Concerned Citizen

Video Link:
https://youtu.be/64F419z8dZ4

There is a line from the article, “Human Rights and Culture: from Datastan to Storyland” that resonated throughout the creation of our documentary. The text reads, “The antidote to a culture that equates security with conquest and punishment is a culture that prizes connection and creativity.” Though the living conditions in Provo, Utah are not as extreme as some mentioned by the article, this is still an important statement.

Connection and creativity and how those elements can positively affect society, was the focus of out film. There are many small groups of subcultures that most do not even know, or at least think about. One such group is the BYU Y Serve Scenic View Team, and especially the group they help. Becoming a young adult when one has been a child their entire life is a difficult transition for anyone, but for those with autism, this is even more true. This group of BYU volunteers helps these young people by helping them, participating in activities, and simply being their friend.

This group is one that meets frequently -- it is not a simple annual service project, but those involved are committed to creating a connection between themselves and those they are serving. Having spoken with one of the program directors, we were able to get a sense of how driven the program is to helping these people and how much care and love there actually was for their service. Revisiting the quote mentioned in the introduction, life can be cold. People with autism can be misunderstood by the public and even family, and are at times met with harsh consequences. The friendships made by this groups efforts are a small service that is a wonderful example for the rest of the world when it comes to treating neighbors. With examples of creativity and connection such as this, the fight against the harsh nature of many societies.

“Serving doesn’t have to be a chore or a task. It doesn’t have to be one of those things your dad drags you to first thing in the morning to go rake someone’s leaves. It’s super fun.” This attitude from the group’s director is a great example of what sort of mindset can change the world. If entire societies were able to say, believe, and apply the ideas referred to in this quote, the world would be much more accepting. These service providers do not have to be there. They are not obligated to help at this service group, but they come anyway because they want to make a difference in the world.

Game for Change

http://philome.la/SchindlerFoReal/can-you-make-it-through-without-offending-anyone/play

As exemplified in the Twine game, “Depression Quest,” video games can be a platform for spreading useful information and sparking change. The game takes the player into the life of a depressed person, allowing them to better understand the struggles of that illness. Video games are often depicted as monsters in the media because they are all violent and full of gore, but such reports are misinformed. Video games, like any other art platform, can be a medium through which to provoke change.

We live in an age where society is trying to better itself through increase in equality. Once we no longer see race, gender, or any other physical difference, we will all be equal. Unfortunately, we are not perfect and still looking to find the right balance that will lead to the desired result. Some people still struggle to treat others equally, and others go too far in the other direction. The game I created focuses on the latter.

The article, “How fear of offending has trumped freedom of speech among today’s young people” by Jenny Bristow, (http://theconversation.com/how-fear-of-offending-has-trumped-freedom-of-speech-among-todays-young-people-36392) explains the point my game is attempting to make. “Can You Make It Through Without Offending Anyone?” is a self-explanatory title of a game that attempts to help the player understand just how far some people go not offend. It also exemplifies how easy it is to offend someone in this day and age. The aforementioned article delves into this subject admitting that youth are much more conscious of racial and cultural sensitivity, but are offended by the slightest of unsettling images or harsh words. People are growing soft and overly sensitive to the point that it is affecting our nation’s freedom of speech.

An opinion contrary to popular belief today is setting a stage for an angry audience. The world begins to miss out on some valuable new points of view because of fear of offending those who may disagree. They don’t want to show up as the next bigot on the next Huffington Post article. The New York Times article, “Trump, Obama, and the Assault on Political Correctness” contains a quote from President Obama that adds to this argument, “I’ve heard of some college campuses where they don’t want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative. Or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive... I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view.” This is the exact point my game is trying to get across. The energy spent getting offended or trying not to offend shelters people from what could be a great learning experience.

The point of this game is not to argue that we should never strive to be politically correct or never worry about offending someone, quite the opposite. What we say should be uplifting and contribute something worthwhile to the conversation. The article, “Civilities: The current rage about ‘political correctness’ is both wrong and rude” offers a fair counterpoint to those completely against political correctness. It reminds again to be careful of extremes. Derogatory terms for any group of people should be avoided. People should not be able to say anything. If ruffling some feathers is what it takes to express one’s educated opinion, it should be done.

Once we stop worrying so much about who we offend, we will make a large stride toward society’s goal of equality. Only once we stop worrying so much about being equals and looking past differences, will we be able to actually achieve this goal.

World Building

Backstory: During our generation there was a nuclear war that devastated the planet and left the newly born affected with sickness and deformity, provoking society to turn its respects to its eldest generation. Old is a sign of health, prosperity, and beauty in this world. The elderly make the decisions and are glamorized like celebrities.

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Artist's Statement:

There is a lot to be learned from this assignment. First of all, (Dean Duncan would be proud of this observation) our environment caused us to come up with a back story. We had to understand our circumstances in order to understand the world that we are creating. It was very relatable to the movie we watched in class »La Jetee«. They created a world and an environment that drew us in and made us a part of it.

        We did make ourselves part of this world. While, yes, we were only able to create things that  we have seen or experienced, we were able to arrange them in a way that was new and tailored for our new environment. This, in a way really blurred the line between science fiction and science fact. We had to ask ourselves questions that sometimes we never asked before to enter into this new world. Questions such as: »If I was driving down the freeway, what would I see?« »Would they really wear that?« or the  occasional »would this be believable?«. What makes this even more interesting is that we all have our own vision on what this world would be like to us. We all might not be able to see things from the same angle as someone else however, it could be a wonderful thing.

        This project really stretched the imagination in this way by taking us out of this reality and thinking critically about the environment around this particular situation. What gave this world an even greater depth was the fact that it wasn't just one person's interpretation of the world, it was four collective imagination’s collective brain baby. This makes the world that we imagined complex. The complexity comes from a cumulation of ideas coming into a collective whole. It's just like movies and a quote that I’m pretty sure comes from Walter Murch which says that “each production element is someone’s artwork. If the scenic designer was having a bad day, it will show by things on the set ect. ect.”

        In Dean’s class we also learned about milieu narratives where a character is made round (or given depth) because of the environment. In this way what we are creating is a product of the Milieu. We are giving anyone who lives in this environment a story to tell. We are giving them a similar background at a particular time.

        Creativity, as a collective project, is a very interesting concept that, obviously shown here, shows that we can create worlds and new environments based on our own ideologies and circumstances. The payoff of which seems very rewarding.

Webspinna Battle

It’s an intimidating thing, going up in front of one’s entire class and their families and friends dressed as cartoon characters while pretending to fight with each other. This project was much different from anything else in the film program, and because of that we were able to develop some talents that we otherwise would have never been able to.

The project combined the use of sound effects, costume design, and acting to tell a story. Since these elements are not part of the norm as directing, cinematography, or screenwriting are, it forced us to be more creative. By using the lessons from this exercise, the creativity of the media we create in the future will be more rich and well rounded because we have learned to think about other elements as storytellers.

The webspinna battle also brought up questions in regards to plagiarism and its sometimes confusing lines. Every sound we used was created by someone else. The look of our costumes were arguably a rip off of Pokemon. If these sounds and costumes were used together as a way to create a new, original story, is it still plagiarism? After creating this battle and watching others, it seems they are a completely new work of art. Much like textual poaching, we used elements of other media to create something completely new. Our Pokemon battle used familiar and new characters while adding an original story. The example of Bob Dylan in the article, “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Lethem describes this point well as he used lines and stories from other authors in order to create songs with deeper meaning.

Not only were the costumes and the sound originally created by other people, but elements of the story we acted out are also present in the Pokemon television series as well as the games. Disobedience is depicted in the show by the main character having a pokemon that doesn’t respect him. This leads to contention between the two. Our battle used elements from that story, but ultimately created something original by adding in modern elements with texting and putting in headphones to listen to music. The mixture of modernism with the popular show creates media that most people can connect with.

The Webspinna Battle itself is a creative media where our creations and combinations of other media make something original. The combination is something that shows how pokemon and other elements can mix together to create something fun and interesting.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12A58FeV4kr0ogy-ZLHFhE5fc8DZ9mQmSSNKFDOQ-zGM/edit?usp=sharing