Cultural Event Response 5

Shari Hirsch of MuralCore Speaks about the Mural Arts Program of the City of Philadelphia

Shari Hirsch first introduced us to the Mural Arts Program of the City of Philadelphia, a program dedicated to community beautification and intervention for troubled teens that may be failing school or on their way to jail if they don’t change their lives. Hirsch runs the program known as MuralCore, which specifically focuses on teens up to age 22, teaching them the skills needed to create a successful mural, running internships, and providing paid employment. For those teens in extreme poverty, like many of those from Philadelphia, MuralCore is particularly focused on encouraging higher education and teaching valuable life skills such as leadership and good decision-making.

Originally, under Philadelphia’s Mayor Wilson Good, this program began as an anti-graffiti program with the purpose of removing graffiti from the city. Soon, however, the purpose shifted to creating community art. Hirsh emphasized that community art differs from public art in that community art is made by working with the residents, the government, and local organizations of the community. By involving the community throughout the process of creating the art, the community is given a voice that they have never had before. Although these poor communities are generally not represented in the museums, they can be represented for everyone to see by means of community art made by MuralCore.

This art is unique in that it is not made on a canvas and hung with a frame around it; it is painted or installed in the community context familiar to the every day lives of the members of the communities. These sites of community include sides of buildings, walls around construction sites, and schools. I was most interested in the McKinley School project because the MuralCore team accomplished much more than merely painting some murals; it succeeded in completely transforming the space. The space, like many school years in poor areas such as North Philadelphia, was covered with cement, dirt, and a complete lack of color.

Clearly the visual qualities of this school were not ideal for a quality learning environment, but the physical surroundings also contributed to this non-learning-conducive environment. Just next door stood a crack house. As part of the comprehensive space-transforming process, MuralCore had this house torn down. Seeing the before and after pictures amazed me, and Hirsch description of the gratitude of the teachers, parents, and kids of the school strengthened my belief in the power of individuals who join together to make real, significant changes in their own community.

My Final Website: In Progress

This is my website so far:
My Final Website

"DRUGSTORE/Rx" Site Map

I changed my idea from a parody of CVS/Pharmacy to a parody of all similar retail pharmacies who claim one thing and do another. For example, these stores claim to help customers be healthier but contradtict this by selling ciggarettes, junk food, and other products harmful to ones health. I have created a fictional retail pharmacy, known as DRUGSTORE/Rx who represents all of these retail pharmacies. This site will show the not-so-impressive reality of the stores in comparison to the lofty, exxagerated values and images that the companies themselves present to the consumers like you.

Website Project: Collage

My idea is to make a website parodying CVS/Pharmacy's corporate vision versus how CVS/Parmacy really is. Some major aspects parodied will be the happiness (or lack thereof) of the employees, and the hypocrisy in the company's vision ("We help people live longer, healthier, happier lives") and the things they sell such as cigarettes and junk food, which do the opposite (make people live shorter, more unhealthy, possible less happy lives).

My First Website

This is my first try at making a simple website...
My Website

Reading: Real Costs by Michael Mandiberg and Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling

Mandiberg's website project, called "Oil Standard" uses the medium of the internet to its best advantage. Unlike any other medium, the unique browser used for "Oil Standard" is able to convert the prices directly and even adjust for the changing gas prices with time. Because this project is on the internet, the range of which the price conversions can be applied is limitless. Any product found on the internet that is expressed in US currency can be converted to barrels or percentage of a barrel by the unique browser. This project is interactive thanks to the capabilities of the internet. Not only can you convert any price you choose to barrels of oil, but when your curser goes over links, text may pop up giving you news on oil businesses and shortages around the world. The homepage itself has a page dedicated to oil facts, so that the viewer can educate themselves. The first fact reads, "Oil is the single largest component of the US trade deficit." This fits into the overal idea of informing people how expensive and limited gas is.

Although Sterlings, "Short History of the Internet" was written all the way back in 1993 when the internet was still new and still emerging in popularity, the points Sterling makes continue to relate to the internet, and probably always will. For example, the article says, "The internet belongs to everyone and no one." This is a phenomenom that defines the internet as a unique networking tool and will probably never change. He also states, "The internet is a rare example of a true, modern, functional anarchy." No one person or company rules over the internet; it works and thrives on an "anything goes" policy, and this is why people like it so much.

Because of the freedom of the internet, projects such as "Oil Standard" are able to spread their message to an unlimited number of people all accross the world. The internet is no longer a tool for the government or scientists and researchers only; it has expanded vastly since the first test network was created by ARPANET in 1971 when there were only 4 nodes in the network. By 1993, there were tens of thousands of nodes spread accross 42 countries, with three or four million users. These numbers have increased since then and they will continue to do so. This means for projects like "Oil Standard," the audience will continue to grow and their message will continue to get more exposure and recognition.

Cultural Event Response 4

Prof Richard Hovannisian: Must We Still Remember? The Armenian Genocide as Prototype

Professor Hovannisian described the history and the context of the Armenian genocide in a clear and comprehensive way. Before comming to the lecture, I knew nothing about the Armenian genocide, and by the time I left, I knew when it was, where it was, and a general idea of why it occurred. Like one of the men on the film clip Hovannisian presented, it seems to me as if it was not a coincidence that this genocide happened in the midst of World War I. The Holocaust happened during World War II, suggesting that total wars create perfect contexts for genocides.

I was struck when Hovannisian predicted that the only genocide of the 20th century that will be remembered in the future is the Hollocaust, not the Armenian genocide, Rawanda, or Darfur. It has always been inconceivable to me that people can deny the existence of genocides despite cold hard facts and accounts by eye-witnesses and survivors. Hovannisian described the thought behind the denial: those who commited the killings were taught by the Turkish government and the political party that it was the right thing to do. For them, Hovannisian explained, it was not a matter of belief, it was a truth for them.