#jessicavargas

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Week 10 reading response

Week 10

In red desert, although the color grey tends to be the dominant color of nearly all the scenes in the film, the color red still has power in nearly every scene. In the background there is usually red, wether shown through the fire of the factory, the toy robot’s eyes, or even parts of the factory are all the color red. Another important mention of the color red was when Giuliana was choosing the color of her new store. She mentioned that she wanted to avoid red and use neutral colors instead because "red disturbed.” The color red indeed disturbed as shown through a scene with Ugo and Corrido. They were walking through the factory but stopped when they heard a loud a noise coming from a red machine behind them. At first, the viewer can only see part of the machine however the scene  zooms out to include the worker who is on top of the barrel. This zooming out makes Ugo and Corrido seem like ants in comparison to the barrel. Red overtakes the focus of the scene to forces the viewer to note its gran dominance it has in comparison to mankind. Another important mention of the color red was when Giuliana was choosing the color of her new store. She mentioned that she wanted to avoid red and use neutral colors instead because "red disturbed.” The color red disturbs the viewer more than the characters in the film, to symbolized as Hannah mentioned how accustomed they are with their industrial home.

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P.M Pollution

P.M Pollution East Side’s Battle with Industries since 1850

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Week 9 Jessica Vargas Reading Response

 Kyle Powys Whyte’s work cannot live without her definition of injustice. When she defines injustice herself, she remolds the word to be able to fit in the context of the Dakota Access pipeline and the context of U.S colonialism. I cannot imagine the work without it as it was a sign of her, from the beginning, establishing power in her words. This was crucial to be done in the beginning as although her work was focused on the Dakota Access pipeline, to talk apparently about the present she included the entire past of Indigenous people as well.

I also agree with Alex’s point regarding how Layli Long Soldier views “apologies.” She notes how empty they are by themselves as they are not supposed to be the solution, but be a part of the beginning of a bigger more meaningful solution. Similar how Cornel West talks about forgiveness in respect to the Black community “forgiveness is not an utterance. It’s a process. We are a loving people. We’ve taught the world so much about love because we’ve been hated so, but to forgive a day or so after…something wrong with that.” 

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History. Week 9

U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

Section 6: Date and Place the Injustice/Crime Occurred and the Specifics of the Injustice/Crime Alleged

When did the injustice occur? Day 21 Month *September Year * 1787

July 1997

 Where did the injustice occur?

Place: Here.

City *Chicago

State * IL

Explain in detail what happened

We the people of the United States(White settlers who “bravely, heroically and fairly”  attainted this land by polluting the air and roots with our Greed and by  stripping it from the hearts of the Dakota, Lakota, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribes like  it)  in order to form a more perfect union, (Union -Ironic how we  are using the word Union but all we have been doing is dividing Indigenous  lands- that serves OUR interest, OUR culture, OUR race) establish (IN)justice, (We shall complete such  injustices by: breaking our treaties with the rightful Indigenous Natives of  this land. We shall also complete such injustices by polluting their sacred  land to satisfy our obsession and dangerous greed for Gold.  The Injustices mentioned and not mentioned above will all be  done while we stand in a pool of their blood),insure (anything but) domestic tranquility, (We will directly and  indirectly strike with violence onto the natives, their land, the animals and  plants inhabiting the land and perpetuate entire systematic modes of oppression  to immortalize such violence. We will also create ecological conditions that yes  hurt us, but that hurt them even more as they are in more vulnerable  locations through which the Earth cries through),provide for the common defense, (that serves OUR  interest, OUR culture, OUR race) promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings,  (From the same God, we used to justify stripping away Indigenous  people’s cultures) of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the  United States of America. No one asked East Side residents whether the landfills, magnesium  storage sites and Petcoke companies should settle right by their  homes.Industries aimed to form the perfect industrial sites.They aimed to form the perfect industrial sites that best accommodated  to their interest. They did not even ask “Hey,  which pollutant do you prefer to have your air polluted with?”They prioritized their greed over the air that we breathe.They have violated air regulations ever since the company was  established. There has been no data collected in the last 3 years.This is supported by a system designed from its birth, to favor  and empower the voice of “some” by stripping away the letters of The People.  4000 /4000 characters remaining. 

Filing Supporting Documents

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 We shall continue to perpetuate this injustice for years, decades, centuries to come. This system will act as a premise into discriminating not just indigenous people but also other People of Color. We shall intertwine unjustly hate within our foundational words. We will leverage the words of our own, by taking away the letters from people whose rights, voices, entire presence we have excluded from the formation of this very constitution.

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By Mail: You may mail any attachments or documents to support your form to:

Civil Rights Division US Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (NYA) Washington, DC 20530

By Fax: You may also fax attachments or documents to support your form to 202-616-5509.

_______

In the work I incorporate 2 official documents. I have the Us. Department of Justice application process for reporting an injustice and I have the Preamble to the United States Constitution. I was really inspire by Whyte’s work to focus on indigenous people’s history for half of my poem as I wanted to emphasize how injustice, has been embedded into our roots since the beginning of the formation of this country. I did this by incorporating another voice in-between the lines of the Preamble to directly interrupt the words as the settlers interrupted the way of life of the indigenous people. In the interrupting lines however, I attempted to preserve their tone of the voice and vocabulary to also show how the same authors of this piece held multiple faces.

For the lines focused on East Side, I underlined words that were used in talking about the history of the indigenous people as to note how the remains of a systematic injustice of oppressing the voices of the groups who are being marginalized, still show today in our history.

I did this all in the reporting process for the Department of Justice to comment on how ironic the reporting process is in retrospect to the country’s gran historical injustices. Also, to note that resolving injustices of the present is only the commencement of resolving all injustices including the ones of our past as violence directly afflicted from the past is still causing many people to suffer.

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Reading Response: Week8 Jessica Vargas

John Ruskin “Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century” really reminded me of the work Billy Barr did with measuring snowfall in Gothic, Colorado, one of the coldest place in the United States. Although Barr used more quantity data, he measured snowfall for the last 40 year, it is similar to Ruskin’s work in the daily recording of the weather and the power in that even in their lifespan (which is relatively so small of that compared to how old the Earth is) they can see the direct impacts humans have had on the planet. Ruskin uses language in a way to beautifully encapsulate the weather, especially when comparing the peacefulness of the past vs the change of the present. He moves the piece along with citing his notes of which act like they are grounding to reality, even though he mentions his notes out of order. I also appreciate his criticism on the scientific community in noting that now more than ever they can discover information about the sun, planets and our entire solar system of which he responds with “And I do not care, for my part, two copper spangles how they move, nor what they are made of. I can’t move them any other way than they go, nor make them of anything else, better than they are made. But I would care much and give much, if I could be told where this bitter wind comes from, and what it is made of.” Here he shows the importance he finds in finding nature elements that connect back directly with humans. Which throughout his work and even the work of Juliana Spahr, prioritize in focusing on just that: the direct relationship humans have with nature. Both focus how there is a form of connection with nature but also note how one sided this connection is.

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Reading Response W7

Clark Taylor’s book really was my favorite reading from this week. I was entirely caught off guard on the direction the book was going as it was in a form of a children’s book, being read to me (like story time) but was about a dark systemic issue: the crack industry. What the book really reminded me of was just how issues affect everyone. The disparity arises from HOW the issues affect people. The man who lives in the house that crack built, is being affected by crack but the consequence that he is living with is living a luxurious life. The book also made me think of the impact of the these issues not just on different people but also reminded me of the importance of scale. Crack is a global issues, part of the drug and even human trafficking of which affects millions of lives. It can even effect worlds, like that of the infant mentioned in the last part of the book. The ways that issues however effect people, reminded me of Richard Misrach & Kate Orff map on Petrochemical America. These issues are huge and multifaceted which makes them complicated which is why in their maps, the issues are not encapsulated in perfect circles because there is nothing perfect! They are messy, all connected which makes the map important for visually conceptualizing because it is an attempt to understand them. As Chen mentions, the map tells a story. A story that does not play in the traditional parts in having a beginning, middle, and end but plays those parts, and more.

An element of the Taylor’s book I would like to talk about more, is his usage of “heat.” He uses it when describing the farmers and the boy of which the inference because they were both being supressed a “higher authority” however does this relate possibly to him describing their inner pain? When police describe a neighborhood/block that has a lot of violence they often describe it as a “hot spot” is he relating to that?

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Reading Response W5

The readings always remind me on the infinite possibilities of words. Especially the guide and audio book for treasure Island. In the form of the guidebook, David Buuck intends for it to be read by a “learner,” someone looking for more information of the island. He however incorporates his own yearning to learn in the guide book into how he himself was a learner as well. He does this by using the  “ I “ perspective throughout the book and in the different writing pieces. In the reading however, one reads it with their own voice inside their head. The audio guide however, takes back that power of it’s presentation by stimulating the ear with the sound of his voice but also with the sound of the island as well. Through this style of audio presentation, it really upholds the challenge to “stimulate our senses.”  The guidebook, does more than just guid the reader, it exposes to them the truth about the island. The truths that are seen but ignored and the truths that are ignored because they aren’t there to be seen. The different types of writing works acts as a way to see the island from different points of view, to complement each other in their limitness in enacuplating the island, to make sure nothing is missing from their “perspectives.” The audio guide, helped me understand the poem by C.S Giscombe. In his poem he linked love, sex and the landscape. This left me confused at some points in the poem, as I did not know exactly what he was communicating and it is a bit less clear to imagine for myself unlike in the guidebook. This however helped support my perspective that the words connect the concepts as the concepts are connect life.

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Reading Response Week 4

The Jungle was a rich reading for me to learn more about chicago’s past. I knew of the title of the book from my history class, how it was a pivotal book when it came to the creation of unions and improving the horrible conditions of the meat packaging plants in Chicago but never read it up until now. The book includes a large amount of details of which, by just imagining, it overwhelmed my senses. The suspense of the book served as a great complement to the rich plot of the book. A plot that focused a lot of the struggles of immigrants, strength in family, the vicious cycle of poverty, abuse of workers, corruption of politics (of course in Chicago) and thus serving as a voice in telling the tale of the thousands of immigrants at the time who were suffering in the packaging plants. This book was able to encapsulate it and more it was able to leverage the tales and literally change history. I appreciate how in the class I am becoming more aware of the power art has in being a weapon and catalyst of creating change (of which I hope to incorporate more activism message in my pieces).