Brain Fart

Working on the last assignment I uploaded, I wasn't sure I was doing it right. Today in class, we got to show what we did if we wanted to. A couple of people went up and showed their broken rule assignments, and they all thought they didn't do a good job, but it turns out they did a nice job. I was astounded at how creative people's ideas came to be once they shared them and the class gave their input. I was the last to go and I went up there feeling uneasy about what I was gonna show. I was afraid people were going to not like what I did because it looked kind of weird even from my perspective. I got up there and played the video. After about 2 minutes, it ended and I started to get very nervous waiting to see the reactions. I started getting a lot of good feedback, which made me start shaking a bit because I tend to get extremely nervous when I have to talk to a big group of people. I tried to talk back, but when i get nervous my brain farts so bad that I can't even get a sentence out without butchering it. I'm glad some students helped me out on some parts or else it would have gotten interesting, haha.The teacher really seemed to like it and other students game me comments that I very much appreciated. That gave my spirit the lift it needed to keep doing what I was doing. I returned to my seat, trying not to faint on the way. As I sat down, I couldn't help but smile. I am not going to try and follow the rules and be like everyone else. I see things differently, I see things sideways, and I want to help everyone try to see things in a new perspective. I am going to continue doing things my own creative way. I hope you enjoy it.

Broken Video Tape

For this assignment, we were supposed to think of a rule to break that would help us get more creative in our endeavors. I had the hardest time trying to think of one. At first, all i could think of was something that could get me in trouble, like sneaking into somewhere private and recording some sort of video. As much as I wanted to do that, I wasn't going to risk getting arrested. I really wanted to make a video on the highway, but that would be too dangerous, even though I like a little risk. Finally I just decided to break the rules of editing videos instead. All I had to do was come up with a short video idea that I could break the editing rules on. While scrounging around my room, I came upon a stack of old video tapes that I never used anymore, seeing as I don't have a VHS player anymore, I decided to them. I don't know how but I ended up taking some apart and thought of the idea to wrap myself in video tape. I really liked the Idea because I love films and this would kind of be a video about me wrapping myself in what I love, film, becoming it. I set up a checkered white and black background and a color changing light and began to film. I opened up the video and took the tape out. While wearing a blazer and tie only, I began to wrap myself in it. After the First one was done, I grabbed another and continued. After being covered in it, I then tried to break free from the web I had woven myself in. It was a bit of a struggle, but I managed to break free at the end. After being free, I stopped recording and started editing. I chose to break the rule of editing by removing every other frame of certain parts of the film and managed to create this weird clipping effect that I kind of liked for the beginning of the movie. Then i butchered some more parts and placed them in random order after  so it wasn't in chronological order. What I got was this nice trippy effect that goes well with a song that came to me while driving on the road. After minor edits here and there, I came up with a nice music video exert. I am glad chose to break that rule because trying new things can lead you to create magnificent ideas that you probably wouldn't of come up with by just following the rules like everyone else. In order to get creative, you got to try different things now and then, break a few rules so you can show other that there are various ways to do things in this world. Different ways to show your perspective. Hope you enjoy the video.

 

Wasted

Today in class, we talked about our 50 what-ifs assignment. I wasn't in school last week so I had no idea how the assignment was supposed to be done. From what I heard other people say though, made me feel better about myself. This guy said he got so frustrated that he listed tying the book up and dragging it behind his car. What was he on? I never thought of it like that, as you see in my previous post about my 50 what ifs.  After discussing that, we watched a film called Waste Land, a film about artist Vik Muniz and how he created masterful art pieces of art from recycled material picked by pickers in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It was nice to meet all the people throughout the film and learn about their lives there. This one man named Valter hadn't have a proper education and had been there all his life. He enjoyed his job and said he would rather be poor than rich. A quote he said that I will remember forever is (talking about the importance of recycling) "people sometimes say, "But one single can? One single can is of great importance. Because 99 is not 100, and that one single can will make the difference" He died soon after the film was made, which broke my heart. I think he is a hero personally because I am for recycling 100%. I hate to see people throw recyclables away because I feel they don't really know what they are doing to the environment. If we could just do our part, we would have a cleaner environment to thrive in. Thank you, Valter for being a hero for the environment, you will never be forgotten. 

How to change History...

...the book, not actual history. I have this history book that I chose for an assignment in which we transform a book which you had negative feelings towards into a book that is positive. I chose the History book not because I hate history, but because my history class was taught by a senile old man who almost fell asleep during his own lecture. Personally, I don't seem to remember most of it now because there isn't anything too interesting that stuck in my mind about that class, other than history of course, so that's why I chose it. Here are some what if's on what I could do with the book to make it more positive to me.


1. What if I colored in the book to make it not so boring?
2. What if I made it into a pop-up book by using other pages within the book to make the pop-ups?
3. What if I burned some pages to represent how sometimes the past is burned in our memories?
4. What if I put post its over the actual text and replaced it with a simpler form so everyone could understand?
5. What if I made the book more fun by putting puzzles in it that went from page to page?
6. What if I transformed the book into a digital video and used only interesting parts of it?
7. What if I took the book with me everywhere and incorporated something memorable from that day on one page until I finished it?
8. What if I turned the book into a scrap book of photos of people that resemble people from that book?
9. What if I ripped out all the pages and re-organized them in a random order so I could literally change history and make it more interesting.
10. What if I took out all the pages, kept the binding, and made re-make the whole book using my perspective?
11. What if I wrote a good thought on each page until I filled it, then pass it on to someone?
12. What if I tore out all the pages and use them as wallpaper?
13. What if I made a collage of the pictures to help me remember the most important parts of history?
14. What if I took out important moments in history and hang them on a tree outside to make a Histree? (haha I'm an idiot! )
15. What if I put the book to use and shredded it to make confetti for a music video ?
16. What if I made origami projects with each page, and see how many I can make before it becomes too difficult?
17. What if I turned the book into a day-by-day calendar?
18. What if I hide random pages in public places and see if anyone notices?
19. What if I tore out all the pages and dropped them from a building onto the unsuspecting public to cause a scene?
20. What if I tore out the first 59 pages and placed them in a bag and used that to pick lottery numbers?
21. What if I used the pages to make a paper Mache bust of the teacher?
22. What If I used the good moments in the history book and laminate the pages and make a positive shower curtain?
23. What if I made a little boat from the book and put a message in it and sent it down the river to see if anyone gets it?
24. What if I made a kite out of the book?
25. What if I took interesting moments in history and made placemats out of them?
26. What if I made scribbled out some words of the text so I could make it reading it a different experience?
27. What if I made a comic strip that sums up the main point of some chapters of the book?
28. What if I inserted in curse words here and there when necessary to spice the book up and make reading it a laugh?
29. What if I recorded myself reading the book so when I forget about it in a few years i can hear myself read it to jog my memory?
30. What if I summerized the key aspects of each chapter and made my own shortened version of the book?
31. What if i used the pages as wrapping paper and make their presence a present?
32. What if I collected unique quotes from throughout the book and make a positive poster out of them?
33. What if I made the book more interactive and make it into a play which people can act out?
34. What if I took the book with me and went to go visit the historical sites in it?
35. What if I took the book with me and continued writing history from where the book left off?
36. What if I replaced the pictues in the book with my own version of them?
37. What if I i took out all the pages and arranged them so i made a nice flag out of them?
38. What if I made a giant timeline to chronically time the events of all the wars and when everything happened?
39. What if I replaced the people in the History book with people I know from real life?
40. What if I made a choose your own adventure book out of the book so you could jump between historical periods?
41. What if I could take the book with me to the past and alter the future?
42. What if I donated the book?
43. What if I made a costume out of the pages and was the book for halloween?
44. What if I talked to elders about what their life was like during certain points in history ?
45. What if I went to live temporarily at a location that allowed you to experience what life was like back then?
46. What if I made a interactive video game out of the history book?
47. What if I related past historical events from the book to modern day events to see if history is really repeating itself?
48. What if I made a song about histories greatest moments to a tune we could all remember?
49. What if I sold the book so I could use the funds for buying another?
50. What if I recycle the book so I can help it transform into something else?



What would you do to it?

Blind in the 3rd eye

For this class take away, I was unfortunately not in class, due to a spontaneous eye infection that has happened during the weekend. I Woke up this morning to have my eye swollen and red, which i was very upset about. I needed to go see a doctor to confirm what I had. Getting up at 7:30 in the morning and barely having any sleep to begin with wasn't helping the situation. I still got up and took a shower, but a voice in the back of my head was begging me to just go back to sleep. I hadn't missed a day of college at IUPUI since i started last semester. I was very anal about missing days because i know if I miss any day of class, I would have to deal with catching up on top of all the assignments I already have to do. This semester I am taking 5 classes, which is a first for me. I never expected to get sick enough that I would have to miss a day of school, but here I am, in bed, writing as my class is almost over. I went to the doctors around 3 when class began and I got diagnosed with an eye infection. I was panicking. The school week had just started and the doctor told me I had to stay away from school for a few days. I have never missed a day of school, let alone a couple in the same week. I began to foresee the future of me having to catch up with school work while trying to stay current with it as well and having to work on the weekend with no chance of catching up with it. I was about to force myself to go to school when I stopped and had a thought. This is something new to me that I have never done before, which I shouldn't be afraid of. Yes, I will be missing a couple days of school, but that doesn't mean that I have to fall behind and give up. I just have to keep up to date on assignments that we are doing and turn in everything that is due on time. I may have one eye that doesn't work but my third eye woke up because of that. It has been blinded by what my eyes can see, but now that one eye isn't working, the third one has kicked in to help me not stress out about the situation and to help me get through it. I must challenge myself to accept things I cannot change, and find other ways to keep succeeding because I'm pretty sure this isn't the last time this will happen. That is my take away, away from school.

Abstract sand art.

Perspective. It's a way of seeing things. Many people love art for that reason. You choose to see it one way and other see it another. For the next assignment we had to doodle for about 30 minutes and see what ideas came from that. I hadn't doodled in quite some time, so I was finding it rather difficult to get this started. Rather than using the traditional pen and paper method, I decided to try something different. I used a poster board for my paper and my pen was a bottle of glue. Unfortunately, both things were white, so I decided to sprinkle sand on top of the glue as it dried so it could be seen. I grabbed my poster board, glue, sand I had just gotten from a creek down the street, and music then headed outside. I thought it would help me be more alert if I was doodling in the fresh air and sunlight. I set a timer up for 30 minutes and then began. I first started by making random marks (spontaneity) in the center of the board. After making a few sets, I would coat the glue with sand, then shake the it off to see a nice line of sand was left behind. I then started making random spirals here and there, but it was still looking very odd. I then started to make the same shapes here and there and I started to see a pattern (serendipity). I made a circle that looked as if the ones that followed were getting bigger. It started to look like the planets for some reason (synchronicity). Then, I thought making a galactic background would be fun. I drizzled glue all over the place and then coated it with sand. After shaking it off, it kind of looked like it was looking like a galaxy, but the random doodles I began with made it seem like only half the page was that, and the rest were all scribbles. I then surrendered and started doing random shit here and there because I didn't know what else to do. I was stuck. I then thought of perspective. It didn't look like anything from the way I was looking at it. I then started turning and then I noticed something odd. It kind of looked like a weird person. Thats when I realized the synchronicity of everything had led me to create this weird abstract person with scribbles for a face that was holding a circle in one had that was connected to others that got smaller. It looked alien-esque. I decided to throw some grass into the picture to make it look like the grass was the type of clothing it wore. It had already been 30 minutes but I kept going. In the end, I had come up with this weird abstract person who looked like they came from beneath the earth. That is what I see at least, what do You see?

Color me confused

Something that stuck with me in class was the whole color book exercise we did. We had to begin coloring in our own books first. I had just ordered this coloring for adults coloring book online and I couldn't wait to start coloring it. It had many adult themes pages that were hilarious. As She told us to start coloring, my hands ripped open the color pencils that hadn't been touched since I bought them and plunged them towards the page and started coloring it vigorously. The First page was about coloring in different shades of adult colors, such as suspicious cold sore red, tanner stain orange, court-ordered urine sample yellow and bulimia green. That is the last one I got done coloring before she told us to stop. We then had to pass our coloring book over to the left and draw in their coloring book, but outside the lines. I got a picture from the Movie Up, which i love. It was a picture of the old man carrying the floating house with the little boy tied along with him. I decided to scribble different colors in a cloud on the balloons, making the look multicolored. This was a weird thing that I just randomly did and it turned out to be really neat. I then started making my own trees and scenery behind the picture when she said time was up. I can't believe some people were nervous about coloring in someone else's book, trying not to ruin their pictures, but what I thought of it as letting others see your creativity. I returned it and hoped that someone had done something creative in mine. I got it and found out they used a sharpie and I was upset because it bled through 2 pages, but I still liked the creative thought put into the picture. He had chosen a photo where you had to make a homeless man look rich by adding a top hat and tux and anything else to change his facade. He followed the rules, which is a no-no in creativity, but I liked that he changed his cup into a champagne glass. She then explained something that I will remember for the rest of my life. She basically summed up what college is. It's a place where you come so you can follow rules and become another cog in the machine that is society. I agreed with her, many people loose their creativity as they get older because they are just too busy to have time to be creative. I do not want to be one of those people. My creativity has survived this far into my life somehow and i want to finally let it free. I'm glad this class is helping me finally use it.

An Eggs-periment

For our first assignment we were given an egg, and we were supposed to do something creative with it, anything. At first my imagination took off like running like a track star, which overwhelmed me with ideas that i couldn't decide on. I weeded the bad ones out and thought about the remaining ones. I thought a video would be great because i could also use it in my portfolio. Since i had this song stuck in my head i just thought id make the video, musical. I would have made it longer but after shooting and editing, it came out to shorter than i expected. The song is originally 5-6 minutes long. The video is supposed to kind of be psychedelic because of the song. It just randomly came to me after struggling to think of which ideas would be good. To me it's art because my passion for making videos fueled this idea from becoming a thought to reality. Hope you Enjoy it.