Blog # 18

While other schools took the more conventional route of promoting their school to prospective students, The University of British Columbia decided to do a lipdub to the songs Raise Your Glass by Pink and Celebrity Status by Marianas Trench to show students why they should choose UBC.

The video was amazing and looked tons of fun.  The best way to attract students who are all probably tired of the old mundane school routine is to show school in the best possible way.  I understand schools that showcase their libraries and multiple buildings and prestige but I think showing off student life is the smartest thing to do.  University, I think, is more about the experience of it than the books and studying, because anybody can learn things out of books without having to go to university.  

I won't be going to UBC, although after seeing this video I kind of wished I had applied in the first place, but seeing things like this makes me excited for my own upcoming university experience.     

Blog # 17

Is music just the songs a person hears on the radio or that piece composed by Mozart?  Or can music be anything?  "The Stupid Orchestra" arranged by Micheal Petermann shows us that music doesn't always come in the most conventional forms. 

Yes, it does sound a bit strange and many can argue that it just sounds like noise but it must be music to someone, right?  It must be because live performances of the Stupid Orchestra were played at the MKG Hamburg until the end of April with people attending them.

I watched this video in amusement while pondering what makes something music and something just noise.  I've come to believe that  what makes something music is all about perspectives.  People see (and hear) things differently.  While one person might see bird chirping as music another could just find it to be a nuisance.  Music is like visual arts where what defines something as a work of art is just opinions.  

Blog # 16

Art can take the form of many mediums, including feathers.

Artist Kate Mccgwire uses feathers quite often in her work.  Her piece have won her many awards and has showcased her work in many exhibits.  

  

When I first saw picture of one of her pieces I didn't know that they were feathers, actually I wasn't sure what they were at all until I read the description.  I like how unconventional the material she uses is.  I don't think I've ever seen someone use feather in this way to make a sculpture.  Usually when you think of art, or at least when I think of art, it is always very conventional (photography, painting, drawing, sculpted marble etc.,).  So, I like how her work reminds me that anything can be art and anything can be used to make art.  

Blog # 15

Chiditarod is an annual shopping-cart race/food-drive held in Chicago to help the disadvantaged and needy people of the city.  It is a race through the windy city stopping at 11 check points to collect, at the very least, 42 pounds of non-perishable food in their shopping cart.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Needless to say, the people participating in the race dress up in crazy outfits and decorate their shopping carts accordingly.  The event ended up raising a lot of food and money for the people of Chicago.    

I think this is a great way to run a charity event.  It gets everyone participating and having fun.  It brings people together for a great cause.  Not only that but it is a rather unique way to hold a food drive.  I think getting people to be creative is why this works so well.  

Blog # 14

Street photography is photography that features subjects, such as people, in candid situations in public places.  Matt Stuart is a street photographer.  He takes pictures of genuine moments in the lives of everyday people.

Quite often, the moments that he captures are quite funny and sometimes you'll have to look closely at the photograph to understand why the picture was taken or to get its charm.

Street photography is able to capture those fleeting moments, ones that will probably never come around again.  Also, street photography showcases people when they are most real.  That is because they don't know they are being photographed.  When people don't know they are being observed they are more  themselves but when a person knows they are being looked at, they tend to act differently.  People act in a different way for many reasons: to fit in, to seem more interesting, etc,.  As well, people can act differently in front of different sorts of people.  You may act one way when you are with your parents and another way when you are with your  friends.  I think rarely does a person actually show who they really are to another person unless they are truly comfortable with them.  But street photography is able to show people for what they really are, I think that's why I like it so much.  

Blog # 13

Symmetry is something that is just inherently attractive to the human eye.  How symmetric a person's face is usually dictates how attractive they are, but is a perfectly symmetrical face always beautiful?

Muggum, a iPhone/iPod touch app can show you.  The app bisects a photo of a face down the middle then doubles the image letting you see what a person would look like if either side of their face were completely symmetrical.  The app has already been used on photos of many celebrities, people who are considered to be attractive, to varying results.  

Both are, by general consensus, attractive women but their completely symmetrical faces are not quite what their "imperfect" face is.  In my opinion, neither women need the symmetry.  

This app is obviously not perfect and is probably highly ineffective due to camera angle, a person's expression, etc., but what I'm trying to say is, I think being perfectly symmetrical is not all it's made out to be.  In fact, I think it's impossible.  Everybody has something that makes them "imperfect" but I don't think that is a bad thing.  If you have a crooked smile or maybe one of your eyes is a tiny bit bigger than the other you shouldn't be self-conscious but I know that not being self-conscious is hard in today's society where beauty is everything.  

Blog # 12

It's an ad to promote World Water Day and to spread awareness about how unclean water causes countless deaths and how journalists are trying to spread the word about this.

The water, invisible on the piece of paper at first, represents how safe and clean water appears to be but the ink shows what's really underneath the seemingly clean surface.  The ink is supposed to represent the journalists, ink being a journalist's chosen tool, who uncover the truth and make the facts about how bad unclean water is known.

I personally find this ad to be very well done and quite effective.  Visually it's very pretty and although I have seen art done using ink and water before, I have yet to see it done so well, like this.  The images that the ink and water make really show who is being affected by this (the face of a child) and what happens when you drink unclean water (the grave markers and skull).  Although the ad is in French, the message still makes itself quite clear.  I think smart advertising, like this, is a very good way to get the message about a cause out there.