POST 14: Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

ELEPHANT

QUESTIONS

1) What struck you most in the film?

The thing that struck me in the film was how easy it was for the two young students to order guns in the USA. They just ordered them online, as if it were an ordinary delivery, and had them delivered to their house without having to prove anything. 

2) What also impressed you?

What impressed me was the topic chosen for the movie. The shooting is told through the eyes of some students or teachers who passes by in order to show how it have been lived that terrible day. The film maker is ready to show everything he can about the school and the problems it faces and so show this big "elephant in the room" from which comes the name of the film.

3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?

I find upsetting the fact that some parts of what happened in real life have been changed in the film: the film shows one killer shooting the other, when in the real event both killers committed suicide. 

4) What did you find very disturbing?

What I find very disturbing in the film was the way it was filmed. We expect  something to happen as the camera slowly follows the students, but it is never happening until the school "shooting scene". This movie follows the characters just showing their daily life making it banal and abstract. 

5) What was most shocking?

The way the other students were portrayed was too caricatural in my opinion. The nerd being bullied, joks dating pretty girls, mean girls who put their fingers in the throat in order to make them throw up their lunch after school. 

6) What does the film suggest about the two school shooters?

The film suggests that the two school shooters were being bullied at school, had lots of interest in Nazism, and both played violent aggressive video games, that may made them more into the idea of killing people. 

7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?

The film director makes it clear that the two shooters felt nothing during the shooting, they show no pity or any sentiment of any kind for that matter. They target anyone and spare no one. 

8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?

Gus Van San approaches the school shooting in a very "simple" and interesting way. It is almost a documentary approach, showing an ordinary school day in an american high school. The problems of the Columbine High School, such as bully, are approach by Guy Van Sant. He shows the normal day to day life of most american teenagers.

9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film?

The film director uses a realistic treatment, which the public isn't used to anymore in this day. The characters seem real, since they dont have exaggerated personalities of traits.The main consequences are that it takes away some of the sentiment of the film. But  it still has a poetic touches and attention to small detail that aren't easy to pick up on in a first viewing. The poetic touch of always filming people from behind, one again makes the movie very realistic, because it makes the viewer feel like another student walking around the school.

10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers?

The killers are no more perceived as two victims having revenge of the bullied, but rather two disturbed boys who kill because they want to "have fun". Before the shooting, the film viewers can feel sorry for their condition, but at the end of the film, the killers and the killing are both perceived as horrible and unforgiving. 

POST 13: THE US GUN CULTURE

The Founding Fathers of the United States are the individuals of the Thirteen British Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the authority of the British Crown and established the United States of America. The term is also used more narrowly, referring specifically to those who either signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or who were delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and took part in drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States. A further subset includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation. During much of the 19th century, they were referred to as either the "Founders" or the "Fathers".

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975. It is also the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States.

                          

Steve SACK, on www.startribune.com,

Gun Lobby and Congress (2010)

This caricature is called Gun Lobby and Congress, was mad by Steve Sack, and published on the news website star tribune in 2010. On the foreground, we can see two men in suits talking in front of the American congress. One of them (on the left) represents a gun lobby and he is giving a bribe to the other man (on the right) who represents the congress. They both do not seem to bother about the long trail of blood running down the stairs of the congress. The congress seems to care more about the money he makes out of the Gun Lobby than the consequences. 

Because of that, United States of America have an extremely big number of gun violence per year. In 2010, 67% of all homicides in the U.S. were committed using a firearm, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. Gun Lobby's bribe the congress, in order to do well on the market. They aren't thinking about the huge consequences  and aren't preoccupied about the victims, they are only focusing on the amount of money they are making out of it.

This image illustrates the corruption that takes place in congress and the pressure they receive from gun lobbyists. We can interpret this image as an criticism of American gun culture.

Dave GRANDLUND, on www.davegranlund.com, 

Second Amendment and NRA (2013)

This caricature is called Second Amendment and was mad by Dave Grandlund in 2013. We can see two statues side by side. The statue on the left is holding a gun and  represents the Second Amendment defined by the Founding Fathers. The other statue (on the right) is in gold, standing on top of a pile of ammunition boxes and is holding multiple guns. It represents the  Second Amendment defined by the NRA, National Rifle Association of America. This caricature shows us how the perception of the American on the Second Amendment has change over the ages. 

The Second Amendment was created in 1791 and gives the right of American people to keep and bear armst for security. However the NRA, an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun rights, is overusing this right. They are using the Second Amendment as an excuse to take possession of plurality of arms. The NRA statue is shown holding an multiple of guns, when they would only need one. Originally the Founding Fathers wanted to support the natural rights of self-defence, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defence of the state. They never promoted the idea of buying tones of weapons. Legalized gun possession can be dangerous as the government haven't seem to got much control over the laws imposed to American citizens.

We can interpret this image as an criticism of the abuse of the Second Amendment by the NRA.

POST 11: Individual document on Exchanges in Real and Virtual Spaces

INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENT ON EXCHANGES IN REAL AND VIRTUAL SPACES 

The trouble with virtual reality

As virtual reality simulators become more realistic and immersive, people may lose touch with actual reality. The cartoon shows a person in a virtual reality headset stepping of the edge of the word ‘reality’ into some sort of unstated post reality void.

Virtual reality redefines and reshapes the privatization of public space. It brings people new forms and practices with technologies. The user accesses a computer-simulated world which presents "perceptual stimuli" to the user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled world. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from the reality or fantasy worlds. 

These new forms and practices extend the flow of information which originally and mainly within the digital spaces to physical spaces, leading to the blurring borders between digital and physical spaces.

POST 7; THE IDEA OF PROGRESS: QUANTITY vs. QUALITY

 QUALITY VS QUANTITY

The difference between quantity and quality is that quantity is a forward movement toward a goal, as quality is a progressive improvement towards society

Major challege for food industry is to maintain the food quality by producing big quantity. But it is harder than what it looks

http://www.slideshare.net/athensmallari/objectives-of-quantity-food-production

As we can see in the article on top, food produces in a large quantity and outside the home is often followed by a low quality. They are treating the food with GMO's and other type of pesticide which causes the nourishing elements in the foods to diminish and disease causing to rise. Meat, fish and fresh food are placed in special conditions, like frozen, so that they can be exported in big quantity all across the world. But this could affect the quality of the food because of the bacteria that often develops in animal products and can cause foodborne illnesses to occur.

But we can see in this second document that "good quality" food tend to be more expensive as we notice that people tend to make the decision to eat fast food because of his low prices. We notice that high-quality, fresh food is the most important factor measured at both fast-food and fast-casual restaurants, which mean that people are at least aware of the risk of bacteria in process food. 

As fast-food and fast-casual restaurants should each works on their weaknesses and tout their strengths. It will push consumers even more into wanting, and making it possible for them to have, the best of both: quality and quantity. They should increasingly demand a strong value proposition and fast, fresh, high-quality ingredients and healthy options.

To conclude I should say that quality should be something to take very seriously in food industry. But I must admit that nowadays it very hard to achieve as the human population keeps rising and need more quantity.

I think that as the time passes, operators who can deliver the best combination of these needs, quality and quantity will come out on top.

POST 4: My own choice of a a film, series, song or book (novel, play, essay, comic, graphic novel) dealing with the 'MYTHS & HEROES' notion

BRAVEHEART

Trailer:

The Movie:

Braveheart is a 1995 American epic war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson portrays the main character, William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish warrior. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards.

In the England of the 13th Century , after several years of political issues with Scotland, King Edward I of England has decided to conquer the country. After invading Scotland and winning the war, King Edward decides to give lands to English nobility and the rights to some “privileges”. 

Braveheart tells the story of the legendary 13th Century Scottish hero named William Wallace. When he was a young boy, William's father and brother lost their lives trying to free Scotland from the English. When his secret bride, Murron Mac Clannough, is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, William Wallace begins a revolt against the cruel King Edward I of England, also known as 'Longshanks'. He will fight to make Scotland free once for all, along with the assistance of his friend Robert the Bruce. But he will be captured by the English, and tortured in public. William refuses to submit to the king and when the magistrate offers him a final chance to say the word, "Mercy," he will instead shout, "Freedom!”. Moments before being beheaded, William has a vision of Murron in the crowd, smiling at him. The movie ends with Robert who, in memory of his friend, leads his army into battle against the English, leading Scotland to its freedom.

The notion Myths and Heroes:

I think we can relate the movie Braveheart to the notion of Myths and Heroes because the main character, William Wallace, responds to the definition of the hero. He is a character with noble qualities who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displays courage and the will for self sacrifice – that is, heroism – for some greater good of all humanity. William is not invincible and does not have any superpower, but he is going to fight and risk his life for justice and freedom in his country. He will die in a heroic way and become a model of courage, fortitude, justice and moral goodness.

POST 6: An Art Exhibition Review

🔺 POP ART MYTHS 🔻

10 JUNE - 14 SEPTEMBER, 2014

Madrid - Museo THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA

 Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid, Spain

Today I would like to talk about the “Pop Art Myth” art exhibition. It took place in Madrid (Spain), from the 10^th of June to the 14^th of September 2014. It was exhibited at the Thyssen Bornemisza museum , situated on Paseo del Prado 8, one of the most artistic area of the city. The exhibition is about the famous liberating movement of Pop Art, its purpose, and its culture, during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. 

If you would like to have some more information on the exhibition, you can click here.

                                               Roy Lichtenstein Woman in Bath, 1963

The artists exhibited were Andy Warhol, Wolf Vostell, Peter Blake, Mimmo Rotella, Tom Wesselmann and many more. "Pop Art Myth" wanted to assemble all the Pop artists of the time: from the pioneering works of British and American artists, to the Pop derivations that surfaced in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, they all shared the same ambition of making a break with the past.

The exhibition was actually divided into pertinent "sections". It opens with several "collages" by Pop Art precursors Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi. Moving along, comes the "emblems" section where great artists such as Jasper Johns, Briton Peter Blake and Andy Warhol represented certain everyday objects. Robert Indiana on the other hand, turned words such as "food" or "eh" into emblems. The other sections in the exhibition are "myths, portraits, landscapes, interiors and still life's, urban eroticism, and history painting".

I found this exhibition very interesting in the way that it was organised by different sections. It really helped me to see and understand the different topics which were represented in Pop Art. During the visit I could really notice the big changes that were involved during this time. Big brands were being created, advertisement were popping up everywhere, Hollywood and all the celebrities were the centre of the attention and had people dreaming.

In my opinion "Pop Art Myth" can bring viewers back to the 50's. What is really worth seeing is how a simple object, like a box of soap, artist's such as Andy Wahrol, managed to create something really complex, innovating and even a little enigmatic. The artist changed our way of  looking at apparently ordinary things, objects of everyday use transformed into a piece of art.

                                       

 

                                                   Andy Warhol Brillo Soap Pads, 1964 

I personally find the pop art sculptures really fascinating, but I must admit that one of the paintings that really caught my eyes is Still Life #34 by Tom Wesselmann. I find the idea of doing a still life with usual products, such as a Coca-Cola, remarkable because it illustrates the contrast between the new consumer culture with the reinterpretation of the art of the past.

                                                  Tom Wesselmann Still life #34, 1963

                                 

This exhibition can be related to the notion of Myths and Heroes by the way Pop artists often based their works around celebrities and famouse figure of their time, such as Marilyn Monreo or James Dean, or famous cartoon character, such as Mickey Mouse. They are represented as heroes and/or myths in order for people to identify themselves to the piece of art, threw something they already know.

My name is Emanuela Polo and I'm a twelfth year student in high school in the Lycee Francais of Madrid. My mother is an artist and I often go to some exhibitions. On top of that, I would like to work in art later, so I do have a little bit of experience in this field. I lived in Portland (Oregon), Vienna, Turin, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid. Different types of culture always interested me a lot, that's why I enjoyed this exhibition so much.

When it comes to Pop Art, I personally find this movement captivating. While visiting the exhibition, I discovered a piece of art called Marilyn Idol that caught my attention. It was realised by the talented artist Wolf Vostell in 1962, during the Pop Art movement, and it represents several posters stick together and half torn of Marilyn Monroe. I must admit that it is the piece of the exhibition which strikes me the most, there is no denying that it is really interesting to see that simple posters can create something really captivating and beautiful in my opinion .The intention of the artist was to show the icon who Marilyn Monroe was for Americans. I would relate this Art work to the notion of Myths and Heroes because of the idea about this famous and immortal figure that is Marilyn Monroe, and the way she is transformed into a kind of heroin and even a myth.  The way she is represented several time, like a fan would do , shows us how the artist aims to insist on the bomb shell image of Marilyn during the 60's and how people would look up to her. Another way of looking at this piece is that through all of those pictures of Monroe there is a hidden message of the harassment whom celebrities were going through because of the insane curiosity of the paparazzi and journalist regarding their personal lives and intimacy. 
Furthermore, it is true to say that Vostell was right to consider Marilyn Monroe like a myth or a legend, as she stays even nowadays an idol and her unique style is still being copied.

                                                              Wolf Vostell Marilyn Idol, 1962

(detail)

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

                            🔺 About the Artist 🔻 

Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happening and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are characteristic of his work, as is embedding objects in concrete and the use of television sets in his works.

                                                    

Wolf Vostell

             

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Vostell        

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Finally I would like to talk about an other exhibition which was shown in Madrid at the same time of the Pop Art Myth one. It was at the Museum Reina Sofia and it focused on one of the great protagonists of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton. 
If you would like to have some more information on the exhibition, you can click here.

Both exhibitions, made up of more than 300 works of art, look at the traditional myths of the Pop movement in a different angle, highlighting the turbulence of a society that sought to forget the trauma of the second world war.  

That was it for my art review about the exhibition "Pop Art Myth", I hope you liked it and I'll see you next week for a new art review!

POST 2: Chris/Alexander & the myth of the noble/good savage in Sean Penn's Into the Wild movie

1)

Chris/Alexander in Sean Penn's movie: Into the Wild 

Painting of a representation of the noble/good savage by George Catlin

2) Defintion of "The noble savage"

The term "noble savage" is an idea people had: Without civilization, humans are essentially good; it is civilization that makes them act in bad ways. The idea started in the 17th century and developed in the 18th century. One of the first to express it was Shaftesbury. He told the would-be author “to search for that simplicity of manners, and innocence of behaviour, which has been often known among mere savages; ere they were corrupted by our commerce”. His counter to the doctrine of original sin, born amid the optimistic atmosphere of Renaissance humanism, was taken up by another author who lived at the same time, the essayist Richard Steele, who attributed the corruption of contemporary manners to false education.

In the eighteenth-century cult of "Primitivism" the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization, was considered more worthy, more authentically noble than the contemporary product of civilized training. Although the phrase noble savage first appeared in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (1672), the idealized picture of "nature's gentleman" was an aspect of eighteenth-century sentimentalism, among other forces at work.

3) a) Alexander seems to believe that you can only find ultimate freedom in the wild, and that nature is something truly peaceful, beautiful and inspirational, opposed to the human society where the only things that count are material stuff. He believes that humans are brain washed by their society and that the only thing we seem to really care about is money. This idea is represented in the movie when Chris refuses his parents new car as a present, and complains about them always wanting more and more “things”. He also believes that we should “hit the road” and explore nature, and the idea of having a perfect “career” is something that society forces upon us. This is illustrated in the movie when Ron, worried about Chris’s future, asks him if he has a career, in which Chris replies “I think careers are a 20^th century invention, and I don’t want one”. Chris is clearly a nature lover, and also embodies certain aspect of the myth of the noble/ good savage. He is against the common belief of society, and refuses to be influenced by it. Therefore, he cannot be completely compared to a noble “savage”, as he was born in the city and lived in the society for a long part of his life.

b) Chris goes to Alaska on his own because he wants to connect himself with nature. He was deeply affected with what he found out about his father’s hidden past. He thought his whole life was a lie and felt the need to run away. Chris also has some lofty ideals and he seems to be sure he will reach them going into the wild. What seems to be the most important for Chris, is his pursuit of the ultimate freedom that he is longing to reach during his trip.

c) What Chris fails to grasp about living close to nature is:

Firth of all he does not realize that he is going to need some provisions to survive in the wild. In the movie we can see him taking some provisions but finally he decides to leave them in the car of the man who dropped him off, as he felt he didn’t need them.

He is also too sentimental. In the movie we can see Chris refusing to kill a deer after realizing it is a female with her baby. But what he doesn’t seem to understand is that he has to hunt in order to feed himself.

Finally he does not seem to understand that nature is full of danger and not as perfect as he would like it to be. This is illustrated at the end of the movie when Chris poisons himself by eating a deadly plant.

Chris is not truly aware of what he is going to face in the wild.

d) I do think that Chris is more of a romantic rather than a good savage. He has the same ideals and beliefs, but a noble savage is "uncorrupted by the influences of civilization", and Chris was born, raised and influenced against his will by the civilization. Romantics live in an very ideologic way. They tend to see beauty every where and also feel like there are not understood by others. I think that Chris's personnality is like the romantics, as he does not realise that nature is not only beautiful, but dangerous as well.

e) I do think it is possible to live in the wild after living in society, but it takes a lot of motivation and preparation to do it well. Chris was not ready and aware enough. I do also think that being alone in the wild is not something that should be done. We can see at the end of the movie that Chris realises it as he write "true hapiness only real when it is shared".