Author: kimm773

Response to Wark Quote

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“In the Game of War, history is made mobile again, in an irreversible time where strategy can reverse the course of events. ” – Mackenzie Wark

 

I approached the quote more in a personal way. The picture above is a photograph that I took while walking down the street in NewYork. The reason why I took that photo was because it reminded me of my guardian when I was living in Paris. Our apartment located near paris, a small town called Saint Cloud was very quiet and basically everyone knew everybody near by. The person who took care of the whole apartment facility was called Le Guardien. I used to forget my keys a lot so i’d always knock on his office to get the spare keys. It was very rare for these people seeing an asian family around because usually the asians would live in Paris by the 16th or 18th arr. where all the Korean supermarkets were. For that reason he took care of me, giving me candy, always being around when I would sit outside when locked out.

He was the one incharge of cleaning the windows too and this particular man cleaning the window with that tool just reminded me of him since it’s what I had seen growing up.

And i had always associated “history” specifically on our past (cultural past). Which made me think “what would my mom say if she saw the photo?”. As a person who had lived her whole life in Korea, growing up with a different history I decided to ask her.

The answer I got back from her made me realise one thing. She said “oh that reminds me of our guardian back in France”. I was expecting her to say something completely different or rather I should say something culturally Korean. But instead she also had read the memory that she experienced in her life. I had  forgotten how history is not only about her history in her cultural background but that also additionally wrote her history when living in paris.

 

 

Space Materiality Collapsible Chair Final

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Assignment:  Create a collapsible chair – using various connections (different mechanisms)

Thoughts : 

For this last final project in Space Materiality class, I had a lot of difficulties to begin with. My ideas leaned towards “not using glue or mechanical connections” and the idea of it having to be very original. I don’t know why but most people got their ideas from the research they did, chairs made by other artists. Of course I could be inspired and modify the ideas that are available but I really wanted to try on my own.

My ideas/sketch/process :

The connection I wanted to focus on were the strength of the tight rope/string holding the sides in the two perpendicular pressure giving a secure lock. The drawings below shows my different trials on my ideas and drawing them out to see if it would really be possible.

The ideas were talked out with my partner. We agreed to make two versions of the same connections. I wanted to make a rectangular shaped chair and my partner would make a square version.

However things changed as we started buying materials and starting to build.

Hector instantly just started building a cubic chair –

I eventually went on with the idea of using the cloth connection, holding the two planks and sliding into the big planks.

 

Process photos:

         

 

 

Reflection:

The things I had a lot of thought about were

  • the weight of the planks – they were making sure the seating part was secure but the I was thinking of ways to reduce the weight or size
  • if the cloth I was wrapping around the wooden ” chair” would be thick and strong enough to hold the persons weight without falling in.
  • How it would connect to my partner Hector’s piece.

Bridge 5

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Process:

I started to wonder what I wanted to do for this project as an art piece that corresponded with the essay that I wrote on the word “wrinkle”. My initial idea was to create a series of game suggestion board (as a game creator would present to their company as an idea) with a virtual character making game. The whole game was supposed to give the player the ability to personalise their appearances as it is something that everyone would love to have since the people nowadays are trying to hide their ageing, trying to follow the stream line of ideal beauty…etc. But I had never been confident in working on special programs like photoshop or illustration. And my initial idea shifted into finalising what I wanted to do. Thinking of ways I could accomplish what I wanted to, was by drawing a poster that showed the effort people put in to get rid of their ageing process.

As my essay touched upon the society’s pressure to catch up this idea standard of beauty, I made my final project be a series of cosmetic surgeries that people go through to be young and “beautiful”. Getting rid of the cheek bones, wrinkles, getting double eyelids, removing excess fat from different parts of the face were all included. The reason why I created 5-6 series of cosmetic surgery was to highlight the most important fact about “wrinkle” that I found after writing my paper on it. It was that “wrinkles” are all changes that happen over time and that there’s not really a way to go back to its form before. Liliana Porter’s art piece called “Wrinkle”, a series of photo-etching piece consists of 10 in progress image of a paper being crumbled/wrinkled. I thought that this continuous change in the face with cosmetic surgery would go well with the steps of this act of wrinkling by Liliana Porter.

 

Shift: 

“What I’ve made for the final bridge project in studio and seminar is not what I would have made on the first day of either of these classes.”

As a student, I had never been so free to draw or paint what ever I wanted. Like the ordinary teacher and student relationship, the student draws or paints what the teacher wants them to draw or paint. And coming into Parsons in general, my expectations were high on making art which I wanted, and had my own thoughts into. Coming into Studio and Seminar, I really didn’t know how these classes were going to merge and work with one another. But soon after I realised the art making process in Studio, and the literal backup or support and thinking in Seminar both went so well. By the end of these two classes, I was basically making art that meant more than just art that was pleasing to the eye, but with more meaning and depth.

 

 

In Seminar, which assignments helped you to shift and in what specific ways? List at least two:

One project I found that really shifted me was the assignment in Studio called Camera as Tool, where we had to create pieces that spoke without words. And the way Jen interpreted my piece (below) was indeed fascinating. It shifted my general thinking into how pieces I create could be significant to others and intrigue more thinking from individuals.

 

Second assignment that I thought helped me shift was the creative essay that we wrote on a specific line from the partner’s interview after asking the vertical interrogation questions. I created this story of the golden glasses that all started with one line that really struck me which was “for my love, I made a prom dress.”. This essay in particular shifted me to have so much freedom to write creatively and this whole writing process felt like a painting. I had the ability to do whatever I wanted to, create something without barriers.

In Seminar, which assignments proved particularly challenging? Why? How did you meet that challenge?

There were some challenging topics like the New Museum Exhibition and the readings like Gosh Boy George and talked a lot about masculinity and femininity regarding gender. This topic was hard for me to grasp because not only was I not informed about this topic, I came from a background that doesn’t put these matters seriously.  Another assignment that I found particularly challenging was the final project. Not only I was stressed about other finals, I was worried a lot about what I could do with this one word “wrinkle”.

In Seminar, which assignment(s) that you completed might you consider a kind of failure? Why? How can you learn from this failure?

I think the only assignment that I consider a kind of failure would be the final one with the brochure and essay alont with the presentation. I thought that after listening to everyone’s words and creativity with their own words were far more well derived  and structured while mine was too specific and didn’t really go freely as I wanted.

Throughout the semester, how has your writing ability shifted? Cite some examples to illustrate your point.

Writing in general was not something I felt passionate about especially because I was never a “good” writer. But as I started to have fun with writing in this class with certain assignments like the fictional writing where I was able to really expand my imagination, I believe that my writing ability shifted.

” It had the rustic golden metal frame surrounding the big lenses. He folded them carefully and placed them on the table. “

In your writing, do you see common threads or themes? What ideas occurred to you again and again?

I think I didn’t really have a common threads or themes that was apparent. I never thought of that and i’m not sure what this question really means.

Throughout the semester, how has your approach to reading shifted? Or how has text changed your work?

In terms of reading, yes I did go through a lot of change. In my spare time I was reading the readings that we had to read but unlike the usual times where i’m forced to read, I really took time to read.

Bridge 4 (Intro to Research) Braided Essay + Annotated Bibliography

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Assignment:
From the word that we picked from the Diderot Encyclopedie, we had to write a creative braided essay that explored the word beyond its usual meaning with scholarly investigation, personal narrative, creative analysis and so on. We were first introduce to the “braided” essay with the examples that we read and talked about in class, like Benfey’s “Wittgenstein’s Handles” and Biss’s “Time and Distance Overcome”. We had to back up our creative thinking with authoritative and scholarly research, cited with footnotes with the annotated bibliography.

Thoughts / Process:

The word that I chose was Wrinkle. And as I started to brainstorm what I wanted to write for my essay, I found an artist that created a literal piece called “Wrinkle”. Liliana Porter’s work of inanimate objects and her artist statement got me thinking how this one object (in this case a word) could coexist between human.
I began to realise the negative connotation the word “Wrinkle” gave to everyone. In fact the act of wrinkling or wrinkles it self give a thought to everyone that it’s a crease or fold (on things like skin or paper) that never can return to have a clean smooth surface like before. Therefore, I started to think about how the society nowadays with their ideal standards of beauty forces people to hide and be embarrassed about something that occurs naturally as we age, instead of embracing the signs of ageing. I added my own personal narrative on how skin care has been always a part of my life and I would see people around me try to get rid of the wrinkles by getting expensive surgeries and cosmetic products.
Draft: 
The word wrinkle is defined as the following in the Oxford English Dictionary: A sinuous or tortuous movement, a crease, fold, or ridge caused by the folding, a small crease of the skin, ripple on the surface of water.These multiple definitions of this word have one thing in common. They all are something resulting of an action and that happen over time. The movement of folding then leaving a mark, the years passing and leaving creases on the skin and the creation ripples on the
surface of water in a moment. It is also apparent that the word wrinkle also has a tendency to easily portray images that coexist between object and human.
The works of the Argentinian artist Liliana Porter revolve aroundphotography, paintings, prints of inanimate objects. One of her works titled: Wrinkle, is a photo etching piece made in 1968. Which consists of 10 series of photo etching images that show the progress of a paper getting wrinkled up. Something to note are the two extra pages at the beginning. In front of the series of ten images, there’s a title page, and another page with a dialogue formatted interview with Emmett Williams. The dialogue is a conversation between Emm and Ett, which later we find out that it’s a play of words for Emmett Williams. The conversation itself it very simple but formatted quite rough on the topic of her work and art.
As one asks what still life of a dynamic process is, one questions why they need art, and also transitions to how we have the physical wrinkles on the face, and the how destructive the act of wrinkling is. Towards the end of the dialogue, the conversation slowly ends when they discuss how the way things shrink and contract, in fact is considered something natural. And states examples of ways these wrinkles happen in nature and also refer back to the imagery of the action of wrinkling. “The image of ripples on water, hokusai’s waves”
Her artist statement addresses what she wants to portray through those objects: “Many of these pieces depict a cast of characters that are inanimate objects…The objects have a double existence. On the one hand they are mere appearance, insubstantial ornaments, but, at the same time, have a gaze that can be animated by the viewer, who, through it, can project the inclination to endow things with an interiority and identity. These “theatrical vignettes” are constructed as visual
comments that speak of the human condition…”
The series of inanimate objects Liliana Porter has created in fact are up to the people and their gaze. And she ties it with how they speak of the human condition, bringing us back to how the word wrinkle coexists in the current society.
 
Wrinkles are signs of aging, as the appearance of the skin starts to have visible creases usually around the eyes, mouth and chin, mostly delicate spots of the face.
“Skin aging is a complex biological process influenced by a
combination of endogenous or intrinsic and exogenous or extrinsic factors.”
The different ways women start to take care of their appearance of their skin, to hid the aging that is naturally apparent grows. The anti-wrinkle creams and skin care product industry grows bigger and bigger as it’s mostly what worries middle aged women the most. Skin care routines are essential to most South Korean women. Since a young age, I was exposed to having so many different types of skin care products that I had to apply in order. It was something I always
waited for at the end of the day, as it felt like playing a game. My whole entire collection of skin care products would change if my skin would have a different problem as I aged. My mother would never hesitate to buy better and more expensive products. She always used to say that you need to use good products for the skin even if it costs a lot. My brother in
my family also was exposed to taking care of skin. Normally skin care products come in different lines, separated into different age groups.
 From the age line 20s, it usually consists of products that help with acneor redness, and as the age level goes up, anti-wrinkle comes up more frequently. The negative connotation given with the word wrinkle for South Korean women is probably much different from how other women in other ethnic groups perceive it. The first thing that would trigger an ordinary young South Korean woman’s mind with the word wrinkle, would be related to aging of the skin leading to cosmetic surgery. Surprisingly it’s not just the women, now men are equally sensitive to the word wrinkle as for them, youth equals ability. The most recent official statistics put the percentage of South Koreans undergoing cosmetic surgery in 2008, at around 20 percent. However, the actual number is likely to be considered higher as only a fraction of cosmetic surgeries is recorded and many of them get newly developed.
The most apparent reason why South Koreans lean towards plastic surgery, especially surgeries that rejuvenate their appearance is because of the direct tie between ability and youth. Throughout my teen age, I had the chance to encounter a lot of different business men that worked for my father.

FINAL COPY: 

The word “wrinkle” is defined as the following in the Oxford English Dictionary: “A sinuous or tortuous movement, a crease, fold, or ridge caused by the folding, a small crease of the skin, ripple on the surface of water.”[1] These multiple definitions of this word have one thing in common. They all are something resulting of an action and that happen over time. The movement of folding then leaving a mark, the years passing and leaving creases on the skin and the creation ripples on the surface of water in a moment. It is also apparent that the word “wrinkle” also has a tendency to easily portray images that coexist between object and human.

The works of the Argentinian artist Liliana Porter revolve around photography, paintings and prints of inanimate objects. One of her works titled: “Wrinkle”, is a photo etching piece made in 1968, which consists of ten series of photo etching images that show the progress of a paper getting wrinkled up, “aimed to address a discourse on materiality, artistic gesture, artistic meaning and visual landscape.” 2

Something to note are the two extra pages at the beginning. In front of the series of ten images, there’s a title page, and another page with a dialogue formatted interview with Emmett Williams, an American poet and visual artist who recently passed away in 2007.

The dialogue is a conversation between Emm and Ett. Later, we find out that it’s not an actual conversation between Emm and Ett, but it’s a play of words dissecting the name Emmett from Emmet Williams. This is where Liliana Porter’s intention and her play of “words” comes in place.

The conversation itself is very simple but has a strong stance on the topic of her work and art. The conversation revolves around art and relation with the word wrinkle with series of questions after questions. When one asks what still life of a dynamic process is, the other answers by asking a question on why they need art, then the topic transitions to how physical wrinkles on our face exists, and how destructive the act of wrinkling is. Towards the end of the dialogue, the conversation slowly ends when they start listing acts of wrinkling in everyday life like the “…earthquakes…”, “foot on my wrinkled white pants…”, and shoes the tie between art and the word “wrinkle” by referencing the work of Hokusai, a Japanese artist famous for depicting sights of eastern landscapes: “The image of ripples on water, Hokusai’s waves”3.

Liliana Porter’s works in general tie a close relationship with art and the audience with her series of inanimate objects as she explains “Many of these pieces depict a cast of characters that are inanimate objects…have a gaze that can be animated by the viewer, who, through it, can project the inclination to endow things with an interiority and identity”4 But specifically, with this piece of work titled “Wrinkle”, she stresses upon the relationship the word “wrinkle” has with the society and the human gaze and even suggests how they are “visual comments that speak of the human condition…”.5

And with that relationship of humans and the word “wrinkle”, it is no surprise that the first thing that comes into our minds is the condition of skin. Wrinkles are signs of aging, as the appearance of the skin starts to have visible creases usually around the eyes, mouth and chin, mostly delicate spots of the face. Skin aging in general is defined as the following:

“a complex biological process influenced by a combination of endogenous or intrinsic and exogenous or extrinsic factors.” 6

The different ways women start to take care of their appearance of their skin, to hide the natural signs of aging, grows. The anti-wrinkle creams and skin care product industry grows bigger and bigger as age acting upon skin is mostly what worries middle aged women the most.

Skin care routines are essential to most South Korean women. From a young age, I was exposed to having so many different types of skin care products that I had to apply in order. It was something I always waited for at the end of the day, as it felt like playing a game.  My whole entire collection of skin care products would change if my skin would have a different problem, as I aged. My mother would never hesitate to buy better and more expensive products. She always used to say, “You can buy inexpensive clothes and accessories but money doesn’t matter for skin.”.

My brother in my family also was exposed to taking care of skin. He was the one who suggested that my mother and my father should take me to a dermatologist to take care of my acne when I was in middle school. He told my parents that in the society they live in right now, girls like me should start taking care of their skin since middle school and even scolded my parents for not taking care of it sooner.  And soon I was introduced to this whole world of skin care, had appointments and had a whole collection of skin care routines. Normally skin care products come in different lines, separated into different age groups. Women aged in their 20’s, skin care products usually consist of products that help with acne or redness, and as the age level goes up, anti-wrinkle comes up more frequently.

This relationship between appearance of skin and how this certain culture builds upon this matter connects back to the coexistence of the world “wrinkle”. The first thing that would trigger an ordinary young South Korean woman in their 20’s, with the word “wrinkle” would be related to aging of the skin leading to cosmetic surgery. It’s because the age range of reproduction of skin is much slower and is hard to rely on just cosmetic products. Surprisingly nowadays, it’s not just the women, now men are equally sensitive to the word wrinkle as for them as “youth equals ability.”7

The most recent official statistics put the percentage of South Koreans undergoing cosmetic surgery in 2008, at around 20 percent.8 However, the actual number is likely to be considered higher as only a fraction of cosmetic surgeries is recorded and many of them get newly developed. The most apparent reason why South Koreans lean towards plastic surgery, especially surgeries that rejuvenate their appearance is because of the direct tie between ability and youth.

Throughout my teen age, I had the chance to encounter a lot of different business men that worked for my father. Everytime they’d come back from a break in Korea, they’d have small facial surgery done. Older businessmen would get Botox to smooth out their wrinkly skin, or remove the excess fat from the under eyes or chin. Made from a neuro toxin called botulinum toxin, it’s “predominantly used as a treatment to reduce the appearance of facial wrinkles and fine lines”. 9

The society’s pressure of having this idealism standards for beauty and its close relationship with success and ability has made the young people of South Korea, insecure and pushed them to rely on cosmetic surgeries. The negative connotation the word “wrinkling” has set upon the people in our society nowadays.

Referring back to Liliana’s Porter’s works that consist of expressing with inanimate objects that can be found in our daily lives, in this case the simple act of wrinkling a clean piece of paper indirectly imposes the “wrinkling” of the societal norms and insecurity of the people.

 

 

[1] Merriam-Webster, hacker Merriam-Webster.com, 2011

2Fosco Lucarelli. “Wrinkle – 10 Photoengraved Etchings by Liliana Porter With an…” SOCKS. April 23, 2016.

3 Liliana Porter, Wrinkle, Liliana Porter 2011

4 Porter, Wrinkle, Liliana Porter 2011

5 Porter, Wrinkle, Liliana Porter 2011

6 Ruta Ganceviciene, Liakou Aikaterini I., Theodoridis Athanasios, Makrantonaki Evgenia, and Zouboulis Christos C. “Skin anti-aging strategies” Dermato-endocrinology. (July 01, 2012)

7 Anna Fifield, “In South Korea, beauty is skin deep (just make sure to pierce the stubble).” Interview by Woohae Cho, The Washington Post. May 10, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-south-korea-beauty-is-skin-deep-just-make-sure-to-pierce-the-stubble/2015/05/10/4779f642-f354-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html?utm_term=.1c77e3c56880

8 Ruth Holiday & Joanna. Elfving-Hwang, “Gender, Globalization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea” (2012):

9 Hannah Nicolas . “Botox: How Does Botox Work?” Medical News Today. August 15, 2017.

Shift: 

Eric’s feedback and corrections definitely shifted my essay. The things I focused  was the development of the argument I was trying to make. Of course there were other things like the basic formatting of the essay that I had to fix and re-organise, the descriptive annotated bibliography and so on.

Writing this essay was definitely a new discovery. I had never thought that creativity could be incorporated in writing an essay. The two examples of the braided essays that we read in class were truly fascinating as they were not only informative but also artistic and creative. And along the way of writing this essay, I learned some new techniques like using footnotes, making annotated bibliography, and basically truly got how Chicago formatting really functions.

 

Peer to Peer Film

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This project mainly focused on editing an original footage of my partner’s answers to the 10 vertical interrogations and making a whole new interpretation of it. The questions were purely my own that I came up with, and my partner had the freedom to answer it however he liked.

 

My partner Max’s footage talked mainly about love, family, mother, emotions. I took them apart and made a sort of a confession/letter to his mother. I wanted to create a story that was mysterious where the audience wouldn’t be able to really understand why he’s saying such things but his own meanings were poetic.

 

I guess firstly the general connection to “Funes the Memorious” would be that its both fantastical. The writing style in Funes is very mysterious but very poetic at the same time. I tried to keep those things in mind and make this “confession” to his mother seem mysterious and poetic.

This shift from reality to a fantasy is something that I want to explore more. And one thing that I would reconsider doing is to really figure out how premier works, because it was really tough to edit this video and I struggled a lot.

Bridge 3 (Multiple Perspectives) Trigger: Gender as a Tool and as a Weapon

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Assignment:

  1. Some writing about my own reflection on this exhibition at the NewMuseum.
  2. Choose one work from the exhibition that speaks to the axioms in “Gosh, Boy George” , if it supports it or challenges it. Specify the connection between the art piece and the axiom and develop.

Exhibition Review: 

Overall, my visit to the NewMuseum was very interesting. Sexes and gender both are things that I’ve never really found myself interested. The discussions we had during seminar class about femininity and masculinity were sort of hard for me as I did not have that many opinions as I was not open to these subjects growing up in Korea.

 

My favorite pieces from the Gender as a Tool and as a Weapon exhibition were these pieces.

After the show, I connected one of the artists and the reading we did during seminar class.

Exhibition : Gender as a Tool and as a Weapon

  1. In Mickalene Thomas’ work, she works around the art historical subject of the European narrative of idealised beauty, through showing portraits of exotic women. The different screens, gave a distorted vision. In Mariah Garnett’s work, she tries to reinterpret existing materials to explore relationship between representations, embodiment and identity. Once you’re far back, all you see is the repeating pattern and when you get up close, you start seeing the nudity(porn), things that you wouldn’t expect to see with such beautiful installations
  2. Mickalene thomas’s video work, she uses nudity and takes the “exotic women” to challenge the order the society has put up in dealing with the european concept of idealised beauty. The distorted image of the body, its visually engaging with seduction. She had the chance to play around between the odalisque and exotic women.
  3. If seduction was a performative act, it would attempt to influence the existing social order, conveying messages for people to stand up for things they’re mostly afraid to say in society.
  4. In Mickalene’s work, the whole production dealing with exotic women .The artist themselves they have the artistic control and play around with their overall production. The audience only sees things after the artists are done manipulating it.

THOUGHTS ON THE EXHIBITION:

This exhibition changed my mind on gender and sexuality, and showed how people outside of Korea are really think differently about it especially these days. It shifted my thoughts from having a closed mind and into a bigger opening for the society that we belong right now.

ESSAY: 

Usually masculinity would be confined to physical traits and outward appearance such as having broad shoulders, being muscular, and plenty of other. Masculinity in my perspective has nothing to do with the physical appearance of certain person, how they dress and even associating only with the males. For me, masculinity is something from the inner self that has something to do with confidence.

In fact, I started to ponder what masculinity really meant. But for some reason it was really hard to grasp what masculinity is, how different people have different perceptions and how it’s often argued over how that word is used. In South Korea, at least from what I’ve grown up seeing, masculinity isn’t something that is stressed upon. It was very recent, having moved to New York, I was introduced to the perception people have over gender, and the two terms; masculinity and femininity. In Korea, masculinity translates directly to “being manly”. There is no specific word for masculinity. The different perspectives and the way different people view the term masculinity in American was indeed fascinating.

As someone that has been recently introduced to this whole masculinity and femininity , I took it with a different approach. I focused more in how something could be viewed differently. In Gosh, Boy George written by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, he proposes four axioms that challenges and even disrupts the ongoing thoughts on masculinity. One axiom that I find relatively general was “Sometime masculinity had got nothing to do with [men]… And when something is about masculinity, it is not always ‘about men.’”. What I mean by relatively general is, it deals with disputable perceptions people have on masculinity.

And relating to one of the art works at the New Museum exhibition: Gender as a tool and a weapon, I found Mariah Garnett’s video installation the most associable. Mariah Garnett’s 16mm film installation, called Encounters I may or May Not Have had With Peter Berlin is a short video reflected on a mirror disco ball that disperses the images in little circles across the whole room. As I started to do more research on the artist and the installation, I found that the work actually deals with narcissism and the way which heroes are embedded into the identities and manifested through the body. And the purpose of the film is to guide the audience through process of making contact with the iconic 70’s gay sex icon Peter Berlin who only exists in his own photographs.

The piece itself was visually so attractive and it grabbed quite a lot of attention. The little circles dispersed across the room contain such vague graphic that from far you don’t really see what it is but up close you see the image that it contains which is partial nudity. Without researching too much about the piece, I realised that this piece could perfectly portray how different people view the same matter differently. From far behind, the installation itself is very pleasing to the eye. The sparkling lights, the lights that flicker in the darkness. But as you start to move forward, the audience starts to see the nude graphic in each of the circular reflection. From such quiet beautiful piece, nudity isn’t something that you’d expect, especially of a porn star Peter Berlin. And I think this goes with how people view masculinity in general. People might think it’s so obvious that masculinity only applies for men, but up close it has a whole other meaning to it and it really depends on how people insist to take it from there.

Thoughts – shift: 

Overall, to begin with, the subject matter it self : gender, femininity and masculinity, was very difficult for me to expand my thoughts upon. This topic in general didn’t trigger any thing in me, unlike almost every other person in the class or even in America. Despite having spent most of my life, all over the world, I still believe that I’m a strong Korean thinker; conservative and neutral. In Korea, this line between Femininity and Masculinity has been just brought up and people who strongly oppose or agree with an opinion on such are seen as people who have nothing to do or somewhat crazy. This essay overall didn’t really shift any thoughts in my mind as I didn’t and still cant grasp this whole concept… And that is probably why the grade reflected upon this confusion.

Bridge 2 (Peer-to-Peer) Peer Profile

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Assignment:

Expand my own interpretations on my partner’s interview footage, after asking a series of questions (Vertical Interrogation). Keep in mind Broges’ story, and write a portrait of your partner that incorporates the specific sentence, addressing the topic of memory, forgetting or language. And we can go creative as we can, even shifting details into fiction.

My thoughts:

I decided to expand specifically on one particular sentence my partner said during the interview that stuck on to me.

“For my love, I made a prom dress.”

The Essay :

 

The country side never gets old. The scenery outside seem the same every time I visit. The colorful fields, the trees and the sky all seem like they’re framed in time. Every time I’d ride the train, I would sit in my assigned seat and fantasize about things that could possibly happen in that moment. Like in the typical Asian movies where the main character falls instantly in love with the guy sitting across from her and later realises that he’s actually a guy she held hands with in pre-school. Sitting across from me, was an old guy. His perfume was such a delight and his overall look was so chic but he sure wasn’t the love of my life. I glanced over to see what the old man was rapidly writing or perhaps sketching in his little notebook. Our eyes met and right away and I noticed the sunlight reflecting against the tears that had been swelling up in his eyes. He smiled very softly as if he wanted me to start the conversation. I timidly said, “I’m sorry, I was just curious what kind of pen you were using”. I didn’t want him to think that I was peeking over, curious of what he was writing or sketching, so I had to make up a lie. This time he smirked and said “I was writing down my birthday and my wife’s birthday”. He showed me his notebook; a page about the size of his palm, full of same numbers repeating over and over. “I forget too many times and now it’s become a habit.”, he said. I noticed that one of the dates was tomorrow: 14th of August. I carefully asked him, pointing at one of the dates, “Is that your birthday?”. He shook his head and said “No, it’s my wife’s birthday.”. I smiled and said “oh! Are you going to celebrate tomorrow then?”. He closed his shaking lips and slowly said, “No, she passed away 6 years ago, and so I’m visiting her”. I didn’t know what to say. I never understood why people would say that they’re sorry if they hear someone’s passing. So instead, I told him “That’s great.”. He put away his metal framed glasses, like the ones young fashion lovers like to wear these days. But something about his made it look “real”. It had the rustic golden metal frame surrounding the big lenses. He folded them carefully and placed them on the table. “She made this one for me as a gift when I got back from the UK” he said. I held it up and saw a beautiful cursive writing engraved on the metal side that said with love, Ella.  “It’s beautiful…”. The train was moving so fast and loud but the trees and the endless mosaic fields were so quiet. The warmth of the sunset, and the coral colors surrounding us sparked up the golden color of the glasses even more. He wore his glasses and started searching for the end of the small notebook he was holding. Something fell out of it and landed on the floor. As I picked it up, my fingers instantly felt the delicacy of the paper. It was a very old photo of a young man and a very beautiful young woman. “For my love, I made a prom dress.”he said. That’s when I noticed the writing on the flyer behind them that said – Prom Night Besant Hill High School.  I was stunned to see the dress so perfect and modern looking.

“I studied fashion and later became a designer, had my own clothing line. But now as you can see, I can’t even thread a needle. That dress was the first dress I designed and made for someone. Oh, I remember that night.”, he said chuckling.

At this moment, I realized that this was the moment I had dreamt of, way better than the love stories from the Asian movies I watched. What a perfect story to tell my friends, family and even my kids when I get older. All of a sudden, he started coughing. The coughing noise got louder and louder and as soon as I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting in my seat. I looked outside the train window and saw the sunset. I realized that this was all a dream. I only had 5 minutes left on the train. As soon as I got my luggage to head out, I passed by a seat and noticed a pair of glasses. I knew in that second that I had seen those glasses somewhere before. The way it caught the sunset light, and the way the golden color sparked.

Thoughts after – shift

Writing this style of essay was pretty fun, the fact that I had this freedom to play around with something someone’s saying. It gave me a chance to shift my ideas into what others have experienced.

Bridge 1 (Memoir) Parson : The Game

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Assignment: Writing an essay about a place (being more than a country, but like rooms, streets.) And write about how that space changed you or affected you in any way.

 

Bridge 1 Memoir Essay: 

The hard-bristled carpet on the floor made a rough but also gentle sound against the metal doors as they slid open. I’d check myself out in the dirty mirror until I realize that the doors were soon going to close. One step inside, I was surrounded by that distinct smell the carpet had. The carpet almost had this smell of the road when it rains after a hot sunny day. Or was it just the smell of the big golden retriever Monsieur Robert owned? I always enjoyed trying to guess who rode the elevator. It was a small apartment after all, located in a small quiet town, perfect for elders to live in. The roads were always almost empty, and the loudest noise that was made was my gardener blowing the leaves away with that awful machine on his back. Everyone knew each other, and which floor they live on. We all knew that my house owner, an old typical French woman had a bad relationship with the nice German woman. Whenever my house owner came to visit to complain to us about the smallest thing, the German lady always kept the front door open. She’d come to our house as if she didn’t know the owner came and she’d argue against her. Whenever the noise got too loud, ladies from a floor above or below would come down on the elevator and mouth to me: “are they fighting again?” “ooh la la encore?” (oh my gosh, again?). Everyone knew everything that happened in this apartment. I always knew who rode the elevator just by the strong perfume drilling up my nose. And others probably knew that an Asian family lived here due to the strong smell of Kimchi or other strong-smelling stews that would transfer out our door into the elevator. Whenever I was with someone else in the elevator, they always wanted to start a conversation with me. I never liked conversations with elder woman especially because I had to speak French. They always looked so fragile but also powerful at the same time. They always complained to me about the food smell being too strong or that I was being too loud last night. I did understand but I smiled awkwardly to them as if I didn’t understand a single word they said. Since then, every time I heard some footsteps when I entered the elevator, my fingers knew exactly where to press. I loved the close button on the elevator. In fact, I liked all the buttons. They were big thick plastic squares that made the noise everyone wanted to hear after pressing a button. Whenever the door would close, I’d feel safe in my own little space. But this made me grow into someone timid which I hated already. I was stranded in a country with people who were a completely different race, spoke completely different language. But that wasn’t the main reason. I had always been timid and afraid of people since a very young age. I would always hide behind my dad’s legs when I met new people. I felt like I needed to change even in the smallest place like this elevator. I decided to open up more, like wait for people to arrive when I heard footsteps, and greet the elder women that came in and said bonjour. The elders seemed to be pleased that I tried to speak French and would complement me that my French was getting better and better. I’d ask people which floor they were getting off, and I was the one that tried to start off a conversation. This led me to being more open even outside the elevator. I was no more afraid of random strangers saying “Bonjour” whenever I passed by them. I was the one that started saying those greetings! Soon after, the whole apartment started to recognise this change. The guardian (the landlord) told me that people had been talking about me. Not about the smell or the loud noise but how they were delightful to see the change in me. The walk back to the elevator, I didn’t really feel a thing. But as soon as the door slid close, I had this weird emotion that busted inside me. It was a mix of relief, courage, self-admiration

SHIFT:

I had probably never written a memoir before, and it was very interesting how I had to use my own memory from my childhood and think about every little detail about it. I had to really think about how I felt to be inside that elevator, the smell that I remembered, the small details that really captured that instant and would be delivered to the reader.

Multiple Perspectives Project

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“We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavour to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavour, we will perish. However immoral or subversive this may sound to some, it is the writer who must always remember that mortality, if it is to remain or become morality, must be perpetually examined, cracked, changed, made new. He must remember, however powerful the many who would rather forget, that life is the only touchstone and that life is dangerous, and that without the joyful acceptance of this danger, there can never be any safety for anyone, ever, anywhere….Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” 

— James Baldwin in “As Much Truth As One Can Bear” (1962)

I chose the last part of this quote because it exactly portrayed what the younger generation of South Korea is doing right now in terms of this taboo the society has created with tattoos. Even though it isn’t guaranteed that people’s minds/perceptions are going to change, they still express their form of art in hopes of changing.

 

From the “Gender as tool and as weapon” exhibition at the New Museum, I was fascinated with a particular piece. The way I approached that piece was in fact out of curiosity. As an interior design major, first thing I start to look at is the way the exhibition is set up, the pieces, the lights, the space for people to sit or stand. And one thing I noticed was a wall that didn’t seem to quite feel the pattern the room was giving. I approached the wall and as I did, I started noticing that there was some kind of noise or music playing. And then I noticed the small hole on the wall. I peeped through the hole and saw a small room with a tv screen that played sexual images and videos. This peeping through the hole, giving the audience chance to reveal their curiosity but also give them the privacy and intimacy.

I took the wire and glass to portray the different perspectives and view people had/have in Korea about tattooing. The bars that show that Korea is now changing, and the space cut on the side shows that there has been some progress in changing people’s perspectives. And show that even though there could be the obstacle people need to face, there’s always another one and you can never get past it without trying.

(I dont have any photos me presenting because my friends forgot to take photos because we turned the lights off… And my actual project, I dissembled the piece after class was over because I had so many stuff to carry…) But here are some sketches.

This is the video that I decided to project on the screen. I found it hard to create a video about tattoos because I don’t even have a tattoo and that much knowledge about it myself. This documentary is about Grace Neutral exploring South Korea’s illegal tattoo scenes and learning about this whole taboo, where it came from and how it goes around in Korea.

The beginning of the documentary, she meets up with a tattoo artist named Apro Lee and he says

“In Korea, its illegal to tattoo without doctor license but who’s going to be a tattoo artist when they have a doctor license?”. 

He continues to tell us more about how Koreans, mostly elders have a very negative view on artists like him and people around him who have tattoos which drives him to avoid public transit.

Shift: This winter, I’m going to get my first tattoo done and it’s a first step for me to reach out and be the first one to change people’s perspectives around me. And it’s going to be an emotional shift for me as it’s a big decision i’m willing to put myself in.