Reflection

Reflections can incompass countless aspects of something. In this case, I am reflecting on the skills I have learned as well as on issues that have grow prevalent in recent years.

As part of my reflection, I also am reflectng on how I fit into the scheme of things. I consider the question "Who am I?" as I complete each project. My idea of who I actually am continues to grow and expand as I develop many of the skills that a year ago I would have never thought I would have.

This is only the start of the year, but it is my hope that by the end of it I will have refined my abilities in writing, design, and digital media. After seeing my progress from last year, I have high hopes.

Perspective

I received an assignment where I was to write a short essay, adn create a video to accompany it. There were no restrictions on what it would be about. And so, I decided to write about how the little things we often forget about can reflect the condition of our larger society. The issue I chose to point out: pockets.

I feel it is important that we take notice of all issues, even ones that appear trivial. In the long run, they all feed into the greater state of our community as the human race.

Pocket Sized Problem

To learn the state of society, one only has to look as far as their own closet. Or maybe it’s a dresser. Whatever you store your clothes in, the point is this:

Pull out a pair of jeans.

Now take a look at one feature that is often overlooked. The pockets. Specifically the front ones.

Now for an experiment. How far does your hand fit into it? How many everyday items can they hold?

Or maybe the only question that needs answering is this: are pockets even present?

For some, these are a silly set of inquiries. Pockets? Why is that even something we need to think about? Of course I have pockets. I can fit my entire hand, maybe even part of my forearm, into it. That’s where I keep my phone, my wallet, who knows what else?

Yet for so many this is not the case. I personally have owned jeans where the front pockets could barely hold half my hands (which are considerably small, I might add), or they merely are designed to look like they have pockets, when in reality they don’t.

Small or non-functional pockets are littered throughout the world of women’s clothing.

One last question before I start getting to the point.

What good does this reality do?

The answer is quite simple. It does no good, except to provide evidence of the societal division of gender.

The blight of gender division permeates even the most trivial aspects of our daily lives.

If our pockets can’t escape societal disparity, how can we?

Perspective Video

Lyrical Essay

In English, we read Citizen by Claudia Rankine, which is a collection of lyrical essays written about being black in the US. This book ws to act as inpiration for our own lyrical essays. The official assignment was to interview someone who in some way has lived with a different perspective than our own.

For my lyrical essay, I interviewed my friend who has struggled with discrimination against the fact that she is bisexual. using that interview, I composed the following essay.

while writing this essay, I worked to find moments that anyone could relate to when dealing with prejudice or hate. I also strove to illustrate the beauty of the situation.

Paper Dolls

Sometimes you hold hands with a figure in a skirt, sometimes you hold hands with a figure in pants. Each time that grasp means the same thing. Even though you are all cut from the same paper, you are flatter.

You aren’t invisible, but what they think is flattering, feels more like erasing.

Sometimes you embrace a figure cut in pink, sometimes you embrace a figure cut in blue. You feel like the color of a newly cut diamond, but some of those figures of pink and blue say you look a little green. But not to worry, they say, we have a way to fix that. You’d find it shocking if they truly did. And so, you remain unconvinced.

You know they are just attempting to paint you a different color.

Sometimes you kiss a figure of rollings hills and labyrinthian ravines, sometimes you kiss a figure of sprawling flatlands and razor sharp plateaus. It is never the curves or edges that determine if you properly align, because you are molten and soft, and both of you can afford to make space.

Sometimes other people want you to make even more space, like so much space that it’s almost as if you and the figure aren’t together. At all.

Instead you tell them to take a step back. Or fifteen.

But even from a distance you can feel their pencils and pens and teeth poking holes in your paper skin. Their words stain you.

Or so they think.

You wait for them to leave. Just because they deny you kindness doesn’t mean you will deny them.

And then the ink drops, and the paint flows away.

You know it can and will return. But you also know it can be wiped away.

Just some dust on a shelf. It doesn’t take much to keep you, you.

Lyrical Essay Video

To accompany my essay, I used Adobe's After Effects to create a video to further enhance the essay. As part of the video, I implemented the 3D capabilities within the application.

Photo Reconstruction

In Design, we were issued a project wherein we would tae a photo, edit it, print it and then take it apart. Once this was completed we were instructed to reconstruct the image in some way.

Below are my edited photo, and the final reconstrution, respectively.

From this project I was able to think unconventionally about photography. It helped me see that photos can be more that just the image that was captured.

Photo Before Reconstruction
Photo Reconstruction Final Product