the great balloon misadventure

Back in December, I read Reinna's account of her adventure at the Great Balloon Park.  Below are some of her pictures:

In my head, I imagined equally blissful fun so I asked Josh if he would like to accompany me on this exploration.  Better yet, I told myself eagerly, "I'll kill two birds with one stone and take pictures of balloons because they'll relate to the imaginative theme of my photography project!"

We were pretty worn out from the week, so we decided to go on Saturday night.  I had to work on editing Culture Night videos in the afternoon so we went at around 7:00 because the park closes at 10:00.  I knew that there was a carousel in addition to a hot air balloon, and I was looking forward to seeing the pretty night lights.

As we got ready to leave, we noticed some pretty majestic clouds but the forecast seemed clear.

 After grabbing two large frozen Cokes (we were parched from the Papa John's we had for lunch) and getting a little lost, we finally made it to the Great Balloon Park.

My first impression was to burst out snorting.

The location of the park was very odd, to say the least.  It was literally in the middle of no where.  And in the midst of this nothingness, there was a giant orange balloon.  Great idea, guys!  Josh said it reminded him of James and the Giant Peach.  I just couldn't stop giggling over how bizarre it was.  I didn't expect the "park" to be so remote.

As we parked, we soon realized that it was drizzling which eventually turned into rain.  I told Josh that we didn't have to look around because it was kind of strange, but he insisted that we investigate a little.

The moment we got out of the car, we saw this sign:

I burst out laughing and snorting again (so attractive, right?).  Perfect!  The main purpose of the Great Balloon Park was shut down because it started raining as soon as we arrived.

But maybe that was a good thing.  We quickly realized that the park was just as deserted as its surroundings.  Maybe because it was raining or because it was nighttime.  Or maybe the chilly weather.  Or perhaps because there was nothing great at all about the Great Balloon Park.

 

The more we walked around, the more FREAKED OUT we got.  It felt like something straight out of "Zombieland."  We even attempted to ride the carousel (most likely adapted from Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes"), but the two people operating it stared at us blankly as if they wanted to suck our souls out.  (Plus you needed to check in at customer service before you could ride it or something).   

We literally ran away from the park as fast as we could!!  And in the car, Josh took advantage of my vulnerability; he pointed out the passenger window and started shouting "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT???" while I screamed my lungs out, bracing myself as I ducked for safety from nothing but the creepy atmosphere of the park and the giant orange balloon looming in the distance.

To end the night on a happy note, Josh took me out to grab pho, eggrolls, and spring rolls.  (Josh, remind me to take more pictures on our adventures!  All I have on my camera are creepy balloon pictures and no documentation of good food!).  Upon exiting the car, the first thing I said was, "It sure feels good to be back in civilization!"

Don't be afraid to explore the Great Balloon Park (maybe in the morning...and only when there is a decent amount of people around).  Reinna had a great time, and my friend Adrienne had fun when she visited it at night.  Buy hey, even if you get freaked out like we did, I'm sure you'll have a very memorable time!

stale

On Thursday, I received this e-mail from my photography professer:

310,

I rarely have to say this, yet I must let you all know that this semester’s performance is less than I expect.   

I need to see breakthrough work from all of you.  Some of the class is onto compelling artistic terrain that is specific to the artist, yet many of you are in a space between what you discovered in Project 1 and breaking into a territory of your own in your work.  

Labor and focus will get you over this hump.

I’m aware of who is engaged and who is not.  I expect engagement and commitment from all of you.

Please email me images of your work between now and the critique – I look forward to seeing works and to furthering a dialogue with you about the project.

Carter

I have to admit that I've lost interest in this class.  Week after week, my professor tells us that we "aren't taking enough risks" or "aren't engaged in our education."  But how are we supposed to be interested in learning and photography when he's constantly nagging us?  He assigns readings that are too flowery and abstract to discuss like texts that attempt to decipher that timeless question of "What is Art?"  We spend an entire day presenting 10-minute powerpoints on an artist of our choosing, an assignment that basically makes us carry out the lecture for the class.  Sure, it's nice to see where my classmates draw their inspiration, but three hours of powerpoints projected onto the high walls only serves to strain my neck.

Today, our second project was due.  We were supposed to cover a theme from the first project, a more reductive view to project 1, and a more complex view to project 1 in three images.  I admit that I procrastinated with project 2.  I spent a lot of time brainstorming, but with Culture Night, homework, and failed plans (see the Great Balloon Park post above), it was hard to find the time to actually take pictures.

The one thing that I dislike the most about photography projects is the printing process.  We print our photographs at the Galen Lab on campus.  Each sheet of 17"x25" paper is $10.  There are about ten computers, and only about four of them have printers.  These printers sit on a shelf about three feet above the computers.  In order for me to use these printers, I have to carry the step-stool from the corner of the room to the computer I am working at, thus imposing upon the personal space of whomever is working next to me.  Not to mention that I have had many slip-ups with loading the paper into the printer.  There have been times where the paper loaded incorrectly, the printer marred the paper, and I had to sheepishly ask the student worker for a fresh sheet (luckily it's free of charge because they can sense the sheer pity radiating from me).  

Today was another rocky printing day.  The printers were all full so I had to wait around until one freed up.  The person before me had printed something smaller and shifted this bar thing on the printer.  That bar thing caused my paper to load incorrectly, but luckily I was able to somewhat save it.  It was a little scratched, but I didn't have time to ask for a new sheet (since the paper is so big, the student worker has to take out a large cardboard box that protects the paper...it's a very laborious process).  As my first image was about done printing, I loaded the second sheet in preparation for the next print job.  But of course, the printer went nuts and starting feeding off that second sheet of paper instead of finishing on the first sheet.  I'm not even sure how that happened, but it did.  I canceled the print job, and the only way to save my first image was to crop the awkward blank 3 inches that didn't finish printing.  I decided to save my second sheet of paper (which now had the final 3 in. from the first photograph printed on it) for a future project I had in mind and loaded the third sheet of paper to print the next image while I went to buy another sheet of paper.  At this point, I knew I was going to be a little late for class.

In the end, these were the images I chose for Project 2 (which I accidentally shot as jpegs instead of camera raw files, but again, there was no time to re-do them.  I've been so busy and my head is in a million places.  Le sigh.) (also, when I was trimming the edges to my prints, my charm bracelet got awkwardly stuck in the paper cutter so I had to spend like a minute jiggling my wrist around to free it.  When it rains, it pours, huh?):

Since my professor kept insisting that we take risks, I took a very big risk and decided to explore the darker, more threatening side of imagination.  I covered the camera lens with plastic wrap in an effort to simulate the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a toy box for the viewer.  These collectible figurines, which should trigger a playful or commercialized response, are transformed into unsettling objects that stare back at the viewer with simultaneous stoic and emotional expressions.

Based on project 1, I wanted to photograph familiar objects in unusual situations that would evoke narration from the audience.  I was inspired by a similar photograph that used this formation of forks and a spoon that resembled a person laying facedown.  I added a knife to the scene to enhance the menacing quality of imagination, that point that divides creative narratives from fearful what-if scenarios.

Finally, I used a photograph from my photography class last year.  This is still my favorite photoshoot because it involved my good friend Andrea and her amazing and alarming hypermobility.  Unfortunately, this was the photograph that got cut off a little (stupid, stupid printer) so Andi's wrist was awkwardly cropped.  I wanted to use this photograph to show the physical manifestation of imagination.  The heart, a fluffy symbol on its own that resembles nothing like a heart in reality, is represented in this unnatural manner that emphasizes the overall tense, freakish qualities in these set of photographs.

A risk is what my professor asked for, and a risk is what I delivered.  Too bad that it was at the cost of me receiving the worst critique of my life.  I forgot that the printers tend to darken the photographs, and the lighting in our classroom is pretty weak so my photographs seemed very off balance; the whites were washed out, the blacks were too black, and the last photograph was too warm.  My classmates couldn't tell that there was a knife in the second picture and when I told them what it was, they were very focused on the reflections on the knife rather than the scene itself.  Since the colors were off, my professor said that the first picture looked muddy.  He liked my ideas (especially the third photograph) and the shift my project has taken since project 1, but he said that the execution was weak especially in terms of focus and color (maybe he was mad that I was a little late to class...meh).

As I endured this harsh criticism, I felt the color rushing to my cheeks.  I didn't really feel like crying; I kinda of felt like just walking out of the room.  That's one thing that frustrates me with some art professors; I hate compromising my work to please my professor and get a decent letter grade.  It's impossible to conform art to a grading scale.  In the end, the only opinion that matters is my own.  I create what I want because it satisfies me.  I know that not everyone is going to like what I like, and that's ok.  I can handle criticism, but I'm not going to let my professor make me feel like what I created was meaningless.  Next time, I'm not going to "take risks" just because my professor lectures us or sends us another e-mail describing how much we disappoint him.  

I think the reason why my second project backfired is because I followed something that didn't truly pursue what interests me.  I was too busy formulating some greater philosophical theme (which my professor loved....like he said, my ideas were strong but the execution was weak) that I overlooked the aesthetics that please me (in contrast to the playful pink photographs from project 1, this set of images for project 2 are much darker and intimidating).  That's another thing that dampens photography classes; we can't just take pictures for the sake of taking pictures.  They're supposed to convey some sort of deeper political message (which is just a load of baloney anyways).  And my professor's standard of "good photography" is just as flimsy.  During our last critique, he kept praising a photograph of a hose.  A HOSE.  SERIOUSLY.

I just want to take pretty pictures arrrrrhhhhhhggggg!!!

float on

Jakob Esben

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Caroline Tran

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happiest valentine's day

Last Monday, Josh went above and beyond to make my Valentine's Day the happiest ever.  I was so mindblown and spoiled that I don't even know what to do with myself.

When I got a text from Josh during my Marketing lecture, I thought he was kidding when he told me to "go outside" because he had a "delivery."  After being stubborn and giving him a hard time, I finally decided to quickly scurry out of the lecture hall.  I was expecting to see Josh, but instead, a tall white boy was standing awkwardly outside the door and looking around nervously.  After confirming that I was Daphne, he handed me this balloon and a bouquet of red tulips (there was supposed to be a card too, but he must have lost it somewhere [Josh had sent this awkward boy to my class because he was a pledge for his frat]).

Pleasantly surprised, I realized that this would be a theme for the day.

I was greeted by another suit-clad pledge in my Marketing discussion.  I had met him before so he recognized me, but he caused a little bit more of a scene in my class like Josh had intended (Josh wanted the first boy to shout my name in the lecture hall, but he chickened out).  This time I received this balloon and a Hello Kitty lunch box full of my favorite treats (thanks to a nice chat Josh had with Leslie).

The girls in my class were jealous, and the guy sitting next to me was very intrigued after I sat down with the lunchbox.  He told me, "Aw come on!  You have to open it now!" 

For my last class of the day, my deliverer was none other than Josh himself looking handsome in a festive red shirt.  He presented me with this balloon, a bouquet of pink roses, and my Valentine's/one month anniversary gift.

While I was in class from 6:00-9:00, Josh took the keys to my apartment and prepared an amazing Valentine's dinner: bruschetta, lobster macaroni and cheese, mini mocha and espresso cheescakes, and chocolate covered strawberries.

 

It was so delicious and just thinking about that day fills my heart with so much happiness.  Thank you so so so much, Josh!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do as much for Josh as I had wanted to because I was swamped with work.  I wanted to decorate my apartment to surprise him when he used my kitchen, but I didn't have time.  And it turns out that Josh wanted to decorate my apartment while he was cooking and I was in class, but he didn't have time either.

I crocheted 2 love bunnies based on this pattern, but for some reason, the shape and proportions of their heads didn't really turn out the way I expected.  I wanted to sew magnets into their heads so that they could kiss, but the yarn interfered with the magnetic field so I opted for Velcro noses instead.

Josh thinks that they look more like wombats hahaha.

I also got him two Natalie Dee t-shirts, an artist whom we both appreciate (Leslie bought some shirts for Matt for Valentine's Day too).

 

 

Appropriate, yes?

11 days

I feel like all my friends and I are reaching mental breakdowns.  As I'm typing this, my friend and co-worker Jessie is slumped in her chair, desperately clinging on to every minute of sleep she can sneak in.  It's Culture Night season in addition to midterm season.

What is Culture Night, you may ask?  Well for the past three years, I have been heavily involved with USC Nikkei's annual Culture Night.  The show revolves around a skit and incorporates performance groups such as Kazan Taiko, KBD Hip Hop, and SoTrad.  I was involved with KBD freshman and sophomore year, but I just don't have time for it this year. 

CN is 11 days away.  More stress, less sleep (I woke up with bloodshot eyes yesterday uhhhh).  You may be worried about me and wonder if all this work is worth it.  For me, it's a big fat YES.  The adrenaline from the show and the energy from the audience are some of my college highlights.  Not to mention that this year's show is extra special because I wrote it!  The script has been cooking in my head since last May, and I am so excited to share it with my friends and the community.  If you're in the area, please stop by!  Here's a sneak peek.  More to come soon.

i'm a little teapot

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storytime

This afternoon, we met our classes (grades 3-5) for my Writer in the Community class with (my favorite) Professor Aimee Bender.  Based on experiences with grade-schoolers, I wasn't too sure what to expect.  When I volunteered for an after-school program in high school, I was once asked if I was a new student.  The kids usually like to compare their heights to me, or they ask me how to spell my name.

I always thought I would pursue creative writing to become a writer, not a teacher.  But after today's experience, I feel like the gears are shifting.  We spent an hour with the kids in the school's Cafetorium.  After introducing ourselves to everyone in the room (the kids oooh'd and ahhh'd and waved hello from their seats), Aimee led the lesson.  She instructed the kids to write down 5 animals and 5 appliances, then smoosh two of the words together to create a new word like how cafeteria + auditorium = Cafetorium.  Throughout the process, my classmates and I weaved in and out of the rows to help brainstorm and give feedback.  Some of the kids were very eager and excited to meet us and share their work. One boy waved at me and asked, "Where's Scooby Doo?"  Two little girls showed me all of their Hello Kitty gear (pencils, notebooks, wallets, t-shirts), but in order to help them re-focus on the lesson, I told them that my favorite appliance is my Hello Kitty toaster which leaves an imprint of Hello Kitty's face on the bread.  I encouraged them to think of something similar with the list of animals they had written.

Another boy named Caleb let his imagination loose but had trouble writing it down.  He told me he had created a wonderful automonkey (automobile + monkey).  From there I asked, "Does it eat bananas?" "Yeah!"  His eyes widened.  "So it uses bananas for fuel.  Is it hairy?"  "A little bit."  "Does it smell?"  "It smells like cow dung!"  I continued to ask questions, and before I knew it, Caleb was off and running.  His automonkey could swim like a submarine and travel the world in 5 seconds.  He even connected it with another invention, the catopolis (cat + metropolis?).  In fact, the Catopolis was a place that the automonkey could travel to.  It was full of poles with cat heads, and it was covered with lava but if you dug deep enough, you would find diamonds and steel and jewels.  I told him to write down these details before he forgot, and I moved on to another little girl who seemed to be staring blankly off into space.

"What is your invention?" I asked.  She gave me a shy smile and held her notebook close to her chest.  "There's nothing to be embarrassed about," I reassured her.  She showed me the list of her words, but she had not taken the step to combine two words into one.  As she looked at her list, she seemed uninspired so I asked her, "What is your favorite animal?" "A penguin!"  She gave a little hop in her seat.  I scanned her list of appliances, and my eyes settled on the word laptop.  "Perfect!  How about a penguin laptop...a lapguin?"  Her face lit up as she giggled at my silly word.  At that moment, Aimee told the kids to wrap up their writing so that a few of them could read theirs aloud.  I told my new friend to keep working as I took my seat at the front of the room.

Aimee called on three students to share their inventions.  The kids raised their hands, feisty for attention.  Some leaned forward in their chairs, agony written all over their faces and screamed, "Oooo!  Me!  Me!"  The first boy became timid when he stood in front of everyone and almost started to erase his writing.  The second girl had created a vivid advertisement for her tigabed (tiger + bed).  And lastly, Aimee's eyes settled on my lapguin friend whose named turned out to be Kaitlin.  She stood next to Aimee with her sheet of paper and proudly presented the "laptopenguin" which had a penguin keyboard and penguin screen and penguin icons.  I watched from my seat behind her, pride filling my heart like a mother watching her daughter.  When Kaitlin sat back down, she leaned over to the boy next to her and pointed me out to him, probably saying something to the effect of "See that girl?  She helped me."  I flashed her two thumbs-up, and when we helped put away the chairs, I told her that I loved her invention.  She beamed at me.  Aimee later told me that Kaitlin had actually improvised the majority of her description; she only had about 3 sentences on her paper, but her presentation was full of much more detail than anything she had written down.  And to my delight, Kaitlin is in the 3rd grade class that I'll be teaching for the rest of the semester.

The kids projected an energy and zeal for learning that both overwhelmed me with happiness and disheartened me with guilt.  Here was a room of about a hundred 8-11 year olds.  They raised their hand the moment they heard a question being posed.  For the most part, they wanted to write and share their writing.  But in ten years, these children would be us, the college students who would rather skip class or go on Facebook than listen to their professor.  What happened to that zest for knowledge?  Why did it have to fade?

In the upcoming weeks, I'll be interacting with these kids on a much more personal level.  I'll read their stories and learn about their most precious memories and secret desires.  And I hope that I can continue to nudge my students towards inspiration, to teach them that writing is not something to be embarrassed or scared or even ashamed about.  And in return, I know that they'll teach me a thing or two about creativity and rediscovering the excitement of the learning process.

3469

My marketing professor assigned us numbers for "participation incidents" in discussion.  Rather than earning participation points, we're allowed to have up to 5 incidents to contribute something meaningful to class.  He writes down our numbers after he calls on us.  I got the best number, don't you think?

Oh yay ;)

keep calm and carry on

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In the spirit of my writing homework.  We venture out to the elementary school tomorrow afternoon to meet our respective classes and begin the creative writing workshops.  I'll be teaching a class of 3rd graders with two of my classmates.  The majority of the rest of my class is assigned to 5th graders.

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In the spirit of Valentine's Day which is approaching quickly.  Do you have any plans?  Love/hate the holiday?  I also watched "Moulin Rouge!" over the weekend and it reminded me that:

 

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 And finally, in the spirit of food.  Because I'm hungry.

hello, hello kitty!

 

I went to Urth Caffé twice this weekend and FINALLY got a Hello Kitty Spanish Latté!  Actually, not one, but TWO.  The first time, I ordered a medium and I think the size messed up the proportions of her face so it looked like a mouse or something instead (pictures to come soon).  But when I went two days later, I got the perfect Hello Kitty face in my small Spanish Latté, and Andi got one in her small African Tea Latté.

Date nights with my closest girl friends are always a treat.  We laugh up a storm, we think and say the same things at the same time ("what happened?!?? HAHAHAHAHA"), the cashiers sassy us ("Your total is $25...well it's actually only $5 but the Hello Kitty design costs $20), we giggle because we can't understand the mumbles, I accidentally catapult utensils from the table, all the other diners stare at us....I know they're secretly jealous of our good times!

Thank you for a great time, Marilyn and Andi!  And thank you for driving us, Josh!

instant messages

My sister and I chat with each other everyday on ichat.  In addition to words, we take ridiculous pictures of ourselves and snort over what dorks we are.  Here is a prime example from December:
(we bought my sister's boyfriend Matt an autographed copy of "The Man on the Ladder" because he is Dr. Bartner's biggest fan)

To Matt, My greatest fan in the history of the universe!  Fight on!  -Art

say cheese

I spent the majority of the weekend and nearly six hours in the lab yesterday fretting over my photography project.  In my intro class last year, we usually had 2-3 images due for each project.  This year, I am taking a studio course and our first project required 7 images that fit the following guidelines: an image with minimal post-shooting work, an appropriated image, deconstruction, intense tonal and chromatic changes, a fixed perspective composite, a photomontage, and a structure of our own choosing.  And of course, my perfectionist tendencies forced to me follow these guidelines as strictly as possible even though many of my classmates seemed to barely take the guidelines into account.  I managed to finish composing, editing, and cutting the images by class time...it's funny how the images that I spent the least time planning turned out to be the ones with the greatest reaction from my peers.  

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous for my first critique of the semester because 

a)  I wasn't sure if the pictures worked well together as a set 

b)  I wasn't sure if I had understood the guidelines

c)  I almost ruined two of the prints because the first paper cutter I used was too blunt

d)  I had never presented so many pictures at one time

minimal post-shooting work

My professor really liked this image because he thought the Mac looked like the Death Star or something.  He also enjoyed how the image plays with real and virtual space.

appropriated image

A lot of people responded to the composition and angle of this picture of a Sanrio shopping bag because you would normally expect it to be two dimensional.  I think this photograph conveyed my message the clearest: society invests money and personality into aesthetically pleasing brands and anthropomorphic inanimate objects.  We are attracted to childlike designs because they appeal to nostalgia.  We are able to reconnect with our pasts through consumerism, yet there is tension between the youthful return to innocence and the mature afterthought of (monetary) responsibility.  Or something along the lines of that.

intense tonal and chromatic changes

The shallowness and inundation of materialism of this image was compared to Andreas Gursky's 99 Cent store photograph.  One person said that this photograph feels like it extends infinitely beyond the frames.

deconstruction

Not going to lie...originally I had a different vision, but I didn't have the time or patience to carry it out.  Instead, I sharply cropped and pasted images of stuffed animals' eyes to showcase the haunting yet compelling personality of inanimate objects.

fixed perspective composite

A lot of people responded to this photograph too.  They were intrigued by the "grown man's" hypnotic expression because it proved that stuffed animals have a timeless appeal.  They liked the perspective of being "inside" the claw machine.  I personally like the details in the reflections of the glass.

photomontage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photograph drew a lot of attention because of its playfulness and the contrasting spaces.  The three dimensional "secret garden" clashed wit the flat, two-dimensional Hello Kitty's.  Some said that it reminded them of a video game as if the Hello Kitty's were sprouting like mushrooms (goomba!).  I had intended the picture to be reminiscent of a sticker album which thankfully came across to the class.  My professor encouraged me to pursue more photographs like this that worked with imagination.

 

I wanted to create a narrative that could come to life without being animated with color.  People liked how goofy this picture is and how it isn't grounded in time or space.

After all was said and done, the critique wasn't so bad!  For the next project, I have to choose the most compelling image from this set and develop it more.  What are your opinions?

When I was preparing to print yesterday, I came across some of my previous work from my intro photography class last year.  Here I explored people sleeping in public spaces and the commentary this had on the fast pace of American society:

 

I felt like such a creeper!  So for my next project, I focused on defamiliarizing money and the implications of monetary policy:

And for my final (and favorite) project, I photographed my good friend Andi to convey the sublime: something simultaneously beautiful and repulsive.  Nothing was more appropriate than her fascinating hypermobility (a.k.a. double jointedness).

Phew!  That was a lot of images!