mitchellstanford

My home and maturation is something I think back to and will keep with me for the  rest of my life. For my final project I wanted to create something that would help me visualize my memories and images through my eyes during one of my favorite times in life. I was inspired by my old lookbooks from American Apparel and Urban Outfitters to create a zine of a similar style; Smaller in size and newspaper-y texture with grainy pictures of ordinary moments.

During my research, I considered making a short film and thought to what I could do on my trip home to Texas. Being too busy with the holidays, I opted to make a  zine and capture a night with my friends over (a common thing that happened throughout the last five years). I needed to first make a draft on photoshop of pictures to decide a color scheme and style for the booklet.

I wanted to capture places such as my home, my ranch, my art work, and my friends in the final draft and portray them in grainy photo edited setting the aesthetic for my home and environments. I played with making some of the images taking up more space than a single page and learned from other inconsistencies within the project. The final project is as follows:

final-zine-home-12-3-17-wjruy9

 

In the scene where Peter Parker brings the best and only pictures of Spider-Man to the daily bugle, Spider-Man’s heroism is questioned  by chief editor, J. Jonah Jameson. Chuckie, a fanboy, explores the controversy of whether Spider-Man is a hero or a vigilante in the 2002 movie Spider-Man by.

During my research, I compared the qualities of both the Green Goblin and Spider-Man. The Green Goblin is the obvious antagonist while Spider-Man is a historical hero in comic culture.

I first looked to define what a hero truly means; “A hero is defined as an exemplary figure who, as an expression of an achievement, represents a collective dream of self transcendence.” (

Christie, William. “Hero.” In Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850, edited by Christopher John Murray. Routledge, 2003.)

Below is the project:

My neighborhood of focus was Harlem. Upon visiting the upper Manhattan neighborhood, my group and I observed people, landmarks, and traits unique to Harlem. As instructed, we generated a map that reflected the culturally rich area.

My first concept included landmarks like the City College and Columbia University, places where some native Harlemites found success in their education. I included the Apollo Theater, The Cotton Club, and Marcus Garvey Park, places that have historically been centers for entertainment and and socializing. I also included the nine police precincts and areas that marked tension amongst the neighborhood, considering the very real experience people in Harlem face regarding police brutality, hustle, and local economics.

Our joint conception was constructed with paper, markers, ink, and paint:

Harlem is a culturally rich neighborhood with backgrounds from the Caribbean, Italy, Africa, and more. It is universally known as the Black Mecca of the World. Although violence and crime is prevalent in the area, if given the opportunity to redo the project, I would leave out that aspect of the project that we chose to include because it came with a negative connotation even though it wasn’t specifically noted. Harlem is home to a multitude of music, food, and entertainment that is commonly overlooked.

I documented my trash output for seven days for my sustainable systems course. Upon receiving the assignment, I thought to when my roommate did the project a few weeks before me and had a lot of trash stowed under his bed. Thinking back to it, I didn’t want to have a load of trash under mine, so I attempted to use as little trash as possible. I cooked most of my meals and used dishes because I found that most trash comes from food. After the seven days, I found myself with very little trash, all recyclable and compostable.

The exhibition An Incomplete History of Protest was a powerful collection of artworks on civil rights, social justice and disease awareness that was from the 1940’s to the present. One flag that said “A black man was lynched by police yesterday” caught my eye and I imagined protesters wielding the flag among other signs in the streets in the 1950’s. I thought of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., and the severity of the divide in the country that was going on at that time in history. I also thought about how history is repeating itself and how our country is dividing again now and is will be a huge part of history that our children and grandchildren learn about.

Another piece that caught my attention was a barbed wire installation made by Melvin Edwards. On one side of a white wall was an upside down triangle and on the other side, a right side up triangle constructed of lines of barbed wire. I thought the barbed wire possibly resembled restrainment, jailing or torture, or possibly equality and inequality. Although I did not come to a solid conclusion from the abstract piece, I was fascinated by the construction and precision of the piece and wanted to incorporate some of the techniques used in art that I make in the future.

I wanted to create something essential that my suitemates and I were missing and too lazy to buy: A paper towel and napkin holder. I constructed my tool from wire of my roommate’s hand project, cardboard, a paper towel roll, and tape. I added a disk made from a pizza box to help the roll spin more freely and finished the project with matte black spray paint.