ENG1101 – Page 11 – Ways of Seeing

project #2 – final

There are always changes going on around us whether it be the people around us or the neighborhood we grew up in and that we know of. Change is definitely happening constantly in New York. Every corner you turn you see construction happening, they’re either building new houses, building complexes, fixing up roads, or even adding new businesses but there is always something being changed here in new york. I live I New York and I see a lot of changes going on by my neighborhood like they’re building a new mall by my house and fixing up the roads on the belt parkway/southern state. There are a lot of things that use to be here when I was younger and that are not here anymore. Another change people would notice are overlapping neighborhoods, like there could be a nice neighborhood then when you turn the corner the neighborhood could change in an instant and have run down houses and dirty streets, and even you can see a strip of stores and there could be a lot of little self owned businesses and then you see a nice big store that looks out of place that you wouldn’t expect would be there. Changes and improvements will always be apart of the New York lifestyle.

The place I chose for this project is a pretty good example of a store that looks out of place and shouldn’t or not expected to be in that spot. I chose a 99-cent store next to a jewelry store on the corner of Lawrence Street and Helen Keller Place. First you exit out the Namm building from the 300 Jay Street side and turn right. You keep going straight for 2 blocks until you reach Willoughby Street, once you get to Willoughby Street you turn left and cross the street and keep going straight until you reach a jewelry store called Giovanni’s Fine Jewelry and next to it is a 99 cent store called 99 cent City.

When I think of a jewelry store I think it would be next to nicer stores or more well known stores in a nicer neighborhood. This is because when people shop in more well known expensive stores those people shopping will be more attracted to the jewelry store. When you see the jewelry store next to this 99-cent store I think how does the jewelry store get business when both stores attract different types of customers. The 99-cent store attracts customers that look for cheap or inexpensive items to buy, and when I looked in the jewelry store the jewelry was nowhere near 99 cents. Unless the person is looking for a jewelry store to go to or looking for that jewelry store because its close to them then I don’t know why it would be next to a 99 cent store, and the neighbor hood didn’t look all that extraordinary where you think a jewelry store would be. This is where juxtaposition takes place. Juxtaposition is when two places or things are seen together and have contrasting qualities or traits.

When in all of these different places peoples senses come in to play, like what you may see, hear, smell, and even what you feel when you’re in these places. The thing about senses they work different with every person, for example one person may see something that use to be there and another person may just see what is there now. In the novel City Limits by Colson Whitehead he said “Thousands of people pass that storefront everyday, each one haunting the streets of his or her own New York, not one of them seeing the same thing.” Not one person sees the same New York as the next. When I was at the spot with the 99-cent store and the jewelry store my senses were going all over the place, when I looked around I saw a lot of people walking fast like they were rushing to get somewhere, but to put in consideration it was around 3 O’clock and people are getting out of school and work so people may have either been on there lunch break or rushing to get home because the trains are right there. My sense of smell was going on too because there are a lot of places to get to eat around that area and all of those different smells are rushing at you at once. When you stop and listen you hear all types of things like people talking on the phone, other peoples conversations the sound of traffic and its pretty loud because in this area it gets crowded with people that are coming from or going to work and coming from or going to school and it gets even louder because there is construction going on just around the corner from these two stores.

This is just a little example of juxtaposition in a huge city of different types of neighborhoods overlapping each other. Around every corner you’ll see all types of changes and people that live in that area may have different memories and stories of what they have been through in that area and another person may have a completely different story or memory of that area just because the different times they started either living or hanging around that neighborhood. Sometimes we may not want to see change in these neighborhood and we may thing things are fine the way they are but in actuality change is inevitable, there is always something that needs to get moved or replaced and everything has room for improvement, if you look at a picture of New York City from the 1960s to a picture of the city today they look completely different. This is what’s happening to our city and everywhere else other then New York we just have to except the change and just move on and hold on to our memories.

eng. project #2 (draft 2)

There are many juxtapositions near City Tech (The New York City College of Technology). The two locations I choose to juxtapose are Macy and H&M, both are located in Brooklyn, on Fulton Street, near City Tech. Although Macy’s and H&M are both stores that sell clothes, very similar decorations of the interior, but you still could find out the difference by juxtaposing them.

Fulton Street is a long street in northern Brooklyn. There are many chain stores build on it, include Macy’s and H&M. Clienteles prefer to have a clothes shopping in either of these two stores, the stores’ popularity and unique fashion style has attacked majority clienteles who interests on clothes shopping. Otherwise, these two clothing stores are controlling New Yorkers’ fashion storm the most. The six main elements to juxtapose are logo, size, item selling, building appearance, interior appearance, and demographics. The first five elements identify the rate of demographics, and the clientele type they have. The clientele has no age limit, can be teenagers and seniors as well.

Logo is the symbol of brand, represents a company, contains the management conceptions of a company. Macy’s logo design is horizontally and contains a red star on the left side of the letter “macy’s”. Instead of using apostrophe between y and s, they add a small black star replace on it for better visualization. H&M has a sloppy logo. It seems to be more like a handwritten letter, the letters are tilted to the right, and if you look at it clearly you will notice this logo can be written down by using marker, the endpoint of each composition has a little waving trace that can be done with a marker only. Macy’s and H&M are using different fonts for their logo, Macy’s logo is very similar to Avant Garde Gothic Extra Light, H&M’s logo is similar to Dom Diagonal. The logo shapes reflect their style. Macy’s tendency trends plain, cozy, generality, and stable. H&M trends stylish, and diversity. But they also have a common in color using which is red. The color red is the color of energy, passion and action, bright warmness color red can easily catch up clienteles’ attention to their logo, this is why many other companies are also putting red in their logo such as Youtube, Coca-Cola, etc.

The size of building implies how many classifications they do have. The larger the store is, the bigger the chance of clientele to get a view inside the store, unless a small store is famous. Macy’s size is larger and higher than H&M, plus underground floor it contains 7 floors, 5floors more than H&M, so it is possible for Macy to sell more different kind of items in their store, and after my observation, I find out they really do sell other stuffs. Other than clothes, they sell furnitures, fragrances, watches, and daily necessities on the underground floor and the floors over the 3rd floor. People go to stores for shopping items they demand for. Since Macy has more categories of item selling, the rate of the clientele are defiantly greater than H&M, because H&M sells clothes only. Another thing helps clienteles’ rate raises is the location. Macy and H&M are both located on Fulton Street, where many chain stores build on. Macy is getting a favorable place than others. A bus stop of B25, B26, B38, B52 is on front of Macy’s store, there are always many people sitting and standing at the bus stop waiting for the buses. The more buses stop at the bus stop, the more people will be there for waiting. The more people are there, the better chance for them to walk in the Macy’s store even they don’t demand for anything, maybe after they visit inside the store they will find out what they need to purchase. H&M has an inferior location stand, but in my own opinion, I like their building appearance more than Macy’s. Macy’s building appearance is laconically plain, appear light brown color. They have two large glass doors on the ground floor, and a few showcases beside entrances. Macy’s building has no windows, this appearance gives me a feel of less oxygen, depression, and gloomy. H&M build a glassy wall, support with Iron shelf, that means people can clearly see inside through the glasses, for better understanding what type of fashion they have sell, this way is much more efficient than looking at the showcase. In addition, this building appearance appears bright, clean, and fresh, unique building design attracts clienteles’ attention a lot.

I have been to Macy’s and H&M twice for observing. The results of my investigation shows Macy’s clienteles more inclined to adult, clienteles for H&M are inclined to teenagers and who born after 90’s. I prefer H&M as a teenager, their logo looks contemporary creative, fashion styles are classified properly, not like Macy’s mix fashion, example when I looked for preppy style clothes I couldn’t find them as a group presents in a precise area, but in H&M I could. This is just my own opinion, not meaning as general. Everyone interests in different type of fashion styles, and this preference lead to the juxtaposition of Macy’s and H&M.

World changes with the passage of time. No one knows when things around would be change to unfamiliar, maybe a year, a month, or probably tomorrow. Many changes have led to most of the people become careless to the things around. But if you just paid a little attention to it, you will realize there are many small phenomenon you could realize in much detail ways. Since you juxtaposition, realize the advantages and disadvantages, you will always compare what you see to the others, and most time the equivalence will not be the same. Such as the Macy and H&M locate on Fulton Street.

Chiaroscuro

source: Merriam-Webster

noun

: pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard to color

: the arrangement or treatment of light and dark parts in a pictorial work of art

: the interplay or contrast of dissimilar qualities (as of mood or character)

I encountered this word in today’s course. I really like those arts with chiaroscuro, the light effect appears mystery, gives visualization with a dark fantasy color world. Perhaps I’ll use chiaroscuro in some of my future art pieces, so this is a very meaningful vocabulary for me to memorize.

genre

noun

: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.

: painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically.

(Source – Merriam-Webster)

I learned this word when I had an appointment meeting with professor. She suggests me to use genre for explaining things relate to art. This word is not familiar to me because I used use category instead genre. And now I know the right occasion to use it.

Project #2: Draft 1

For this project, the location I choose is U.S. Post Office which is just one block away from City Tech. I didn’t notice there is one, until I took my sixteen minus of work. To get to the U.S. Post Office with my path, first you need to walk left after get out of Namm hall, at the first block on your right hand side across the street, you can see a park, people are playing hand ball in there. As you keep walking, at the same block on your left hand side, there is another building of City Tech. In front of that building cross the street, there is a church which is right next to the park. Keep walking about 5 minus, you can see the third building of City Tech. On the right hand side, you can see a little garden where you can take a break. Keep walking straight to the next block until reach to the road turn right and look up, you can see a bridge that connects two building, which is for people to walk from building to building. Walking straight to the next block, you can see a parking lot and also, you can see the Brooklyn bridge is not far away from here. Now turn right because that’s the only way to move forward which is also walking back to Namm Hall. This is Adams Street, as you can see on this block its all apartments, until you reach to the end of the block, you can see a restaurant called. Celeste Cafe & Grill. Now look diagonally across the street. There we go, The U.S. Post Office.

This U.S. Post Office is just one street away, behind the Namm Hall building. The building took over the whole block. The post office is not the only part of the building, US Passport Agency, US Attorney’s Office, and US District Bankruptcy Court are also in the same building. The architecture feels like 19th centuries, because of its appearance. The whole building appears in white, it contains many features of the Romanesque Revival style. The building has seven stories tall. I took this photo at a small park which is at the junction between Johnson St. and Cadman Plaza. In the photo, you can see the square corner tower rise above the roof line. Each level was distinguished with different belt courses around the building. In order to capture angle in the photo of the building, you must stand on the right hand side of the statue in the park I was talking about earlier.

I choose U.S. Post Office as the location for this project because when I first arrive to that location, it attracts me with its bright white appearance. The architecture feels like in the past centuries , because of the special design of the building. What I thought about of the building is it must has some stories or it may be a very important building back in time, for some reason the origin purpose of the building is gone, however people don’t want take down the building and make a new architecture. They probably think this building is part of the history, its priceless, so they make the building to a post office. From what I learned about this building is this building was build for both a post office and courthouse, designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style of architecture in 1885.

From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, it states that “Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared.” Even though, we didn’t have the opportunity to see the changes of the post office, however the history would like to tell us about what part of the building have change. The building was built in 1885, after the almost fifty years later, in 1930, as the population continued to grow, officials determined more space of the building was needed, the addition extended to the north. The article also mentioned “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” the statement have shown that it was luck enough that people can still see those old buildings as they walking through their long and short shadows.

Infamy

Noun

1: evil reputation brought about by something grossly criminal, shocking, or brutal

2a: an extreme and publicly known criminal or evil act

b: the state of being infamous

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infamy

I came across this word from the article, “A Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport”. It is in the fourth paragraph and found in the sentence, “During Britain’s general selection of 1997, he set a new standard for journalistic infamy by getting himself bounced off John Major’s campaign plane for snorting heroin in the bathroom.” From learning this word, I understand that William Self set a new standard in evil reputation for journalism.

Perilous

adjective

full of danger

Source:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perilous

I’ve come across this word in the reading excerpt “A Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport”. This word can be found in the sentence “Upon arriving in New York, he walked from Kennedy Airport to the nearby Crowne Plaza Hotel- a journey more perilous than he expected, because it involved a nighttime traverse of expressways with no curbs”. From learning what perilous meant, the journey for the protagonist Mr.Self wasn’t an easy one as he came across tough roads. Also Mr.self’s journey from the airport to the hotel is in a post-apocalyptic setting.

coherent

Source: Merriam-Webster

Adjective

: logical and well-organized : easy to understand
: able to talk or express yourself in a clear way that can be easily understood
: working closely and well together

I found this word in the reading “A Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport”. It’s in the fourth paragraph which says: “ Smoking is Mr. Self’s only remaining vice. He used to be a prodigious drinker and drug-taker, famous for late-night altercations, not always coherent public appearances and marathon hours at trendy spots like the Groucho Club…”

Project#2 (Final)

Our world is made with many different pieces. New York is one piece of the world, Brooklyn is one piece of New York, and the two locations I choose are pieces of Brooklyn. The two locations are Adams street and the part of Jay street that between Tillary street and Sand street.

It is Jay street when you walk out of the Namm building of city tech. Turn left and on your right hand side, it’s the Amalgamated bank. Go across the Tillary street. There is a park called McLaughlin park. You can see people playing basketball and handball there. Next to the park, you can see the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, the the cathedral church of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Keep going straight on Jay street, there is another building of city tech. If you look forward, you will see the Manhattan bright. A lots of people walking on it. Turn right on the Sand street. There is an eyes catching long aisle between two buildings. Keep going down on Sand street, it is Brooklyn bright! And you can see the buildings in Manhattan from there. I think it would be awesome if you look at them at night. Turn left at the end of Sand street, it is the Adams street. There are many cars parking on that street. Keep going forward, there is a big park on the other side called Whitman park. But it is covered by a few buildings. Also you can see some government buildings like US Post Office, Surrogates Court, and Kings Country Supreme Court.

The route I chose to walk from city tech was joyful for me. Before I started the walk, I didn’t know what I would meet and experience. I didn’t carefully look at the map. So everything on the route were new for me. And I was really looking forward to it. But when I went across the Tillary street and looked all the way down along the Jay street. I felt like that was nothing special. I could see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. And that made me a little disappointed. But after I kept walking for a while, I realized that there is Brooklyn, that is how it looks like. This route I chose is piece of Brooklyn. And many of these pieces made up Brooklyn. Every day I am on the same route from home to school. It keeps repeating and that almost makes me forget the name of the place I live. But when I carefully looked at the buildings, the parks, and the people on the route I chose, I felt like that they were reminding me that there is Brooklyn, the place I am living in. Then I walked on the Adams street. And it surprised me. The buildings were different from the Jay street’s. The buildings looked more Modernized. And I felt like I saw a new face of Brooklyn. These two street’s buildings create a juxtaposition. The buildings on Jay street look plain. The buildings on Adams street look majesty, such as the US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court.

The reason I chose these two subjects is that they look different. The buildings on Adams street are tall and complex. The US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court all look solemn. The buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street are shorter and simpler. What strikes me the most is the St James Cathedral. And I want to know when is it built? why did they choose this location? what is the concept of this building?

In the reading “City Limits”, Colson Whitehead once said, “The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be? This place multiplies when you’re not looking. We move over here, we move over there. Over a life time, that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods.” I said that the buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street seem like nothing special. I can see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. The surroundings look like the same but actually they are different because of the neighborhoods. Whitehead also said, “All our old places are proof that we were here.” Even we live in a same street, the street can be different because it has different meanings for different people live in here. And those meanings are also pieces of the street. Like I said at the beginning, “Our world is made with many different pieces.”

Project #2: homework

I have decided to tackle on the subject of two different social status being next to each other. I find this intriguing because when actually looking at this example in person it gives off a bizarre feeling. My location consists of two stores that are found in two completely different boroughs which is Manhattan and The Bronx. Both of these boroughs hold reputations that contrast against each other. Manhattan is known as a place where you can make all your dreams come true and filled with such extravagance. Meanwhile The Bronx is known for being impoverished and dangerous due to high crime rates. By knowing the reputations of the two boroughs it gives of an odd feeling of being together. But at the same time it makes sense to place the contrasting stores next to one another because what makes up New York City is the five boroughs, not Manhattan on its own as most people portray it. My location being in Brooklyn seems to unify the other two boroughs while being a borough on its own instead of just being a mash up. From the reading excerpt “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, the author states that “Except that probably we’re neighbors. That we walk past each other every day, and never knew it until now”. By this statement, with my location most people would just brush pass by it without noticing the great contrast it holds while being next to each other. Whitehead also mentions that everyone has their very own New York. So with someone staying within the New York they know that’s all they get live. My location holds three New Yorks which two that overlap while the third New York unifies them. If someone were to come to this location it’s as if they are expanding their New York by intertwining with the other New Yorks.

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Category: ENG1101