Masks

Research 2011

Chokwe
Angola or Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mask, Late 19th century/early 20th century

I was always interested in human expressions and the way humans face expressions change. Human expressions were not to my interest until I found a Korean traditional mask from the attic of our old house while moving. The expressions on the masks represented Koreans and the Korean culture. That one expression carved on the mask represented my culture. While I was exploring with different kinds of masks, I came to the African masks. They had very different expressions from the Korean masks.

Researching two different masks and mixing them together to create a new mask of a mixed culture through drawing and photoshop. Since masks contain specific expressions of that culture through powerful expressions or symbols, I will be gathering research about the different masks and what they represent then create whole new masks that will be a mixture of variety of cultures.

Best of the Week: TED Presentation

The most interesting idea that I learned was through a TED Presentation by Jen. She presented about a guy who invents new things with ideas that most people thinks is impossible. He builds stairs with organic stuff and even has an idea to build a car that turns into a lamp at night or when it is not in use. To me, those people are most inspiring and interesting to learn from. It makes me think how come no one else thought of it before? However, it is through those people that most people get a lot of influences from. Even for me, I wanted to become a product designer and while watching this presentation, I learned about how other people are so creative and there are so many different ways one idea could have. With these new creative ideas, many people could get new ideas from it. Also, using organic materials was another thing I thought was amazing. One day, I hope I could get ideas as good as the presenter from TED.

Blogging around: Jiwon and Brianna

Jiwon Kong talks about E.E. Cummings' style with his poems. At first, she was confused about E. E. Cummings and did not get anything. She was used to only certain styles that she learned before. However, she later started to see new things in his works.
I agreed with you that at first, I did not get E. E. Cummings' work at all. However, when I kept studying it and looked for different things Mr. Allen mentioned while reading the poem, I started to see the different meanings behind his poem. Later on, throughout it, I was able to identify the different fragments and repetitions throughout the poem.

Brianna L wrote about the architecture project that our class did. I was in the same group as Brianna and I agreed to the things she was mentioning. She mentioned that she will not reject the new ideas other people will think of.
That was a fun project! I also remember that rule about not rejecting other new ideas. We had so many ideas while working on this and everyone's ideas helped. We did not reject any other new ideas but as a group we kept building on with each other's ideas and opinions. I also agree with you that a person should not be rejecting new ideas but be very open minded to new things. Challenging new ideas is difficult but that could result in different ideas that no one else will think of.

Captured Thought: Einstein's Dreams

Last summer vacation, one of my closest friend, Karam was explaining to me about what parallel universes were. She told me that it was one of Einstein's famouse theories. The subject of parallel universe interested me but I did not understand fully what she was describing. I did not how it would work or if such thing would be possible at all. However, just few days before when I first started reading Einstein's Dreams, I noticed similar explanation of parallel universe was described in the book. It was when the author was describing about one man but three different events occured to him in different time spaces. Those three different times resulted him in different situations and everything changed even though it was happening to the same man. Even the outcome changed. Through a story explanation, I began to understand the theory of parallel universe. Reading Einstein's Dreams was the "Now I get it!" moment that I had. Through a simple story, I almost fully understood what Karam was trying to explain it to me a year ago.

Carry it Forward: Architecture Project

Our group had to came up with a model for a middle school for about 500 students. At first, we started with saying random ideas. Some ideas were random and seemed too simple but later on, as we started to sketch our building, every ideas were useful. The idea of having a fish tank cafeteria and tinted glass were some unique and special ideas. Our group's building was made with everyone's opinions. Everyone's ideas were put together in a building. At first it seemed as people's ideas do not go along together. However, I was wrong about that. The ideas our group put together made the building that we designed more special. Everyone brought up points where it was all different but it would fit well with the building. I realized that working with a group will come up with so many differen ideas than working alone. If I was working alone, I would have never got to the point where our group came to. I learned the importance of a group.

Connection: Artists

As Mr. Allen talked about breaking the statues quo and how Martin Luther King and people that fought for their freedom with him were trying to rebel, I thought that the same applies to artists. Artists before contemporary art began, they always thought that the best art would be a perfect imitation of a still life. Painting and drawings were something that were always realisting images. However, Jackson Pollock broke out of the statues quo and rebelled. Jackson Pollock rebelled through his art just as Martin Luther King did by going on non-violent strikes. Jackson Pollock broke out of the stereo typical form of art and created his own style of art. Many people at first opposed to his abstract form of art. People thought it should not be considered as art. Still, Jackson Pollock went on with his art which led him to become one of the most famous artists.