Project #4 - Society vs. Self (Final Project)

This is my final project for this class. The goal here was to create a video that captures my reactions to what society says about me versus what I think of myself. This project made me think about the struggle of giving into societal norms to be a certain way and the times where I almost sacrificed my own self-image to fit other people's standards. The video is a fairly literal "portrait" of me, because I am literally saying what I think of myself. I wanted to show how I am not defined by the things that society says about me, and I can only truly show who I am by the way I see myself.

If you want to see this video on Vimeo, please follow this link. The password to access it is: selfportrait

Zine Collaboration Project

Here is my final zine project. I was after Kyle (Bono) and before Arissa (Powerpuff Girls)

90's Nostalgia (Video Games)

This homework is in response to "What Makes a Video Game Great?" by Alistair Brown.

I will be completely honest, I was never one to play video games as a kid. I was the one girl who couldn't figure out any of the basic controls in the first Halo. My expertise in video games extends to the Wii or Super Mario on the Nintendo DS. Nonetheless, I will talk about the relationship between video games and art and whether or not it relates to each other.

Is there a difference between video games and art? In particular ways, no. For me, I like the video games with a storyline. A good plot line is what makes a video game great. Video games with those intriguing storylines are like watching a movie, and to me, movies are a form of art. As far as MoMA getting video games as part of their design collection, I think this is a great idea!

Why shouldn't video games be considered art? It is art! The people who draw out the graphics and put detail into the way a character appearance, spend hours and days and months putting it all together, just like an artist with a paintbrush or using Photoshop or Illustrator. The visual qualities of a video game deems it as art because of the conceptual thoughts behind the characters and where each item is placed within one frame of the game. I am not a big gamer, but the Last of Us, a game for the PS4 showed really great quality when it comes to characters and the detail put into all of the background information.

Lastly, I would be wrong if I said that video games weren't art. As someone interested in producing and film, video games is the same kind of medium, just more interactive. It's almost like interacting with an animation movie, where whatever you choose affects the overall result of the movie. Movies give people feelings and introduce storylines that evoke emotion; video games do the same thing as well. I feel like the future holds great things for creators of video games. As far as the video game realm has come, it really just has to keep growing. I have no doubt that one day I will walk into a museum and see a video game on a wall of an exhibit and sending me into something that's bigger than life. And that right there, to me, is good art.