Observation 11: Field Trip to Lee Gallery

I don't remember the artist's name or what his pieces were called, but I remember being drawn to them. The art that I was interested in was the series of crow prints because we learned from our guide that the artist originally started with photographing roadkill and then noticed that birds of some sort (usually crows) were always present in his picture. I think it is really interesting that the artist started with an initial idea but was inspired by his observations and turned his concept to a whole new direction. The piece in particular that I focused on was one of a single, larger crow that was entwined in barbed wire. Our guide explained to us that the artist created this piece as an expression of his feelings about the current war in Iraq. When I looked at the piece, I thought about what the artist was trying to portray with his piece and formed my own message. I took the crow to represent Iraq, more specifically the innocent people in Iraq struggling against their corrupt Government. Their government is represented by the barbed wire which is trapping innocent people and the stars around the crow are a symbol of America who are trying to free them. The crow however, is so entangled in the barbed wire because the citizens are torn as to who they should side with during this war. The crow in general is a symbol of death; it is black and always present when something has died in nature and so it represents the gloom of the entire situation.

Observation 10: Personal Relationships

I think that the most useful topic of personal relationships is attachment. I learned in my communications class that people need to love and be loved and that it is in our nature to find people we have to have in our lives. I think that attachment is a positive thing because I feel that if you have at least one person in your life who you could absolutely not live without, then you are lucky. Having people who are special and dear in your heart just makes life more enjoyable and so I feel that attachment gives you that happiness. A con of attachment, however, is that it never remains as intense as it starts. While people get attached to one another and stay that way forever, the passion dies and it become a new sort of love. Although two people still love each other, I find sadness in the truth that your initial burning desire to be with someone eventually dies off or lessens. Changes are taking place in our culture everyday about relationships. Nearly half of all married couples fail and some of those people will never remarry again. Additionally, kids in high school and college are not dating as they did in the past. They are more about seeing many random people but not usually prone to settle down with one person. I think that is has to do with the way the media is portraying relationships. Many songs either influence going out, getting crazy, and just having a good time rather than songs about falling in love. Other songs include the sadder sides of failed relationships whether that be someone cheating on their significant other or about a bad breakup. I think that "perfect weddings" do not necessarily ensure strong marriages, rather they just influence the materialistic ways our culture is beginning to lean towards. My parents had a smaller wedding due to financial issues and because they are of different religions could not be married in a church. This could be seen as unconventional or nontraditional because they are 1) of different religious backgrounds and 2) did not include as heavily the religious aspects of marriage as apart of their ceremony. Despite them not following what is expected of a perfect wedding, they do have a happy marriage going on 25 years. I do not think it is the wedding itself that makes things perfect, rather it is who you are with. People often rush to quickly into marriages because they feel pressured to or just assume it is what they are supposed to do. A marriage will only work if those two people would die without the other, whether they are married in a cathedral in New York or a garbage dump.

Observation 9: Follow Through Ch. 9

I think that Mukherjee’s essay would persuade them. Throughout the article she remains completely neutral, relating herself to both sides of the argument, and then at the end comes up with a resolution. She emphasizes that although she was not born in America, she considers herself to be American while never forgetting who she is and where she came from. She describes how as a country, we are not the only ones who have the sort of tendency to appreciate only what is our culture and explains rather that every culture behaves the same way as she saw with her own family in India and husband in Canada. She also points out that everyone had to descend from somewhere other than America and we were all brought together to different regions as one and bringing with us our “desh”. I think that she can relax them about their positions by pointing out such facts. The fact that she herself came from a different country but can speak, live, and learn the American way of life make her just as American as the next person. She appreciates and takes pride in the American culture as much as she does in her Indian culture. She makes it clear that she appreciates and holds on to the American ways of life and expect people to want their country to remain in their own ways but points that we have a European influence and we influence others. I think further information that would bring both parties to a consensus would be more discussion on how cultures other than us feel about assimilating ways and how they few their own cultures compared to other. The instance in which she pointed out her time in Singapore about the American vandalizing a car provided some in sight, but further depth would help as well. Maybe opinions or interviews directly from citizens rather than broad opinions voiced by a government since those are usually spoken from one person and expected to be the voices of everyone in a country. It would give the reader a sense of what everyday people are thinking about other cultures and maybe give the authors of the other two essays some more knowledge about what other people like them are feeling. Overall, I feel that Mukherjee did a good job remaining in the middle of the argument. She related to both parties equally while still expressing her own opinion and ultimately coming to a resolution.

Observation 8: Amelie

Cinematography:
Some cinematography I noticed in Amelie was that sometimes the director sped up parts of a scene or slowed things down. I think that this feature was used to show how fast time was moving according to Amelie’s mind during that particular moment.

Lighting:
I noticed that the lighting in the super's apartment was very dark. Whenever Amelie went in to make minor adjustments to his doorknobs, slippers, or speed dials, the lighting was always very dim. I think this lighting cast the mood that the apartment was very unfriendly and unwelcoming just like the super himself was.

Fantasy Sequence Scenes:
One scene that I remember very specifically was when Amelie was washing a dish in the sink and she felt like the man she loved was coming in through the door behind her. What she had hoped he was doing was in the upper left hand corner of the screen while she stood and imagined what was playing. I thought that this technique was helpful, especially in this case, because Amelie herself did not speak very much about what she thought; it helped portray the emotion she was feeling and what she wanted without her ever actually saying it.

Places, buildings, objects:
I think that the gnome Amelie uses and the buildings he travels to see represent her mother and father who never got to travel. The gnome symbolizes one of the many good gestures that she tries to do for other people and all of the buildings represent the places her parents could ever want to go. I also think that her pet fish symbolizes how lonely of a childhood she lived. Fish are pets that you cannot hold or play with, as her parents did not touch her and she had no friends to play with, and they are confined to their bowls by themselves, as she was confined to her home by herself.

Body language:
Although smiling does mean that people are happy, I found that throughout the entire movie Amelie had a soft smile. She kept her lips together and mouth closed so that she was smiling but never actually looked extremely happy. At the end of the film, however, when she has fallen in love and is with the guy she has been dreaming about, she is smiling and laughing and looks happier than she has throughout the entire movie. This type of smile symbolizes how she has finally done good for herself instead of only helping other people.

Dress/clothing:
The outfits typical of Amelie were darker colors, sweaters, and long floor length skirts. She dressed very conservatively which I think represents the way that she is a mystery and stays very much to herself. She is so quiet and confined as she was when she was a child that the way she dresses reveals her personality.

Art:
One of the examples of art I found in the movie was the Renoir painting that the old man was working on. The one part of the piece that he could perfect was the girl drinking the water. I think that this girl in the painting symbolized Amelie because no one could figure out what she wanted with life. She only did for others but never did for herself. One of the only people that old man let in his life was Amelie and he worked so hard to let her open up and be who she wanted. Ultimately, he realized he was too focused on perfecting the girl and accepted her for who she was.

In general, I found the movie to be fairly interesting. The visual effects I thought were a little hard to pay attention to because I was more focused on reading the subtitles than watching what was going on with lighting, camera effects, etc. What I did manage to notice, however, I found to be good examples of visual rhetoric but I do not know if other people saw the same things I did when watching the movie.