"The Badge of Honor"

1. When I first glimpsed at the work of Pepon Osorio, I was, in a way, shocked as there was too much of everything on the photograph. Walls with multiple players' cards, sports and movie stars posters, numerous amount of sneakers, a few basketball balls, black and white and color family photographs, too much glass reflecting all this "tidy mess" of the room in it, specific bedframe and bed itself, bike in the middle of all of it - I wondered for a moment if the author exaggerated too much or the teenager's room really looked like this?!

Based on my observations, I could assume that the teenager is into sports: basketball, martial arts and biking; he is family-oriented and a religious person; he appreciates comfort shoes and likes to stay fit. Based of the posters on the wall of Michael Jordan, Scott Pippen, Charles Barkley, Chris Webber and Bruce Lee, we could suggest that time takes place in the mid-nineties. The multiple features of the hand into the fist actually surprised me a lot and I can not still figure out the meaning of it... I did not pay any attention to the video on the wall as my attention was drawn towards everything else on that piece. Only after reading the "follow words", I looked into it.

Pepon Osorio uses completely different elements to draw people's attention.  We see the scene, we watch the video on the wall and we hear what is being said in it. To create his installation Pepon uses variety of materials. For example, while creating art, he applies found objects.

Even though he concentrates on the particular example, I think he tries to get our attention to something much more bigger then that particular teenager's bedroom and pass the general message to the mass.

2. In my opinion, Pepon has one an amazing job. He really concentrates on details of the bedroom that help us better understand the culture and interests of this kid. How he lives and what he breathes.

Exaggeration seems to be the only aspect that makes me think of the fiction and fantasy of his work rather then the fact. Even though I would assume it is based on the real story or a few stories applied together to create this piece. While at the same time conversation between father and son, Nelson Sr. and Nelson Jr., is true and this is the fact.

"For me fiction doesn't exist, and fantasy is only an imagination" (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_Fiction_and_Fantasy#ixzz2705wEBNG).

I quite agree with this quote. Fiction is unbelievable, created by us, while fantasy can apply real objects to develop our imagination. 

Playlist

Usually I hardly ever listen to music when I write. Well... Hold for a second. I do! I listen to the music of silence. But here we are anyways:

1. Zemfira “Krasota”
2. Richard Clayderman “Careless Whisper”
3. Richard Clayderman “La Mer”
4. Richard Clayderman “Love Story”
5. Richard Clayderman “Strangers in the night”
6. Richard Clayderman “Warsaw Concerto”
7. Patricia Kaas  “If you go away”
8. Particia Kaas “Mademoiselle chante le blues”
9. Patricia Kaas   “It’s a man’s world”
10. Patricia Kaas    “Summertime”
11. Rick Ross, Drake and Chrisette Michele “Ashton Martin Music”
12. Sting “When we dance”

Magazine exercise

Together with the group of fellow students we we able to observe and discuss similarities and differences of the two magazines we brought. The first one was the U.S. based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics and pop culture named "Rolling Stones". The second - "Snob" - is international magazine in russian language for people who live in different countries, speak various languages, but think in russian. 

Both magazines are published on glossy paper and have similar formats. The front page is featuring the cover interview or story of the issue, accompanied by the abundant photographs. The publications contain advertisements that mostly specified for particular group of people; both of them have correspondence pages where the stuff is able to keep communication with the readers; the style of the photographs are quite unique, it is simple, but charming; each of the magazine has specific columns and opinion pieces that are repeated from issue to issue; both magazines have particular font, size, format and color specified by the stuff or group of designers.

While looking through both of the publications we were using different senses. We smelled and touched the paper that magazines were published on; in order to follow music news, first we had to listen to it; we observe - sight - images that both of them contained; some of the ads have particular products that we might try in the past (so you could feel that particular taste in your mouth while observing them).

While two texts are totally different in content, they could still interest the same or completely opposite group of people. For ones there might be the language barrier, while for others it does not exist. When we have language barrier, we could observe and still be able to make inferences and suggestions. 

"a matter of scale": page, 91; seeing 2

It seems to me that miss Cole ends her essay by quoting another author what helps her to give a great summary of what she has written about. Like she said herself: "No one said it better". The quote gets us to the point, to the conclusion and final remark towards the explanation of the title of the essay. If she had paraphrased the quote, it would have seemed as a discussion of what Schrodinger had said and it would have not seemed as the essay has "a final dot". On the other hand, the first sentence helps the reader engage into the discussion and rises the questions we might have been asking ourselves for a long time. 

As for the other quotes... Right of the door, the very first one by Bob Miller supports the title and let us understand how the scale matters with the simple example of the extraordinary being quite ordinary. Further in the text, the quotes give Cole the opportunity to enrich the essay with the particular examples of others and scientific proofs, not just her personal observations and thoughts. As well the fact that different people discussing the same cases, let us understand that the same questions arise between humans. Quotes of variety of people give readers the opportunity to notice the differences and engage into discussion. First she quote, then explains the quote; or she gives an example and summarizes with a quote; or have a discussion, summarized by the footnote as a proof as of where her previous thoughts are coming from. 

"a matter of scale": page 91, seeing 1

To see through the imagination, to notice the unnoticeable, the pay attention to the ordinary in order to catch the extraordinary... That is what K.C. Cole, in my opinion, considering "magically seductive". She takes us on the journey to rediscovering not only us, ourselves, but looking "outside the bun" at the everyday life around us. We are so burned out with everyday routine of our lives that sometimes we really need to stop and look around. To "explore the invisible worlds" and  understand such things as "downside" of being a giant, or clouds getting transformed into rain, or the postulates of geometry and quantum mechanics, or flies walking on the ceiling, to name a few. It really all depends on the matter of our own scale and what we are personally might be interested in. I have never thought before about the water differently influencing on the human and insect body or the "less than two micrometers" organisms living the ocean... I believe, it is all about seeing little details through the big picture. I do not think any particular facts will change or will not the way I think, but the idea of those facts gives me the new ground for thoughts and ability to view differently the things I am surrounded by.

page 42, seeing 2

The Mendoza Family of Guatemala vs. The Aboubakar Family of Chad

Observations (to name a few):

1. Fresh produce vs. dried food

2. Food as the main focus of the photograph vs. family "shining" in the background because of lack of impressive quality and colorfulness of the food

3. House made of stone vs. the tents

4. Family members sitting on the chairs or standing vs. family members sitting on the ground - the presence of the furniture and its absence

5. The man of the house present vs. the man of the house being absent; opportunity to have live-in helpers

6. Shadow from the house vs. open space of the dessert

7. Jewelry from metal vs. probably fabric or leather band on the hand of only one of the children

Interferences based on observations:

1. Based on observations I made, one family is living a healthy life, while the other is so close to the survival mode.

2. There is a huge contrast of living in a stone house vs. the tent which provides us with the information how one family can deal with the weather changes while the other might struggle with it. 

3. The concentration of the first photograph is on one particular family and its members including the head of the household and "servants" in the background vs. the other shot which is divided into two parts: mother surrounded my kids in the open sun while the men are in the shadow of the trees. We might make a suggestion about enchanting the "privileges" of ones under the other ones.

4. The development of the economy in both countries and money value.

The meaning of the term "full plate" is quite different for each family. Like I mention before having lots of fresh vegetables and fruits allows Mendoza family have/lead a healthy lifestyle, while Aboubakar family counts each and every grain and piece of dry food they consume every day in order to survive. Every family has its values and appreciate what they have, because, it might be true, they have never seen better then what they have. Metaphor - Sun brings some people of the world joy and light, while others struggle from its heat. The same is here. People value what they have and it depends only on them if they would like to strive for more.

Both families though have a few similarities. They live. They give birth. They take the best of the opportunities. They have the necessities they need to survive. They are here and that means the world has a future.

D'Aluisio's text provided us with detailed information that helps us understand what part of the year what food is available for each family; the average age and amount of children in each family; allows us to compare the cost, types of food available in two different countries; compare quality of life by looking at the amount of money that each family is able to spend on food if it is; the way the food is preserved; and let us compare how different are the likes on the food for humans are.

page 42, seeing 1

I look at Peter Menzel's photographs and see people and food their consume in a week. I see differences and similarities. I see humans from all over of world gathered together on the pages of Menzel's book. They have the same matter in common: food is the way of existence. Existence is a sign of the future or absence of it. I see values and appreciation. Opportunities and disadvantages... Little details in the photo images describe the circumstances of living of each and every of them. The expressions of their faces, eyes in particular, tell us another story of joy or sorrow, hope or the loss of it, happiness or difficulties. The surrounding areas of where each image was taken, bring us on another journey. The blooming garden of life, the cold walls of your family household or the empty and dry dessert filled up with mixture of emotions. My eye catches the photograph of the Aboubakar Family of Chad, where each member of the family has a different story to tell. Mother's face full of worries holding her youngest daughter who is just entering this world and her insight into it still unknown. Or her oldest son expressing the signs of happiness and curiosity, intrigued by being photographed. Or the middle children who are surprised, scared, may be posing in front of the camera or going on the protest and questioning "Why are they being shot?" The summary by Faith D'Aluisio helps us to understand the images more precisely providing numerous details of the households, circumstances of their living conditions and encounters the types of food and its cost each of them consuming in different parts of the world throughout different times of the year.

Photographs captures the ordinary. Our goal is to "hear our imagination" to see the extraordinary behind it. 

acquaintance.

Here I am. Transfer student at Columbia College in Chicago. One of my classes in the first semester is Writing and Rhetoric I where creating a blog is a requirement. Interesting. I tried to escape blogging as much as I could. But I guess it is running after me. May be, for the better. Or... I am even getting to the point of being SURE for the better. Miss Kazaj, here I am. Just to say Hi! and get back to reading pages 3-25 of our textbook. It has arrived earlier today in the mail. So let the discussion tomorrow at class begin!