Friday, June 4, 2010

Alex George: Final Draft of DenveRhetor (WRIT 1133)


DenveRhetor Analysis: Art Gallery Thoughts
-Project 1-

On the first Friday of every month, the Art District on Santa Fe in downtown Denver holds an event called “First Friday Art Walk” where viewers have the opportunity to experience pieces of art from all over the world. The six blocks that make up Denver’s art district are home to more than thirty galleries, each displaying a variety of pieces. They’re all types of art from modern and contemporary to tribal and traditional. Each gallery has its own persona and style of artwork that makes it unique. There was one gallery in particular that embodied a number of interesting aspects and is therefore subject for a rhetorical analysis. The gallery allows unique individuals to connect as a group through the shared experience of interpreting art.
In order to properly analyze this gallery, it is important to understand the uniqueness of it. Allow your imagination to visit the gallery in an effort to gain a sense of familiarity with the layout. Upon entering the gallery it becomes very clear that you will be exposed to many different types of art. You are greeted by a wall that houses two large square canvases about three feet by three feet, and are hung side by side. They each have a very large abstract face drawn in a single bright color that is larger than the canvas can support and therefore drifts off of the surface. On the other side of the wall there is a series of four photographs that could be described at “creative lifestyle” portraits. They show four different people adorned with oversized glasses, shirts painted on them instead of wearing clothing, bright and exotic outfits flowing on a dancer, and even a close-up of a scruffy college student enjoying his Saturday night. All of these lifestyle shots are the exact same size and are hung next to each other on one wall. Directly across from these photographs are hanging sheets of chicken wire with bright yarn, string, and cloth woven into them to create a design. Behind the chicken wire are oversized sheets of watercolor paper with washes of color covering them. The paper is warped from the watercolor and is not flesh with the chicken wire, but instead is several inches behind it, mounted to the wall. In another open room the walls are covered in various squares and rectangles of plywood that have bold, organic and natural colors used as a background and bright, swirling continuous lines painted over the top. There is also a huge, hot pink and very conspicuously shaped paper Mache tower that is in the middle of the room. This tower connects the ceiling to the ground and had lime green vines wrapping around it. Next to the tower, twenty or so scientific sketches of flowers all hung in rows next to each other. They are all exactly the same size and are similarly sketched.
The exigence of the art gallery is the social purpose that it serves. It brings together different groups of people to interact and creates an important relationship. This relationship is significant because it encompasses a multitude of social classes, political views, financial backgrounds, and lifestyles. This particular gallery is also important because it is providing a place for this large array of people to come together, and is not primarily concerned with business and making a profit. They have created a niche for themselves in this respect and provided a place for creative energy to flow freely.
The audience for the gallery is comprised of a lot of different personalities. The initial introduction to the audience is young, liberal college students hanging on their friends, contrasted by the more sophisticated “business crowd” sipping wine and socializing. Of course there is a larger variety of people incorporated in the audience, the above example was simply provided to show the vast differences. Though this is an accurate description of the physical audience present at the gallery opening, the intended audience is even more interesting. The intended audience is individuals looking to be inspired. Regardless of if the people are young, old, wealthy, poor, educated, or uneducated, the intended audience is people who want to challenge their mind and allow themselves to think creatively. It is essentially anyone willing to allow themselves to interpret the art in their own way.
In the most literal sense, the purpose of this gallery is to provide the people of Denver with the opportunity to enjoy contemporary art. However, it seems to go even deeper than that. The noticeably intentional selection of art begs the interpretation and thought of its viewers. The wide array of styles, as described earlier, provides an opportunity for the individuals to connect with a number of pieces. It also creates an opportunity for a variety of people to come together in one space and interact with both each other and the art. This gallery creates a community that otherwise would not exist due to the fact that the intended audience plays a large role in the essence as well as the success of the gallery.
I wanted to create a piece of art that would accurately represent my argument. My argument was that the purpose of the gallery is to create a community that would not exist without the interaction of the intended audience. To accomplish this, I created a multi-media piece of art that incorporated different styles from the gallery itself. Some of the materials that I used included a piece of a picture, paper, paint, stickers, ink, jewels, and wood. My goal was to have all of the different medias compliment each other while still standing out, just as the pieces in the gallery did. I also wanted the collection of materials to represent the variations in the audience. For example, the small jewels represent the classy, more sophisticated crowd, while the orange wooden numbers represented the young, athletic college students. The piece was created to show the cohesive community that was formed as a result of the different styles of the art in the gallery.

Monday, May 31, 2010

The Santa Fe Art Walk: Art, Architecture and Ambiance

My visit to the Art District on Santa Fe Drive during their first Friday of the month ‘art walk’ took me to a whole other planet. I was shocked and put in a state of awe by not just the wildly unappreciated art that is collected here but by the nature of the people that are housed by these streets and the voyeurs in which visit.

During my visit to Denver’s art walk I became enriched with the history and life that these streets entail. I couldn’t help myself but had to look into the background that lies within these buildings. The Art District became what it is in 2003, by the conjoining of seventeen different types of art-related museums, theaters, and galleries. This group was organized as a non-profit group and thus their mission statement was born: "The Art District on Santa Fe is dedicated to promoting public awareness of Santa Fe Drive as a unique art and cultural district, and furthering the arts and art education in the metropolitan community."

What I found most interesting about the Art District was not only the opportunity to see different kinds of art not just through the photography medium, but through the theater where they host plays every month, and even the tattoo shop that is included on this strip. The Art District is not blind to only one source, medium, or influence of art. Even in Santa Fe’s little coffee shop, there is canvas art hung on the walls, although I did notice that many of these portraits did not receive much attention, yet still had prices noted—indicating that they are working artists.

The diverse multiculturalism that the Art Walk defines is a multitude of observers, painters, musicians, gallery owners, dancers, restaurateurs and Santa Fe Drive residence. When I was just beginning to warm up to the vibe that the Art District brings, I found myself walking up a flight of stairs with a sign and arrow indicating there were more galleries in the upper floors. I then realized I was walking into a person’s studio apartment. Doors wide open, candles lit, art displayed, and snacks provided. I felt instantly uncomfortable just bombarding someone’s home and voyeuristically peering into their lives. My friends however, had no issue and reached for the bowl of provided pretzels and offered me one. I whispered to them, “Let’s go! We can’t just go waltzing in stranger’s homes! You just don’t do that!” Just minutes after my uncomfortable escape we had reached another supposed ‘gallery,’ but to my dismay we were in yet again…another stranger’s home! It was confusing to decipher which art was created by the artist and what was bought at Pier One. But the fact that these artists merge their lives into their galleries and welcome viewers is showing how in sync they are with their art. What these artists have going on here is more than just a “home business,” it’s their livelihood.

The smell of wine and the sound of music down Santa Fe made for not just an eclectic appeal, but the way the community is fully enriched in their craft resonates in the atmosphere. By having the first Friday Art Walk, average Joe’s and art critics alike are given the opportunity to be exposed to art’s many different mediums and twists in genre. The lack of direction and signage within the Art Walk allows viewers to mosey through galleries and apparently homes without a biased influence so that they are able to decide for themselves, which is ‘art’ and what is simply graffiti or a print at a coffee shop.

Art is defined as the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and modes of expression. The Art Walk has become the place to be on the first Friday of the month. Its popularity allows the Denver community to express their interest in the art that is show cased during the Art Walk and in a way has become a work of art itself. It reminds people that outside of their small personal bubble they live their daily life in, there is more. More people to encounter, more places to see and more moments to remind you new creations are ever evolving around us. To allow not only the viewers to be surrounded by the unknown but also the shop owners and artists who one night will have the pleasure of finding or reencountering the delicious food, exotic dance, uplifting music or work of art, that takes their breath away.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

DenveRhetor: Artwork vs. Art Walk

On the first Friday of every month, the city of Denver puts on a free public event in the art district on Santa Fe Avenue. On these Friday nights from 6-9 pm, the general public can walk up and down the 5 blocks, visiting any of the numerous art galleries along the strip. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of experiencing this art walk for myself and I was amazed at what a great event the city of Denver puts on. However it wasn’t actually the art that stood out for me, it was the actual event, the art walk that I was impressed by. In fact, I found the artwork and the art walk to be two very different things.
While the art was truly amazing and the pieces themselves were clearly made by very talented artists, it was too hard for me to define a certain exigence or purpose for a lot of the pieces. One piece especially got me thinking about this idea. The work wasn’t any beautiful scenery or careful portrait. It was merely a compilation of splattered paint on a massive 12-foot canvas. Sure, one could argue that a piece like this was to go against the norm, or to show a shift from traditional paintings, but those ideas have been around for decades. It came to me while staring at this piece, that while this was an amazing piece of artwork, it really had no true purpose besides visual appeal. There was no certain exigence or specific reason it had been created, nor was there a defined call to change it was trying to send out. Keeping this in mind, I continued on to at least a dozen other galleries and while some had slight messages behind them, I failed to come up with solid reasoning as to what changes the artists wanted through their pieces. To me they just served as eye candy with price tags on them. The same process was difficult for me in defining an audience. With so many different interpretations surrounding these abstract pieces, its easy for audiences to be torn apart in analyzing a painting too much.
After reflecting on the event as a whole though, I realized how different the art walk was than the art itself. The city of Denver puts on this free event for more than just visual appeal. The monthly art walks are to bring a city of 600,000 people together into a tightly knit community who can come together for once and appreciate something simple in life. Throughout the course of my night, I saw people ranging from babies, to grandparents, and from the wealthiest of wealthy to homeless. (Of course the homeless were probably just there for the free food, but still there was quite the variety). I found that there was a defined exigence to change the scattered city of Denver and bring together a community who can recognize the value of art at its finest. Its audience is the city of Denver and specifically those lacking a central theme in their life. Art can be very powerful and by presenting a free public art walk, it not only gives the artists satisfaction, but it provides contentment for the people as well.
The term Maxwell’s Demon represents the idea of an ancient experiment preformed by James Clerk Maxwell to defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics and to show that while all things die, there will always be something to keep it alive. Historian Henry Brooks Adams attempted to apply this as a metaphor to history in general, making the claim that instead of moving towards equilibrium, countries are moving away from each other and becoming more and more separated, all while being in the same planet. What he meant was that the world wouldn’t “run properly” if every country was the same. We need some separation in order for the world to live up to what we expect in society. From this, we can pull out a specific thought of things being very different but at the same time, both being needed for correctness. While they may be very different, each of their presence is entirely necessary at the same time. I chose to apply this idea of separated things (or even opposite things) in one to the idea of “artwork vs. art walk”. While the artwork often has no one exigence or purpose, it is the central theme for an art walk. Even though the two are in essence opposites (art is visually appealing with no call to change and an art walk builds a community to appreciate a common premise) they support each other perfectly and combine for an event not to be missed. It may seem like a pretty farfetched idea but I think that by each of us being able to interpret each piece in our own way, we are in a sense taking part in a collective act. Thus, by the art works having no exigence, and the art walk having a definite one, the metaphor for Maxwell’s Demon is perfected. Because we are all being different in our interpretations of the art, the art walk is able to bring properly serve as a communal event.
To parallel this idea, I chose the theme of the yin yang. The yin yang symbolizes two opposite ideas (represented by black and white) and shows that while they are still completely different, they support each other nonetheless.
For a more artistic representation of this, I chose the idea of the art walk to be the background of the white portion in the yin yang and the idea of artwork to be the white circle in the black background (an abstract piece of art too). Instead of digitally editing this picture with a program, I chose a different representation and cut out the pieces myself for a more artsy effect, similar to that of the art I saw on Friday night. Even though the two are complete opposites when it comes to their exigence and their purpose, without the one, the other would be nothing. Just as the yin needs the yang, artwork needs an art walk to achieve its full effect.


Thursday, April 29, 2010

Santi Animation

GoAnimate.com: Santi cartoon animation by Santiago Castillo

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!



The Hubble telescope, arguably the greatest success we have had in space since the first landing on the moon, is one of the most important instruments we have been able to scientifically come up with since Galileo’s original creation of the telescope. Here in Denver’s Museum of Nature and Science, the IMAX showing of Hubble, takes the audience through a magnificent journey that opens their minds to the possibilities in space. By opening the minds of the audience, the people are able to see the possibilities offered by the artifact, in this particular case the artifact being the Hubble Space Telescope. Since the Hubble is in fact a human creation, and it is also intended to communicate, it can be seen as a cultural artifact. It is intended to communicate, not only through its many findings, but also by influencing humanity to achieve greatness by going above and beyond.

Apart from being a crucial tool of communication, the Hubble, is also a Rhetorical Artifact because of its cultural significance. Not only in the United States, does the Hubble telescope look to induce change in the minds and behaviors of humanity, but it does so all around the world. This vital tool, through the work of many has been able to offer us something Galileo never even dreamed was possible. Upon building on his creation, we have come across several intriguing findings. We are able to better understand the mysteries of the black holes in space and we are also able to see stars forming in the “pillars of creation” which is one of the most acclaimed images taken in the Eagle Nebula. However, as successful as the Hubble may seem to appear right now, it is important to include that it wasn’t always this way and only through the hard work of many American Heroes was it able to become this engineering marvel of culture and communication.

Upon first launching the Hubble, over twenty years ago problems seemed to appear almost instantaneously. Some of the technical problems involving lens issues and computer glitches were not letting the Hubble to operate to its full capacity. Since then, there have been multiple missions to space visiting the telescope, trying to correct what is wrong with it. While every mission has been able to bring back positive results, there is always something that can be fixed or enhanced, which provoke these new missions. The astronauts who embark on these missions are perceived as American Heroes. Astronauts are professionally trained individuals whom are trained carefully and satisfactorily in human spaceflight. They are extremely smart and very diligent in their work. We perceive them as American Heroes because they are putting their lives on the line and plunging into the unknown willingly. They are going on these missions for humanity, to find new theories, explore new territories, or fix existing problems, thus we acknowledge this and are grateful for it.

The IMAX showing of the Hubble telescope is perhaps the most interesting view and analysis of the object there has been thus far, allowing viewers much like myself who are not really interested in science a chance to look deeper and find out how marvelous this creation really is. It is through this showing that I gained interest in the Hubble Telescope, and now behold it not only as a revolutionary science instrument, but also as a masterpiece of art. Much like any other cultural artifact, such as a famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, or a sculpture by Pablo Picasso, Galileo’s telescope has been able to influence mankind and change perceptions of the world. In the IMAX film we see how much there is about our vast universe that we don’t know, and realize how much we could learn. Leonardo Di Caprio, a famous actor most of us have seen in big Hollywood pictures, narrates the IMAX viewing on Hubble. By getting someone with the status of Leo to narrate, this film is sending the message that popular culture should be more involved in this matter, as opposed to leaving NASA and all the science nerds to take care of this aspect in society. Through, IMAX’s viewing of Hubble, our eyes are opened to the endless possibilities in space, as well as the importance of the Hubble Space telescope, and we are extended an invitation to engage in this movement.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Immigration Reform Now!



Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Peace Palindrome

An Exhibition of Objects that Inspire, Incite, and Inform



Exigence

The exigence for this exhibition is that it explains the need for an explanation for why these faculty members are the way they are. It clarifies how these objects of their collections tell a piece of their life story. Not only do these items tell a story about the person’s life, but also they tell how these items throughout their life have inspired the person.

Purpose

This collection is trying to convince people to collect items that mean something to them so that later in life they are can tell their story through their collections. When you first look through the objects you just see random items that have no meaning. Then when you look closer you learn that they all have a story to tell.

Audience

The rhetorical audience for this collection of objects is the students and other faculty members at the University of Denver. This is the main audience for this collection because they are capable of being influenced by the collections and being the foundation for change. This collection is trying to get the audience to change by starting to collect things that will later on tell their story.

Argument

The thing that is being argued by these collections is that people have different ways of coping with their problems and telling their life story. This collection argues that some people keep objects that have a special meaning to them. All of these collections can tell a chapter in someone’s life and how they have inspired them to live on to their next chapter in life.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Creating a Community through Theater, by David Rawas

The Rhetoric of Peace and Justice




On March 31st, I travelled to a bookstore in Boulder, Colorado to observe a discussion about peace and justice. When I got there, all I found was an empty table. Did I miss the meeting? Why is no one here? Surely peace and justice themselves cannot be as empty as this table. I then realized the message being sent is how peace and justice cannot coexist equally at any moment in time. The meeting failed because one cannot have equal representation of peace and justice at the same time because they are opposites. This failure by opposites conveys the most powerful message that can ever be sent. This message is silence. Through the failure of the meeting along with the message of silence sent by absence, peace and justice are shown in a new true light within society.

Peace and justice can rarely coexist. In any situation of discourse there is the choice between peace or justice. This shows how peace and justice are opposites. Even though in modern society they are often placed together. This is represented in the clips showing marriage. However, it is actually impossible to be fighting for both peace and justice. Most people assert that peace and justice is a marriage because if someone (Jack) does something bad. Jack then goes to court and get sentenced and is removed from society. This creates the peace that people most commonly think about. The problem however is much more cloudy if a group of people do something considered bad. Consider terrorists for example. Peace between terrorists and non-terrorists would be for each one to get what they want. Justice between terrorists and non-terrorists is for one to succeed over the other and then the justice is defined by the winning side. By these definitions, peace and justice seem similar but are also substantially different. Peace implies co-existing compromise, justice implies power over the other. By this discourse peace and justice cannot exist equally within any society.

Another difference between peace and justice is that justice is an opinion. One individual may think one action is the appropriate response. Another individual would have a different and perhaps opposite response. This is also represented by the terrorist vs. non-terrorist example. The terrorist’s justice would be killing all the non-believers. The non-terrorist’s justice would be to rid the world of extremists who believe it is their power to rid the world of opposing views. Therefore it is the people themselves on each side who have the power to influence a change toward more justice or more peace. The discourse is within society itself. Although opposites, justice can possibly lead to short span of peace. This is represented by the Jack example. Jack goes away then peace follows. However, peace does not prevail forever because sooner or later another problem will arise where justice would be needed. This suggests that there is an illusion of equilibrium between peace and justice when actually it is each situation rapidly fluctuating between the two. Peace and justice is actually a cycle where one leads to the other. The meeting did not happen because the core purpose of the meeting itself is contradictory. The meeting failed because peace and justice cannot coexist equally in society, therefore the meeting about peace and justice cannot exist in society.

Though the meeting itself did not happen because of its core contradiction, it still sent a message. That message is the very powerful message of silence. At first this silence means nothing, as in nothing happened because nothing existed. But is this what silence really means? Well silence means there is nothing to be said. This could prove how the meeting can not exist, or it could prove a more powerful message that any words could ever convey. The latter is true because historically silence has been used as a tool to influence change and thought. This is shown in my clips though the pictures of dead bodies and such. An example showing the power of silence is the infamous picture on the “tank man” or also known as “the unknown rebel.” This is the man who stood in front of a column of tanks in Tiananman Square in 1989. He simply stood there blocking the tanks. His existence at that position was enough to stop the tanks, not words. Another example of this are silent marches. The most moving marches can be silent marches because it makes you actually think about what they want instead of listening to them shout it at you. Both of these examples show the power of silence in provoking thought and illustrating the true message being sent. The influence of the silence makes one think harder about why the meeting would not happen. The truth of the message sent by silence at the bookstore meeting about peace and justice is how such meeting cannot be held in a bookstore. Peace and justice is held within the world on the streets and in the buildings of power. That is where one should look to find peace and justice. This is because peace and justice are all around us. They cannot be syphoned out of society and placed into a bookstore meeting. It is in every person, in every action. The silence shown at the failed meeting shows this.

Peace and justice cannot coexist in society at equal levels at the same time. There will always be either more peace or more justice for each situation. The rhetorical artifact of this theme succeeds and fails. The theme fails by showing how peace and justice cannot coexist equally. But though that failure it inspires activism to try and make it so. The message is that what you search for cannot be found here. One must go find it. In this aspect the artifact succeeds.

The creation of something creative








Welcome to the internals of a developing project. We are still in the filming and creation sequence of our video, stay calm, stay patient. You are beautiful.

The clothes have been picked out, the music is still in development. The camera works and the local has been scouted. Big thanks to the Penrose Library for their generous one day rentals of HD Flip video camcorders!

Keep it real.

Denver Rhetor Plan; re creating black light theatre

Analysis of "Fox Games"

ERIN KOLAR





I went to the Santa Fe Art Walk with the intention of viewing local art. What I did not realize was that I was not just going to be walking through galleries of photographs and paintings, but I would be observing and learning about people from all walks of life. I discovered that this art walk was not solely a place for local artists to display their work. Moreover, it is a place for people to come together and form an extraordinary culture made up of numerous unique individuals.

One painting that I saw was of a mermaid and her reflection. I was immediately drawn to this painting because of its intensely vivid colors. Upon closer look, I noticed that the mermaid’s reflection was wrong. The mermaid’s hair was sticking straight out of her head, yet in the reflection, the mermaid’s hair appeared to be hanging around her shoulders. I gazed at this painting for quite some time, and I realized that perhaps the placement of the mermaid’s hair was not a mistake. Rather, the artist must have been trying to portray some message or idea. Perhaps the mermaid’s hair represents imperfections in every day life. All artwork is created to represent some kind of significance or opinion.

Another particular artist that inspired me was local photographer Cameron Stone. His photography was developed in a way that I hadn’t seen before. He captured images of influential people in his life and took the film he had and developed it through a process of darkroom solarization. The uniqueness of the photography reminded me of the uniqueness of the group of people surrounding me at the art walk. The art walk participants were in a way walking art themselves. Art itself is anything you make it. I at first was surprised at the amount of bands paying throughout the art walk, but then realized they too are displaying their art.

Mason Jennings is a musical artist from Minnesota. I chose to use his song Living In The Moment from the album Century Spring in my video to embody the sense of friendship. Cameron Stone took all of the photos displayed in this video. These photos all depict his closest friends. Without this song, it may seem as though the people in the photos are random. However, when lyrics such as, “I’m living in the moment with the friends I love” are sung, the notion of friendship is implied.

Ars Gratia Artis








The initial three paintings shown in the center of the first slide are all apart of the same exhibit in the Denver art museum. Each image was created during a time of hardship, such as the great depression, World War II, and the Korean War. As the viewer first glances at each piece, they can see hardship and destruction. Each painting depicts a scene of human struggle and suffering. Initially there is a sense of pity for those who are enduring the worst. Upon reaching deeper into the rhetorical effect of each painting one must look to the artists. Each artist produced their piece during a time American history when hardship and suffering were common to many. Without experiencing those adversities it is impossible to fully connect with the painting and understand what motivated the artist.

Much of the western United States could be described as majestic. Scenes equivalent to those in the paintings are common. The action in each scene serves to show the viewer that the majesty came with at cost. Much of western American history was left undocumented due to lack of organization and frequency of oral tradition. This is part of the reason that stories in western films are often fantasized, thus providing an inaccurate recount of the actual events. These paintings not only stand to show us certain events that occurred during the development of west, but also to recall the events which were occurring during the time which they were created.

The artists bring the hardships to the foreground, while portraying the background with beautiful, majestic scenes. The rhetorical exigence of the exhibit as a whole relates to the fact that most modern day viewers can only see the image portrayed, and not the symbolic image of hardship and struggle of the past. The final image, which comes out of the negative images, is displayed after the initial three in the exhibit. This painting serves the purpose to present the true beauty of the backgrounds of the previous paintings. Though painted in the past, is splendor can be appreciated by all those who view it. The goal of the visual was to allow all viewers to see what is unpainted by the artist by bringing it to the foreground. After showing the viewer the hardship and suffering, the visual transitions to the final painting in the exhibit. This painting brings the actual painted background to the foreground by illustrating the true beauty of the western landscape.

Seth Markus Denver Peace Rally

NASA Justifies Hubble through IMAX

The IMAX Theatre at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science attempts to justify both the spending of taxpayer money and risking the lives of astronauts who attempt to repair an ailing Hubble Telescope. IMAX effectively cements their argument using incredible images projected by Hubble that have never been seen by the human eye. The largest screen and sound system theater in the world cannot help but make the audience feel good and forget about the costs of keeping the colossus telescope alive. IMAX also uses Leonardo Dicaprio, a well known figure, to narrate their argument. Rather than using an anonymous narrator, IMAX felt it would be much more effective to use a popular celebrity. In an attempt to get their message across through another source like the media, NASA uses IMAX to simply blow away their audience to the point that they cannot help but be on board with the progress of the Hubble Telescope. With a struggling economy many Americans are asking if funding the Space Shuttle Program worth our while. After the tragic loss of seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia many are asking if the program is safe enough to keep it running. Through the enormous IMAX Theater presentation, NASA will tell you ABSOLUTEY!

The IMAX starts off with images of the Orion Nebula taken by Hubble. Hubble’s amazing images of the Orion Nebula are not ordinary pictures. The advanced lense of the telescope allows the audience to maneuver around the nebula and see the images like they are actually there. You could see the bowl inside the nebula carved out by the vicious 500 mile per hour winds. The audience then gets a close up view of newborn stars, otherwise known as “tadpoles”. Inside each star’s cocoon is an infant solar system. The advanced camera of the telescope shows planets forming around these “baby stars”. The IMAX explains that these three dimensional photos could be the answer to how life began; that right there would justify the tax pay dollars and the risk of our men up above the Earth’s atmosphere. Hubble took 10 years and 10,000 people to be completed. And the IMAX convincingly shows that it would be a mistake to simply let its battery die, only to eventually burn up in Earth’s scorching atmosphere.

Orion’s Nebula was not the only amazing image shown by IMAX. Hubble captures the death of stars, forming a shape resembling a butterfly as it burns out the last of its life. The 119’ X 96’ screen projects the mysterious black hole serving as the garbage disposal of the universe. Hubble even has the ability to measure the temperature of every star through an infrared censor, determining which stars are young and which ones are dying. NASA makes it clear that without the country’s investment in Hubble, none of these discoveries would ever have been possible.

The IMAX show also lets the audience know how truly small our unique planet is with respect to the rest of the universe. It takes you on a journey through our neighboring solar system   Andromeda. Other incredible space explorations you take include the Virgo Cluster and Messier87. Hubble even has images of light that crossed Earth’s path billions of years ago. One cannot help but be in awe of what Hubble has done for space exploration.

There is no more affective place to try and get this message across than in an IMAX Theater. Through an almost overwhelming screen and elite sound system, IMAX has the ability to capture the heart and minds of any ordinary person. IMAX also has credibility as they have done documentaries on important issues in the past (ex: the award winning documentary “Dolphin”).

IMAX also legitimizes NASA’s cause using a very popular figure in Leonardo Dicaprio. He is an actor that is on top and in the prime of his career. People love to watch Dicaprio amaze on screen and that is no different with Hubble. Using a low profile narrator does not capture your audience in the same way that a movie star does. Knowing that Dicaprio is narrating the show surely attracts a larger audience.

IMAX’s documentary “Hubble” gives the audience a prospective of how rare and tiny our planet actually is. NASA convinces doubters about the Hubble program through imagery, advanced technology, and a credible speaker. Hubble has the ability to answer questions such as how do planets form, where did we come from, and how do the chemicals that make us form. NASA urges you that space exploration must go on or else we will never answer some of the world’s deepest questions.
The Mind and Body exhibit at the Denver Nature and Science museum is more extraordinary than anything you can imagine. Already having high expectations for the exhibit, it has exceeded those expectations. In the modern time including the past five to ten years there has been a huge outbreak in the health craze as well as medically with the preservations of the human body tissue. There are so many ways to analyze the exhibit. Although Body Worlds is there to benefit humanity.

It is there to have people make changes in their life and how they go about a daily activity. To teach people how the body works and act upon how to change their lives in a positive way by seeing first hand what certain items can have an effect on your body. Having people realize and understand the true meaning of the body because it is the one thing that humans have not been able to produce or recreate there is so much that fascinates our minds. “It is there for the enlightenment and contemplation of each person.”(quote from creator of the exhibits) This is what it had done for me, I was amazed at all the plastination of the bodies. It really made me think of my self image and how I work as a human being. Its like looking into a mirror.

The purpose for my presentation through a slide show is using the idea of seeing as a way to prove my point that seeing the image of a body is more powerful than touching because to see it first person still makes it something that you can identify with but still be repulsed. The body is a need of itself and it is more than our brian can master. We do not treat our bodies as an object because we can not handle the complexity of how it works. It is amazing for the fact that nature can make something so complex. As a human you can identify that it is another human but at the same time be repulsed by the fact that it is a human.

My audience is Humanity, all the people around the world because everyone can learn from the exhibit and have an effect on their body afterwards by understanding how complex we are as humans. Which brings me to my next point stating that the exigence is the body itself because it has a need of itself. We need to feed it and take care of it or else it will not work. The majority of people need to understand what the body. Our bodies can not be seen merely as an object because it is more than just another object.

If you were to touch the bodies it makes it feel like matter, therefore more like an object but seeing gives you the exhilarating feeling while still realizing that it is a human. From that you begin to question the back story of the body what was the persons name, what did he/she do, how did they die, etc. Seeing it makes your realize how complex you really are and you can not master yourself. It is a self realization and impossible to say that you can control everything your mind and body does. Seeing the body is also like looking into a mirror of self image. Imagining yourself doing the same activity and understanding that it could be you.

Finally the bodies are positioned as a form of art so that people can admire the complexity of the body compared to even some of the most complex man-made objects. It puts us in the category of nature when the bodies can look like other things in nature and helps us understand that we are nature and we have a need that needs to be met. Man-made objects all have answers and there are some questions that we will never be able to solve about ourselves. Seeing the activities an emotion that each body possess makes it even more human in your mind. When seeing someone doing the activity you do not think of it in the same light.

Lance Black Comes to Colorado

Lance Black Speaks to Colorado College Students
When the Academy Award winning screenwriter, Lance Black, took the stage at Colorado College to give a speech, the audience excitedly anticipated what they knew would be an captivating talk. Interestingly enough, few members of the audience actually knew what Black was there to talk about. Was he going to focus mainly on LGBT Rights, or would he talk mostly about his career in Hollywood? Black, who stated officially at the start of the speech that he hated speaking to large crowds, spoke about his life as a gay man in a conservative Texas town and his climb to the top of the Hollywood ladder. Speaking to a crowd of mainly students in a small liberal college, Black seemed at ease despite his own warning not to let his shaking and sweating distract from his words. This may have been because he knew his audience, consisting of many fans, was in tune with the message he was sending.
While his message contained one purpose, there was more than one exigence. One main exigence in his speech dealt with today being a critical moment for LGBT Rights despite their recent fade from the public eye. The black and white poster with Harvey Mlik leading a protest speaks to this exigence. Black explained that the reason he wrote the film “Milk” was because he wanted people to remember Harvey Milk and all that he did for LGBT rights in the seventies. He said that by forgetting Milk’s fight, we as a free nation are taking a step backwards when we have been poised, by activists like Milk, to go forwards.
Black also discussed how those naturally inclined to act on their beliefs, for example today’s leaders and the leaders of the new generation, are not doing so. The Obama poster mimicking Shepard Fairey’s iconic poster says, “Hope?” The poster effectively displays this idea because it is identifiable among the generation it is speaking to, my generation. The colors of the gay flag in the poster, along with what it says, send the message that there is little promise for more LGBT rights under the current government. In both cases, Black’s purpose was to convince his audience to act upon these exigences. After all, his young, active audience members who came to see him speak on a Friday night would be obvious candidates for leaders in the LGBT movement.
Black’s message targeted our generation. Both posters speak to the need for imminent action. Although our generation is, as a whole, politically charged and remarkably more open and accepting of sexual orientation, it may be that our generation is so dedicated to President Obama’s agenda that it disregards the LGBT movement. Black speaks out to this generation in order to call its attention to the LGBT rights. This generation seems naturally inclined to stand up in support of the LGBT agenda; however, the stimulus behind the LGBT movement has weakened in recent years. Engaging such a politically active generation is the best way to get the attention of Obama’s government, which has been so enthusiastically championed by our generation. Black aims to gather support from our generation as a way to direct the government’s attention to the LGBT issue. Black’s talk, and the audience’s support and enthusiasm for what he had to say made it clear that the LGBT movement will likely be the civil rights movement of this generation.

Exposé of Mind

It is at these assorted collections where one is so inclined to ask themselves – what is art? In a glimpse of the world where there are traditional type paintings compare with modern art; people and things along with simple lines and shadows; the purely objective versus the symbolic. It is here where one can understand the paradigm that art, truly is, based off each person’s own interpretation. Although every piece was established on a set function to portray to the audience, every piece can also maintain additional functions of understanding. As I paced through the night, I noticed a pattern among some of the exhibitions – a pattern that initially, was fairly alarming. Several artists had utilized their skills and techniques to create art that may not be seen as art to the ordinary. Pieces were created and revealed that did not follow the norms of aestheticism. Instead, what many of these artists were putting out were pieces that could almost be thought of as disgusting and repelling, or dark and threatening. I had to wonder, what was the purpose of these disturbing pieces that many are inclined to shy away from?

A gallery by Greg Friedler focused on photography of the not-so-pleasant. The most notable photographs in this gallery included: a series of the insides of gutted fish, perfect arrangements of rotten fruit, transvestites, an inter-racial couple, dead flowers sitting neatly in a vase, a sick child, and a great amount of nakedness. Through Friedler’s categorizing theme of photography, he is attempting to explicate several ideas and push the audience to conflict inherent thoughts with new ones. It is through our society’s values and norms that have impelled people to group certain images, ideas, and realities with either a negative or positive connotation. I believe Friedler may be expressing his view of our modern-day society as one that lacks compassion, open-mindedness, insight, and understanding. The larger majority of our American culture stresses on values that deter away from everything Friedler’s photography represents – that which is founded on beauty, freedom, religion-based norms, and liveliness. These all help form the “American Dream” and what qualifies as achieving success nowadays. But with Friedler’s photography, he highlights the opposing elements of what society generally values. Examples include things that are not considered “beauty”, such as gutted fish and rotten fruit. He shows those who cannot obtain true freedom because of the judgment they receive from the rest of society, including transvestites and inter-racial couples. Friedler shows death through the insides of the fish, the rotten fruit, the sick child, and the dead flowers. Furthermore, he opposes religious-norms and what is considered “appropriate” with numerous photos exhibiting people fully naked.

There is an obvious complexity of reasons why Friedler stresses on these opposing elements to what people are accustomed to. The basis of his argument seems to be an idea he is focusing on – that our society is incredibly sheltered in a non-tolerant, non-rationalizing fixation of ideas and norms, and that we are not compassionate in the understandings of varying cultural values. Also, that most people in our society are too selfish in their concerns, that they group together all that is negative; therefore grouping together dead flowers and rotten fruit with a sick child, because we don’t have the empathy or time to care about the sick child. Taking time to feel empathy for the sick child would be a burden to us in our busy lives, and would bring us down because most people would rather focus on things that make us happy rather than focusing on the ugly of reality. So instead of taking time to maintain compassion and seeking truth, we automatically consider it ugly and negative, and categorize it with other things that are ugly and negative to us, such as the things that are dead. The same can be demonstrated by the photography of the transvestites and inter-racial couples. We are so wrapped up in our individual lives and packed schedules, we don’t feel we can give the time of day to question, ponder, and perhaps understand people with opposing values to us. Friedler’s photography of other peoples stories highlight the major issue of our self-centered values. This seems to be his reasoning for creating the photography exhibition that he created.

His photography offers a chance for people to view the things they don’t normally see or want to look at. It becomes a choice – whether or not we decide to indulge in the unknown world of strangeness, ugliness, and truth. He is giving people a chance to rub their minds and strengthen or re-evaluate their values. Only when we can look and think about the things we don’t want to look at or think about, can we truly understand our values and beliefs. Depending on what each individual does with this given opportunity, I believe Friedler is offering people a chance to better themselves by testing their character with these photographs. If someone can take the time to try to understand an opposing cultural value than what they are accustomed to, through these photos, then the goal of these photos has already been partly reached as people expand their minds for true critical analysis. These photos not only give people the chance to open up their minds, but to question their own values. Most people grow up with values that were instilled in them during early years in the household, and they don’t even understand the basis of their values. They call these their “values” because of their family or group/religious affiliation, not knowing the fundamental reasoning of these values. When Friedler exposes people to things/people they don’t want to see or think about, it brings another opportunity to question our own beliefs. We get a chance to ask ourselves why we are so repulsed by what we see; is it truly repulsive? If so, then why, when it isn’t harming anyone? If we don’t understand the fundamental reasoning behind our values and beliefs, then our values and beliefs are worthless. Friedler’s photography offers people a chance to truly grasp and restructure their core values.

Another fascinating artist by the name of John Bonath showcased sculptures and digital pieces that may be thought of as unsettling. Some of his pieces include a woman being engulfed by cockroaches, a morphed photo of a man who looks diseased and clouded in smoke, and a woman emerging from a tight hold of what seems like people trapped in hell. In similarity to Friedler’s exhibition, Bonath presents things that are unsettling to us. Bonath’s digital pieces can also help reinforce a person’s character if they so choose to when they come across these pieces. In addition to how the exigence and aims of Friedler’s pieces, I think Bonath’s pieces also help people to realize the truth of why we categorize some things as good, and others a bad. Perhaps it is “bad” only because we don’t see it often enough and it frightens us to come across things that aren’t part of our usual daily lives. But then, is it truly bad? Or is it only considered “bad” because we as human-beings are becoming less and less inclined to adapt to change? We cannot accept the unusual and that which does not fit the norm because it inconveniences our lives. In an era where convenience is a new cultural value of America, we don’t have time to embrace the strange; it would be much easier to consider it bad and set it aside. But when we do that, the “bad” isn’t truly bad, and ultimately we are hurting people by purposely steering away from understanding them. When we don’t allow our minds to expand and we only fill our lives with the things we are comfortable with, tension is created between opposing ideas and values. Much of that tension is unnecessary, since most opposing groups would not harm each other if they could just have a better understanding of other values and be content they have their own. I think both Fridler and Bonath stress on this idea with their exhibitions.

The ideas and opportunities they are pushing out to society also helps people better appreciate that which we already consider beautiful, free, and life-filled. When people see too much beauty, beauty loses its value. The same goes for freedom when all a person knows their entire life is freedom in every choice they make. Many of us take for granted the energy and liveliness we have every day in our lives because we are accustomed to it. We have an imperative need for opposing elements to reinforce the things we appreciate. When we become too accustomed to the things that are good, they lose value, leading to a further loss in value of all that we do already appreciate and bask our lives in.

Art is art because of the freedom it allows; and with freedom comes inventiveness and frankness. People generally have a set idea already of what is good and what is bad, but ultimately, who is to determine what is considered good and bad? What makes the bad, as we interpret them, truly bad? There is no fundamental reason why the things we think of as scary are really scary, or the things that people find ugly are actually ugly. Qualities and misunderstandings have been placed upon certain things, and or ideas that give them a negative interpretation, and therefore – people tend to agree with those negative interpretations. We think the masked killers in these horror movies are scary because that is what we are influenced to think. We turn away from it because it unsettles us to see something so scary or unpleasant. Most people would turn away from an openly naked body because we are taught that nakedness in public is inappropriate, and to engage in that nakedness in front of others, is inappropriate as well.

By deliberately confronting what we do not want to see or to think about, we learn to tolerate — and eventually even to appreciate — that which is different. By broadening our perspectives, we learn to adapt to and even to embrace change, in the world and in ourselves. We must test our core values, and we must be willing to revise them, if they are to remain strong. Only by facing that which we perceive as negative can we truly discover what is positive in our beliefs.

Ancient Egypt and America Today: The Exhibit as a Rhetorical Artifact

Easter is Terrible, so just do it!

Easter
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The Easter church service used a strategy of hidden meaning and reverse psychology to encourage continued attendance at the church. By saying a person doesn’t need church to pass God’s judgment and admitting to not knowing all the answers to people’s questions it encourages people to trust and give the church a chance because it’s like no other church they’ve experienced. To follow the theme of double meaning I turned my short essay into four pictures. The visually appealing pictures both compel the time of year and happiness of Easter but also make my argument within the pictures. I chose to portray my argument as a cartoon because it targets the same general audience the church has its sights on. Also a cartoon is innocent and funny but if you read more into cartoons some of them have meaning or a message behind them, also because a cartoon is kind of cheesy just like the message the church is serving.

Do Like the Animals Do!


As I walk into the Wildlife Halls at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, I mentally transform back into my five-year-old self. I look at all of the displays in the halls and travel from the arctic to the savannah to the forest. I am mesmerized by the animals and their ways of life. In all of the exhibits, I notice a mom, a dad and little babies all working together to create a productive environment. Then, at some point, I transform back into my 19-year-old self and realize that everything the museum has portrayed as ordinary life for a variety of different species is inherently unnatural. Although the museum would like me to think otherwise, not all animals mate for life and nurture their young. Nature is nature, and it is not a fairytale. However, the museum’s primary objective here is not present the realities of nature, but rather to enforce popular human culture upon the easily influenced minds that enter through the doors of the Wildlife Halls.
In order to convey the ridiculousness of the museum’s Wildlife Halls setup, I have chosen to create a pseudo- Public Service Announcement that reinforces the museum’s “Positive Moral Value” system. These “Positive Moral Values” – that is traditional marriage, pro-life, family and friendship ideals – are not necessarily correct, they are just the most popular in American society (and obviously the ones the museum is trying to help preserve). Since young kids are perhaps the most impressionable and the ones most likely to be visiting the Wildlife Halls, the museum is trying to force their idea of positive values onto the kids in hopes that they will use them in their adult life. However, upon listening to my Public Service Announcement, it becomes clear that human traditions (which have been created in a specific cultural context, for different cultures have different traditions) are completely nonrelated to animal interactions. For example, animals do not marry like humans do. In fact, most male animals leave their female mate once the babies are born (and there are no divorce proceedings, for it is merely their way of life). Animals also do not preserve pro-life values, for many mothers abandon their babies in the wild which results in the death of those babies. Therefore, the objective of my Public Service Announcement is neither to persuade one to abide by popular societal values nor to explicitly reveal the workings of nature, but rather to make a subtle argument that challenges the listener to identify the evident flaw in the museum’s forms of persuasion.
The reality has always been, and will continue to be, that humans are not animals and vice versa. Animalistic ways are unnatural in regards to human nature, and ultimately there is not much to learn about human life in an animal’s. Although my five-year-old self wants to believe that monkeys get married, have kids, and live as a family forever, my 19-year-old self is less naïve. Animals do not build a culture like humans do; animals live in nature and have essentially been living the same ways since they first came into existence. Human traditions have evolved and changed over time, and ultimately cannot be compared to the ways of the natural world.

From Fear driven to Conscience driven

Wendell Potter, the former Public Relations Executive of the giant health insurance corporation Cigna, now frequently speaks out against the current health care system at different cities in the U.S., advocating for meaningful health care reform. On March 26, Potter came to Denver to give a speech at a local Christian church. The reason that Potter felt compelled to speak out was in part to the circumstance that the current health care system has driven insurers to pursue maximum profits for their Wall Street investors and because the collusion between insurance companies with the mass media, which has been misleading people about health care reform. Potter employed narrative storytelling to reveal some common tactics he saw applied by insurers to their policyholders when working in the health insurance industry. At the end of his speech, Potter emphasized the significance of rejecting the scare tactics, which tends to keep people in their comfort zone and prevent them from taking actions supporting health care reform. By revealing the sickness of current health care system and indicating the urgency of health care reform, he sincerely called upon his audience to stand up to call for governmental regulations and to take actions to stop the misbehaviors and corruption of insurers.

Potter gave several anecdotes that had impacted on his professional life, including a real story that prompted his decision to quit his high paid job as an executive of Public Relations at Cigna. He shared a girl’s tragedy handled by him that was caused by the insurer’s self-interest and profit driven character. Potter emphasized this moving story as his defining moment in his life, which led him to stand up against huge insurance companies with courage. In this real story, when a girl from California got cancer and needed help from her insurance company Cigna to pay for a liver transplant, Cigna denied her at first due to the cost, categorizing the surgical operation as experimental. However, following outraged expressed by people from the girl’s hometown of an organized protest, Cigna reluctantly changed its decision and agreed to pay for the cost. As the executive president of Public Relations at Cigna, Potter handled the case as instructed by his CEOs. Though running counter to his conscience, he followed the company’s policy and let the people know that the reason Cigna decided to help pay for the cost of the transfer was due to the company’s sympathy and kind heart. However, the girl passed away after battling with her cancer while waiting for the insurance company’s decision to pay for the operation. As the public spokesman for Cigna, Potter felt responsible for the girl’s death long after she passed away even while he continued Cigna’s charade.

Potter recalled travelling domestically and internationally in his company’s wasteful and extravagant private jets. All the while he realized that every dollar spent on the luxury could have been spent on patients saving lives. Logos and ethos in Potter’s message interact to produce coherence and consistency for the overall purpose of exhorting his audience.

Cigna is a representative of many profit-driven giant insurers; the girl’s premiums are one of thousands of hundreds premium dollars wasted on executives who pursue luxurious life style. Similarly, this tragedy is also a representative of common cases that insurance companies would frequently do to their policyholders who need their insurance companies to honor policies. The speaker chose this girl’s story as the representative to appeal for more sympathy from people’s common feelings for girls and is aimed to rhetorically gain empathy from his audience. Though the average age of his audience could have been a constraint on the rhetorical situation, Potter took advantage of this situation by letting his audience identify themselves as parents and grandparents that allows them to feel empathy for the unbearable lost of the girl’s family. As for the audience themselves, they are and will be at the age that requires trustful and dependable health insurance coverage. The girl’s story cruelly revealed the possible outcomes that would happen to them when in need of health insurance coverage. People logically assume that paying to have insurance will make them feel financially secure when emergencies happen. In contrast, when people revisit the girl’s situation, they pay to get nothing but mistrust towards insurers and unfairness.

After he shared this story, he expressed that he ran counter into his crisis of conscience and could not help crying when he mentioned that the girl died due to the lack of immediate medical treatment. He felt a call from his heart asking him to stop working for profit driven cooperatives but beginning speaking out against insurance companies that using unethical dirty tricks to their policyholders. By publicly revealing the tricks to against insurers as an insider, he advocates a change of the current health care system, which has led insurers to operate to maximize profits for their CEOs and shareholders. Knowing most of his audience is also both politically and socially advocating health care reform, he shared his defining moment that he quit his considerably high pay job and urged people to follow their hearts doing right things without fear.

By sharing his decision making at the turning point of his career life, Potter developed his character in his speech. The call he heard had given him courage not to fear about any outcomes. It was difficult to make such a decision that would lead him into mid-age crisis—having to take care of all family expenses—as well as endangering his life and his family’s safety. He created himself a courageous but not self-interest or greedy persona, of who overcame his fear of safety and walked away from his about 20 years career life and salary. In addition to this character, his rich experiences with the health care industry give him competence that greatly builds up his credibility in front of his audience. Standing up against to the health care system and speaking to his audience at a Christian church, he emphasized the call he heard that urged him to do something right. Though the religious beliefs of his audience could have been another constraint of his speech in this situation, once again, instead, he took an advantage of it by letting his audience feel that they have undeniable obligations responding to their god’s call that tells them not to fear about getting out of the comfort zone but to be on the same side of frontline with him.