I want my unit three project to make my audience think. Unit three is a mere continuation of the second unit’s research on love. However, in this unit I am adamant about drawing a concrete conclusion from my research which I was unable to do last time.Unlike in unit two, in this unit I have a thesis before I have even begun my research.My primary goal in this project was to find evidence that supports the idea the love can not be defined. Love itself is incredibly broad and individualized to the point where it is hard to know even what love is. That is why this unit was dedicated to find evidence for the fact that this “non-answer” is the answer.The concepts that I will be translating are convoluted to say the least and more likely to be a source of confusion rather than understanding.However, I hope to be able simplify my ideas in the form of art making. My art making process is not uniformed to say the least. This is because I do not have a concrete approach to creating art but a more centered technique that is influenced by the medium and subject of the piece. For example, the artwork I created for unit 3 is meant to illustrate four different interpretations of love, hence causing me to focus on concept first. Naturally when I create a narrative focused piece I draw out thumbnails, take reference photos, as well as have a brainstorm session with my peers which help me flush out the idea more clearly as well eliminate any lacking ideas. Once I had a clear concept I began the actual creation of the piece with a light sketch that will be inked after the basic layout is complete. Depending on the piece I may add color after inking or leave it as just inks.
Going into this unit I wanted to have a focus on analysis and conclusion. This is because my tendency to be overly concise with my evidence is a writing challenge that I’ve been chipping away at for a while now. On both my unit one and unit two portfolios I got the similar critique of “For next time, think about diving deeper into a complex thesis/call to action and let that control your organization/treatment of sources even more”. In unit three I solely focussed on the dive. For example, when finding sources I tried having the mindset of this being a sort of puzzle, it could be a good piece but if it doesn’t fit and add to the overarching theme it’s useless. Luckily, I was able to find the pieces to the puzzle. It was crucial to choose sources that analyzed different cultures while not displaying too many similarities amongst them. This is because my entire point is constructed from the idea that a concrete definition of love is impossible to come by, hence by finding an abundance of similarities it would negate the entire argument. A crucial study titled, “Love: American style, Russian style, and Japanese style” which breaks down the various aspects of romantic perspectives in three vastly different cultures. For example, the various authors of the study delved into the topic of gender roles in a relationship and how they are dependent on the culture that you follow. Susan Sprecher, one of the authors, exclaimed that “Thus the samples selected provided an opportunity to draw sharp contrasts on key dimensions of collectivism – individualism, love ideology, economic wealth, and traditionalism of gender roles” (Sprecher 350). This article truly looks at love through a sociological scientific lense. This is clear because of the consistent approach taken with their research in which they conduct experiments and then put the results into a sociological context. For example, a significant amount of the research was dedicated to examining the variables of love across cultures. This includes the frequency of how many times someone has fallen in love, relationship status, love styles, and demographic. After gathering enough results they can then draw conclusions such as , “A greater proportion of the Americans than the Japanese or the Russians had a secure attachment style” (Sprecher 364). Ultimately, by bringing in sources such as Sprecher’ study it gives me the ability to fully support my claim while not over complicating the concept.
In the beginning of the semester I was unsure of what to expect from this class aside from the fact that it was focussed on writing. I also was coming off of a semester that heavily leaned on writing in both my interpretation of film class and art lecture classes. Needless to say, I was entering this relatively blind and hoping that I at least could write about something I enjoy.Thankful, that was a key component of what this class was as well as giving me opportunity to explore my true passions within the context of the class. For example, as an illustration major, fine arts and storytelling is a deep rooted interest of mine. I was lucky enough to be able to practice this in my first two unit reflections as well as my final project. This is because I was allowed to take my research and conclusions and interpret them into illustrations. In fact, when I did a political cartoon for my unit one reflection I had little intent to continue doing them. However, after my first reflection I got comments such as “Abe, this is a fascinating political cartoon. It spoke to me in so many ways. Being able to not revert to violence and disagreement is vital in trying to achieve a successful brand of political discourse” (Tim Fell). This opened my eyes to a new relationship between visual art and literature in that I can use both to enhance each other’s impact. As a result, this influenced how I wrote and researched because I would want to choose topics that have enough substance for both an illustration and essay. For example, my unit one portfolio was based around art education and it’s great impact on the world. Therefore, in my essay I would dive into the sources I found and what it proved about the impressive impact art education has on people. However, my reflection would be presented primarily as a political cartoon or illustration that would display a more emotional and personal aide to the argument. Overall, it is the comments of wanting that artistic quality to my blog that made me continue with it throughout this process. In fact, it is due to a person commenting on the idea of doing a speed drawing as one of my reflections that sparked the idea for my final project. Pleasing my audience was not a top priority of mine but certainly part of the handful of ideas to keep in mind while designing my blog. The primary goal was always to create a piece of work that interested me and I was proud to put out into the world. Nevertheless, I certainly made changes to my writing and research style to give the audience a more in depth product as well as maintaining the artistic soul of the blog to keep them interested. In conclusion, Unit 3 should be an accumulation of the entire semester’s work. It should entice the audience by having the creation of art happening right before their eyes while still getting the message across with narration simultaneously occurring.
Abe's Bloggy World 