#myprofessorismakingmedothis

[neighborhoodsofqueens]

Astoria is quickly becoming one of the most popular neighborhoods because of its proximity to Manhattan. But it's beautiful in its own right.

[neighborhoodsofqueens]

Some shots of the neighborhood of woodside of the 7 train. Like most of the rest of Queens it is very diverse. Bordering neighborhoods are Sunnyside, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights.

[koniwithak-blog]

the met breuer

i would 100% recommend a visit to the met breuer on madison avenue. there's currently an exhibit on unfinished art that is probably the most remarkable exhibit ive seen in a while (excluding the 5th floor of the moma). unfinished van goghs, picasso's, and monet's are borderline insane to look at. not to mention, there's a blue bottle cafe on the top floor of the museum juuuust to make the unfinished works that much better. overall would give it a solid 10/10 👊🏽

[koniwithak-blog]

at it again (w that visual thinking)

this week for my visual thinking project, we were asked to create an art installation for a potential exhibit. i created my installation in a completely white and gray-walled room using three 5ft tubes of lipsticks. my entire art installation is based on the spectrum of femininity and feminism and how some women discriminate others for being too feminine or too feminist. the lipsticks would be white, pink, and red, symbolizing the different types of shades one can be (pink being both). as corny as it may sound and as odd as it may seem, i run into this issue of feeling descriminated by other female feminists for how i choose to beautify myself, and how i choose to stick to my “woman-gender-normed-box.” some female feminists forget the true meaning behind feminism. this all gets lost in the stereotypes and normed expectations society has for us. but what if these norms work for some feminists? why discriminate them then? this is what my art installation would answer for viewers. since the project is really incomplete, i’ll post photos  of my sketches throghout the week as they improve.

[koniwithak-blog]

old people and social media

i decided to skype my grandparents this weekend and walk my grandma through the Facebook login page, since she didn’t know how to see her profile (it was very cute). my grandma is a greek immigrant who moved to australia in the 50′s with the reading level of a 4th grader. if my grandma is remotely interested in how to use a computer and how to use Facebook, then the kind, loving elderly of new york city shouldn’t be opposed to it, nor should they jab millennials for using it. this weekend a cab driver (who was definitely in his 60ss)  told me to “look outside the window for once,” because i was on my phone too much. 1) don’t tell me what to do if i am quietly sitting in the back seat of your cab, 2) i am paying you so please be nice to me, and 3) it is 2016.....? i honestly hope that this is the last angry-old-person-who-is-against-technology/millenials-using-technology because again, if my grandma from a little mountain in greece can find a little joy in it, other old people can too. 

[koniwithak-blog]

paula scher: design connoisseur

everyone from here on out should understand what paula scher does and how she has changed the way we view brands today. i knew nothing about her until i was assigned to do a presentation on her for my graphic design class. turns out, paula scher redesigned the new york city ballet logo, the met opera logo, the moma logo, the windows 8 logo, the shake shack logo, the sundance institution logo and maaaaaaany more. everyone should love and appreciate paula scher, for she has done marvelous things for the design world around us

[koniwithak-blog]

the meanings of the selfie by james franco

after reading this new york times article, i began to think of two things: my own instagram and snapchat. james said something incredibly true, “attention is power. and if you are someone people are interested in, then the selfie provides something very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible.” although i am not someone people are interested in (aside from my friends and family), i have found that selfies, no matter who you are, are the most liked photos on instagram accounts. even if the selfie wasn’t even taken by you and it’s just a photo of you (and no one else), it’ll generate more likes than an aesthetic picture of your morning latte on a marble tabletop. i found this on my own instagram. photos of myself generated more likes than photos of views, food, and artwork. take kylie jenner’s instagram for instance. yesterday she uploaded a selfie of her and her friends and an hour later she uploaded a photo of herself alone. the photo of her friends generated 950k likes whereas her selfie is close to 1.5m. 

this then brings me to the idea of snapchat and how getting a close look at someone’s life through a selfie is more meaningful than texting. over the summer, my best friend and i really only communicated through snapchat because it was “better than texting.” snapchat gives you an instant snapshot or video of what someone is doing at that moment and it has revolutionized the way we communicate with people. we went 150 days with just snapchatting each other selfies, videos, and messaging through snapchat. when “selfie” was added to the dictionary, i remember thinking to myself “now its actually gonna be ok to take them in public,” but what that now means to me is “my way communicating has completely changed forever.” 

[koniwithak-blog]

the social construction of women (part i)

my third eloquentia perfecta class (ep3) is titled “the social construction of women and girls - barbies, real housewives, and girl soldiers.” seeing as though we are living in a hyper-“pc” society and seeing as i go to a hyper-“pc” university, i thought it would be a good idea to further educate myself and understand how i can articulate me being a feminist in future social situations. so far, this class has been incredibly rewarding and we are only in our 3rd week of school.

just last week, we watched a piers morgan interview with janet mock (a trans woman). once we finished watching the interview, our professor asked us for our feedback. seeing as janet mock was smiling the entire time, and enjoying herself during the interview the majority of the class assumed that there was nothing wrong. however, our professor then showed us the follow-up interview. this interview involved a lot of bickering on piers morgan’s behalf since he was in amidst a twitter fight with janet mock fans within seconds of the first interview ending on cnn. there was a huge dispute among the fans when piers used the phrase “born a boy,” when it came to referring to janet pre-transition. to anyone uneducated in using correct “trans terms,” (like myself), i only thought piers was trying to connect with janet, and seeing as janet had no issue with it, i didn’t either. however after my professor led a lecture on the right terms to use among the trans community, we all realized piers was in the wrong, not because he wanted to be, but merely because he wasn’t using the right terminology. overall, piers should have really done his research on the topic rather than go into this blindly (as he has frequently done in the past).

i too am learning the right terms to use and when to use them through this class and hopefully by the end of it, i will be able to verbalize these sorts of issues in a way that is respectful to their communities.