The Politics of Art & Authenticity

It’s October 11th and that means it’s time for you to take a few pictures for Macaulay’s Snapshot Day. For more detailed instructions check out the Snapshot page on our site.

If you need a little inspiration check out some of the student photos from previous years or take a look at this amazing Swedish photography project ADay.org, where curators collected a daily snapshot from one day in 165 countries!

So, don’t forget to shoot them today –-anytime until midnight!

When I first heard that a dancer was coming to speak to our IDC class, I assumed she would speak about the art of dance in general, or perhaps about specific dances she had choreographed. Instead, I was introduced to whole genre of dance that I had been totally unaware of. That alone was a shock. How could there be an artist as important as Loie Fuller, who had shaped the world of modern dance, and I’d never even heard of her name? It’s saddening to think that if not for Jody Sperling, I never would have learned about the incredible dance style that had such a widespread impact. I think it’s amazing that Ms. Sperling decided to devote her entire lecture to educating us on someone who is important to her. Only at the end did she speak about her own dance company for a bit. I’m really grateful that I got to hear about such an incredible woman, from such an incredible woman. I think that this is a great example of why we need more funding for the arts. If someone like Loie Fuller, whose whole style of dance depended on her props, hadn’t been able to afford her shows, who knows what modern dancing would be like today.

Peter Nick’s heartbreaking documentary about a public hospital in Oakland, California depicts the struggles of overcrowded hospitals face when treating  less fortunate patients. Nick uses the strategy of following a couple patients throughout their wait, interviewing employees, and showing the action in the waiting room.

It was tragic to watch the young, fifteen-year-old  boy die on the operating bed. Nick shows the audience the freezer that the body is stored in and the medical worker’s reaction to this tragic event. I believe showing these things makes the documentary more realistic to the viewer and allows the viewer to feel more sympathy for the young boy.

Another young girl had strep throat and she could barely talk. The audience got to visualize the poor girls suffering and you could practically feel her pain.

Another patient had to have kidney dialysis on a weekly basis and was in so much pain from it he could careless if he got his treatment or if he lived. This patient screamed at the doctor and was very rude with the the doctor, but the doctor managed to keep calm. Nicks shows this scene to capture some of the experience that these medical workers go through on a daily basis.

It also depicts the moral struggles health care workers have to face. For example, when the habitual drug addict is brought into the hospital on a casual basis, the staff know him by a first name basis. The staff learn that this man has no where to go and are afraid that he will die if sent out into the cold. The doctors decide to give up a bed that could be used to treat a patient in order to protect a homeless patient.

The documentary shows that vital change is needed for the medical sector in order to make it easier to receive treatment, make treatment more affordable, and make service more equitable to everyone. It would probably be a good idea to open up more hospitals like these to ensure people get the proper medical he or she needs.

Source: http://www.ifccenter.com/films/the-waiting-room/

I am pleased to announce that I have learned about a new type of dance! A dance involving twirling sheets and pretty lights. The name of this dance is the Time Lapse Dance and it coalescences choreography, design, and music.  I found that the changing sheet colors during the danced was a neat effect. There are also several different motions and garments to accompany this dance. I really like how multiple colors are blended on some of the sheets during the dance. This creates a very interesting and beautiful new art form.

I would love to see this dance in person so I could truly appreciate Jody Sperling’s vision.

Jody Sperling was our guest speaker, and she taught us about her non-profit organization Time Lapse Dance. Sperling loves dance and its her passion. More people are needed like her to revolutionize art.She gave us some interesting information about dance including that dance is funded by private donors and the government.  Its great that people are willing to donate their hard earned money to fund cultural projects like dance. Art forms like dance enhance culture, captivate young minds, and inspires people to create newer and better things. I also learned that most European countries support things like the arts a lot more than we do in the United States primarily because Americans rely more on private donors than the government. We watched several videos demonstrating the dances, and I was truly blown away by the twirling sheets and blended colors.

I was surprised to learn it requires tremendous strength to hold your arms up for several minutes at a time! I am impressed that dancers have this much strength. Most of the outfits were white and the lights would shine through them creating several pretty colors.

I appreciate Jody Sperling educating the class on a new dance form.

Imagine provided by timelapsedance.com

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The documentary, The Waiting, directed and written by Peter Nicks, was one of those films that I must recommend people to see. I actually hate doctors and the hospital. I don’t like the atmosphere nor do I like the idea of needles. This documentary actually shows what it’s like to be in the waiting room. The amount of people that come in and out, the kind of sickness that walks through the doors, the wait, the type of people. This documentary just shows everything that no one really sees. In my opinion, I just thought the waiting just had family members or friends waiting for the person in the hospital to get out. However, in reality, the majority people in the waiting room are actually waiting to be checked and to get treated for their pain. People are sitting there and waiting for hour and hours.  The one thing that stood out to me was the one guy who came in multiple times for marijuana and alcohol abuse. He was checked and nothing serious was wrong, just did too much marijuana and alcohol, but when the social worker called his pastor to make sure he had a safe place to go to and the pastor said no. I was just shocked. I thought a pastor would take anyone in, in hopes to change that person, but the pastor said he will not take him. When the doctor heard that, he basically let the man stay in the hospital because he had no place to go. It’s sweet that he let him stay, but it does restrict another person being helped from the waiting room. Other than that, this documentary really opened my eyes to what really goes on in the hospital waiting room. An amazing documentary in my opinion.

I visited the Museum of Natural History on September 25 and I went through most of the museum, exploring different peoples and time periods and I covered the vast majority of exhibits in the museum. I love this museum so much because it is so comprehensive – it is enormous and displays every part of history, from the beginning of the world to the current day, without missing a single detail. I focused on human exhibits rather than the biological and ecological rooms, as I find the human groups most interesting. It is fascinating to walk through those and see how other people lived, whether it was in the Hall of Human Origins, the African Peoples, the Asian Peoples, etc. I couldn’t help but think what I would have done if I was born into one of those ancient time periods…. would I still be the same person I am now? As I was going through the exhibits, I was taking all of the displays into consideration. How in the early men were so primitive and undeveloped, how the Northwest Indians had such elaborately decorated clothing, and how religion was so pertinent to Asian culture. I tried to imagine myself living in each of these time periods. What I would be doing if I were in one of the exhibits. It was really interesting and mind-boggling. I’m happy I live now, in the twenty first century, and I get to watch models of other people in the exhibits instead of living on the other side of the glass.

I saw many exhibits that I thoroughly enjoyed, but my favorite exhibit is the infamous canoe that you first see when you come in through the 77th Street Entrance. I like this so much because in the novel Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caulfield hangs out at the museum and loves this canoe.

I took a few pictures of my day at the museum, and this is by far the prettiest one I took. This is a precious tiara from the rocks and minerals exhibit, where there are all kinds of rocks, gems, diamonds, minerals, etc. I was considering stealing it =).

I really like dance. I’m definitely a fan. I love dancing and having fun with my friends. I took a ballet class when I was five years old. I’ve seen many kinds of dance, like classical, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and modern. I thought I really knew dance; I thought I had a foundation of dance down. I thought there wasn’t really much more.

I was wrong.

What I saw opened up my mind to a whole new world of dance – skirt dancing – a dazzling, colorful, mind-blowing form of dance. I thought the costumes were fantastic, and the multimedia effects even better. Watching the skirt dancing was truly mesmerizing – the skirt dancers pulled off complicated dance moves with lavish costumes and blinding, flashing lights. I really loved watching the dancing, but I enjoyed going through the history of skirt dancing even more. It was so cool to actually go through the history of it – to see how it first started out, and how over time the costumes and style and graphics changed, to the video clips of what today’s skirt dancing looks like. So often we look at different forms of artwork and take them for face value, how people present them today, without considering the history behind it, how this art got to the form and style we see it as today.

I also gained a tremendous amount of respect for Jody Sperling. Not only do I greatly admire her and her work, but I think it was incredibly nice of her to come and present it to us. I think it’s so nice that she was willing to open up and share about her story and explain the history of this artwork. It was a great lecture and an eye-opening experience to a whole new world of dance.

Peter Nick’s The Waiting Room is a documentary about the ER waiting room in Oakland, California.  I am at a loss of words for what I witnessed in this film.  What I learned from this film is that when people without health insurance come to the hospital they are put in triage and despite how they may be feeling may be left waiting for hours on end until they are finally brought to a room.  What makes matters worse is that when a real emergency case appears, all doctors in the ER rush to try and save the person which further delays other patients.

This documentary made me feel bad for the people who were uninsured.  If they had been insured, that one family probably would have had a pediatrician for their daughter and her case of strep throat wouldn’t have arrived at such a dangerous stage.  The older gentleman could have afforded to go to a dialysis center instead of having to go to a hospital’s ER, exhausting himself waiting for hours, and then further draining his energy due to the treatment.  Half or maybe more than half of the people in that waiting room would not have been there.

The part that had the greatest impact on me was the scene where the bleeding unconscious young man was brought into the ER.  All the doctors rushed in trying to save him.  They continually pressed on his chest trying to get him to breathe, speaking quickly to communicate what to do next.  The doctors tried everything they could.  The 15-year-old boy passed and his body was brought to the freezer.  Just watching this horrific scene made me go pale.

The way they portrayed this scene in the documentary somewhat reminded me of the TV series MASH.  It reminded me of a certain quote at the end of a certain episode named “Yankee Doodle Doctor”.  Alan Alda as Hawkeye states, “Three hours ago this man was in a battle.  Two hours ago we operated on him.  He’s got a 50/50 chance.  We win some we lose some.  That’s what it’s all about.  No promises.  No guaranteed survival.  No saints in surgical garb.  Our willingness, our experience, our technique are not enough.  Guns and bombs and anti personnel mines have more power to take life than we have to preserve it.”

Despite all of this doom and gloom feel in the ER there was one ray of sunshine, the nurse.  This nurse greeted everyone politely with an optimistic smile as she took the temperature of every person who had come to see a doctor.  She made small talk, which put some at ease, and even made others, despite their sickly states, laugh.  I believe her presence was just as important as the doctors.

This film makes me think that Obama’s Health Care plan is necessary.  If it could have helped these people, and people across the nation in similar situations, then it should be enacted.

Sources
http://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/141976/posts/276753/image-141705-full.jpg?1343526373

When I heard that Jody Sperling was going to give us a lecture on Loie Fuller and skirt dancing my initial reaction was one of bewilderment. Who is Loie Fuller I wondered? What is skirt dancing? I almost felt like there was no lecture and I was being pranked. I have never heard of Loie Fuller and was completely ignorant when it came to skirt dancing. Jody Sperling changed all of that. As I sat through the lesson i was entranced by the videos of women dancing lost in the light and fabric. I could not even see their bodies. I have never seen such a combination of light fabric and music all in perfect harmony. The videos she showed us changed my previously cynical perspective on the matter. Before i though the entire lecture was a joke. As the lesson went on I recognized how much hard work and dedication goes into each dance and how all of the pieces come together to form such a beautiful work of art. Personally, the most inspiring part of the lecture was the fact that Jody raises money for her dance studio from many small donations. I was truly shocked at the wide support they received from people who genuinely cared. Their shared passion kept this artwork alive.  It is the passion of Jody Sperling, Loie Fuller and countless others that I will never forget. Their dedication to this art is what will stay with me forever.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Loie_Fuller.jpg/300px-Loie_Fuller.jpg

I can’t dance. I have no sense of rhythm. I can’t even hold my body up either, but after seeing Loie Fuller‘s style of dancing really surprised me. When I first looked at it, I thought, that’s easy. You kind of just twirl around and hold your arms out to make the outfit look all as if it’s floating. Then you realize that these dancers that are performing aren’t holding their arms out for a minute or two. They are holding them out and up high for long periods of time. The amount of strength it takes to hold up their arms and be in constant motion is amazing. I seriously give them a lot of props. At a glance, it looks so easy, that this dance does not require much. Of course, I was wrong and there is more than what meets the eye. I think the one thing I loved most from the presentation was the idea that the outfits were always white and the only way you can bring color to the outfits where through the lights. I found it creative and absolutely beautiful. When we were watching the videos, I was truly amazed at the lights and how they looked on the outfits throughout the dance. If I could dance and I have a sense of rhythm, I might actually want to try this and see how much strength, energy and time goes through these dances.