Truth of War DP Update
In this project, we studied war, found a truth that could be portrayed through art, and created something beautiful and meaningful of it. To begin studying war, we explored many different scenarios and topics. We deeply looked into the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident”, reading many documents on the matter and with these documents, prove that the US was in fact planning to go to war with North vietnam before the incident, even though they claimed to have not. Then, after gaining more factual and specific information about the vietnam war, we read the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, which gave us a metaphorical and emotional aspect of war. We learned that people never come out of war the same. And the emotional “baggage” that the soldiers have to carry about with them is much heavier that the physical things. We also got the privilege of having a veteran come in and speak with us about his experience.
This project was very intriguing for me. I’m happy that I am more informed on war, and the overall process of creating my artwork was fun, I learned a lot. Some skills I’ve gained are: Taking in outside ideas and critique, and time management. When I had had an almost decent piece of artwork done, I was lost on what to do with the background. I reached out for help and ideas on what to do, and I realized that without the help of others, my artwork wouldn't be nearly as beautiful as it turned out. Also, near the beginning of this project I had quickly chosen an idea and I had a consensus of what i wanted my piece to look like. I started drawing my work early on and that gave me a lot of time for refinements and critique, which was very helpful. Because of this I got my piece done on time, also with apparent effort and time put into it.
I’ve already taken a lot away from this experience. Getting the privilege to talk with veterans was amazing and I gained a whole new perspective on this entire topic. In a way it makes me not want to take things in life for granted, because it could always get worse. I’d never really put much thought into war and everything that comes along with it before, but now I feel like I’m more aware of what it is and the importance and impact it has on our world. I’m also very proud of my art piece and I feel like it shows growth in my art skills.
Imperialism on Trial
Catelynn Anderson
Ally Johnson
Humanities P.3 and 4
2/3/17
This project was based off of a book that we as a class had to read, titled “Things Fall Apart”. It is about a clan/tribe in the town of Umuofia and the challenges that come across the certain clan that the book focuses on, specifically the British invasion. In the end of this book, the main character, Okonkwo, takes his own life. After seminars, debriefs and discussion, we began the process of this certain project, which is a trial between the people of Umuofia and the British colonialists, who disagree on the true cause of Okonkwo’s suicide. The people of Umuofia believe that the British invaders are the wrongful doers who triggered Okonkwo's suicide through torture of the clan, forceful push of the Christian religion upon his people, and disrespecting and demeaning all of the beliefs and culture of his people, while the British argue that the people of Umuofia have no right to blame them. After all, he did kill himself.
To make this project happen, we split into different roles/groups and worked on completing specific needed requirements so that the trial could be successful. I was assigned to be a juror, and since us jurors were mainly there for decision making and deliberation at the end, we helped in the beginning by making posters and visuals, deciding how the courtroom would be set up, what we could do to make the whole thing seem like a real trial, and what we could add to make the whole thing as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I made one of the nine character posters that were visuals to be put up in the courtroom showing the different characters and who they were so that the audience would gain a better understanding of the people involved. Also, I made about half of the large propped up poster that stood outside of the courtroom that said “Imperialism On Trial”, to inform the incoming audience of the project, what it was, who it was by and a little bit of what it was all about.
During this project I had to really try and ask for work to do, for most everyone would just decide their own jobs, leaving nothing else for the remainder of the people. I had to ask people what I could do to help, which forced me to try and use communication and collaboration skills, even though, sometimes to no avail. I also, after finding work to do, had to use Photoshop which I don’t have much experience with as a DHS transfer this year, so I had to experiment with a lot of new things and redo a lot of work to make things the best they could be. Doing this in this project overall improved my skills with photoshop, and I feel that now I actually know how to use the program a lot more than I had been able to before.
This project, besides bettering my skills with completing projects and working with people to do so, has furthered my knowledge and opinions of Africa and the different lifestyles and situations that occur there, and I have become quite interested. I find it fascinating that our species, while so similar, can be so different in so many ways. Polygamy for example. Before this project, yes, I was aware that polygamy existed, but I had no idea that it went on in places such as Africa, and even more, I had no idea that it was the norm there. It interests me that countries and places like that are used to very different things than us and would consider our side of things to be weird, like we do theirs, and it makes me more aware of the other things out there. This book really put things into the perspective of the Umuofian people, which made me connect with them more and realize that the way they live is so normal to them, even though it may seem extremely foreign to us. It made me able to sympathize with them more when tragic events occurred and made me able to understand why they make some of the actions that they make. Overall, this project and book have widened my knowledge of outside cultures and was at the same time, a fun, engaging, and beneficial thing to look at and study.
Ally Johnson
Humanities P.3 and 4
2/3/17
This project was based off of a book that we as a class had to read, titled “Things Fall Apart”. It is about a clan/tribe in the town of Umuofia and the challenges that come across the certain clan that the book focuses on, specifically the British invasion. In the end of this book, the main character, Okonkwo, takes his own life. After seminars, debriefs and discussion, we began the process of this certain project, which is a trial between the people of Umuofia and the British colonialists, who disagree on the true cause of Okonkwo’s suicide. The people of Umuofia believe that the British invaders are the wrongful doers who triggered Okonkwo's suicide through torture of the clan, forceful push of the Christian religion upon his people, and disrespecting and demeaning all of the beliefs and culture of his people, while the British argue that the people of Umuofia have no right to blame them. After all, he did kill himself.
To make this project happen, we split into different roles/groups and worked on completing specific needed requirements so that the trial could be successful. I was assigned to be a juror, and since us jurors were mainly there for decision making and deliberation at the end, we helped in the beginning by making posters and visuals, deciding how the courtroom would be set up, what we could do to make the whole thing seem like a real trial, and what we could add to make the whole thing as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I made one of the nine character posters that were visuals to be put up in the courtroom showing the different characters and who they were so that the audience would gain a better understanding of the people involved. Also, I made about half of the large propped up poster that stood outside of the courtroom that said “Imperialism On Trial”, to inform the incoming audience of the project, what it was, who it was by and a little bit of what it was all about.
During this project I had to really try and ask for work to do, for most everyone would just decide their own jobs, leaving nothing else for the remainder of the people. I had to ask people what I could do to help, which forced me to try and use communication and collaboration skills, even though, sometimes to no avail. I also, after finding work to do, had to use Photoshop which I don’t have much experience with as a DHS transfer this year, so I had to experiment with a lot of new things and redo a lot of work to make things the best they could be. Doing this in this project overall improved my skills with photoshop, and I feel that now I actually know how to use the program a lot more than I had been able to before.
This project, besides bettering my skills with completing projects and working with people to do so, has furthered my knowledge and opinions of Africa and the different lifestyles and situations that occur there, and I have become quite interested. I find it fascinating that our species, while so similar, can be so different in so many ways. Polygamy for example. Before this project, yes, I was aware that polygamy existed, but I had no idea that it went on in places such as Africa, and even more, I had no idea that it was the norm there. It interests me that countries and places like that are used to very different things than us and would consider our side of things to be weird, like we do theirs, and it makes me more aware of the other things out there. This book really put things into the perspective of the Umuofian people, which made me connect with them more and realize that the way they live is so normal to them, even though it may seem extremely foreign to us. It made me able to sympathize with them more when tragic events occurred and made me able to understand why they make some of the actions that they make. Overall, this project and book have widened my knowledge of outside cultures and was at the same time, a fun, engaging, and beneficial thing to look at and study.