Two Kinds of People

As I was walking to my dorm on moving day, I saw the door right across from me fully decorated with this giant wreath.  As you can probably tell from my door (on the right), I am a pretty simple person.  When I saw that wreath, I immediately thought to myself, ‘Oh great I am going to be living next to girls with super big and loud personalities.’  Just by looking at the decorations on their door, I immediately made an assumption about their personalities, without even giving myself a chance to meet them in person.  I was thinking about why I figured they would have those personality traits just by the decorations on their door.  When I reflected on it, I realized it was because I knew people growing up, like my sister, who would have done the same kind of thing, going over the top to make their room appear “cute” and different.  This paralleled the argument that we discussed in class how vision and interpretation is based on past experiences as well as social implications.  After meeting and getting to know these girls, they are super sweet and not big and loud personalities at all.  It made me realize I need to be aware of the assumptions I make from the things that I see.

-Lindsey Almquist

Next Level Selfie

The other day, I was texting my friend Mikey, and he suddenly sent me what appeared to be an animated image of him. I was confused and intrigued when he sent me another one! He then told me about an app called Bitmojis. With this app, users can create an avatar that looks like themselves, and then the avatar is inserted in several different images that can be used just like emojis. I have been looking at this in two different ways. First, I thought thy seemed to be personalized emojis. Emojis are already such interestingly specific ways to more clearly communicate through text messaging, but now they have your personality tied to them as well (not to mention, much more detailed facial expressions). Ultimately, I feel that these are psuedo-selfies. If I could always look perfect in a selfie and and have specific sayings animated in the image with me I would! We have now created something that symbolizes ourselves and can clearly convey specific messages through texting. I feel that with these “selfies,” what gets decoded is much more accurate in regard to what was encoded than snapchat, because of the animated words. It is interesting to see how accurately these images represented Mikey. Over all, this is yet another step into visual culture. Our culture has adopted yet another new avenue of communication.

 

-Rhett Waner

Why Focus On the Meaning?

As I was sitting in my fraternity’s chapter room this evening, I looked at this piece of art on the wall. I have seen this painting hundreds of times, but I had never really stopped to examine the piece of art. At first glance, someone might think “Wow, look’s like a kid painted that.” And that’s right – a kid did paint that. My fraternity’s philanthropy is through Cook’s Children’s Hospital. Children in the hospital paint pictures and then we auction them off and give the money back to the hospital.

After looking at the painting, I started thinking about why the picture was up on the wall. Sure, it was a cute painting that a child worked on, but what reason other than that? Why is this painting important? It most likely has no symbolic meaning or metaphor as it was painted by a child. Then I realized, it is important because of who painted it. We often search for deeper meanings in all art without taking the time to appreciate art for what it really is: a creation. We speculate and formulate opinions about what something means when sometimes, it really is just a creation. I think we should take a step back and appreciate art for what it is at its core: a creation.

– Thompson Berhow

The Case of the “Upside-Down” Outlet

By Brendan Hartman

Electrical outlets, the life lines for our devices, are everywhere.  The one pictured above is right outside of my dorm room, next to the round table where I study.  I couldn’t help but notice that it was “upside-down.” (I imprison “upside-down” in quotation marks for now because I want us to question of understanding of what we think is correct, normal). The only reason I think of this outlet as inverted is because I am comparing it to those in my house where I grew up.  In truth, as far as electrical outlets go, there is no “upside-down” or “right-side-up” way to install them.  Outlets function irregardless of their vertical (or even horizontal) orientation.  What we understand as normal is not natural or organic, but rather a construct based on our previous experiences. In chapter two of How to See the World, Mirzoeff observes, “We put together an understanding of the world that makes sense from what we already know or think we know.”  I constructed my understanding of “normal” vs. “up-side-down” based on what I thought I knew.  As it turns out, this construction is purely arbitrary, a conditioning through past visual experiences with outlets.

If You Didn’t Snapchat It, Were You Even There?

I was going through old pictures on my laptop when I realized the ridiculous amount of concert pictures I have (1,024 in the past year and a half). While it is nice to have memories of the concerts, I know that I missed some of the experience of being there because I was thinking about how to get the best picture. I had to get some higher quality pictures and videos just to keep on my phone, a few selfies to document who I was with, and of course, the Snapchat videos and pictures to show everyone what I was doing and when. Then after concerts, I’ll go through all of my pictures to find the best one and proceed to edit it to make it look even better, come up with a witty caption, then post it.

Pictures have become a part, sometimes even a central part, of pretty much every social event. Whether it’s a formal or just brunch with a friend, there is probably at least one picture taken. Our generation has become obsessed with documenting our lives, but I think it is important to note that we only really share the high points of our lives. You never see Snapchats of people after a break up or a traumatic life experience. So why are we so preoccupied with posting everything cool or fun we do? Is it because we are trying to make others jealous? Do we think people genuinely care about every single thing we are doing? Through social media, we are constantly creating and editing this virtual representation of ourselves that is in some ways more important than our reality. But is it a truthful and accurate representation of us if it leaves out major portions of our lives?

-Sarah Joe

Iconic Labels

The Patagonia label seems to be appearing more and more frequently across the country, especially at “preppy” schools like TCU. Many people on campus, whether they or male or female, are wearing the Patagonia brand. If you are seen wearing the Patagonia label or have the Patagonia iconic mountains on your shirt, you seem like you love adventure, you love the outdoors, you are a hipster, or maybe you are just a conformist. This label has become recognizable across the country. Americans wear this shirt to give off a certain message to whomever is looking at them.

Although Patagonia has always been a popular brand, the brand, and even this trout decal, has a different meaning for me. Since as long as I can remember, I have gone to our family friend’s ranch in Meeker, Colorado every single summer. My dad taught me how to fly fish at that ranch. Some of the clothing and fishing equipment we use is made by Patagonia. When I think of the Patagonia brand, I think of all the fun memories I’ve had catching trout with my dad. This iconic label reminds me of times spent fly fishing, the beautiful Colorado scenery, and spending time with family and friends. Although some people may have never used Patagonia as true outdoor gear, I will always think of the Patagonia brand as a mode of bringing my family and friends closer together.

-Abby Boyd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sunday Afternoon at Torchy’s

Last night I was having a serious craving for queso and Torchy’s was the obvious solution. If you’ve ever been to Torchy’s, you may have noticed a large painting hanging in the entrance of the restaurant. As a frequent customer, I had seen the photo many times but had hardly paid mind to it in the past. Because of our recent studies of visual culture, the power of print and original works of art, I took a particular interest to this image and decided to take a photo of it for my blog post this week.

After a quick google search I found that this recognizable photo is titled “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by an artist in the 1880’s named Georges Steuart. Only, in this image, the Torchy’s logo was plastered on top of the Sunday Afternoon painting. I found this funny because the two are in no way related. But maybe that’s what Torchy’s was going for? Either way, the reprinting of this iconic image is interesting to me because it took Steuart over two years to make, and probably took less than 20 min to re print. The original was the first ever pointillist painting. And somehow this painting worth thousands of dollars was printed with a giant devil on top of it for assumably much less. I found this sort of parody interesting in terms of visual culture and this class. I wonder how often/why we transform a famous work of art into a parody of our own ideas?

– Madison Stottle

 

The Great Wall

Some people might be thinking “Who is this elegant man with light posts for arms?” My answer to you is Yao Ming, one of the tallest basketball players of all time in the NBA, nicknamed “The Great Wall” for his ability to make a devastating impact on defense as no one is able to ever really get by him. My roommate brought this with him to college and it is hanging up in the lobby of our suite, however it took me this long to notice it’s presence in my own room. It was never hidden and always in plain sight, but I honestly couldn’t have told you who was on that picture that has been up on the wall since late August. I finally realized this past week that I never knew who was on it, so I went over, saw “The Great Wall” himself, and got a good laugh out of this very interesting picture. I went on to read up on old Yao Ming and now know a fair amount of information about him, like a particular meme that I never realized is him that took the internet by storm. By being intentional with my surroundings and beginning to look thoughtfully instead of just passively seeing the world around me, I not only learned a few things but got a chuckle out of it too.

 

Will Mitchell

Tulips

When I see fresh flowers in a vase in someone’s house, I always tend to think of that home being clean, traditional, and loved. Those people care about how their home is perceived. They want people to think that they live a normal, put-together life. Flowers visually can brighten up a room and bring some nature inside a home. Flowers are also sent to people or families for their birthdays, anniversaries, surgeries,  or funerals. Flowers can have different meaning, depending on the occasion.

My roommate Maddie brings home fresh flowers every week to liven up our petite dorm room. To me, these tulips represent my friendship with Maddie. They resemble her bright personality and her tendered nature towards others. It is amazing how a naturalistic object can have a number of different meanings for different people.

Abby Boyd

Bandwagon Fans

I took this photo at the Macklemore concert in the Commons last week. In the moment, after I took the picture, I looked down at my phone and thought, “Wow. Good job, Thompson.” I thought it was a pretty good shot.

A few days later, I got a message on my phone telling me that I was running out of storage. I started going through my photos, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to delete. I came across this photo and almost hit the delete button before I started staring at it. “Go Hawks,” I chuckled to myself because of their loss against the Panthers. Then, my eyes made their way down the photo. I was stunned at the numerous hands thrown into the air in a praise-like manner due to Macklemore’s holding up this simple sign. I started to think about how we look at celebrities. Society mimics what celebs do. We look up to them. I then thought about what makes an image “powerful.” What was making these fans scream not only for Macklemore but for the Seahawks as well? Surely they aren’t all from Seattle. Then it hit me. They are cheering for the Seahawks simply because Macklemore is. I came to the conclusion that often times, we enjoy images because the people around us enjoy them, specifically celebrities.

After staring at this photo for what seemed to be a century, I moved my hand away from the delete button. I thought to myself, “I wonder how many people cheered for the Seahawks last Sunday just because someone they admire did…”

– Thompson Berhow