The relationship between my four squares is best realized when evaluating each separately. Given the boundary lines and ‘blank canvas’ feel, each drawing adds a new texture to the page, each drawing adds a new way of fitting into it’s space. How do you respond to solid black lines that act as a wall, keeping your drawing captured in a space? Each do a good job of balancing white space with our drawn responses. Each is a cluster of similar thoughts, a continuous stream of conciousness. Also, more than one square includes scratched out drawings or lines, as to suggest the person responding to the opt thought certain ideas weren’t accomplishing what they were trying to get across. So you have this aspect of unfinished thought that also plays a part, we weren’t given unlimited time to respond to each opt. And it becomes a response of limited material, we all just had scratchy pens and pencils. It brings a nice grayscale value to the overall composition of the activity. The different quality in pensmanship, between the two boxes with words, is very interesting. One feels rushed, or even as if the person was searching their mind for the best words to incorporate, while the other feels more organized, or thought out. The pill bottle full of candy is humorous in my opinion, but I can’t think of a way to symbolize it, I think the opt was “How many perscriptions do you take a day”, it’s just ironic if my fellow classmate was thinking “I eat those pills like candy!”
One of the most important things to notice about the overall composition of my response activity is the abstract difference in the right and left side: one captures quick gestural characteristics, while the other balances words, how they are used, and even the quality in their stroke.
The only part of this activity that really makes me think about Lasn’s ideas of consumerism, is the pill bottle, the general idea of consuming many thoughts and collecting a lot of junk also pops into my mind. Each box is like a messy room, some of the contents more important than the others. But when you’re rushing how can you make well thought out decisions on what is important, you are just trying to invoke a certain feeling or idea in the strongest way possible.
7+8
ReplyDeleteEach square contains a stream of consciousness channeled by four different individuals. Hoping that these four boxes would be able to complete a full memoir, each tell their own story which remains irrelevant to one another in my opinion. The first square, in the top left hand corner, contains seven different shapes. Although I am unable to recall each word that was repeated to us during the exercise, I do remember the first word was “tick”. Most people clearly create an image of a clock when this word is stated. Pretty much every person drew a circle for this word. After this word, the words continued only simplistic rectilinear shapes were composed. No natural or fluid shape was conceived. The second square contains a memory of the first time you remember hurting. The person wrote down, “Kindergarten, at play, other kids.” This relates to the next square which contains various representations of medication and antibiotics that the individual has taken throughout their lives. The second square contains the pain situation and the third square then contains instruments to help us heal. The fourth square has 5 different words that explain a shape/image of what was drawn on the board. Looking back on what I drew in this square, I realize that each word symbolizes a significant memory to a portion of my life. This explains why it was the first word to come to my head when the image was drawn. Most of the time the first thing that comes to your head is the most important anyways.
This exercise relates to Kalle Lasn’s novel “Culture Jam,” in the sense that most people drew the same images. Our class in a sense has a specific culture that we are all a part of. Due to this factor, we all, roughly, categorized each square with the same images and words. Lasn also describes this problem regarding the various “cults” throughout his life. He explains, “We have Been recruited into roles and behavior patterns we did not consciously choose (53 Lasn).” We are free to do as we please and create, as we desire. It seems as though there is no one forcing us to consume and manufacture. However, these rules somehow seem to exist under a law that resides to our culture along with most other cultures throughout the world. He also describes corporate America, such as TV and advertising, as the cult leaders. However, instead of wearing white robes with pointy hats we walk around in Ugg boots and ignore the people in front of us to talk to a screen containing a message from a friend down the hall. With this vicious, subconscious, consuming cycle, which continues to spiral out of control it, is difficult to grasp a concept that would help us stop our cult like behavior.
Works Cited
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam. Quill ed. New York: Harper, 2000. Print.