Concerned Citizen

                                                                James Price

This “Concerned Citizen” project was one that definitely tested our wits and patience. We two girls were not deterred, however, from documenting a truly wonderful individual who has been working hard to make a difference in the BYU community. Homophobia  runs rampant in much of Utah and is especially prevalent within Provo. James is one of the leaders of a Provo based group called Understanding Same Gender Attraction (USGA).  James has been striving for the last few months to help the community learn about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issue. We wanted to talk to James about his involvement and what it means to be an advocate for understanding in Provo. This is a young man who is openly gay, Mormon and a BYU student and is not afraid to identify with any of those groups. Because of this, he wants to help others understand what it is to be gay at BYU. He believes that understanding is the key to including these individuals who feel shunned because of their personal preferences.

             We open with James Price walking into frame in front of the Provo Library.  Dani Shay's "Superheroes" plays in the background to notify the audience that the person who is about to speak is trying to do good in the world.  Our video goes on to include footage that was taken from a past USGA meeting that James had conducted.  Shots from Dani Shay's performance were also included to illustrate how James has helped organize events to bring more awareness to the LGBT community.  We decided to show bits of the “Homosexuality in the Media” presentation where James led discussions as well.  Both of these are great examples of the community that James cares so much about. His efforts to build it up are greatly appreciated. We talked in class about the need for a connection to be made; a connection between the material and the subject. James creates a gracious support system for those people who don’t feel connected with their environment. The point of the group is not to advocate for one lifestyle or another, but to simply help others understand why they feel the way they do. It is not a place to simply find like-minded people, but to help cultivate relationships between straight and LGBT audiences. Our documentary was not meant to be inflammatory in any way; as a matter of fact we want just the opposite. Instead of fanning the proverbial Gay Flames, we wanted to help curb the burning damage. Just as James is trying to facilitate open dialogues over the issue, we wanted to bring awareness to both LGBT and Straight people each other’s feelings. 

                This week’s reading was a fascinating take on “The Right to Culture” by Arlene Goldbard in her essay, Human Rights and Culture. There is a portion about intellectual maturity vs. emotional maturity and how the only way our emotional maturity can keep up with our intellectual, in this information age, is to experience art, music, theatre, and culture to further connect us with the people around. In our documentary, we noted that the songs by Dani Shay were magnetic and James' words unifying. They brought these people in the USGA closer as they internalized the words and identified with them. The camaraderie in the room seemed to swell. That emotional connective tissue is what allows all these different groups of people to maneuver as a working body. Our documentary is only a small glimpse into James’ emotional investment with the group. He is hard working and incredibly helpful to the many members of this group, even in the face of the social backlash and homophobia surrounding him.  James continues to spread a message of love and tolerance  to all who will listen.  It’s because of people like him that we can begin to build our own culture. 

Protest Poster

Artist Statement: 

This week’s assignment allowed me to look into something that has been bothering me for a while. I identify myself as a feminist, I work in a mainly male environment, I have a lot of typically male interests, and I feel very comfortable in male company. However, when I tell people or they find out through conversations, that I am feminist they are surprised. I am not one of those hippies who burn bras and marches for women’s rights; I’m not a tom boy who will beat everyone in football. In our society lately I’ve noticed that there’s been a great disconnect from femininity. With the surge for equality among the genders, the women have tried to become more and more like the men. Femininity has suffered.

This week's viewing, "The Danger of a Single story" was a wonderful introduction into exploring the pieces of of myself that have been affected by my environment. For the author, it was an Anglo-Saxon  storyhood she was in. For me, it's something to do with female perception. There is an amazing article written by Henry Makow called “The Dying Art of Femininity” which he addresses the differences between women’s roles in the 1950s to today’s. While there are a few points I’m not quite sold on, this article is very good at discussing the difference between being a stereotypical bimbo and being too butch. His reasoning behind it is quite interesting. “Domestic violence and rape are highlighted to make women fear men, reject femininity and become masculine. The destruction of the family has always been the goal of the financial elite in order to control people.” In another article, there’s another explanation that is a little more specific. “We [females] must stop competing with men, especially in relationships, as competition is totally destructive.” That comes from an article titled “Fast track to Femininity: Why competing with men has left women out of touch with their feminine side” by Anna Pasternak who relates personal experiences about a loss of love due to imbalance. An imbalance not properly represented. In the media, feminists are portrayed in a harsh, man-eating, cold style that is not becoming of us or the creators. For example, Sandra Bullock's character in "The Proposal." So I thought I'd make my poster promote femininity in feminism.

This poster focuses on the idea of working women who are still as soft and tender as they please. I have a great respect for the women in the work force during WWII because they were doing it for both themselves and their countries. They wanted to participate in society and make a difference. Yet, when we view them, we don’t call them lesbians or butch. The image I chose is of a Naval trainee who worked in the barracks. In this image everything around her is straight lines and right angles. Yet there is hardly one straight line on her. I highlighted this with the grey dotted line following her silhouette. She brings the softness that is needed, yet is still getting her task done. I used the black and red colors to invoke the passion that surrounds this subject. The passion that I feel for it. I think the media should stop portraying feminists as hard, hyper-sexualized, career seeking, Amazons because that’s not who we are. We need companionship just as much as another, we just have beliefs of how that relationship should be built and maintained. 

Webspinna Artist Statement

This experiment was quite fun, to be perfectly honest. I had a ball taking on the challenge of "becoming" a persona and actually applying those traits to the sort of media we were using.  There was also a sort of New Frontier, uncharted territory, "to boldly go where no one has gone before" mentality that I had going into this. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, I didn't really have a reference point. Yet, it didn't matter because that's how we all were. In class we discussed the need to push ourselves outside the norms of our creative minds. I think a large number of us were ready to prepare and mix a full audio clip, upload it to the site, then sit back and relax the whole time as the sounds did all the work. While that could be fun, I liked Ben made the parameters of keeping it all streaming and making sure these would be more spontaneous. Spontaneity scares me, I'm someone who likes to know what's going on and what's coming down the pipe. Yet, as much as that was a stressor, I felt like it stretched my ideas of creativity much more. I learned a lot about how sounds interact and that sometimes, by accident, you come across a new harmony that two seemingly dissonant sounds make. It's a bit like art in that way: sometimes combining two separate concepts can make for the most thought provoking discussions.

One of the fascinating avenues we got to explore this week was the thought of art through technology. In class we watched that video about Glitch Art and we discussed the songs by Pogo (which inspired me to go and listen to quite a few of his other masterpieces, I'd recommend "Bangarang") and for reading we explored DJ Spooky. That DJ Spooky piece was clever, in my opinion. Some people may not like how there was nothing linear about it, but it reminded me of the "choose your own adventure" novels I used to love. Who says art has to be conventional? I think that's another reason Ben gave us the "All Streaming Clips" instruction; to help us learn about the artistic merits of live performance. As film majors we like to tweak, edit, and otherwise manipulate our works before they are available for public consumption, but that's not the only way to create. Creativity is creative because of the different paths you can explore with it. There's no right answer yet to the question of "Is this art?"

Webspinna Battle

The 60s versus The 80s

2001 Space Odyssy  - Start 0:22

Star Trek Sounds - Console 4, Intruder, Transport

Dr. Who*

Drums*

Exterminate

Sonic Screwdriver

Happy Birthday, Mr. President* - Start 0:55

Fun Fun Fun

Railroad Call

Mad Tea Party

Haunted Mansion - Start 0:17

Pirates of the Caribbean*

Bilbo Baggins*

Tainted Love - Start 0:44