Courses

This is the parent category of all of the years and individual courses represented in your learning portfolio.

Advertisement and gender

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This ad is from Calvin Klein in the 90’s. It features Marky Mark and Kate Moss. When we were given the assignment to talk about Ads this is the one that came to mind first. This ad marks what femininity and masculinity in the 90s looked like. Though both models look edgy; It’s evident that the female body is suppose to be soft and touchable, while the male body is suppose to be hard and ridged. It reminded me of the quote “…gender has been organized not only in binary terms but also through a cultural logic that visualized as feminine.” because much like color association image is also a social construct. I know many woman that are much more ridged and tougher than men and vise versa. The female model looks vulnerable and supported by the male model. He looks dominant and muscle bound and manly. It plays into the social construct of men have to be manly and women have to be womanly but what do those things mean? That a man looks aggressive and a woman looks passive? Is what this ad made me think. Though they are both topless and in a sexually suggestive position, the male model clearly looks to be in charge of the situation. This is still evident in more recent advertisemsents as well, the quesiton of femininity and masculinity comes in the question. What is gender and how and why do we define it. 

Kaiser, Susan B. Fashion and cultural studies. London: Berg, 2012.

Christopher Breward

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“Fashion is not necessarily spectacular (though it often conforms to the theory of the society of the spectacle), it can also be domotic, ordinary, mundane, routine and humble. It is the stuff of the ethnographer and the anthropologist”

I chose these two quotes mainly because I could relate to them the most. I related to the first quote immensely. My personal style isn’t outlandish and my design aesthetic isn’t as well. Because of this sometime I have conflicts with design professors about what to make and how to make them. It feels like there is such an emphases on outlandish designs and who can make the weirdest garment. Yes there’s a need to change and growth, however sometime the minimalist and more realistic designs make more sense. More is not more. Thought I also believe that less is not more either, i think there has to be a balance for a good design. But there is always beauty in the more simple, wearable garment. What we see simple and ordinary clothes, in a sense, is a trend of what people are wearing and it will be referenced later on. Like the mom jeans, they were considered the most ordinary of garments and now they are trending. There are blogs and YouTube videos dedicated to finding the “best pair of mom jeans.” I think there’s beauty in what we call, “ordinary clothes” it’s what people choose to wear. I find the ratty t shirt and the naturally worn out jeans more interesting and more informative to someone’s style than that 1500 dollar shirt, with 7 thousand crystals and embroidery, no one dares to drink coffee in. Along with someone’s style it says a lot about the owners living habits and lifestyle.

“Fashion is intensely personal, in the same way that poetry is intensely personal. It is a medium through which personal stories can be told, memories re-lived and futures foretold.”

The second quote I chose because it reminded me of moving to NYC. When I moved to NYC I had to clean out my closet and basically arrived here with just the bare minimum of clothes. It made me aware of what clothes I had to take because, well, I can’t run around naked, and what clothes I couldn’t let go of because of sentimental reasons. Particularly, I had this pair of combat boots that were vintage. They weight about a good five pounds per shoe and in the long run were highly impractical, they were: too big, too long, too slippery, weren’t water proof…etc. But I brought them anyways. They reminded me of the brunch we had that day. The warm summer light and the plate of calamari the waitress dropped on me. I got them from a vintage shop a couple of streets down from that restaurant from a woman cleaning out her closet because she didn’t have enough space anymore. When I told her about the calamari she said “as long as you keep your head high and smile like it’s meant to be, no one will ever notice.” Though I’m sure people did because it was red sauce on a white button down, that anecdote has stayed with me all this time. That boot isn’t just a boot to me anymore it became a story for me. It was stylish but it was also an item that makes me smile, and no Saint Laurent boot can replace that.

 

Game 101 Final

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What Do You Look Like? Is the name of the game. It is about how to put on eye make up with a twist. The twist is that make up comes off at the end of the day and the user should just go have fun with make up.

Click to look at the game eyes

Game play:

inspiration for final project

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The Armor (Tatami Gusoku)
Lacquaered iron, mail, silk, gilt copper
Edo period 17-18th century

The suit literally translates to “folding.” Tatami means folding. The reason why it’s named that is because it could be contained into a small box and easily transported by one person, unlike the European armour.  Usually, it was made for lower ranking officials but this one, in particular, was probably used by a samurai. This is because it is made out of gold and silk.

I liked this piece in particular because it was more compact than the others, I didn’t really enjoy how the other armours were so elaborate that it didn’t look functional.

The structure of this is made of square sheets of metal, I want to use labels to replicate that. I want to make a coat that is made with labels as it’s textile, and it will also be invertible. So that on one side it looks like a normal jacket but when inside out it is made with labels and all recycled materals.

 

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Cards for humanities

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For my altered games, I wanted to change the cultural phenomenon CARDS AGAINST HUMANITIES.

Cards Against Humanities is a god awful game. It’s one of those games most people have played during camp, or online. It’s a great way to bring the dark humor into a friend group. But that’s the point. You play a game with black cards and white cards and try to get the worst combination possible. How you win? To have one moderator per turn, which alternates, choose the winning pairing. In the end, it’s not about the “worst choice” it’s about what tickles the chooser’s sense of humor.

What I wanted to do is play it FOR humanities, rather than AGAINST humanities. What you do is play the game as if you are suppose to play it, Black card with people playing white cards with a chooser. When you play the white card, you have to play it with as much PG-ness in mind. After the card is played, each player has 30 seconds to justify your card. Then when all the cards are played all the players go for four minutes, tearing down the other players cards. The person who plays the most PG card wins. It’s like CAH but with an argumentative twist.

What I found about the game is that the game really only works if the players have played CAH before. Like you can’t really play it with people with clean humor. Although the game is for humanities, the players need to have a dirty mind for the discussion part to work and be enjoyable. You need to be able to find something dirty in the other player’s hand even if it’s just “girls” or “ice cream.” At least for me. Click to watch.

IF the players haven’t played before the game tends to falls apart. They don’t really get the irony of the game and the point of Cards FOR Humanities.

The tearing down part needs to be more structured, especially if played online. Becuase I just had people go ham, but if there was an order of operations it would’ve made the game smoother to play.

I feel like it could work better if there was a better point system, like if the player could trade points for something that benefitted them in the game.

Punk games

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QWOP,

This is by far one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever played. My god, this takes me right back to being in middle school trying to figure out how to play and why to plaYou try to do a combination of the four controls to make him run. Each key controls a limb. The rules are to just go as far forward as you can as fast as you can. You can go backwards as well, you can get negative miles. Which is really interesting. When you inevitably die, depending on the miles, the congrats page will say a differen’t saying.

The game was frustrating. The game was fun when I started to do better in the game but that took such a long time to learn how to do. I had to look up how to videos on youtube, well I didn’t have to but it was the only way for me to enjoy it. I think I didn’t like it personally because it was infuriating.

Did didn’t break, it was just hard. I wouldn’t fix it or change anything perse. But I think there needs to be a warning: “Keyboard smashers beware”

 

 

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Hot Throttle

You use your keyboard to control a naked person who believes they are cars.

The goal of the game is to end up on the goal after four laps of the track, as fast as you can.

There aren’t any rules perse, just that you need to make the laps as fast as you can, and get as many gifts on the way as well.

The game was a lot of fun, it was ridiculous. Both the premise, and gameplay. The control of the game is like on speed. It’s like trying to control a car that’s on it’s highest mileage possible. Every little press of the key, made the “car” move incredibly fast. I liked that it was ridiculous, and I liked that it was really easy to play. And that it’s very easy to just play aimless and mindlessly. But you could also play tactically as well. I like that I can play for the “lulz” or for the enjoyment of the game.

One thing that I would like changed in the game, is variation in the tracks. The track right now is basically a rectangle with a couple of obstacles. It would be more interesting if it was more diversified. Maybe even have a bunch the player could chose from.