Week 4 // My Artist Statement

            So, After our last class I'm pretty sure this is wrong. But, here is my first draft I wrote for the assignment:

Reality is a prison and the surface is a lie.

I want to show you something more, the things others don't see that haunts us, the raw emotion we're told to conceal. But, I also want to show you something good, something pure, the thing we lost when we made the transition from child to adult; 

I want to show you complete self-honesty.

            That's it. I have the habit of listening to epic movie scores when I write, so things just kind of burst out of me when I'm told to write something I'm passionate about or when doing something like this. But, honestly, I found it bullshit that getting "too deep" is a no, no. As artists we're always feeling and always seeing something from a new perspective. If I have a piece that's "deep" I'm going to tell you something "deep."That's it. I'm not going to adjust because when you see an image of, for example, a homeless man all you see is a homeless man while I see a human being, a story, and a heart. I'm going to do that man justice by giving him an equally standing artist statement for the collection.

I'm definitely not dissing the assignment though, I like it.

Good Vibes

Week 4 // Everythings an Argument

            I must say, not sure if I didn't like this reading or not. While I know there are many different forms of arguments, I personal believe only one type should actually be used and, according to the reading, the Rogerian argument is probably just that. I feel like arguing for the sake of being right and drowning out another person accomplishes nothing. We're all too fucking busy to waste time being in a yelling match and trying to make every think and act the same way as we all do. Learn and be open minded to what is being said, TRY to understand. This doesn't mean you're admitting being wrong, you just understand why the other feels like that and gained a new perspective, no matter how messed it is. At least s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g comes out of it. You shouldn't try to convince or persuade, period. Lay down the facts, if they want to be ignorant and dismiss it well, that's just a shitty person. But, (sorry, reading as I type) I guess that's actually arguments to explore that I just described, but it makes sense that if you don't have all the information and simply assume something. If you're doing that though, as soon as new information is provided, you will adjust your stance accordingly.

            Oh goodness, so many reasons to argue, but now that I think about it we are always arguing. Arguing whether or not we should do our assignments or chill, arguing if we should get out of bed or sleep for another half hour. Yeah... I get it.

Good Vibes

Week 3 // Artists' Statements

            The artists' statements I read kind of varied. For example, Zhang Jingna, a photographer I've always been fond of, only had a simple about me, like where she was from and when she was born, and then proceeded to list of awards she has received while Christian Paul wrote about his vision and what photography means to him. I'm kind of torn between which approach I liked best.
         
            So, all of the artists' statements stayed pretty short and concise. I'm kind of just sitting here trying to write my own artist's statement and I don't know whether or not to do a short about me and things I've accomplished or what all of this really means to me. At the same time, I feel like statements are a preview to the work that is actually done. Like with Jingna, her photography represents where she is from and what she values and all of her awards basically testifies her life and how she feels about it. Paul's tells you what photography is to him and what it should do and it really show's in his work as well. So, I guess an artist statement is just suppose to represent your art and who you are as an artist before we move forward to actually feasting our eyes upon it.

Week 3 // Understanding Rhetoric

           This weeks reading was unexpected. I never thought I'd be in college being told to read a comic book about rhetoric and identities. Sometimes, when I'm reading long papers for school I forget what it was I was suppose to be learning, but it really made everything super easy to digest and understand. It was super refreshing though, having a comic to read, I'd pick it over my other reading assignment for school any day.
       
          The comic made sense. Everything we write requires specific components. For example, if I emailed Zack right now I probably wouldn't write:
                                             
                       Aye Bro, What crack-a-lackin? 
            I totally meant to do that blog thing, I just got S-H-I-T F-A-C-E-D last night and well, you know how that goes... (;     So, didn't feel like writing it. I'll try to hit the next one.
                                                                                                          You Da Man,
                                                                                                                      Ziggy Zee

(I'm so sorry that was a painful example to write... crack-a-lackin?.. yeah. punch me.) I have to keep in mind my audience, the purpose, identity, and so forth. The reading did a good job in displaying that. Putting on certain costumes to represent your identity that in return affect the responses you get. So, I should probably be a bit more formal and say something like:

                     Zack,
            I understand that the reading and blog should have been completed yesterday, however, I was experiencing technical difficulties and was unable to publish the post. While I also understand I should have completed my assignment earlier, I sincerely apoligise and hope you will consider giving me credit for it. 
                                                                                                               Thank you,
                                                                                                                     Zhané A. Ritchie 
That makes sense, right?
I take on the identity of a student because he assumed the role of professor instead of a homie.
Yeah, definately.
(I think I blogged somewhat correctly.)

Good Vibes

Week 1 // Navigating Genres

            After reading Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, it made me realise how often we actually generalize things to calculate a response, but I can definitely identify them now in my everyday life. For example, In the writing it talked about how we use social media to get a response corresponding to the genre on the post we publish. So, when you post a joke, you expect people to respond with "LOL" and "HAHA!" But, for those who have read the paper, I disagree that you can't update your Facebook status with "X has a huge wart on his foot," because obviously, the publisher is expecting people to reply with a genre of responses correlating with that of disgust.
            A part I found really interesting in the writing is when he wrote "...when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in a new genre." (Dirk, 252) I just thought it was super cool because, to me, it exemplified how we kind of learn and grow based on observed and learned behavior. To try to clarify that, when something new happens and you have to create a response, you will try to think of the most similar situation that occurred in order to create a response most suitable for the situation. So, that's my two cents on the reading.

Good Vibes

Week 1 // About Me

            I've always hated writing the "about me" because I'd much rather be talked to and found out as opposed to giving you my watered down version of who I think I am. Alas, this is an assignment so here we go…

            I am currently 19 years old and looking forward to celebrating my 20th next month. 

            I'm a Professional Photography student at Brooks Institute.

            Why photography? Well, I got my first camera when I was about 12-ish, it was a shitty waterproof Barbie camera, but it was basically a disposable camera with gel wrapping it with "Barbie" printed onto the side. Anyways, I finished my roll shooting my siblings riding bikes on our loop driveway and decided I liked it. So, my next birthday, I got my first point and shoot and since has upgraded until I got a Nikon D5100, my first DSLR. I had taken Photography in high school, it was a film course though, and it wasn't until then I began taking it a little bit more seriously and thought of it as a career. I hadn't created and shot my own idea until I took Independent Study my senior year and it sealed the deal for me. Zhang Jingna's Motherland Chronicles is also a reason I'm forever fucked and in love with this intense career choice.

            What else..?

            I recently discovered I really enjoy camping.

            I've always known I like hiking.

            I enjoy all sorts of music; Instrumental (like movie scores from Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, Johann Johannsson), Acoustic Folk type music (Margot & the Nuclear So So's, Stokes,William, Roo Panes), etc, but not country music.

            

I feel like this is long enough and I've covered the basics.

Good Vibes