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A Day In My Music

Why do we all enjoy sounds differently? Why do you listen to the music that you do? Why do you like a song that makes me want to rip my ears off of my head? The answer to this question is certainly ambiguous, and it is hard for an individual to even explain his or her own reason for listening to the music that he or she does. For my selfie project, I have decided to investigate the reasons behind my own musical preferences.

When I am with a group of people, on the other hand, I find that we listen to music that appeals more to a general audience and the given circumstance. For instance, when I am drinking or partying with my friends we tend to listen to “the bump” meaning rap music with a loud, heavy beat and lots of “hype” lyrics. Personally, I am not as big a fan of this “pregame” music we play, but it does get myself and my friends excited for the night. The real understanding of why I listen to certain music at certain times can only be analyzed through an individuals solo listening tendencies.

To do this I first began to think about what music I listen to and enjoy the most. When I am on my own, walking around or driving, I often find myself listening to rap, R&B, and deep house music. This includes is a very broad variety of artists and songs and I can certainly say that I do not like the majority of rap (honestly the majority of any music) that I have heard. I am very particular about the songs that I like, and that is because I actively seek out music that makes me feel certain ways.

When I wake up in the morning and need some inspiration for starting my day I tend to put on some rap or R&B music with lyrics that speak to and inspire me. As one of my favorite artists, Drake, says in his song “Lose You”, “I’m in it for the glory, not the honor mention, not tryna be fourth and inches, I’m tryna go the distance.” This quote honestly speaks to me because I have been thinking about my life and future lots over the past few years and I have fears of failure all of the time. At the end of the day though I am trying to raise my expectations on what exactly I can achieve in my life and get to that point one day. Every day I try to wake up with that in mine, and in doing so I use songs and lyrics such as this one to inspire me to reach my goals. I also find myself seeking music with inspirational and motivational lyrics while I am driving long distances and have time to reflect on my life as a whole. Needless to say, I don’t just look for the lyrics. They must be accompanied by a good rhythm, beat, and flow.

The next situation that I use music for aid is when I am studying and or working. If I go to sit down and study for hours on end I tend to look for a premade mix of “chill” or “chillstep” electric music. I find that this genre of music calms me and helps me to get my mind focused on the task at hand. After working for a long time I often find that I enter a trance like a state from listening to this sort of music and that state of mind allows me to work for hours on end without interruption. Many of these mixes that I find include piano and light electric sounds layered throughout, but all of them are very melodic and soothing.

Once I am done working I usually will head over to the gym, and this is a place where my taste in music changes drastically. At the gym, I look for hardcore inspiration through both lyrics and sounds. My favorite music to lift to includes heavy future/deep house and hard rap. These type of songs, the house music, in particular, has loud and heavy drops that are chaotic and frenetic. These drops for some reason get me very amped up and put me in the right mindset to push my body to its limits. Most of these songs are the type of sounds that, if I were to show my father, would be called “absolute rubbish.” To me though, the chaos and violence of the music is just a reflection of the chaos and violent strain that I am putting my body through.

Next up is the free time I have where I can listen to anything that suits my fancy. For me, this is comprised mostly of “lighter” deep and future house music accompanied by lyrics. One of my favorite artists currently is known as San Holo and he produces some of the happiest, energetic, and melodic music that one can find in this day and age. He includes amazing drops and all of his songs are amazing to dance (badly) to. One of his songs, “BWU”, stands for Be With You and it is simply beautiful sounds strung together around the words “be with you, I just want to be with you.” Songs like this tend to bring out memories and emotions of good times I have had with people, some longing for companionship, and overall allows me to access and accept feelings that I otherwise ignore.

To give a full analysis of my relationship to music it is only fair that I include my propensity to attend music festivals and concerts on a regular basis. As far as 3-day weekend festivals I have been to The Hudson Project, Firefly, EDC New York, Ultra Miami, Moonrise, and E-Zoo in chronological order starting the summer after graduating high school. Festivals are an experience, unlike anything I have ever seen before in the world. They are a place where you are safe from the expectations and judgments of society because everyone comes together to enjoy themselves and to forget about the outside world. Whether you are lying in the grass listening to music from afar or dancing like a maniac in the middle of a crowd you can’t help but feel happy. Especially when seeing people so freely enjoying themselves and not worrying about anyone or anything other than what is happening at that moment. After my first music festival, I really fell in love with electronic music and the memories I have from these events are undoubtedly a major impact on why I enjoy the music I do so much.

Works Cited

Cudi, Kid. “Man On the Moon (The Anthem).” Nosaj Thing. A Kid Named Cudi. 2008.

Drake. “Lose You.” Noah “40” Shebib & Stwo. More Life. OVO Sound, 2017.

Holo, San. “BWU.” San Holo. BWU. Bitbird, 2015.

Jauz, Ephwurd. “Rock the Party.” Jauz/Ephwurd. Spinnin Records. 2015.

Jauz. “Jaws Theme.” Jauz. 2014.

Scott, Travis. “Ra Ra.” CuBeatz & TM88. 2016.

Revised Final Project

So my revised idea for my final project is going to touch on one aspect of my life that I feel can show the most accurate representation of my self-possible. That aspect is the music I listen to. I listen to music for almost a third of the time I spend awake, and possibly even more than that on some days. I will make a “day in the life” video that will take viewers through the different activities of my day that involve music. On top of this, I will talk about the backgrounds of some of the artists that are most important and inspirational to me and try to document why and how they and their music are so impactful on myself.

The element that my investigation will touch on is the reason behind my listening to certain music at any given time of day, the takeaway I get from said experience, and the connection I feel to certain musicians due to my experiences with their music. On top of this, I will talk about certain lyrics that speak to me.

How I will conduct this documentation: I will first off be filming POV videos of what I am seeing during certain daily activities, and then it will be dubbed with the music that I am listening to during that moment. I will also use and cite background information and music from the artists I choose to include in my investigation. Then I will reflect and document my thoughts on the who, what, how, and why of the music that gets me through each day.

Overall I feel that this investigation will help me make realizations about the real reasons as to why I listen to certain music in given situations. Even when I am looking for new music to listen too I formulate subconscious opinions that determine if I like a song or not and what situations I would listen to that song in, so during this investigation, I hope to really reflect on the things that draw me to certain pieces of music at certain times.

Final Projects MUST:

Final Project Proposal

For my final project idea, I began by trying to further think into what my own self truly is and how it can be captured. I believe that one's self is far too complex to be captured solely through text, photo, video or sound due to the impossibly complex nature of the human mind. However, by using text, photo, video, and sound one can create a semblance of what one's self is exposed too and perhaps give others an idea of what their true self is really like.

So to do this I feel that using photos and videos that are accompanied by text captions and dubbing sound over the video I hope to be able to encapture some of the lifestyle that I lead, the emotions that I feel, and the people that make me who I am. After looking at Eileen Myles Instagram I find myself feeling as if I understand some aspects of their “self” just due to the fact that she exposes her followers to so many parts of her life. This includes pictures of their pets, meals, body/face, event fliers, and everyday sights that she may be seeing.

Another idea that I had was to use pop art text in between photos that express the feelings that I may be having during that moment in time. I truly believe that one's self is heavily captured in the emotions that they feel. I myself feel that my life is sometimes crippled by the anxiety of the future and cured through fun and distraction. By expressing some of the major emotions that you feel at given points in your life you can really expose your “self” to others. For example, a picture of my study session might be followed by things like:

Listen to Scott Marines Interview by Stephen Sharp 3 #np on #SoundCloud

US Marine Sgt. Scott Montanio

Scott is my half brother on my mom's side and he served in both Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003-2006. He is one of my greatest role models because he was off at war when I was still in elementary school unaware of how terrible certain things in the world were at that time.

Interview Proposal

1) My brother, Scott is an inactive marine who joined after the 9/11 attack, could interview him about his time in active duty and his feelings about the war looking back at it now. The audience for this would be any American citizens with and interest in a marines opinion on the war.

2) My father was born in England, Moved to Germany at the age of 21, and ten years later he moved to the US. The audience for this interview would be anyone who is curious about the experience of immigrating to one or multiple countries.

3) My friend Kyle is an up and coming rapper who I could interview him on his experience and struggles as a musician

Ocean Vuong

Ocean was born in Vietnam, but moved to US at age 2 in 1990 with his family

He spoke Vietnamese and found it initially difficult to speak with and perform in American classroom settings

He has mild dyslexia, which causes him anxiety when writing, his brother also had severe dyslexia which caused him to feel nauseous when faced with too much text

Says that white space in poetry, and gaps between text, allow a sentence as a fracture within the unit of the poem

Felt this style of fractured poetry due to its mirroring of his own fractured being and otherness, this style of writing felt safe and home

When moving into the abstract, away from the physical world, in poetry words begin to fail due to limited vocabulary

More abstract means moving away from his own family

Concerned at first about who was reading and listening at first, but as he grew as a writer he moved away from those thoughts and rather went deep into his abstract writing

To get into the imaginative space of his poetry he would 8 years ago say that he would follow set rules to begin, but now he says he no longer follows any one plan and allows this imagination to come to him

Ocean hopes that his critical acclimation and success has not changed his work or who he caters to when writing, but also he says that he cannot completely block that part of his life out when writing.

“for me being queer, of color, and poor as a child was a nightmare in a sense and in retrospect I had to compartmentalize my mind in order to tune out the bullies and aggressors”

This may be why in night sky he wrote with lots of freedom without worrying about who was listening or would be reading it.

Stereotype of overly dramatic actions was something that he said would not contain him and he tries to live his life in a free, unbound manor

A realm of control is something that many queer kids seek out and often why they go into the business of creating beauty

“I think love at its best has permission to repeat its self and replicate itself and to never get old. We perceive in our society that ecstasy and passion is love but I feel it is rather dependability and durability. It is something that must be up kept. Love is not something that you obtain, have, and give but rather something that is lasting and not just a moment in time”

The love he writes about in his book is about the cost that individuals go through to obtain it. It is not a privilege but rather something that must be fought for and earned. Also he thinks about the violence and the cost that one must go though throughout love.

Sense of danger in that many queer people have met their end in and during their search and fight for love.

Writing can become like a finger print, unique to the individual, expressed in language, and often can never be completely replicated

Many influences including his mother, grandmother, and many many other writers have become a sum total, and singular influence that all combine to influence his work.

Influence can be thought of as an energy and during writing he can feel the energy and influence in individual lines

His family did not always understand what it is that he wanted to pursue and were not expecting for him to do something different from what their normal path would have them go, and he says his family was very proud when they saw that he was going to follow his own path.

After his first reading that his mother attended he saw her crying at the end and when he asked her why she said that she never thought she would see so many white people clapping for her son.

He says that even if his readers and family do not completely understand the meaning of his writing and style, the fact that they are getting close enough to understanding and trying to is what really matters.

Ocean only writes at night, and says that this is the only routine that he has. Also, he says his book took him a sum total of 8 years to write.

The act of etching the words became a distraction from the development of his ideas when he could instead let these ideas grow in his mind undisturbed.

Ocean Vuong

1. For what reason did your family immigrate to the US in 1990?

2. Who is your favorite poet?

3. What inspired you to become a poet?

Unfortunately, the use of 360 video filming, as I proposed, was incompatible with the editing software that I had available, so a regular cell phone video is what we have here.

360 Film Proposal

For this project, I plan to utilize the newest in filming technology to create a 360-degree video. I plan to shoot twelve 15 second clips depicting the area that I live at home as well as some of the places I will be over the course of this spring break. The camera I will be using is called the Samsung gear 360 and it contains two lenses each facing away from the other. By doing this each lens can capture almost a full 180 degrees of vision and then, using the software “Action Director,” I can merge the two videos into one cohesive film. From there I will upload the video to YouTube where you will be able to pan around the full 360 degrees of the film in order to see everything surrounding the camera. To edit the film, we will take the best 15 seconds of film from each of our twelve locations and combine them in order to create one cohesive, mind blowing, eye-catching experience for our viewers. My budget for this film will be around ten dollars and fifteen cents, so I am what some might call “balling on a budget.” My friend from Syracuse will be aiding me in utilizing the 360 video equipment as well as the accompanying software that is required to put this film together. I plan to utilize my quick thinking and spontaneous tendency to find the 12 different scenes and then use improvisation to determine what occurs in said scene.

I plan to use the impending Nor Eastern storm for some of my footage, as well as potentially filming a snowboarding trip later on in the week. On top of this, I feel like a nice 15-second clip of a pregame for bars might be a great way to let the people know what really “goes down.”

Zombieland

The savage starving zombies crowded in a circle, covered in blood. They moved together as one unit, devouring any living creature in their path. They begin to run and come across a field. In this field a happy horse is lying in the grass on its back, feet flailing in the air. The zombies descend upon it. They rip off its legs as it screams in pain. Eventually, its head is devoured as well and the happy horse is no more. The zombies keep moving. A sound attracts them, the sound of cows mooing. A feast for the horde. They swarm the cows, taking them down one by one. Twenty cows are no more. They were very hungry zombies….

#zombies #horse #savethecows

Chronicles of Cancun

performanceofbecominghuman-blog

Text Art Proposals: Juan L and Alex P

Alex and I have 3 separate proposals for this assignment, the latest of which being be strongest. 1.) The phrase “bring me your tired huddled masses” being placed upon an image of Syrian refugees who evidently look as if they are “tired huddled masses”. This will demonstrate the irony of the foundation of American values in contrast to current events that are not so welcoming to people of different ethnicities. Most likely dark undertones, melancholy colors, or perhaps to emphasize irony, very vibrant colorful text. 2.) Make Germany (Draw a line through the “Germany”) America Great Again. This plays upon the the idea that Hitler utilized similar terminology and phrases to push his agenda as Trump has, with a ban attempt, and a registry attempt. This comparison of Americas newest president to the worlds most known evil emphasizes the idea that Trump follows in his footsteps. The image will be Hitler’s face scribbled out similar to Germany being scribbled and replaced with Trump. 3.) Trump Twitter. Two of Trumps own tweets will be utilized. Both are phrases in which he suggests that Americans of different ethnicities are dangerous. Ironically, the images will be a series of white American terrorists, to highlight that these are the majority of terrorist attacks that take place. The first will even be Osama, suggesting that after his attack, even though most terrorists are white, most Americans blame Muslims. The words will cover their eyes, to indicate that all one sees is color in reference to terrorism. This text art will ironically use Trumps logic against him, as he suggests to ban these dangerous people, but these dangerous people are not Muslim, simply dangerous, regardless of race.

stevesharp17

Steve Sharp/ Nikko

We chose the second one due to the impactful message and exaggerated comparison in effectively getting that message across. Such text/image combination would make for a very shocking and impactful reaction from any and all who view it.

performanceofbecominghuman-blog

Julia and Drew "Text Installation Ideas"

Group Project: Text Installations

Members: Julia and Drew

Topic: Trump On Immigration: A projected art installation. A barbed wire fence with a desert behind it, is projected onto the wall. Then we have one person or several people standing against the projection, so that the fence is covering them. The message can be how people are unable to cross into america. We can also add a quote from donald trump regarding immigrants. This one could be good to use: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Topic: Sean Spicer Lie: Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, had apparently told a blatant lie during a press briefing in January. In regards to Donald Trump’s Inauguration, Spicer told the press that, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period.” So with this in mind, we thought to make a political commentary on the fact that potential falsehoods have been released, and could happen in the future when sending out news to the press. We could have an image of Sean Spicer, in either black and white, or another effect, with a sentence in quotes above him that states a potential lie that he could say. We can then end the sentence with a “period” similar to how Sean Spicer ended his comment

Topic Environmental: A picture of one or two really cute animals with a “shocking” or unexpected caption. These animals have not been entirely selected, however there is an idea that there can be a seal pup and a puppy. Both animals are easy in the eyes, and the quote text will be very small. The small text is to make the viewers focus on the cute photos, rather than the diverging question. The contrast between two baby animals with the caption “pick one to die” or a picture of a single animal with a caption such as “you wouldn’t murder this would you?” The questions are very shocking, however they won’t jump out at the viewer like a Barbara Krueger piece does. The viewer has to focus on the photos first, then find the jarring question that makes them think.

Topic: Equal Pay: Evident in mass media protests, one of the crucial points in regards to women’s rights centers around equal pay. Feminism is defined as equality, not as “female over male” as some misconceptions exclaim it as. So, for this topic there is going to be one simple photo of two text styled resumes. They are both going to be exaggerated, with one of the resumes labeled under the sex of “Male” and the other resumed “Female.” The male list of accomplishments will be subpar, general, and even slightly unimpressive; including just a high school degree, 1 yr old college incomplete, with little to no work experience. The female resume will be extensive, with a degree from an accredited university, internship experience, honors and an all around impressive theme. Above the two resumes will be “HIRED” in green above the male resume, to show the bias in the hiring process in an exaggerated manner.

stevesharp17

Steve/Nikko

I like the idea behind your fourth proposal, it is original, relevant, and, in some circumstances, these situations may actually occur. Salary, hiring, and work discrepancies based on sex is a very big problem in the workplace still and, hopefully, one that will continue to gain recognition.

performanceofbecominghuman-blog

Text Art Proposals - Joy Awadalla and Sahil Chonkar

Our first proposal is influenced by the Black Lives Matter Movement. Racial injustice is highly prevalent in our society and our text installation art seeks to explore issues of police brutality and racial stereotypes. Out text installation art will feature a black student studying on Rutgers campus. Our text art will be exposed through a police officers sunglasses. While the student is studying, a pair of sunglasses that belong to the officer will view the student. In the sunglasses, racial stereotypes will be written completely across the lenses. Instead of seeing the harmless student, the officer is blinded by racial stereotypes and false representations.

Another idea for our research proposal was to incorporate the idea of alcohol abuse in college life. It is well known how the majority of kids in college consume alcohol during their free time despite the fact that its illegal. We feel as though a good idea would be to have a handle of some kind of liquor outside a fraternity house or someplace where alcohol consumption is most likely going on. The handle label will have our text written where instead of the name of the alcohol, it will have a line that somehow contradicts the fact that kids in college are in fact drinking.

The final proposal is an imitation of the D.A.R.E Say No Drugs campaign. This proposal aims to expose how ineffective drug campaigns can be. Drug campaigns do not expose realities of addiction and drug use. By being told to “just say no” many kids have an unrealistic expectation about drug use and grow a curiosity to the idea. Featuring Daren the lion (D.A.R.E’s mascot), our text art aims to give a better understanding about drug use and the problematic nature of highly funded drug campaigns.

stevesharp17

Steve/ Nikko

We decided that the first idea carries the most powerful message and could be a very strong symbolic message as to how individuals can be blinded by racial stereotypes and put the facts of an individual behind their pre-conceived notions.

performanceofbecominghuman-blog

Nikko, Emmanuel

3 Proposals (Nikko, Emmanuel)

1. Create a poster similar to Barbra Kruger’s using Photoshop.

Showing a picture of a “bad” figure (Ex. Hitler), and adding quotes that is stated my a “good” figure (Ex. JFK)showing that not everything is the way it seems.

2. Use words to make a even bigger words or symbol signifying a bigger picture.

3. Make a projection showing the dangers of fake news.

stevesharp17

I like the idea behind your first idea, and I feel like you could come up with a very powerful message that could accompany a certain bad figure with the quote from a good figure. Brainstorm a specific example with a specific deeper meaning in mind.

Text Proposal: Stephen Sharp and Maria Andrea

1. Our first idea involves a backdrop photograph of caskets of fallen soldiers from the war on oil in Iraq. Layered over the top of the photograph would be the words, “As long as gas is less than $4 per gallon”. This is a critique on the war in the middle east, starting before September 11th 2001, that were given the official reason, “to improve Western access to Iraqi oil.” Much like Barbara Kruger’s “It’s never our fault” this poster would serve to show how we are willing to let our soldiers die just to maintain certain lifestyles.

2. Our next idea, as a more comical but also political statement, is to have a photograph of Rutgers/ other college students partying in Cancun, Mexico. The text over our photograph would say, "When America sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems to us.” This is a parody of the Trump quote related to the immigration of Mexican citizens, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems to us.”

3. Our third idea involves a large wall as the background, as a testament to the wall that Donald Trump proposed to have built along our Mexican border. The overlaying text would say “with liberty and justice for all” insinuating that not all are welcome to enjoy the freedom that we share in the USA.

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