Morbid Curiosity Exhibit

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I walked into the Cultural Center last Wednesday. Although I am a student at an Arts and Media college, I have always been more closely drawn to the media side and motion picture arts. So, going in I was not 100% sure what to expect. However, I was definitely not disappointed. As the exhibit title states, it was definitely morbid, however also intriguing.  I realized that most of the pieces in the exhibit were more about life than death. After all, I think I learned through this that death is a part of life. Some of the things explored what it means to loose someone, the consequences of war, or how death is something all of us fear. I was drawn to a piece in the secondary room of the main floor that held a series of 15 very large wooden carved prints. It displayed the various stages of war. At the beginning, the majority of people are for it. This piece began showing a recruiting table taking people that were signing up to serve in the armed forces. As the piece goes on, soldiers are shown receiving training and then eventually going off to war. As we know, war is a very morbid and violent thing. Many of us can not even begin to imagine the horrors of it, unless we, ourselves have served before. The artist of the particular piece did a great job of displaying this emotion in the faces and expressions of the soldiers that were in it. A more controversial scene was also displayed in the piece. It showed of soldiers at war camps with hoods over their heads and being held in cells. This is also a part of the morbibidity (if that’s a word) of the piece. It wraps up with people that are clearly against the war effort, and some type of senate hearing with soldiers on trial. Over all this was an interesting experience for me and would go back the Cultural Museum again. 

Artist Exploration

I am choosing to write about Francois Robert. I choose to write about Francois because the short bio I read about him in the link. It said he was a photographer and took photos for both commercial and artistic reasons. This connected with me. I also do something similar with video. I visited his website (francoisrobertphotography.com) and was immediately greeted with a collage of photos varying in topic from very strong artistically composed images, to pics of major company retailers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Although he was originally born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, he has done much work in Chicago. According to his website, he has photographed and produced work for Crate & Barrel, Coca-Cola, Chicago Board of Trade, BP, Sappi Paper, Bentley Prince Street, Herman Miller, Polaroid Corporation, Western Union and Yale Medical School. Some of these are major international companies, that used his work around the world. The very interesting side note, would be why he is included in the "Morbid Curiosity" exhibit. Early in 1990's Robert bought a few lockers from a school in Michigan. When he got home two of the lockers were empty, but the third had a human teaching skeleton in it. In an article he is quoted saying "Bones have always fascinated me." He sought after taking pictures of this skeleton. But the one he had was limited. It was all wired together for teaching purposes. He decided to trade up to get one that had all 206 bones in pieces. He has since done many creative pieces that have bones as their main concentration.

Descriptive Page

A few years ago my family and I set out on a family trip to Minden, West Virginia. Our destination was Ace Whitewater, in the shining hills of the New River Gorge. As we drove on a back country road, we looked out the window to reveal sprawling trees, winding streams and rivers, and rolling mountains as far as the eye could see. The sun was setting and cast a vast array of colors throughout the trees that encompassed the mountains. Later the next day we were bused down to the bay by the river and boarded our white water rafts. Before we started we were all nervous, as we would be going through class 5 rapids, which are the strongest and most dangerous you can encounter. We pushed off and the ride was exhilarating. The raft itself bounced up and down like mad. We were thrown about back and forth, side to side. We were told by our instructor to quote “paddle like hell” so we would make it out alive. A few more thrashes back and forth and we had made it out of the class 5 rapid with out a single scratch or bruise. I can still remember when we were done for the day, looking up at a trestle bridge, some 200 feet above our heads, and feeling amazement that we made it out alright. 

Tattoo

I am going to choose tattoo “A” to talk about. I would assume that this person is young and open minded. The symbolism behind the tattoo shows a vastness regarding the person. It would seem that this person has a lot ahead of them and is living in the moment, and that they have no boundaries. Obviously they are proud of the tattoo because it is shown on their lower leg where, during the summer months, people can see it. It is also rather large. It takes up most of the calf, and is very colorful.  Another way to look at this would be a person that loves space and the cosmos. Maybe is an astronomer or person that hobbies with planets and stars. This is a good way to show it, because the tattoo may be of a specific galaxy or area of planets and stars.

I am a person with many different qualities and values. I was born and raised an Irish Catholic. I went to a Catholic high school where I played football. This lasted for 3 years until I injured my knee that ended up requiring surgery. This in turn, ended my football career. I have always loved tv, and have worked in TV for 6 years now. I have worked for local cable access stations, Chicago WhiteSox, various telethons, and now more recently, Columbia College TV department. Coming up in the next couple months I will be working for ABC Channel 7 up here in Chicago. I think my broad background of cultures will make my topic quite interesting to research. The Occupy Wall Street movement is also very full of variety and different cultures. I am looking forward to trying to understand this movement and its relationship to social media. 

One example of a cultural text would be the occupy movement. Many of us cannot exactly describe what their purpose is. However, it is clearly an example of cultural text. This movement shows that these people are fed up with the way that some government officials are “running” our country. Although, I myself am not a member of this movement, some of the points they bring into view do make some sense. Many decisions that congressmen and representatives are making in Washington do not reflect the views of the majority of  average Americans. The ways that this group is demonstrating also reflect on the current  times. At a time where everyone is so interconnected by social media, it is not surprising at how organized these groups have become because of technology and good communication. If we ere to go back say 20 years or so, would this group really be as big of an influence as it is today?? Probably not. But, overall this cultural text has much more to "read into" than what i have just described here, and is quite interesting.

My name is Conlan Fay, and I am from the Chicago land area. I lived in Joliet before coming up here to live on campus at Columbia. I am a Television Major with concentration in Producing and Directing.  I have always loved news and current events. I believe this is one of the main reasons why I became interested in television. Some of my favorite people in the business include Leonard Goldenson (basically relaunched the ABC network to help it survive), Brandon Tartikoff (mastermind behind many NBC shows including Family Ties,  The Cosby Show, and Hill Street Blues to name a few), and Pat Weaver (ABC & NBC, credited to creating a genera of television that is now commonplace on every network, by creating the morning news show "Today".) I chose to go to Columbia because of the great facilities and faculty that make up the College. I have been told for years that I should consider Columbia as my College of choice from many industry professionals. I took their word for it and I am glad I did. I have worked in television for 6 years now, varying from being a Station Director at a local cable access station, to working a job with Chicago White Sox. I love TV and enjoy working in it. My media of choice would be working in video, as corresponds to my passion for TV. I hope to gain a broader knowledge of  rhetoric and writing styles and, as of now, can't think of any concerns about the class for this year.