SEMESTER 1
These are the activities and exhibits I attended for the Pentathlon during my first semester as an Arts Scholar!
VISUAL ART
Pentathlon 1
For my first pentathlon event, I decided to do an art project under the Visual Arts category. I chose to use an idea from the “Art Projects for Adults” article, to recreate a painting from a museum on a miniature canvas, and I did this by myself on Thursday, September 17th. For this project, I recreated Claude Monet’s San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk. As an art scholar, this gave me an opportunity to observe a famous piece of art and try to imagine the techniques the artist used, and to try out an art style I have never done before, impressionism. During this pentathlon, I learned how long and difficult it is to create some forms of art, especially ones with many steps or details. For impressionist paintings, these consist of many small brush strokes that come together to form a larger image. It can be hard to imagine the final work when you are still in the middle of painting, which is why many people say to “trust the process”, or to not give up or feel discouraged when your artwork is only partly completed.
THEATRE
Pentathlon 2
For my second pentathlon event, I watched Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House by BBC on UMD’s Theatre in Video on October 3rd. Although I have read this play before, I never had the chance to see it acted out. The actors in the BBC’s version put emotion into their characters, which helps to visualize the scenes as if they were really taking place, compared to simply reading the script on paper. The story depicts a woman, Nora Helmer, and her husband Torvald as they live a wealthy and privileged life together with their children. Nora’s ideal perfect life starts to fall apart when she admits to breaking the law and going against gender roles that her husband wants her to adhere to. The play is a commentary on expectations for women and their role in society, as well as the validity of laws that are unfair to women. Being performed first in 1879, A Doll’s House includes ideas that were seen as radical at the time: women having financial independence, women working and gaining money rather than caring for children, women disobeying their husbands' orders, and women living for themselves, and not for the men in their lives. In Arts Scholars we learn that art is in many cases political, and has the ability to make change in society. By reflecting on art from long ago, we can see how society has changed since then, and also think about how people reacted to progressive art at the time.
Screenshot from UMD Theatre in Video.
"A Doll's House." Performance, directed by David Thacker, BBC, 1992.
VISUAL ART | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 3
For this Pentathlon event, I helped plan and attended the Arts Advisory Board scholars event on October 13th, where we made Halloween themed origami. Joining the AAB and this event helped me to make friends and have experience planning events. This was the first time I ever tried origami, so it was a bit difficult. I successfully created a bat, but after three tries with the pumpkin I just made a cutout so I'd at least have both. Through this event, I learned how difficult origami is and that I admire people who master working with a medium as fragile as paper.
DANCE | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 4
For pentathlon 4, I attended a zoom call on October 23rd hosted by my peer mentor, Sidney, where we watched a playlist of various choreographed dances. Of the four videos, my favorite was titled “FEAR (DANCE SHORT FILM) || Bdash and Konkrete | Directed by Isaiah Shinn,” and showed a dance by two people dressed up in costume to look like characters from the horror film “It.” As Halloween was approaching, it was interesting to see how they implemented horror into dance. The dancers used rigid, robotic movements to give an uncomfortable feeling, and to make it look like one was controlling the other like a puppet, mimicking every move of the dancer in control, as well as moving his arms as if there were strings attached. They also used props in the choreography, like one of the dancer’s sweatshirts, to greater emphasize this control. We have not gone over dance much in Arts Scholars colloquium yet, so this was a good experience to watch different dance styles and see how dancers work together to create a feeling or theme in their dance. From this pentathlon event, I learned how body movement, props, camera work, and editing all go into creating dance videos, and how artists use these factors changes the way the art makes you feel.
Shinn, Isaiah. “FEAR (DANCE SHORT FILM) || Bdash and Konkrete | Directed by Isaiah Shinn.” Youtube, 9 May 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxCOjEJYYwo.
LITERATURE | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 5
For my fifth pentathlon event of the semester, I helped prepare and attended the Arts Advisory Board’s relaxing writing night zoom meeting, “Chill With the Quill,” on November 17th at 7:30 PM. I chose to use this event to reflect on my life in college so far and write a letter to my future self. This gave me the opportunity to write freely about my fears and worries without having to explicitly show it to anyone else. It is a healthy exercise that I can use in the future as well to look back on my experiences and see how I have grown. I can also use it to see how my writing style has changed over time when I revisit this letter, hopefully 4 years in the future. I got the chance to discuss my letter briefly with other arts scholars, who shared the general content of their letters or the creative writing they worked on during our allotted time. I learned that sharing your content and ideas with others helps inspire future art and also gives you a chance to reflect on your own work and how to improve.
SEMESTER 2
These are the activities and exhibits I attended for the Pentathlon during my second semester as an Arts Scholar!
PRESENTATION | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 1
Zoom Game Night, Saturday Feb 6th at 3pm, Art Scholars Event
This weekend I and other Art Scholars met and played a drawing game on the website rocketcrab, which was basically an art version of the game telephone. This event gave me the opportunity to talk with other scholars I have not interacted with, and also test my drawing and interpretation skills. The game started with all of us writing in a word or phrase, and then the next round, we were given another's word to draw. After we finished, our drawings were handed off to a different player to guess what it was, and their interpretation was then used as the prompt for the next drawer. This caused a lot of confusion along the way, with miscommunications and difficult prompts. For example, one prompt began as "frog eating a burger" and ended with "corn farmer". This shows how we can all have different interpretations of art, and that the original meaning of a piece can be lost over time with those differing interpretations. This game also challenged me to more efficiently draw the prompts given to me, as I could not take 10 minutes adding details and perfecting everything, especially with limited tools. In the end, it was fun seeing all our drawings and connecting with other arts scholars.
MUSIC
Pentathlon 2
Zoom/Spotify Music Activity, Friday Feb 19th at 6-7pm
For this event, I attended a zoom music hangout with my peer mentor group. First, we voted on a color theme for 2 collaborative Spotify playlists, then added songs we thought fit the theme. The first playlist was "Seafoam Green", and the second was "Gray." This was a good opportunity to get to know my peer mentor group better, as we have only had a few meetings beforehand. Through this activity, I saw how we each interpret and connect music to colors differently. We assigned songs to a color because of their genre, pace, emotional connection, or even the color of the song's cover art. For example, the “Gray” playlist was filled with slower, quieter, and sadder songs than the “Seafoam Green” one, which was more upbeat. I don't like sharing my favorite music much because it feels embarrassing, but I am glad I attended because I found out that a few of my peers have very similar music tastes to me. This event made me reflect on how I connect emotionally to songs and colors, and makes me want to create more of these playlists on my own. I also gained an insight on my peers' music tastes and got some song recommendations too.
PRESENTATION, VISUAL ART, AND SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 3 + 4
Zoom Arts Advisory Board 2-for-1, Sunday February 28th at 5:30-6:30 pm
This pentathlon meeting was unlike the arts scholars events I have attended before, as we did 2 pentathlons in an hour, using the Zoom breakout room function to switch between different activities. As a member of the Arts Advisory Board, I worked with the other members and the Peer Mentors to plan this event. We wanted to give more than 2 options incase those attending did not like one, so we settled on Presentation, Music, Visual Art, and Dance. When I attended, I chose to do the Skribbl.io Presentation and the interactive whiteboard Visual Art activities. Firstly, the skribbl.io game was similar to the drawing game I attended for my first pentathlon, only skribbl is more competitive, as you play against other scholars for points by drawing or guessing the chosen word quickest. This gave me another chance to connect with scholars, and also tested my drawing and interpretation abilities with very little time alloted and limited tools. This connects back to an idea I learned in art class at UMD, formal analysis. Formal analysis helps us break down the physical parts of an art piece to understand its meaning or significance. In a limited time span, I had to decide what parts of my chosen word I could draw the quickest and most efficiently so that the other scholars could understand what the object is immediately. For my second activity, the whiteboard Visual Art activity gave us drawing prompts to do collaboratively and alone. We had to altogether draw a scene of sea creatures underwater, and then draw our interpretation of the idiom “it’s raining cats and dogs” on our own. I liked the collaboration in the first section, as we would always be adding details on top of each other’s drawings. This activity made me think about collaborative art projects and how I could do one in the future with other arts scholars.
LITERATURE | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 5
Zoom Arts Advisory Board Poetry Slam, Tuesday April 6th, 7:30-8:30pm
This pentathlon event was the final Arts Advisory Board event of 2021, and was in my opinion our best event of the year! Instead of the current leaders hosting the event, Rebekah, Tiffany, Maria and I as the future leaders got to put it together. I created the google slides and hosted a breakout room! The event was an opportunity for scholars to both share and listen to poetry, and we had a great turnout. We started the event by breaking into three groups, and in each room, the leaders asked for nouns, verbs, and adjectives to fill in Mad Lib poems we chose and removed words from prior to the event. This was a warm-up activity and an ice breaker to have a chance to talk with other scholars in a smaller setting. After we returned to the main room, someone from each group read out the filled-in Mad Lib poem, and scholars in the audience put their reactions in the chat. Next, we started on the poetry sharing session, where those who signed up could get a turn to read their own poetry out loud. The poems were beautifully written, and covered a range of topics, all stemming from the writer’s emotions and personal experience. As someone who does not like poetry much, this event opened my eyes to the power of poetry to get across social and political topics in a more accessible and creative way. It reminded me of something I learned in one of my Women Studies courses last semester, how poetry is an essential tool for activism because of its accessibility, ability to affect one’s emotions, and ability to be easily and quickly spread. I now have a better outlook on poetry and want to look more into it. Overall, this event had a very lively and comfortable atmosphere, and really felt like we were together despite being on zoom. It made me excited to be in person next year to get a better Arts Scholars experience.
SEMESTER 3
These are the activities and exhibits I attended for the Pentathlon during my third semester as an Arts Scholar!
DANCE
Pentathlon 1
NextNow "FANCY" by TWICE Dance Workshop, Saturday Sept. 18th, 6:45-7:15pm, The Clarice Dance Studio 1
This pentathlon event was my first of the year, and my first time attending the NextNow fest! I was hesitant to attend at first, as I have zero experience with dancing, but my other scholars friends convinced me to give it a chance. Even though I have no plans on becoming a dancer, this experience gave me a new perspective on the difficulties of learning and teaching choreographies, and I also now know how to dance to one of my favorite songs. During this dance class, my friends and I stood in the front row to get a good view of the instructor, one of the members of the UMD GGWB, but this also caused me to have performance anxiety, as everyone else behind me could see my mistakes. The dance instructor also had a hard time adjusting to teaching such a large crowd, so I could see how one would need to master their choreographies to effectively teach it to others. I noticed I had a very difficult time remembering dance moves and translating them from my brain to my body, in addition to the song being fast-paced. We started off by slowing the song to 75% for each new section of dance moves, then speeding up after a few minutes of practice. I enjoyed the fact that most of the moves were arm movements, rather than foot placement or jumping, because I feared injuring my ankles. I also noticed how low my stamina was, as Only 30 minutes of the class left me exhausted and sweating. I don't think I danced very well, but the overall experience was fun and invigorating, and I loved having a chance to try out dancing again with my friends. This experience connects back to Arts Scholars as we consistently emphasize the idea of exploring new art forms, even if we are scared of making mistakes. We also danced as a community activity, uniting students from scholars, Ganji club, GGWB, and other UMD students through art. I also felt part of the larger UMD community as I made some new friends at this workshop too. After this experience, I have much more respect for dancers and dance instructors, as they must put in years of practice to be able to execute choreographies and avoid making mistakes or losing their stamina.
umd.ggwb. "Did you hear? @umd.ggwb and @ganjiumd will be hosting." Instagram, 10 Sept. 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CTpn-LQBpju/?utm_medium=copy_link
THEATRE
Pentathlon 2
NextNow "Maryland Night Live", Friday Sept. 17th, 8pm, The Clarice
For the second pentathlon event this semester, I attended the NextNow Maryland Night Live comedy show! This was a brand new experience for me, as I have never seen a comedy performance before. In addition to scripted sketches, this event had two live music performances in between the acting. I am not a huge fan of comedy shows, and most of the jokes were too forced, but I really loved the standup, as it felt more genuine and casual compared to the sketches. I did enjoy the communal aspect of this event, as I was able to experience the jokes together with my scholars friends and comment on what we liked and did not like. This comedy show made me think more deeply about how performance art goes beyond just dance, theatre, and singing, but also all the factors that go into making an audience laugh and feel immersed in your performance. For example, many people may look at stand-up comedy and not see it as art, but if you analyze the various types of work that goes into standup (writing, delivery, and timing all factor into creating comedy), you can see how it is an art-form that the performer sculpts and perfects over time. As I mainly stick to physical arts, I am trying to expose myself to more types of performance art to broaden my understanding of what makes art a dialogue between the artist and their audience.
MUSIC | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 3
AAB Open Mic Night, Friday October. 15th, 7-8pm, CCC 1100
For the third pentathlon event this semester, I planned and hosted the Arts Advisory Board Open Mic Night! It was my first time hosting an in-person AAB event as the co-president, and from this process I learned about the various skills of my fellow art scholars as well as gained insight on how organizing and hosting events works. We decorated the room beforehand with leaves, pumpkins, and fake-candles to give an Autumn atmosphere, and I also learned to set up the sound system. Although there were performances on poetry, singing, instruments, stand-up comedy, and even a presentation on memes, I believe the performances that stood out the most to me were the music performances. Students that attended both as audience members, but many also brought instruments, like an electric guitar from the 1960's, the mandolin, and ukulele. Some scholars paired this with background audio, and some also sung along with their instruments. One scholar sang for the first time in years, and did amazing. It was incredible to see so many scholars come together to show off their talents and also support their friends in the audience. This event reminds me of how important performance art is to form community relationships. As someone who cannot sing well, I always admire those who have the skill and bravery to sing in front of others, as well as playing instruments too. Although I was anxious about the turnout, logistics, and speaking in front of the crowd, it went well and I think everyone had fun. Overall, this first AAB event was a success and also helped me gain insight on my peers' talents.
MUSIC
Pentathlon 4
100 Gecs Concert, Friday October. 29th, 10PM-1AM, The 9:30 Club in DC
For the fourth pentathlon event this semester, I attended my first-ever concert! The performers were 100 Gecs, a hyperpop duo that has recently gained success due to internet exposure on social media like TikTok. They also had an opening act, Alice Gas, who is a DJ. While I had not listened to much of their music beforehand, my scholars friends Aileen, Kelly, and Alejandro decided to attend this concert together. The concert experience began with waiting in line for about 2 hours, as we arrived early, and it paid off, as we were able to get a spot at the very front of the venue. Once the concert began, I could really feel the energy of the crowd and the performers. Live performance is based on not just the music itself, but also the relationship between the audience and the singers. This reminds me of the discussion we did in CPSA about what makes festivals such a unique experience, and I believe those same sentiments apply to concerts in general. During the concert, 100 gecs performed a collection of their most popular songs, including "Money Machine," "Stupid Horse," and "Ringtone." They also interspersed their humorous, chaotic songs with segments of talking with the crowd. Hyperpop songs in general are very loud and experimental, and this made for an invigorating concert experience. I remember feeling the beat of the songs shaking the ground and traveling up through my body, feeling it in my head and throat. The crowd also felt like its own entity, with constant movement of pushing and falling on each other, we had to both fight to keep our spots in the crowd, but also help each other from falling down and getting injured. Overall, the experience was like nothing I have been through before, and I will remember it for the rest of my life.
PRESENTATION
Pentathlon 5
AAB Presentation Night, Thursday Nov. 18th, 6:30-7:30PM, Bel Air projector lounge
For the fifth pentathlon event this semester, I planned and hosted a PowerPoint presentation night for the Arts Advisory Board. While this has a smaller turnout than the last AAB event, it was still fun and engaging. Instead of swapping presentations as originally planned, we decided it would be funnier if everyone presented their own, as they would be enthusiastic about their own topics. I hooked up my laptop to the projector and called up people one-by-one to present. The topics ranged from how reverse psychology works to ranking Pixar movies, and were generally supposed to be comedic or engaging to the audience. This combines presentation and theatre in a way, as each presentation is like the individual's performance to try to make the audience laugh or react. This reminded me of the comedy events I have attended and also improv/stand-up that I have seen from other Arts Scholars. My favorite PowerPoint was Keara's on "College Majors as White Suburban Moms," where she played on stereotypes of middle-aged moms and compared their traits to those of certain majors. This was especially engaging for the audience as they waited to see how their own major was described. For my presentation, I presented "Why You Should Watch NBC's Hannibal" my favorite show. I went over the main characters, pros and cons, where to watch it, and some of the more interesting crime scenes and plot points in the show. By the end, I had convinced a few scholars to check it out over break! In all, the event was a funny bonding experience for us scholars and a chance to share our niche interests in a performative and exaggerated way.
SEMESTER 4
These are the activities and exhibits I attended for the Pentathlon during my fourth semester as an Arts Scholar!
FILM
Pentathlon 1
Analysis of Symbolism and Themes in NBC's Hannibal, Sunday Feb. 6th, 8-9PM, McKeldin Library.
For the first pentathlon event this semester, I rewatched the pilot episode of my favorite show, NBC’s Hannibal (2013), and discussed with my friend the symbols and themes throughout the episode and how they play out in the entire show. While it is a series and not a stand-alone film, Hannibal is a dramatic piece of art that covers themes of morality, empathy, and various forms of intimate relationships. This series revolves around the main character, a socially-awkward professor named Will Graham who has an empathy disorder that helps him to solve murder cases through the FBI, and his relationship with Hannibal Lecter, a secret serial cannibal and his psychologist. Firstly, the pilot episode works to set up symbols and plot points that continue throughout the entire series. For example, the parental relationship of Will and Hannibal with Abigail Hobbs is established in this episode as they are responsible for her father’s, Garret Hobbs, death, the final scene being a shot of the two at the sides of Abigail’s hospital bed. An important symbol that appears throughout the show is deer and antlers, which often come in the form of Will’s hallucinations. The deer that follows him in his mind first appears in the midst of his investigation of Garret Hobbs’s, murders, wherein Hobbs uses deer antlers to hang up the bodies of his victims. This first case, being Will’s first kill, represents the beginning of his spiral into madness and eventually his acceptance of the darkness inside him. The deer and antler symbolism therefore seems like this initial murder case continually follows Will until he finally succumbs to his desire to kill later in the series. Another symbol that persists through the series is lighting and saturation. The pilot episode of Hannibal is the brightest and most saturated in color of the series, while the rest of the episodes are plunged into dramatic darkness and cool tones. This may symbolize the state of Will Graham’s mind and reality before Hannibal essentially “corrupts” him, or as many argue, helps reveal his true nature. Overall, I think Hannibal is a beautiful example of artistic horror that pushes viewers to think deeply about morality and the fragility of life.
This viewing and analysis of NBC’s Hannibal was a fun experience as I have never written any sort of film analysis before for a show that I enjoy and have discussed and read about in-depth. To do this pentathlon, I also did some light research into different forms of film analysis, so I learned about how film writers and producers use elements of lighting, cinematography, and music to show symbolism. This experience makes me want to do more film analysis, especially as we did not do much during my time in Arts Scholars. This also connects back to my capstone project, as I am using themes of horror and morality/sin in my capstone to show physical manifestations of mental illness, specifically OCD. I can watch artistic horror films/series like Hannibal to gain inspiration on how I can use elements of horror in my own work.
MUSIC | ART SCHOLARS EVENT
Pentathlon 2
AAB Valentines Karaoke, Friday Feb. 25th, 5-8PM, CCC 1100.
For the second pentathlon event this semester, I planned and hosted a Valentines-themed karaoke event with the Arts Advisory Board. This event was another opportunity to connect with my peers, see other arts scholars' talent, and also gain organizing/planning skills. For the weeks leading up to it, the AAB leaders and I planned the time and place of the event, purchased decorations and materials (Valentine candy goody-bags), and finally set up the sound system on the day of the event. Although the turn-out was not as large as the last large AAB event, we still enjoyed the time together. Since there were only about 8 of us, we were all able to sing multiple songs, and also did some duets. I recognize that I do not have much talent in singing, but I like karaoke more for the performance aspect and showing others the songs I like. On the other hand, a few of the other scholars had good vocal talent, and I was impressed by some of the performances! Emma performed "She's So Gone" from Lemonade Mouth, and hit really long notes! Fiona sang "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble, and was able to deepen her voice a lot, which surprised the crowd. Belle sang "Every Summertime" by Niki, and showed off her smooth and soft singing. Hearing the other scholars sing really made me think about the technique and breathing control that goes into singing. It takes years of practice and understanding of how manipulating one's breath and body creates certain sounds. While I do not believe I could train myself to be a great singer, I do commend and admire those who were born with talent, but also those who learned to sing as well. Overall, the event helped me to better connect with Arts Scholars, and have a better appreciation of singers.
PRESENTATION
Pentathlon 3
TEDTalk, Sunday Mar. 13th, 9PM, on TED.com.
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_pasternak_the_transformative_role_of_art_during_the_pandemic
For the third pentathlon event this semester, and was able to deepen her voice a lot, I watched a 20 minute TEDTalk interview between Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, and Chee Pearlman, who works for TED. In this interview, "The Transformative Role of Art During the Pandemic," Pasternak discusses how we as a society use art to celebrate, mourn, and heal, especially from disasters. For example, she explains how immediately after 9/11, she was tasked to find artists and direct an art exhibit to memorialize the event. This culminated in the "Tribute in Light" exhibit, which shines massive beams of light into the sky to create the shape of the towers where they once stood. She applied the same usage of art, to grieve and memorialize this shared pain, to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of this video, June 2020, thousands of Americans had already died from COVID, especially in New York City which was hit hard due to the sheer density of the population. Pasternak, being an important figure at the Brooklyn Museum, wanted to find a way to use art to honor and mourn those who had died of COVID. Pasternak wished to create an exhibit that plastered the faces and information of victims of COVID in her community, but quickly realized how difficult this would be due to the amount of deaths, and how many of them may not have public obituaries. This lead her to think about equity, and how many people in her community of Brooklyn experience inequity everyday, especially in health, and how most of those individuals will not be honored or memorialized in any way.
This presentation made me consider the ways in which museums have memorialized important aspects of history, but have also worked to speak over, steal, whitewash, and hide the stories and cultures of so many. How can we promote Art museums as a way to bring community together to heal during and after the pandemic when they have historically failed to serve everyone in their communities, and also failed to serve the people and cultures they use for exhibitions? On the topic of COVID, these ideas around equity link back to my major as I am in Behavioral and Community Health. A lot of my work surrounds the topic of health equity and how we can implement policies, education, media campaigns, and other interventions to prevent health inequities and health disparities. This also connects to a lot of the material we covered in colloquium last year, mid-pandemic, on how we can use art in activism and social change. The way we present the pandemic, how we memorialize and honor those who have died, and how we portray our downfalls during this time are so important for how future generations interpret this time.
VISUAL ART
Pentathlon 4
Collage, Sunday Apr. 3rd, 4pm
For the fourth pentathlon event this semester, and was able to deepen her voice a lot, I created a small collage out of stickers, paper cut-outs, and pens. Starting out, I did not have a main idea/theme planned, and instead chose to start from the center and work outwards. I noticed that my eyes were drawn towards the contrast between orange tones with the greens and blues, so I started to recognize this as the main color scheme. I found materials by flipping through magazines, old books, and my antique art sticker book. This gave me a wide variety of shapes, objects, and figures to use. I eventually started to add a theme to this collage. The different elements clashed together are meant to criticize industrialization and the pains of modernity. In the center, there is a skull with red, bulging eyes, smoking a cigarette. This represents how our population is dying on the inside as a result of the stress we face every day, and often we turn to drugs or other coping mechanisms to find an escape. The clock above the skull and the hourglass represent how quick time passes by as we live every day the same, with work and school, with little time for exploration and appreciation of art and nature. I included plants and bugs fleeing on the edges of the collage show how nature is being forcefully driven out of our field of view - with deforestation, pollution, and mass extinction. The images of the car, smoking factory, and arm holding the hammer represent elements of industry and technology. While these are positive to an extent, they also bring about suffering, exploitation, and death. While this modern world can feel bleak, we still find joy and chaos in the mix, which is why the center is filled with bright, warm colors. Lastly, the only text included, "progress?" leaves the collage with a question: is this truly progress? Where does this path lead us? Are we doomed?
Overall, this piece is meant to symbolize the disenchantment with modern life. This experience was very fun, as I felt like I was creating art for myself, and not as an assignment. This connects back to my capstone project for CPSA, as I am currently working on 3 horror collages. This piece includes some cool cutouts/stickers I found but did not suit the colors or overall theme of my capstone. This also gave me the chance to experiment with collages beyond my capstone project, as a creativity break.
FILM | ART SCHOLARS
Pentathlon 5
AAB Movie Night, Friday Apr. 15, 5-7pm
For the final pentathlon of the semester, I planned and hosted an Arts Advisory Board movie night event. This event counted as #FILM and also #ArtsScholarsEvent. To prepare, the AAB leadership team selected a date for the movie night that was before the final pentathlon date. We then asked the AAB members at the past general body meeting for movie ideas, and allowed them to vote for their movie choice via GroupMe polls. Although the Disney movie “Coco” won, we were unable to get the credentials for Disney+ the day of, and opted for another CGI film, “How to Train Your Dragon.” This is a nostalgic movie for me, as my sister and I bonded over it back when it first released. As I am older, and an art scholar, I can have more appreciation for the artistic aspects of the film, like the writing and the computer-generated art. Starting with the plot, it centers around a boy, Hiccup, who constantly feels like a weak coward for not living up to his father’s expectations, but this apparent weakness proves to be what saves his entire town. Because he is not physically strong, he cannot fight dragons, and instead learns ways to calm or tame them. His “cowardice” kept him from going through with killing the Night Fury, Toothless, as he saw a helpless creature, like himself, and refused to be cruel. By being against this violent path, he used his empathy and intelligence to work alongside the dragons to fight their common enemy, a massive dragon in the center of their nest that would have destroyed his entire village. This sentiment shows that even if you believe yourself to be weak or unable to reach expectations of others, you have other strengths that may actually work better. The film also has a theme of empathy rather than violence and fear of things - or people - you do not understand. For the visual art, this movie holds up well for being over a decade old. The CGI is smooth and the color palette, especially for the dragon designs, are beautiful. Thinking over the artistic process, every character and dragon in the film must have gone through many stages and iterations, and the artists behind the designs put a lot of time and effort to make sure they fit the environment and personalities of each character. This makes me appreciate the hard work behind animated films! Overall, this event was a success, and we had a turnout of around 10 people! This pentathlon also gave me even more experience with organizing and hosting events alongside my AAB members and scholars.