Surrealism
In the time that we've been in school our main focus thus far has been about the topic of surrealism, depicting the inner thinkings of a person and truly expressing one's thoughts. To represent some of this surrealist thinking our class has been creating surrealist books which contain collages, poems, favorite quotes, and even our own favorite representations of surrealism. To see some of the things featured in my book, check out what I have shown below!
Dada PoemFor the poem aspect of the project we had a choice between a Surrealist Format or a Dadaist Format. Both methods included cutting out our own choice of words from a collection of magazines and newspapers, in a similar fashion to making a collage. Now during the process of putting the words on the page determined which format of a poem you did. Shuffling the words around in a bag and picking at random resulted in a Dadaist Poem, whereas picking which words went were considered it to be a surrealist poem.
Personally I chose the Dadaist formatting, and I don't think it could've worked out any better. |
Ode to a Common ObjectThe start of Surrealism came to in Paris, France soon after the 1920's. Latin Americans were influenced by the things going on in Europe and started to crank out works of art and writing. During this a man named Pablo Neruda wrote a book full of poems dedicated to objects he would give an ode to. Many of these wee heavily exaggerated and included very common objects such as socks, and dogs as the focuses for the poem.
Our class was prompted with the task of writing our own ode, attempting to mimic the style of these very over appreciated objects and hopefully create some good pieces of our own. For my personal ode, I wrote about a comb which you can read directly below! |
Ode to the Comb |
I Know My SoulI plucked my soul out of its secret place,
And held it to the mirror of my eye, To see it like a star against the sky, A twitching body quivering in space, A spark of passion shining on my face. And I explored it to determine why This awful key to my infinity Conspires to rob me of sweet joy and grace. And if the sign may not be fully read, If I can comprehend but not control, I need not gloom my days with futile dread, Because I see a part and not the whole. Contemplating the strange, I’m comforted By this narcotic thought: I know my soul. |
Mash-UpI Know My Soul
Claude Mckay shows us that regardless of the outcome of any given situation, one must understand that we as people can only do so much and to not cling on to the weight of despair and sadness. He starts out the poem with the line, “I plucked my soul out of it’s secret place” which can be interpreted as “I exposed myself to something I have not yet done”. Because of this we can say that for one to be able to make connections and bonds, we have to be vulnerable in some sort of aspect. In another line Claude McKay says, "I need not gloom my days with futile dread". This line explains that even though he has exposed himself to the outside world with potential to be hurt, that the risk is worth it because the harm can only affect you so much. Visual Representation With my visual interpretation of Claude McKay’s “I Know My Soul” I decided to make it a collage of magazines. With certain in lines in the poem striking me as “value” or “worth” I decided to represent it by a physical barrier. The overall look of the collage goes from dark on one side to bright on another as I try to represent the idea of overcoming a fear, or crossing an unfamiliar aspect. Looking closer on the left side it shows a shadowy figure stuck on the side of darkness. In contrast, the right side features bright colors with jewels. The figure represents us as people only being able to join the side of good and happy after overcoming a harship. |
Chicano ParkChicano Park is a modern day example of a Renaissance. We went to visit the park for an entire day as a class in our recent fieldtrip. During the tour we were able to see the many murals and learn a little behind the history of them. The one that seemed to strike me was this one about a warrior. From the angle in the picture provided we can only see a portion of the mural, but the full visual messes with the perception of the way you view it. From the left it i shows a full eagle in the background that cannot be seen from looking straight on.
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What Is The Purpose of Art
The purpose of art is allow one to convey their thoughts and emotions to other people without necessarily verbalizing it. Through art, we are able to see their opinions, their personality, their style, their thoughts, and so much more on any given situation or topic in and out of this world. With art being in our lives we are able to see things that could not have been expressed before and hear voices from people regardless of their current position or place in the world. Some of these ideas can be seen in the surrealists movement as they explore the mind purely for the idea of letting people question. Because of this the idea and standard of crazy has been set for the rest of us to feel safe in terms of exploring our own thoughts. Another great example of this is the Chicano Murals in Chicano Park. The expressions of gratitude and feelings of happiness were able to be conveyed through the beautiful art the people there have left behind for the rest of us to experience. Things like this are why we have art, so we can appreciate their thoughts and feelings for generations.
Reading Ladder
Reading Ladder
Total Pages Read During S1: 1,355/14 96.7 per week
Why This Order?
I chose to put 12 Angry Men and The Crucible as the top two books just because of the fact that they’re harder to follow along. Each detail in the play is essential and has a meaning so while reading you have to be able to pay attention to those details and retain that information throughout the rest of the play. I typically am not someone who is able to remember details as such so I found it a bit difficult when in the middle of my reading they refer to an instance that I have no recollection about.
The middle books, 13 Reasons Why and The Fault In Our Stars, are way easier than the two plays I read this semester. They’re heartfelt stories that convey feelings and emotions so they’re not exactly hard to read so I felt they would be considered in the middle.
The bottom two books, both coincidentally by Jandy Nelson, are in comparison, only slightly easier than the ones above it. I just felt that while reading them I followed along easy for the same reasons, they’re not made to be difficult. They’re pleasurable reading books for relaxing so filling it with difficult vocabulary would be contradictory.
- 12 Angry Men by Reginold Rose, 58
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 160
- 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, 288
- The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, 313
- The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, 275
- I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, 261
Total Pages Read During S1: 1,355/14 96.7 per week
Why This Order?
I chose to put 12 Angry Men and The Crucible as the top two books just because of the fact that they’re harder to follow along. Each detail in the play is essential and has a meaning so while reading you have to be able to pay attention to those details and retain that information throughout the rest of the play. I typically am not someone who is able to remember details as such so I found it a bit difficult when in the middle of my reading they refer to an instance that I have no recollection about.
The middle books, 13 Reasons Why and The Fault In Our Stars, are way easier than the two plays I read this semester. They’re heartfelt stories that convey feelings and emotions so they’re not exactly hard to read so I felt they would be considered in the middle.
The bottom two books, both coincidentally by Jandy Nelson, are in comparison, only slightly easier than the ones above it. I just felt that while reading them I followed along easy for the same reasons, they’re not made to be difficult. They’re pleasurable reading books for relaxing so filling it with difficult vocabulary would be contradictory.