Media Arts - Pop Art Inspired By Lichtenstein

The person in the picture is Utada Hikaru, who is a Japanese pop singer.

"Do you understand any of this?"

I often get asked this question when listening to music of other languages than my own, such as Japanese or Mandarin. But then again, if music was just plain lyrics, wouldn't that make it plain literature and poetry? Music is nothing without the melody in most cases. And even if I do not understand the language, I can learn it if I wanted to. I am currently learning Japanese out of a book I found in my house. Although the process is slow, I get much enjoyment out learning the language. And, to go further one step, even if I didn't learn the language, I could find out what the words meant by searching through the internet.

(The song on my iPod by the Japanese Indie band, MONKEY MAJIK, is written as Sora wa Marude (pronounced Sawla wa Mahludeh), which means "The Sky Is So...". )

Grade Rep Speech + Vote For Me !

Last Tuesday, I made my speech for being Grade Rep... I didn't know why, but I felt very nervous when I walked up to the stage to deliver the speech. Probably because it wasn't "good" compared to the other candidates' speeches. Also, maybe because I was a boring person myself :P . (Seems like the eight sessions of Toastmasters Public Speaking was all for naught ... haha...) Well.. hope everyone did vote for me at school =D. I really hope to be Grade Rep this year... haha...

Just want to clarify on the idea I proposed as I've had complaints as to not understanding a word I said.. Here's the "Poster Concept".
1) A problem is proposed. It is delivered to the audience (the entire grade) for opinions and solutions.
2) All candidates are to jot down their opinions and solutions onto any area of a large white piece of paper (poster) in any expressive way (e.g. writing, drawing).
3) The finished poster is hung up at meeting area for the entire year for reflection on whether the problem has been solved by the end of the year, or if anything has happened towards positively solving the problem.

1,000,000 THANKS to ALL that voted for ME !!!! XD

A Change in Uniform...

As I was walking home from the bus stop after school during this past week, I began to realize how different I looked on my "outside" compared to everyone else on the streets - uniform vs. casual clothing. The idea of wearing uniform isn't always bad, however - it's just not very stylish. For example, for some students to jazz up the look of the uniform, they may unbutton their top buttons of their shirt and roll up their sleeves to bring a more casual, teenage look. As well, these actions also make the body more flexible, as they loosen up the tight hold of the uniform so that one can make more flexible actions, such as stretching his arms out without worrying that the armpit area of the shirt would tear. To suit my needs of being able to wear uniform comfortably and stylishly, more of the current trends in casual clothing should be incorporated into the uniform outfit. For example, a zippered hoodie with a modern pattern would give a more general feeling of wearing casual clothing to school instead of uniform.

Numbers

(I took a picture of numbers with my camera and put a radial blur to it using Photoshop.)

As I was looking over my tests, I began to think about how, for the past few years, my school life had been revolving around certain numbers that were "essential" to having a better education - marks. In a sense, everyone's life revolves around numbers... marks, price tags, taxes, unpaid bills, cheques... It's strange how these numbers can control a person's life. For example, when someone gets low marks on a test, he or she may feel sad and depressed for many reasons (like being unable to obtain his or her goal of scoring an A+). However, when he or she gets a high mark (such as reaching his or her goal of scoring the A+), then he or she would feel satisfied and happy.
Sometimes, I think of what the world would be like if there weren't these numbers in our lives. Would it be better? I constantly think of a pressure-free life, of not having to worry about getting a high mark on the next test in order to improve or maintain my overall average. Unfortunately, that vision is only a mirage, and in reality, pressure is everywhere, pushing us to move on, regardless of whether we liked what we've accomplished and achieved or not...

Visual Art - Summative One

I feel so proud of this artwork i made XD it's purely made out of ripped parts of magazine paper. I've never made something like this! (With exception to the 3 testing ones we did earlier as a warm-up to this bigger one - one of those is posted in my first post on the blog :P) Through this picture, I hoped to achieve the feeling of tranquility when alone out in the wilderness, facing nature at its most beautiful. However, I haven't thought of a permanent name yet though for the artwork, but came up with several names, in which none of them seems applicable or "fancy" enough.. "A Summer Reflection", "A Midsummer's Day", "A Reflection on the River", "Mirage" (although I do like the sound of this one :P) ... Anyways, it was fun making this piece, as the art classes were very enjoyable as well (due to the constant jokes and talk going on between the small group of us).

One mistake is all it takes....

On Tuesday, October 9th, we went to visit different sections of Sunnybrook Hospital as an entire group of Grade 10s. We learned about the idea of taking risks (there was a difference between "smart" risk and "stupid" risk) and the consequences of doing a stupid risk. I felt sad, in a sense, for the people who were scarred by their "injury" for life. All they made was one mistake... and that one mistake changed their lives forever. Even though their injuries were caused by "stupid" risks, which we have been constantly taught not to take, it was depressing to think about how they would live their lives being paralyzed from the neck down or from the waist down for their entire lives. All they worked for in their prelife in hopes of becoming a better person in the future; all their dreams, were shattered instantly. And there was no return, no way to go back to the past... I now am twice-the-amount aware of the importance of wearing a seatbelt in a car because one simple mistake could cause a fatal consequence that can kill me or change my life forever permanently.

Indeed an inconvenient TRUTH...

I took this picture from the book adaptation of the movie "The Inconvenient Truth". I watched much of the movie for the first time in Geography class on Friday. Al Gore's evidence was devastating, as the images he showed were all contributing factors to apocalypse. It was uneasy for me to sit still while watching that movie, as the evidence stirred an image of the world's future in my head. Thousands of questions and worries began popping up, none of which could be answered by even the most adept person in the world. What would happen to the world if these changes continued to occur? What will happen to us? Will the end of the world come? This picture was one of various shocking images Al Gore showed. I've only heard of the glaciers of the world melting, but not as tragically as this - cliffs of ice dropping into the watery depths below. Other images that I saw that disturbed me greatly were the projections of what would happen to the coastline cities / countries if the ocean surface level increased higher than the coastlines - the cities were drowned in ocean water. I imagined the populations of people drowning to death because of these disasters. Al Gore really took the global common image of global warming to the next step, as it was indeed an inconvenient truth to live in this world, fully realizing that all the natural horrors happening around us are all occurring because of human activity. In a sense, we are all guilty...

Summative One (Violence)

a) The images I have used are indexical because they directly suggest the meaning of violence through various means, such as using weapons for injuring or killing (knife, gun, baseball bat). Another example is the fist punching into the man's face, representing physical violence.

b) The most powerful section of the art piece is the fist punching into the man's face, as it clearly represents violence, regardless of the era. In other words, it is the simplest form of violence from the very beginning when violence was first introduced into the world. As well, the emotion that the man has on his face when punched makes the image effective as any viewer could imagine the pain he must be suffering from enduring the punch.

"Go on, Have a Puff... It Won't Hurt You..."

Although this statement may sound kind of funny and stupid at the same time, the truth is that it does hurt you to take drugs / alcohol. This lesson was re-emphasized at a convention held in our Upper Gym on Tuesday, where a several booths were set up, explaining the harmful consequences of using drugs or alcohol.

At the convention, my friend pointed out this poster, which I thought conveyed a simple, yet powerful, message. "If it doesn't make sense here, why does it make sense when you drive?" The fact is that it doesn't make sense, regardless of any activity you do. Drugs and alcohol only offer a temporary escape from reality, plus a series of permanent life-threatening side effects. Just like when a person drives while drinking / using drugs, a pilot is responsible for all the people that they carry during the ride. If the pilots end up crashing the plane, they kill all the passengers aboard. I think this analogy is related to second-hand smoking. In a sense, I agree with what my mom always says about smokers: "It is okay if the smokers (pilots), die from their own smoking habits. However, it is not okay if their smoking habits cause the deaths of many other people because those people who died second-hand smoked."