Directory:
01. Informal Writing #1
02. Informal Writing #2
03. Theorizing with the Visual Mode
04. Composing with the Visual Mode + Rationale
05. Theorizing with the Aural Mode
06. Composing with the Aural Mode + Rationale
For my first informal writing, I used my notes from class when we were first developing our themes for our second portfolio, based on a social issue we were interested in. Because it was something I had read about in the newspaper recently, I started thinking about the general lack of access to mental health treatment in Illinois and its effects on those who have mental illnesses. In these class notes, we were asked to use four different types of questions we had read about to start developing the sorts of questions we wanted to ask (and answer) in our portfolios. As can be seen from this informal writing sample, although I still needed to conduct more conclusive research, these questions became the basis for the main theme of my second portfolio and ongoing final project.
My second informal writing wasn't so much a writing as a rough sketch of what ended up becoming my "Composing with the Visual Mode" text artifact. For the connected "Theorizing with the Visual Mode," I had been thinking about how unrealistic depictions of female bodies in art and media leads to negative self-image in many women, and was trying to think about how I saw myself vs. how I wanted to be (based on media depictions of women). These thoughts led to this impromptu sketch on the back of a worksheet, which later ended up becoming the model for my finalized "Composing with the Visual Mode" text artifact.
In my "Theorizing with the Visual Mode" piece, I wrote about the chapter "Visible Guerillas" by Karen Springsteen which examined the subversive nature of both the work of the Guerilla Girls and Edouard Manet, particularly in the way they deconstruct prominent visualizations of the female form. I connected these theories to another prominent artist called Gustave Courbet, who, like Manet, subverted the 19th century French art world's beliefs on how female bodies should be presented.
Towards the end of the first draft I mentioned how modern-day depictions of female (and male) bodies are similarly warped to fit society's ideal, albeit in the context of technology in which Photoshop and Instagram filters have replaced oil paint as a method for smoothing over perceived imperfections. However, I did not manage to connect this to my main theme for this portfolio, which was mental illness, and so when I went back to write a second draft, I expanded upon this train of thought. I wrote about how, by having only a few body types portrayed as attractive or desirable in the media, many people end up developing poor self-image, disordered eating habits, body dysmorphia, and even eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.
For my "Composing with the Visual Mode" text artifact, I continued along this train of thought and decided to use art as my medium to express my message, similar to Courbet or Manet. I chose to represent my actual self vs. my "ideal" self: thinner, with more piercings and better hair. Additionally, to connect to the theme of mental illness, I represented my own personal history of depression. In my "real" self-portrait, I depicted my head as opened at a hinge- unhinged- with colored flowers and bees flying out to represent happiness leaving. Then for my "ideal" self-portrait, I drew a normal brain inside my head, to represent the desire for having a brain that produces serotonin properly.
With my essay for "Theorizing with the Aural Mode," I reflected on the reading by Jennifer Stoever which explained the concept of the "sonic color line." Because I couldn't think of a way to connect the sonic color line to my own experiences as I am white and have not been racially profiled from my voice, I first wrote about what I called the "sonic gender line" and how some music is unnecessarily gendered, for example "harder" music is perceived as being masculine, whereas lighter, pop music is perceived as being feminine. In my revised version, I then wrote about how women aren't listened to and are seen as being shrill, overemotional or hysterical and how this can impede their access to mental health treatment.
Finally, for my "Composing with the Aural Mode" assignment, I created a short video featuring different songs with different "textures," as inspired by Steph Ceraso's paper "(Re)Educating the Senses: Multimodal Listening, Bodily Learning, and the Composition of Sonic Experiences." Ceraso wrote about multimodal listening, which can be defined as the experience of listening to sound with more than one sense. For example, when going to a concert, you not only hear the music, you see the musicians, feel the vibrations of the music in your body, smell the sweat and cigarette smoke of the crowd, etc. As an avid music fan myself, I noticed that some songs have specific textures, and wanted to portray that. Therefore, I created a short video that consisted of 5 different songs, each with a different "texture." Additionally, to tie it in with the theme of mental illness, each of the songs I picked were about mental illness.
Through completing this second portfolio, I put a heavier emphasis on making sure there was a consistent theme threading through each of the facets of my portfolio. While my first portfolio was more of a free-for-all, I wanted this one to be more concise and connected through the theme of mental illness. This was a new practice for me, because usually I don't have to worry about connecting individual assignments, I just write it, submit it, and forget about it. However, for this portfolio, I had to be conscious while working on each composition on how it would connect to the project as a whole.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Portfolio 2: Composing with the Visual Mode + Rationale
For my visual mode composition, I wanted to relate it to what I wrote about in my Theorizing with the Visual Mode assignment. Towards the end of the paper, I wrote about how idealized representations of women in art and media contribute towards negative self body image for many women. I wanted to explore this further, so I drew two "self-portrait"s: one of my actual self, and one of my "ideal" self.
The real me is on the left, drawn in black and white, whereas the "ideal" me is on the right, colored in using copic markers. I chose to do this because I wanted the ideal representation to be more colorful and visually striking, with the real me being a bit more plain but realistic.
For the "ideal" version of me, I also included labels that detailed exactly what aspects of myself I wished were different, such as a smaller waist and cooler hair. This wasn't for any artistic reasons, just for the convenience of other viewers.
I started out with a rough sketch of the "real" me on the back of an old worksheet, and then worked from that by redrawing it with pencil on better art paper, adding the figure of the "ideal" me on the right, also in pencil. I then traced over the pencil with a 0.3mm ink pen. Once the ink was dry, I erased the pencil so that I had clean outlines. After that, I used a brush pen to fill in the parts that needed to be black with black ink. Finally, I used copic markers to color in the "ideal" me, and then added the labels.
The real me is on the left, drawn in black and white, whereas the "ideal" me is on the right, colored in using copic markers. I chose to do this because I wanted the ideal representation to be more colorful and visually striking, with the real me being a bit more plain but realistic.
For the "ideal" version of me, I also included labels that detailed exactly what aspects of myself I wished were different, such as a smaller waist and cooler hair. This wasn't for any artistic reasons, just for the convenience of other viewers.
I started out with a rough sketch of the "real" me on the back of an old worksheet, and then worked from that by redrawing it with pencil on better art paper, adding the figure of the "ideal" me on the right, also in pencil. I then traced over the pencil with a 0.3mm ink pen. Once the ink was dry, I erased the pencil so that I had clean outlines. After that, I used a brush pen to fill in the parts that needed to be black with black ink. Finally, I used copic markers to color in the "ideal" me, and then added the labels.
Portfolio 2: Theorizing With the Aural Mode - Sonic Gender Line
In the introductory chapter of Jennifer Stoever’s book The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening, Stoever explains what she means by the “sonic color line” and provides several examples of ways it manifests in modern and historical history. Stoever uses the term “sonic color line” to describe the way in which race, specifically blackness, is perceived auditorily.
For example, black voices are often characterized as being loud or aggressive, even when they are speaking in the same volume and tone as a white voice. One particularly relevant example of this can be seen in the murder of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was pulled over by a white police officer. When she expressed annoyance verbally, which she was well within her right to do so, she was dragged from her car, threatened, and arrested for “non-compliance.” Three days later, she was found hanged in her jail cell. Were a white person to express annoyance in the exact same way as Sandra Bland, they would almost certainly not be subject to the same abhorrent treatment that befalls too many black individuals.
As can be expected, the sonic color line also impacts music and how it is perceived racially. Stoever cites an example of hip-hop music being perceived as “thug music,” “rap-crap,” and “ridiculously loud,” and details the murder of seventeen year-old Jordan Davis, who was shot for playing hip-hop music in his own car “too loud.”
As I am a white person, I am obviously not subject to the same aural racial profiling, so instead I’d like to talk about gender and how there are certain types of music that are often characterized as being listened to by males or females; similar to how there are types of music such as rap, hip-hop, or soul that are characterized as being listened to by black people.
I deeply enjoy metal music, a fact which for some reason tends to surprise people when I tell them so. In America, there seems to be this concept of gendered music, where males are stereotypically assumed to listen to “harder” music, such as hard rock or metal, and women are assumed to listen to “lighter” music, like pop or folk. When women do express interest in “harder” music, it’s assumed that they’re only interested in it either because they are attracted to the band members or because a male got them interested in the music.
I often go to metal concerts and I’ve experienced this belief firsthand. Earlier this year I went to a metal show by myself and was asked on more than one occasion, “are you here with your boyfriend?” Other times, men in the audience have, unprompted, told me facts about the band or music that I already knew, and would not listen to me when I said that I already knew such facts.
Even some bands themselves have promoted this stereotype that women don’t listen to metal music or don’t participate in the “culture.” For example, one band started holding special male-only concerts, stating that when there were women in the audience, men wouldn’t mosh or headbang because they were afraid of injuring the women. I’ve been to many shows where I can safely say that the male audience members present did not hold back in any way due to the presence of female audience members, and if they were indeed holding back, it was probably for the best.
It's frustrating that in this supposedly modern society, such arbitrary societal classifications have affected the one art form that has the ability to transcend barriers such as gender or race. Anyone can enjoy music, and to assume someone doesn't because of their race or gender is a supremely foolish notion.
The sonic gender line also affects women's access to adequate mental health treatment. Because women are perceived as overemotional, dramatic, or overreacting, doctors and psychiatrists often won't take women's complaints seriously. This seriously impedes women's access to vital treatment or medications.
For example, black voices are often characterized as being loud or aggressive, even when they are speaking in the same volume and tone as a white voice. One particularly relevant example of this can be seen in the murder of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was pulled over by a white police officer. When she expressed annoyance verbally, which she was well within her right to do so, she was dragged from her car, threatened, and arrested for “non-compliance.” Three days later, she was found hanged in her jail cell. Were a white person to express annoyance in the exact same way as Sandra Bland, they would almost certainly not be subject to the same abhorrent treatment that befalls too many black individuals.
As can be expected, the sonic color line also impacts music and how it is perceived racially. Stoever cites an example of hip-hop music being perceived as “thug music,” “rap-crap,” and “ridiculously loud,” and details the murder of seventeen year-old Jordan Davis, who was shot for playing hip-hop music in his own car “too loud.”
As I am a white person, I am obviously not subject to the same aural racial profiling, so instead I’d like to talk about gender and how there are certain types of music that are often characterized as being listened to by males or females; similar to how there are types of music such as rap, hip-hop, or soul that are characterized as being listened to by black people.
I deeply enjoy metal music, a fact which for some reason tends to surprise people when I tell them so. In America, there seems to be this concept of gendered music, where males are stereotypically assumed to listen to “harder” music, such as hard rock or metal, and women are assumed to listen to “lighter” music, like pop or folk. When women do express interest in “harder” music, it’s assumed that they’re only interested in it either because they are attracted to the band members or because a male got them interested in the music.
I often go to metal concerts and I’ve experienced this belief firsthand. Earlier this year I went to a metal show by myself and was asked on more than one occasion, “are you here with your boyfriend?” Other times, men in the audience have, unprompted, told me facts about the band or music that I already knew, and would not listen to me when I said that I already knew such facts.
Even some bands themselves have promoted this stereotype that women don’t listen to metal music or don’t participate in the “culture.” For example, one band started holding special male-only concerts, stating that when there were women in the audience, men wouldn’t mosh or headbang because they were afraid of injuring the women. I’ve been to many shows where I can safely say that the male audience members present did not hold back in any way due to the presence of female audience members, and if they were indeed holding back, it was probably for the best.
It's frustrating that in this supposedly modern society, such arbitrary societal classifications have affected the one art form that has the ability to transcend barriers such as gender or race. Anyone can enjoy music, and to assume someone doesn't because of their race or gender is a supremely foolish notion.
The sonic gender line also affects women's access to adequate mental health treatment. Because women are perceived as overemotional, dramatic, or overreacting, doctors and psychiatrists often won't take women's complaints seriously. This seriously impedes women's access to vital treatment or medications.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Portfolio 2: Theorizing with the Visual Mode
The “visual mode” can be succinctly described as the images and characters that people see. For example, photography, paintings, pictograms, and other visual representations are all exemplary of the visual mode. In the chapter “Visible Guerillas” of Karen Springsteen’s book Composing (Media) = Composing (Embodiment), the topic of nude paintings of women contributing to the way in which women are seen as submissive, passive, emotional, irrational beings whose bodies belong more to males than for themselves is discussed.
Springsteen introduces a feminist art group, the Guerilla Girls, who don gorilla masks and use provocative imagery and typography to contort imagery traditionally associated with the subjugation of the female form. For example, a famous classical nude painting is transformed by replacing the head of the model with that of a gorilla, with the words “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” next to it, so as to make it seem as though the gorilla-headed women is asking the question. Thus the image of a submissive, silent woman who is displaying her body for the pleasure of an assumed male viewer is given a voice, and she is transformed into a person rather than a body.
Springsteen then goes on to give the example of Edouard Manet’s controversial 1865 piece Olympia, which portrayed a nude prostitute reclining, a black cat at her feet, while a clothed black servant is handing her a bouquet of flowers from one of her admirers. The painting caused waves of controversy in the Paris art scene at the time due to the fact that the model, rather than having her head or body turned to the side or posing in a submissive manner, is confidently sitting, her legs crossed and arm slung over the back of the recliner, facing the viewer with an air of confidence and power. She has a ribbon on her neck and is wearing fine shoes, indicating that she is not fully naked for the pleasure of the viewer, but is nude because she desires to be. Because she is meeting and contesting with the viewer’s gaze, she forces the viewer to confront their own role as the viewer, and deconstructs the role of nude woman as a passive figure to be viewed.
In this way, Springsteen writes, Edouard Manet’s Olympia performs the same revision of nude women in art as the Guerilla Girls: transforms her from a passive object to an independent agent who has the ability to force the viewer to confront themselves and their role as the viewer. In this way the power of the visual mode can be seen: although this feat could be accomplished through other modes such as linguistic or aural modes, it is most striking and effective when done through the medium of art, in the visual mode.
Another artist of the same period who uses the visual mode to force viewers to confront the image they hold in their head of the female form is Gustave Courbet. Courbet was a painter who employed realism, especially in his depictions of female nudes. Prior to Courbet, depictions of female nudes and sexuality were only acceptable within certain constraints: mythological themes (such as Leda and the swan), and the female form appropriately smooth and curved, with no hair, wrinkles, fat rolls, etc. This provided a degree of separation between the viewer and the subject of the painting: because the painting was clearly not based in reality, the viewer could allow themselves to project their fantasies onto the female bodies presented with no modicum of guilt.
However, Courbet famously created numerous erotic paintings of realistic naked women, complete with body hair, cellulite, and fat in realistic landscapes and scenes. His paintings both celebrated the female form without being pornographic and forced the viewer to see and accept women’s bodies in their natural state. One of his most famous and controversial paintings, the 1866 L’Origine du Monde, meaning “The Origin of the World,” depicted a woman’s vulva and torso in never-before seen realism. Another painting, Young Bather, also from 1866, depicted a nude woman in a forest about to enter a river. Her body is displayed realistically, rather than smoothed over with no “imperfections:” underarm and pubic hair is visible, there is clear cellulite and fat deposits on her legs, buttocks, and stomach. Were it not for the impressionist way in which the background is painted, this painting could pass for a photograph.
In regards to my topic of mental health, the enormous toll taken on women and men around the world as a result of bodies being portrayed according to idealized fantasies that do not reflect reality is plainly visible. These images pervade the media we consume so much so that depicting more natural human bodies, with wrinkles, cellulite, body hair, etc, is considered subversive. When there is only one or a few certain body types that are portrayed positively in mainstream media, it can have a debilitating effect on the mental wellbeing of those who do not share the body type and physical characteristics of those portrayed as desirable in mainstream media. Negative body image, excessive dieting, and even eating disorders can largely be attributed to idealistic, unrealistic portrayals of human bodies in mainstream media.
Through painting women’s bodies realistically, rather than smoothed over, idealistic representations of the female form, Courbet forces the viewer to acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of the female form in its natural state. It forces the viewer to reconcile the superficial image of women in their head to the reality that female bodies possess hair, cellulite, and fat, and yet are still beautiful. Similar to how nowadays photographs of “natural” women with underarm hair, fat and cellulite are seen as subversive when contrasted with the popular Photoshopped models whose bodies are modified and smoothed over so as to be more appealing, Gustave Courbet’s paintings of nude women were subversive in the art world of the mid to late 19th century.
Springsteen introduces a feminist art group, the Guerilla Girls, who don gorilla masks and use provocative imagery and typography to contort imagery traditionally associated with the subjugation of the female form. For example, a famous classical nude painting is transformed by replacing the head of the model with that of a gorilla, with the words “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” next to it, so as to make it seem as though the gorilla-headed women is asking the question. Thus the image of a submissive, silent woman who is displaying her body for the pleasure of an assumed male viewer is given a voice, and she is transformed into a person rather than a body.
Springsteen then goes on to give the example of Edouard Manet’s controversial 1865 piece Olympia, which portrayed a nude prostitute reclining, a black cat at her feet, while a clothed black servant is handing her a bouquet of flowers from one of her admirers. The painting caused waves of controversy in the Paris art scene at the time due to the fact that the model, rather than having her head or body turned to the side or posing in a submissive manner, is confidently sitting, her legs crossed and arm slung over the back of the recliner, facing the viewer with an air of confidence and power. She has a ribbon on her neck and is wearing fine shoes, indicating that she is not fully naked for the pleasure of the viewer, but is nude because she desires to be. Because she is meeting and contesting with the viewer’s gaze, she forces the viewer to confront their own role as the viewer, and deconstructs the role of nude woman as a passive figure to be viewed.
In this way, Springsteen writes, Edouard Manet’s Olympia performs the same revision of nude women in art as the Guerilla Girls: transforms her from a passive object to an independent agent who has the ability to force the viewer to confront themselves and their role as the viewer. In this way the power of the visual mode can be seen: although this feat could be accomplished through other modes such as linguistic or aural modes, it is most striking and effective when done through the medium of art, in the visual mode.
Another artist of the same period who uses the visual mode to force viewers to confront the image they hold in their head of the female form is Gustave Courbet. Courbet was a painter who employed realism, especially in his depictions of female nudes. Prior to Courbet, depictions of female nudes and sexuality were only acceptable within certain constraints: mythological themes (such as Leda and the swan), and the female form appropriately smooth and curved, with no hair, wrinkles, fat rolls, etc. This provided a degree of separation between the viewer and the subject of the painting: because the painting was clearly not based in reality, the viewer could allow themselves to project their fantasies onto the female bodies presented with no modicum of guilt.
However, Courbet famously created numerous erotic paintings of realistic naked women, complete with body hair, cellulite, and fat in realistic landscapes and scenes. His paintings both celebrated the female form without being pornographic and forced the viewer to see and accept women’s bodies in their natural state. One of his most famous and controversial paintings, the 1866 L’Origine du Monde, meaning “The Origin of the World,” depicted a woman’s vulva and torso in never-before seen realism. Another painting, Young Bather, also from 1866, depicted a nude woman in a forest about to enter a river. Her body is displayed realistically, rather than smoothed over with no “imperfections:” underarm and pubic hair is visible, there is clear cellulite and fat deposits on her legs, buttocks, and stomach. Were it not for the impressionist way in which the background is painted, this painting could pass for a photograph.
In regards to my topic of mental health, the enormous toll taken on women and men around the world as a result of bodies being portrayed according to idealized fantasies that do not reflect reality is plainly visible. These images pervade the media we consume so much so that depicting more natural human bodies, with wrinkles, cellulite, body hair, etc, is considered subversive. When there is only one or a few certain body types that are portrayed positively in mainstream media, it can have a debilitating effect on the mental wellbeing of those who do not share the body type and physical characteristics of those portrayed as desirable in mainstream media. Negative body image, excessive dieting, and even eating disorders can largely be attributed to idealistic, unrealistic portrayals of human bodies in mainstream media.
Through painting women’s bodies realistically, rather than smoothed over, idealistic representations of the female form, Courbet forces the viewer to acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of the female form in its natural state. It forces the viewer to reconcile the superficial image of women in their head to the reality that female bodies possess hair, cellulite, and fat, and yet are still beautiful. Similar to how nowadays photographs of “natural” women with underarm hair, fat and cellulite are seen as subversive when contrasted with the popular Photoshopped models whose bodies are modified and smoothed over so as to be more appealing, Gustave Courbet’s paintings of nude women were subversive in the art world of the mid to late 19th century.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Portfolio 2: Composing with the Aural Mode + Rationale
In Steph Ceraso's paper "(Re)Educating the Senses: Multimodal Listening, Bodily Learning, and the Composition of Sonic Experiences," he discusses how multimodal listening is to experience sound with more than one sense- for example, feel the vibrations in the sound or move your body with the sound. Ceraso also included an example where they found they enjoyed a certain album more after experiencing it in a multimodal form at a live concert.
In my own private life, I love music and actually had a conversation with a friend recently about how musical performances and songs can have textures. I wanted to express this sensation of "musical texture" for my project, but couldn't do it in words, so decided to use video as an aural and visual mode to demonstrate multimodal listening in terms of "musical texture".
I first created a playlist of live versions of songs I love, each that have a different "texture" and feel to them that makes them wonderful examples with which to practice multimodal listening. I then went back and downloaded an .mp4 file of each of the videos and edited them so that a small clip of each would be present in a shorter, ~3 minute long video. This way, they would be more palatable for musical and visual consumption. I also included a title slide before each clip introducing the song and saying what kind of texture I "hear" it as. I then created a "cover" and "tracklist" for the video using an online photo collage website.
In the video, I included clips from five different performances, each with a unique texture. For example, the first clip, a live performance of "Sadistic Desire" from 1989, features heavy rhythm guitar contrasted with rapid drum beats and high-pitched vocals. The contrast between the deep, throbbing rhythm guitar and frantic vocals, interspersed with the low whine of the lead guitar creates a sort of "aural dissonance" that I can only describe as crunchy.
Or, for another example, the live performance of "Requiem" includes not just the singer and musicians, but also an array of dancers, men in gold paint shooting arrows into the audience, a clown, crossdressers, some kind of box being set on fire, and more. In this way, the music is not just a sonic experience, it's very much integrated into a visual and kinetic multimodal experience as well. The warmth of the saxophone leading into guitar, backed with steady percussion combines with the visuals to create a full-figured, rounded, warm multimodal listening experience, conjuring the sensation of brass, or warm copper.
To tie this composition in with previous works, I continued using the themes of music and foreign language learning. All the songs presented are in Japanese and are, to state the obvious, music. In addition, a task for this assignment was to incorporate our compositions with some sort of social cause we are passionate about.
I changed my mind several times on what social cause I wanted my project to reflect. At the time of making this composition, my main focus for the project would be on improper access to mental health care/treatment in the US. Therefore, all the songs in the video are about or deal with themes of mental illness. Sadistic Desire and Baroque are about homicidal impulses, The Final is about suicide/shooting oneself in the head, and Solitude and Requiem are about isolation, despair, loneliness, and death.
I first created a playlist of live versions of songs I love, each that have a different "texture" and feel to them that makes them wonderful examples with which to practice multimodal listening. I then went back and downloaded an .mp4 file of each of the videos and edited them so that a small clip of each would be present in a shorter, ~3 minute long video. This way, they would be more palatable for musical and visual consumption. I also included a title slide before each clip introducing the song and saying what kind of texture I "hear" it as. I then created a "cover" and "tracklist" for the video using an online photo collage website.
In the video, I included clips from five different performances, each with a unique texture. For example, the first clip, a live performance of "Sadistic Desire" from 1989, features heavy rhythm guitar contrasted with rapid drum beats and high-pitched vocals. The contrast between the deep, throbbing rhythm guitar and frantic vocals, interspersed with the low whine of the lead guitar creates a sort of "aural dissonance" that I can only describe as crunchy.
I changed my mind several times on what social cause I wanted my project to reflect. At the time of making this composition, my main focus for the project would be on improper access to mental health care/treatment in the US. Therefore, all the songs in the video are about or deal with themes of mental illness. Sadistic Desire and Baroque are about homicidal impulses, The Final is about suicide/shooting oneself in the head, and Solitude and Requiem are about isolation, despair, loneliness, and death.
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