Fireside Chat

"We Think We Know You" by Bo Burnham

                                               
                                                         (Warning: Some Language)

The Stanley Parable Trailer

And here is the media that I recorded for the fireside chat  (yes, that's me doing the terrible British accent)

Artist Statement

           For my piece, I was heavily inspired by the video game The Stanley Parable and the comedy of Bo Burnham, specifically his song "We Think We Know You".  I like the idea of a story having a narrator that is not only untrustworthy, but actively fighting against the actions of the protagonist, as is presented in The Stanley Parable, and I like how Bo Burnham often uses pre-recorded music and dialogue in order to stage interactions that wouldn't normally be possible in live music.  I felt that combining these elements in this format would best serve the message that I wanted to send.  I wanted to portray how there are so many things in our lives that we have no control over, but how we also need to recognize what things we can change and what things we can control.  For example, in the last 8 months since I've been home from my mission, I have auditioned many times for various performing groups and musicals.  Some of these, such as my audition for the Men's Chorus, were successful, but most of my auditions, including Les Miserable, Beauty and the Beast, Vocal Point, and several student films, were unsuccessful.  This has been hard for me because in high school, most of my auditions for plays and performing groups were very successful.  But I realized that I can't control the talent of others who choose to audition or the results of the auditions.  I can only continue trying to improve myself and to keep auditioning.  In a broader sense, I wanted everyone to think about the things in their own lives that they can't control, such as the actions of another person, and also to recognize the things that they can control, such as their reaction to how others act.  I don't truly believe in destiny, but I also don't believe that we are completely in control of everything in our lives.  Sometimes it's a little bit of both.  So my belief is that we need to recognize the things in our lives that we can control and change, and accept the things that we can't.

            I loved the fireside chat.  I loved the variety of the different performances.  Some gave slideshow presentations, others sang songs, and quite a few involved paint.  Some of my favorite performances were those that got their message across without having to use many words, such as Rene and Max's pieces.  I felt like I learned more about each person that night, almost like I had seen a slice of their soul.  There was a lot of honesty and soul bearing that occurred, and I don't think that would have been possible in any other setting.  Everyone's personality was on display, and every piece seemed to fit perfectly with the person who was giving the presentation.  Even though it was late at night and I was exhausted, I was thoroughly entertained and edified the whole night long.  And that is why I love the arts.

Concerned Citizen

Artist Statement

            For our, we interviewed Bryan Bartel, who volunteers his time at hospitals up in Salt Lake City, helping out patients and doctors with whatever they need.  Throughout the assignment, we were reminded of the "I'm a Mormon" campaign.  The formula for their campaign, which includes interviewing the subject as well as capture footage of their everyday life, seemed similar to the approach that we took with our documentary.  We weren't able to capture any footage of his volunteer work, but while filming, we felt that the entire purpose of our interview was to highlight someone.  While the "I'm a Mormon" campaign strove to portray as not only interesting, but normal as well, we also felt that the videos involved in their campaign also wished to inspire others and spread goodwill.  Our interview with Bryan also strove to reveal his generosity and kindness, and even though his service to the community seemed simple, we still felt that it was a good example of someone reaching out to help the less fortunate in his community.

            In Goldbard's article "Human Rights and Culture: From Datastan to Storyland", he discusses the importance of storytelling in our culture by stating that, "In Storyland, we understand that the resilience that sustains communities in times of crisis is rooted in culture, in the stories of survival and social imagination that inspire people to a sense of hope and possibility even in dark times. Sharing our stories as song, drama, dance, in word or image supports resilience by showing people how others met similar challenges, survived and prospered."  What Goldbard means is that all cultures use stories of survival, imagination, and hope in order to unite the community and survive times of hardship and crisis.  In many ways, what we did for this assignment falls under this category.  Our story is simple.  It describes the actions of a single man who used his free time to volunteer at hospitals and help patients.  But stories like this are important because they show that people still care about others in the community.  Kindness is still present, and it becomes a symbol that we don't have to succumb to cynicism and fear.  We need more examples of people helping others and being kind because just hearing these stories can restore our faith and hope and influence us to be better people and help our communities.
By Jessica Cahill and Steven Olson

Tourette's Man: Game for Change

Tourette's Man: Game for Change

Artist Statement

           I have had Tourette's syndrome since I was about 3 years old.  My tics started off with me grabbing handfuls of rocks in my backyard, sifting them through my fingers, then returning to whatever activity I was doing.  Now, my tics mostly include finger twitching and making strange noises with my mouth.  Fiddling with string is often involved.  I have become so accustomed to my tics that I sometimes forget how strange it actually is.  I have met very few people who have Tourette's Syndrome, even though it is a surprisingly common disorder.  Reading the Cracked.com article "5 Ways Life with Tourette's is Way Weirder than in Movies" helped me to see that not only do other people suffer with the same things that I do, but others have even worse symptoms, including self-inflicted pain and painful body spasms.  In creating my game, I wanted to give players an idea of what it is like to live with Tourette's.  I wanted to emphasize the involuntary nature of my condition.  Most people seem to grasp the strange nature of my condition, but many have a hard time understanding that a person with Tourette's syndrome is not consciously choosing to say strange things and move their bodies in strange ways.  In fact, I have had several strange arguments about this very subject, and I included some of these conversations within my game. Most of the situations in my game are based on my own personal experiences or the experiences of other people with Tourette's Syndrome. 

            As stated in Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk, if we continue to hear the same stories over and over again, we start to believe them, and we inevitably have a harder time telling different stories.  She experienced this when a critic claimed that her book wasn't "authentically African" because the characters drove cars, ate food, and lived middle class lifestyles.  I have a similar experience growing up with Tourette's syndrome.  Tourette's Syndrome is constantly portrayed in the media as a disorder that causes you to swear involuntarily.  This is only one of many different symptoms for Tourette's, but the media keeps returning to this portrayal because this makes for easy comedy.  It completely ignores the majority of what people with Tourette's syndrome actually experience.  By telling the same story over and over about Tourette's, most people begin to believe that this is the only possible portrayal of Tourette's, and it makes it difficult to change their minds.  We need to remember that there are multiple angles to approach a story, and there are many stories that haven't been told yet.  If we're willing to empathize with someone and put ourselves in their shoes, we will be able to learn so much more and break through existing stereotypes and limited, one-dimensional stories.

Sources:
"I have Tourette's but Tourette's Doesn't Have Me", Ellen Goosenberg Kent, HBO, 2005.
Mannen, Amanda, et. all, "5 Ways Live With Tourette's is Way Weirder Than in Movies", Cracked.com, August 14, 2014,
"Research." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

World Building: A World Without Reflection

The upper class would be able to afford nicer portraits than the lower class, so here is an example of modern-day celebrities drawn like renaissance figures in order to illustrate the type of portraits that they would commission.

Here is an example of the type of sculpture work that the upper class would pay an artist to make for them.

Lower class families, however, can't afford to buy paintings like the ones above, so mostly they would settle for much simpler family drawn portraits, if they could afford them at all.

Here are the type of portraits that would be drawn in this world in order to preserve precious moments.

In a world without mirrors, hygienic activities such as shaving would have to largely depend on someone else to do it for you.  Here is a portrayal of a wife shaving her husband's face.

Here is an example of a shaving cream ad in our world.  Notice how it is targeted towards women.

Here is the Louvre museum designed out of stone without glass or windows, since neither would exist in this world.

Here is what a typical High School graduation requirements would look like in this world.  Notice the strong emphasis on art and the lack of emphasis on P.E.  Also, notice the emphasis in Social Studies with local history.

High School Graduation Requirements:

Math: 4.0 credits.

Science: 3.0 credits

English: 4.0 credits

Art: 4.0 credits

·     At least one of these credits has to be in sculpture

·     At least one of these credits has to be in Basic Sketching

Social Studies: 3.0 credits.  Required courses:

·        Local History

·        National History

·       World History

Physical Education: 1.0 credits

Electives: 4.0 credits.

Artist Statement

In our world, we reasoned that due to the lack of reflection, there would be an even stronger emphasis on art than what we have in our world.  Artists would be in higher demand because the upper classes would want a depiction of their looks, and since cameras and film doesn't exist in this world, their only way to see themselves would be through a commissioned portrait.  This also means that in this society, artists would be in higher demand.  This can be seen with the high school graduation requirements, which strongly emphasizes art classes because painting and drawing are viable skills in the work force.  Indeed, it would be similar to the Renaissance period where artists were in high demand by rich families because they had the money to commission portraits.  Also, we reasoned that a world without reflection would have a stronger sense of community since the people would have to depend on others in order to know how they look.  This is why products such as shaving cream would be marketed towards women: men would have a harder time shaving their own face without a mirror, so a second party would be required.  Activities such as this would create strong bonds between people, specially within a local community.  While working on this assignment, I was constantly reminded of the work of art such as H.R. Giger and Grant Major, who needed to create fictional worlds for films such as Alien and the Lord of the Rings.  They had to design things that did not exist in our world, such as architecture, costumes, hobbit houses, armor, weapons, etc.  They must have asked themselves the same questions that James and I asked ourselves: how does this society work?  What kinds of artifacts would exist in this world?  Art?  Social structure?  Advertisements?  All of these things have to be considered in order to create a believable world.

     As Bleecker stated in his essay fiction and science can be an amalgamation that depends upon each other. We walk, talk, see, hear, and smell every second of everyday. We absorb our surroundings and our surroundings absorb us. Though what if we weren’t self-aware? What if the only way we could see ourselves is only through the eyes of someone else? In a world with no reflective objects, people would never truly able to see how they actually appear in real time. First off, I wouldn’t have a future career because no pictures, no cameras, and no film. Daily soap operas, nightly news, and Hollywood tabloids are non-existent. No glass means no windows on buildings, and who knows what that would mean for transportation. But what caused this idea to be truly stirring for Steven and I is the effect of not being able to see yourself on your identity. The debate was that self-image would either be completely dependent on the opinions of others, or that ignorance is bliss would prevail. We decided that those that could afford painters and artists would be more self-aware and thus would try to have some sense of fashion. While those that did not have the means to hire someone to paint their annual family portrait would value comfort over appearances. Trying to answer these questions was the biggest and most challenging part of this assignment. And quite frankly I don’t think we have scratched the surface of the deeper questions here. What is identity? Is it something relative to those around you or is it completely independent of everything? Do we see ourselves a certain way because we conform our vision to what society sees us as? One girl I posed this prompt too told me that nothing would matter. “Everything would be the same, and non-distinguishable. Because we classify everything relative to ourselves.”  I don’t think I would go that far. But try to comb through these artifacts and see for yourself, because I don’t know the answer.

Webspinna Battle

Artist’s Statement

by Ethan Hallstrom and Steven Olson

Lizards and wizards are as essential to the genres of fantasy and sci-fi as the strong, independent woman is to the romantic comedy, or the cabin in the woods to horror. If you need to whip up a quick, 2-cent minor antagonist, intriguing side-character, or mythical being, make it a lizard or a wizard. This is such an overdone, common, pervasive practice that finding sources for our respective sound clips was actually too easy. We ended up with too high a volume of potential sources, and had to trim down. Gandalf, Dumbledore, Merlin, Tim the Enchanter, Wulfgar, The Wicked Witch of the West, Ganondorf, Mysterio, Dr. Strange, and others represented only a cross-section of the wizard characters so entrenched in our culture, and these are largely the traditional magician-types. There exists an entire pantheon of non-elderly, clean-shaven, more subtle wizards in fiction not even listed above. The list of lizard characters is just as expansive, reaching from video games to movies to books to even comics. The Lizard, Bowser, Jurassic Park’s entire cast of antagonists, Godzilla, The Gecko Geico, the Sleesak, the Kree, the Argonians, the Silurian, Smaug, Alduin, Randall from Monster’s Inc. Lizards are just as well-represented as their magical opponents featured in this Webspinna.

Both of these pantheons of characters represent a sort of fictional crutch. Both reptiles and magicians are exotic, but comprehensible at the same time. We know what wise/crazy old men are like, but we’re unfamiliar with actual magic, and beings with the ability to manipulate it. We’ve all seen crocodiles at the zoo, or anoles on a tree trunk during a vacation, or turtles in a pond, or any other number of naturally-occurring reptiles, but not giant, earth-shaking, scaled behemoths of uncharacteristic intelligence and cunning. Both lizards and wizards are familiar and foreboding. They represent crazy, out-of-this-world conflict. They aren’t a part of our daily lives, and thus they make perfect fodder to populate our sci-fi or fantasy worlds. This makes them extremely prevalent in popular culture, which makes for a really fun and recognizable Webspinna.

In many ways, this assignment addresses similar concepts as the previous assignment, textual poaching.  For this assignment, we had to take pre-existing audio and use it in a way that it wasn’t originally intended by its creator.  In doing so, we created something completely new and original: an epic battle between wizards and lizards.  In Jonathan Letham’s article “The Ecstasy of Influence: a plagiarism”, he comments on the dangers of enforcing copyright laws by stating that “Artists and their surrogates who fall into the trap of seeking recompense for every possible second use end up attacking their own best audience members for the crime of exalting and enshrining their work”.  In other words, copyright can greatly limit the creative abilities of an artist and can even deter the very people who appreciated the original work in the first place.  Some may consider our Webspinna battle to be a form of plagiarism.  We did use audio from many, many sources without the express permission of the original creators.  We even performed our piece in a semi-public setting, which is frowned upon by copyright law.  However, just as we learned in last week’s project, every piece of art has a cultural history.  Everyone is influenced by everything, and it is foolish to ignore that.  With this assignment, we embraced this fact. We used other people’s work in order to influence and shape our own.  No one else has put these sound clips together in the exact way that we did, and so by doing this, we created something new and original.  By changing the way that we view plagiarism and copyright, we as artists are able to explore new artistic depths and find new ways to do what has already been done.

Textual Poaching

Here's the original song, if you don't already know it:

Piano Man

Here is my version.  The audio isn't the greatest, so I also posted the lyrics below:

I'm 5 years old on a piano bench
My mother teaches with style
And I'm learning to play every dot and line
To turn people's frowns into smiles

Then I listen to songs on the radio
And I play them back beat for beat
And my sister writes songs that inspire me
To sit in the songwriter's seat

Chorus:
Play us a hymn, you're the piano man
Play us a hymn tonight
'Cause the church needs a light, happy atmosphere
We need you to make us feel right

It's a pretty big crowd for a Sunday
The Bishop gives me a look
The accompanist's gone, so that means I go on
To sightread a hymn from a book

And I might as well be invisible
As they pass the Sacrament cup
And I know that I should be a fly on the wall
And pray that I don't screw it up

(chorus, end)

Artist Statement

          I have been playing piano since I was 5 years old, and being a musician is very much a part of my life.  So when I was deciding on what type of media/text that I would poach from for this assignment, there was only one iconic song that came to mind that describes the joys and sorrows of being a pianist: Billy Joel's "The Piano Man".  It  is a personal, first-hand account of Joel's time playing the piano at a bar for the customers.  His experience involves observing all of the bar patrons who lead passive, pathetic lives and who have no grand ambitions.  The song, as well as Joel's personal experience as a pianist, come across as extremely melancholy due to both the setting and the descriptions of the type of people who listen to him perform.  However, while I love the song, my personal experience with piano has more do to with a place that is as far removed from a bar as possible: the church.  I was always accompanying for Sacrament meeting and Priesthood meetings at church, especially during my mission in Brazil.  Playing in a somber setting as opposed to a raucous, alcoholic setting of a bar, I found that my experiences as an accompanist and performer were markedly different from that of Joel's bar experience.  One large difference that I noticed has to do with the amount of attention that Joel receives from the customers.  In Joel's song, he mentions in the last verse that his piano skills are the reason that people are coming to the bar.  He is the center of attention because of his talent.  However, in my experience, I have found that when it comes to accompanying for a choir or a sacrament meeting, no one really notices the accompanist unless he/she commits many errors.  Their job is to perform unnoticed, merely accompanying others who are singing.  This is almost the exact opposite of Joel's experience of mesmerizing customers with his amazing skills.  I wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between Joel's experiences and my own.  In order to do this, I decided to combine "The Piano Man" melody with verses that more accurately portray how I felt growing up mostly as a pianist accompanying for church meetings.  So I played his song while singing verses that I wrote that sum up my experiences with performing, including my learning experiences and early inspirations.  My biggest regret was that I was not able to write four verses of material to match all of the verses in the original song.  This changing of lyrics reminded me of  Neil Young's cover of John Lennon's "Imagine", where he changes the line "I wonder if YOU can" to "I wonder if I can".  In doing so, he makes the song more self-reflexive and better portrays his own point of view.  All of this was accomplished by simply changing the lyrics in order to represent a different point of view.

            In Jenkins' article "How to become Real", he discusses the difference in perspective between a toymaker who manufactures a toy and the boy who owns and uses the toy.  He declared the following: "Seen from the perspective of the toymaker, who has an interest in preserving the stuffed animal just as it was made, the Velveteen Rabbit's loose joints and missing eyes represent vandalism, the signs of misuse and rough treatment; yet for the boy, they are traces of fondly remembered experiences, evidence of his having held the toy too close and pet it too often, in short, marks of its loving use".  To me, this statement perfectly sums up the relationship and the difference in viewpoint between an artist and the fans of his work.  I love and respect Billy Joel, but I would not say that what I did with his song "The Piano Man" was disrespectful or a violation of trust.  I simply took something that I already loved and modified it so that it better reflected my personal experience with piano playing.  I used his song/idea as a springboard to express my own feelings.  In this way, I feel like the boy who wears out his toy due to overuse.  The toy has much more meaning to the boy because he knows how it is damaged, and it became worn out because of his love for it.  In this way, I feel that my take on Billy Joel's song adds to my enjoyment of his song, rather than diminishing it.

Medium Specificity

For my medium specificity assignment, I was inspired by John Cage's song "4'33", as well as his song "Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano".  In "4'33", Cage emphasizes the role that silence plays in music.  In "Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano", he toys with the idea of tonal uncertainty by putting screws and nails inside of the piano.  By doing this, the musician has no way of knowing how the notes are going to sound when he plays them.  I decided to do something similar to this with my project.  I wanted to focus on the limitations and, paradoxically, the endless possibilities of music.  In technical terms, there are only thirteen different musical tones (excluding quarter tones), yet with these thirteen tones, all kinds of sounds can be made.  My idea was to write out a rhythm section (shown at the beginning of the video) and to play as many songs on as many instruments as possible using only this rhythm.  Some of the melodies are happy, some are sad, some are fast, some are slow, some are all high notes, some are all low  notes, and some are just random notes being played.  By doing this, I was able to explore the possibilities of musical limitations (such as adhering to the same strict rhythm) and endless musical possibilities created through different combinations of the thirteen tones. 

            I originally planned on using multiple instruments, such as trumpet and guitar, as well as multiple musicians in order to see how they would work creatively under the rhythmic limitation.  I wanted to show how even if you play the exact same melody and rhythm on two different instruments, you are still going to get a completely different, unique sound.  However, as time went on, I ended up simplifying the project so that I play all of the instruments used in the video.  This is why piano is used predominantly in the project.  However, while filming, I realized that I didn't need to limit myself to just playing the keys.  Percussion is also a form of music, so I experimented with pounding out the rhythm on top of the piano at various tempos.  While playing the harmonica, I decided to experiment with an aspect that is unique to the harmonica, which is the ability to create music by blowing and sucking in air.  During one take, I decided to play a melody by only sucking in air through the harmonica.  On another take, I did the exact opposite.  All of these experimentations helped me to explore the endless possibilities as well as the structural limitations of music.

           In Scott McCloud's comic "Setting the Record Straight", he discusses the importance of defining, or redefining, a medium.  He elaborates on the difficulties in convincing mainstream audiences to consider comic books as an artful medium.  But when he sits down and tries to define what makes up the medium of comic books, he comes up with a broad definition that not only opens up the possibilities of what a comic book is, but comes to the realization that comic book storytelling has existed for millennia and is, in fact, an art form.  In many ways, music is very similar.  Some of the songs in my project are not pretty to listen to, and some may not consider this project to be music.  However, it is only because people can  have a very limited, preconceived notion of what music is and what it can be.  By focusing on just the rhythm and the idea of unlimited combinations of tones, I was able to attempt to do what McCloud suggests in his comic: redefine how I see the medium of music.