Round Robin

WELCOME TO

This here compiles the most random story I ever started.

Part 1: Daniel Kellis

The mother buffalo did everything she could to saver her baby, but Chief Squanto is the sharpest shooter in the Waikiki tribe.

Part 2: Neil Reed

Just hours earlier she had begged him to call off the beachside duel. How could he shoot? Didn't he notice his lack of opposable thumbs?

Part 3: Madi Huber

No! He was going to duel if it was the last thing he did. Which, because he didn't have opposable thumbs, it was. NO she, as his second, must take his place.

Part 4: Danny Hunt

She still remembered that day, the first of many kills. She remembered holding a pistol in her hand, and the feeling that it was holding her.

 Part 5: Max Johnson

It was a movie, not a hostage situation. But he didn't have to tell her that.

My Response

Tiny stories make for quick effective brainstorming. It’s much easier to find a source of inspiration and create a tiny story when you have a 30-word limit, a 24 hour deadline, as well as a previous story and image to use as a springboard. This practice of quick turnaround is helpful to understanding the creative process.

As soon as I received and read the tiny stories sent to me, I couldn’t help but immediately think about what I was going to add to it. This energy is something that we all could channel into our daily interactions with art. Of course, art is all around us. The sound of a timpani crashing, the contrast of the shiny clouded blue sky with the rocky mountains at sunrise, the paintings in the Sacred Gifts exhibit, all these are powerful, emotion-engaging experiences which contain specific artistic elements that I, before doing the round robin exercise, would simply enjoy passively. Actively practicing the process of experiencing an illustrated story, taking an interesting element from it, and thinking about what could be taken from or added to it has opened my eyes to the countless creations surrounding me that I should not only enjoy as an audience member but also seize as an artist as possible inspiration funnels for future projects.

For a couple of the stories I compiled, I created a web-diagram with topics that stemmed out into sub-topics. These really helped me to find creative connections to others’ stories, especially with Max Johnson’s first story. It was difficult to know what to add to it because it was so abstract. As I put words together in that diagram, I was able to come up with the snail in the rain, a trial of being outside of himself.

Albert Einstein said, “Real faith…involves the problem and struggling of searching.” If creating were as easy as a breath of air, art wouldn’t be astonishing or alluring. Albert Einstein seems to be emphasizing that there is more to art than just technical skills. Yes, there is a science to the stroke of a brush, but the process of creation and the steps that lead to that first brush stroke aren’t as logical. There is some talent in both the writing and composition of images, but for the most part, sketches, finger painting, or photography aren’t our fortes. The real benefit of this assignment was instead practicing and finding processes that foster creativity.

Music Mosaic

With eyes closed and a mind open like a blank canvas, I heard this instrumental piece for the first time. Without any outside influence besides my feelings, my thoughts, and the elements of the music, numbers began to fiercely penetrate the blank canvas. They came in many ways, but none of them were enjoyable. The fear that numbers can create in our lives accompanies the scary dark feeling of the music perfectly, especially when the volume rises in a way that makes you feel like it’s getting closer to you. It’s the same pit in your stomach that comes when you can feel the tuition deadline approaching around the corner, or you know you are going to have to provide for a family one day.

Annie Dillard says that natural sights tend to happen in a “now you see it, now you don’t” way. That natural and completely weird experience of overbearing numbers hasn’t returned. As I was creating the images, I would listen to the song and close my eyes again trying to get a second look at what I was creating these images after, but I could never get that glimpse - only through the memory of the actual experience. Nature can’t be forced. That’s what makes it so visually exciting!

Each of these images represents my thoughts either during or after that trippy and natural experience. The first is my way of showing what I saw. The rest represent thoughts that have entered in my mind as I tried to sort through why numbers are scary.

The music mosaic as a whole represents a combination of two different types of inspiration that can be compared to David A. Bednar’s talk entitled The Spirit of Revelation. The first is sudden, instant, and obvious. This flip of a light switch type inspiration happened when I first saw all the numbers at once. Later, as I put the meaning of that image and those numbers together and discovered personal applications of those numbers to my life, a slow, steady, and prolonged process occurred much like the slow yet powerful progression of sunlight during a sunrise.

One of the images contains a single figure, the number 1. Because it is the only object in the frame, it represents loneliness. Music and images can be so related. In fact, as I was putting this image together, the song “One” from the animated film Recess: School’s Out played over and over in my head. I looked up the song on YouTube and there is a very similar shot in the film. 

 The space is wide and open, while the subject is small and unaccompanied. A feeling that can be expressed both visually, emotionally, and musically. The lonely violins in the song are the only instrument playing in the piece. You won’t hear any percussion. You won’t hear anything, except violins.

The last two images are placed next to each other in order to give a contrast between numbers and letters. Unlike groups of numbers, groups of letters can be put together to have real meaning, and elicit memories, thoughts, and emotions.

Thinking & Writing Katy Perry - Firework

You would never expect this girl to strip down and jump in a pool in her bra and panties. She’s ugly. She doesn’t have long beautiful hair and she could definitely loose a couple pounds. But there she goes, in front of all her perfectly shaped friends. She pops up out of the water and fireworks fly out of her like its New Years Eve in Dubai, India. Surprisingly, not a single party goer at the in the pool yells out “ew gross! She’s fat!” like you would expect from your viewing history of Hollywood films. 

“Show 'em what you’re worth, make ‘em go Oh! Oh! Oh! Baby, you’re a firework!” Katy Perry sings. The music, lyrics, theme, and visuals are not only powerful alone, but Katy Perry’s message of transcendence through fear of judgement was tremendous in the context of 2010, a year that amidst many other challenges, was filled with gay rights movements, obesity-phobias, bullying, and cancer.

Musical elements were used in Katy Perry’s “Firework” to help support her message. The lyrics especially; “Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?” Here, she reaches out to her audience with a penetrating and universal question. We all feel weak, stressed, or sad, worried about the future. “You don’t have to feel like wasted space. You’re original, cannot be replaced! If you only knew what the future holds. After a hurricane comes rainbow.” How inspiring! These words form a perfect marriage with the instrumentals to bring listeners to an emotional state of motivation.

Visually, the music video is strong in supporting Katy’s message. Fireworks are just awesome. There’s not really a good enough word to describe the awe that sinks in when you see the sky blowing up colorfully. The fact that they are exploding out from within the once broken characters is very symbolic. Others in the frame remain in the dark, normal, and mainstream. “Like the 4^th of July,” she says; a night that sticks out from all other nights. Finally, when the crowd of firework-emitting youth congregates in the end, you are captured in the grand finale and you realize you are not alone in your trials; that as you go change your attitude about them, you will shine brighter than that trial ever could.

In addition to the textual elements found in this music video, there are meaningful and contextual components originating from far outside of Katy Perry’s studio. The times were dead on for the release of this song and music video.

Gay rights movements were in their younger years, and more and more people were coming out of the closet despite a harsh unaccepting culture. Brokeback Mountain came out in 2005. Clay Aiken, American Idol star shared publically that he was gay in 2008. Later, to be followed by Adam Lambert in 2009 and Ricky Martin in 2010, even Raven, the Disney girl, was known to be in a homosexual relationship (HuffingtonPost.com.) The “It Gets Better” project was founded just a month before Katy Perry’s release of “Firework” and she ended up dedicating the song to the foundation(songfacts.com.) This music video, as a piece of 21^st century art, represents a significant era.

This was and is a time of high expectations for women and their weight while we face a radically changing lifestyle and ever-lazier infrastructure. Katy Perry and the chunky girl who jumps in the pool (lumps-and-all) sent a comforting and motivating message to a lot of struggling overweight women that probably helped inspire the song in the first place.

 In 2010, 16,000 children missed school everyday out of fear of being bullied (bullyingstatistics.org.) 6 taunting classmates were charged with felonies after Pheobe Prince hung herself from a stairway in Massachusetts in January 2010. Massachusetts was one of the many states to pass laws on bullying.

Cancer struck the lives of Millions of Americans in 2010 and took the lives of over 470,000 (seer.cancer.gov.) My Grandma was one of them. So was Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow.

           Were all these struggles in America happening years before Katy Perry walked into the studio? Yes. Have major artists produced pick-me-up songs long before? Heck yeah! But these are specifically relevant to 2010 and the contemporary nature of the style of music and lyrics help her message reach the audience she intends to reach.

            These are a lot more than just a few numbers and names. They are real challenges for real individuals and families in our country. Society needs art like this because it engages and lifts. It’s impressive to see Katy Perry’s fearless approach at busting unhealthy cultural trends. She’s gorgeous. She’s a musical celebrity. She’s got the perfect body and all the money yet she’s telling everyone they don’t have to be so perfect and flawless to be awesome. Katy Perry calls the song her “epitaph” and likes to believe the song has legs. It was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2010 and the video won MTV’s video of the year award. However, the outreach that exploded throughout the world was much more of a prize than that little trophy that can fit in a bookcase.