Fireside Chat

Artist's Statement

                As I prepared my Fireside Chat, I began to brainstorm things that I believed strongly in.  The belief that people become what you treat them like they are rose to the top of the list because it is a belief I have a passion for and one that governs much of what I do and the person I strive to become.

                In my experience, if a person is treated like a "problem child," they will be trapped into being one, and that if someone is treated like they are stupid, they are less likely to develop a habit of critical thinking.  On the flip side, I also believe that if someone is treated with affection, fondness, and respect, they will usually earn that treatment retroactively.

                One of the major experiences of my life that taught me this was a friendship that began when I was five.  I did not know my best friend has sever asperger syndrome, and the Spirit, for some reason, chose to allow me to understand her.  She has grown into a funny, charming, well spoken, polite, sweet, cheerful, passionate lady.  I have come to understand that her growth was at least in part assisted by the fact that I was able to understand her, although through no merit of my own, and therefore did not treat her like she was disabled our entire lives.  I love that sweet girl so much, and I am simply very, very blessed to have been granted the priceless opportunity to be her confidant in little ways.  I certainly do not feel like I deserved such a gift.

                Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag discusses the fact that people connect much more deeply and lastingly to events supported by photographic evidence.  When preparing my fireside chat, I greatly regretted that I do not have photos of us as children with me in Utah because I knew it would have made her story so much more real to those listening.

                In the end, my Fireside Chat presentation reminded me of a much abbreviated Ted Talk.  I thought about all of the spins I could take on her story, but in the end, I just wanted to share that experience in simple way.

                It was a very special opportunity to be able to share something I feel so tenderly about with my friends and classmates, as well as to see and understand each of them on a deeper and more empathetic level.  

Concerned Citizen

Documentary

Artist's Statement

                I am so glad we had this assignment.  I had never heard the National Parks before, and not only did I love their music, but the lead member of the band who we interviewed turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met.  He was incredibly humble about both his success as a musician and his charity work.

                Some documentaries about "concerned citizens" are specifically cut and edited to make the subject look as selfless and giving as possible.  For example, the makers of the documentary about Mitt Romney, simply entitled, Mitt, definitely had a political bias.  Personally, I am sure that Mitt Romney actually is a wonderful human being, but it would be foolish and naive to pretend that it was one hundred percent objective.

                However, we did not even have to sneakily edit a cut of the interview that would paint him in a humble and sincere light, because every single thing he said actually was humble and sincere.  It would have been quite a trick to try to paint him as anything but humble.

                As is expressed in Human Rights and Culture by A. Goldbard, creativity often plays a huge role in social change.  Art is appealing, and uses pathos to convey a message.  Essentially, people like experiencing art, and it makes them feel deeply.  When people feel things, they are far more likely to do things.  It is pretty simple when it comes down to it.

                The influence of creativity and art on society can of course be misused.  I think that there is a reason propaganda is often aesthetically pleasing.  People like looking at it, and the nice colors make them feel good, so they feel good about the message, even if the message is bad.

                That does not mean that using art to convey a message in an aesthetically pleasant way in order to make people want to get on board with the mission is inherently an evilly manipulative ploy.  It can be, but it can be used for positive purposes, like the way that the National Parks use music to raise money and concern for the national parks of America.

                I think that art can give communities something to gather around in a way.  A creative work can be like a point of gravity for people who feel strongly about a common cause to come together over.  They can all identify with the particular piece of art, so they can identify with each other.  Art can articulate, in a creative and beautiful way, the thoughts and feelings that they all share.

Game For Change

Surviving the Web

Artist's Statement

                A few days ago, I started ranting about all of the ways that Facebook has the potential to make life weird.  I continued to think about it in a broader sense and became very impassioned about the way that the internet as a whole is abused in ways that affect people's lives and I decided that misuse of the internet was the topic I wanted to address in my Game for Change.

                The Half the Sky Movement takes a literal approach, which I think is a very effective way of communicating its themes.   I decided to be more metaphorical.  Different monsters, robots, and pests represent the various perils that many people inevitably encounter on the internet on a regular basis.  The protagonist of the game has to defeat these monsters that the internet is attacking him with.

                Other games address serious topics like racism and hate crime violence by giving the player a choice.  In Bioshock Infinite, the player is handed a rock and must decide whether or not to help stone an interracial couple for entertainment.  It is heavy stuff, and if works very well to get the point across.  However, I think that the internet often does not work that way.  It is thrown at us and we have to deal with it.  How we deal with it determines whether or not it destroys us.  That may seem melodramatic, but I have had too many experiences in my life and in the lives of those I am closest to that have taught me the depth of that danger to down play it.

                The first level of my Game for Change is about the way that Facebook is misused.  It seems comical, but I find the way that people inappropriately broadcast the intimate details of their lives on public social media more than just annoying.  I find it deeply troubling.

                The second level is about cyber bullying.  The vampire bats are symbolic of the hurt and the assaultiveness of that experience.  The ninja at the end of the level represents the cyber bully himself.

                The third level deals with memes, reddit, YouTube, and that whole, massive, collection of random pieces of media to be browsed through.  In my experience, those feeds are frequently  mostly ignorant, disgusting, unkind, overtly sexual, or otherwise inappropriate, with a few funny or interesting gems interspersed.  All of the rubble you have to sort through to find those gems crowds your mind and desensitize you.  I do not hate memes, gifs, or YouTube.  I think they are potentially fantastic tools that are all too easily and frequently misused in harmful ways.

                The fourth and final level of my game addresses pornography.  I deliberately constructed that level so that you would only see the "Not Safe for Work Sign," and not the gaping hole in the ground.  You just suddenly fall through having followed that path of links, getting burned on the way down to face a monster that is difficult, but very possible,  to beat.

Webspinna

Pokemon Theme Song

Dubstep Digimon Theme Song

Thunder Storm

Technologic

Poem 0:07

Overpower

Charizard 2:20

I See Fire

Greese 0:21

Pikachu!

Trouble When You Walk In

Music

Digivolve

Colors of the Wind 1:14

Overpower

Electro Ball

Defeat

The Winner is Ash! 5:16

Music 0:15 

Artist's Statement

                I love the opening line of The Ecstasy of Influence.   "Plagiarism or Inspiration?"  I really appreciate that approach.  I think that building on the artistic achievements of the past is a perfectly legitimate creative strategy.  What if when the laptop had been invented it had been shot down because someone had said "Um, I feel like you're just copying and slightly altering the existing invention of the computer.  That is super unoriginal."  That would be ridiculous, and yet somehow, that happens all the time in the world of art.

                A massive amount of the humor in our modern day entertainment media comes from pop culture references, so much so that if you are not up to date on them, many jokes will go completely over your head.  Conan humorously addressed this on his show  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxA_DFtbVXk ).  Often, it is by taking a well known line or catchphrase and placing it in a different context.  It is funny because we recognize the reference and appreciate the creative recontextualization of a familiar icon.  There were a lot of laughs during the Webspinna battles and that is why. 

                Creating a persona was fun, and for me, it was an opportunity to revisit and embrace something I had loved as very young child but had not seen for over a decade.  I took on the character of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon.  I starting watching it again on Netflix, remembered why I had loved it as a child, and fell in love with it all over again.  Pokemon is just great, and I loved diving into it. 

                I really enjoyed the creative process of choreographing the live mix.  I loved having to really think about what element of the character I was going to hone in on, and then search for sound clips that communicated that theme specifically.  I really enjoyed the collaboration of this project.  Having a partner to share the creative process with was great.  It was my partner, Max Carter, who suggested I play Colors of the Wind from the movie Pokahontas.  I do not know that I would have necessarily thought of that on my own, and it was my favorite moment of our Webspinna Battle.

                The performance was a blast, but one thing that was interesting for me was that I was so focused on getting my clips ready and set to start at the right moment within each clip that I almost forgot to relish in the character for a bit of it.  This surprised me because of my background as an actor.  For a minute, I almost forgot that I was on stage, not just the sounds I was cueing.

World Building

        The human race was burning through its energy sources at a deadly rate.  Soon, there would be nothing left.  In this moment of crisis, PATHOS came forward with The Perfect Solution. 

        They had discovered a way to harness the power of human emotion.  It was clean, pure energy.  Clinics opened up that allowed people to come in and donate their emotions to the greater good.  These clinics were immensely popular, and the experimental process was a success. 

        Soon, PATHOS realized that different emotions produce different kinds of energies and that a balance was required to keep the world running smoothly.  The System was created.

        The nation was divided into four quadrants, The Kindergarten, and The Capital.  The Capital is the sector from which the government operates.  When a woman becomes pregnant, she goes to The Kindergarten*.  After giving birth, she goes to Tranquility to continue in The System.  Children are raised in The Kindergarten until they reach the age of twelve, when they have the exciting opportunity to join The System.

        In the system, individuals cycle through the four quadrants independently, and at their own pace.  They move from Exhilaration, to Depression, to Rage, to Tranquility, and back to Exhilaration to continue in The System.  Each quadrant has been specially designed to illicit the specific emotion it collects. When each individual arrives in a quadrant, their implant is swapped.  For example, an individual arriving in Rage will have their Depression implant painlessly and humanely removed and replaced with a Rage implant.  Each implant has a lighted meter visible through the skin near the inside of the wrist.  When the meter is full, then the individual has reached their emotional quota for that quadrant, and it is time for them to move on.

        The System allows everyone to experience a full and balanced life while selflessly and nobly doing their duty.  Everyone contributes to the greater good, powering the world through their own pure emotions.  It truly is The Perfect Solution.

*Kindergarten stems from the German for "Garden of Children"

Textual Poaching

Media Mix

Artist's Statement

                I knew from the start that I was going to choose the song There's No Business Like Show Business for this project.  For as long as I can remember I knew that I wanted to act.  I remember watching Audrey Hepburn movies as a very little girl and being so drawn to the beauty of it.  Performance holds a strong spiritual draw for me, and that song moves me deeply.  I have a testimony of the righteous influence that can be had through performing, and I feel very reverently toward that iconic song.

                The role of a performer is one of the strongest aspects of my identity.  My role as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is an even stronger part of who I am.  That is why I chose to combine There's No Business Like Show Business with I am a Child of God.  There are so many musical mash ups out there, like this one by "DeclanMakesMusic" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNVbdRWnf40.  I have always found music incredibly inspiring.  My mother is a professional musician, and my father is something of a music guru.  I was raised with an immense appreciation for the power of music, and that is something that plays a huge role in my life.  For these reasons, a musical mash up was my first instinct for this assignment.

                The series of images entitled "RETROSPECT - An American Classic Revisited" represent the ways that an existing image came to hold different meanings for different people over time.  The idea has morphed as the country has grown.  My Textual Poaching project represents the way that the idea of "Showbiz" has become a deeply spiritual thing to me as I have grown.

                The two labels of actress and Mormon have been so interesting to wear together, especially outside of Utah.  In Dallas, I only ever met two other LDS actresses, only one of whom was fully active.  I was amazed I found any.

                I have encountered resentment in the theatre industry for my religious convictions, and some firm disapproval from members of the church for my career choice.  I have found that the only way that people ever come around to respect my choice is when I wear that identity up front and without shame or hesitation, and with the confidence that I am using my gifts in the way that Lord would have me do.

Medium Specificity

 Artist's Statement 

                I have always been intrigued by drawing's capacity to portray minimalist, yet vibrant, pictures in ways film, or almost any other medium, would have great difficulty acomplishing.  Drawing is exciting in that it is limitless.  There is not end to the ways you can look at something.  When filming, you are bound to a certain level of realism, in that while images can be digitally altered, you still have to shoot something in the real world.  You can't make an actor look like a few lines and a burst of color in a film (excluding animated films).

                The Kalman photographs utilized photography's ability to digitally alter the color of the subjects.  I chose to utilize drawings ability to abandon realism entirely and use colors that are "unnatural."  I wanted to communicate an image through indicative images rather than realistic representations.  That is a strength of illustration.  It is almost instinctive.

                Most people begin drawing indicatively.  Stick figures do not actually look like people. Each line represents an arm, a leg, a torso, or a circle for the head, but legs are not perfectly straight lines, and heads are not spherical.  All you have to do is clue the viewer in on what the image represents.  You have to give just enough for a person to be able to tell what it is you are representing, but you do not have try to make it look like a photograph, and we accept that.

                Like the painting "1225" by the artist who goes by the internet name of grey90, my intention was to use simple lines and splashes of color to create a feeling and an idea.  In both my drawing and "1225" the color is not contained by the lines, but they are still working together.  That is a style I think is fairy unique to illustration. 

                People feared that photography would be the end of drawing and painting, but that has not been the case at all.  It is true that the average modern family is more likely to get a family photo taken than to commission a family portrait, but as an art form, illustration has simply explored deeper into its potential to express things in a surreal way.  Saying that photography is better than illustration because it is more realistic is about as annoying as people saying that books are always better than movies.  They are too different to compare that directly.