Links 2

Pun

Nexus Infiltration

Act Of Kindness

Changing private and public space

My confession 

Narrative

Alternate Persona

Personal Space

My First Concerns

My First Concern in the first week of this class was that I would not be able to come up with enough ideas. These fears have definitely been subsided because this class has assigned so many creative projects that thinking of lots of ideas has become second nature. At first, thinking of clever ideas for each project took up a lot of my energy and time but I learned to keep the assignment in the back of my mind and then when the idea would come to me I would write it down. I am proud of the work I did in this class and I bragged to a lot of people that I got to participate in a flash mob or shout at people about being bad on the bike path.

Art As Activist

I would definitely take Art As Activist because I would really like to create art that applied to everyday life and meant something to someone besides me. I enjoyed doing personal expression in Art 7A but if I communicated social change I think it would really push my limits as an artist by allowing me to be a part of a social movement that I would have otherwise not paid attention to. I also want to learn about making posters and other forms of propagation art because I am interested in advertising in the future. Not that I want to advertise for a product, but trying to get an idea across in a visually stunning and successful way is really important to me and I know this class would allow me to do just that.

Personal Space Project

My project on Thursday was really successful. Jenny was a great Angel, and I had a lot of fun being the Devil. Our interactions with people were really humorous. We would stand on the table or wherever we were and say opposing things to people. Some of the better ones were on my part:
"Cheat on your finals! And your girlfriend! With her best friend!"
and Jenny had some good ones too,
"Give to charity! Open the door for people who walk by! Say Hi to your neighbor!"

One of my favorite parts of the day was when we put out a dollar in front of us and I told this kid on a bike to come get it. He biked over was about to pick it up until Jenny informed him that it was bad karma since it was not actually his dollar. He looked up at us, said he was confused and biked away it was so funny that the devil and the angel confused him on a small decision. It reminds me of the shoulder angel and devil that appear in many cartoons, telling people what to do. This image is where I got my idea originally.

Free Form- Going Abroad

In less than one month I'll be living in Sydney, Australia. I knew this day was coming but now that I officially have a place to live and my student Visa has gone through, it is actually happening. I am too excited! I have been wanting to go abroad ever since my brother went abroad to Italy and we visited him as a family in fourth grade in Florence. I know it is going to be the best time I've had in my life. 

One thing I am excited about is meeting and living with Australians. One of the many reasons I chose this country to study abroad in is because the people there are really fun, warm, and love Americans. I already have a friend over there who went abroad and is already back for grad school, so I am confident that I am going to make some amazing friends during my 6 month stay. 

My mom and dad bought me a new digital camera, so I plan to take as many pictures as possible and to write a blog that will hopefully have a lot of followers. I can't say I will blog once a day but I will try to so that my friends and family can keep up with me in another way besides Facebook. I am actually shaking with excitement right now I can't wait!

Favorite Project

My favorite project I saw was Chelsea's skunk girl. I thought it was so funny that she was dressed in a full costume and make up, making everyone smell bad. She was also completely in character, scurrying around like she was an animal. The funniest was watching her run up to someone, squat, lift her tail and spray. She was very entertaining.

My Least Favorite Place

The hospital. I absolutely hate the hospital. I don't freak out when I'm there on the outside but on the inside I am absolutely tripping out, freaking out. I hate being around that many sick people at once and the smell of the cleaning supplies and anesthetics is enough to make anyone hurl. I know hospitals are an obvious choice of a least favorite place because it relates to sickness. I personally can think of many times I've been in a hospital and been there when a family member passed or has come close to death. I truly hate hospitals and I respect anyone who can work at one.

My Favorite Place

My favorite place in the whole world is where I went to camp from age 8-13: Hidden Valley Camp. We called it HVC and it is a month long sleep away camp in Freedom, Maine. My best, most care free summers were spent basking in the east coast sun with all my friends. The food there was all organic and gourmet and we were not allowed to eat candy or junkfood at all except the Candy Drop(mentioned below) and Junk Food Day. The entire property was always lush with trees, plants and animals. The owners of the camp are friendly hippies who just want everyone to have the best time possible. It is my favorite place and I miss it every summer. 

This was my bunk my last year. 

Every session a plane flies overhead and drops candy from the sky called the Candy Drop. No one knows what day it will come, it is all based on rumors so campers have to be prepared with pillowcases just in case. 

a view of some of the cabins

The barn. HVC loves llamas.

Mary Johnson's take on IV

Mary Johnson speaks about Isla Vista and its pressures.

Alternate Identity and Personal Space-Social Networking

Its funny because the whole point of social networking online is to promote oneself and get heard, but in the mix of everyone doing this its creating a huge network of exposed personal space. Saying something that will permanently be floating in cyberspace is an invasion of privacy that is enabled by those who's personal space is at risk. And anyone can form any type of identity online, how would you even know if it is them or not? I have heard cases of people creating fake facebooks and pretending to be someone else, which is so creepy because absolutely no one would be able to tell. Creating an alternate facebook would be completely feasible and by creating another account you are in essence creating another person.

Favorite Work

My favorite work was Andrea's frat boy video. I am in Greek Life and that video was no stretch of the imagination, frat guys are actually like that. It was so funny seeing her adapt to that lifestyle for a couple days, and seeing boys I knew on camera teaching her how to be a frat star. The stereotype and lifestyle of a frat guy is so ridiculous when seen through the eyes of someone who is not a part of it trying to imitate it. One  of my favorite parts of the video was when they taught her how to work out, and she did it. She looked like she was in so much pain and seeing her in the frat outfit was really comical. Andrea did a great good job of living the frat life.

Final Exam

I honestly did not prepare enough for the exam. I knew almost everything about each picture except the artists's names. How dumb is that?! Honestly I studied a lot but did not think it was important to memorize what artists did what, I am such an idiot. I hope I get an alright grade because I truly did understand the material. I am so weird sometimes I don't get why I didn't study more. I thought the final was not bad at all to take, and I remembered what every image was except the last one. I thought it was when the 2 artists tied themselves together but it obviously was not because they were two bald men, not a man and a woman. Thats ok though, I know I learned a lot in this class and I hope that will come through in  my final.

I thought we did the best work out of the different classes honestly. I am glad we did other things besides regular art projects because I enjoyed using irregular mediums to do all the projects. I feel that our class had the funniest video and a real hands on approach in comparison to the other sections.

Free Form(Alternate Persona)

My name is Mary Johnson and I am 20 years old. I very much do miss my home town of Denver, CO and my family there. I come from a good, Christian household of two married parents and 3 siblings. John and Matt are my brothers and Sarah is my sister. Family is very important to all of us, and I really miss the dinners we used to have together. Every night at 8pm we were expected to be home for a home cooked meal from mom. Dad works as a minister at our local church and mom takes care of us at home.
My childhood was spent going to Sunday school to see my father give sermons. We are so blessed to live as we do, with such a mild mannered family just as it should be.

My favorite activities are painting landscapes and playing the piano. I have 2 best friends that are girls and we are absolutely inseparable. We do everything together, from painting our nails the most perfect shade of pink to shopping for cardigans on main street. I used to do every type dance, but as soon as it got competitive and we needed to show too much skin in our costumes, I quit it all and just stuck with ballet a couple days a week. Jazz and hip hop were too raunchy for me anyway.

Before I go to sleep at night I make sure to recite the following prayer:
As I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep and if I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.

Now that I am going to bed, I will leave you to do as you wish. I hope that God is with you always and that he gives you the strength to make good decisions as I have. Good night

Love, Mary Johnson

Artist

If I had the choice of being any artist I would be Banksy for the reason that he is very famous while remaining anonymous. He speaks in his art about politics but does not get harassed or in trouble because he is completely unknown as a person, and only known by the art and style he does. If I were to be an artist I would also want to be know for my work, and not for me. I would want to know that my work was being recognized but not worry about what people say to me in person or say about me personally. I envy anonymous fame. The only thing I am not sure about is how he gets money, but other than that it seems like the perfect artist to be.

Super Villain

After doing some serious wiki research I decided that I would most definitely be Cheetah if I were to be a super villain. She is the arch nemesis of Wonder Woman and came about when Wonder Woman out-shined her at a benefit dinner. She collapsed before her mirror and her split personality took shape as she became Cheetah, looking for revenge on Wonder Woman. That is honestly the bitchiest, most awesome villain ever. If I was gonna go BAD, then I would want it to be in a hot, skanky, cheetah outfit taking revenge on the bitch who pissed me off. She is also an aristocrat originally in high society, but soon became a villain who would terrorize everyone's favorite woman super hero. I think she has swagger and style, and I were to be evil I would definitely want to dress like a badass cheetah.

Super Hero

What super hero would I be and why? Wow that's quite the question. I think I would be spiderman because his ability to shoot webs almost trumps the ability to disappear or fly. To be able to climb up buildings and build webs is just the most awesome ability ever. If I were spider man I would build myself a network of tree webs and just hang out miles above everyone else's head all the time. I would invite homies up to my web and just chill like a spider for hours on end.

I understand that with great power comes great responsibility(ha!) so I guess I would save the world as well. I think the first thing I would do is take out all the evil super-power people by putting them in one giant web and having some giant monster eat them all. I would then steal mass amounts of food from Vegas buffets and deliver it to starving countries by sticking myself to air jets. I would be the best superman ever, and it would be awesome.

Free Form 2

As I gain more and more friends and lose some along the way, I wonder if men and woman can be just friends? I know this is the age old question but there is a reason why everyone and their mothers want to know if this feat is possible. I have always had more guy friends than girl friends, and there is always that lurking possibility of romance or sexual tension with all the ones that are mildly attractive, just because our personalities mesh so well. And maybe, just maybe, because guys think with their dicks instead of their heads. Every guy is down to be romantic at any point, so the trick of being a good friend thats a girl is telling when to say no. It only gets complicated when you decide to give in, and at that point its anyone's guess as to what happens with the friendship after. I constantly struggle with wondering if I should be romantic with someone that I really like personally, because if things go sour I lose a friend that I could have had for life. One of my best guy friends told me that if I want a boyfriend I should let more of my guy friends into my romantic life, and I told him that once you let a guy into your romantic circle there is a huge possibility he will lose respect for you and the friendship as well as the romance goes out the window. As I grow older and pretend that I know exactly what I'm doing I guess I will search for the answer to the question, "Should we just be friends?"

Free Form 1

I can't help but wonder if I am going to be homesick when I go abroad in a couple weeks. I am going to Sydney Australia from June 7th-December 20th. That is almost 6 months across the world and I have never been away from home for that long.

When I was younger I used to go to camp for a month every summer, starting at age 5. That is pretty ridiculous to go to Maine when you are that little alone to camp and I never once got homesick. I was such a little trooper and I wonder if I will be able to hold onto those brave feelings now that I am older and have a better sense of time...

Australia is so far away and I know it will be just like going to college again, but Santa Barbara is just a 4 hour car ride from my home now. Australia is a 13 hour flight at least and I will be over in a country that is new to me by myself.

I must say the other side of this, that I have never been more excited for anything in my life. While I understand that I will miss everyone at home I also understand that I will come back and everything will have stayed the same. Nothing will have changed in my sorority and nothing will have changed in IV, honestly. Things will have progressed but it all cycles back to the fact that a year later in UCSB, the only thing that has changed is me. I get older and things become apparent to me that were not obvious before, and my relationships with others change depending on the experiences we have together. I know that I will come back from my time abroad changed for the better and it scares me that I will be more than half way done with my college experience when I come back. I guess time does fly after high school and I just have to accept that I am maturing and life is passing me by.

Response to Lecture 5/16

Laurel Nakadate is an extremely interesting artist to me because she uses others for her art by putting herself in a position to be used. She takes men off the street or Craig's List and gets into a position with them where they are both exposed and their desire for her is very clear. I wonder how she has the balls to do this. I honestly don't get it because I get freaked out when men who are even 5 years older than me or so hit on me. It honestly gives me the chills and all I can do is say something snappy to them and remove myself from the situation. Laurel takes the lurking feelings these men have for her and exposes them to the public. She uses her attractive body to get them to show themselves off, which is in my opinion crossing a line between humorous and sad. It really is an unusual situation because she makes us wonder, "Who is using who?" The cyclical thinking lies in the fact that she is using them to get what she wants and they are using this opportunity to see her naked. While I would not be personally comfortable doing this, I commend her for shifting the standards in who is using who.

Christian Life Style

If I were to have been brought up in a Christian, Conservative life style, than I would be a really different person. There are several categories that would change when I become a Christian girl:

- sex
-smoking
-drinking
-TV programs
-night time ritual
-clothing
-necklace
-language

So in these 2 days I will abstain from:
-sex
-drinking
-smoking
-"rough" language
-violent or inappropriate TV programs
-anything Jewish

I will basically live a quiet, conservative existence. I have the cross necklace that I will wear with my christian outfit, shoulders knees and toes covered. I will wear my hair in a loose, modest bun and barely any makeup. I will essentially be the exact opposite of my normal self. My nature right now is to be loud, and not hide anything from anyone. I swear on a regular basis as well as drink and smoke as a part of my life in Isla Vista. I am not a badass or a trouble maker right now but I am not pure by any means and never have been. My parents have been talking about sex with me since I was a small child and I am not ashamed of anything to do with the human body. This will all change when I become a devout Christian for these few days.

Rough Proposals

1. Can't walk anywhere I go- This idea is that for 2 days I can only dance to each location I want to go to. Every different location would be a different type of dance, depending on the setting I was in. If I was in an area with a lot of space  I would do ballet until I got to the next place. If I was traveling down the street I would do hip hop. The problem with this is that I think it is really distracting for me I don't know how much else I would get done if I was dancing all day, but maybe that is the point of the assignment...

2. Can't Say No- Another persona I could be is someone who cannot say no. I understand the danger of this but I think it would be really  interesting to not be able to reject anything or anyone for an extended amount of time. I am the type of person who generally thinks about the consequences of every action before I take it, which is why I rarely regret anything that I do. It would open up more opportunities for me, just like in Yes man.

3. Christian Lifestyle- I was born Jewish and all my ideals and the way I live comes from my Jewish heritage and democratic, liberal upbringing. I think it would be really interesting to see how I would act differently in my everyday life if I was raised Christian and conservative. I would dress in conservative clothing, wear a cross around my neck, pray before I go to sleep and not participate in any activity that would be against this new upbringing in any way. 

Links

Pun

Nexus Infiltration

Act Of Kindness

Changing private and public space

My confession- I want to redo this video next week if that is still possible for new credit.

Narrative

Flash Mob Experience

I had a lot of fun doing the flash mobs. I had never participated in one before and even though there weren't THAT many people watching, I still think that it made an impact on those around us. My personal favorite mob we did was duck duck goose, because it was interactive and got the most traffic flow of any of the mobs. I liked how people were slipping and falling which added to the game, and that people were biking around us and couldn't help but look at what we were doing.

My least favorite of the mobs was the ninja fight. I think we did not do it in an area that was populated enough and the only people who saw really were the construction workers. It was still really fun to do and a pretty funny mob, but it was my least favorite of the ones we did.

If I were to choose any type of flash mob to do, I would have chosen a dance because I love to dance so much. I also think that the dances or songs are the funniest most eye catching mobs because they are so obviously practiced and well put together.

Vegas

Vegas has been on my mind. Spring time is always when all the frats and sororities make weekend trips to vegas. This is the best representation of Vegas I have seen so far:

24 Hours

Here are photos from the trip I went on last year, the ones that I tried to make artistic and actually took time to shoot: