Day: September 24, 2015

Reminisce

Verb

– to talk, think, or write about things that happened in the past

(Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

I found this word on page 9 of “City Limits”, in the context “We see ourselves in this city every day when we walk down the sidewalk and catch our reflections in store windows, seek ourselves in this city each time we reminisce about what was there 5, 10, 40 years ago, because all our old places are proof that we were here.” The author means to express the idea of nostalgia, or reflection about the past. He describes the memories he indulges in “reminiscence” with. The author even gives examples of how long in the past one might reflect on as well (5,10,40 years ago), and uses the word in context of that example.

Urban Artifacts: Phase 4

Overall, the “Urban Artifacts” project was a very creative and interesting experience overall. It was certainly different than anything i’ve ever done before, and it was a productive learning process as well. However, If i could’ve done something different, I would’ve spent more time on the drafting and sketching, as I could’ve probably came up with a more creative and interesting final product. I do feel that my ideas were clearly expressed in my product, but not in the best way possible. I also would’ve liked to experiment more with the objects collected, as the ones I chose finally were a little more challenging to work with, in terms of expressing emotion through the final piece. However, I can still say I now have a full understanding of the terms we learned through the process. I know the difference between ambiguous and stable, what they mean and represent, and how things like economy and unity can alter and reinforce the ideas and meanings behind pieces that use these kinds of elements. I took into thought the feedback i got from my peers, and I believe I could use more practice in using these elements in my work, as I need to reinforce what my work is trying to express, and what ideas I integrate into them. Below is my final work.

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City Limits Summary

“City Limits” is the first chapter of “The Colossus of New York” by Colson Whitehead. According to the beginning pages one and two, Whitehead wrote in a psychological way to capture the reader’s attention. He used 2nd person for the second and the third paragraph which are on the first and second pages of “City Limits”. He wrote: ” No matter how long you have been here, you are a New Yorker the first time you say… you are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real… you start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it…”. He used ” you” to make readers feel like they are actually New Yorkers and living in New York, so this way could easier to lead them to imagine the images that going to be happening next. After he brought readers to the New York City in the reading he wrote. He starts to describe and share about where he has been and saw, to let the readers read through his personal experience on the street of the New York.

Filthy

adjective

: very dirty

: very offensive or disgusting and usually about sex

: very evil : morally wrong

Source: Merriam-Webster

I encountered this word from the reading “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. “It’s the early seventies, so everything is filthy. Which means everything is still filthy, because that is my city and I’m sticking to it.” I never heard this word before. After I find out the definitions I finally understand why. Because mostly I use word dirty, so I never tried to see another way of saying it or in a more specific way to describe something dirty.

Urban Artifacts: Phase 4

For this project, I learned the difference between a stable and an ambiguous figure-ground and also the interest by using garbage to create an art work. At the beginning I didn’t have any thoughts for these figure-grounds, so when I was creating a stable figure-ground I just picked up any item and tracing it on the middle area of the figure-ground without any thoughts of the composition. Because of it, one of my ambiguous figure-ground was messed, the composition was uncoordinated, if I have a second chance to redo it I believe I could fix it into a better looking. This project gives me a good experience for the figure-ground relationships and compositions. I could use this technique to create stable and ambiguous shapes for the book homework.

IMG_5233

Urban Artifact: Phase 4

In this project, I learned the figure-ground relationship. At first, we picked up 3 artifacts on the street and arranged them on a piece of white paper to create a figure-ground relationship. I learned that art could be everywhere around the world. Then we sketched 6 obvious and 6 ambiguous figure-ground compositions. Everybody created a different work. They all had their own idea and style, so all the works were special. For ambiguous , I made lots of mistake. Most of  my peers said that all my ambiguous seems like stable. And I learned that I should put more objects to the ground to make them ambiguous. And in final part, we learned how to use the exacto knife. I think it was cool to use the knife. And I really like to do the cut out. I think what I could have done better is planning. Every time after I finished my work, I always felt like I should move this objects to there or maybe I should remove this objects. So for next project, I think I need to think more and make a satisfied plan in mind before I do the work.

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