Concerned Citizen Documentary

Students will work in pairs to produce a 1-3 minute audio or video documentary

profiling someone that is working to improve his/her community.

The subject may be an artist, activist, social servant, community organizer,

or an otherwise ‘concerned citizen.’ Artist statements should include a

discussion of the dynamic between the agency exercised by the individual

and the social, political, economic and cultural context in which he/she is working.

There is a line from the article, “Human Rights and Culture: from Datastan to Storyland” that resonated throughout the creation of our documentary. The text reads, “The antidote to a culture that equates security with conquest and punishment is a culture that prizes connection and creativity.” Though the living conditions in Provo, Utah are not as extreme as some mentioned by the article, this is still an important statement.

Connection and creativity and how those elements can positively affect society, was the focus of out film. There are many small groups of subcultures that most do not even know, or at least think about. One such group is the BYU Y Serve Scenic View Team, and especially the group they help. Becoming a young adult when one has been a child their entire life is a difficult transition for anyone, but for those with autism, this is even more true. This group of BYU volunteers helps these young people by helping them, participating in activities, and simply being their friend.

This group is one that meets frequently -- it is not a simple annual service project, but those involved are committed to creating a connection between themselves and those they are serving. Having spoken with one of the program directors, we were able to get a sense of how driven the program is to helping these people and how much care and love there actually was for their service. Revisiting the quote mentioned in the introduction, life can be cold. People with autism can be misunderstood by the public and even family, and are at times met with harsh consequences. The friendships made by this groups efforts are a small service that is a wonderful example for the rest of the world when it comes to treating neighbors. With examples of creativity and connection such as this, the fight against the harsh nature of many societies.

“Serving doesn’t have to be a chore or a task. It doesn’t have to be one of those things your dad drags you to first thing in the morning to go rake someone’s leaves. It’s super fun.” This attitude from the group’s director is a great example of what sort of mindset can change the world. If entire societies were able to say, believe, and apply the ideas referred to in this quote, the world would be much more accepting. These service providers do not have to be there. They are not obligated to help at this service group, but they come anyway because they want to make a difference in the world.

Game for Change

Each student will create a video game using Twine that raises awareness

about a particular social issue that he/she feels has been inadequately

addressed in public discourse (and mainstream media). Artist statements

must refer to at least 3 research sources that address this issue (including

news stories, scholarly works, documentaries, etc.), and situate their game

(the perspectives it represents and the experience it provides) in relation

to these sources. Artist statement should also include a dicussion of the

aesthetic presentation of their ideas, the information provided, the political

perspective represented, and the way in which the game encourages 
engagement (in the game and the issue itself).

Click here to try my game.

Artist statement:

J. A. Etzler believed there is a "paradise within the reach of all men." He was not talking about a supernatural paradise, or any comfort that is to be found in the world to come. J. A. Etzler was a man who held to the humanist belief that humankind could save itself. Etzler's idea was a technological paradise wherein food and shelter was automatically provided to everyone.  This paradise was to be achieved, "without labor, by powers of nature and machinery." Imagine that. The forces of nature, harnessed, to do man's bidding. Great machines that provided the basics of survival, automatically, to all mankind.

Does this dream seem necessary? Too large? Too preposterous? Are we not doing fine, without such vast machinations to take our labor from us?

I do not think that we are doing so great. There are countless souls in our society that can barely provide for themselves. 

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”

How can we sit around, discussing the latest episode of a television show, while children are dying? 

I created a game, using twine, that allows the user to explore a taste of the life of an american in poverty. Not abject, starving poverty. But something that a middle class individual could relate to. Something that, were we to stumble, to lose our jobs, to become sick---we could imagine ourselves being subjected to.  

Within this game, I pulled references from other accounts of poverty. One reference is to a blog post which is, on its own, particularly striking. It is written to generate empathy for a group of people who often receive too little empathy. One passage finds the second-person narrator reading an article about poverty (which is very metaphysical event, considering).

"You’re reminded of this every time you read an article about boot straps and the iphone you supposedly have and how people like you are trading food stamps for drugs, and a thousand other things that are true for maybe the drunks at the front of the line, but not the 50 people standing behind them. You think someone wealthy somewhere is cackling about how easy it is to convince poor people to hate other poor people, to hate the things and people who try to help them, just so they can feel aligned with unanointed kings, false prophets in political clothes and the black-hearted gods of talk radio. You think about all these things, and remember that you don’t get paid to think."

The intent is to cause the user to remember: poverty is real, and it happens to real people. People who don't deserve it. We can't hide from it. We can't cross to the other side of the street and not look at it.

We spend more than enough on defense and war, more than enough funding which could be rerouted to eliminate and prevent poverty. I'm not suggesting that a worldwide effort toward the Etzler Utopia is likely; I'm just saying I believe it is possible.

Sources

Blog, based on true story, with names altered

http://amandasledz.com/2013/09/a-day-in-the-life-of-poverty/

News outlet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/7745868/Scientist-Craig-Venter-creates-life-for-first-time-in-laboratory-sparking-debate-about-playing-god.html

A .org website

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

World Building

If I had to spend a week wherein I had to rely solely on one of my five senses, it would be my vision. I consider myself a predominantly visual person. Reading, driving a car, riding a bicycle, recognizing friends and family, locating food; these are all activities that I accomplish primarily with my eyes.

In the world we created, the eyes are not the primary sensory organ. The inhabitants of this society rely primarily on their ears to navigate their world and accomplish their daily tasks. These people react to sound waves similarly to the way in which humanity process light waves. Their brains are capable of processing sound waves in such a way that sound is translated into colorful imagery and detailed landscapes.

My question was, “how do these folk have any kind of recorded language”? Because they do not use their eyes in the same way that we do, I decided that a hand-written hieroglyphic language would be unsuitable. I also decided that a form of braille would not be the right way to go either. These people would want a form of recorded language that interacts with their most intricate sense AKA their synesthetic sense of hearing.

So I came up with a sort of music box. The music box has a hand-powered crank that can be turned at the user’s pace, much like turning the pages of a book. The crank simultaneously gives the “music box” book a source of power, and also controls the rate of playback. With each full turn of the crank, a certain amount of sound waves are emitted. These sound waves are processed  by the brain of the user, not only as sounds, but also images and colors. The resulting “reading” experience is deep and interactive.

I used a crank because I thought it would be impractical to have a “music box” book that required re-charging of any kind. Can you imagine a library full of books that need to have energy sources replaced? It would be terrible. But the crank? A little more practical.


Here's a video of the "music box" book:

Other aspects of this world were created by my fine collaborators:

"Another aspect of a world where sounds are seen that was considered for this project was live musical performances. To represent what an event like this would be like, we designed a poster for a real life band, STRFKR. Because music itself is the conglomeration of many different sounds layered on top of each other, I decided to represent this by using photoshop to manipulate a pre-existing logo for the band rather than use waveforms. I found that by selecting and deleting portions of the image, and telling photoshop to replace those deleted portions using a “content aware” algorithm, that the geometric shapes forming the original logo created a unique pattern that could represent the sights one would experience in this world. I found this to be appropriate since the band’s identity is not only defined by its music but also its logo- and who’s to say that in a world where one can see music that the music being seen can be visually distinct according to the band it originates from?  I also took into consideration that STRFKR’s live shows already use many different lasers and lights that correspond with the music, and by using a photograph of them where this is evident I feel that I bridged the gap from our imaginary world with the real one." - Nathaniel

"The freeway is one of the noisiest parts of first-world civilization. Cars race past each other at speeds ranging between 55-100 miles per hour, if we’re being honest. It is also an environment where sight is critical; you need to see the road, the other cars, the environment, the buttons of the radio, the wheel, your passengers, the gas tank, the speedometer, which exit to get off of, So, how would a freeway look in a world without visuals? My first answer would be that freeways, if they existed at all, would ultimately function off of sonic interdependence. “Cars” would feel their way from point A to point B similar to how bats fly, by echolocation." - Maddy

"My first thought when presented with this world was “what would become of headphones?” The concept was cool and really to me everything that emitted music and sound took on a new light. In my piece I thought I would convey this through a popular method we see in our own world, the Youtube sensation of unboxing a new tech item and then reviewing it. This is seen all over the web and can often be comical and in some cases it showboats over analysis of items. Using terminology like “watching music” and “I am sure you have (literally) seen this song” serve to further build up this world in which people see music. The cell phone footage, cheesy after effects intro, and plea at the end to subscribe all showcase the growing trend of technology in everyday life. If one was to watch music than, instead of listen to it, how would that effect things like this? My hope is that I was able to capture that in this small video." - Weber

Post-Webspinna Thoughts

Students will work in pairs to perform a 4-5 minute battle of audio collected from the Internet. Think of it as Girl Talk meets Street Fighter II, but with streaming songs/sounds as fireballs (“HADOUKEN!!!”).  Students are to create individual personas, with corresponding sonic styles (and maybe even special moves). They are to rehearse this battle to become comfortable with their performance and work out any potential technical problems. Students will meet at an undetermined location at an undetermined (probably night-) time and perform the Webspinna battle. Students will be asked to bring food, friends and family to enjoy the evening. Prizes for the best character design, cosplay, battle, etc. will be awarded.

These are a few of my thoughts after completing the Webspinna activity listed in the description above.

Firstly, I found that my love of being a massive show-boater has not changed. I immensely enjoy parading around dramatically in front of a large audience. Also, Prof. Thevenin was entirely correct when he said, "prepare to become best friends with everyone after this night". Or something akin to that. Nothing like a bit of outrageous show-boating to break the ice.

Secondly, the Webspinna battle calls into mind the reality of the creative process: any component of our end product is pulled from an existing source. There is no creation without borrowing ideas. 

But wait, what about the whole hot mess of copyright laws? What about the heinous sin of plagiarism, a topic that comprised 67% of our Junior-High English class syllabus? It's still true that all art is thievery. But it only becomes frowned upon when you borrow from a certain conglomeration of ideas while the last person to benefit financially from those ideas---is still benefitting from those ideas. 

Specifically, trouble arises if your use of the ideas significantly detracts from the prior user's ability to benefit financially. 

This is the real concern hidden behind plagiarism: the risk of reducing the financial income of the last person to benefit from the use of those ideas. AKA if your brilliant idea is too similar to mine, and your copycat product endangers my ability to profit from my use of the idea, then I will be angry. However, if an idea is borrowed, and the prior investor in that idea does not stand to lose anything financially, then there is no foul. People are generally only protective of their ideas when their livelihood rests on their ideas. An exception to this is when the maintenance of the purity of an idea is a person's theological or philosophical goal, for example, the goal of many Christians to preserve the "traditional" meaning of the term "marriage". However, if one considers it, the difference between financial and theological/philosophical goals is not so different: one pertains the maintenance of physical livelihood, and the other, to the maintenance of intellectual livelihood.

Therefore, what people are concerned about when they claim to be concerned with plagiarism, is not a concern with stealing ideas. The real concern is one of livelihood. We should keep that in mind.  There is nothing wrong with using external ideas. The real wrong is the reckless endangerment of the livelihood of others.  After all, when a person invests their time in the development, organization and promotion of a certain compilation of ideas in the endeavor to make a living, the original pure ideas become entangled with the time they have invested. To partake of those ideas would not be merely taking ideas, but it would also be taking freely of the time of the individual who invested in conglomerating those ideas into a more developed form.  So yes, we should feel free to access the many ideological resources around us, but we should be certain to borrow ideas and resources in an ethical manner, so that we are not wasting the time of individuals who have worked to refine those ideas.

In conclusion, ideas should be free. Ideas should be made available for the betterment of all mankind. However, mankind must also pay tribute to those who invest time in the refining of ideas, or else our legions of idea-developers will dwindle, unable to make a living. However, once those idea-makers, once those creatives are dead and gone, we should recognize that their need to make a livelihood has also passed away with them, and their ideas should be made available for all mankind to benefit from. Which... they are.

Textual Poaching

Each student will choose an existing, mediated representation of the culture / race / ethnicity / gender / nationality / religion / subculture, etc. with which he/she identifies. The representation may be in any medium—film, photograph, visual art, poetry, literature, advertisement, news article, song, music video, etc.—but it should be older than the student. Students will remix the representation so that their new creation demonstrates their negotiation of this aspect of their identity and how it has been historically represented in media. Artist statements should include a discussion of the correlations and contradictions between his/her ‘self’ (perspectives, practices, etc.) and this historical representation of this aspect of his/her identity.

Your ears were just headbutted by the lovechild of my first encounter with Apple Logic Pro X.

I first isolated the vocals from Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Once I was satisfied with the vocals, I proceeded to incorporate some "beep boop" sounds and electro-drum kit components. I also reused certain portions from the song to mimic the tendencies of a dance remix.

Cash's "Ring of Fire" is a lovely Folk/Americana tune. Why would I mess with the composition? The lyrics and the quality of Cash's voice are certainly more in line with Americana / than they are geared toward a modern electronic beat.

I didn't commit this blasphemy against the Man in Black without reason. My little remix of his song is intended to be a commentary on the implicit style of masculinity within Cash's music. He has a great bass voice. He has a rough sound. His diction is distinctive. He sings about crime and alcohol, but portrays a didactic commentary on the negative aspects of a fast lifestyle. Unlike many recent Christian artists, he manages to avoid preachiness and self-righteousness, but instead, is forgiving and honest about weakness. He is humorous, gruff, hard-working, and even romantic. Overall, the Johnny Cash public persona's portrayal of masculinity is very conventionally American. He embodies the ideal of the rough and tumble but golden-hearted Wild-West man.

How does this portrayal of masculinity compare to the lifestyle of the fashionable modern urban male? Does Johnny's preference for folk tunes relate to the guy listening to "Sin Fang"? Does Johnny's conventional Christianity mesh with the New Age hippie attitudes? What about the dudes with skin-tight clothes who are doing the "bernie" in laser-lit dance clubs?

I myself have always avoided the club scene. (Is the "bernie" still a thing? It might be the national dance if Sanders wins the election.) However, I still can't say that I fit Cash's macho Wild-West ideal. I mean, I shed a tear during Toy Story.

Joking aside, this one minute song represents my attempt to compare a modern-ish urban masculinity with Cash's older ideal. It's not an in-depth study; the gender conversation is wide and varied. Nonetheless, the creation of this short tune and its contrasting elements has been an interesting experiment.

Unintelligible Art & Medium Specificity

Each student will choose an artistic medium (film, photography, drawing, painting, dance, performance, graphic design, poetry, literary narrative, etc.) and produce a work which explores the specific elements unique to that medium--like Brakhage or Daren’s films, Pollock’s paintings, Warhol’s prints, Cage’s music, etc. Artist statements should include a discussion of how their particular work functions as a celebration, commentary or critique of their chosen medium.

Commercialized food is about more than food. There is an implicit visual language----expectations for food presentation. We organize the food on plates. When we cast light on our food, the lighting tends to be a certain way. When capturing footage of food, there are traditional stylized camera movements. For my medium specificity assignment, I decided to preserve the visual language of food presentation. This visual language triggers a habitual expectation that the subject will be edible. However, for a twist, I decided to present inedible food. I have all the trappings and signs that would indicate the food will be delicious, but the food itself is made mainly out of trash.

Tangible elements of the visual language included the simple yet welcoming wooden table, the gas lamp (which added a sense of old-fashioned reliability!), the high-contrast dining plates (to show off the food as though it were worth eating!), and the napkins. We use folded napkins to imply order and cleanliness (thereby implying edibility!) In my case, all of these conventional visual elements were ironic and misleading!

I also paid attention to diction. Words and phrases like "generous portion" and "complementary" and "delicious" evoke memories of every commercial you've ever seen.

I have studied food advertisements. I observe they use a particular kind of harsh spotlighting, which brings out glistening highlights in the food. This spotlighting is the equivalent of an eye-light when shooting human portraits. The remainder of the shadows are made less impenetrable using a diffused fill-light. This is all done to reduce bad shadows, while simultaneously adding gloss to the moist parts of food, to make it look fresh.

I used a combination of sweeping camera shots, extreme closeups, and the iconic plate-placement shot. It is a common trope in food advertisements to show a disembodied hand as it places a platter of delicious food onto a table, before retreating back off screen. The plate-placement shot is the conventional way to introduce a new food item, and thus it carries with it the expectation that the food will be worth looking at. However, my extreme closeups (another common advertisement feature) revealed otherwise! The sweeping shots (another conventional advertisement cliché) provided a grace that contrasted ironically with the ugly food items.

Even the music was upbeat and happy, not matching the ugly food whatsoever.

My use of the visual language of commercial food presentation was intended to demonstrate something specific. I wanted the audience to consider: to what extent do we consider food delicious because it is well prepared, and to what extent is our appetite influenced by the triggers contained in the visual language of food presentation? Without the stylized presentation, can good food look unappetizing? With the expected presentation, can bad food look more appetizing? Definitely.

Were I to go back and make corrections, I would do the following:

1. I would change "shredder fresh toppings" to "freshly shredded paper". This alternate wording would be more clearly in line with the trash theme, and would spell out the identity of the topping. In its current state, the only solid clue regarding the identity of the topping is a single closeup shot.

2. Correct visual stutter. During the final shot, there is a visual stutter during the left panning movement between the spaghetti and the cup. This disrupts the stylized flow and makes the entire video noticeably less believable.

3. Better match the visual of the salad with the dialogue, "beginning with a fresh backyard salad". As it is now, the salad is moving off the frame when the narration is describing it. This is confusing, and again disrupts the stylized flow.
4. Delete everything and start over to make it better.

Co-Authoring a Script

The Plum Jar, A True Story from WWII is a script by Grant Gomm and Camden Argyle.

Click here to view the script

Hollywood has attempted to tell the stories of World War II nearly since the end of the
war.  Movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and Series like Band of Brothers
all tell the stories from the perspective of the soldiers who fought in the war.  Audie
Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier during the war, and even starred in the
movie To Hell and Back where he played the role of himself, telling his story while
fighting in the U.S. 3rd Infantry division.  In 1945, in what is known as the Colmar Pocket
in Eastern France, Murphy held off an entire company of German soldiers by himself for
over an hour.  He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this achievement.  But what
about the average citizen that was liberated by the allied armies portrayed in these
films?  What is their story?  What was their experience like having to endure German
occupation for nearly six years?  One moment they are under the control of the Nazi
German government, then the bombs fall and bullets fly.  Sometimes the fighting lasted
for many days as was the case during the battle of Jebsheim, which was a part of the
Colmar Pocket fought in by Audie Murphy. 

Today, the French Foreign Legion tells the story from their perspective on their official website: 

http://www.legionetrangere.fr/index.php/79-infos-fsale/389-histoire-janvier-fevrier-
1945-la-legion-dans-la-bataille-de-strasbourg-et-dans-la-bataille-de-colmar.

But again, what about the citizens?  Do they not have stories to tell?  Not far from
Jebsheim, and within a few short minutes from the German border is the village of
Durrenentzen.  Lucy Eischer, who had been a long time resident of the village, told a
story that she experienced shortly after the French and American forces pushed the
Germans out.  Lucy’s story is the framework for The Plum Jar.

I had thought that collaborating on the script for The Plum Jar would be counter-productive. It seemed to me that pausing intermittently to confer with a co-writer would slow down the entire process. However, I did not account for how much time I spend trying to overcome writer’s block when writing solo. So yes, while it is true that a co-authorship of a script adds extra communication time to the writing process. However, there was a time reduction factor that I did not account for. It seems to me that whenever one of us experienced writer’s block, or did not have time to continue working on the project, he could ship the project to the other.  The other collaborator would delve into the issue at hand with fresh eyes, often able to find a solution that the other had been too entrenched to see. This phenomenon occurred several times, but there is exchange in particular that I am most proud of. Grant wrote out a wonderful story arch wherein the POV character finds a jar of pickles; which is set aside for a special occasion. This jar of pickles is later given to starving soldiers. When I read that passage, from my own perspective, I saw the jar of pickles as a symbol to represent the offer of goodwill that is extended to the german soldiers. To flesh out this symbol, I suggested that, when the german soldiers are killed, we show the jar of pickles being shattered, to represent the loss of the opportunity for peace. I was caught up in the whirlwind of establishing the gift as a symbol, and didn’t see how the symbol could be improved. However, viewing the suggested symbol from a different perspective, Grant was able to see an opportunity for improvement. Grant suggested, in order to optimize the symbol’s effectiveness, that we change the pickles into plums. Plums would be a local treat, relevant to the setting. Also, plums would be sweeter and therefore more representative of the goodwill for which they are intended to  be a placeholder.This rapid fire exchange of good ideas, each building off of the next, is the reason why I am now infinitely more accepting of collaborative authorship. Take that, Auteur theory!