Time

This past week, we discussed the idea of time, how most people can't go throughout their day without knowing what time it is. I get that. I was one of the few people in class that actually wore a watch, without it, my entire day would be thrown off and I feel like I have lost the entire day because I don't know the time. With that being said, has anyone ever noticed that during the summer or a vacation, that you have no idea what time it is, and it's ok! No one cares and they end up enjoying their selves more. It's almost freeing.

  In Salvador Dali's painting, The Persistence of Memory, he takes the idea of time and makes fun of it. As Dawn Ades wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order." Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I really think the painting is trying to portray is our fear of losing time, that without it, or without keeping track of it, we will ulitimately miss out on somehting leaving us with regret.

'tis all!
Ariel

Week in Review

   This past week in class was pretty mellow. We played a get-to-know-you game, learned about first impressions, and learned about vulnerability.
   The whole week really played around the idea of vulnerablility, how when people go out of their comfort zones and do something that isn't familiar it makes them vulnerable. When we played the get-to-know-you game, there was an un-even amount of cards on the ground and the class had to stand by one and someone had to be in the middle and say who they were and what they liked (Hi I'm Ariel and I like the color yellow) and then the people who also like yellow had to move to a different card but someone would be left in the middle. Often, it was the same person, but no one wanted to be in the middle for the fun of it. It made them vulnerable 'cuz the idea is to get out of it and everyone's attention off of you. I personally liked the game and I think I'll use it in my snowball small group when the time comes : )
     They say first impressions are very important; they are your first judgement of people you probably have never met before and they usually stick. One activity we did in class was my teacher wrote different adjectives (both good and bad) on the board and had three people come and sit up front, then had them stand up, say their name, and spin around. The class was then asked to pick some of the adjectives that they thought suited the person. Since many of us never met these people, they were based solely off looks. In this case, the three people were vulnerable to our opinion of how they look on the outside, not how they are on the inside. In a sense, if someone picked one of the negative adjectives, I don't think that it would really matter to the people because they don't know the class too well and vice verse for the class. 
     In my everyday life, I don't consider myself very vulnerable because I know what's going to happen that day (give or take); I have a routine and I follow it. The thing is though, say when I do mess up, I do my best to try and make it not show. Vulnerability isn't my best color. People's general first impression of me is that I'm put-together and I seem nice (I hope it's that). But when we're trying something new or have to have a heart-to-heart with someone, we are all vulnerable because we don't know what the outcome will be.

'Tis all,
Ariel

Blog 1- A Moment

Sociology:

The study of the development, organization, functioning, and classification of human societies.

Sociology is essentially the study of people and photographers, in my opinion, do that without thinking (I would also include artist's and writers as well). They study people to capture a moment (or even create one). They bring attention to a situation (good or bad) that would otherwise go unseen.     As a photographer, I have in a sense, trained my eye to look at the minute details of what is in front of me. I often find that when I'm shooting that it's the moments in-between shots I always miss. I guess people like me want those moments the most because they cannot capture them. But hey, I'm still learning.        A few months ago, I went on a creative writing trip to University of Wisconsin Whitewater. To be surrounded by so many creative minds and to listen and be critiqued by people who have fine-tuned their own craft was incredible. When it was my turn to be critiqued, the professor gave me all positive feedback and then when I asked if there was anything else that I could do to improve he replied, "I want you just to sit down somewhere, doesn't matter where, and observe. Create more moments and then take them from moments and create a story."    Now, how does this all relate? I believe in sociology that you not only study people and what they do. You also study the moments that people create and then what happens after.  Off to create more moments, Ariel

A few places that capture moments consistently: LIFE (life.com, I go there to get little snippet's of what's going on in the world) The Annenberg Space for Photography  (Tiny space in California that is known for their photography exhibits; they post their past exhibits online for all to enjoy. I would suggest the beauty culture and extreme exposure sets to look at)

First. Post. EVAH!

Hello people of the world. Welcome to my page. Just so my page wouldn't look naked, I have decided to write something short (translation: whatever pops into my head).
Here it goes:
  Right now I'm freezing and I wish that spring will come sooner but at the rate that we are going, it probably won't show up until June. I'm currently obsessed with an artist named Katie Herzig, she is very bubbly and fresh and that to me means happy music/I'm happy. I will do my best to make this blog my own and I guess we shall go from there.

Waiting for spring,
Ariel

In the meantime, Please enjoy a George Carlin video: