Week Five

Checklist:
x 1. Closed Captioned videos for the ASL impaired.
x 2. Read Instructor Facilitator Lecture Notes (this week I will provide pre and post)
x 3. Questions regarding videos
x 4. Create a blog post for week 5
x 5. Library Research, MLA reference needed
x 6. Review 10 classmates Quiz questions
__7. Create 5 multiple choice questions. 5 possible answers. Asterisk the correct answer.
__ 8. Sample Dialogue
x 9. Submit your blog post to our LOGIN link

3. Questions regarding videos

1. Deaf West Theatre Clip 1

Food for thought -- What differences do you see with visual and verbal theatrical experiences?

The use of sign language probably affects the blocking of the play – the audience always needs so see the face and hands of the person who is speaking. The chorus singing and signing was an interesting image. Their faces were all crammed into one small space and they were all signing together. There also has to be a good sense of rhythm so that everyone can be in sync while signing. Another thing I wonder about is when the actors talk over each other, or have lines in a song that overlap but are different words. What is it like to receive linguistic information that way?

2. Marlee Matlin Dancing with the Stars:

Food for thought -- what is the difference between hearing and feeling music?

Both hearing and feeling music have to do with receiving the vibrations of the music. You wouldn’t be able to hear the melodies and harmonies, presumably, but the rhythm and pulse of the vibrations would convey sentiment and meaning without the other bits.

3. Indiana Visual Arts Day

Food for thought -- who decides what education curriculum looks like and for whom?

School officials from state and local governments decide educational curriculum for all students. In some places, like Indiana and California, schools are set up for deaf students and instruction is given in ASL or both ASL and English. It is important for parents and students to advocate for themselves when education officials are overlooking the educational needs of particular groups of students.

5. Deafnews.com

Food for thought -- who decides who delivers the news and how it is delivered and who owns the means in doing so?

Large media conglomerates monopolize the news, as far as traditional media and media derived from them (e.g. wire services available online). With the advent of the internet, however, the dispersion of information and opinions is slowly becoming democratic, although there are issues of access and education when it comes to the internet. Outlets like Deafnews.com are becoming more common, and the news can be presented in ASL and it can be accessed by a larger portion of the population than if it were broadcast on local television.

6. Lucky

Food for thought -- what are the differences in what you feel when you see or hear music lyrics on paper, then performed in auditory ways, then performed in a way that is visual? Do your senses react differently to these modes of delivery?

I perceive more expression when the song is sung than when I see the lyrics written. The ASL interpretation is also very expressive, by virtue of how the language is formed, with facial expressions and body posture, etc. There is even a more holistic expressiveness in the ASL interpretation, at least when paired with the music, because I am hearing it and seeing it in very expressive ways.

7. A 1 year old hearing Baby Signing

Food for thought -- how is this baby not silenced by knowing this language? Is 'silence' necessarily something you don't hear? How about privilege and oppression notions -- how do these apply here?

One major reason that she is not silenced is that the signs are associated with English as verbal language. But apart from that, she has a way to communicate before her spoken/verbal skills are developed. Silence is not about sound or noise or speaking, but expression and communication. When we think that “a voice” is only spoken, then those who communicate in other ways are disenfranchised.

8. MSSD

Food for thought -- are verbal ways of delivering instructional content the only ways of delivering information? This location offers the same degrees as any other university, but all the classes are taught visually with ASL.

MSSD demonstrates that students can be successful academically while learning with ASL and other forms of visual communication. Students at MSSD excel in non-traditional learning situations as well, like internships and science study trips.

9. Tour of Gallaudet and/or Car Tour of Gallaudet and/or ASL VLOG Tour Gallaudet

Food for thought -- are verbal ways of delivering instructional content the only ways of delivering information? This location offers the same degrees as any other university, but all the classes are taught visually with ASL.

The campus is just like any college campus. There is nothing that differentiates it from another campus except that its curriculum is delivered in ASL. Students are given the same academic opportunities as students who speak English verbally.

10. The Forest -- A Story in ASL with captions OR The Forest -- A Story in ASL without captions (see side of video for more info, transcript, etc) -- also if it is available, see the making of this story

Food for thought -- What can you say about face, body, hand shape, hand movement, hand placement in this video and or in any other video viewed so far on this page?

All of these things work together to provide the same kind of differentiations in tone and meaning that the voice expresses with speed of speech, tone of voice, volume, etc. With his body and hands, the man in this video can give nuanced meaning to the story, expressing the calm and peaceful bird, the large burly man, the scared animals at the beginning, and the movement of the land as the man walks into the forest.

11. (ASL) Halo - Beyonce

I love this song because it is strong and passionate, and the way this young man interprets really brings that out, especially in the chorus where the song basically just repeats the line “I can see your halo.” His interpretation is very musical.

__ 5. Library Research, MLA reference needed

1. In this article, the author writes, “Writers of mainstream American literature that includes deaf characters are mostly hearing. The writers develop their notions of deaf people’s experience with sound based on their constructions of sound, deafness, and deaf people” (552). Another interesting finding about Deaf literature is the way that authors write synesthesically: “In American Deaf literature, synesthesia is the use of other senses to represent sound. The representations consist of substituted-sense images of sound. The substituted senses of sound are sound as sight and touch” (558).

2. Rosen, Russell S. “Representations of Sound in American Deaf Literature.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 12.4 (2007): 552-565. Web. 16 Jul 2010. .

__6. Review 10 classmates work from week 1; choose one multiple choice 'test' question created by each of these 10 classmates (put name in parenthesis for each classmate question so we know the source). Cut and paste into 'Week 5' blog post.

(Ashley)

Bienvenidos A Newport Beach
1) What nationality is the author based on the text?
a. hispanic
b. chinese
c. Iranian*
d. Hindu

(Carrie)

2. In the story, Returning after fire, where was the fire?
a. Oakland Hills
b. Hollywood Hills
c. Painted Cave Fire
d. San Diego Hills *
e. Santa Ana Fire

(Cassandra)

1.Where was Derek supposed to be instead of San Francisco?
A.Chinatown
*B. Berkeley
C.Riverside
D.Los Angeles
E.Santa Cruz

(Summer)

2. In his short story The Last Little Beach Town, what does Edward Humes state is the center of Old Town?
A. City Hall
B. Main Street **
C. The Seal Beach Pier
D. Pacific Coast Highway
E. Crystal Cove

(Kerby)

1. What book did Joanne Yeo give to Edward on good faith in hopes he’d return with the $5 to pay for it?
a. My California
b. A Story of Seal Beach*
c. Webster Dictionary
d. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
e. Fishing in the San Gabriel River

(Olivia)

3) What name is 909 compared to?
A) Fred
B) Bob*
C) Don
D) Will
E) Nick

(Maria)

Q: 3 Where “The Dark Watchers” live? in a.
b. Near the Ocean
c. The hills near Big Sir*
d. In the Desert
e. Near the city

(Pui-Yin)

3. What are the names of the two rivers in Sacramento?
a. Sacramento and Sierra
b. Sierra and American
c. Sacramento and American *
d. Sacramento and California
e. California and American

(Natalie)

4) In the story, “Cotton Candy Mirrors”, what part of Playland was talked about the most?
a. The games
b. The fun house*
c. The location
d. The food
e. The price

(Kristine)

Who or what does the author refer to as Wordsworth and Whitman in the quote, "San Pedro, Sausalito ... Topanga and Soledad are not places one would find in Wordsworth or even Whitman? (On Being a California Poet)

They are American Poets. *

It refers to English dictionaries

Refers to a location or place.

They are British playwrights.

Mid-Term Essay: Family Rituals

“It figures that our only family ritual is going to an old whorehouse and eating pizza.”
Occupying what once was a “house of ill repute,” Old Chicago Pizza in Petaluma is a family tradition. Since I can remember, there hasn’t been a Bernard family visit up North that did not include a stop at this fine dining establishment. It’s about the only thing that brings Bernards together.
Situated above a shopping arcade on Petaluma Boulevard, Old Chicago Pizza represents the dwindling quaintness of the town where my maternal great-great-grandparents settled. My mother’s mother’s grandparents came to Petaluma from Sant’Antonino in Switzerland. My mother’s father’s grandparents came from the Azores Islands in Portugal, settling on a piece of property that had been disbursed from Juan Padilla’s Rancho Roblar de la Miseria in the 1860s. My Grandma and Grandpa still live here, although the holdings are much smaller than 150 years ago; we call it the Ranchito. The accumulation of rusted cars in the fields and derelict farm equipment in the equally derelict barn has long since my childhood surpassed picturesque.
The origins of my father’s family are more difficult. My Granny came from Texas, and my Papa grew up in the hills of Mount Tamalpais. But my dad says that we come from a long line of bastards. In high school, when my Granny and Papa were living near us in Riverside, I was doing some schoolwork in their kitchen, tracing out the family tree a few generations.
“Granny, what is your maiden name?”
“Dickerson.”
“And Nana Lu…Grandpa Herb’s name was Duer but what was her maiden name?”
“Dickerson,” was the reply, and “Well, what else?” was the wordless insinuation, as if I had asked a silly question, one I should have known the answer to.
She tried explaining some of Papa’s family history, but it was clear to me that details were being neglected, ignored, veiled, on account of their unpleasantness.
My mother filled in the details later, and my dad’s characterization of the family history is not entirely inaccurate. It is no wonder that Dad’s immediate family finds normal, human interaction outside of its faculties. There’s never any yelling, never any fighting. There’s hardly any speaking.
Even though my dad and his siblings grew up in Petaluma, the only Bernards still there are his older brother’s two adult children and his remarried widow. My parents live far south, in Riverside, and have for almost as long as I have been alive. Dad’s younger brother and parents now live in New Mexico, having moved on to some new place whose idyll (the charm is lost on me) was somehow elusive in the afterglow of Mexican California. His sistee is his closest sibling, and she lives in Las Vegas.
Every few years, the rare day comes when we are gathered around a table for a family meal. That table is always in a smaller back room attached to the large window front dining room of Old Chicago Pizza. “It figures,” my dad says as we walk in the doors from the narrow hallway which leads to other, impossibly small, rooms, “It figures that our only family ritual is going to an old whorehouse and eating pizza.”

Week Four

x 1. complete My California
x 2. reading notes regarding My California, 2 parts

Part 1 Notes

1. “909” by Percival Everett
2. Everett describes his thoughts and experiences of Riverside County, situated in the hills above the 60 freeway which runs between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.
3. “It sounds scary and all my city friends think of 909 as the wild outback, but I’m less likely to have a run-in with a crook out here than in 213.” (123-124)
4. The story brings up many, many associations because it is about the area where I grew up. I was reminded that the Mission Inn in Riverside had closed for a while, and I liked the story about William Taft’s oversized chair. As an elementary school student, we would visit the Mission Inn and sit in Taft’s chair.
5. Well since I am so familiar with the area there wasn’t anything new I learned from the reading, except to remember that President Taft was angry about the chair, and that when Everett rides his mule off the trail he says they “pop brush,”which is a phrase I’d never heard before.

1. “Ode to CalTrans” by Héctor Tobar

2. Tobar reminisces about his childhood through the grid of the Los Angeles freeway system, comparing the birth of his child with his mother’s experience of getting to the hospital.

3. “In California, we drive too fast, but at least there are enforceable rules; there is a logic, and highway etiquette respected y eighty-five percent of the driving public and enforced by a relatively incorruptible Highway Patrol. If the Buenos Aires commuters who make a habit of straddling the dotted lines on the Highway of the Sun tried the same thing on the Santa Monica, they would either be pulled over for a roadside sobriety test or find themselves targets of road-rage justice. In Los Angeles, we don’t suffer traffic fools well, because we drive almost as much as we breathe; we understand that the hours we spend outside the shell of our vehicles are mere episodes between the daily freeway slog. The Law of Evolution has dictated our adaptation into homo californius mobilius, and clever tool-making—the hands-free cellular phone, the multi-CD player, and the radar detection device—has saved our breed from extinction.” (53)

4. There was also the section where he talks about having learned the freeway grid from a young age, before he could drive. My godbrother used to draw up pictures of the freeway system when he was young, and even as a new driver going out to Los Angeles, I knew at least three different routes to make my way home. He also talks about the widening of the Santa Ana freeway, and I can’t even imagine the headache it was to drive there while that was going on.

5. I never knew about the memorials for CalTrans workers, but I understand that there are freeways so dangerous that you couldn’t put them up because it would freak people out too much.

1. “Transients in Paradise” by Aimee Liu

2. Liu reflects on what it means to be transient in light of Italo Calvino’s statement that “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” considering both the obvious transient, a down and out man named Richard, and those who occupy the upper eschelons of Beverly Hills society.

3. “Who is coming? Who is going? Who is staying, and for how long? A town like Beverly Hills puts up an impressive front of permanence, but no matter how massive the houses, how opulent the stores, how established the brokers of power and fame, or how deep their pockets, the truth of this place is as variable as the traffic passing down Wilshire Boulevard. I see buses carrying housekeepers from Crenshaw nudge the pickups of gardeners from Inglewood, Range Rovers driven by trophy wives cut off Hondas bearing handicap placards. Precious few of the drivers were born here, and nearly as few will die here, there being no hospitals in Beverly Hills, and many started from as far away as Guatemala, Vermont, or Taiwan—or equally distant locales that only appear closer on the map.” (30-31)

4. The reading points out the great disparity that exists materially between the “haves” in Beverly Hills, and the “have-nots” who also dwell there somehow. This is something I see every day in San Francisco, especially in Union Square where masses of people spend wads of money on useless things, while there are many laying in the streets sick and lonely and despairing.

5. Through Liu’s anecdotes, I learned a bit more about life in Beverly Hills, like that the city’s police force is so well-armed and well-paid, and yet there is no crime for them to fight. It’s a show, really. But I was also surprised by the diversity that she describes on page 30—Jewish families, Persian fathers, old folks and young new-moneyed people too.

1. “Flirting with Urbanismo” by Patt Morrison

2. Patt Morrison, beloved Los Angeles radio talk show host, explores the way that Angelenos interact with Downtown L.A.

3. “We suburban strangers obeyed the rules of the scary city. Even now, you can tell an Angeleno from a resident of any other great city: We’re the ones standing meekly on a downtown curb in the dead, dark midnight, waiting for the ‘walk’ sign to turn green. WE know that jaywalking is a serious crime, as Ronald Reagan’s attorney general, Ed Meese, found out. Just before Reagan was sworn in as president, the LAPD gave Meese a ten-dollar ticket for jaywalking. Meese ignored it—and five years later, LA. Law reached all the way to the U.S. Justice Department to find Meese and make him pay.” (137)

4. She talks about the attempts at “urbanization” in Los Angeles, and similar attempts have been made in my hometown of Riverside. The story makes me think of how history, demographics, and immigration patterns really shape the landscape of a place.

5. I learned a lot in this story, because Morrison packed it full of facts and stories—the streets of Downtown L.A. are used as stand-ins for many other famous locales, like New York; the origins of Los Angeles in the ranchos of the Mexican-California days contributed to its suburbanization; the funicular cars that transported residents up and down the city’s many hills.

1. “The Nicest Person in San Francisco” by Derek M. Powazek

2. Powazek tells of his first time visiting San Francisco by himself as a teenager, in which he buys drugs, gets a parking ticket, and makes it back to Berkeley with his father’s car before his dad gets back from his business meetings.

3. “Now, here would be a good place to mention that I grew up outside of L.A. in an area that, if God had his way, would have been a big, flat desert. When you build a city on a big, flat desert you can afford to make it a big grid, with evenly spaced streets all at nice, comfy, ninety-degree angles. Not so in San Francisco.” (168)

4. I love the description of coming out of the tunnel on the Bay Bridge, and I find a lot of joy in making that drive too. His descriptions of the city are much like my experience of living here—not the sanitized views and manicured lawns of Pacific Heights, but the gritty reality of the Tenderloin, the parking meters and the prostitutes and the burrito joints.

5. I learned that it might be somehow possible to make it all the way to Berkeley from Market Street in 30 minutes, in rush hour. But for some reason I think that part of the story might be a bit embellished.

Part Two Notes

1. First, I must say that I was mostly drawn to essays that reflect my own experience of California, like “909” and “Ode to CalTrans.” One thing that all of these essays have in common is a discussion of driving, an activity central to California life, especially in Southern California. It serves as a metaphor for movement and transience for a number of authors. In “909,” Everett looks disdainfully on those who find themselves in the weekend crunch of the 60 and 10 freeways, on their way out to the desert. For him, that life is busy, confining, and ultimately undesirable; he prefers the freedom and wildness of the uninhabited Riverside hills. For Los Angelenos, like Aimee Liu, the daily reality of driving all over the place is an inescapable reality, and it reveals to us that we are in a state of flux, chasing permanence with simultaneously enacted fears and desires, a chase which does not itself end as we wish but only continues indefinitely. In Héctor Tobar’s story, his whole childhood was shaped by his comings and goings on the freeways, a system which, like himself, changed and grew over time, and which enraptured his mind with the lightness and speed of it all.

2. I’m researching Newport Beach, CA, which was featured in Firoozeh Dumas’ story “Bienvenidos a Newport Beach.”

Links:

http://www.visitnewportbeach.com/

http://www.newportbeachca.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Beach,_California

I was drawn to the story because of my familiarity with the area, but more especially the way Dumas tells of the sameness of their gated community—the colors of the homes, the pool rules, the manicured lawns, the homogenous population. Her family, emigrated from Iran, was a marker of difference in the stratified seaside city, which now boasts of being one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. The city was incorporated in 1906 and was the last stop of the Pacific Electric Railway. Its geography is noted for many small bays and a delta, as the Santa Ana River cuts through to meet the ocean. The city is nearly 93% white; the next largest ethnic group is Asian, comprising 4% of the population. Newport Beach is overwhelmingly politically conservative, as Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 3 to 1. It is a homogenous place, with many upscale and high-end retail outlets, most notably Fashion Island. There are also a number of golf courses and country clubs within the city limits. There are a number of “beachy” attractions, like Balboa Pier and Balboa Island. The harbor is home to more than 9,000 private vessels.

3. Multiple Choice questions

1. Riverside County, the midpoint between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, is classified as what kind of terrain?

a. Wooded Forest

b. Coastal Plains

*c. Chaparral

d. Arid Desert

2. Which of these experiences does Hector Tobar NOT associate with a particular freeway in Los Angeles?

a. The birth of his children

*b. His graduation from high school

c. Proposing to his wife

d. The death of his stepfather

3. What kind of conversation does Aimee Liu describe hearing at a funeral for a well-to-do woman’s funeral?

*a. Personal training regimens

b. Home remodeling

c. Private school tuition

d. The latest Apple product

4. What minor violation of the law do Los Angelenos take very seriously, as evidenced by attorney general Ed Meese’s experience with the LAPD?

a. Speeding

b. Double parking

*c. Jaywalking

d. Littering

5. From which street in San Francisco does Derek M. Powazek stray and get lost?

a. Mission Avenue

b. Powell Street

c. Haight Street

*d. Market Street

x 3. essay regarding My California (This will be on the midterm: here, I am prepping you)

x 4. 10 questions

(Carrie)

6. Although the situation of oppression is a dehumanized and dehumanizing totality affecting both the oppressors _______________...
a. and those whom choose to be oppressed
b. and those whom they oppress*
c. and those whom circumstantially are oppressed
d. and those whom are signaled out
e. and those privileged whom they oppress

(Kerby)

9. Liberation is a _____: the action and reflection of men upon their world in order to transform it.
A. Conscientization
B. Dialogue
C. Privilege
D. Literacy
E. Praxis*

(Marcel)

8. Only through __________ can human life hold meaning.

a. Education

b. Interaction

c. Concentration

d. Oppression

e. Communication*

(Maria)

Q: 7 What is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed?
a. True generosity
b. Compassion
c. To liberate themselves and their oppressors as well *
d. To fight to liberate themselves from oppression
e. To liberate the oppressors

(Michael)

3. To which ancient civilization can we trace back the study of humanities?
A. The Maya
B. The Roman
C. The Greek*
D. The Babylonians
E. Ancient Egypt

(Natalie)

3. When did a major shift occur in Renaissance humanism?
a) Fifteenth century*
b) Fourteenth century
c) Sixteenth century
d) Seventeenth century
e) Twentieth century

(Olivia)

9. The "fear of freedom" leads the oppressed to:
A) desire the role of oppressor or bind them to the role of oppressed*
B) desire to have everyone be oppressed so no one has freedom
C) desire to eliminate oppression and oppressors
D) desire a better life even thought that is unattainable as long as they are oppressed
E) desire that their oppressors can switch places with them in hopes that the oppression will stop

(Renee)

3. Scholars working in the humanities are sometimes described as what?
1. philosophers
2. Humanists*
3. teachers
4. all of the above

(Pui-Yin)

4. _____________,, as part of the tool kit of artists or scholars, serves as vehicle to create meaning which invokes a response from an audience.
a. Knowledge
b. Imagination*
c. Creativity
d. Informatiom
e. Truth

(Justin)

4. What method is used when studying humanities?

a) Analytic

b) Speculative

c) Critical

d) All of the above*

x 5. Dialogue Sample

When I was researching art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I was interested in a piece that has two people as subjects, and noticed that their body posture and body language drew the eye back and forth between the two. Jessie had the same reaction to the drawing of two mice which she found at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Wyoming. Both pieces depict living creatures interacting with each other, and I wonder how the interaction of living and animated subjects differs from the juxtaposition of inanimate subjects in painting and drawing.

x 6. create blog post titled week 4
x 7. submit blog post to class website

Week Three

1. Museum Trip 1: California Museum, overview notes
I chose the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, since I have been there and am a member there. The museum is vast and broad, with many different types of art from various eras and of various media. There are extensive collections of international artists, but most interesting to me is the modern art. They have Kandinsky, a German Expressionist, on display, as well as Rene Magritte, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. Also notable are the large installations all over the buildings. I really enjoy the collection of Japanese art as well...there are prints and sculptures. I especially like Nakabayashi Chikuto's Plum Branch.

2. Museum Trip: California Museum specific item notes
One item I liked was Reni's Bacchus and Ariadne, a beautiful Renaissance depiction of classical mythology. I most love the shades of blue which comprise the backdrop of the oft-depicted scene. Ariadne helped Theseus overcome the Minotaur, but was abandoned on the island of Naxos and there met Dionysius/Bacchus, whom this painting treats as its subject. I appreciate the bright colors of the piece, and the softness and roundness of everything - Bacchus' stance is curved, as is the recline of Ariadne. Even the rocks she reclines on seem soft and round.

3. Museum Trip 2: Outside CA Museum, overview notes
I chose for this museum "visit" the Metropolitan Museum of Art, because I visited it briefly about a year ago during a stop-over in New York City. This museum houses thousands of items-visual art, antiquities, sculpture, reconstructed ancient buildings, examples of early American furniture, and a room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Arts and Crafts style. It was far too big to see everything, and it was difficult to navigate (when I was there in person) but there were so many incredible things there. I especially loved the ancient Byzantine Christian artifacts. The most exciting thing, though was the Temple of Dendur, an actual building gifted to the United States from Egypt.

4. Museum Trip: Outside CA Museum, specific item notes.
The piece I enjoyed seeing the most was the Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, a portrait of a young man from Roman Egypt. It was made using an encaustic technique, which was very popular and widely used at the time, although it is no longer known exactly how it was done. It's very life-like...the young man seems like he's about to open his mouth and speak to you. Another incredible aspect of this work is the vivacity of the color. The face is not perfectly symmetrical; it's as if the boy's head is turned but the perspective is still not quite right.

5. Diverse Theoretical Frameworks in the Humanities

See notes in blog post here.

6. Analysis Museum Trip 1 using form

Artwork Being Critiqued: Bacchus and Ariadne

Artist: Guido Reni

l. What stands out the most when you first see it?

The blue sky and ocean in the background.

2. How come you notice the thing you mention in number 1?

I take notice of the sky and its various shades in real life, so the depiction of the sky so beautifully in this piece of art struck me.

3. As you keep looking, what else seems important?

The expressions on the faces of the subjects.

4. How come the thing you mention in number 3 seem important?

There seems to be some disagreement, something that isn't allowing the two of them to agree or be in harmony, even though their body language seems to be positive.

5. How has contrast been used?

The blue of the sky and ocean contrasts with the color of their skin, and the dark rocks in contrast with the sky frame the scene of the two people.

6. What leads your eye around from place to place?

The positioning and movement of their bodies. There is s circular movement between their two bodies, drawing the eye from his face to hers as he gazes at her, to her reclining body (emphasized by the contrasted cloths on which she lays) towards her feet, then back up his body (again emphasized by a contrasted cloth) to his face.

7. What tells you about the style used by this artist?

The lines, the softness, the vibrancy of colors.

8. What seems to be hiding in this composition? How come?

.This painting has much less detail than its more famous forebear, and there is a lot of detail from the myth which is not depicted. If you looked closely, you can see the halo of stars in the sky directly above Ariadne's head, and small sailboats to the right of her face.

9. Imagine the feelings and meanings this artwork represents? Write a few notes about them here.

A relationship that is loving but fraught with tension and disagreement, domination of one over another, expression of basic human truths and experiences, frustration.

10. What titles could you give this artwork?

"Lovers?", 'The distance between yes and no"

11. What other things interest you about this artwork?

.His confident yet acquiescent stance, the shape of the draperies on the rocks, the general lack of setting or place.

12. List one question that you would ask the artist if you could.

"If you could put a speech bubble in the piece, what would it say and who would be saying it?"

7. Analysis Museum Trip 2 using form

Artwork Being Critiqued: Portrait of the Boy Eutyches

Artist: Unknown

l. What stands out the most when you first see it?

The boy’s eyes

2. How come you notice the thing you mention in number 1?

They are deep and strong, and yet not exactly perfectly symmetrical.

3. As you keep looking, what else seems important?

The shading around his face – it seems to shine a bit, and the shadow on the neck gives perspective.

4. How come the thing you mention in number 3 seems important?

It contributes to the life-likeness of the piece. It is a realistic portrait, with various textures and colors and shapes used to depict the person accurately.

5. How has contrast been used?

The boy’s coloring provides automatic contrast, with dark hair, eyes, and eyebrows set against his olive skin. The background is similar in color to his skin and so his hair creates a frame for the rest of his face, and his eyebrows direct the viewer’s gaze to his own eyes.

6. What leads your eye around from place to place?

The life-likeness of it all. The shading and contrast, as I said before, move the viewer’s gaze about the piece, and the viewer wants to look around and see how lifelike it really is.

7. What tells you about the style used by this artist?

The color and shading, the method and material, the symmetry and slight variations of it.

8. What seems to be hiding in this composition? How come?

There is no context or attributes to tell about the person. The idea, I think, is to merely depict the face as a marker of identity, and those who had the portrait and saw it knew who it was without any other identifying markers.

9. Imagine the feelings and meanings this artwork represents? Write a few notes about them here.

Realism, memory, desire for relationship and continuity of that relationship, adolescence, aging and growth, the dispensation of wealth.

10. What titles could you give this artwork?

“Young man of Egypt,” “Subject of Multi-culture”

11. What other things interest you about this artwork?

The typicalness of the portrait – how many others are done in this same style? It’s very ordinary, I think. The way that it is linked to a particular person in a particular time and cultural context…it’s very straightforward and I wonder how that relates to cultural context.

12. List one question that you would ask the artist if you could.

“How often are you satisfied with your portraits?”

8. Review 10
(Kristine)

4.) What kind of criticism has Humanities accused with in regards to the modern curricla?

A. Unscientific and changing contextual meaning. *

B. Subject areas don't encompass all aspects of culture.

C. False representation of factual evidence based on history.

D. Studies and findings are too concrete for further analysis.

(Pui-Yin)
Researchers in the humanities have developed numerous large and small scale digital corpora, such as digitized collections of historical texts, along with the digital tools and methods to analyse them. Their aim is both to uncover new knowledge about corpora and to visualize research data in new and revealing ways. The field where much of this activity occurs is called the _________.
a. digital humanities*
b. technological humanities
c. visual humanities

(Cassandra)

4. A central justification for the Humanities has been that it aids and encourages ____________.

*A.self-reflection

B.self-esteem

C.self-conscious

D.self-assertion

E.self-admiring

(Maria)
Q.1 Humanities are academic disciplines which study?
a. How humans interact with each other.
b. Global issues
c. Human conditions that include customs, languages and music
d. Literature
e. Human conditions, using methods that are primary analytic, critical, or speculative *

(Okamh)
4) History is:
Social gatherings of the past
Information from the past*
Great movements that change society
Knowledge of the world
Philosophy of life

(Penny)

What nationality was Paulo Freire?

a. French

b. Portuguese

c. Latin

d. Brazilian*

e. English

(Natalie)

2) What does an oppressor use to preserve a profitable situation?

a) Oppression

b) Humanitarianism*

c) Communication

d) problem-posing

e) Education

(Carrie)

8. But almost always, _______________________, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, ______________________, or "sub-oppressors." a. during dehumanization, idealize their oppressors,
b. during the initial stage of the struggle, tend themselves to become oppressors*
c. after struggling, tend themselves to become oppressors *
d. after struggling, tend to love their oppressors,
e. during failure, cries for freedom from the oppressors,

(Renee)

4. Violence is initiated by those who...
A. oppress
B. exploit,
C. fail to recognize others as persons
D. all of the above *

(Summer)
9. Which of the following is one of the two stages that the banking concept of education distinguishes in the action of the educator as according to Freire?
A. Students are not required to know, but only to memorize the contents stated by the teacher **
B. The students are taught irrelevant information
C. The teacher is not taking into consideration the different learning techniques of all his student, thus oppressing his students
D. The students remain uninterested in what the teacher has to say as it has no relevancy to their live
E. The teacher is not making a connection to humanity

9. Create one sample of dialogue using structure.

When I researched Paulo Friere’s definition of oppression, I found that it had less to do with finances and economic situation, and was tied instead to how different people accessed different knowledge and how that knowledge defined humanity. Likewise, I noticed that Summer identified oppression as “any action which prevents individuals, or the ‘oppressed’, from achieving their own personal goals and dreams. This refers to humanity and liberation rather than finances.” (Source) I wonder if this topic we researched would have deep resonances with liberation theology in a more historical way, in that these ideas might be traced throughout theology in ancient practice from the beginnings of the Christian faith to today.

Humanities Notes, Week 3

"The study of the classics is considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities; however, its popularity declined during the 20th century."

"A good deal of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century philosophy has been devoted to the analysis of language and to the question of whether, as Wittgenstein claimed, many of our philosophical confusions derive from the vocabulary we use; literary theory has explored the rhetorical, associative, and ordering features of language; and historians have studied the development of languages across time."

"History of the humanities

In the West, the study of the humanities can be traced to ancient Greece, as the basis of a broad education for citizens. During Roman times, the concept of the seven liberal arts evolved, involving grammar, rhetoric and logic (the trivium), along with arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music (the quadrivium).^[13] These subjects formed the bulk of medieval education, with the emphasis being on the humanities as skills or "ways of doing."

A major shift occurred with the Renaissance humanism of the fifteenth century, when the humanities began to be regarded as subjects to be studied rather than practiced, with a corresponding shift away from the traditional fields into areas such as literature and history. In the 20th century, this view was in turn challenged by the postmodernist movement, which sought to redefine the humanities in more egalitarian terms suitable for a democratic society."

"Since the late nineteenth century, a central justification for the Humanities has been that it aids and encourages self-reflection, a self-reflection which in turn helps develop personal consciousness and/or an active sense of civic duty."

"The divide between humanistic study and natural sciences informs arguments of meaning in humanities as well. What distinguishes the humanities from the natural sciences is not a certain subject matter, but rather the mode of approach to any question. Humanities focuses on understanding meaning, purpose, and goals and furthers the appreciation of singular historical and social phenomena—an interpretive method of finding “truth”—rather than explaining the causality of events or uncovering the truth of the natural world.^[29] Apart from its societal application, narrative imagination is an important tool in the (re)production of understood meaning in history, culture and literature."

"Some, like Stanley Fish, have claimed that the humanities can defend themselves best by refusing to make any claims of utility.^[30] (Fish may well be thinking primarily of literary study, rather than history and philosophy.) Any attempt to justify the humanities in terms of outside benefits such as social usefulness (say increased productivity) or in terms of ennobling effects on the individual (such as greater wisdom or diminished prejudice) is ungrounded, according to Fish, and simply places impossible demands on the relevant academic departments"

"The notion that 'in today's day and age,' with its focus on the ideals of efficiency and practical utility, scholars of the humanities are becoming obsolete was perhaps summed up most powerfully in a remark that has been attributed to the artificial intelligence specialist Marvin Minsky: “With all the money that we are throwing away on humanities and art - give me that money and I will build you a better student.""

WEEK 2

__ 3. Answer questions regarding the online sources and Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Read/view the info above. Take some notes, finding answers to these key questions.



1. Where is Paulo Freire from (where was he born?)

Brazil

2. What was his family, upbringing like?

His family as poor, working through the Great Depression. His father died when he was young, and he ended up very behind in school. Nevertheless, he made it to University.

3. What professions did Paulo Freire have?

He was a Portuguese teacher, and later worked for the Dept. of Education and then as a professor in various capacities for many years.

4. What political challenges did he face?

He was imprisoned for treason after a military coup in 1964 which went against the principles of his life's work. He was a Christian Socialist, and much of his philosophy was rejected by the governing bodies of the time.

5. What is his experience with literacy? What is the definition of literacy?

Literacy was very important to him. He dedicated himself to ensuring that the people of Brazil could read and write. He believed that the ability for people to read and write, and thus be made aware of a variety of ideas, was integral to their freedom as human persons.

6. What areas of Latin America did he live in? What is the definition of Latin America?

He lived in Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. Latin America is generally understood to be the nations of South America, and also Central America (sometimes including Mexico), which primarily speak Spanish as a universal language in addition to the myriads of native languages.

7. What languages did he speak?

Spanish, Portuguese, English, French

8. What is his greatest written work?

"The Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

9. What is dialogue? conscientization? praxis?
Dialogue is a necessity for the liberation of the oppressed. It is a critical interplay between word/thought and action, so that people understand what they do and why they do it. Conscientization is making the oppressed understand their situation, it is when they come to comprehend their oppressors and see for themselves the necessity of struggle. Praxis is the set of actions which reconstruct the oppressive structures of society; it is the practice of being human even in the midst of dehumanization.

10. How does Paulo Freire define privilege and oppression? Does this have anything to do with finances?

He says that an act is oppressive when it deprives another of humanity. While oppression is often manifested financially, it extends to many other realms of human existence. He says this about oppression and privilege: "Any restriction on this way of life, in the name of the rights of the community, appears to the former oppressors as a profound violation of their individual right - although they had no respect for the millions who suffered and died of hunger, pain, sorrow, and despair. For the oppressors, "human beings" refers only to themselves; other people are "things." For the oppressors, there exists only one right: their right to live in peace, over against the right, not always even recognized, but simply conceded, of the oppressed to survival. Arid they make this concession only because the existence of the oppressed is necessary to their own existence."

WEEK 1

First Name: Erin

I'm taking this class for credit to complete my degree, and I'm hoping to enrich what I've learned already in my undergrad program.

Santa Rosa - Where my grandparents used to live.

California - Land of my heart

West Coast - Best coast

USA - I want to see more of it

The World - It's so beautiful and broken at the same time.

I have blogged before.

I'm using both Macs and PCs since I don't have my own computer.

Texting yes.