Final Project: #takeabreak

#takeabreak

 

    My project is titled #takeabreak. My project is based on mental health. Since the world has opened up since the initial lockdowns of 2020, many have forgotten that we are still in a pandemic. Millions of people around the world are still recovering from the burdens that lockdown and the pandemic have caused. Since the majority are back to their regular routines and there are fewer covid regulations, many don't realize the after effects we have faced as a population. Our economy is in a recession, there's a major labor shortage, and we still are facing a deadly virus. 

    Personally, life after the lockdowns for my family and I has been extremely difficult. The financial burden of a parent being jobless for part of the year still has its lingering effects almost two years later. Becoming an adult during the pandemic has been especially difficult for me and many others my age. Being stuck in a home with your family, not being able to branch out in your young adult years, and entering an economic decline is mentally draining. Today's youth are entering adulthood into a world that is crumbling. For a year, we sat at home watching the news and reading headlines about the daily death toll, watching scientists and doctors who can't understand this rapidly spreading virus, and watching people break guidelines put in place to protect us. It was something out of a movie that we experienced. 

    Returning to campus this semester has been a challenge. I'm in my third year of college, and this is my second semester in person. When starting college, I couldn't wait to go into the healthcare field, and I always loved science. I had a passion for education. Three years later, I changed my major. The pandemic has caused me to have a level of burnout I've never experienced. After spending months at home, we were forced into this rise and grind culture. Last spring I was a full-time student and worked 30+ hours a week, during the summer I worked 50+ hours a week, which caused a level of fatigue I've never experienced. This semester I decided to "take a break" and search for what I wanted. Academically this has been my worst semester, but I have ascended in other ways. Taking a break has allowed me to find calm in a storm. 

    My project is to encourage others to take a break. You don't always have to rise and grind. It is perfectly fine to take a break when needed. It is good to take a break when you are unsure of the paths you have taken. Taking a break can be enlightening to the paths you didn't take. Taking breaks can help you analyze and organize parts of your life you have neglected on the path you've taken. This is especially important for college students, your life is not a straight line. Taking a break allows you to think about your passions and think about who you are outside of your education.

https://www.tiktok.com/@dom_ninga/video/7041789722699730222?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8jgxTZmFO5DFTcyXX1Y5Ixj6i5mzNwm4P4EmBvU%2BVCdVocturx2SxNBPABhYmXQwCXo74UVZqnTnCWNfpGgA%3D&checksum=b1fba87eb67c8ba74aadb969c91b32aea42a37012d72b818b3905f8a43f33267&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAACiA0tHfmJatpgmRoqWWsJIzMatPfOnJiIj1PlosgOnzhmn5iBsUdBquQSEDPziYZ&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7041789722699730222&share_link_id=3B0F2085-25CB-49FA-B669-61F30022CC90&source=h5_m&timestamp=1639595218&tt_from=copy&u_code=d9g349bmgmc3ke&user_id=6765081510951191558&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

Final Intervention - StopTheTox

   Final Intervention

      For my final intervention, I opted to go a more comedic/parody route to touch on toxicity in pop culture, and give an example of one way I have actually seen people try to fight back against that. My commercial focuses on two new "inventions": The Shower and The GrowUpInator. One of these, thankfully, exists, while the other remains just a thought in my imagination. You see, the toxic gamers that run amok in servers or online lobbies all have some form of derogatory term or negative thing to say, so my character, in a sense, becomes toxic himself to strike back against that. While the persona put on in the commercial would love to tell a racist in a Call of Duty lobby to take a shower, or grow up, that will never stop them. What actually will stop the toxicity is ignoring these people, and as I have done, mute their mics in the game chat.

    Weird Al's 'Foil' music video served as inspiration for this project, as did infomercials on Channel Pix 11 in the early morning hours. It was not very hard to shoot the video, although a helping hand would have been useful. I didn't necessarily do a lot of research for the video, as a lot of it was my own writing, but browsing the r/pcgaming reddit forum showed me that I am not alone in noticing a trend of older male's being the main source of this nonsense. Being the only one who doesn't play on a PC, I have to listen my friend groups talk to their virtual opponents, with their opponents being incredibly toxic overall. (I suppose this is what happens when one plays League of Legends.)

    So, I generally have a good grasp on what is going on in the world of gaming, outside and within my circle. This is really why I decided to choose this topic, because it was not only something that allowed me to use my Media Arts/Film stuff for a big video, but also so I could show my thoughts on the idea of over-anger in gaming.  It was a thought that came to me after looking for YouTube parody commercials, or even the most recent Spider-Man themed Liberty Mutual ad. I enjoy injecting humor into these serious situations, while never losing touch of why I am doing it to begin with. It reminds me of the Guerrilla Girls billboard where they put themselves up against art museums in a snarky way. The quote on the promotion actually reads "Art is expensive! So is constructing new buildings! We totally get why you can't pay all your employees a living wage!"

    This all really goes back to meme culture, and how memes have sort of become new symbols against injustices, or have correlated through remade images. On the topic of memes made during Trumps presidency, Sage Lazzaro of Vice said that "Most are rooted either in expressing anger, mocking Trump, or collectively coping with the absurdity and even trauma of his presidency. " (Lazzaro) This is similar to what I've done, where I'm essentially rolling with the absurdity and letting it fuel my video a lot more. The toxic gamers I'm talking about have set themselves up for failure, which is not unlike the politicians who did the same during their runs, currently or before. 

    Building on the idea of these gamers setting themselves up and connecting back to politicians, Lizzie Fison of artsy.net said that "In recent internet history, politicians have set themselves up for ridicule by providing the perfect conditions for their memeification." (Fison) These young men spewing nonsense in game lobbies really do fall in line with politicians like Donald Trump who spewed nonsense and forced people to react in ways they might not have wanted to after hearing the things he said. It is a perfect comparison because both also may react in a childish manner when things don't go their way. Unfortunately, this means that my advice at the end of the video, where I say that ignoring these people is okay, may not always work.

    In conclusion, I am glad that I chose the topic I did, because it means a lot that I have a platform to speak on, even if my opinion isn't new or anything special. I made a video, put it on YouTube, added some tags, and now I am hoping that the right people will get to see it and share their thoughts on the matter. It is a  serious problem that hopefully I can help others take in better with a video that kind of puts down the people it is about.

Link: https://youtu.be/UB6bgL6P0hU

Final Intervention 12-15

     The project I have chosen is one that is interesting to me. The design of this project is quite simple, almost to the point of being abstract. The design is of an arm, most definitely still attached to the body, in a puddle of what is supposed to be blood, the text “Stop Police Brutality” is on the bottom half of the picture. I have chosen this topic because it is a large controversy in the political and social climate of the United States. I chose this form of outreach simply because it has been shown in the past to be effective in the spread of information, such as political cartoons and such.

    The message of this project for the audience is to cease the police brutality present in the United States. Police brutality is a serious problem, affecting many people, primarily, and especially, minorities. There are many news articles and social media outcries discussing this topic. I have conducted some research on this topic. According to masslive.com ,”Springfield narcotics detective Gregg A. Bigda was acquitted on four criminal counts Monday afternoon after a week-long police brutality trial.” This person was “indicted in 2018 by a federal grand jury for excessive force in connection with allegedly punching and kicking young car theft suspects during an arrest in 2016, two counts of “abusive interrogation” for threatening to kill and plant drugs on them, plus drafting a false police report.” Today, as of December 15, 2021, Derek Chauvin, the officer that was convicted for the murder of George Floyd, pleaded guilty for violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Keep in mind, George Floyd was murdered back in May of 2020. Why did it take so long for Chauvin to plead guilty? According to the book This is what I know about Art, on Page 50, “I began to understand how intimately art and activism could work together to produce a collective voice and shared community.” I believe that this excerpt from the book works for what I did, using art to spread activism about a topic.

    Police brutality could be seen as a form of racism. Despite making up 13% of the U.S. population, 27% of people killed by police are black, at least according to mappingpoliceviolence.org. This unfair treatment has affected people mentally, according to news.harvard.edu, “A first-ever study in 2018 found that a police killing of an unarmed African American triggered days of poor mental health for Black people living in that state over the following three months - a significant problem given there are about 1,000 police killings annually on average, with African Americans comprising a disproportionate 25 percent to 30 percent of those.” According to nature.com, “By one estimate, Black men are 2.5 times more than likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime. And in another study, Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed. 

    Unfortunately, I was unable to “publish” this project for an audience to see. This project could possibly fit in my portfolio if I ever decide to get a major in Graphic Design. I’m pretty sure an art project would be good for jobs looking for someone with a degree in Graphic Design.

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/05/how-unjust-police-killings-damage-the-mental-health-of-black-americans/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01846-z

https://www.masslive.com/news/2021/12/springfield-police-detective-gregg-bigda-found-not-guilty-of-police-brutality.html

final project

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo30BE3jfVk&t=160s

For this project, I decided to do a video on gun violence. The idea occurred to me when a friend of mine sent me a very graphic video of 5 Hispanic guys who were standing outside what looked like a store before a car pulled up and a couple other guys shot at them and got out of the car to make sure that all the 5 guys were dead. After viewing the video, I decided that maybe the issue of gun violence and control is something that we constantly need to talk about until people stop losing their lives just anyhow. In this project, I played a call of duty mobile game * which by the way am very good at* and edited the clips to show subtitles which are mostly statistics of people who die or get injured by guns. Some are young children aged between 1-17 and others are older people. Some are killed intentionally, others unintentionally, Some commit suicide. One of the solutions offered in the video is to encourage the use of concealed carry permits which from my research has been shown to reduce gun violence and another solution is to limit access of guns and also to hold gun manufacturers and sellers accountable.

Final intervention

 Recycle 

In my presentation, I wanted to speak on something the world has tried our best in many ways possible to fix. My topic is Recycling, and it is the process of gathering and processing items that would otherwise be discarded as waste and transforming them into new products. There was also one episode about Recycling in TV shows today and when I was growing up. So, for example, I made one and made my favorite jingle for this project, "reduce reuse and recycle cha!". Furthermore, Recycling is positive because when done right, it provides extra resources or is made into different ones we did not know we needed. 

Why do we need to recycle, you might ask? In reality, many benefit from reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators, which help the animals in oceans and land. When putting plastic in the trash, those are dumped in animal habitats, which makes Recycling one of the best to save animals and their homes. "With each passing day, the population is increasing. With that, the quantity of waste so produced is also increasing manifolds. The more waste production, the more is the amount of space required to dump these wastes. Now, it must be remembered that the space available on Earth is minimal, and it is obviously up to us to use it judiciously" (conserve energy future). Animals can get stuck in cans or plastic. Sadly in turtle cases, some straws become deadly or in their nose. It also, Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials. With Recycling, it's even another world for going green all around when you are driving down the street. Do not throw something that can be recycled outside of your car because you're dirtying up the planet and throwing out a well-needed resource that can be used in someone else's home. Moreover, we as a planet can create jobs for people who work in the industry field, the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United States. 

Recycling is essential in today's climate if we want to leave this planet to future generations. Because we're reusing outmoded items that are no longer usable. Basic ways of saving the Earth are great for the environment. "The power of glamor resides in their supposed happiness" (ways of seeing 7). Many great lessons start in the household, meaning It all begins with Recycling at home. If you don't throw away any of your old products and instead use them to build something new, you're recycling. When it comes to Recycling, the three R's should be considered: reduce, reuse, and recycle. We've been irresponsible in our treatment of the Earth up to this point, from trash on the streets and animal cruelty, and it's time for a change, not just in how we do things but also in how we think mentally. 

People might look at this project and say, what does this have to do with art? Surprisingly, many artists don't use recycled products to put masterpieces on the wall for their expression and our fulfillment. His artworks are made using shredded magazine paper, labels, and other recyclable materials. Before making graphics, Gores organizes his resources by color. His work is mainly made up of reused materials and features pictures of women or ordinary life scenes influenced by fashion and design. Another is Khalil Chishtee Pakistani artist Khalil Chishtee specializes in creating life-size sculptures out of discarded plastic bags. Equally important is Guerra de la Paz, the group work from unconventional materials like recycled clothing, from which they create very colorful sculptures. And lastly, Vik Muniz uses rubbish, torn magazines, cables, puzzle pieces, and even dust as his materials. Muniz makes large-scale installations that must be digitally projected from a height onto the ground. All these people create something out of what we call trash. However, one person's trash is another person's treasure. This is related to me because my household recycling is a resource; for example, a butter container is not thrown out. It was washed and filled with last night's leftovers. "By working with recycled materials, these artists encourage their viewers to question the sustainability and ecological impact of the artistic process" (artsper magazine). 

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdjXNXSS/

 In my Tik Tok and my selfie, I would show myself recycling my Dunkin Donuts cup. I rinsed out and made my water cup for the day. Also, the video gives the public service announcement of its okay to do and shows how easy it is to do. "A person may notice a particular image or piece of an informative response to some particular he has" ( ways of seeing 130 ). Without energy, the world can function, so hopefully, my 15 second video is watched and hopefully listened to so we can change our ways and get the planet clean and welcoming. Recycling helps to make consumption data far more efficient, allowing for lower spending and improved financial results. It's easy to grasp if you consider its effect on energy use. 

Recycling Basics, epa united states enviormental protection agaency https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics 

10 artist working with recycled art, artsper magazine 

https://blog.artsper.com/en/get-inspired/top-10-of-recycled-art/ 

Importance of recycling, conserve energy future go green stay green 

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/importance_of_recycling.php

John berger  ,Ways of seeing chapter 7

Final Intervention

"Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?",
a Children's book

 

A graph depicting government spending

No matter how long it’s been since we’ve last heard them, childhood nursery rhymes remain repetitive enough that they’re incredibly difficult to forget. For my project, I wanted to create a satirical piece using the silly nature of nursery rhymes. Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar remains, for some annoyingly repetitive reason, one nursery rhyme I remember quite well. Using the concept of someone, or something, stealing from others, I had the idea of using federal spending to create something that stands relevant in recent conversations about defunding the police.

The topic I chose is government funding, on local and federal levels. When you look at how much money is spent on police forces in local communities, and how much the government spends on military weapons and vehicles, and then, comparatively; how much is spent on our schools, and health care systems, and public housing, and environmental protection acts, the picture painted is rather depressing. From John Berger, Ways of Seeing: "Within publicity, choices are offered between this cream and that cream, that car and this car, but publicity as a system only makes a single proposal..." One thinks about how, in terms of whether the government will fund this or that, the option that helps our communities directly are often forgotten. 

The Guerilla Girls have a "particular combination of subversive theatrics and outrages flaunting of convention finds a ready audience", as quoted from their book, that particularly leans into performance art through a witty means. While this idea is not performance art, the reuse of a child's nursery rhyme plays into the theatrics of protest.

First, I wanted to create characters fitting a child’s book that would be able to represent the public affair categories I wanted to mention. When I realized one such image already existed to represent the police (and by that extensions, the defense and military aspect of the federal budget as well), I decided to create other animal characters to contrast the police pig. The animals chosen were relatively random, mostly chosen to look cute enough to fit the style I was going for.

While I wasn’t able to create and produce a fully illustrated satirical children’s book, I was able to produce a hand made concept zine exploring my idea. The animals are depicted responding to the nursery rhyme and continuing the song until they get to the guilty culprit of who stole all the cookies from the jar of general funding— the pig.

The metaphor is relatively obvious to the viewer, with cookies representing federal funding.

Ideally, the project would be illustrated and printed like a normal book. While I didn’t have the time or resources to do that, instead I used a 14 by 17 piece of sketchbook paper to cut and fold into a mini-zine. I penciled everything in before adding pastel coloring to everything through light watercolors. After that, I used a black marker to add the text and draw the accompanying doodles. Then, paint markers were used to highlight some parts and make it look more colorful.

The zine is as shown below.
(Sesame Street audio was used from here)

Sources for further and/or background reading:

How much do US cities spend on policing?

Police funding in local governments

Discretionary spending

Our Earth is a Beautiful Earth, It is our duty to preserve it's Beauty..

 As I was brainstorming what I wanted to do for this project, I settled on making keychains. I concluded with this for several reasons. Firstly, I thought it would be fun and a bit different. I wanted something that would make someone smile or make them happy or both. That's something I love to do. I also never made a keychain before and I thought that it would be a little challenge for me. I went through with the idea and it was a success thankfully! Throughout the semester, I've gained a lot of inspiration from Tana Hargest's work. I created a faux sweets company and I wanted to create a faux other company. "The main reason for using these techniques is that they put people at ease." What I do may not put people at ease, but I want to put people in a better place by putting a smile on their face or excitement in their chests. 

Once again, I am the CEO of yet another successful company named We Are the Key. We Are the Key is my fictional company that makes small, sentimental items. Our newest item is a keychain which we named Trees for All. Because of the severe impact of global warming (and people not knowing when enough is enough), trees all around the US have been devastated by extreme weather and deforestation. Forest fires and deadly, violent tornadoes are zipping through states taring down trees and destroying habitats. Deforestation from companies trying to build more factories to release more dangerous gases into the atmosphere just to be gluttonous. The trees along with many other important things are being left in the dust. When that dust settles is only when we will act with urgency.

Combating global warming and trees go hand and hand. Planting trees has many many benefits.

1. Trees clean the air by filtering pollutants making the air cleaner to breathe and trapping carbon dioxide

2. Trees support wildlife by providing habitat, food and protection to small plants and animals too

3. Trees improve health and well being by reducing noise pollution which has been linked to increased stress levels and cardiovascular problems overtime

4. Trees provide oxygen (which we breathe @^@)

The list of how trees are beneficial to the overall well-being of Earth is quite endless. Not only are trees very useful and vital for societies, they are easy to plant and maintain. One can easily take the seeds from a tree that is native to their region and plant them in the ground. 

"Therefore, if socially useful art is ultimately determined by the society it serves, the artist, as toolmaker must, by necessity, look to the public sphere, and not to the realm of art, for the logic of her work. It also means that the success of any fully, radically expanded idea of art is ultimately measured by its very disappearance into the daily life of the masses". I took this statement and merged it with my idea for this project. I want what I do to be successful, also meaning that I want it to have an influence on people. I wanted to come up with something that wouldn't "disappear into the daily life of the masses" so easily. That's another explanation for the idea. A keychain can be kept on items that we use everyday. Car keys, house keys, backpacks, purses, wallets, etc. A keychain is something that can last and won't easily be forgotten. And for each keychain, I wanted their their to be something unique and rewarding about it. 

 

Hello from the CEO of We Are the Key! This time around, we are introducing a very special little item. A keychain named Trees for All. The keychain is made from non-plastic materials including metal alloy key rings, metal alloy jump rings and chain, a key made from nickel alloy, and a glass pendant. The glass pendant used varies between each keychain. There are 20 different versions! The pendant is beautiful, and so is our Earth. We wanted to represent the beauty on Earth and incorporate that with saving Earth's beauty. Trees are one of the most beautiful things on Earth, not only for its looks but for its various benefits. The small key is to represent that each and every individual has the key to make a difference on their own whether large or minute. We've partnered with a non-profit organization and with every keychain sold, a tree will be planted in their community or a community of their choice from the list provided. Down below are some sources that were used as inspiration for the product and sources that our customers can visit for more information on how they can help the cause and what the benefits are. 

Resources: 

 

American Forest Foundation | Unlocking Potential in Family Forests. (2021). American Forest Foundation. https://www.forestfoundation.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuGNBhCPARIsACbnLzp_UCdYAeyhZnB9XPkBFXeTQloGnlMe9GJOeL61KIu--hhKWulgT4QaAumLEALw_wcB

New Jersey Tree Foundation Inc Reviews and Ratings | Jackson, NJ | Donate, Volunteer, Review | GreatNonprofits. (2021). Great Nonprofits 2007–2021. https://greatnonprofits.org/org/new-jersey-tree-foundation-inc

Plant a Tree. (2019). Spaceship Earth. https://www.spaceshipearth.org.uk/plant-a-tree?gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuGNBhCPARIsACbnLzoAKRDkZP46_sL1ORpXnCt71QmSnBfiZlDeXqRgJwdNGtQamkwXoYkaAkC3EALw_wcB

Planted, O. T. (2021). One Tree Planted | Tree Planting Non-Profit: One Dollar, One Tree. One Tree Planted. https://onetreeplanted.org/

Save Lands plants 12 trees for each item sold. (2021). Lands. https://savelands.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuGNBhCPARIsACbnLzqJZLtnsaGBCBLcVtQrSG2894-Fluqv6IiZxsM1uSj4sRmIQQcpAzYaAqs7EALw_wcB