Author: Aben

For the remix project, I plan on remixing my research paper on Van Gogh. I feel that the paper is still incomplete and there are a variety of resources that I am thinking about adding. Another point I want to bring up is how the stigma regarding schizophrenia people still has not changed in the modern world. I will demonstrate this by adding videos/interviews of modern psychologists talking about the disorder. I plan to use multiple media clips, interviews, and more, overall my plan is to use more visual artifacts. My motivation for this project is to truly add the cheery on top to my Van Gogh research paper.

This photo graph was taken around December 2021, I believe it was my 1st week working at my new position at my job as a barback. I really started to appreciate liquor and hospitality when I got promoted. I hope to bartend one day while I finish school. One of my coworkers asked if I wanted a photo since I looked really happy and that’s how it was taken. In terms of editing, I added a vigente as well as a black/white filter, I was going for a 1940’s vibe and it worked. The black and white really makes my uniform stand out, and the centerpiece of this image is the variety of liquor/spirits we have at the bar. If you remove the modern furniture and masks this looks straight out of an old vintage movie. Overall this isn’t meant to be interpreted as an abstract image, but more of a feeling. I have feelings of accomplishment, excitement and steadiness when I look at this image.

1.) After reading the text, ”Realizing the Dream of a Liberation University” by Conor Tomas Reed, Reed makes several connections between the retrenchment period and the current day. The definition of retrenchment is the dismissal of e, employees due to downsizing in a company, this can be for many reasons such as the company not reaching a certain quota or profit. Due to the pandemic, many people lost their jobs. At CUNY due to a policy called financial exigency, many CUNY employees were let go of their jobs. In general, tuition stayed the same even though classes were online, and in some schools, it increased. The retrenchment period is very similar to the pandemic in CUNY.

2.) Death cult means that human life can be a means to some other end and not solely an end to itself. Reed uses this term to talk about the events that occurred during the retrenchment period. In addition, Reed mentions how the rise of neoliberalism ruined CUNY in the grand scheme of things. Economically New York City is a death cult. The policies regarding CUNY today were created due to greed while in the retrenchment period, it was largely due to poverty. A free school system should be the norm, but there are a lot of factors against it today. Having access to free education in one of the best city’s in the world should not by any means be political.

3.) Minorities in America have either always been pushed to the side or ignored. This can be due to race, gender, sexual orientation, and or religion. The reason for the LatinX student alliance group to demand more diversity is due to the lack of inclusivity. When talking about the history of this group, there should be more diverse teachers and just in general more representation.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.media-diversity.org%2Ffrom-broadway-to-hollywood-in-the-heights-aims-to-break-the-barriers-of-latinx-representation%2F&psig=AOvVaw0x4v4o8bHabkAO1ALAI0zG&ust=1650640255026000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCLjdxKa4pfcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

 

Did your verbal summary match what is written in your paper? Is it stronger/ weaker? What did the experiment reveal to you about what else you need to do to revise your draft?

I completed this verbal exercise with the help of my cousin. One thing I realized is how much more formed and captivating my writing was when I spoke it. Without looking at my draft, I was better able to convey what I’m trying to argue in my essay. I need to do a complete haul of my draft today and tomorrow. the main issue I still have is that there isn’t enough of ”me” in the essay, I need to go off-script but also follow a concrete guideline when talking about my main points.

The strategy I ended up using is the reverse outline. The point of the reverse outline is to better organize and outline the body paragraphs. My main idea wasn’t really clear in my body paragraphs. When writing about Van Gogh, I need to get more specific while also creative. The barebones of my essay are here but I really just need to add more writing and layers. The main thing I was struggling with was organization.

In the article, ”  “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation”, there were many discussions about the previous presidency and its impact on African Americans. The writer talked about how unexpected it was for Kamala Harris to be nominated. President Biden has had a past of criminalizing African Americans and also supporting policies that hurt minorities. Nonetheless having harris as vice president is definitely a great step going forward. Kamala Harris is the United States’ first black, south Asian vice president. It’s still a shocker to me that we’ve only had one black president and vice president. It’s modern-day and African-Americans continue to be the most heavily oppressed minority in the United States. Harris’s role as a vice president is crucial in the representation of Black women in the U.S. They are one of the most oppressed demographic and less than half live in poverty. Furthermore, the article brings up a good point regarding if things will actually change. As a former vice president and political figure, many doubt that Biden will follow his promises. Harris is said to be inexperienced as a legislator, and the writer doubts that her identity as a Black woman will actually support a good black agenda in the U.S. According to the author, when it comes to the ”limits of representation”, there continues to be a scarcity of African Americans in political power. We’ve only had two and even then, their agendas haven’t fully supported African Americans in the United States.

Title: Self-Portrait, 1907 – Pablo Picasso. The artwork is a reflection of Picasso’s mental health and image. It demonstrates losing touch with reality and yourself, which is what Picasso was going through as he aged. I believe the art piece can be interpreted at face value and more. It has a lot of undertones, especially if you take a look at Picasso’s earlier portraits. Each portrait slowly became more unrealistic and distorted. In the 18th century, no one understood mental health, thus Picasso was not able to get the health he needed.

There was more mental health awareness at all back then, people who didn’t act ”normal” were just called crazy and pushed aside. Many people were sent to asylums or received some inhumane form of therapy.  This art piece is about a brilliant man who never got help. This art piece has always spoken to me, more than the later portraits. At face value, it’s just an unfinished portrait of Picasso. Furthermore, this portrait to me is the start of the downfall for Picasso. This artist’s artwork attempts to expose the truth about the lack of mental health awareness in the 1900s.

 

David Wojnarowicz ”Untitled”

1.) There are many rhetorical properties to this image that contribute to its meaning. The color and design play a big part, such as the black and white color scheme. This gives it a really old and dreadful tone to me, having the kid smile in the middle with text around him added to the dreadfulness. Even before I looked at what the text said, I knew this image would have some dark undertone behind it.

2.) The image revolves around homophobia, which is still present today. Millions of LGBTQ+ people are oppressed and pushed away just for their sexuality. The world has slowly changed but homophobia is still an issue. In the 20th century, many laws and policies were put in place to punish those who were Lgbtq+. Many gay men were sent to conversion therapy and subjected to shock therapy too. This was a horrible era in the 20th century, due to homophobia many southern states would pass and support these homophobic policies.

3.) The conclusion I can draw from this image is that art is timeless. I’m guessing this image is several if not decades years old, due to the black and white image of the kid. Furthermore, the context behind this image still applies today. There are many gay men that are still killed, oppressed, and more due to their sexuality. There are many places even in the United States where gay marriage is still illegal, and in other countries you can go to jail for being gay.

After analyzing my rough draft I found that there were a lot of corrections I can definitely make. It all stems from how I structure my sentences in regards to what I’m talking about. An issue a notice a lot is that I try to cram a lot of ideas into one sentence. I do this by the overuse of commas or transitional phrases. It is good to use these to convey a certain message, but the overuse of them is not ideal for the reader as well as the writer. In the sentence analysis, I was able to find choppy sentences and also nominalizations. For example, ” This included lowering the expenses the local government used as well as pushing the poor and working-class out of the city”, this can also be considered a nominalization. I used too many ”and” when I could have simply simplified this sentence better. After carefully editing, the sentence would be ”The local government planned to lower expenses by pushing the lower class out of the city.” These changes make my writing look more professional as I am able to ground my ideas.