oblivious

The world that we live in has many social issues, however, most people in our specify prefer to ignore these social issues instead of taking action. My video is in black in white to display that the subjects in the video do not have a clear perspective on the things that are going on around them. Many of the participants are drinking to emphasize how people in society have a lack of care of the things that are going on around them. The speech throughout the video is slurred and incoherent to represent how information about social issues is typically not processed or understood by those who hear it. There are major issues in the background of each shot while the subjects continue to live their lives unphrased by the things that are going on around them. The video ends with the subjects' perspective shifting from black and white to in color. The social issues are no longer in the background. The subjects are faced with dealing with the problems that are going on in our society and their reaction is to run away from the problems instead of taking action. 

Music

The five genres I selected to discuss are Punk, Broadway/Musicals, Latin, Nineties, and Virtual. I personally believe Avril Lavigne did a lot for Punk music. She was a key artist that made Punk music more mainstream. Avril Lavigne released several punk pop type songs but she never left behind the her punk influence. She was an artist that made Punk music and style of dressing a trend. The Greatest Showman has been very influential for the Broadway/Musical genre. This Musical is full of technological advancements. There are a lot of stunts that require the actors to fly through the air. The characters were digitally edited to resemble circus people. The videos really push the boundaries of what a typical musical is supposed to be. Daddy Yankee has bought Latin music to America and has completely made it mainstream. You hear his songs in every night club and on every radio station. He has a lot of songs that have an electro dance music feel but they all are about Latin culture. Micheal Jackson was a major part of music in general and definitely a large part of the nineties. His music videos were literal short films. He utilized technology in his videos and had very innovative concepts for his videos. His use of technology in is videos is just one of the many reasons why he is such a legend. Alvin and the Chipmunks are probably the longest lasting and most successful virtual bands of all time. They have several albums and even had a tour. The Chipmunks are the definition of technological advancement because they are not real. The Chipmunks have lasted decades and as time goes on the band appears to be getting progressively more real looking.

Michael Jackson - Black Or White (Shortened Version)

The Greatest Showman ['This Is Me' Lyrics Video in HD (1080p)]

Alvin And The Chipmunks - Christmas Song (+lyrics)

Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee

Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi (Official Music Video)

performance art

My performance art piece is a statement about the state of our face to face relationships. Our society puts more of an emphasis on communicated through media and online relationships are sometimes more valued than our real life relationships. My piece is about how you can be physically close to someone and still not know them. My piece questions what are the conversations we are having about? What things do people focus on in their real life relationships? Are we focusing on the important things? Are our real life relationships pointless? The art piece is also about how no two people have exactly the same relationship with the same person. Two people can view the same person completely differently or focus on two completely different things in their relationship with that person. 

flipbook

My flipbook is of a rocketship taking off and landing on the moon. 

Xerox art

My project depicts thoughts and feelings that people who struggle with depression sometimes have. The piece shows how the words they tell themselves can be just as hurtful to their mental as a physical hit can be to your physical health. 

Art and Technology at the same time?

If I take away one thing from this class it would be that technology has created several new platforms for artists to create art. It is 100% possible to combine art and technology. Technology has been able to create more possibilities and opportunities for art to grow. I think this class made me realize that artists that use technology as their medium have just as much technique and discipline as those artists that use more traditional mediums. I never realized how much time and effort it takes to create things on the computer. There is an amazing amount of skill that goes into coding and creating something amazing from nothing. The most interesting thing I have learned has been that technology has been incorporated into clothing design. In class, we watched the video of the designer with the dress that changed colors based on the movements of the person wearing it. I thought that was an amazing use of both art and technology.

The Universe a simulation?

The Universe being a simulation initially seemed like a pretty crazy and unrealistic concept, but as I watched the video I learned that it might not be so crazy after all. I think this video made me realize that I shouldn’t reject a theory before I even hear it. I think that when information is presented that conflicts with previous knowledge it is quickly rejected without being given a fair chance at consideration. I honestly felt like the video made a strong case for itself. The video actually made me give some serious thought to what it was trying to say. We run realistic simulations all the time to predict outcomes and test hypotheses. I don’t think it is too far fetched that a more sophisticated species could be running a simulation to figure out the different possibilities of what happened to our planet. You can’t reject a theory unless you have evidence that proves it untrue. To my knowledge, there has not been evidence to definitively suggest that this theory is incorrect. The things that we run simulations on don’t know that they are part of a simulation, so we wouldn’t know if we were part of one either. I still think it is a pretty crazy concept and I don’t believe the universe is a simulation, but I did at least give it a fair chance of considering it as a possibility.

21st century tech

A very important technological advancement of the 21^st century has got to be the various types of medical IDs. I am studying to be a healthcare professional and I think this advancement has done a lot for society as a whole. Originally there were only medial cards that had your information on them. Today there are various forms of medical IDs. One example would be a medical bracelet. These are bracelets that have your health information inscribed on the bracelet. You can have information such as blood type, allergies, diseases, and even emergency contact numbers. They have a wide range of styles and choices when it comes to the medical bracelets. They even have ones for kids that are made out of plastic and look more like a toy than a medical bracelet. Medical IDs can also come in the form of a watch, necklace, or even cell phone case. I believe that this is just one step to further technological advancements in the future. I think that one day in the future we will not even need to have any form of physical medical ID at all. The medical IDs will be chips in our arms or some other body part. The chips could be scanned by police or other professionals that typically are first responders to emergencies. The chip could hold all of your medical information in order to give the people that are helping you the best idea of how to help you. This would also eliminate the need for people to remember to wear their medical bracelets and they could never lose them because they would be a part of their body. I could definitely see this being an advancement that occurs sometime in the future because technology is progressively getting smaller and more effective as time goes on.  

Grid Art

My project is a pumpkin and it took a little bit of problem solving to figure out how to maintain the round shape of the pumpkin. Overall, the grid art project was more difficult than I thought it would be because it was very difficult to keep the column and rows straight. This project gave me a lot more respect for the amount of time and effort it takes to put pixels into screens. The process was very tedious but the end result turned out well and it turned out very well. Even with the process being time consuming, I really enjoyed the lesson that this project taught me. 

Broadway

The performance of Fifty Percent was by far my far by favorite performance to watch. The song was very emotional and it made you almost have sympathy for the mistress in the situation. Usually the mistress is always portrayed as the villain in tv shows and movies, but you can hear the love in the performers words ad it almost makes you feel bad for them. I think that the performance by Michael Feinstein was my favorite of all three of the renditions. He brought a different type of emotion and perspective to the song that really stood out from the other renditions. However, I did enjoy the music in the Barbra Streisand version. I think having all the instruments really added a new layer to the song. I especially like the detail that she brought to the song. She had her husband use his voice for the lovers voice on the phone and I thought that was a really awesome detail to add.

1920 Opera: Madama Butterfly

The Mise en scene of Madama Butterfly is crucial to your understanding of the Opera. The overall set design of the Opera is very minimal. There are very few props or sets included on stage. The lighting plays a very important role in this Opera. The lighting adds to the emotion and understanding of the story. Colors light up the entire background based on what is happening in the scene. I think the most noticeable way lighting was used occurred during the death scene. Everything was dark other than a spotlight that was on our main character. Costuming was used in a very similar way that the lighting was used. The costumes were very basic and plain. There were some colorful costumes during specific parts of the Opera. I think the most important use of costuming occurred after the wedding. Madama Butterfly was initially in a more colorful outfit, but when it came time for her to spend the night with her new husband she was wearing all white which signified her purity.

Watching this Opera I discovered that not all Operas about love have a happy ending. I think this piece was very important to the chronology of Opera because it shows that Opera has the ability to convey deeper messages and address harder topics. I’m not sure how audiences reacted when this Opera was initially presented. I personally was very surprised at the direction the story went in. I thought Madame Butterfly was going to be reunited with her love and there was going to be a happy ending. This was not at all the case, so I had a more negative reaction to the story due to it not being what I expected. The Opera was overall very good, so I hope it received positive reactions when it was originally presented. Technology is used in a very unique way in this Opera. There were some instances where the spotlight did some cool effects where it was slanted and moved around. There was also a huge video screen in the background where things were projected. I felt like this added to the overall emotion of the Opera.

I think this piece could easily be turned into a video game. There are several video games on the market that are designed to depict real life. This Opera is definitely something that could happen in real life. Video Games like The Sims follow characters that you create as they go to work, date, get married, have kids, and die. These are events that occurred throughout the opera. I think that the opera could reasonably be turned into a video game.  Madame Butterfly was an opera that I really enjoyed and as a result I would be willing to watch more Operas in the future. 

Madama Butterfly Animation

I personally thought the Madama Butterfly animation was really good. I felt like it was very well constructed and it even helped me to understand the live action version of the Opera a lot better. However, there were some major differences between the animation and the live action version. I think the animation made it more clear the relationship dynamic that was happening throughout the Opera. I was initially confused on where the baby came from when I watched the live action version, but the sex scene in the animation version cleared up my confusion. I think the animation version made the situation seem a lot harsher than the live action version did. The man in the live action version was clearly conflicted about the decisions he was making towards the end, but the man in the animation version showed no remorse for his actions. The ending where he comes and takes the child is different from the live action version as well. In the animation he has a car full of multicultural children which makes it appears as if he has a habit of going to foreign countries to father children and then take them from their mothers. My favorite part of the entire Opera was when she took herself apart. I think that was a very moving scene where you really felt the pain she was experiencing.  

The Birth and Death of Opera

Prior to this assignment, I never really understood what Operas were about or took the time to try and understand them. I have an entirely new opinion of Opera after watching this video explaining the origins of this art form. It was very interesting to learn that Opera was not immediately a hit with audiences and that it actually was pretty unsuccessful with its first two attempts. I think the biggest thing that I learned from this video is that Opera is extremely universal. It was very eye opening to see clips of Operas from countries around the world. The Operas were able to reflect the culture of the country it was presented. Each of the example clips from around the world had details included in the Opera that were unique to that country. I especially liked the very intricate costuming that was seen in the Chinese Operas. I think the important take away that I got from this video was that the lighting, costumes, and actors may not appear completely different but the viewer’s ability to identify the performance as an Opera remains the same no matter the country.

Cuero Interview

The Cuero interview offered a very interesting perspective on creativity that I had never thought about before. One of Cuero's main points during his interview was that understanding nature is what leads to more creativity. He believed that all of the technology that children today grow up with is limiting their scope of creativity. He also stated that creativity comes in small steps and is a long process. I disagree with those statements because technology has enabled people to be creative in ways that were not available to previous generations. I do not believe creativity is a long process. I think it is something that you are born with. The design vs. art article described design as a calculated and defined process. The article described art as something that conveys a message or can inspire an emotion. The definition he gave for creativity more aligns with the definition of design. The article about why some people are more creative than others explained that there are three main networks for creativity and creativity is a balance between controlled and spontaneous thinking. Technology has the ability to offer its users controlled and spontaneous thinking and therefore has the ability to aid one's creativity. The study in the article did conclude that more research needed to be done to determine if the ability to use the three creative networks in the brain were malleable or were they relatively fixed. I think that everyone has some level of creativity. However, some people are born with a higher ability to use their three creativity networks in their brain. The environments that people grow up in have the ability influence their creativity but it is not the determining factor. The determining factor in a person's level of creativity is their genetics.  

Introduction

My name is Chelsea Jones-Mullins, I am a senior at UT studying athletic training. I am from Peoria,IL.  I plan on going to grad school next year for physical therapy. I would like to eventually become a dance medicine/ performing arts ATC and DPT.  Last year I was the student athletic trainer for the women's and men's basketball teams here at UT. I attended every game and practice, and I also traveled with the Men's team. This year I am a student athletic trainer at Clearwater High School and I primarily work with the football team. In my free time I like to watch sports, go to the beach, go to the gym, and go out on the weekends. I also like to spend time with my 6 year old brother.  I took this class because I over slept my 8am Form and Idea class 2 times in one week, so I decided to drop that class and add this one. I think I am going to learn a lot of new and interesting things about the history of art in this class.