Who Am I

In my Systems and Models course, we studied about the psychology of different people, and ourselves as well using many different personality tests. For my first action project in my Systems & Models course, the purpose was to gather all the information I learned about myself through the tests I did, and to make a self portrait about myself to represent what I learned. My piece did not have to favor how I actually look, as long as I explained why it connected with who I am through my artist statement.


16 Personality Test Link
Myers Briggs Test Link

I have taken personality tests such the Myers Briggs, DiSC, Aptitude, TKI. These tests determine who I might be perceived as in the world and they somewhat change my mind on who I think I am. The Myers Briggs measures personality types and makes a theory of those psychological types. The DiSC measures the amount of Dominance, Intuitive, Steadiness, Conscientiousness that a person has. Because these things are not determining who you are the DiSC is not classified as a personality test. The Aptitude tests shows where your strong suits are at and whatnot. TKI is a test that determines if you are able to resolve conflict or not.

I took the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) psychological test. I learned that if there is a conflict between two people, I am usually the one that does not get involved and views the dispute from both sides.. I took the 16 Personality test online, which is a psychological assessment of my personality just like the Myers Briggs. This test was something I inquired and thought about as I worked on my art piece. After I took the test it said I was INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging). After i took the 16 Personality test I took several aptitude tests. I learned that I am creative person and I am able to focus on people’s creative attributes. I learned that I am also a visual person and I tend to see different sides of an issue in a negative eye. I liked taking these tests and being able to know more of why I act the way I do at times.

I wanted my art piece/ sketch to show all of the qualities and attributes that I now know about myself. After I did my own research and finding out that I’m Introverted, I realized that it’s not bad to get my waves and energy from being by my lonesome. Doing some research on psychologists and whatnot, I came across the famous psychotherapist Carl Jung and he said “Your visions will become clear only when you look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." That quote stood out to me because it made me feel like that I had the power to do and control what I want and that I have the power to come to a realization of who I am and what I can do. Keeping my personality test results in mind, I feel like I want people to see me the way I see myself. But in a way I feel as if that it’s not that simple. The world will always perceive me as somebody else differently than who I think I am. I then came up with the idea of my sketch / art piece of myself being blinded by the lies I’m told and silenced by the judgement from others that I’ll face if I say anything. Which will lead me to just stay to myself and get my good vibes and energy when I’m alone.

DS, January 2015. Who Am I

Title: What Am I

Medium: Pencil, & Lined Paper

Size: 3264 x 2327 (Digital size) 

  Artist Statement

This piece is showing a person who is controlled by the rest of society because of what they think he is. His mouth is covered with a piece of tape that says judgement because he is silenced by what others say. With that being said, he is obviously timid and does not express everything that is on his mind. His opinion is usually held back, so he usually stops after two words of him speaking. He is blinded and filled with false lies that the world is giving which silences his opinion even more. The world is constantly on his mind and he tends to forget about him sometimes. He’s to himself because he is not the ideal human in society because of his brown skin tone and nappy hairstyle. This art piece was inspired by a collection of personality tests I have taken and annotated for about 2 1/2 weeks.

Their View of Life, The Meaning of Life Project

For my first action project in my Journalism course, I had to take on the responsibility to be a photojournalist and take a picture of someone who has specific view on the meaning of life. I had interviewed this person too, to try to get closer to their view of what life means to them. For my class and I to successfully interview somebody well, Noah Isackson, a crime journalist who interviews people for his job spoke to us about the most professional way to get the story from someone while still being respectful. He showed us how to keep your composure and how to be objective to what the interviewee is telling us. I am proud of this action project because it involved me taking a good picture of someone and pretend like I’m something I want to be. I enjoy taking photos and hope to one day do it for a living. I am also proud of this project because I got to get some insight and views from somebody else and what they think life is.

The Meaning of Life

I have taken a picture below of somebody who I always wanted to interview and curious to know what their meaning of life was. Marques Dukes (MD) is the one in this picture heading to work in the blistering cold, a few days after the 2015 Chicago blizzard. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning and I thought I’d capture a moment in time of him in the moment of his life. He was right outside of his home in the cold city at the time and he seemed to be cold. This photo has subjectivity because of my opinions and my feelings towards how I see this photo.

To explain the mechanics behind my picture and how I enhanced it, there are a few things I took into account to use such as; aperture/shutter, focus, and composition. There is no focus in this picture but there is a literal focus in this picture on MD in the snow. I applied the Rule of Thirds for the focus to direct on MD. The lighting / aperture in photo is natural light from the daytime sun behind the clouds.

 

DS, January 2015. As He Treads Through 

       

The meaning of life is sometimes a hard question to answer, especially when presented to you without notice. The meaning of life cannot be determined based off of the experiences you’ve been through, only because nothing is definite or consistent. When the meaning of life comes to mind, I think of the universe as whole and how its something we have that we can use for good or bad. Because I have strong religious belief, I do not think life ends when your physical body shuts down. I believe that we have a spiritual body inside of us and we continue to live our lives in another form, renewed and refreshed with better terms and laws somewhere else in the universe.

I interviewed someone who seems like they live quite the normal life. MD is an Independent Business Owner (IBO) of Amway Co. He is 21 years old and has had his share of life experiences. As a kid growing up, MD says that he was raised by his mother and grandmothers. Going to public school as a kid in the poverty stricken neighborhood of Englewood in the city of Chicago, MD has been exposed to violence, police brutality, and lies. When I asked MD what his meaning of life is, he became filled with great passion; he wanted to say so much about what it is, but realized that it can’t be determined. It’s unexplainable and can’t be summed up in a discussion or in a blog post. Finally, MD replied,“The question is very opinionated,”

He says this with a smirk on his face and explains because he has never been presented with such an opinionated question. He’s used to normal questions such as, “What do you want to eat?” or “how are you feeling?”. When presented with this question of “what’s your meaning life?” he can’t answer and do anything but feel intrigued. MD replies saying, “I don’t know what to say. I guess the meaning of life can’t be really determined. As much as I have been through I’m too spiritual to believe that life ends after we die, you know?”

As I nod my head and try to wrap my mind around how he has the same idea as my meaning of life I conclude the questions I had for him with a,

“Thank you and have a nice day.”

It's unbelievable to come across someone who has the same thougt as you on any topic, especially if it's something as deep as this. I assumed that he had a different mindset on what the meaning of life was because he's older than I am and we did not experience the same things when were younger. It's just simply amazing to know that you're not the only that thinks the same thing as somebody else. Not something this uncommon. I say that because people don't talk about the meaning of life everyday like they would talk about food, a movie or a t.v. show. It just surprised me and brought me to a shock and awe, which made me want to conclude the interview.

Property of ACC

For this final Action Project in Stage Chemistry, we wanted to re-create the classic story A Christmas Carol (ACC) with our own twist to it. This version of ACC that we made up is based in Chicago, Illinois around the Civil Rights era which was the mid 60's and the characters stayed the same, we just made them fit into the way life was at the time. When creating this with the rest of my classmates we were all assigned to specific things to create for the play. My group was assigned to do props for the play. So we created a moving background with two scenes. We have created a time lapse of our work over the few work days we had and took photos of the end project build idea.


Time Lapse Video;

For this final project we had to keep in mind that whatever group we were in that we had to know who it would affect the most. The three roles we decided that the background would impact the most were the actors, the audience, and the set designer. There were a ton of things that were needed between these three roles.

The audience needs the background to be clear and visible so we put a light bulb inside of the background scenery. They need some backgrounds so they won't get tired of seeing at the same thing for every act. The also need the background to be realistic to help them to stay focused on the play.

The set designer needs the background to be realistic. The background must also be a machine that is easy and simple to build so that it can be moved once it's set up. The actors needed a background that looks real enough for them to be in front of. The background  has to go with the stage as well, so it doesn't seem out of place to the actors.

When we were finally done with the brainstorming and the sketches of ideas and models of ideas, we came up with a background scene that would resemble Chicago   at night, and in the day. We decided to have night on one side and day on the other. It would look realistic and the back that it could change from night to day.

Photo's of Project; Below is a series of photos of the scene prop(s) that we made and which one that we chose to do.The sketches are below as well, showing our ideas and how we wanted it to turn out.

LF, January 2015. Ideas For Background Scene

LF, January 2015. Ideas For Background

LF, January 2015. Sketch For Final Idea of Background Scene

DS, January 2015. Daytime Scene

DS, January 2015. Nighttime Scene

JD, January 2015. Gif of Day & Night

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene 

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene 

This set piece is a symbol of the idea of props because without this set piece the play won't work. You can't have a play with no scenery or any form of background, it's very vital to the imagination the audience needs. The final product that we made addressed all the needs required in the beginning because our background prop was not set to one kind of scenery, it made sense based on the setting of the play, and it's creative because of the tech that goes along with the background (the "sunlight" and "moonlight" light bulb).

After completing this model, we listed our design's weaknesses.

• It shouldn't have to be taken off the stage, we should find a solution that requires less man power.
• The process of switching scenery should be quicker.
• The background should be illuminated.
• Scene should be able to move
• Make it more real

Fare Italian Foods

For the first and last Action Project of my Fare Italian class, my classmates and I planned an educational lunch for anyone who enjoys Italian food and wants to learn some new sayings in Italian.
Fare was a great course for me overall and I enjoyed it. Being able to learn about the Italian culture has opened up my mind to wanting to go out into the world and learn about other cultures languages and food as well. On this blog post there will be a link to the website that my class and I have created for this educational lunch, I will go more into detail also about the many dishes we made and the dishes that I've enjoyed cooking and eating as well.

DS, Italian Doughnut. (2015) 

Fare Italian Foods Website; Fare Italian Foods

In this class I learned many different things. A few things that I learned was how to speak Italian, how to cook a few Italian dishes & how the culture came about. The best thing I took from this class was the language. I can say full sentences and possibly even try to communicate with other Italians just a little bit. The first thing that I learned in the class was to say my name in Italian, which is mi chiamo Darrion. Mi chiamo means My name is in Italian. Out of all the dishes that I learned to cook my favorite dish my class and I made was Spaghetti alle Vongole which means spaghetti and clams. To be able to make this dish we used tomatoes, fresh clams, and spaghetti pasta. This is my favorite dish because I've always liked pasta, and adding this new twist to it with clams makes it even better to me.

The Trap Theatre Stage

For the second Action Project of Stage Chemistry, we had to build our stage in a 3-D model according to our blueprints from our first Action Projects. We learned about protocols and why certain places need them. Protocols are the customs and regulations dealing with diplomatic formality, precedence, and etiquette. We needed to check our measurements from our blueprints from Action 1 and put those numbers and calculations to scale. We then had to create 2 forms of action on our stage which could vary from; pulley system, trap door, turntable, etc. I chose to do a trap door and a pulley system for my stage. Building my stage was quite hard and tedious, it was very time consuming but it was all worth it. The 2 forms of actions which were fun to build was great. To show the action happening I have created gif's and took pictures of my stage below. Also, my Blueprint of my stage and my theatre is below as well.

Link to Blueprint:   Click To Blueprint 


My Stage Model:

Trap Theatre Stage (Top Left View), DS. 2014

Trap Theatre Stage (Top Right View), DS. 2014

Trap Theatre Stage (Bottom Right View), DS. 2014

When It Will Be Used (Trap): Because my theatre is a glass dome, the many kinds of shows that will be played there will take place in the setting of the season which we are in. For example, if A Christmas Carol is playing at my theatre the trap door will come into use for when one of the 3 ghosts of Christmas comes to Ebenezer Scrooge. The ghost will enter from under the stage and through the trap door and they will vanish when they step onto the trap door and the queue is given for it to drop in.

How It Works (Trap): If a 180lb person stands on the trap door, it will fall in. It is activated by a remote when an actor is standing on top of it on his or hers queue. The Newton Force onto this trap door that it can withstand is 800.676.
                    Calculation - 1lb = 4.4482 newtons (n)  
                   4.4482 x 180lbs = 800.676 

When It Will Be Used (Pulley):  Because my theatre is a glass dome, the many kinds of shows that will be played there will take place in the setting of the season which we are in. For example, if A Christmas Carol is playing at my theatre the pulley system will come into use for when one of the 3 ghosts of Christmas comes to Ebenezer Scrooge. The ghost will enter from stage right or stage left depending on which ever one is better for the director and the pulley system will be controlled manually.

How It Works (Pulley): If a 180lb person is being lifted on the pulley, no more weight and force can be added to that person or else he or she will fall. Now on one side of the pulley it will be a 180lb person, on the other side it will be a 190lb weight. The extra 10lb weight is there so that it can lift up whoever is being lifted without i being unbalanced because the 180lb person also has gravity on his/hers side.
                   Calculation - 1lb = 4.4482 newtons (n) 
                    190lb x 4.4482 = 845.158n
                   180lb x 4.4482 = 800.676n
                  845.158 - 800.676 = 44.482n of Gravity acting on the 180lb person


Trap Door Motion:

Trap Door, DS. 2014

Safety Protocols For Trap Door:

• Watch Your Step 
• No More Than Two People On Trap Door
• Know Your Weight 
• Do Not Jump On Trap Door 

Attention, DS. 2014

Safety Protocols For Pulley System:

• Look Up & See Where You Going 
• Be Mindful & See What's Going On 
• Do Not Tamper With Pulley System
• Take Precaution When Pulley Is In Use

                                                                 CAUTION, DS. 2014

The Trap Theatre Blueprint

For the first Action Project of Stage Chemistry, we had to pick a space so that we can create a theatre.  We needed to have 6 adaptation to our theatre that stands out to us and or that stands out among any other theatre. For each adaptation we chose we had to write an if statement on if this was here and so on and so forth, and we had to write out an explanation on why we put that adaptation there. All together we had 7 blueprints and 6 were the elements of the entire place. This action project was such a challenge for me because of the sketches and my measurements. It was a great action project overall, especially this being the first one of Stage Chemistry. Check out my blueprints below.

Censorship of Ed Snowden

 For the final project in my Equality course we took on censorship. Censorship is the act or practice of censoring, that means that censorship can play a part into many things such as adult content, harmful material, and or negative information that is trying to be put out to the public by someone or some people. Through out this last unit I learned about a hacktivist group called Anonymous, and a Chinese contemporary artist/activist named Ai Weiwei. Anonymous is an online mass of people that can hack almost anything and everything they feel like that needs to be put out there for the public to know about. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese man who is known to be openly critical to the Chinese Government's position on human rights and democracy as well. For my project I looked into the many things and people that were censored and I have created one about Edward Snowden. I will be presenting my information through a Censorship Collage and I will be explaining more below.

                                                  DS, October 2014. The Spies

Edward Snowden is an American computer professional which is someone who have undergone training in colleges, universities and computer institutes. Edward was the person who is known for leaking some classified information from the National Security Agency in Hong Kong on June 10, 2013. Edward released the classified information in Hong Kong because the U.S. Government can't capture somebody from a country that has a rule of capturing and imprisoning somebody they need or want. Legal documentation of why and when has to be filled out. The U.S. Government and Edward was involved in this event. In the U.S. Edward was censored and his rights were violated in a way. These are the First Amendment Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, & Freedom of Religion. His right of freedom of speech and freedom of the press was censored/violated by the American Government, because in America they won't let you access the specific information that he had leaked out when he went to Hong Kong to do this on May 20, 2013.  The end result of that was that he was charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act which is when an U.S. citizen has foreign relation and foreign commerce. This is punishable by 30 years in prison and his passport was  as well by the U.S. government, so now he was put in the position of not being able to travel anywhere unless he was coming back to America.

      When the media/public heard about how Edward was censored they were outraged. All they knew was that the government was tapping and spying on them on almost everything they do electronically. The people of America did not know the specifics of what they were spying for and why they were doing it. Edward feels like the information that he had on the U.S. Government should be known by the people of the country because it's an invasion on their own privacy. The U.S. Government feels like Edward should be censored because he has no right putting out confidential information and he does not have the right power to do such actions ever. 

  Because Edward released the private information on the U.S. Government in Hong Kong, the history of censorship in Hong Kong came about on February 13, 2009 (on political views). The types of expression that were censored was freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Because Edward is putting out information about a country that could be true or false, that country has the right to censor what ever is being told or trying to be told to the countries. 

  When it comes down to whose side I will take on this issue of censorship I'd take Edward's side. Because I feel like Edward had the right intentions at heart to try to tell the world about how his government spies on the citizens of the United States via the Internet, Cellular Devices, etc. The way the U.S. Government is censoring this is bad because it goes against the consequentialist moral theories. The consequentialist moral theories are actions/beliefs whose rightful was is determined by how much good and happiness the action bring to the world, and people affected by it. The United States Government goes against this theory because this information that Edward Snowden has may be good and if it was put out & Americans got word of what their government was doing to them it would make them happy, if they didn't know already. It could also make them upset and angry because their  government is invading their privacy, but then make them happy again because now the people of the U.S. can rightfully vote or protest for that to stop happening. 

 Propaganda plays a big role in this event and Edward Snowden is the one doing the propagandizing. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. 

There are 7 types of propaganda and they are: Testimonial, Plain Folk, Bandwagon, Loaded Words, & Name Calling. The form of profane a that is being done in this event is Name Calling. This type of propaganda is used when someone or a group/organization of people is pointing the bad things that someone else does or another other group/organization does. In this event, Edward Snowden is doing the Name Calling towards the U.S. Government by calling them Spies and Liars to their own people of the country.





"Edward Joseph Snowden." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
"propaganda." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 27 Oct. 2014.
"Espionage Act of 1917." West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. 2008. The Gale Group 27 Oct.