Banging on the Keyboard and Cursing: Maya Attempts to Code

So this week I tried coding.

It was a bit frustrating and a bit fun. For the most part, the experience was an experience in me swearing while bashing at my keyboard, angrily trying to figure out how any of this was supposed to work. But when I did figure it out, it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Despite how annoyed I felt when I had to go back and figure out where my code had gone wrong, I liked learning about the process, how extensive coding actually is, and the feeling of satisfaction when I actually did something right.

Plus, now I have so much sympathy for people who code for a living. That stuff is real hard.

I played three of the coding games, but my favourite by far was the Flappy Bird one. I completed that one in the shortest amount of time, and I actually enjoyed it, though I did also like the Minecraft game.

Overall, while at times frustrating, coding was a fun experience and taught me a lot about how much work it is to create a functional code. I walked about from this assignment with an appreciation for the complexity of coding, and the hope that I never have to do it again.

#Canada150, or How I View Canada: Flawed, But Trying to Be Better

For the #Canada150 project, I started off as everyone else did, with a mind map. I focused primarily on myself and what I cared about in the map. I really wanted this project to focus on what I think being Canadian means, but also what I'm passionate about.

This thought developed into the idea of focusing on my activism. On my mind map I talked about being raised by parents that always encouraged my to think for myself, and were very supportive of my ideas and activist nature. However, I had to connect that back to Canada in some way, so I thought about focusing on the different social, political, ethnic, and cultural people living in Canada. My original idea was to take different symbols from different groups in Canada, make them into flags, and somehow incorporate the Canadian maple leaf (and other Canadian symbols) into them. 

But the more I thought about it, the less I liked this idea, so I abandoned it. I still wanted to focus on the diversity of Canada, and I still wanted to bring my activism into that. So, instead I decided to create a video. In this video, I really wanted to bring out and spotlight my activism, seeing as the whole project is supposed to be about you as a Canadian and how you view your country.

While I haven't created the video yet, I do have an idea of what I want to focus on throughout it. In the video I want to talk about the different social and political issues Canada has come across. I don't want to shy away from the controversial, or the horrific parts of my country's history; and therefore I will be talking about residential schools, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, Japanese internment camps, and the women's suffrage movement. However, I also want to focus on the strides we as a country have made towards these issues. As well as how lucky I am to live in country that allows me to challenge the government, tell them they are being unfair or prejudiced, and speak up about issues like the ones we've faced in the past.

More than anything, I want this video to discuss the mistakes Canada has made in the past, their acknowledgment of those wrongs, and how they will still make mistakes in the future (because no nation or person is perfect). I want this video to talk about how what makes Canada so different and wonderful is that, unlike so many other countries, we acknowledge our wrongdoings, apologize for them, and strive to do better. 

Calligraphy, Magazines, Unfinished Projects, and HitRecord

For my first art assignment, I decided to work with calligraphy and hand lettering. I'd seen posts featuring it on Instagram before and I always thought it looked beautiful, so I thought that I should give it a go.

My original idea was to take pictures from magazines, and write some of my favourite quotes and poems on top of it in calligraphy; and technically I still did that. But I changed my theme and the types of photos I was using. Originally I had planned to use more glossy, high end fashion type shots, and pair them with poems about the female body and societies expectations of it.

Instead, I ended up using pictures from National Geographic. I picked pictures of women and girls from different cultures, different backgrounds from my own, many of them from more oppressive or restrictive cultures than my own. I chose to write more empowering, and impactful things overtop of the pictures. Rather than focusing on the body, I decided to spotlight the issues facing these girls today, and society's disregard for them. Sometimes that manifested in poems about gender stereotypes and the male gaze, and other times in quotes about powerful women.

This was my first one.
National Geographic said that she was from Indonesia, if I'm not mistaken.

The quote is from a recently found but favourite poet of mine named Rupi Kaur. It says "The kindest words my father ever spoke to me: women like you drown oceans". It retrospect, I wish I had used this quote on a different picture, one featuring water, but I couldn't find any that still suited my theme.

For this one I tried writing over the entirety of the picture,
to see what effect it would have.

For my second try, I used a photo of several young women getting ready for a traditional Indian wedding. The poem that goes along with it is from another favourite poet of mine, Blythe Baird, who posted it to her tumblr account. It says "Amongst other contradictions, we are expected to be experienced but unentered. They want to touch us and name us after their handprints. They want us to be pretty, and then when we care about being pretty, they call us vain." My only issue is with this one is that I wished the black sharpie could have appeared a bit better nearing the end of the page. It can be a little difficult to read it at times.

I do plan to do more of these, maybe a whole series of them, I'm not entirely sure yet. I already have two other photos picked out; and now I'm just trying to find the perfect poems to match them with.       

I did make a HitRecord blog, it can be found here. My user name is librariesaremyrefuge (lame, I know). I haven't posted these projects to my profile yet, I want to use a scanner to make sure they come out as good as possible, and I haven't been able to yet. They will be up soon though.

Art or No? You Decide.

Some of Brian Jungen's work.
He often creates pieces inspired by his Dane-zaa heritage.

Brian Jungen is a artist who was born, and is living, in Canada. I say he is an artist because that is exactly what he is. He is someone who creates art. Though, not everyone see's it this way.

Brian Jungen is a sculptor; he creates art through collecting, disassembling, and then recombining consumer goods. His sculptures have been described as "direct and disarming", he has been featured in countless galleries and he has won several awards. However not everyone agrees that what Jungen does being called "art". 

I disagree with these people. Sculpture has long since been considered an art form, and what Jungen does is no different. The only change is that he works with materials other than clay, or stone, or marble. I think it's Jungen's use of more unconventional materials that often make people ponder whether or not what he really does is art. But just because the materials are different doesn't make the finished project any less impactful or moving. Artists all over the world use hundreds upon thousands of different types of formats and supplies to create and it is considered valid.

Marina Abramovic, a performing artist, literally just sat and
stared at people, saying nothing for hours on end, and that's still considered art.
Why not Brian Jungen's sculptures?

People use all kinds of things to create art: the environment around them, their own bodies, random things around them. Jungen decided to use commercialized goods to spread a critique of labour practices, global capitalism, and cultural stereotypes; the work he does still makes an impact, it has a message. Which is part of what I believe art to really be about. Art isn't necessarily about the materials, or what is created, but the message of the work and its impact. Brian Jungen creates sculptures that move people, that make people think; and I believe that that, not materials or format or subject matter, is what really defines whether or not something is art.

#AskACurator Day

#AskACurator is a day on social media (mostly Twitter) where anyone can ask museums and those who curate them questions about art, their job, and anything in-between. I think this is a wonderful way to engage more people when it comes museums, and to art in general. And hosting it on social media gives off a more casual, welcoming vibe. I think a lot of people can be intimidated by art or by art galleries and museums (I know I certainly am), and that by hosting it on Twitter, it allows anyone the opportunity to interact with curators.

Some questions I have for #AskACurator Day are:

1. How exactly are some of the exhibits in your gallery/museum curated? What do you look for when planning an exhibit?

2. What are some of the oldest pieces you have in your collection?

3. Which piece in your collection is the most popular? Is the most popular piece also the most famous piece?

4. When you want to show a certain painting or exhibit, how do you go about doing that?

5. Does your collection host any work done by someone whose from North Western Ontario? If so, who?

6. What do you do when a piece in your collection is damaged?