Author: serg319

serg319

First Thoughts:

My initial thoughts while looking at this piece were that the photos were taken at barrios in a Latin country. I have seen a lot of blocks and buildings that look similar when I’ve gone to countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. For some reason, my thoughts went to Cuba as the place where these were taken and I wasn’t exactly sure why. It could have been the colorful blue building or how hot and dry it seems in the pictures, but also could be because of a new television show I watched based on Cubans. The women stood out to me because she seemed like the store owner that barrios tend to have in their communities. She seems like she has a lot of stories and is personable but also is bad ass in a way.

Deeper Analysis

My thoughts on the photo set changed a bit as I continued to observe the photo set. It was almost like taking a journey in my mind as I began to form one idea and then a different meaning hit me and completely contradicted the initial thoughts I was having during my extended observation of the piece. For some reason, the pictures began to look almost homey to me even though I have never lived in a location like that but my thoughts kept going back to my grandmother and mom. Thinking back to stories they’ve told me from their past and reaching back to a few memories I have from driving by places they knew or grew up when I visited Colombia is what I think made me think about the pictures in a homey way. Especially leaning more towards my grandmothers past because she actually grew up with very little and lived in similar circumstances. As I thought about this more and looked at the pictures, I realized how wrong I was with the feelings of home. The buildings and surroundings showed in the pictures to me looked like they were supposed to be that way and if they weren’t, if they were more clean and modern, it would seem like it’s almost not authentic. It hit me that for me, this is what I expect to see when I think about Latin countries and it’s normal for everything to look so underwhelming. I realized how upsetting and wrong it was that this was the idea I had of what those places should look like because just because it’s what people are used to it doesn’t mean it’s good. The photographer, Rubén Natal-San Miguel, captured places that seem so typical of what to expect in areas like that, these pictures actually being Puerto Rico, in media and such but the buildings are abandoned. They’re boarded off and up for sale and it shows the economic situation that countries like Puerto Rico are dealing with. Media will show places like that filled with families, little kids playing in the streets, elderly sitting on the porches and in real photographs, those places are abandoned. Looking back at the picture of Carmen the bartender, it sticks out to me that the place looks empty and once again that’s something that I wouldn’t expect from a place like that. Reflecting further on the photos my thoughts went from “pretty blue building” to thinking it was “homey” to realizing how lonely and sad everything looked. The photo of the word “outrage” on the fence pretty much summarizes what I ending up feeling from the photos and one can only imagine how the actual people who wrote that feel. Something with so much potential and beauty just seemed dead.

 

 

Teju Cole

serg319

Teju Cole wrote a very interesting article about Raghubir Singh’s photography of a realistic view of India. He made some points that I found myself thinking about a lot, especially in connecting his ideas to my “previous prejudice” of the opera compared to my opinions after the experience. Personally, I have always been interested in being able to attend an opera and get that experience. My “previous prejudice” towards opera was that I did have the idea that it was an activity aimed more towards the upper class. You often see media portray operas with those in attendance looking very well dressed in elegant gowns and suits and often older and usually white people. Operas also seemed to be events attended by highly educated people since so many originate from different countries in different languages. For a lot of people, especially young generations, operas have this reputation of being boring and old-fashioned and I honestly don’t really see where the strong idea that they’re boring came from because I was always intrigued by them. I feel that this might be because of my background with singing and love for theatre so operas are a point of interest for me. People go through extensive training to sing operas and these singers can really create magic on the stage. So, although I had these ideas of how exclusive and particular operas could be, I also had an idea of how entertaining and a cultural experience it could be so I always leaned more toward aiming to attend them throughout my life.

I wasn’t able to take photos at the opera but walking into Lincoln Center I saw my previous prejudices had some things that seemed correct and others that were off. The people, for the most part, were more Caucasian but attire varied. There was a wide variety of outfits that ranged from quite formal to casual jeans but I noticed that it seemed to vary based on seats. Those in the orchestra seats closer to the stage seemed more formally dressed than the people in the mezzanines. As the opera got underway, my idea that it would be magical didn’t pan out very much. I understood virtually none of the words because all the enunciation got mushed up in the singing. When my friend, who is also an opera singer, performs her pieces the words are usually more distinct and easy to make out but this could also have to do with the language being sung in. For some reason, English always sounds the most jumbled up. Regardless, I found myself to be a little bored though I tried to stay with the story the most I could while I noticed that some around me had just checked out. This brings me back to whether my previous notion that the opera was magical and gripped the viewer may not be entirely true and I would like to see more operas to figure it out. There’s a possibility that it may be easier to get enthralled into more popular operas like The Magic Flute or Carmen which already have a certain magnetism to them because they’ve been around for a while.

So, as I reflect on my experience with the opera and my thoughts on the reading, I think about whether Cusco is being too strict about having photos represent life in its most realistic way and not in a “previous prejudice” that is rarely seen. Although some of those instances of the festivals and dramatic landscapes being captured are rare to experience in real life, that doesn’t mean they can’t occur at all. Even though I couldn’t understand all that was being sung in the opera, there were moments where the line did land or the singer went for their big notes and those moments gave me the chills I had entered the opera expecting to get. There should certainly be a balance of what is represented but being able to weed out those breathtaking instances, whether from a photo of a place/culture or during an opera performances are what give the experiences their authenticity

Final Draft Final Letter

serg319

Dear Museum of Sex,

I recently visited your museum with a friend of mine and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The various interesting and vastly different exhibits really caught our attention as each one revealed new perspectives on embracing sexuality and how people portrayed doing so. After visiting the museum, I realized how educational it was in terms of sexuality: how it’s evolved over the years and different ways in which it can be embraced as well as the different lenses from which its viewed. The museum includes various floors that focus on specific aspects of sexuality such as The Sex Lives of Animals exhibit which shows how homosexuality is seen in all species of animals demonstrating that it is a natural and acceptable aspect of life, the NSFW: Female Gaze in which powerful feminine narratives are used to “reclaim and break out of women’s historical roles as muse and object” to reflect male perspective. These are just two of the few exhibits that provide insight into the taboo subject of sex and its various subtopics.

What stood out to me as I left the museum was they made sure my friend and I were 18 or older to get in. Although I understand the initial idea that anyone younger must be “protected” from a concept that society has decided is “too much” for anyone who isn’t 18 to see, I feel that the museum could actually be very beneficial to certain people under 18. Adolescence is one of the most confusing and difficult times for a human since they are just starting to explore their changing bodies and emerging sexualities. Schools nowadays don’t do the best jobs at educating students and even if they did, there are many groups of students that are left out of the health class conversation since curriculums are so cisgender and straight focused. Museum curator and now consultant Sarah Forbes acknowledged this in an interview with 6sqft where she said the following, “We are so inundated with sexual information and misinformation through popular culture. And really, there is a lack of real sexual education out there either from our young schooling days or even in college. With our exhibitions, we want them to appeal to a wide segment of the population. We are an 18+ institution, so this could mean someone who is not exposed to the subject matter at all or someone who has written a dissertation on the topic”. My question to her and the museum staff is, if you can see that sexual misinformation is so uncommon, why cut-off such an important and unique learning experience off from the teens that need it the most?

The Museum of Sex could be a valuable resource for adolescents in terms of educating them on sexuality and possibly giving them insight of their own sexuality. Teens who don’t have the resources or can’t utilize certain resources due to the risk of being in danger would benefit immensely from the exhibits. An LGBTQ+ teen who isn’t sure of sexuality, a girl who feels that society is placing men at the center of her sexuality, etc. By opening your doors to adolescents who can learn and grow from your museum, you could be helping to cultivate future generations that are more comfortable, positive, safe, and overall understanding of sexuality.

 

Sincerely,

Sergio Flores

Open Letter Draft to the Museum of Sex

serg319

Dear Museum of Sex,

I recently visited your museum with a friend of mine and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The various interesting and vastly different exhibits really caught our attention as each one revealed new perspectives on embracing sexuality and how people portrayed doing so. After visiting the museum, I realized how educational it was in terms of sexuality: how it’s evolved over the years and different ways in which it can be embraced as well as the different lenses from which its viewed. The museum includes various floors that focus on specific aspects of sexuality such as The Sex Lives of Animals exhibit which shows how homosexuality is seen in all species of animals demonstrating that it is a natural and acceptable aspect of life, the NSFW: Female Gaze in which powerful feminine narratives are used to “reclaim and break out of women’s historical roles as muse and object” to reflect male perspective. These are just two of the few exhibits that provide insight into the taboo subject of sex and its various subtopics.

What stood out to me as I left the museum, was that they made sure my friend and I were 18 or older to get in. Although I understand the initial idea that anyone younger must be “protected” from a concept that society has decided is “too much” for anyone who isn’t 18 to see, I feel that the museum could actually be very beneficial to certain people under 18. Adolescence is one of the most confusing and difficult times for a human since they are just starting to explore their changing bodies and emerging sexualities. Schools nowadays don’t do the best jobs at educating students and even if they did, there are many groups of students that are left out of the health class conversation since curriculums are so cisgender and straight focused. Museum curator and now consultant Sarah Forbes acknowledged this in an interview with 6sqft where she said the following, “We are so inundated with sexual information and misinformation through popular culture. And really, there is a lack of real sexual education out there either from our young schooling days or even in college. With our exhibitions, we want them to appeal to a wide segment of the population. We are an 18+ institution, so this could mean someone who is not exposed to the subject matter at all or someone who has written a dissertation on the topic”. My question to her and the museum staff is, if you can see that sexual misinformation is so uncommon, why cut-off such an important and unique learning experience off from the teens that need it the most? The Museum of Sex could be a valuable resource for adolescents in terms of educating them on sexuality and possibly giving them an insight of their own sexuality. Teens who don’t have the resources or can’t utilize certain resources due to the risk of being in danger would benefit immensely from the exhibits. An LGBTQ+ teen who isn’t sure of sexuality, a girl who feels that society is placing men at the center of her sexuality, etc. By opening your doors to adolescents who can learn and grow from your museum, you could be helping to cultivate future generations that are more comfortable, positive, safe, and an overall understanding of sexuality.

 

Sincerely,

Sergio Flores

 

References:

Cohen, S. and Cohen, S. (2015). New Yorker Spotlight: Curator Sarah Forbes on the Museum of Sex (It’s Not Exactly What You Think It Is) | 6sqft. [online] 6sqft. Available at: https://www.6sqft.com/new-yorker-spotlight-curator-sarah-forbes-on-the-museum-of-sex-its-not-exactly-what-you-think-it-is/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

MoSEX. (2017). NSFW: Female Gaze | MoSEX. [online] Available at: http://www.museumofsex.com/portfolio_page/nsfw/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

 

Fashion of 5th Ave

serg319

My video is of the vibrant and artistic fashion scene of 5th Avenue. With some of the most well known and popular designers/brands around, 5th Ave is always thriving with shoppers from all over the world ready to get their hands on the newest fashion trends. I tried to capture the colorful and stimulating aesthetics that one can find while walking down the street as well as the street fashion and the overall feeling of confidence from strutting down this fashion center.

Crying Eye

serg319

I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.

I knew it was coming. I’d known my whole life. This wasn’t something one could just avoid. It’s followed me since a time I can barely remember, and will follow me for the rest of my life. Eventually, it had to be talked about. She chose the most convenient time possible; we were alone. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked-for signs on her face. She seemed nervous, couldn’t meet my eyes.

For the longest time, my heart would stop anytime she called for me without being straightforward about the reason she needed to speak to me. This was not an exception. An overwhelming wave of nerves pulsed through my veins and washed over me. Every time I found myself in this position I always jumped to the worst-case scenario conclusion that she knew and she was going to say something. My deepest fear was finally climbing out from the depths of where I pushed it throughout my whole life and was ready to tear me apart. But that never turned out to be the case, so why would it be now? I could have relaxed yet, I didn’t.

She began to speak, and suddenly I was cold. Freezing, as I always get whenever my nerves get the better of me. She struggled to form her sentences, thinking of how she wanted to phrase certain statements or questions. She was obviously avoiding certain words. I didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, it benefitted me. I could use this to my advantage and spin everything to play in my favor, yet on the other hand, maybe being straightforward about this would end the constant fear I was forced to live in. Her eyes were red. Her gaze shifted between me and anywhere else. I could feel myself shaking as I listened to her muddle of words, statements, questions, accusations, support, insults.

I had been preparing for this conversation for as long as I could remember. I had promised myself I wouldn’t cry. I may be a lot of things, but weak certainly wasn’t one of them. Yet I felt my tears begin to swell up and I cursed myself for it. Crying now was not an option. As she continued to release her pent-up emotions, ideas, fears, I had to make a decision. Was I ready to face this head on or was hiding my only option yet again? At the moment, I made up my mind that I was ready. I was not going to cry. She was waiting for me to respond. The perfect opportunity was now in front of me, I could finally be free.

I lied. I lied and I lied even more. I had become quite good at it and was proud of it in a way that would make others sad. I lied and she challenged me. She insisted she wanted me to be honest but I knew she didn’t. If she really wanted honesty, she wouldn’t have avoided something she knew since forever. I lied until I left that room. She wiped her eyes and went back to watching her television show as I left the room and sat on my bed. I was back where I started once again. Looking back now, I can’t say I know if I made the right decision or not. Emotions tend to blur together. All I can truly say was that I felt cold for the rest of the night.