Visual Essay- String Theory: What is Real?

For the Visual Essay for Seminar II, I initially wanted to focus on the aspects of friendship and how it has been affected by technology. However, upon knowing that I would have to stick to this topic till the end of the semester, I decided to focus on a topic in which I was deeply interested and in what I already had background knowledge. Thusly, I decided to talk about what we perceive to be real and the true reality of our world. This topic gave me the leeway to delve into spiritual, scientific, and personal subtopics that form this big idea. By sourcing information from various first-hand accounts, personal accounts, and secondary sources; I was able to not only develop my visual essay but get the chance to expand my own knowledge in my true interests rather than being prompted to write about something in particular. This insight that I have gotten allowed me to more deeply analyze my own perception of the world, as human beings tend to forget the impacts such knowledge can have on a person. The visual essay evolved from a powerpoint presentation with graphics to eventually a small book. The book cover is of a detail photo from the the garment I made in Studio II. I inverted the colors to make for a cosmic-like web to compliment the concept from which it was derived.

Visual Essay-25rkug7

STRING THEORY BOOK COVER op-20pmi6z

String Theory text op-25gieyc

Observing Life

For this video, I focused on the idea of people dwelling on the past and how living your memories can take a toll on your mental and physical health. This something that has been engrained into society- to think and rethink about past events- and something that we almost innately impose onto ourselves. Often times you see people lost in thought- where their mind is at is not always clear but somehow thinking of the past often leaves a person melancholic, fearful, and disappointed. Though memories are not always bad, they can become that simply by overthinking and letting current emotions weigh you down so that joyous moments become memories you never want to visit again in order to save yourself the pain of having those times slip away.

https://vimeo.com/240598822

My first iteration of the video focused on a complete different aspect of life. It was meant to be about the feelings and sensations that one experiences throughout his or her workout.

Neyman_Leana-storyboardraft-28ww3rb

Then, I changed my entire concept to make it more widely-relatable, whereas the prior idea would only appeal to athletes. While thinking of how I would relay the messaged I described earlier, I experimented with various effects and filming angles to capture just that. In my final storyboard, I wrote out all the effects I would use such as the strobe effect and transparency to create a distortion in time, an overlapping of the past and present, and revival of old memories that almost seem to flash through or linger within your head.

NeymanLeana-Storyboard-1zv4uro

 

 

OBSERVING THE CITY

The movement of time and its effect on everyday things can be best observed in an environment where hundreds of events are happening simultaneously, such as the city. By taking pictures from various stances consistently every 10 seconds for 5 minutes each position, I noticed how the perception of time changes from scene to scene, and from object to object. While taking zoomed-out photographs of a busy street (6th ave between Washington and Waverly Pl. in particular), I saw that a lot of movement and the occurrence of many instances at one time and space gives the perception that time is extremely fleeting. As soon as the next photograph is taken after 10 seconds, so much already changes from the last photograph: the people, the position of things, etc. But while many things may change, some things just seem to stay static. When zooming into these almost static objects, such as plants, it seems as though time is at a standstill. Although in the zoomed-out images the subject was the street, the objects within the street created a story though the composition of all the different impressions they gave of time. Thusly, the zoomed in images simply show a closer look at just one of those small aspects of the street to reveal more about the effects of time that particular subject. The compilation of the 5 min, 10 second interval pictures of different subjects (zoomed in and zoomed out) can all be viewed in these following images:

After compiling all the consecutive images of each scene, it was time to make a composition of the pictures in each scene of the block to give an overall or particular description of the block. In the draft, I mostly used color grouping to relay a how despite the constant movement of time and the changes that come with it, one thing that seems to stay constant is color; and many times color is one method of how we categorize memories (color is linked with memories). In the final “block grid”, I again used color but reduced it to the two main colors that remind me of the street: light blue, dark blue, and red. The text in the center of the grid is the main indicator of that block because the billboard from which its taken sizes up to almost a third of the space. Also, it is the one thing that remains constant, despite the continuous movement of people along the street.

Finally, I created a linear reading of the block to document how layout can also change how time reads. As opposed to the grid, where everything is happening everywhere at once, the linear reading shows one portion of the block. I created an almost panoramic view by combining images from two different scenes that I photographed. I focused on incorporating the colors red and blue and showing how time can still appear differently no matter the distance from one space to another. By extending the length of the van, I showed how time seems to drag by when waiting on the stop light, whereas the combination of the black and red car depict the sudden change of subject that can happen at the blink of an eye once the cars begin to move. For the final linear composition, I chose to revolve around the theme that being and living amidst all the chaos going on, rather than observing, no one seems to notice the things surrounding them. Everyone is always so much in their own world, in their own thoughts, in their own agendas, that the things around them just swift right by them and past their “point of view”. I put a lot of attention towards the center of the page to emulate a person’s vision when in a situation like this. Towards the sides, I added fade to show how everything to the side of your focus “brushes past you” as it fades into your peripheral vision and eventually into nothingness. 

 

Good luck charm

Although I was born and raised Jewish, my views changed as I grew older and realized that my beliefs did not fit into the Judeo-Christian-Islamic or Eastern mold. By the age of 15, I turned to paganism. This symbol is the one of many that paganism holds and is a symbol for the Pleiades Star cluster- more recognized as the famous car brand Subaru (the Japanese name for Pleiades). The Pleiades has several meanings in different ancient and modern cultures. In western astrology, the star cluster represents coping with sorrow. Thusly, this particular symbol has become one of my favorite, for life is filled with tragedies and the one way to move on is to find a way to learn from them rather then having them consume you.

The Esplanade

This photograph depicts several concepts regarding who I am and where I am from. First and foremost, the dress pictured was made by me and was one of my most sizable projects that I took on. It was both my prom dress and my most rewarding creations. Secondly, the picture took place at Brooklyn Bridge Park by pier 3. The setting is symbolic of a midway point between where I grew up in Brooklyn and where I will be living for the next 4 years: Manhattan.

The Stranger

In “The Stranger,” Schütz also describes the ways in which people become familiar with new places and communities. This is often a disorienting experience, and strangers do not have a clear map to guide them through it. Think of a time when you have been a stranger learning about a new community. How did you adapt to this situation?

“The Stranger” by Alfred Shütz explores the inner- and outer- space psychology behind the “crisis” of a person placed in a foreign atmosphere. Everyone experiences, to some degree, this phenomenon of feeling “out-of-place”, including myself. I remember a time when I was a stranger in my own school. My sudden loss of friends had put me outside of the social group, and made me insecure of my seemingly innate knowledge of the social norms. I first began to adapt to this situation by realizing that I was different, just how everyone is from each other (but not everyone has the confidence to accept their differences). As a stranger in my own environment, I had to relearn all the social structures, and understand why people acted the way they did- from why they found some things funny and others not, to why they resorted to unnecessary cruelty. Then, as I became familiar with the whats and whys of the social construct I learned that to “fit in” I didn’t have to be a follower of my peers, I simply had to understand them and see each person individually.