Brain Fitness Debriefing # 8

My Brain Fitness visits have been different as of late, mostly because P left the program. So I didn't post last time because there was nothing to post really. But this time around, it was much more eventful. What with the flu flying around, there happened to be a bunch of members without their students, which meant that we grouped up and had a nice round table discussion about ourselves. Where we were from? What we did or are doing? What are our plans for the future? Normal, first time meeting each other topics. But then we started to dig deeper, talk  about our photo projects and how working with another person was, what classes at Rollins affected us the most and from there we talked on an on, back and forth. So it was just a real pleasure just to have that conversation.

Blurb Reading

Upon reading this exerpt, I was immidiately reminded of everything we've been going over in class about our photobooks. Put it together physically, what story are you trying to show? Figure out how your images work together, and so on. We've gone over it so many times that I feel like Im being nagged while reading this. Although reading the same ideas can become really annoying, I have to concede that those ideas are incredibly important and hard to put into practice so we have to be harped on it so much. Every single detail you put into a photobook should reflect your intent and something as simple as font style and size can change the aesthetics greatly. Howevef there were some ideas that didnt cross my mind until I read this, like creating a sketch booklet and scanning the images into my final.

Photo Series

There are times when I encounter those who really don't "get" sports, they have their own priorities and they simply can't imagine why athletes would put themselves through such duress just for a game. An athletes reasons are tested at around the age of middle school, or at least for female athletes. It's a time filled with stigmas, it's the time when things in sports really start to pick up, and many young and talented ladies choose to abandon the sport because they feel they need more time for "normal" activities. With these photos, I am attempting to illuminate why and what we athletes sacrifice for our sport. I organized them in a mirrored fashion to connect non-athletes to athletes. There really isn't any deeper meaning to them, just look closely and the idea will be clear.

1.Many young ladies put a high value on their physical appearance, some are even terrified to leave their room with out make up. But with athletes, we don't stress so much about our looks when we leave for a game. We are going out there to play in the dirt, rain or shine, not get complements on our perfectly trimmed eyebrows. Due to the continuous exposure, you can see the effect it has on the body; the skin becomes dryer, courser, your face ages from the sunlight, and there are so many more changes going on below the face that people can't see beyond the uniform.

2.Other people always seem to have time to efficiently study and get proper sleep. Well, athletes are constantly juggling school work and sports and more often than not, they have hardly the time get a good night's sleep, let alone study. Even though we are tired physically and mentally, we continue on.

3. The media has made Prom and other similar events, seem like the best night of our lives, it is a must go. Consequently, it is many girls dreams to go to Prom dressed like a princess and doing whatever you want for one night. For many athletes, these events are an impossibility as games always seem to fall on the same day. We trade our flowing gowns for worn uniforms. But honestly, when I actually managed to go to Prom one year, I kind of wished I had a game because this experience wasn't as thrilling or fun as playing with my teammates.

That's the overall heart and why to why we athletes give up your "normal" for our "normal". We don't push ourselves till we throw up, or get scrapes, or miss out on fun events because we enjoy it. We do it because going out there with a group of your very best friends playing a game you all love, is something that you'd trade most anything for.

Lucida Excerpt

Today, our world is saturated with photographs, many of them come at us so quickly we haven't the time to stop and think about how this image appeals to us. We scroll through Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and more, endless streams of photographs; and what do we gain from it. As Lucida described in this excerpt, what we get is a constant feeling of "studium", that state of when you look at a photo and you like it or you don't and it really doesn't reach further inside of you than that. When Lucida began to describe this, I immediately connected with it, and kind of had an "ah ha" moment. As a child of the digital age, I experience this event on the daily, I never knew what name to tie to the numbing pleasure I get from social media, but now I do. But upon this realization, I became kind of disappointed in our society for not wanting to view the more provocative photography the world has to offer, the pictures that strike us at our soul and really hit us hard, the "punctum." But then, the author clarified that studium is not the enemy of punctum but rather they are two sides of the same coin that create a whole. Studium presents itself first and gives the viewer the general awareness of the situation. While punctum, when it does appear, provides a pin point of detail that illuminates the entire image further.
As an artist this excerpt has given me another aspect to think about: whether or not, I choose to include a piece of punctum in my work, and if I do, the subject of punctum I choose can drastically affect my intent. It can tell if I was really "there" with this piece.

Brain Fitness Debriefing 6

So as P could not make it this week,  I got the chance to meet yet another wonderful member of the Brain Fitness Club whose partner was also out named L. She was very nice and to the point,  she shared with me some of her more treasured items which were all very gorgeous.  Then I showed her photographs that I found in my family's archives. Most of them pictures of my mother,  grandmother, and great-grandmother when they were much younger, but some were of family members that I had never even met,  or knew their names. L took an interest in the photographs,  saying that I should find out the story behind those photos and I suppose that's a really great idea for the future.

Collective Cultural Memory and Appropriation

     In almost any culture you examine, you might find that there are certain memories that every member of a generation has and in many cases those memories withstand the test of time and exist even today. However, with time and cultural differences, those memories are naturally appropriated into our brains. We obviously weren't alive hundreds of years ago, and yet we all know what an "indian" looks like thanks to the excessive use of the works of photographer, Edward Curtis. Many of his posed shots are very much staged and for Native Americans, these dull, colorless, and depressing representations of their heritage carry no weight in their minds because it is someone else's impression and not who they really are. Wendy Red Star brings this to mind as she recolors Curtis's black and white stills, and appropriates his work to bring the truth and respect back to her ancestors and heritage.
     This does bring up the important point that many artists embrace, the importance of knowing and discovering your family heritage from whatever means, found photographs or documents, can have a huge impact on ones artistic choices and life. Kevin Miyazaki, for instance, given his Japanese family roots, has done a very satirical and yet saddening reality of the internment camps during World War II, by showing a brochure for the camp in the guise of a vacation brochure. He goes into specifics on the housing accommodations, making it seem like you have a choice of different houses, but in reality they are all basically the same. However, what has me puzzled is how found photographs, as in completely unknown to you photographs, can carry as much weight on the heart strings as a family photo something the artist connects to?

Ethics Reading Response

I never really put much thought into the ethics codes of art making, let alone photography. But I guess I've never put myself into a situation where I'd have to prove my art was not plagiarized. All I ever did was trust my gut in knowing what was the right or wrong thing to do and followed the rules and standards that society has imprinted on me. I had no idea that there was so many divisions of ethics like virtue or deontology. This made the Ethical Theories essay a little intimidating and given that there was hardly any photographic context, it seemed out of place. The essay by Elliot seemed much more relevant to everyday life and was much more helpful to my understanding of the difference between plagiarism and appropriation. It brought up the fact that in todays age as we are surrounded by technology and we have ready access to source material, it is more important now than ever to give credit where credit is due. The final essay, Digital Appropriation added a more personal touch to the subject by providing real world example with situations and including actual quotes from various artists in history. My favorite quote though was "To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power"