Concerned Citizen Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbMbtXBMmhU&feature=plcp

Artistic Statement: A Concerned Citizen

Being a concerned citizen does not have to mean just giving stuff to people. Sometimes it is just as important to know HOW to give or how we can improve how we help. This wasn’t the concept we expected going into the interview, but it was just right for making a compelling and insightful little documentary. It is having things develop naturally like this that makes developing our artistic vision more interesting.
One thing we wanted to do with our presentation is invite a calm and reflective environment for the audience and the speaker. Thankfully, the speaker had such an environment in the house she was staying at. Partly this served us because it was easy to access, but we felt it really served the tone of the narrative. When we think of someone who does service for communities, we picture a humble home and lifestyle that reflects their work. Complimented by the unflashy lighting and leisure flow of the editing, we hoped that the setting of the piece set the tone well.
However, this does not mean we just wanted to do a “gather around for story time” video either. As sweet and calm as the speaker and environment are, there is still a sense of fun to the things she does to help in Bolivia and the other countries they did work for. To reflect this, we added a few creative choices into the mix. One of those choices was the Latin music in the background. It is just subtle enough to not be distracting, but light hearted enough to add some enthusiasm. The other big choice was the inclusion of some lighter moments from the taping. Jordan’s hands serving as a clapper, some of the speaker’s comments, some moments where she can just laugh, etc. It not only rounds her as a character, but it adds depth and personality to the narrative.
Ultimately, all of these decisions and manipulations of the film are to portray an honest picture of the speaker. She is a very humble person. She is a funny and lighthearted person. She is informative. Through the way we assembled it, we wanted to give respect not only to the advice she gives on how to do service well, but respect to her as a concerned citizen.

Protest Poster

Artist's Statement

            As much as social media has helped me to reconnect to people around the world, I do have a bone to pick with it. Not just for the actual use of social media in today’s culture, but for the insane amount of venues available to engage in social media. Not only does it feel counterproductive to our ability to actually connect to other individuals, but it is just an annoyance that the success of one good social outlet spawned thousands of imitators trying to snatch its money. So, I decided to use that for my protest poster.

            If you have an axe to grind against something, you need to know your enemy. So I took to the source of the issue, the Internet, and studied about the social media rage. Obviously, social media has been around much longer than we think. Sites like MySpace have been in circulation since the early 2000’s. However, the continued rise of social media sites and the success of Facebook changed the climate into a rougly $2 billion that has increased Internet felonies and distorted dating to make people feel “closer” to people online better than face to face.

            The key thing I wanted to do is give a certain visual layout to the poster. The background is intentionally black and empty to tie into the intentionally red text’s ironic title. The icons are arranged in a neat little order to try and imitate structure, though the gaps and cracks in-between are apparent. The icons are all that is shown for most of the sites represented, since most people are familiar with a site just by the logo alone. This creates an idea of building blocks or pillars if you want to go by the title. Yet there is no base, nothing behind it and no supports around it. It is a system of pillars with a weak foundation.

            I posted this on my Facebook account hoping to discuss this further with other friends. Unfortunately, the post received zero comments. Disheartening perhaps, but perhaps this fuels my idea. People are so used to the use of social media for dating and interaction that they don’t want to agree to dissention. I will still try to gauge opinions on it, but for now I stand alone in discussing it.