Dansse :P@rtyyy!

Today in class. I'm in, who else?

Can you mashed potato?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

I can't believe that this is our last class together. :( i've had so much fun in NMS with all of you; I feel like I've gotten to know all of you more than anyone else in my other classes. I hope to see all of you next semester. Have an amazing Christmas break, stay safe, party hard, enjoy it while you still can. see you all later.

Love Ashley :)

I hope I'm turning in the right stuff today...

a) So I feel like I pretty much already answered this question in my last post, but I guess I will touch on it again. A persons artwork vary greatly depending on if they are working with a group or by their self. Because of the amount of ideas coming from different minds in a collaboration, the finished product could be completely different from what you may have thought it would be. On the other hand, working by yourself may be difficult, because you may know exactly what you want, but may not know exactly how to get it. Either way there are pros and cons to working in a group or by yourself.

As far as the roles of the band members in Metallica, I feel like they each had their own roles in deciding what they play and how they play it. But also I feel like they should have the responsibility of giving their input to what other members of the band are playing. If you are working in a collaboration, each artist should be sensitive of what the other artists think as well. This is one weak point I see in Metallica's writing process, they were not very open to the other artist's opinions.

b) I've decided as an artist, that I will allow anything that I can percieve to be an influence on my work. I may not like something all that much, but it may act as a great influence on something new. For example, I really dislike pop country music, but I really like Wilco. Wilco is a band that is heavily influenced by many genres ultimately resulting in somewhat of a pop country sound. This is one example of why I allow all things to be an influence on my work, because If I block out something just because I don't like it, it may result in many obstacles or losses in my finished products that could have been there had I given it the chance.

NMS Millefest Today!

Hey Everyone,

It would be good if you attended the Millefest that goes from 3-5 today in the Hokin Annex (623. S. Wabash Ave.).

See you today,

André

Unit 4, yeah.

So I'm STILL not entirely sure what I'm doing is absolutely correct but I think since most students share the same confusion I'm just going to PUSH through. From the explanations I've heard I believe the gist of the unit is to create anything and be able to explain why the work is meaningful to me. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

After thinking it through a bit I'm going to create a poster about myself. Being that Graphic Design is my major. I'll be able to fully represent what is and what isn't meaningful to me.

Proposal

Being a student in New Milennium Studies, I've participated in many different assignments that are basis on a variety of ideas. In every unit we have had to engage in a different creative project in support of the unit. In my projects I've strongly used my creativity to express my ideas. Being that I've used visual mediums for all of the unit projects thus far, I'd like to create a mix cd for this last unit project. Like any other art form, music is something I take very seriously. Each song will contain an element of what I think is important in artwork, and what I personally reach for.

Those So Called Musicians

With this group of so called musicians their collaboration usual results in excessive yelling and slamming doors unless they are being supervised by their over paid shrink. Because then when they are held by their hands like a child only then do they get anything done. Because of this they rarely get anything done. Each person is supposed to help each other out and help with the song lyrics, and help critique each other’s performance.

In my short 18 years of life there have been some people that have really influenced my artistic life. For example my mom; she wanted to study dance her whole life and her parents would not allow her. She has never stopped me or try and sway me to do something else. For sure my art teachers and music teachers; they have always told me to challenge what I know and reach as far as I can. I have a cousin that has probably had the greatest impact on me. She goes to Columbia and will be graduating this year. She has worked her whole life to become an actress, but nothing has come from it but some commercials and voices for kids toys. No matter what she has done there have been no benefits for her hard work, but yet she keeps going. She has so much belief in herself that it is infectious. To me that is a true artist; never giving up no matter what happens, because your next interview or audition could be your big break.

Collaboration

a.)  Each person has their own responsibility in the group by having their own instrument they play. The collaboration of the group effects the music and lyrics.  Sometimes it can be hard to collaborate, sometimes it can be easy.  It depends on the mood of the members and the attitude they have towards what they're trying to accomplish.  Sometimes it'd be hard to collaborate to come up with lyrics because one member might have one view on what to write while another has a totally different view, and it can turn into an argument for all they know.

b.)  The main influence of my artistic life I would probably have to say is my mom.  Her major was art and she's always been into art and is very good at it and is the one who introduced me to it at such a young age.  I think if it wasn't for her love of art and wanting to share it I wouldn't be into it as much or for all I know even like it.  But her passion for it influenced me and now it's something I use everyday and will be using with my future.

My sweet unit 4 proposal

                         For my Unit 4 project I am going to make a personal business card. The business card will represent all career adventures I wish to partake upon in my near to coming future. But, will also show some of my current talents and skills that I have already established myself in. I want to some how combined my design talents with my major that is performing arts management. I want to show both  because I haven’t fully decided which one I want to focus more on. To me any kind of art I make could matter or be important to me depending on the work I put behind it. With a business card I could show people how diverse I am in the arts but also how serious I take the business side of the arts. 

proposal for unit 4:

To create to from of art work that mean to me. I plan to make two object out of cardboard that symbol what art I like and what mean to me. first object would be character I created to symbol what animation mean to me. And the second object would a cardboard copy of one of my favorite shoe that I own to symbolize fashion.

Proposals.....

Few people handed me hard copies of proposals and only a few have emailed them to me.

You need to get those to me asap as it was part of your assignment to get those to me and your classmates.

Good luck with your final projects.

How does collaboration affect the creative process in the film? It like you talk with other and bring new ideas to the table. it let you open the door to brain storm and different way to express the idea.

How do the actions of one of the collaborators affect the work of the group? it can make a project. one person can think of some thing that any other wouldnt think of.

What are the responsibilities of each person to the group? is to tribute to the work and be ready for any type of help.

b) Who have been some of the main influences in your artistic life? Who has had the greatest impact on you? Why? main influence for me is hip-hop culture, because i look up to artist and there lyrics to help inspire me to do some thing that can relate to other people.

Metallica's Relationships

I do not know if the band members of Metallica only see each in an agressive attitude. After the first blow up (the failure at the make-shift studio) the documentary shows Kirk at a farm with horses running free. Then we have Lars speaking with his father about his music on a very personal level. Can you imagine James at either one of these places? Or Lars at Kirk's farm? These alternate, more personal, and calm enviornments the band members put themselves in have to be isolated from eachother.

Even when James and Lars brought their own kids into the studio it creates an odd feeling, which contributed to Jason Newsted leaving the band. Their is a point in the movie where the band is writing lyrics for a song they just wrote. Conner (I think that was the kids name) is there to listen to the music, but Conner's mother took him away once the band began to talk. I think the mother knew from experience, that it would be a poor decision to leave the child there.

Every member of the band only sees eachother in one light. They only see eachother as Metallica, the 90's icon of rage. Although this may be the best way to work it is the main reason why their is so much conflict between them. It's as if the band does not see eachother as humans.

If it's okay with you, I'll hide in the bathroom.

Creating work for my classes like, 2d design has been so hard for me because I don't care about it. I know that the art work I am producing isn't good.  After this class, I hope for myself that I can work hard on those assignments because I know that they have my name on them. Also that I will try and put more effort into them because it should be important to me. When I do actually create work that I find important, it is usually made because I have the desire to express myself. The art that I find important, is the art work that I would go crazy if I didn't make. Creating art shouldn't feel like an assignment.

15

After this class is over, I think I'll probably keep creating work the way I always have. It has never really been a question on creating work that matters to me, all my work matters to me; because, I put so much time and effort into each piece it would be ridiculous of me to create something and not have it matter to me.

Important work, again doesn't mean anything different to me than normal work I have created. The only work that means more to me than anything I make is the work that I get recognized for; yes it sounds selfish, but I believe that the work that people go "hey that's cool I wonder who made that" things like that make that certain piece of work more important to me. I've only had things like that happen a couple of times, but it makes me feel proud to have created something that impresses someone.

I really hate this salad

a) All the members of the band examine their relationships through how they've worked together in the past. They'll go through how each member would handle their duty to the group, how well they did it, and how everybody responded it. That usual relationship from the past could be seen as their expectation of what their relationship should be in the new one formed in this new production. If something arises thats an issue, they'll just look back and see how they dealt with it or even just how it was supposed to be like. 

B) Each member uses different things, but for majority its all the previous history they've had together that pulls them together. It's the success and great times that they want to get back together, pull through, and finish great instead of the dramatic break up. It's also the part where they don't want be the kind of guy or band who starts a record but can't finish it. 

PART 2

A)I've always struggled to create work. My struggle always has been fear of not meeting my expectations; I've set the bar so high for myself, that even the first stroke on a canvas is very decisive one. Every piece of art and every opportunity matters a lot to me. But to deal with my fear I've masked it with a mental state of "I don't care" and just create work regardless if I love it or not----it turns to the point also where I don't care about my work. To deal with that I just have to be careful about how I deal with my fear when I paint. I know, it's messed up. 

B)Important work to means work that will change me in some way. This can go anywhere as make me a better artist or even just build my reputation to open up more opportunities. Typically any work is important because I want people to say "Remo did this. Look amazing his work is; even if its a cup holder its still amazing." I do a lot of business cards, and even if its just a stupid little card, its work that people look at and see what Remo can do. All work is important to me, whether its a small favor or company commission. 

Metallica

I'm not a huge fan of Metallica nor know nothing about them, but I did find this video very interesting. It was interesting to go behind the scenes of a huge rock band and seeing what they all go through. The relationship between the band members is kind of a rocky relationship. They have their ups and their downs, it's not perfect, but what relationship is? They seem very stressed with eachother a lot of the times. And they all have their own views and opinions on their music and musical ideas. For the most part it seems that when they are trying to make their music they compromise and do well with it, but sometimes one of them could just get so frustrated and stressed and just lose control. The title of the film, "Some Kind of Monster" makes it seem as if all Metallica goes through is drama and bad times. The motivation they get that keeps them together is their past and the future they know they could have and the music that they know they are capable of producing. The fact they've been through so much toghether already seems to also be why they're still motivated to make more and better music, and not going to let their past and personal problems get in the way.

2a) The specific assignments we had, that gave us the topic and everything, helped me create work I usually would never do and something that usually wouldn't strike my interest. But after doing all the portfolios on various topics that are important in society today made the work matter more to me and feel like it has a little more meaning to it. I'd usually just draw or something for fun and whatever's on my mind without really putting any deep meaning or thought into it, so after this class I have a feeling that's what I'll go back to.
2b) To me, important work means something you've worked really hard on and is passionate for. It doesn't necessarily have to have a deep meaning behind it. It could just be a collage of your friends, and still be an important peice of work.

Here's your blog assignment for next Monday

a) Collaboration is a main theme in Some Kind of Monster.

How does collaboration affect the creative process in the film?
How do the actions of one of the collaborators affect the work of the group?
What are the responsibilities of each person to the group?

b) Who have been some of the main influences in your artistic life? Who has had the greatest impact on you? Why?

Metallica is no longer the biggest band in the world. Chris Brown is.

1a) To me, it seemed like most of the band members were pretty selfish and self centered. They felt like their creativity reigned superior over that of the other band members. This was probably why they faced so many obstacles in creating their new album. Because they all eventually had to compromise to come to some idea that every band member agreed with. And because of this their full range of creativity was not applied to the album, but instead a sort of community creativeness, which is typically what most members of a collective creative group have to eventually deal with. The best way to get the most of this is to be open minded to other people's opinions, and to adapt that into the creative environment you are immersed in.

2a) This depends on a lot of factors. One of the main factors that I have found to limit my creativity, is my lack of resources. Since making music is my main creative outlet, I have found that a lot of the time I have to work with what I have, and that alone is a limitation in itself. But also new things can come out of this limitation that would have never been applied had I had all the resources before hand. So there is a pro and con to every situation that affects my creativity. Another factor is if it is a group effort or an individual effort to create a work of art. Like I said in the question above, working with people as opposed to yourself has a huge effect on the outcome of a final product.

2b) Important work to me is just a piece of artwork that simply has a positive effect on the artist and the audience. Of course not all work may be positive at first, but an important piece of work would have redeeming qualities that affect the audience and the artist in a positive manner. It doesn't take much for a piece of work to be important to me.

My Last Who Rah!!!

For my last who rah I am going to be creating a storyboard. The storyboard is based off of a piece that is titled Saint and the City. The story is short is about a town that lives in fear of a dragon that lives in the caves that surrounds their town. Eventually a man comes into the village and gives the people hope and then battles the dragon, in the end he defeats the dragon and the town celebrates; there is a little twist at the end of the piece. I plan on drawing for hours on end, but enjoying every bit of it. Listening to the piece over and over trying to hear everything that it there. I have a vision for what I have always seen when I hear this piece. I want to present my storyboard with each drawing attached to a board, with the song playing so that everyone can follow what is going on because there is no dialog. But I wonder if it would be better to do all of my drawings and then put them on a slide show and change the pictures during the piece so that everyone can see. As I think anyone can see my struggle I do not know which way would be the more appropriate way to go about it. The reason that I have decided on doing a storyboard is because I really enjoy that type of art, and eventually I would like to turn storyboarding into a career. I can envision myself sitting at a drafting desk looking over the script and the notes that I took while listening to the director. Working long into the night trying to get not only my vision onto paper and into words, but also the director and the screenwriter. Jut thinking about makes me excited and proud that hopefully one day I will achieve my goal.

chop your breakfast on a mirror.

I remember in middle school I had every Metallica album but Reload. I also had plenty of shirts. When high school came around I was working my way out of thrash bands like Megadeth and Anthrax. I moved mostly towards Melodic Metal or Prog Metal. I remember St.Anger came out at the end of 7th grade for me and I saw Some Kind of Monster twice in theater. lol.
i have been metallica free for 4 or 5 years!
1) How do the members of Metallica examine their relationships with each other in the film “Some Kind of Monster”? a) What motivates them to continue working together? I think the fact that they know they are the biggest metal band in the world was something that motivated them. Other than that Bob Rock insisted that everyone should put in and equally contribute to the band. I know my band had this same problem. It was hard to work out but we finally figured out a system. Metallica has been a band for a long time, it was hard for them to stay a band now though. Most of them have familys they need to be with.

b) What motivates them to continue working together? They decide to put a ablum to get that would bring them but to the being we the they first started there band.

a) After you leave this class, how will you struggle to create work that matters to you? It hard because u want to make art work that you care about i til make some that we more other people like the the work more you.


What does important work mean to you? Give an example. important to me is what i feel and love. some that i can relate to at an time.

some kind of cry baby...

I mean honestly, this made me think of arguments that the dance team at my high school used to get into..."she stole my boyfriend", "that was MY dance move", "this music sucks", "she thinks she's better than me"--well she probably is. Suck it up! you are all grown men acting like your two year olds back home. ugh.

Some Kind of Monster was documentary that showed the legendary Metallica band members as real human beings behind the scenes with out all the lights and screaming fans. Back in the '80s everything revolved around sex, drugs, and rock and roll. This was a common theme for most musicians and they were being forced to revise their thought process to create new and intense tracks. Having dealt with members walking out or being kicked out, having families and moving on with their own lives, multiple egos and "brilliant" ideas clashing, this group has to try really hard to keep Metallica alive. Maybe this was just a hint that they should let their glory days go and move on. The band manager thought it would be beneficial to bring in a theripist to bring the group together and give them a chance to talk to one another and solve any issues within the remaining members. They had to be honest with eachother and confront past problems to move forward. Many needed to look deeper into their own issues and find out what was really bothering them, was there anything they were willing to compromise to make things work. Before the band was able to create a perfect lyric or track for this new album tension between them all needed to be solved.
Finding inspiration to design new and desirable building or interiors shouldn't be too difficult. The world is turning "green" and there are interesting new inventive ways to use old products. Looking around in nature is a great way to inspire just about anyone in any field. Finding work however is the tricky part. All of our art field are extremely competitive and we all need to be as knowledgeable and creative as possible to get anywhere in this industry. If you truly love what you are doing, it should all matter to you. In the art majors we have at Columbia, it has to be your passion...not just for the money. Every assignment, every sketch, every vision one has of her future work matters. Every step of the way you will learn something new that will be beneficial. I don't think there will ever be a project that I work on that wont matter to me in one way or another.

The love of MUSIC

Alrite, humm so i am not a HUGE fan of Metallica or rock in general but i LOVE Nirvana. In most of the bands today Metallica isnt the only band that has problems like that. Theirs Nickelback and Green Day. Yet enough they all have their problems dissagreements with one another. Some days are off days for them. They yell and Bit*h at one another. Some kind of monster brought out the monster in all of them. They wrote down sentences and lines to focus on and use those lines in their song and work off one another. Helped them bond closer. Its cute how they actuelly thought of the name did'nt they say it reminds them of "frankenstien" or was i imagining them saying that. It was a good catch phrase for the song like they are building up a monster. They themselves help to keep them motivated and on tract. They each have their alone time and family that help keep their mind no so rumbeld...or jumbeld..up in thoughts. Like one love to ride his (car) and likes to feel "the wind". The other and his kids and family. Then the other with horses. They may take the problems out on one another that tares the band apart. Uhm what does important work mean to me.. ? Something that you are good at and that you want to show others your skills. Something that you focus your attention on and that something that can get you further in life. Like showing my skills at interior Arch at both of my jobs. Its a way to get your name out and a way to become better.

Metal?

Metallica struggles to create work that matters to them for several reasons. They had gotten used to creating music under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and now, they are abandoning that method. They are forcing themselves to dig deep into their emotions in order to create music, which is something they are less familiar with. Also, the members are trying to allow each other to have creative freedom over each part of the song. Egos are being put to the test. Sometimes it's hard to feel as passionately about something, such as the lyrics or a drum beat, if it is not the one that you created.

I have a feeling that I will struggle with questioning myself when it comes to creating my work. I begin a project with full force and full of passion, but then as I progress, I tend to start second-guessing the decisions I have made, and I never end up with a final result that I completely satisfied with. I need to gain some confidence in my creative vision.
For work to be important, it has to be something that I can tell has been worked on passionately and results in an obviously well thought-out, creative piece. Important work doesn't necessarily have to be my taste, but if I can see the that the artist believed in his/her work, then it's important. I should say important once more.

More Stuff @ The Portfolio Center

All faculty and students are invited to attend the sessions below. Please pass this information along to anyone who may be interested. Classes welcome as always. Both sessions will take place in the Portfolio Center, 623 S. Wabash, room 307



THIS WEEK AT THE PORTFOLIO CENTER

PR Portfolio Workshop / Dec. 5 @ 10AM

Do emerging PR professionals need a portfolio? We’re bringing together several PR professionals who will give their insight to that question as well as give tips as to how public relations students can showcase their skills in a package. Open to all students. Produced in collaboration with the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA)

Guests: Eva Penar (Manager of Public Relations, Chicago Community Trust), Dominic Calabrese (Public Relations Director, The Chicago Lighthouse), Brenda Schulze (Senior Communications Specialist, The Chicago Lighthouse), and Kate Peters (Senior Vice President, dg&a)

Marketing & Advertising Films: How Movie Trailers are Made / Dec. 5 @ 5:30PM

Coming to a campus near you: Dan Asma (BA ’92), partner of Buddha Jones Movie Trailers will lead a discussion about movie marketing and the business of filmmaking. His credits include promos and trailers for No Country for Old Men, Kung Fu Panda, 310 to Yuma, Hustle & Flow, Superman Returns, Lucky Number Sleven. Open to all students. Sponsored by the Student Alumni Association in collaboration with the Portfolio Center.

Old Habits Die Hard

The members of Metallica have now realized that they have some problems with communicating with each other, and now that it has gone out of hand they have hired a physiologist to help them through their struggles as a group. There they examine their relationships between themselves. They all seem motivated to get this to work because they want to go through the process smoothly rather than fighting the whole way. None of them want to keep going down the path that they were going down before. But I think that they need to also remember that old habits die hard.

Looking into the future I know that I as an artist will struggle to make art that matters to me. I believe that I will struggle under looming deadlines, stress, might not be interested in the project at hand, and a creative block. Important work to me is something that I have worked really hard on and I am very proud of what I have done.

Metallica the brand...

1.)The members of Metallica examine their relationships with each other by looking at how they used to act to each other. They see how choices in the past have effected everyone differently and how they all function as whole today. They also bring in while payed therapists but take time every so often to sit down with each other and see how differently everyone works and collaborates with each other. I really think the one thing that motivates them to continue working together is the music and the name Metallica. They know how powerful their name is and they know how influential they are to a large generation of kids to sticking together is their only option. With that brand they struggle to create work that matters to them because not only are they perfectness to their craft by they are also highly critical to themselves and living up to the Metallica standard. 

2.) My biggest struggle with making work that matters to me is finding out what really matters to me. Trying to find something and then finding away to express it will probably take me more time then I would want to spend. Important work to me is something that I really love and can spend time on perfecting. Something I know when I’m finished working on it and I’m proud of it. But also knowing that it will never be perfect and it will always be revised and have room for improvement.

Haiku for NMS.

We don't have homework.

I even checked the class blog

I don't believe it!

5, 7, 5 check it.

Due by Wednesday!

1) Answer at least one of the following three questions:
a) How do the members of Metallica examine their relationships with each other in the film “Some Kind of Monster”?

b) What motivates them to continue working together?

c) How do they struggle with the problem of seeking to create works that matters to them?

2) Answer both of the following questions:
a) After you leave this class, how will you struggle to create work that matters to you?

b) What does important work mean to you? Give an example.