Raising the Fututre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2MVNuY0-lo

Everyone is going to have that person in their life who made a difference.  Someone that they look up to and admire for being a mentor to them in a time of vulnerability or change in their life.  Quite often, this person is a teacher.  It is natural for students to look up to these people because they often are in their profession for those they teach; they certainly aren’t in it for the money or the glory.  Teachers, who are in the profession for the right reasons, are teaching for the sole purpose of aiding their community, making the world a better place by enhancing the minds of their students, the future.  We were able to capture some of the thoughts and feelings of such an individual who genuinely cares for his students and the community in which he serves.

People might think that because a person is a teacher for a public school, they are limited in what they can teach and what they can actually do for their students.  Yet, despite some of the regulations and rules put on public school teachers, Mr. Murphy thinks that he is not limited at all in what he can do.  He can’t teach religion in the classroom, but he can be an example, he can pray for his students.  He can’t change anything that is happening in the home life of his students, but he can create and environment of love and safety that they can go to on a daily basis.  He knows his limits placed upon him by the society and the government, but he can still make an impact on at least one student, help them, change them in some way that is still within these limits.  He teaches them essential things they need to know, but more importantly he is teaching these children what to become, how to act, and to let them know that people genuinely care for them.  

In the reading for this section, Goldbard talks about the right that everyone has “to participate in the cultural life of the community.”  Mr. Murphy is taking advantage of this right and teaching the future generation about this right they have as well.  He is freely participating in his community to affect it, to help it be the best it can be through the students.  We realized that our short little doc is similar to the french documentary To Be and To Have, in that it is showing the service that a teacher gives to the community by caring for the students and giving them the time they need.  This doc shows a teacher dedicated to his work who loves his students and is willing to help them.

Recognize the Survivors

Game Link:

http://philome.la/HeatherRose318/survivors-guilt

I have been thinking about this topic for sometime because it really intrigued me.  I then found out that my roommate had no idea what it was, which lead me to realize that the topic of survivor’s guilt is something that is not often talked about, especially in media.  There are a few films and television shows that allude to a character who experiences survivor’s guilt, but they don’t right out acknowledge it.  They sort of play it off as a form of PTSD or depression, which is what survivor’s guilt essentially is, but gives a greater clarity to the issues people with this face on a specific level instead of a general sense. 

            What I wanted to accomplish with this game was to portray a few examples of situations where survivor’s guilt often correlates.  I wanted to show these experiences from the perspective of someone who has these feelings and don’t know exactly how to express them.  Throughout my research, my findings drew up a lot of personal stories of people with this which expressed their thoughts on the subject.  Creating the game in a perspective where the player is a person in a particular situation gave a tone that allowed a narration of the characters’ thoughts and feelings distinctly instead of it being in a different point of view where it would be mere conjecture as to how a person with survivor’s guilt would think and feel.  My sources: health and performance solutions, real warriors, and band back together websites all talked about the inward discussion of a person with survivor’s guilt; how they felt, what they thought, how to help them, what recovery options there could be, what sort of symptoms occur.  These all helped to develop each individual situation to be unique to it’s own events and situations.

            Creating this game reminded me a lot of the Donner Party game from way back when.  You essentially are creating this own story line, but at the same time you aren’t because it is preprogrammed with responses that lead down certain paths of success or failure.  Relying heavily on Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, I wanted to stay away from the single story of a person with survivor’s guilt.  That’s why I presented four different stories that had distinct differences between them that could potentially cause survivor’s guilt in a person of similar circumstances.  Now it did end up that most of the situations would end hopefully in the positive, they were still open ended, but at least gave the hope for healing.  However, just because a story ended similarly, doesn’t mean that all that was represented in my game was the same story retold.  All lead to the final words of the game that tied up the importance of talking more openly of the distress many survivors are in because there isn’t as much emphasis on their well being as the dead sometimes. 

When Deseret became a Nation

Artist Statement

“What if…” is often the beginning of a form of art called design fiction, a term coined by Julian Bleecker in his essay of the same name. What if the world was fundamentally different? What would it look like? H.G. Wells was a master in design fiction, particularly with his novel, The Time Machine, in which he describes the future state of mankind. It’s not real, but it follows real patterns and rules. Most science fiction falls into this category. It’s a fantasy world, but it has its roots in real science. And so it is with the design. Artifacts from these manufactured worlds both augment and represent a kind of parallel reality displayed in the world from which they come.

So what if? As students at Brigham Young University, we have a natural interest in our Mormon roots. At one point in the history, a state of Deseret was proposed. It never happened because of issues with the U.S. government regarding polygamy and other things, but what if? What if the South won the war? What if the Union was so fractured that they didn’t care about a burgeoning community far in the west? What if the Mormons pulled it off and gained sovereignty? And then what would happen?

The images and descriptions below are a chronological representation of what this nation may have looked like over the years, carefully designed in context of the period and what conversations may have been taking place.

South wins Civil War:

The 1860s would see a drastic change in the world when the South would end up winning the Civil War.  The members in the state of Deseret took this chance to seriously begin building their nation.  With the North and South separated, there was be little notice to the Mormons building up a sovereign state; they were taken not be much of a threat to the Confederates or the Union.  The slaves of the south would begin to immigrate to Deseret for the chance of a new life.  Part of being a sovereign state meant they would need their own currency for the exchanging within its economy and government.  This Currency reflected the events of Mormon history and significance to the nation of Deseret as well as its prominent leaders.  

3 For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations.

Deseret Nationalism:

“And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of apromise, a land bflowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no ccurse when the Lord cometh;”

(Doctrine and Covenants 38:18)

Because of the industry of the West, and the lack of Power from any opposing country, Deseret would thrive. The country would benefit from its strong support of immigration, its control of the railroad, its trading of oil and gold, its organization, its colonization, and its immense population growth. Without any other countries to intervene, by 1900 Deseret would have become a world superpower, a land filled with promise and a community bent on growth, forward and upward. A sense of religious nationalism would have been deeply rooted, and many would frame or carry defining documents, as Americans might with copies of their constitution.

War:

And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another.
And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand.

(Doctrine and Covenants 45:69-70)

In fulfillment of this prophecy, the people of Deseret would take a strong defensive stance during the conflicts throughout the 20th century. Though their ambassadors (i.e. missionaries) would still be sent out, they would also employ military force toward any country that sought harm to their congregations. Their powerful military would incite fear into the many warring nations and it’s likely many citizens would encourage the nation to assert her dominance. The evolution of this thought might be expressed in a new flag (shown below, contrasted against the old). The last ties to the United States have been severed, as Deseret is now a fully functioning a capable force in the world. The twelve stars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, point inward toward deseret, a honeybee, the protector of the hive. And the red field represents the blood of the righteous calling for justice. The flag is a symbol of the state’s fierce defense and retribution against any that dare to come against God’s people.

Modern Day Deseret:

Many events of our world would still “come to pass” in this world.  Hitler would still try to dominate the planet.  But what if Einstein immigrated to Deseret?  What if revelation was given to our military leaders just as Captain Moroni received it in the Book of Mormon?  Deseret would emerge as a world power.  We also read of the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon.  If Deseret prospered for too long there would likely be much apostasy.  Different factions of the faith would compete for power.

“Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts...” - Moroni 8:28

So it begins....

“We should go this way”, “no we should go this way”, “well how about this?”, “I don’t think we can show that very well with sound….”.  This is essentially what took place figuring out what we should actually fight about Thursday night.  We wanted clear discernable characters we three could be without out it being too difficult to find audio representations from the interwebs for them.  That’s when we decided on the mediums of books, movies, and video games.  These three often are in a battle between each other, people saying the book was better than the movie or that people are wasting their time playing video games when they should go read a book. These noble three have been stuck in conflict for some time, each trying to testify of its great worth. At times, two of these characters will gang up on the other and fight to the death. Occasionally, there is a rare moment of hope when there is a commonality among all three, uniting these diverse mediums. We wanted to exploit this by beginning the battle at each other's throats, occasionally  double teaming the third medium, until a chaotic free-for-all leading to a finish of a union between the battling forces.  

  

The three; books, movies and video games; are so easily compared with one another due to their similar narrative setups--even more so when one is based off of another. The nature of humans is to pick one and stick with it, staying loyal to the best. The thing is, when it comes down to the fundamentals, they’re hardly different at all. Harkening back to our conversations about taking ideas and cues from other media and incorporating it into something else, books, films, and video games follow a similar evolutionary track. The written word has been telling stories since it was developed. With the moving picture such stories became visual rather than mental, but retained their basic structure and meaning. Then, with video games, the stories became interactive. This is why we couldn’t choose a winner for our battle; doing so would place one higher than the other two, and that isn’t fair or right. Each medium has great worth and much to offer to us.

In the spirit of Jonathan Lethem’s piece, we had to take preexisting sounds and concepts to create the story of our battle. For the book sounds, we had to use movie adaptation sounds. The Harry Potter sounds used for Books were taken from the film adaptations! It was a poach inside a poach. Poach-ception. In a sense this battle we took part in was is akin to the glitch art by the artists in the pbs video that was shown to us in class.  Though our process had a bit more preparation, it was still improvised in how it would work out.  Often things would happen, a video would play or not play and we had to go with the flow in was occurred.  

If you've got the makeup on, then play the part