First Game

Start: 10/16/15

Bacteria: LoveBug V

Origin: Zimbabwe

100 people infected: 12/08/15 (around 2 months)

1,000,000 people infected: 02/08/15 (around 4 months)

First Death: Mexico 09/15/15 (around 11 months)

Destroyed Human Race: Yes 05/30/15 (593 days)

Conquered Greenland? YES

In this first game, I chose to go with Zimbabwe, a poor nation. Since a poor nation is a rather easy breeding ground for bacteria, I chose to focus on increasing some transmission but mostly the abilities so that it could survive in wealthier nations and I would increase the symptoms once more nations were infected so it wouldn’t be as noticeable. I think this game took longer than the test rounds I played before because it takes a lot of DNA points to increase the lethality of the symptoms as well as the abilities of the bacteria. Also, poor countries mean that no one really travels out or into the country so spreading the bacteria to wealthy nations is actually quite difficult.

Second Game

Start: 10/16/15

Bacteria: Rapid Z

Origin: Canada

100 people infected: 01/13/16

1,000,000 people infected: 06/13/16

First Death: USA 01/02/17

Destroyed Human Race: No

How long until cured: 972 Days (05/02/18); 05/31/18 bacteria was eradicated

In the second game, it took extremely long for the bacteria to travel out of the country and even longer for the whole world to be infected. I started this game thinking that if I maxed out the abilities of the bacteria it would prevent the cure from being made too fast. However, towards the middle and end, I realized that if the bacteria was not lethal enough, the whole nation would not die fast enough meaning the cure can still be created. It was already too late to do anything about it because as the game goes on, less DNA points are accumulated. Overall, starting in a cold and wealthy nation meant slow infectivity and low lethality if points aren’t distributed amongst the 3 categories evenly.

This game really helped me to understand the pandemic transmission better because it was visualized and I was the one controlling the bacteria. It was interesting to learn that although in both games the whole world was infected with my bacteria, the second game showed that there is still a chance for humanity to redeem themselves as long as they suppress the effects of the bacteria and slow it down. Perhaps humans can endure more than we think? Also, Greenland was infected in both games!

After reading and watching Carrie Rae Weems, “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried”, I saw the major differences between her and Louis Agassiz’s intention. What were once meant to be used for scientific and objectifying purposes, Weems turned into a powerful message convening to many others that race and separation was established far back in so many ways. She narrates the fact that these black men and women were overlooked and abused, basically treated as lowly beings, just because of the color of their skin. The way the photographs were changed in color and added text, she gave life to the once sterile-looking photos. Based on these photographs, appropriation definitely helps to convey an important message. Without the texts, the photograph would still be quite shocking to the modern world as it is today but the texts are so important in that they personify the photo and tell unique stories of each individual photographed as if they were speaking to an audience. I think that Weems’ photographic photos are very successful and mind-provoking in delivering an important part of history, racism, which is still quite a prevalent issue in society today.

The image I chose is an oil painting of a child birthing scene by a French painter, which depicts a very detailed picture of a woman in the 1800 giving birth.

In this painting, the woman giving birth has a very pale, distressed facial expression and it seems as though she has lost a lot of hair on the crown of her head which is a symptom of pregnancy. She is also undressed from the stomach down but is still wearing socks with a blue band to prevent the sock from falling. The man behind her might be her husband holding her up. He seems more excited and happy rather then sharing the distress the woman is in because of the position of his hand on the side. There are two other woman that seem to be helping the woman with the child birth. One of them is obviously much older than anyone in the entire painting kneeling down, calmly and professionally wrapping the pregnant woman’s leg while holding the body of the infant. The other woman is standing behind the whole scene pouring water on a pan for the infant to lie on to bathe him/her. From the furniture and utensils in the painting, the family doesn’t seem to be very wealthy and the room seems fairly empty with not much furniture or objects.

What is so striking about this painting to me is that the painter chose to show the full frontal view of what giving birth was like at that time including the blood and half of the infant’s body sticking out of the woman’s vaginal region. The entire vaginal area is very much blatantly displayed with blood dripping from the cloth to the floor. Compared to the images seen in class, this painting is sending a more positive vibe. Child birth may seem very painful and bloody but it’s actually a very happy event to give life.

V0017247 A birth-scene. Oil painting by a French (?) painter, Åbo, Sw
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
A birth-scene. Oil painting by a French (?) painter, Åbo, Sweden (later Turku, Finland), 1800.
1800 Published: –
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/