It's weird how you can find inspiration in the weirdest, most awkward, awful places. This week I was already feeling down when I just happened to randomly discover that a classmate wasn't too fond of me because of the way I spoke out in regards to our class pop culture discussion. Honestly that really upset me and I had to apologize. I'm only passionate about what I have to say, when I do speak. I used to be extremely quiet and too scared to say what I wanted to say. Now after years of hearing how I NEED to stand up for myself and I SHOULD share my ideas...I'm finally trying. I never in my life have tried to put myself above anyone and when I do speak my mind, it's not meant to be putting people down. When I spoke out in class a few weeks back it was only to add to the conversation because it made me mad the way it was going. I didn't feel like I did anything wrong at the time, but it made me sick because I was so upset for being against the majority. I don't wanna cause problems. I just wanna make sure all bases are being covered. Personally, I love hearing all sides. I love debates. I love when someone has something to say and they say it....and I'm sorry I made specific people feel bad or like they couldn't respond after I did. I'm rambling, but obviously this really effected me.
Now how does this relate to identity? Perfectly. It's almost weird how this all happened and I could feed off it for my project. The way others view me is very much my identity. If I was a cocky person, I might say I was the best artist in the class or the best looking (LOL NO) or the smartest (LOLLLLL)....does that mean that others would view me as those things? No. They'll likely view me as an overly confident, cocky, asshole. Might as well mention him one last time.....Kanye West. He is a self proclaimed "god", "creative genius" and more. To his credit, he does do great things and has awards and material that backs up what he says. He's an intelligent human being with alot of positive ideas. HOWEVER, he brings his ideas to the public in a manner that causes people to hate him. People literally hate him and 99.9% of them haven't ever met the guy. By all accounts he's a nice guy. Fashion designers cosign his passion and creativity and give him credit for being really good at what he does. But his IDENTITY to the general public is a cocky, jerk. TMZ and other news outlets reports this and that and such and such about him and we (the public) know Kanye West (and other public fugures) via what we read and see. If we all knew these celebrities/famous people we might really truly like them. Unfortunately, we aren't going to befriend a bunch of celebrities.
So where does this leave us? Am I trying to say that people are wrong for disliking Miley Cyrus or Kanye West? No! That's totally and perfectly fine. I really don't care whether you don't like them because of what you see and hear from them. But when the dislike turns to HATE, I feel really bad for the famous person. I don't think I HATE anyone in the world and if I do it's because they did something really bad to my family or I personally.
All I want people to do is sit back and relax a bit. Yes, I do care about Kanye's new music video (as I unfortunately let it be known in class). But does it reallllllllllly matter whether I like it? Or even that it was released? No. Is a music video, quote or performance by 1 singular person really worthy of making fun of their physical appearance? No. That's just shallow and disgusting in my opinion.
We decide so many people's identity everyday. Obviously the individual controls how they act but we have to remember that we are all humans here. We deserve respect and some level of support from one another. Putting down another person will not help you gain...it only brings negativity to a place that needs positivity and support.
My identity in class when I speak my mind may be negative. That's why I apologized to my classmate and cleared things up. I hurt myself because I was passionate and possibly aggressive...I had no bad intentions and I never intended to harm anyone's feelings.
MOVING ALONG....
The newspaper, magazines, websites and other medias are outlets for discussion. They give people shots of news and information on certain people and events. As readers, we perceive people to be whatever they are portrayed to us via media. We don't all know Barrack Obama personally. We didn't all know Nelson Mandela personally. There's nothing you can do about that. We aren't going to have the opportunity to know these people...that's why we have to keep an open mind and try not to be quite so harsh with our judgements. HAVE AN OPINION. LET THE WORLD KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS. But don't attempt to bring others down if all that you know is based on what others have reported. The media is highly unreliable in today's society anyways.
Relating back once again to Julia and Courtney's fake celebrity Tweet project again; the girls mentioned how media outlets will put anything in the title to get you to click the link. Anyone can make anything up at anytime. Unless we were there, how can we be so quick to HATE an individual for their actions. It's not that big of a deal if Justin Bieber has sex. It's the most irrelevant thing compared to even my person trials and tribulations...why do we feel the need to get SO excited (negative and positive form of excited) about something that doesn't effect us at all?
Before I go further with info on my actual project.....
You're probably thinking...."but Jesse I KNOW you and I think you're a jerk because you said this and this and it was confrontational! You're point isn't correct!!"
The thing is, even tho we may hear an interview or watch a video we don't like and judge based on physically seeing actions we don't condone.....or if we hear someone talk and don't like the way they talked....unless you know that person how can you be sure you know exactly where it was coming from?
Celebrities make mistakes and do stupid things and it's caught on camera. They say stupid stuff in interviews. I was too confrontational in class. But do those actions directly reflect exactly who celebrities or I am/are at heart? No. Again, I apologized to my classmates because I never meant to come across negatively. Things happen in the heat of the moment and cause people to IDENTIFY you in specific ways.
As an artist, you must treat yourself no different than a celebrity. Artists and artwork are extremely expressive and also professionals who may work in a corporate enviroment. Everyone, artist/celebrity/famous person/public figure, or not...you must maintain your image and be sure you are being portrayed the way you wish to be at all times. If you come across in a bad way, fix it.
NOW ON TO MY PROJECT FINALLY!
So I mentioned the newspaper. It can cause people to perceive others in many different ways, specific to the way the article is written.
My last medium I needed to use for class was ALTERED OBJECT. I had no idea how to make this work but the first thing I thought of was seeing a HOW TO on YouTube (RESEARCH HERE). It shows how to make a women's clutch hand bag out of newspaper (I'm weird and I like to figure out how to do this kinda stuff in my off time..)...
So naturally I thought...
Why don't I turn a newspaper into a book?
An altered object project only implies that you find an object and alter it.
I FOUND a newspaper and I ALTERED it using some matte board, glue, paper, paint, colored pencil and marker.
Below you can go ahead and check out my final result...
TITLED: "MAKE LOVE NOT ASSUMPTIONS"
But, I will say that in general I was coming partly from a fictional space and also a personal space with this book. I wanted the book to feel like it was made by someone who was being written about on a public form of media (newspaper) and they turned it around and explained themselves via a more personal form of communication (book).
I played alot with the idea of PERCEPTION.
RED can equal WAR or ALERT....and it can also equal LOVE.
When you see the book from a distance you may think..."wow this book is probably negative in some way because the color is IN YOUR FACE and there's a screaming black guy on the front cover!"
But when you pick it up and looks at it...you see a image of MLK and Mandela hugging on the back. They're accompanied by hearts, smilies, and dream catchers. Inside the book, there are words of questioning media and claims of only wanting to create and show love towards others. The book PLEADS with readers to not ASSUME what you have heard is correct.
Again it's okay to not like someone. We all have opinions and some things are simply going to turn us off. That's totally okay. But unless you personally know a celebrity or you know from multiple experiences and conversations that someone is a complete cocky jerk...please just reserve huge judgements. Maybe the individuals NEED love and the world might be a better place if they can be understood or helped in some way....maybe you as a listener or viewer can make the world a better place by simply remaining neutral and not placing such specific, awful ideas upon an individual.
This is such an important and complex topic for me, sorry for the length and possible confusion of/within this post.
DISCLAIMER: Again, if you hate someone or even just dislike them and have a great reason too...by all means hate and dislike them. I'm speaking in regards to the people who see an image of someone and hate them because of what they see. I'm just holding out hope that most people in the world have great intentions and if we stay positive and help each other, the world can be an even more wonderful place.
More Research:
Style/Influence... Wes Lang
Miley Cyrus speaks on planning out everything she does and making sure it's perfect (Her identity is planned regardless of how we perceive it/act like she's just insane) http://www.mtv.com/shows/miley_the_movement/series.jhtml
THANK YOU for listening to me. I appreciate it so much. I'm sorry to cause conflict. However, I wouldn't have come to this conclusion with the project, and my ideas would not have developed without having everything that has happened, happen.
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