Photography Project

On that day I woke up checked my facebook then I went to college were I couldn't take pictures in class, then I came back watched some TV programs then decorated the Christmas tree and ate some chips then I stayed on my laptop the rest of the day on facebook, listening to music, and studing too.

Video Project

Since I came to the United States and people know the I'm from Egypt I hear weird things from them like that we live in tents, pyramids and we ride camels and we don't have cars as if it is ancient Egypt so I got the I idea of doing a video about that.
Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c-4zjnncqU&feature=youtube_gdatad

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana

For the museum i visited was the Bower Museum in Santa Ana. This museum has art from many different cultures such as Art of Asia, Art of Africa and Native American Art. I liked that museum Although I don't like going to museum but it was really nice.

Beauty

Beauty is something that cannot be defined by one simple definition. Different people choose to see different aspects as different things. I would like to say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but only because we were begged not to. In truth, it’s both very similar and very different to this. In truth, beauty exists on different levels, many of which contradict each other. In example there is Physical beauty, emotional beauty; Inner beauty (people), there is beauty in a story or concept, and beauty in the way a well told lie or deception is thought out, and beauty in music. Using these layers it is easy to imagine something that is both beautiful and hideous, like a painting with beautiful composition and painted perfectly but has a gruesome subject matter, or the reverse, a painting that, visually isn't as "pretty" But has a deep, beautiful meaning or emotional pull. I personally think that beauty is deceiving especially the Physical beauty because it makes people think in a different way just because of its appearance and I think people get deceived because it is a cultural thing since we were kids watching cartoon we know the beautiful Cinderella, Snow white, and the Mermaid VS. the Ugly wicked witches. So we learnt that whatever looks beautiful is good and whatever looks ugly is bad and wicked.

November 1 lecture notes

We watched a documentary about the Terminal 5 Project at Kennedy Airport. Terminal 5 was an architectural masterpiece created by architect Eero Saarinen. The TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport opened in 1962 and is considered the first step to the future of travel. Following the tragic day of 9-11, in 2001 after which many airports lost a lot of money, the site was vacated and closed to the public. The movie documents the 2004 project, curate and inspired by Rachel Ward that aims to bring Terminal 5 back to life and open it to the public as a contemporary art exhibition. There were many inspiring works of art that I enjoyed in this exhibition, and also some I thought were senseless. Kevin Roche said in the video that the terminal looked like a skate, and I agree because it has a lot of wide open space, a lot of curved railings and platforms, and the openness of the terminal really is reminiscent of a Vans skate park. One of the artists, a graffiti artist or “bomber”, put graffiti on the rolling gates that gave the exhibition a city-like type of feel. Vanessa Beer croft’s piece consisted of many African women painted in all black, and I did not particularly like that piece because I felt the women were too exposed, and I could not imagine these African women getting on a plane and traveling thru this terminal. My favorite part of the exhibition was the gift shop because of all of the clever puns implied by the gifts and I especially liked the “Play with these matches”. The Terminal 5 art exhibition featured work of 19 artists from 10 different countries to give the presentation a premise that showcases international travel. The show featured many different kinds of art including lectures and temporary installations drawing from the terminals architecture. The art project took about four months to complete and the exhibition opened on October 1st, 2004 and official closed on January 31, 2005. Unfortunately it also closed very abruptly the same night of the opening gala because people got drunk, vandalized the building, and stole some of the art. Apparently the opening night did not draw the ideal crowd, and many referred to this crowd as “coked out hipsters”.

October 25 lecture notes

We watched clips from the movie The Reader starring Kate Winslet. In the clips that we watched it shows Kate Winslet who is an illiterate woman who has her lover/boyfriend read books to her in flashbacks of the main story. Mr. Z then showed us that in the future this woman is put on trial for murder, and accused of writing incriminating letters. The majority of women who took the stand said she wrote the letters, and I have no idea why because we didn’t see that part of the story. Anyways, when the judge asks the woman (Kate Winslet) to write on a paper so that they can compare her handwriting to that of the letter, she is so ashamed of her illiteracy that she confesses to a murder that she did not commit. Then we talked about text literacy, visual literacy, network literacy, and education literacy. Text literacy was things like stuff we read in books magazines. Visual literacy is stuff we see and draw a message from like a stop light. We learn that green means go, yellow slow down, and red means stop. There are no words that tell us what these mean. When we see these colors we automatically know what it means. Or when someone puts their finger over their mouth you know they mean to be quiet. There are no words involved, rather we read the sign and know what it means. Network Literacy I believe he said it means like the internet and text and phone etc... We also talked about education literacy. This is all about literacy done for school as well as things teachers teach. I don't completely remember the entire lecture too well but I do remember that we watched a video on visual literacy. It talked a lot about the things we see on TV and how the media affects the way we see things. We also watched clips from the movie called the reader. In the end, the girl would rather admit to writing a letter and committing the crime than for everyone to find out that she couldn't read. Overall, we talked about all the different kinds of literacy and how education literacy maybe disappearing due to all the other kinds of literacy. I don't believe education literacy will ever disappear. I just can't imagine being taught by a computer can be more effective than being taught by a teacher. As far as I’m concerned, education literacy will be around till the end of my life at least.

October 18 lecture notes

We watched avatar which, I got to admit that it was pretty cool. In the movie Jake Sully, a disabled veteran got the chance to have an avatar, which is a new body which he has a genetic link with lives in when he sleeps in a machine and he has full body functions. As time goes on, as he keeps switching from body to body, his worlds begin to blur together and his realities melt together and his alternate reality starts to feel like his actual reality. Then we talked about people’s vision of themselves in another world. We talked about identity. Glenn showed us 3 other people’s version of their animated self. We then watched a short clip about a little Asian girl. It was a cartoon story.