The 1-2s of Basic Boxing (MMA)

In contrast to previous years at GCE, this year our 3rd period class has (or at least the self-defense course) has an Action Project as the final assignment. In this project, we were assigned to display and teach any specific thing about one of the multiple martial arts we learned. Right off the bat I knew I wanted to teach something from boxing, but I wasn't sure about how much I should cover, so I stuck with the general basics. With that, it's good to know that some of you out there just might be using these techniques to defend yourself in the future. You can view the instructional video down below, and I hope you enjoy.

You may also view the video by clicking the following link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9rV_KsL98NCM09ZdnZwaElma1E/view?usp=sharing

Why Censorship Ruins Art

As this term at GCE is coming to a close, the third and final Action Project for the Fall 2015 term is all about an artist's statement. We use art to convey a message that we stand for and back it up with Rhetorical elements, devices, and appeals. But this art isn't just visual art, it can go to poems or even fashion, anything goes as art is such a wide medium that includes auditory and/or visual aspects. It was challenging to find the right topic on what to speak about, as I knew I wanted to use visuals to convey the message, but thinking of something I could passionately speak about what tough. Then when the idea of art censorship struck, I thought it was something I could use to my advantage in the best way. Overall, I was proud of the ironic art piece I made, which you can view just down below, along with my artist's statement.

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Art censorship is only acceptable under few circumstances, such as when broadcasting or displaying some medium from the past towards an audience of children. Other than that, it’s practically criminal to unreasonably censor art that was never intended to be child-friendly. Art, whether it be painting or animation, song or movie, has an intended effect upon its audience. I myself am a high student that’s greatly engaged in the arts, mainly visual, so I know what it feels like to have your work defiled by others, without consent, just to meet their own personal wants or needs. Art is a form of speech, as you’re sending out a message or tone that you heavily believe in, which is why censorship can be disrespectful to the artist. There’s even plenty of censorship or bans that blatantly destroys a positively intended message. In the Utah State University, some student made over 900 chalk drawing of hearts with anti-abortion messages inside of them. The police ordered them to clear it all up as it was considered vandalism, thus it followed under an act of censorship.

Now when someone’s hard work to exercise their freedom of speech and spread a good message is censored like that, can you really stay behind that idea? There’s allot of art out there that’s not intended for young ages, whether it’s visual or not. Just think of censored lyrics or poems that lose meaning when you’re forced to take out important aspects of the song or writing. Same goes with art. When it’s censored or banned, it’s automatically losing meaning or the artist is being stripped of their first amendment. There are some pluses to art censorship like making something safe for all audiences, but what if there’s a specific tone that’s wanted to be set by the creator? Is it really justified to censor something by destroying its message just to make it alright for children to see?

That’s why I’ve made this art piece, ironically, you have a bloody, gorey figure pointing down at the word “censorship” with his middle figure, meanwhile, a female graffiti artist is making word art with an obvious curse word, thus, tying together the message of disapproving censorship. This is meant to have an aggressive feel to it, as it should make you feel angry! Just think about you, you’re passionately speaking about an issue that needs more exposure, and as you’re emphasizing the seriousness of it, someone deems it unworthy for the public eye. Wouldn’t it infuriate you if your music, art, book, speech, poem, or simple comment was smacked out of existence by someone because they think others will take it offensively? So using a 0.9mm #2 lead pencil (Bic), and of course standard printing paper (8.25in x 11.75in), along with a simple eraser that’s on the mechanical pencil, I’ve made a visual art piece that demonstrates what exactly censorship takes away.

Anti-Censorship, VG, 2015

And this isn’t just a modern topic about our current generation of art, think about every single image that represent the bible, or even just lines of text. Hell is a realm in which corrupt souls are damned to after death. That’s a completely serious tone as it infers that Hell is a place of suffering for sinners, giving incentive for people to treat thy neighbor as they would treat thyself. Now imagine if “Hell” was simply known as the very bad place where bad people go and have bad things happen. Censorship dumbs things down to an unacceptable level of simplicity. It really doesn’t represent the true meaning of the message because it’s not allowed to have any suggestive text that relates to any topics that people over the age of 8 would know about. Death, suffering, pain. We all know what these things are and that humanity encounters it all. Sex, drugs, violence. Issues that practically revolve the globe as we need to be education about these things so that we don’t end up hurting ourselves in the future. Now if people simply hide these topics and concepts to younger minds forever, how will they react and/or what options will they have when they do encounter these problems?

It’s a given that certain things in media should be censored for the sake of trying not to influence children to use things that they’re not allowed to do yet (since they’re still developing minds), but when you harm an artist’s life by banning their work because you deem it inappropriate, well that’s just wrong, damn wrong, if I may. Visual arts are meant to connect to others by images, and powerful imagery comes at the price of sensitive topics that only mature people can handle. Music is meant to connect to the listener through a usage of relatable topics, and when there’s a lot of messed up crap on this Earth like abuse, war, and discrimination, one can only try to avoid using mature language. Did you notice? It’s that word again. Mature. The word that describes those who know how to act in certain situations based on knowledge and/or experience. Sometimes, things in writing need to utilize hyperboles or similes, metaphors, and analogies to adult topics. I myself exaggerated upon what exactly should and shouldn’t be censored through my art. The most extreme vulgarity, “fuck” and the most extreme suggestive theme/sexual content (nudity), which are both ironically censored.

If I had to choose a specific place for my art to be displayed, I would hope it would be out on the streets as that’s the style that I aimed for and street art is often accused of being pure vandalism that features everything that most people would want censored as it’s out in public. With that, I hope that you have a new perspective on what’s censored nowadays, since there are indeed adult topic in the bible, so why should artists have to restrain themselves?

Cited Works:

Utah State University students claim censorship over anti-abortion chalk art on campus, by Tamara Vaifanua, Fox News [Salt Lake City], October 1st, 2015

6 Artists Who Were Banned, Censored or Arrested by Conservatives, by  Julianne Escobedo Shepherd/AlterNet, January 3, 2011

Pedal to the Metal Gears

As the second and final Action Project for the class Design and Engineering comes along, I've found myself assigned to innovate what most people think is already perfect; a bike. Now what was difficult was imagining how exactly to improve upon such a staple idea. Bikes have most aspects needed for transportation, but to assist in the quest for innovation, we (alongside a partner [mine being JR] ) were assigned a persona to make a bike for. In other words, we had a short profile about a person that has certain struggle they wish they could overcome with their bike, whether it be weather or storage. We had a 15 year old named Malia that lives 5 miles away from her school, residing in Logan Square (Chicago, IL), and she'll often times go grocery shopping with that bike on her route through the 606 [a large, highway-like bike lane].

JR Bike Model & Cyclist 2015

After completion of the project, I can admit that I'm proud of the unique aspects that me and JR added to a standard bike, which included extendable handle bars that could come off and act as an independent u-lock. A second addition was a built in fender (and chain protector) that had indentations/extensions on them that act like pockets for perhaps text books and water bottles. Also sporting a stretchable, detachable basket in the front of the bike for groceries was thought of for the sake of convenience, since Malia does go grocery shopping after all. Now during this unit, there was also an External Investigation assignment that revolved around interviewing a cyclist of sorts, and I interviewed my brother. When making this new bike, I kept what he had said in my mind "I hate having to worry so much about my bike getting stolen" and that made me remember about security of bikes being a great issue amongst people who casually use bikes.

During this project, I also learned that there are bikes that exist which feature suspension systems for a smoother ride, which inspired me and my partner to create a bike that added comfort. While not shown on the full model, you can see in this fully labeled drawing that the original bike concept is supposed to feature a seat that has some back support that also has pockets for heat packs, since winters are so harsh here in Chicago. The drawing also shows off the idea of pedals that have a simple, set, immovable, metal strap so there's less chance of the rider's foot slipping.

VG Labeled Drawing 2015

Going into detail about how the bike is in terms of wheels and gears, the bike's wheels are about 28 inches in diameter, which means that it has an 88in circumference (since diameter•π=circumference). Thinking about that, the distance from school being 5 miles (316,800inches), it would take our bike 3,600 rotations of its wheel to cover that (total distance÷circumference). Speaking of the wheels, our model has 2 inch diameter wheels, which, when translated to the 28in diameter wheels for it's real life counterpart, you'd get a scaling of the bike being 14 times bigger than the model. Going on to other aspects, we have multiple gears on our bike as well, With 2 driver gears (in the front) and 3 driven gears in the back, each one has a certain amount of teeth, 12 then 16 in the front. 24, 36, 48 teeth for the back gears. With that, all possible gear ratios (written out as driven gear:driver gear) are 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 3:2, and 9:4. This makes for easy riding through diverse terrain, as different gear set ups help adapt to different kinds of slopes.

Now when thinking about how different types of energy are incorporated throughout the bike, it would have potential and kinetic energy when going down a slope, as gravity is pulling it down, making it move (kinetic), but that same gravity is also contributing to adding more potential energy, as it can get faster.

VG Handle Lock Showcase 2015

VG Handle Lock Concept 2015

Seeing as how there are different routes Malia could be taking to school, the general time it would take for her to cover those 5 miles would be around 15 minutes by bike. Converting that to miles per hour is simple, as we just take 60(one hour)÷15 minutes (which equals 4) and multiply that to the distance, giving us time over distance, or 20mph.

So with security, comfort, storage, and convenience, our bike would be best for long distances that have you carrying things, plus, with that handle bar lock, you've even got some unique storage options. I hope you enjoyed this informative analyze own how me and JR designed a unique bike through multiple engineering methods. It was no doubt difficult trying to add things to what we never though of changing, and then only to scrap certain ideas (like a navigation system), but in the end, this is the result of our hard work.

Do the Impossible, See the Rhetorical

The second Action Project for the class Rhetoric, and it's our assignment to analyze some form of text in a rhetoric way, looking for Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. It was also necessary to search for rhetoric and sound devices, which worked well for me since I chose a song, which was a rap-opera hybrid. It was, however, challenging to fit together the pieces as well as annotate the text fully, since Google Drive doesn't allow free text movement, meaning that I had to manually move the annotations. Aside from that, I can proudly say that once again, an anime has assisted me in my school life and this was one of my favorite songs I've ever listened to, so it all worked out in the end. You can view a Prezi of my take on the project just down below.