I first come in contact with other
art, my thought process is thinking of objects or things that are similar to that image. As
I keep looking at the art, over time, I start to see meaning behind the art. My montage
starts out with random spherical objects and transitions to the theme that every person has
darkness and light in them. This was primarily based on the shadows and light that are on
the sphere.

P.S. The inspirational piece of art will be posted after the presentation so as not to
be a pre-influencer.

Historical Story

Creative Statement

The original inspiration that came for this story was Josh’s story about his grandpa who stole candy from a Japanese graveyard. From that idea a ton of ideas snowballed.  Christina brought some good ideas to the table.  She had the idea to have the exposition of the story start out with the two boys playing with toys and having one toy die and go to the graveyard. From that point John asks, have you ever been to a graveyard? This moment in the story creates a motivation for the kids to go to the graveyard.  She also originally thought of the Idea of having the ghost come back and haunt the kid. After editing the piece down, we decided to have John put his candy back so as to make the story more personal and focus the story more on Lenny.

From the reading, The Viel the author makes a historical setting very personal by making the historical account center around her. When my grandpa told me the story of how superstitious the Japanese culture was when he was a kid, it was very personal because it was told from a first person perspective.

An inspirational media for this project stemmed from the movie “Oh Brother, where art thou?” The Coen brothers tied a historical narrative and comedy together to immerse and engage their audience in their story.  The idea of tying in comedy into a historical narrative is unique because many historical narratives focus on serious big issues such as wars, kingdoms, and important people of the centuries. choosing to focus on an ordinary person of a certain time period, and make it comedic, makes the story less cliché and more unique.

Overall, if we had more time, we would have liked to make revisions; however, we fill that this story is a good start and will help us when we work on future projects in the program.

Here is the link to our Script

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8JULhdBBUPaMVZxTE1UTy04dUE/edit?usp=sharing

Genealogical Artifact

     When I was twelve, my mom told me that my grandpa would be coming to visit us for a week during the summer. I wasn't excited. At this time in my life, I had a very negative attitude about life in general.
  The day finally came where I saw him walk through our front door into our house. He carried with him only a suitcase and a small orange toolbox. That evening he visited with us and asked me and my siblings how our lives were going in regards to school and activities we were involved in. The next day as I was going outside to play with my younger brothers, thinking that I was going to have a fun carefree Saturday, my grandpa called out to me and said, "Joshua, how about we spend the day helping your mother. There are a lot of things she wants us to fix. I'm old and weak and you are young and strong." There it was, just as I anticipated, my grandpa asking me to help him with menial handyman jobs around our house. Just to please him, I grudgingly agreed to help him out.
We started with the sliding door. It was filled with dirt and other stuff. My grandpa handed me one of his fatheads from his orange toolbox and showed me how to clean it out. I hated the job; however within minutes our door was sliding smoothly again.
     After cleaning the sliding door I headed outside to play. My grandpa yelled in a pleading tone, "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!". Feeling guilty again, I came back. "Help me fix this leak behind the dish washer.". Again, I hesitantly walked into the kitchen to help him. I was actually quite fascinated that grandpa had everything he needed in this small toolbox to fix everything. From a micro screwdriver, to a set of pliers that could take off a 1/2" nut, he was never in short supply of tools.
    As we worked on fixing the leak, he taught me about plumbing and tricks for fixing leaks behind dishwashers. After half hour of helping him, he had my undivided attention.  He was also so optimistic that we were able to fix a leak that my parents thought could never be fixed. I realized that I felt way better helping grandpa out than I did playing outside or watching tv. I think I had a small transcendent moment while we were working. As the day went on, I became addicted to helping my grandpa out with these tasks because I was learning something new. At the end of the day, I felt that my grandpa was one of my best friends. That experience had a lasting impact on me and changed my outlook on life in a very small and simple way.
     A decade later, my grandpa unexpectedly died of a heart attack. After his funeral, we went to my uncles house where he had all his belongings spread out on the lawn for us to take. As I looked over his belongings I noticed a small toolbox. When I saw it, I was immediately flooded of a flashback of when he helped a twelve year old boy gain confidence and optimism within himself. I took the toolbox as a reminder of how my grandpa helped me fix my life through a small act.

Creative Statement

I actually struggled for a while trying to figure out a object that I have that has a significant impact on my life and has meaning to me. The idea came to me when I spotted the toolbox on a shelf in my apartment. Seeing the toolbox reminded me that there was a TON of significance behind it. The poem "Ode to Things" describes how I feel about this toolbox. As Pablo Neruda says, "Not only did they touch me, or my hand touched them: they were so close that they were a part of my being." The toolbox that I have is the only physical object I have left that reminds me of my Grandpa and how much he loved me. When I saw it after his funeral I immediately took it because, it represented who my grandpa was in one object. I feel that this experience I had with this object can be related to the story in Batman Begins when batman is going through his fathers belongings and immediately the movie cuts to brief flashbacks of his father using these items. I feel that how this toolbox relates to an emotional experience I had with my grandpa could make a good story. At the very least, just having these same feelings flowing through me as a write a future script on how an item means something to the character or the theme itself. In order to create a good visual story, you have to experience the same feelings that your characters feel in your story. This exercise helped me out with that. This assignment has helped me realize the significance items have in representing a principle or, put in a film, can help the viewer recall the same feelings the characters might be feeling.  Every object in the universe really has meaning to it beyond the visual and tangible characteristics of it.

Process Audio

Our piece follows the process of doing the dishes from opening the tap to putting the dishes away. We recorded the sounds of each individual task separately to then edit it all together. First we recorded the sound of running water, which we then looped so it would keep playing in the background. Then, we added the rest of the process to it. 

We chose this particular process because doing the dishes creates a lot of noise and it would give us a lot to work with once we were ready to edit. When we started editing, we wondered about the different ways in which we could present the process and finally decided that the linear form would be most convenient for this process.  As we were recording, we focused heavily on the different steps to doing dishes rather than the significance of those steps. Our main concern is that it has a clear beginning, middle, and ending. There is neither metaphor nor lesson; it is a simple process and we thought it should be presented on a simple way. 

In a way we can relate this to Dean Duncan’s  “Scriptures”.  In this short, Duncan shows us the processes of family scripture study in a chronological way, only interrupted by a series of interviews relating the participant’s views on scripture study time. Nevertherless, we never hear commentary directly from Dean Duncan. Also, the Sternfeld photos are accompanied by brief chronological narratives conveying the history of the places being photographed without additional commentary from the artist. Surely, Sternfeld and Duncan had a point to make in their pieces but they both present us with linear narratives that allow us to make sense of them on our own.  We can look closely at Stenfeld’s photo of Mount Rushmore and marvel at the craftsmanship or feel distraught for the tribe who was kicked out of their land even before the monument was built.

Click Here to go to our Audio Process

Tiny Stories

Alfred was blind. All of the other giraffes made fun of him. Little did they know, Alfred was a professional dub step break dancer.

 Willie the fish had a small tail. All of the other gold fish made fun of him. Little did they know, Willie was a professional opera singer.

 Braden Slice had mold growing on him. All the other bread slices in the loaf made fun of him.
Little did they know, he could play guitar solos.

Peter the parasurolophus was large in size. All of the other dinosaurs made fun of him. Little did they know, peter invented the art of quilting.

Henry the alien had a large head. All of the other Aliens made fun of him. Little did they know, Henry could grill the best tasting steak in the galaxy.

Creative Statement

The inspiration to make these stories originally came form two different sources. Last week I was spending much time with a girl that I liked; however, I eventually decided not to persue her anymore. I have decided that one good thing that came out of this experience was it allowed me to receive inspiration for my tiny stories. In her apartment, she has a gold fish that has a huge clumpy head and a small tail. The fish seemed coherent and functional, it just looked really funny. When I was reminded of this assignment, this gold fish was the first inspiration that came to my mind. My secondary source of inspiration comes from doing cleaning checks last week. As I was cleaning up the kitchen, I came across a loaf of bread that had a couple of moldy slices. Annie Dillards short story "Seeing", helped me develop a mentality to notice the small thing in life. In her story she says, "It's all a matter of keeping my eyes open...Im always on the lookout for antlion traps in sandy soil, monarch pupae near milkweed, skipper larvae in locust leaves.". Annie seemed to notice various random simple things in her everyday life. The awkward looking fish and the moldy bread slices were small and are generally considered to be insignificant; however they inspired me to write a series of stories about objects(living and non living) that have some sort of physical quirk and the other similar subjects make fun of them. In the beginning, this was what I was going to write about. However, I felt the theme would be to tease  people that are different. So i added another element to each story. Each subject would secretly have an amazing talent or hobby that nobody knows about. This changed the theme to never judge someone based on their appearance. To make the story comedic and interesting, I gave each character an obscure hobby or talent.