#visual studies iii

[visualstudieschar]

Story Hub: Subway Closure

3:30 PM

It was 3:30 pm on a Thursday. I was doing this since 10 in the morning. I got the call this morning telling me to come in early since the subway’s down again at Dundas station. They were running low on ttc directors. I was told to load the passengers onto the shuttle buses and make sure the buses weren’t overcrowded. I had to deal with many angry customers and the only thing I could do was smile and wish them a good day and sorry for the inconvenience.

  4:15 PM

The lines continues to grow longer and longer. It’s starting to snake around. Just scanning the faces of those in line, I could tell their growing impatient. I even see a guy with a bike… He’s not seriously thinking of getting on with that right?

  5:00 PM

My shift is almost over, this will be the last batch and I’ll be done. I wasn’t expecting to get called to work today and ended up staying up all night watching Netflix. After dealing with angry customers for more than 6 hours, I’m exhausted. As I was helping the last passenger onto the bus, I realized it was an old lady. She looked about 70, with a huge smile on her face, thanking me for my help and generosity. She was actually one of the few people who wished me a good day. With that, it was the end of my shift.

6:00 PM

I was able to peacefully fall asleep to the sweet smile of this certain elder who reminded me a lot of my deceased grandmother.

______________________________________________________________

4:30 PM

Oh my God. NO. Are you kidding me? REALLY? Dammit, of course the station is closed. What a great addition to my already wonderful day. Not only was I late for my exam because of my stupidity of getting AM and PM mixed up, my dumbass bike decides to die on me when I need it the most. Now the subway jumps on the bandwagon too. GREAT.

  4:45 PM

Crap, why are the lines so lo-, oh, right… rush hour. How the heck do I get on with a bike with all the people already in line? I’m already getting all these looks from the people around me.

  5:00 PM

Where are all the people in the buses coming from? Why are they so crowded before they even reach Dundas?

  6:00 PM

Wow I was actually waiting for 2 hours. I could have got home by now if I walked. Urgh, I should have just left my bike and picked it up another day. Jesus. Well since its almost my turn, I’ll just wait a bit more.

  6:05 PM

“The subway is up and running again. You are free to access the subway again. Sorry for all the inconvenience.”

…. WOW REALLY?

______________________________________________________________ 

1:00 PM

It was a great suggestion from my daughter to leave the house once in a while. I havnt walked around in the mall in ages. I found that it makes for good exercise. And since I am searching for a present for my granddaughter, I stopped by many toy stores.

  2:00 PM

I brought a Barbie doll as a present. I hope she likes it. I should probably start heading down to my daughter’s now.

  2:30 PM

Oh dear, it looks like the station is closed. It says here on this sign that there are shuttle buses available. Okay then.

  3:00 PM

I see a line forming from across Dundas Square already. I wonder how long this  will take.

  5:00PM

A young middle ages man offered me a hand while getting on the bus, it was very sweet of him. I bid him farewell and wished him a good day. 

[visualstudieschar]

The Do Over: Parallel Encounters

Team Members

Cecilia Chan

Melissa Chan

Tiffani Hui

Charmaine Yu

[visualstudieschar]

ROOM

A person's room can illustrate their interest or hobbies. The way they choose to place certain things or the way they describe it, also displays a part of their personality. For this crowd sourcing assignment, I wanted to illustrate a person's room strictly based on how they explain the placements of everything within it.  I also wanted to explore the connection between a person's explanation and my ability of imagination to replicate the original as much as possible.

[visualstudieschar]

Show and Tell: Mini Story

It was Friday. I planned it for a while but never got the courage to do it. I was sick of all the cliques. I couldn’t fit in even if I started the same year. 30 minutes.

Being labeled as the new kid doesn’t help either. Just another thing to add to the list. I hear the rumors. They are constantly talking about me. Saying that I don’t stand a chance. 45 minutes.

I know that I can’t stop them, or even come close to beating them. But that still doesn’t give them the right to call me a loser all the time. I know I’m not the first person to come to mind for these things. 50 minutes.

I always hated wearing masks but decided that I will in order to fit in. An hour. I see the sharp spiked stones near the bottom of the bridge. I was never afraid of heights. But this isn’t about me anymore, the only thing I care about right now is if this is going to happen at all. Should I just leave now or stay and wait a bit longer? Is it worth it? Maybe I should just go now. I came this far already. An hour and a half.

I left a note for her. I was hoping that she will meet me. She was the reason why I am standing on this bridge in the first place. I’ve always hated heights but I heard this was a quiet place and no one normally passes by. No one will interrupt.

It’s been two hours already. Where is she? Maybe she missed the note? I swear I put it in her locker before I left. Then again, she probably receives thousands of notes daily… What makes mine so special? Maybe I should just leave now. Leave everything behind and just step off this stupid thing. I can’t stand this anymore. My legs are getting weak.

Two hours and 15 minutes.

Okay, this is it. I life my leg up-

“WAIT”.

-Heavy panting-

“Oh, so now you come…”

“Sorry! I ran here right after I read your note, don’t move! DON’T JUMP!”

….

“Jump? Jump where? What?”

“You weren’t going to jump off?”

“Jump where? Off this bridge?! Oh God, no. What made you think that?”

“ Your note! And your pose right now! You said that your life depended on it and you needed my help!”

“Well, it is in a way. I don’t want to go alone.”

“I can’t jump with you, but just put your leg back down, you wont gain anything if you leave now”

“Oh my god, that’s not what I meant! I’m not suicidal. I just wanted stretch a bit! The real reason I’m here is to ask you something.”

“And what was that?”

“ Will you go to the masquerade dance with me?”

“I’m sorry, but how was asking this question life-threatening?”

“It was supposed to be a figure of speech. The dance is next week, I wanted to ask you before anyone else could, and I need your help as in, I need you to say yes so I could take you.”

There was a silence for what seemed like hours.

“So, do you want to go to the dance wit-“

Then everything went black and I woke up on the floor of the bridge with a sticky note on my shirt. My head pounding, I read the note.

“No”

I guess I’m going to the masquerade alone this time. 

[visualstudieschar]

Fairy Tale Remix: The Ugly Duckling

News Fairy Tale Remix: The Ugly Duckling

Once upon a time, there lived the Little Wolf Ear family of 6. A mother, and her 5 children, Karen, John, Kayla, George and Alvena live in B.C. Alvena-Little Wolf Ear, is the youngest of 5. She is a 9 year in fourth grade. Alvena is the only child who is often bullied at school because of her weight and appearance. Even her siblings are constantly at her back about it.

At school she was called nasty things that no 4th grader should be hearing. Some people will tease her about being pregnant. She never told her mother about all the bullying but she wasn’t happy about it at all. Alvena was so affected by all the negative comments that she started skipping breakfast and lunch.

She felt like she was the ugliest person on earth and lost the little confidence she had before.

After all the negativity she’d recieved, Alvena couldn’t take it anymore and felt that she wanted to help bullies realize what they can do to the victims. Alvena is now working towards living a healthier life by exercising everyday and eating a healthy diet. She started a blog documenting her journey that gained much public encouragement.

After a few years of working towards her goal, Alvena is now a beautiful young lady. The bullies who once bullied her and now the ones asking for her number. 

[visualstudieschar]

Persona Proposal

Flora Fung is an only child raised by her father at the age of two. Her mother passed away due to breast cancer just before she turned three.

Every year on her birthday, Flora receives hand-made birthday cards from her father and each time, she is given a card, her father reminds her that it was made by her mother during her time in the hospital.

She is to receive a new card each year until her 18th birthday. There will be no more after that. These cards will consists of birthday wishes and quotes from the mother.

She develops a tradition in which at the stroke of midnight, she would open the card and read through it, while thinking about her mother. She would also spend this time to talk to her mother in the heavens about her year. 

In present time, Flora will soon be turning 19. She knows that this year, there would be no cards and feels a sense of absence. In order to cure this feeling, she brings out her box of cards that she's recieved throughout the years and re-reads them. 

She then finds out that her father has been pretty absent-minded lately. She also realizes that he's been very forgetful too. As time passes, she discovers that her father has Alzheimer's. 

She feels a mix of emotions and doesn't know how to help her father. Although she knows that he is still in the early stages of the disease, she knows that one day he might not remember who she is. She then seeks help from her mother. 

Flora then comes up with the idea of writing letters to her father in hopes that one day, if he does happen to forget her, he could still remember her through the letters.

[visualstudieschar]

Narrative and Life

In reference to the article, in the section about Narrative and time, it was mentioned how human beings basically crave narrative since childhood. An example the article used explained that, when children want you to read them their favorite book, they literally want to hear each and every word of the narrative. It also goes in depth about how the unconscious brain is constantly creating narratives corresponding to whatever is viewed. I noticed this in my own experience. When out, walking the streets or even sitting at a café enjoying my hot chocolate, I unconsciously project narratives upon random strangers based on stereotypes and categorize them in types. Oh she looks like the shy type based on the way her shoulders curl in and the fact that she’s sitting the way she is, what she’s wearing, etc. It is all subconscious. Personally, I really enjoy studying people based on how they choose to present themselves. I find it similar into looking into a small part of someone else’s life. A life completely different from mine, but somehow, both our lives are intersecting at the same time and same place. 

[visualstudieschar]

Narrative and Self

Very insightful in terms of character analysis and narrative. Brought into account the things I would have never thought about. How the motives and actions of the characters themselves defines who they are more in comparison to what the narrative says. In this article I learned about flat and round characters and how they play a part in all stories and narratives. In addition, I knew that people were categorized in types but never thought about it in a way where viewers and readers will always overread and underread them. Also I found the section about the masterplot and how the character acts a certain way from beginning to end in order to achieve their final goal, quite interesting.