Welcome to my 8th and final website as a Freestyle student!
As my time here at Freestyle dwindles, I have begun to reflect on my experiences as a student and community member here. I have gained unparalleled skills, made irreplaceable friends, and discovered much about myself as a person. I now have a highly marketable and versatile skillset that leaves me well-equipped to go out into the world and exersize my talents. Mr. Greco, Mr. Flo, and Mrs. P have all been instrumental in my development and progression both as a student and as a person.
We recently took on the idea of doing responsive web design in Web/Audio. This utilized the concept of creating a website that responds to whatever device is using it and emulates the proper behavior or output. In English and Design, we worked to create a satirical or humorous presentation including a spoken and visual component.
All in all, Freestyle has provided me with amazing experiences and unforgettable memories. Live long and prosper.
A while back, our English work became concurrent with our efforts in Design. We entered into the BLINK unit. This unit consisted of the analyzation of unconcious thoughts and snap-decisions. We were presented with various prompts, and then given a set frame of time to respond to the prompt both with visual art and writing. We then compiled the two into a single image and put them into a book. The spread of my book can be viewed by clicking below.
Culminating our two years in English and Design, we completed a Humor and Satire unit which combined elements from both classes together. We snalyzed various stand up comics, spoken word performers, and various other humor professionals, then devised an act of our own which we performed in front of the entire class for our finals. In Design, we created a visual to accompany our routine which added to it somehow. I chose to do a spoken word act with a poetic-styled delivery, inspired by Henry Rollins and Lemon Andersen. For my visual, I took a gangster rap album cover from the early 2000's and replaced the rapper's face with that of Abraham Lincoln, complimenting my English presentation (audio recording below), as well as the song I created in Web (also below). My visual is available if you click the Soundcloud link on my Web/Audio portion of the site
Artist statement:
This piece is my Satire project I completed in Design. It ties back to both my work in Web and English for this 8th and final unit as a student at Freestyle Academy. My English project consisted on a mockery of social media portrayals via poetic delivery, which contained elements regarding Abraham Lincoln. I the, in the spirit of satire, took a rap album cover from the early 2000’s and superimposed a rather thuggish-looking Abraham Lincoln where the Rapper’s face was, and changed the name of the artist and the album. This ties back to my final Web project, which is a historically-accurate song about the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, therefore, if put out for sale, this would be the EP album artwork.
Welcome to the Web/Audio portion of this unit. We were given the creative freedom to pursue, individually or collaboratively, any topic or subject we had previously visited in Freestyle that we found interesting. I teamed up with Kevin Drew and Andres Raygada, and in the spirit of satire, created a 100% historically accurate gangster rap chronicling the life and times of the famous US president Abraham Lincoln. Andres supplied the beat, while Kevin and I collaborated to produce the lyrics on paper and rap them. We did this with light spirits and good intentions, hoping to spread a positive message through humor. The artwork accompanying this song is a parody of an early 2000's rap album cover. Click the link below to hear the result!
Historically Accurate Slapz (Feat. U.S. Grant) Produced by Dr. Dres
