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.