Friday, May 10, 2013

Myth- Creation of the Cellphone

How was the cellphone created?

The Sung tribe were great hunters. They were agile, quick and had the best weapons. What they lacked was stealth. When they went on hunts, they had no idea what animals were out there or what method they would use to kill the creature, and they often hunted in groups. They needed a way to communicate amongst each other without alerting the animals. They tried throwing rocks with letters attached. That just caused head injuries. They tried special whistles, but the animals knew they weren’t natural sounds. They even tried sign language, but the tribe wasn’t very smart and often misinterpreted the messages.

They thought for days and days and no one could think of a good form of communication. The youngest Sungian kept pleading to her other tribe mates to listen, for she thought she had a great idea. But all the efforts made were futile as all her tribe mates would just shrug her off and say “What could you know? You are no more than a mere child.”

Disappointed in herself, she went to sulk on her bed. Her mother saw her enter their home and went to check on her daughter. When she asked what was wrong, her daughter burst into tears and began to sob uncontrollably into her mothers shirt. The child slowly stopped crying and was able to tell her mother about being rejected by the other Sungians. Her mother then looked into her daughters eyes and said, “If it is to help our tribe, you shall not need the approval of the tribe. It is as a wounded animal would rather heal itself then be healed.”

The next day, the Sung child went to the center of her village. She climbed as high as she could on the rocks that represented the tribe. As she climbed, more and more eyes were drawn to her. By the time she got to the top, anyone who was in the center of the village was looking at her. As they all stood in silence expecting an outburst, the child kneeled down and began to pray.
The villagers waited several minutes to see the outcome of this little girl’s decision to pray in the center of their sacred village. When the girl had finished praying nothing happened immediately. But slowly, the air began to thicken and everyone started to feel angry, they began backing into their homes to hide from the invisible presence. While all of this was happening, the girl was completely unaffected. Then something materialized right in front of the child. It was the goddess of hunting, Neith. She was not in her best form. Her head was similar to the skull of a bull, with red war paint on the face. “Why have you called for my help?”

Neith’s voice shook the very ground they had built their sacred home on. The child could feel all the peering eyes from the homes on her and the goddess. She was unable to look directly at the goddess without being overcome with anger and rage. Eventually, she gathered the courage to speak. “My tribe needs help. Our hunters are not able to communicate when hunting. We are losing our food.” The goddess said nothing for what felt like an eternity. She then lowered herself to the child's level. “I  will give you means of communication, but you must pass a test to prove your dedication and skill of hunting.” She paused as if waiting for a response or plea. “I am the hunter and you are the hunted. Survive until sundown and I will give you what you desire. You have one hour to prepare.”

The child didn't know what to do. She scrambled around her home looking for anything to keep her alive. She had never been hunting, she only marveled at the hunters. That was it! The Sung child grew up watching the  hunters. Their techniques, their weapons, their special abilities, it was all revealed to the observer. And that was how to hunt. The girl ran down the hall and grabbed her late fathers pocket knife. She gathered all the essentials for nutrition; water, fruit and a leftover steak. There was still 15 minutes left until the test started. Grabbing a pen and paper, she wrote her mother an emergency goodbye letter.

“Are you sure you want to do this, child? I’ll have you know. I never lose a hunt.” The child nodded in approval and ran off into the forest. The rough terrain was no problem for the girl. She knew these woods like the back of her hand. She knew about the hidden nuts of the red squirrel that always came into the town and accepted friendly gifts from the playful children. She knew the call of the parrots in the trees, high above. But she didn’t know of the arrow that was shooting towards her head.

Thwack! The arrow stuck into a tree maybe two inches away from her head. The child looked back to see the goddess at the entrance to the forest. She ran faster than she had ever run before. There was a hidden trail maybe twenty feet in front of her. Her biggest hope was that she would hear an arrow being shot next time. The trail was maybe five feet away and she heard the goddess’ arrow being loaded into the bow. THe child dove to left, away from the trail and fell into a tunnel system the Sungians had created in case of danger. She knew that if she just ran down the tunnel, the goddess would surely find her. Instead, she hid in the shadows in a side tunnel. Surely enough, the child watched as the goddess lowered herself into the system. The girl guessed that Neith was being fair and not using her powers to detect her because she walked right by the crevice that the girl was in. When she was unable to see the goddess again, she quickly clambered out of the tunnel and into the woods.

She found the hidden trail again and quickly began running. The girl did not doubt the skills or power of the goddess and chose to continue running instead of resting. She ran as far as she could until she was out of breath. Noticing that the trees around her were very concealing, she picked a tree that was not too short, but not too tall either and began to climb. It wasn't too difficult for her as she loved to climb trees. Once at the top, she got comfortable and ate the food she had brung for the hunt. She had won. As the sun set, the girl embraced her triumph as she ate her last apple.

The return horn blew from the village. The victorious child climbed down from her hiding spot in the tree and began her trek back to her home. Neith was waiting on the rocks where the girl had first prayed for the goddess' help. Neith didn't look happy or angry. She looked content. As scared as she was, the girl walked up to Neith, expecting to be punished for ruining the goddess' reputation. Instead, she was handed a large box, and Neith dissappeared.

Inside the box were hundreds of glowing bricks and with each one a string like thing. Everyone of them had a different name on them coordinating with the names of every villager. And permanently marked into each device was a word that ended with the name of their tribe and started with the girl's name, Sam. "Samsung." This was the cellphone.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Hidden Treasures of Australian Art Review


In this video, Griff Rhys Jones is searching to find the origin of a mask. Griff crosses the globe to the remote Torres Strait Islands between Australia and Papua, New Guinea to explore what remains of an unusually creative and warlike culture. Cut off from the rest of the world for most of their history, the islanders were fierce head-hunters who believed in magic and sorcery. Griff eventually found that the mask was used mainly at funerals and was worn by only the best dancer.

In the video, you can see many sacred dances performed for specific ceremonies, materials used by their ancestors used in their costumes and instruments today and the native tongue of the island. These traditions are very important to the people of the islands because 'white man' ruins what they have when 'he' comes around. This is why they choose to be isolated with their own beliefs, family and friends. This also shows respect for their ancestors who gave them what they have today.

A lot of materials used are indigenous to the area; wood, metals, reeds and other plant life. These items are used for more than just instruments and costumes on the islands, showing their appreciation for their culture and area.

"You can't look at objects in isolation. You have to examine the lives, ceremonies and beliefs that created them." What I think Griff meant by this kind of relates to the common saying "You can't judge a book by its cover." As in you can't look at something made by a culture and say "Yeah, this race liked to make masks" because that is not the case at all. They chose to make masks because it represented their people, their beliefs and all around everything about them. They made masks to respect their ancestors, have fun and enjoy life and put themselves in their own world where they are happy.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Second Stop-Motion


I had a lot of fun with my first stop-motion video and felt like I hadn't done enough for this assignment so I decided to make another one. It took a while for me to come up with the idea, but in the end I think the wait was worth it,.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Stop-Motion Project


I have been excited for this assignment for the whole semester. In fact, I was so eager to create this video, I finished it before the class even started theirs. We had to base our stop motions on metamorphosis. Mine took 4 hours and 529 pictures.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Texture Landscape

For this project, we had to cut textures from magazines and glue them down to create our own picture. For mine, I used blue and red in the background to represent heaven and hell, and I cut newspaper to create angel wings. I was inspired by my favourite tv show, Supernatural, to make this.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

3-D Hand Art

We had to trace our hand and draw lines over it so it would look like it is coming out of the page.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

What is art?

We were told to give our definition of art to start off our blogs, but honestly, I don't think art is something that can be defined. It's the artist's way of showing their thoughts, their feelings, their emotions and their ideas. There is no way to tell how the artist was feeling or what the artist was thinking just by looking at the creation. The way you define it is you putting your feeling into it. Artwork can hold so much energy and I think that is why it's considered art.