This was the second time I’ve gone to Moma. I don’t remember much from the first visit two years ago. As I walked through the exhibit few pieces stood out to me. For example, “Sun, Moon, Simultaneous 2” by Robert Delaunay, and “The Park” by Gustav Klimt. My favorite piece was “The False Mirror” by Rene Magritte. It reminded me of a time that I looked into the sky and saw clouds. However at the same time the eye seems to be looking right back at me. This reminded me of Simultaneity, the property of two events happening at the same time. I felt that the eye also acts as a window for us to see the other world, like there is a beautiful and promising tomorrow.

This was a very creative piece because everyone has at one point of time seen an image similar to the blue sky so we can relate to the piece. After I reminisced about my past experience. I started to feel uncomfortable because I realised the eye was watching me the whole time and it was like it was with me through my journey to my memories. This piece was found on the Painting and Sculpture I at Moma and is an oil on canvas from 1928. Man Ray an owner of the painting in 1933 described the painting as  “sees as much as it itself is seen,” which is the perfect description for this artwork. Later I realised that the eye has no eyelashes and a very black pupal that I wasn’t painting attention to at first.

Sandy Cheng

For this Assignment I made a character relation chart

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Sandy’s alarm rang at 10:00 am. She ate a granola bar for breakfast and got ready to go to school. She grabs her coffee and bag. As she opens the door a rush of cold spring air hits her. She runs back to grab a heavy sweater and rushes to the 2 train at Pelham Parkway.  The train was 5 mins away. Sandy slowly made her way to the platform. The train cart was fairly empty she sat down in the middle of the cart. As the train pulls up to E. 180^th street, sandy got up slowly to the train cart waiting for the doors to open. The old man in front of Sandy gets off the train and Sandy follows. Suddenly the old man stops and she softly hits his heel. The old man, Larry Jackson turns around quickly and pushes Sandy into the people behind her. Sandy quickly apologies and before she get to explain. Larry yells “Sorry isn’t good enough. Just don’t do it,” and he mumbles something as he stomps off. Sandy leaned against a pole carefully. Why did he have such a big reaction? Sandy took the 5 train to Grand Central 42 St. to the 6 train and got off at 23^rd street. Sandy slowly walked to class while watching the people rushing by her. She got to class with minutes to spare thinking about what she will be doing for the rest of her day

Sandy

Family Romances by Sigmund Freud shows us the human connections we have with our family since birth. I totally agree that our parents are our first role models and we are constantly relating to them. Till this day I continue to turn to my mother and father for guidance. Although usually I have already made up my mind but I just want to be assured of my choices. At one point i had started to compare my parents to my aunts and uncle and I was jealous why my aunts and uncle have more money and is more educated. But eventually I realized if I was their child I would turn out spoiled and disrespectful.

I also have two older brothers that is about 10 years older than me and growing up they were also similar to a parent figure. Interestingly  I remember very little of my childhood but i remember very vividly when they joked with me saying that I pick up from the streets.  although i know they were joking but i made me upset at the thought that  it could be true. The quote”‘pater semper incertus est’, while the mother is ‘certissitna’” is very relatable. Who hasn’t wondered is that really my dad. But we don’t ask our mom that because we know for sure that we came from her womb.  In this piece you can see the development of a child as they try to find their individualism and I found this piece very relatable.

Sandy

This poem, Discourse on the Logic of Language by M. NourbeSe Philip seems to be about slavery. Philip mentions multiple time the lack of mother tongue that they have in the US and they are forced to speak English which is their father tongue.  Think that the father tongue shows the oppression they received and how they were forced into the US. You can also see that she choose the “Father tongue” as English because men in those times are also superior. Also I found this poem a bit confusing and annoying at first. I actually had to listen to it a few times. I think that the choice of words that were chosen were to suggest the lack of communications and lack of education slaves went through.

I recall that in the Frederick Douglas’s Narrative that slaves were no allowed to speak in their own language. So it really connects to the poem. Slaves were not allowed to speak their native language therefor they didn’t have a mother tong or eventually lost their mother tongue. And was forced to speak English, father tongue that was forced upon them. Another similarity I found was that often in slavery, children were separated from their mothers so they will lose their mother tongue. They were probably separated and not allowed to speak their mother tongue because the slave owners didn’t want them to start to rebel or plan against them. They cut their best way in communication to continue to oppress them and keep them as slaves.

Sandy

The Tyger (Richard Schweky)

Mary Shelleys depiction of the creature created in Frankenstein and the aftermath, can be compared to William Blake’s the Tyger in a few ways. Blake’s poem expresses a creation that is regretted in the world. As if to say its existence should not be. “And when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand? & what dread feet?”. This quote from his poem shows a similarity to that of Frankenstein. When Victor creates the creature, at first he is filled with emotion and excitement for bringing the creature to life, but soon he becomes fearful of his creation. Further to prove this point, later on in the poem Blake states, “In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp!”. This is describing how the being brings upon terror and instills fear among the one who created it. A similar story is told in Frankenstein where the creature haunts Victor after he creates it. I think the final similarity in this piece is when Blake talks about the creator seeing his work to see if he appreciates the “Fearful symmetry” that was brought about. In Frankenstein, this theme is also brought about. The fact that Victor spent his time in the study of science to find a way to reproduce life which can be analogous to the symmetry Blake was talking about, ends up leading him to fear his creation more than appreciate his work.

The Lamb(Sandy Cheng)

In Mary Shelley’s work Frankenstein’s monster is more like the Lamb that is being portrayed in in William Blake’s poem.  The lamb is being described as an innocent creature that is created “Gave thee life.” Also the lamb is born to be gentle and has “a tender voice”. “He became a little child.” I believe that Frankenstein’s monster was born like the lamb, an innocent child or blank slate. If Frankenstein were there to nurture him, to love him and to feed him he would have become like the lamb. Unfortunately he was abandoned by Frankenstein and was rejected by everyone even when he saved people with good intentions. That’s why he became a revenge seeking individual not because he was born evil.  Another moment Frankenstein’s monster was like an innocent child is when he described his encounter with fire. He had burned himself and he was mad but then he was delighted when he found out fire made food taste so much better.  Additionally in the poem by William Blake, the Lamb was asked do you know who made you. Whereas in the tiger was asked what could have made you. The lamb knows that god made him and likewise Frankenstein’s monster knew Frankenstein made him and abandon him. Another similarity is “Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright,” god gave the lamb the best wool to grow and keep himself warm. Frankenstein also chooses the best features, making him strong and fast to protect himself.  I believe Frankenstein’s monster was born innocent but due to the circumstances he became evil or revenge seeking.

When we compare the scenes of  Frankenstein’s birth from the clips to Mary Shelley’s depictions, we see several differences. In the video clips we can see the excitement of Frankenstein anticipating the arrival of his masterpiece. In one video he has an assistant and audience to watch what he has created. I think that Frankenstein wanted to show his audience I have the power to bring something to life and you think I’m crazy now but wait and see.  In the other video, he is working alone and he constantly running around and he keeps screaming “live, live ,live.” however in the text Frankenstein was afraid of the the monster he has created and thought that this is not quite what he was imagining. He felt that he was ugly now. He doesn’t want to face the fact that he spent two years trying to create this beautiful thing and it came out so horribly wrong that he wants to run away.

I feel that they had changed the scene with the audience to capture the audience’s attention because we now feel as though we are there. To give the audience a way to connect to movie to themselves. Whereas the other video use the fast pace actions and electricity to build the suspense in the movie.  Often movies do not follow the novel completely due to the fact that they have thoughts on what might attract the audience watching the movie. So often for those who have read the novels are often disappointed of the changes made.

Sandy Cheng

After reading this piece I wondered who this writer was and I found that he was a philosopher, mathematician and scientist. The idea of “Cogito Ergo Sum” in  Discourse on the Method is one of his most well-known pieces.  Discourse on the Method by Rene Descartes is a pieces separated into six sections. On this piece we are focused on part four. The whole piece is about Descartes’ reasoning on problems he is trying to prove. In part four he suggests the idea “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means, “I am thinking, therefore I exist.” Then he goes on to explain why this is true. At first thought I believe this idea is true because it makes sense.  As I continue to read, Descartes has convinced me that this idea of “Cogito Ergo Sum” is definitely true.

On Page 16 he states that “I decided to pretend that everything that had ever entered my mind was no more true than the illusions of my dreams.”  Then he goes on to say that “I saw on the contrary that from the mere fact that I thought about doubting the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed.” So he tried to convince himself that he what he had thought was false, but this only led him to believe even more that he existed. Then he states “I reflected on the fact that I was doubting, and that consequently I wasn’t wholly perfect” this causes him  to contemplate on a being that is more perfect then himself and concludes that god must exist. Furthermore he continues his thoughts on the idea of god and proposes that god the good reason good things exist.

I was quite interesting that he compared a geometric proof to his proof of god’s existence. The proof is as follows “the idea I had of a perfect being, I found that this idea of a perfect being included existence in the same way as—or even more evidently than— the idea of a triangle includes the equality of its three angles to two right angles or the idea of a sphere includes the equidistance from the centre of all the points on the surface. Thus I concluded that the existence of this perfect being, God, is at least as certain as any geometrical proof.” In his conclusion he draws that “•God exists and •is a perfect being, and because •everything in us comes from him.”  I think it is amazing how he is able to take us through his thought process. I was almost as if I was there when he came up with this proof.

Sandy Cheng

When I started to read Song of Myself, I was confused on what Whitman was trying to refer to. However as I continued to read I started to realized that he refers to the universe and self-themes frequently. For example he calls himself kosmos, which means universe. I feel like he wants to be a part of the universe and there are also times he seems to want to be in individual. Majority of the time I feel like am just like everyone in the world, but when I think about it I’m unique. Everyone takes different journeys including myself.

I believe my first major decision of my life was in high school. I was an 18 year old, who didn’t know what I really want to do with my life. I choose to go to Stony Brook University majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Why? Because my brother was a mechanical engineer and he was my role model. After the third semester, I realized mechanical engineering was not for me. However I didn’t know how to tell my family that I will not graduate on time if I switched majors. So I decided to continue the classes and try to graduate on time. As classes got harder, I became really stressed because now my family is upset that my GPA is dropping. Finally I came out and told my family that I want to change majors and I plan to transfer to Baruch for accounting. I really enjoyed my accounting internship last summer and I am glad I choose accounting because it really suits my personality. Now here I am a senior at Baruch majoring in accounting. Baruch is really a turning point of my life.

Sandy Cheng