Essay #4

Cairo Montgomery
English 111
Essay 4

The Process of Design

    Everything is in this world needs a process. True, we can sometimes start things without guidelines and be blessed with a substantial end result. Though, with a proper outline and form of process set prior to a project, you will always have an overall better sense of  progress. If you ever find yourself designing something you should always keep such a process in mind. Every now and then an artist may feel inspired enough to just, go at it head-first and the end result just fall into their lap. Unfortunately, we aren't always that fortune and we aren't always inspired. Following the right process will get you through your design or art peice effectively without leaving your audiance lost to what your point is.

    Before you jump into working you should make sure to have a clear understanding of what it is you are suppose to accomplish with your design. It's important to bring people into your peice and relate to your design. So if you're making a flyer for a football team, it wouldn't hurt to go to a game and get a feel for the sport itself. If you can look at the flyer and tell that its for a football team at first glance then you achieve your goal. This is how you develop your concept.

    Developing your concept is the most important part of the design process. Without a clear sense of concept anyone is liable to define your work from their own imagination, and this is not what you want as an artist unless your peice is abstract. You should be able to understand how without following this particular step your entire design could loose its substance. Artist come up with their own methods of establishing a good concept to maintain their connection with their work and their audiance.

    Before I started the art program at NOVA I was so uses to just jumping in front of the computer, starting a design and finishing it within a matter of hours without taking much into consideration but visual appeal. That worked for me. I felt as though as long as my end result was compelling that was enough. Although there was so much foundation lacking in my work and that I wasn't able to notice it until I learned various theories of art. I was so pissed off when my art instructors would require a process book with our projects. Process books are basically a step by step analysis of how and why you created your final design for a project. Say you were creating a logo. To start off the book you might have a set of ten small black and white thumbnail sized designs. Then out out those ten designs you would choose the best three you would want to use and redesign them on a larger scale, referred to as "comps", and out of the three you would choose the strongest design to go with for your final result. You would then sketch this final design, being mindful to of design elements such as hierarchy and composition. Everything should be well balanced and your center of interest should be obvious. You can no start to take into consideration an effect swatch pallet (assortment of colors) that will compliment your design. It would benefit you gravely to be conscious of color theory and different combinations of color such as primary color, secondary color and tertiary color and different color compliments while doing this. Keeping a good sense of colors helps to no clash colors together. Sometimes color and speak louder than the message of your design and can take away from the integrity of your design.

    Having a colored rough draft isn't always enough to make an effective design. Knowing when you're finished can be difficult sometimes. You might not when enough is enough or if all you have will suffice. Every now and then you might reach the end of a project with the feeling that something is missing. This might be my favorite part of the project. This pretty much means that you forgot your creativity. This is now your opportunity to throw your own style into the design and make it speak for you as an artist. You achieve this simply by playing around with your design until you're satisfied.

    There is no right or wrong way to create art. One might come up with their own process of design totally different from mine but at the end of the day a process is required and the design is nothing without a good concept.

Essay #3

Cairo Montgomery
English 111
Essay 3

Keeping In Touch

    I have noticed throughout my years one of the things that seem to change most drastically and frequently are the actions of the phrase "keep in touch". The whole aspect of communication seems to develop and evolve every few years within itself. With new social networks and cell phone features beings created every few months, older forms of communication either seem to become obsolete or have completely changed. With the average teenager spending 31 hours on the internet per week, what does that mean is in store for the future of "keeping in Touch" when if you can't feel anything online?

    Listing to stories from my grandpatents about how life was when they were my age can be so stressful sometimes. It almost seems impossible that they would be able to maintain any relationship outside of their house hold. No cell phones, no internet, no gps. Like, how did they find anyone back then? I used to wonder sometimes, how did my grandfather approach my grandmother if it wasn't to get her phone number?  How did you plan on keeping in touch if neither of them could text each other? Comes to find out, what they would do after meeting someone they really liked was to either wait around until you bump into them again, or immediately plan to meet somewhere else. Now a days if you were to make plans right after an introduction it would come off as too forward or creepy. Although, in their time there seemed to be a much stronger energy behind meeting and getting to know people than we have now. They didn't have the luxury of being able to maintain distant relationships instantly and at a moments desire as we do now but relationships still seemed to have picked up right where they left off. Without the technology that we have today it was still possible to reach out to distant family and friends. The postal system was booming. I myself can remember back around my earlier years before everyone had an email address and a computer in every house. We would get so much mail. From, Christmas cards and pictures from family across the country, to post cards from traveling loved ones. Mail was the old fashioned way of updating your status, of course not as instant and frequent Twitter post, letters and post cards were a lot more heart felt and personal.

    I feel its safe to say that these days keeping in contact with someone is an extremely easy task. Assuming that the person you wish to contact is keeping up with the times, there should be a number of digital addresses that allow you to be able to reach them. It all starts with one Email address and the rest is history. In this day and age with out an email address you can't own a phone, get a job or even take a class at nova without one. We now have the luxury of sending messages to distant loved ones instantly with this creation, unlike the olden days where we waited around all week for letters to be delivered. These days sending and receiving messages through the mail is much more of a formal matter. The only messages being sent though mail are wedding invitations, holiday cards and money. With blogs, microblogging and social networking giants such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr, we now have the ability to share daily moments of our lives, opinions & ideas, and even play scrabble with a whole entire international network of friends, family and strangers. As tables and smart phones are acquired, portability plays a huge role in our ability to communicate instantly at every waking second. With cameras and videos being at our disposal following someone's life online can have a cinimatic feel to it.

    With the ability to communicate to a large range of followers instantly at our fingertips, updating everyone on our daily voyage through life eventually feels and becomes routine to us. Friends we haven't seen in months have the option of checking up on us as they please, and we do the same. Are we losing grasp of the genuine struggle of getting to know getting each other by following people? Maybe just before we part ways with long distant friends and family, instead of saying "keep in touch" we should just say "follow me". 

Essay #2 writing without prescribing

Cairo Montgomery
English 111
Isha Barnoy
Essay 2: writing without prescribing

Is rap music influentialy detrmemtial?

I remember growing up, one of the only things my parents wound never buy me was a CD player. I would ask every Christmas and birthday and get the same answer every time. "We don't want you blocking out everyone and listening to those raps and watching those [music] videos over and over agin." My parents would say. "The devil will be in your head all day!" Irritated I would respond back to them "I dont even plan on listening to the devil, I'll play Snoop dogg instead." They would always criticized the "foul language" in the music I would play and for the longest wouldn't even let me watch music videos. On tv sometimes I would catch on the news a group of women protesting against rap music in front of record stores as they would destroy new copies of Eminem's latest CD. Some with picket signs that had the word "Bitch" crossed out in a circle. Most older people talking about how the music we listened to would destroy our entire generation, and I always wondered to myself how that would even work. Could something as simple as music actually 'destroy' my generation? Perhaps there's something more to it than that.

Rap music is known to be one of those genres of music that you have prepare yourself to listen to before you hear it. It contains lyrical imagery of a life style that includes crime, drugs, violence, and loose sex. A lot of material that would make the average soccer mom shiver, and in my opinion that's a half of the reason why most kids like it so much. On the front of every popular rap CDs there is a parental advisory sticker that brings attention to the fact that this music is reserved for a certain audiance however of course, young kids still seem to gain access to the music. When they do so they often interpret the overall message of a song the wrong way. I believe music its self is a form of artistic expression and sense that's the case the over all message of a simple rap song cant always be understood on your first listen. You might need to fight though the curse words and tough talk to acquire the more important motivational message almost buried in the lyrics. The more you listen to this music the easier it is to decipher the concealed inspirational message. It's extremely easy however to pick up some head phones, hear the catchy hook and jump to most shallow conclusion of what a song is about. This is what most people do although I can't say I blame them. The beats, the catchy hooks, and the overall deliverance of the song can easily distract someone who doesn't listen to rap music often from grasping the desired concept. Much like surrealist art, where if you look at it it my seem random and senseless but there is actually logic to the art peice. Artist are fine with this. At the same time many people take the lyrics and run with it disregarding the intended message. Some fall victim to the allure of rap culture, they worship the persona of these rap artist, idolise their life styles, and adopt the negative habits of their culture and simply because its easy to.

It has been assumed by many people that the influence of the Rap/Hip-hop culture is responsible for the a number of flaws in this country ranging from teen pregnancies, gang violence, school shootings and the list goes on. Some might also refer to situations like Tyler Hadley's,  a 17 year old boy from Florida who was on trial for two murder charges for killing his parents last year. He was reported having beaten them to death with a hammer, then throwing a house party via Facebook invites  while their bodies remained in their bedroom. He was said to have popped three extacy tablets prior to the party. When caught Tyler confessed that rap music and the devil influenced him to do such a malicious act. Many people vaguely familiar with rap music might read a story like this and start to instantly think of ways to disconnect them and their children from such a negatively influenced genre of music. If there are rap songs about killing people, doing extacy, and having parties then surly there must be a connection. I however don't believe it to be that simple. At what point does personal responsibility come into account? Extacy tablets don't just come package inside of rap albums, you have to take it upon yourself to disregard everything you've ever heard about extacy being harmful to you, find who has it and buy it.

Is Tyler Hadley and others like him being influenced by something from more detrimental than their iPods on an everyday basis? Some my think If this was not the case then everyone with a radio would be a manic. Perhaps it isn't what these people are listening to, but rather what they haven't heard that effects them. At the end of the day, I feel as though anyone without a strong moral foundation is liable to be negatively influenced by, well, anything.

Sources Cited

Book:
Marcovitz, Hal. Surrealism. Farmington Hills: Gale Cengage Learning, 2008. Print. Eye on Art.

Web Page:
"The Surrealist Revolution." Myspace.com. The Surrealist Revolution, Spring 2007. Web. 28 Jan. 2012. <http://m.myspace.com/home.wap?bfd=webnext&isredirected=true#friends.list/profile/122264950.>.

Essay One. [Final]

Cairo Montgomery
English 111
Ishai Barnoy
Essay 1

The way in which we obtain information and how it affects us changes so much throughout time. The older we get the more we surround ourselves with information that reflects on how we feel and what's most important to us. Throughout the years technology has flourished more and more making information much faster to obtain and easier to deliver. We have reached the age where we can literally summon videos, music, and breaking news to the palm of our hands instantly. Where two decades ago society relied on newspapers, radio, and TV.

In our earliest stages of life (ages 1-5) our main source of information is our parents. Parents inform us about everything from how to behave in public (hopefully), family news, and religion, to what is right and wrong. We basically learn what they feel at the time is right. It's safe to say they help establish our moral foundation. At the same time our parents screen us from certain info or media they feel might be inappropriate for our age. When I was young, I remember the TV, the radio, magazines & newspapers to be the main source of information for people. There were some movies my parents didn't let me see because if exposed to the certain material the wrong way I might take some information and run with it leaving room for misunderstandings.

By the time we start going to school we are being introduce to a lot more than just what our parents expose us to. We are now being fed information every single day as we learn to broaden our horizons and establish a good scholastic foundation. However the older we get the more we are being exposed to a much wider variety of information and ideas. We start to meet different types of people from different cultures and backgrounds and we make new friends. Suddenly parental control has less of an impact as it once did and we start to develop almost all opinions on our own.

While we begin to develop our own points of view we are also influenced heavily by our friends and peers. They are the link between you and what’s going on in amongst your generation. You learn a lot from your peers such as how to interact with others, how to present yourself, the latest news & gossip, but most importantly what's "cool". Knowing what's cool is to know the popular opinion. Unfortunately for some people the popular opinion matters a lot growing up. Sometimes it sets the standard for what’s acceptable or what's out of style. Knowing these things might be vital to social life and is not easy always easy to understand. You might not have the right friends on your side to tell you that your clothes are "wack" or help to keep you up to date with music and movies etc.

Although considering the popular opinion may be beneficial, we grow to understand that our own opinions and ideas are what is most important of all. Throughout my growing experience I was fortunate watch the internet & technology develop more and more throughout time. Aside from computer games, and streaming video sites, the birth of social networks have become almost vital to our generation's social life and is a great way for us to express ourselves. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all require us to state our opinions, and exploit our personal taste. Aside from old fashion conversation these online profiles help others find out who we are.

As we mature throughout our years we realize that knowledge really is power and that we can't sit around all day waiting for breaking news and quality information to present itself. We go out and seek information. If it’s through magazine subscriptions, or eavesdropping on public conversations we make it our daily business to discover news weather we realize it or not. It's impossible to be a productive member of society and be ignorant to common knowledge and current events.

Having a good variety of sources while writing or researching is critical. A source is the origin in which you obtain information. All sources are different and it is wise to be able to distinguish witch sources to go to for specific task. For example you wouldn't want to write a magazine article on school lunch when your only source of information is the cafeteria staff. They might swear up and down that they have cheapest and most delicious food at the highest quality. That’s clearly a biased view point. It would benefit you more to take a survey (from the people who actually eat school lunch) or speak with a health inspector. As you might have heard a thousand different times, "there is always more than one side to each story". It is always best to take all things into consideration before forming your own opinion and or main point in writing.

Sources come in all types of different forms and mediums depending on your purpose for research. Throughout our generation they have developed more and more throughout our media. Almost any form of media can be used as a source. Television produces many sources such as the daily news, informative networks dedicate to learning (The History channel, A&E, Discovery etc.), political speeches and debates, and various movies and reports. Some way or another almost all of those sources eventually end up on the internet. The internet is also the domain for other sources we take advantage of daily, such as, blog's, social websites, scholar articles, and video streaming sites. Search engines such as Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Google help to link us to almost every web page pertaining to any topic we might fathom. Another great database for information would be, of course, the library. The library is the home to huge mass of books and videos on various subjects from various decades.

While reading for information you should always be sure to pay attention to detail and take facts from your sources while not being swayed by a subliminal opinion. You will need to take this into consideration when resorting to mass media sources such as some scholarly articles, blog post and televised news reports.

A source such as books and informative videos poses many facts that are mainly general and specific. The main purpose of these sources is to teach one about a subject in detail. Usually these sources require more of an attention span because of the amount of information contained.

Many articles, in magazines and newspapers use many verbal references such as interviews or speeches as sources and contain a lot of quoted material. Usually good writers of articles use metaphors, word play, and make you use your analytical skills to understand their points of view.

Maintaining a good understanding of how to utilize these sources will give you a good foundation to base your information from and should make the writing process a lot simpler.

For a good example of how to manage sources I am going to choose a topic along with what should be three great sources for my research process. I myself have always admired the works of artist Salvador Dali and the style of surrealism in which he would portray. I know that Surrealism helped revolutionize not only paintings and other forms of fine art but also influenced many other fields such as music, poems, politics and etc. of its century. This should be a great opportunity to enlighten myself on how this revolution came to be. If I were to write a research paper on the influence of surrealism what sources would I use to have the most useful and effective information to help my writing?

I predict that the best sources for me to use for this type research of would be a book from the Library an and a MySpace profile dedicated to the exact topic that I've chose. I feel as though these sources I chose should leave me with plenty of information to give me a good overall sense of what's needed to know about my topic and should benefit me the most. Since my topic is more on the lines of history and wouldn't naturally be a hot topic in the latest magazine or news feed, a book from the library should be my best bet. The book I chose was called Surrealism, from the Eye on Art series by Hal Marcovits. The eye on art series produces a variety of books based on different forms, styles, eras, of art. Published by Gale cengage learning, self-proclaimed as "a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses". I assume the target audience of this series would be artist and art students. I was quite lucky to come across this profile dedicated to Surrealism on MySpace. For one this isn't really the typical place I would normally find information on this type of subject but never the less I am fortunate to have found this. I have noticed that there is a social profile for almost everything under the sun now a days. Maybe generations after us will be more prone to looking up research on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace than they are to actually going to the library. This page seems to have a great range of facts that should act as a good source as well. Since its on MySpace, I would assume that the target audience for this source would be anyone bored or interested enough to read this profile.

http://m.myspace.com/home.wap?bfd=webnext&isredirected=true#friends.list/profile/122264950.

The book Surrealism from the Eye on Art series, mainly states the, who, what where when and why of the entire surrealist movement. From the creator of the word "Surrealism" to surrealism in today's culture. Most importantly there is a chapter dedicated to the exact topic of my paper "The Influence of Surrealism", which goes into detail about every major influence of the era, and the ideas that came from it. They explain a lot about how to determine where the artist's head is in terms of giving their work a sense of purpose and how Surrealism plays its role in each. They state "If we wanted to assume the that picture has symbolic significance, we might take it for a self-portrait in which skirts of roots points a closeness to nature while the Renaissance jacket may suggest an affinity with art" while analyzing Dorothea Tanning's self-portrait. You can tell here that they show specific examples of Surrealism being influenced by Dorthea Tanning's portrait and the meanings behind her art. They go on explaining how Surrealism influenced pop art and how Andy Warhol displayed it through his all silver New York business office in which he called "the factory" where he covered everything in Reynolds aluminum foil. They go on to explain surrealism and social change where they explain how Breton and other early surrealist were drawn into left-wing politics and supported the socialists, communist, and anarchist who tried to gain foothold in post WWI Europe. This book contains all basic material needed in order for me to define my topic.

If you're familiar with a MySpace page you know the basic profile options. There is a section for photos, where The Revolution of Surrealism post many surreal paintings, photos and portraits. There is a more info section where most people would add their favorite movies, books, and heroes, all influenced by Surrealism. The most information beneficial to the topic of my paper would be located in the Blog section of the page. This section contains five subsections including Surrealism Without Walls, To Come to End with God's Ghost, Voices of the Hell Choir
, The Derrame Affair and Poetic Identity. However I must say these subsections are very confusing if you don't know anything about Surrealism to begin with. The subsections aren't really in any sort of significant order from what it seems to me. They are sort of just there. The content may be beneficial though if used correctly however the sections are very long and you almost have to already know what's being talked about before you read into them. As I read through the sections It’s clear that this would never work well as someone's primary source. It takes almost too long to get to the main point, or at least from my perspective, and It’s as if they never speak in general terms.

Starting off this essay you would resort to most of the facts generated from my first source and then produce your thesis witch would be stating why Surrealism was influential. Then use details from the internet page profile on surrealism as a second source and to help prove my thesis and balance facts throughout the body of the essay, while using the first source, the library book on surrealism, to back up facts. Then finally conclude the essay with an overall summery that generalizes the main point.   

The Influence of Surrealism

Surrealism is the style of art and literature developed in the 20th century. It was known to stress the subconscious or non rational significance of art through the exploitation of chance effects, or unexpected juxtapositions. Basically meaning it was the revolution from realist art (portraits, landscapes etc.) to the breakthrough of random and crazy art.

Surrealism was criticized by many as random art with no meaning. While centuries before have perfected a realist style of art and culture to document current events, showcase the current state of culture, or contradicting political views, the surrealism breakthrough displayed a more obscure and random form of art. It was often thought of as unconscious, sexist, and non rational.

Surrealist saw their movement as inherently dynamic and dialectical. It referred to a range of creative acts of revolt and efforts to liberate imagination. Even though this new art style was seen as being random and non rational, it's art had many alternative meanings and subliminal contradicting views on politics and culture, having an identifiable impact on radical and revolutionary politics. Surrealism had an impact on many other fields such literature, politics and music.  Did this help revolutionize art or did it pollute the culture, and tarnish its commutative foundation?

RT TaysyrEng111: if you don't go to college, you won't become successful in life

The main point of this opinion was to state that if you don't attend a college you won't be successful. Maybe in most cases this is correct however not in all.

I feel as though hard work equals success. We all have our on opinion about success is to us. To some people success is to maintain a family and provide for them. You don't necessarily have to be a college graduate to be a good parent/ provider.

Success to you could also be to become a great artist. You can't learn originality or creativity in school. It's hard work that will make let you reach success.