This American Life

          After listening to the podcast This American Life, I hold very mixed feelings on the topics that were discussed.  Judging from my experience as a freshman at Penn State, I felt as if some parts were inaccurate yet some parts were. 

          I believe that the students chosen to be interviewed did not represent the attitude of the typical Penn State student.  For example, the group of guys that took a stop sign out of the ground was an extreme occurrence.  Also, the podcaster mentioned that students were littering.  Out of all the times I have gone out, I have never seen any absurd behavior such as this.  One of the reasons why I came to Penn State was because the caliber of the students was higher than most universities and the campus was incredibly clean.  Another part of this podcast I feel the need to argue is when the couple at the fraternity party was interviewed. In the interview the boy directly states, “I’m just trying to get her drunk so I can take advantage of her.”  This statement angered me greatly because I have been to fraternity parties before and never experienced this situation, neither have my friends. 

Besides the many parts I believe were inaccurate, there were some parts I believed were accurate.  For example, when girls go out, they often do wear very high heels and short dresses.  This attire is a little bit too promiscuous but to be honest, it could be so much worse.  Also, chants and songs break out on the buses just as it was portrayed in the podcast.  Many of the times, students are chanting “We are Penn State.”  A third fact in the podcast I believe is accurate is the scene where people are trying to get into a fraternity party.  If guys walk up to the door and try to get into the party, many of the times they will be rejected.

          For those listening to the podcast and do not know the party scene here, the podcast did attempt to persuade through ethos, pathos, and logos.  Ethos was created by having direct recordings of students; the interviewers were describing events that matched up to the interviews.  Pathos was mainly expressed when the story of John Dado was told.  Also, the interviewers did state that unfortunately, the party scene is similar in most big state schools. The whole podcast contributed to the logos appeal because people would expect the number one party school to be “crazy” and “crazy” is exactly what was demonstrated in this podcast.  Logically, it wouldn’t make sense for the number one party school to be quiet on a Friday or Saturday night.

Not only am I embarrassed by the portrayal of Penn State students in this podcast, but I strongly believe it is an inaccurate representation of who “We Are”.   It is unfortunate that many listeners are convinced that what was portrayed in this podcast is what the party scene here is like.

Cultural Event #1: Gallery Talk: Carnival Barkers, Beach Acrobats, and Elephant Acts: Circus Imagery in the Maimon Collection

On Friday, March 16, 2012, I attended Joyce Robinson’s Gallery Talk.  I went into this talk with the mindset it was going to be boring and that I wouldn’t be interested in it at all.  Soon after the talk started, I realized that I was wrong.  Joyce talked about the history of the circus and how artists at one point in time were amused by painting or drawing the circus.  I have never done a project on the circus or research about it so all this information was new to me and intrigued me more than I expected. 

          Have you ever wondered why the circus is a shape of a ring?  When the circus first came about in Europe in the 1800s, it was just a man running on a horse.  The reason why the circus is the shape of a ring is so the centripetal force created when the man goes around prevents the man from falling off the horse.   As the circus evolved over time, there were more features presented in it but the shape remained unchanged.   For example, in the 19^th century, acrobats and elephants became a part of the Circus; however, the elephants that were used in the Circus were female from India because they were said to be the easiest to work with.  The Circus became so popular that by the 1830s circus troops traveled by wagon to different cities.  In this same time period, the Circus became a part of French culture and the main subject portrayed in their art.  This popular event stood out so much because of its rich and vibrant colors, elephants, and enthusiastic acrobats.

          Because the Circus was now integrated to European culture, mostly in France, American artists started to spark in interest in the Circus.  They also started painting visuals of the Circus.  As a matter of fact, an artist name Alexander Calder painted a performance at Madison Square Garden.  Americans were amused by these acrobats, elephants, and craze of the Circus therefore becoming obsessed; soon enough, the Circus became an icon of America as well.  This new icon was so booming that it surprisingly lasted through the Great Depression, although it was very difficult to keep it in business.

          After Joyce Robinson’s talk, I examined some of the works of art the Palmer Museum had a more interested point of view because of the knowledge I had just acquired.  Before, I just walked past these paintings and didn’t think much about it; however, now that I know  the history of the Circus, I am able to appreciate these works of art.

What is Art?

Art is such an ambiguous word.  It has different meanings to different people. Because of its ambiguity, it is impossible to have one definition. 

According to dictionary.com, art has five different definitions; the first definition given is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”  There are parts of this definition I agree with yet some I disagree with.  I agree with the first part that mentions art as the “quality, production, expression or realm.”  I believe that when an artist is working on something, they are expressing themselves, or a point of view; they are producing something based off of their desire to express a perception.  On the other hand, I do not agree with the whole rest of the definition.  In my opinion, art doesn’t have to be based off of aesthetic principles. Everyone has their own standards of beauty based on a personal or cultural level.  Let’s say I go to a museum, and see a picture of a leaf on the wall, I stare at this picture and say, “This is so ugly.”  But does that mean it isn’t art?  No.  Just because this leaf is ugly to me doesn’t mean that someone else will have the same opinion.  This picture of a leaf isn’t appealing to me especially because I see leaves every day.  However, this leaf may be appealing to someone else who is intrigued by it and doesn’t see leaves on a daily basis. Most importantly, this leaf must be significant to the artist or else that artist wouldn’t have created it. Although, it may be significant to the artist, it may not be significant to everyone else.  This definition fails to grasp what art actually is.  Instead, it sets expectations for art to be beautiful, appealing, and significant when in reality each opinion varies individually. 

What is my own definition of art?  Because I hold a broader view of art, my definition is short.  I believe that art is a form of expression created by someone.  This can be a choreographed dance, a sculpture, a company logo, a plate of food or even a picture of a leaf; either way, someone had to create it.  It doesn’t even need to be made from scratch.  It can be based off of something else such as a remix of a song written many years ago or a hair stylist’s version of a previously made hairstyle.  Many people narrow their perception of art down to traditional paintings, sculptures or music but art is so much broader than that.  I am very fascinated by the art of hairstyles just because it isn’t what people typically think of when they visualize art.  The link I posted below leads you to a website that has several examples of hairstyles.  As you can see on the website of hairstyles, there are so many various ways to go about art.  What is your definition of art?

http://www.hairstylesdesign.com/

Palmer Museum of Art: Life Size

Title: Life Size

Artist: Ida Lorentzen

Year: 1994

Materials Used: Oil on Canvas

             As I walked through the Palmer Museum of Art on campus, there were many intriguing pieces of art that caught my attention.  However, the piece of art “Life Size” caught my attention the most.  Why? Well first of all, if you walked close enough to the canvas, you feel as if you are in the picture because it is so big.  But this isn’t why I was intrigued by this mysterious canvas.  I was intrigued because at first glance, it looks like a room with an opened door looking out to a landscape of a mountain.  As I looked deeper into the canvas, reflections were everywhere.  After reading the description, everything made sense.  The furniture that Ida Lorentzen depicts in this painting is from her original home.  What I thought was a door, was actually a mirror reflecting the background of the landscape behind you.  This was a way for Ida to cope with her mother’s death.

               Considering the background of Life Size, there is a very strong emotional appeal Ida uses to engage the viewer. The dark colors around the outside of the objects made me feel very curious. Black is a color typically used in a negative light or show mourning for a death.  The walls of the painting were black but still had hints of pink within them.  The pink almost glows throughout the whole piece.  Ida further portrays the mourning of her lost mother with the black stool on one side of the table. The dark, maple, wooden table adds warmth to the piece so it isn’t so hostile.  Another observation I made was that all of the focus of this painting is in the center which has very light colors: pink and white benches, the mirror and door.  The mountain landscape Ida chose to be within the mirror creates a relaxing mood.  The white window frames glow through the mirror, giving the reader almost a heavenly feel.  Ida also has the stools reflecting in off the mirror.   By using all of these elements for emotional appeal, Ida demonstrates how on the outside she feels dark and saddened; however, on the inside, when she is reflecting back on her mother, she feels enriched and happy.

               Ida also uses strong logical appeal to contribute to her repeated theme of reflections.  Reflections are found all throughout the piece and demonstrate how this is a reflection of her emotional state of being.  Just as the mirror is a view from behind, Ida also looked back on her life with her mother.  Under the table, there seems to be another mirror that is reflecting the table and the stools.  Also, the door is casting a shadow of the straight, clear edges of the stools possibly representing that the image of her mother is still clear in her mind. 

Ida uses more than just reflections for her logical appeal.  For example, under the table there is a rectangular object that partially covers underneath the table.  This shows that Ida is still covering or hiding some of her feelings.  The stools add dynamic because only one stool is usable, yet the other side of the table has two stools stacked on top of each other. Because the dark stool is still usable, I believe that the dark stool represents Ida.  This logically makes sense considering the emotions that are portrayed by the dark stool and that she was still alive when she painted this so she could still sit in the stool.  The other side of the table has a white stool stacked on top of the pink stool.  I believe that this corresponds to her mother; the pink resembles her mother’s life and white resembles her mother’s after death, possibly heaven.  The touches of pink everywhere logically fit together because if the pink resembles her mother’s life and the pink glows everywhere, then the message Ida wants to get across is that even though she feels very dark and saddened, her mother’s life still shines through her.

               Ida doesn’t have much ethos in her painting but, in my opinion, I don’t think it is necessary.  Ida painted this piece because she was coping with her mother’s loss.  Her emotions seem to be so strong toward this subject that she painted true to her feelings.  Expressing emotions, in my opinion, is as true and honest as someone can be.  Through her emotions, Ida adds to the credibility of her piece.  Although the main source of her credibility is her emotions, Ida still added her initials, IL, on the bottom corner of the door.

               As my first time being in the Palmer Museum of Art, I had a great experience.  I don’t typically enjoy going to museums because I always thought they were boring.  However, now that I know how to analyze the rhetorical situation of something, I see everything so much differently.  I can see myself bringing my family there to show them the wonderful pieces of art.