Turning Disabled to Abled in the Performance Art World

Turning Disabled to Abled in the Performance Art World

By Mikaela Arnold

        The word “disabled” has many meanings. To some, it is used to identify people who have some sort of disability that challenge those who have them. It comes from the prefix word dis and the surfex ability. Dis means “reversing force” (dis-) and ability means “power or capacity to do or act…” (ability).  To me it is just a word-a word that carries a broad range of conditions. People with disabilities can do just about anything that normal people can do with just a small amount of modification. Some can still sing, dance, and do sports. Some people can even participate in the performing arts. This paper will explore some of these people and the disabilities that make them special.

            In the early 1800’s the circus was a big part of entertainment. This period was called the “America’s gilded age”. There was a sub-genre of the circus called the “freak show”. The “freaks” were human beings that have rare mutations that science have not yet understood. These people were called giants, dwarfs, midgets, and two-headed humans. In today’s age we can understand that they are normal humans with disabilities that are still rare. People were so amazed at these unique individuals  that the circuses made lots of money for the organizers. Some of these people were taken advantage of and or used for awful Nazi era science experiments. Let’s look at some of the performers.

            Millie and Cristine were twins that were born fused together. They shared organs and body parts. This condition is called “dicephalic parapagus” better known as conjoined twins. (MACLEAN)They were born in the days of slavery to two African slaves. Their disability caused them to not be able to work like the other slaves thus, being named useless to the slave owner. So, they were sent to the circus where they first put on display for the medical community. They were later rehomed to a chimpanzee trainer named “Joseph Pearson Smith” who became their legal guardian(CandyGuy). He and his wife taught them how to sing for a few years until they perform at the circus under their stage name, “The Two-Headed Nightingale”. Sadly, since people did not understand their disability, they became one person rather than two separate girls. I can understand since they look like one person based on the science back then. They were very popular and brought in more money that they did when they started. The unfortunate fact about conjoined twins is that when one twin dies the other follows due to their shared heart and organs. This is what happened to Millie and Christine when they died in 1912. Millie died of tuberculosis causing Christine to die as well in just a few hours apart. There has been advances in the medical community that allow doctors to surgically separate conjoined twins so that they could live a more fulfilling life. This is highly complex and dangerous process, but it is interesting that it is possible.

            I remember when I was little I believed that dwarfs were myths. I believed that Professor Flickwick from Harry Potter was a CGI effect for his character in the movies. Nope and nope. They don’t perform magic but there are dwarfs in the world today. Some people call them “little people” and or midgets. Their disability is called Dwarfism-a genetic condition that causes a person to stay a short size roughly at 4 feet (dwarfism-causes-treatments). Meet the Ovitz family- a group of 7 members in the performing arts. In their hayday they sang and danced in their music trope. Not only did they have to overcome the challenges of dwarfism, but they also had to hide their Jewish heritage from the Nazis. (CandyGuy, THE OVITZ FAMILY – Nazi Experiments) The combination of being Jewish and a dwarf intrigue a mad Nazi scientist named “Dr. Mengale” who was the same scientist that experimented on twins. This scientist was a sick man that did horrible science experiments that I am not going to list here. If you have a dangerously curious mind, go to “The human marvels” website to find out more about the experiments. What I will tell you is that many innocent people died or were seriously traumatized in these experiments. The Ovitz family performed for the Nazis and for Hitler himself until they were saved by the Soviet Union. One of the members, Elizabeth, amazingly lived until 1992.

            On the other end of the spectrum is the very sweet pinhead named Schlitzie. Schlitzie had a condition called microcephalus that causes on to have an abnormally small and pointy cranium (CandyGuy, thehumanmarvels). This causes the person to have decrease mental compacity. Schlitzie himself had the mindset of a four-year-old. This made him have a childish personality and eternally young. Everyone loved him. People who were pinheads were thought to have come from an alien species or an ancient race due to their odd appearance. Often, they were billed as a female due to the cutesy dresses and small frame. In 1932 Schlitzie stared in the movie, Freaks, directed by Tod Browning (Freaks (1932)). He died in 1971 as the oldest person to date with microcephalus.

            Moving from the gilded age to the 21^st century the opportunities for the disabled have increased. People are less likely to be called freak or mutants than in the past. Mutants are celebrated in some areas of comic books fans. We can learn more about rare medical mysteries from TV and the various corners of the internet. Ignorance of certain conditions can be fixed with a little bit of research. Still, there are some corners of the world that don’t understand that the disabled are just people that need help to succeed.

            I world like to talk briefly about a program called the Special Olympics. This program allows people who are disabled to compete in sports. It is a global organization. While most of the events are modified sports, there is a type of performing arts that is available-Equestrian. In the Special Olympics, Equestrian started in the 1980’s and is still around today. For those who don’t know, Equestrian involves riding horses. It involves balance, concentration, and strong legs. Some disabilities require a few people to walk beside the horse to make sure that the person doesn’t fall off the horse. Balance is a must unless you have a person siting behind the contestant. I competed in this competition for a few years before school life consumed me. At one time I took first place only to win third place the next year. It takes time and energy. I also took horseback riding lesson at Bakas Equestrian Center - a specialize facility that allows the disabled to ride horses as therapy (about).

            There are some people that still judge a person by there looks. People stare at disabled people and sometimes avoid them. Kids are interested in what is wrong with us. Adults should be like their kids and ask questions rather than judge on impulse. We are not robots. We are still human despite our differences. Let’s share the performing arts together!!

           

Bibliography

ability. n.d. 28 11 2017. <http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ability>.

about. n.d. 28 11 2017. <http://www.bakasridingcenter.com/about/>.

CandyGuy. millie-christine-the-two-headed-nightingale. n.d. 24 11 2017. <https://www.thehumanmarvels.com/millie-christine-the-two-headed-nightingale/>.

—. THE OVITZ FAMILY – Nazi Experiments. n.d. 28 11 2017. <https://www.thehumanmarvels.com/the-ovitz-family-nazi-experiments/>.

—. thehumanmarvels. n.d. 28 11 2017. <https://www.thehumanmarvels.com/schlitzie-the-pinhead/>.

dis-. n.d. 28 11 2017. <http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dis->.

dwarfism-causes-treatments. n.d. 28 11 2017. <https://www.webmd.com/children/dwarfism-causes-treatments#1>.

Freaks (1932). n.d. 28 11 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/?ref_=nm_knf_i2>.

MACLEAN, DAVE. conjoined-twins-two-heads-one-body-india-born. 31 10 2017. 28 11 2017. <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/conjoined-twins-two-heads-one-body-india-born-a8029531.html>.

Keyboard art-ASCII

     Remember when you were a child connecting small dots to create a picture? Now imagine those dots as letters, numbers and Symbols. That is what ASCII Art is.  ASCII artists create a picture starting with a plain text file. Using keys on the keyboard the artist slowly develops a picture one key stroke at a time. This type of drawing seems to be extremely time consuming. Not only do you have to draw a picture you have to plan out what letter would be best where. Shading with this type of art is important even though it is just characters from the keyboard. Large letters are grouped together to aid in the process of darkening the image.

Ami Mizuno by Tim Park (Park)

                I find this type of art intriguing. A whole picture made with letters. This type of art is nothing new. People used text as art even in late 1800’s, a few years after the invention of the type writer. Back then, it was called “Typewriter art” (history) .  It was used to decorate books such as bibles and other books. The artists sometimes compete in typewriter art contests. In today's age we use these pictures in emails to bypass the memory limit of just mb.

      Some people just do it for fun. Artists are able to copy and paste on anything they want. I’ve seen such artworks in  comment sections around youtube. Some are cute animals, but some are filled with profanity. They are all interesting since it is just random characters on a page. Take a look at this one by Tim Park.  This picture is of Ami Mizuno aka Sailor Mercury from the Sailor Moon tv show. From far away the viewer cannot tell that it was composed of keystrokes. The picture looks like a normal drawing until the viewer  zooms in. That is where the magic happens. This is the power of ASCII.

Works Cited

history. n.d. 19 11 2017. <http://www.oocities.org/spunk1111/history.htm>.

Park, Tim. Ami Mizuno. 19 11 2017. <http://www.chris.com/ascii/index.php?art=anime%20and%20manga/sailor%20moon>.

                                               

A look at Music Genres and their technology influences

      Music is a world wide language of sound  and rhythms. People around the world understand.In several parts of the world they have their own special type of music. J-pop, C-pop, and K-pop  just to name a few. This blogpost though will focus on genres of music that technology powers the music more than vocals. More specifically, this post will talk about disco, Techno,  punk, and Dubstep music. It will start with a brief description followed by a example of the genre.

   Disco and Techno are very interesting. Disco came from the word “discotheque” which was the name of a popular nightclub in the 60’s. Disco was a colorful and bouncy form of dance music that was popular in the 70’s in clubs. The music was influenced by funk, soft soul music, and salsa music. (Garofalo) In the technical department, disco was usually played with dance floors and a colorful ball floating on the ceiling. The ball had small circle holes that filled with multi-colored lights the circulate on its axis. The lights flood onto the dance floor as people dance.   One example of Disco is the song, “Le Freak”, by Chic.

Video 1.1(Chic - Le Freak)   

            Techno is another form of dance music. This genre of music was made possible by a trio of people who liked to go to dance parties. The trio was Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Sauderson. They merged synthpop and Italo-disco with funk in the 1980’s (A brief history of techno). This was when Techno began. On the technical side of techno artists used a keyboard called the Roland TR-808. It was where the artist could sample and remix music. The great thing about it was that the keyboard was small and could be worn around the neck. 

 In my many dives into youtube, I noticed that there are many tracks of techno music. It seems that it is very popular in even today’s age—probably due to programs like Audacity and Adobe audition. With them you can probably plug in an electronic keyboard into a computer. I saw a setup like that in one of my school’s music rooms. An example of Techno comes from Martin Garrix for his song “Animals” seen here: 

Video 1. 3|(Martin Garrix - Animals (Official Video))

Gothic music has a special place in my heart. When Christmas is not upon us, I often listen to Gothic music when I’m working on my homework. It helps my creativity come more easily than other music. I believe that technology can be seen most in both their music videos and music. Check out this video from Within Temptation’s-The Howling from their album, “The Heart of Everything”.The songs are performed by drums, guitars and vocals. The vocals are remixed and overlaid to make it spooky and or somber. Some of their music has some elements of dubstep. On their videos they are visually pleasing. Green screen and special effects are used in conjunction with the music. There is an unseen storytelling element that the viewer can watch. 

                                         Video 1.4|(Within Temptation - The Howling)

                     Punk Rock emerged in the 70’s around the world. It was characterized as a “aggressive form of rock music” and became a “archetype of teen rebellion and alienation” (Savage). Interestingly, this genre of music was hugely popular in Britain. It had huge amounts of dark humor regarding British politics. Punk slowly turned into pop music in the late 70’s.  On the technology side they used electric guitars and an amplifier to boost the sound. An example of Punk music is

                                            Video 1.5(Flag)

            Dubstep is not one of my favorite music genre. The sounds are loud and have drop beats that seem to dominate the genre. Dubstep got its name from its 2-step genre of music (Norman) . Dubstep is one of the youngest genre of music within the Electronic Dance Music umbrella. It started in the late 90’s and seem to be going strong. One advantage it has over the others is that it was developed during the age of the internet. Fans could search for this type of music on forums and later Youtube. In Dubstep the artist used drums and a whole bunch of base with beats “between 138 and 142 BPM”  (Norman). According to the Britannica Enclopedia, the DJ went from a turntable to the Ableton Live program that made it easier to DJ with digital files. (Matos) Now we have more advanced music programs that allow easy imports of beats, drums, and vocals on different audio slots. I believe that dubstep will gain even more attention with today’s Facebook live, Youtube live stream, Younow and other streaming platforms that allows communication with audiences in real-time. Here is an example of Dubstep:

                                         Video 1.6(Stirling)

     Lindsey Sterling does a big range of music with dance and her violin. This particular video is inspired by dubstep. Her songs hinges on colorful and amazing visuals in video form. She records the song first than performs it by dancing with her violin without the music on Youtube. From this video you can see that special effects such as rain and fire are used in her videos. I believed that the production used a rain maker and something to make the fire with.

Works Cited

Chic - Le Freak. CaptainCarlossi, 7 September 2011.

A brief history of techno. n.d. 15 11 2017. <http://www.gridface.com/features/a_brief_history_of_techno.html>.

Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown. Perf. Black Flag. ciscomexicano, 2008. Youtube video. 19 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302oEzSPCqE>.

Elements - Lindsey Stirling (Dubstep Violin Original Song). Perf. Lindsey Stirling. 2012. Youtue video. 19 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6LD2B_kDQ>.

Garofalo, Reebee. disco. Ed. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 09 2014. 15 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/art/disco>.

"Martin Garrix - Animals (Official Video)." Spinnin' Records, 17 6 2013. Youtube Video.

Matos, Michaelangelo. electronic dance music. 23 11 2016. 19 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/electronic-dance-music>.

Norman, Ben. what-is-dubstep. 16 01 17. 18 11 17. <https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-dubstep-1013080>.

Savage, Jon. punk. 07 09 2016. 15 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/art/punk>.

"Within Temptation - The Howling." Within Temptation, 26 10 2009. Youtube Video. 15 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYeXu7JfYHU>.

Pixel Project-Minecraft abstract self portrait

Minecraft abstract self portrait

     For this project I used mincraft to design a abstract self portrait of myself in a pixel form. Here is some background of me and Minecraft. There are three modes in the game-Survival,Hardcore, and Creative mode. Most of my experience has been in survival. I knew it wouldn't be the best mode to design. Imagine having limited sources, hunger, and monsters to worry about when creating something unique. Not to mention you could die and lose your items and sense of where your project is on the map. I used creative mode to get this project done-monster would still be there but they won't attack and the player has no hunger meter or health meter to worry about.

I made a empty flat world for the design.

Close up air shot of the design

 Please don't pay attention to the green blobs. they are some of the monsters in the game.(Pesty things like to walk or plop all over my design.)

My avatar demonstrating my measurement tools

I used these fence panels as a canvas boarder. I used ground lights a measurement tool because it centers right on the square.

Here is a better view of the design:

Far away air shot of design

Here are the measurements:

one light post equals one cube

34 Cubes

40 cubes

34 Cubes

40 cubes

We will need to calculate the mincraft's measurements into real wold units. Take a look at this table down below;

Table by  minecraft.gamepedia.com

1 block or cube equals 16 pixels so:

34 Cubes*16=554pixels

40 cubes*16=640pixels

34 Cubes*16=554pixels

40 cubes*16=640pixels

Inches

1 block equals one meter which equals 39.3701

34 Cubes*39.3701=1,3338.58 inches

40 cubes*39.3701=1,574.8 inches

34 Cubes*39.3701=1,3338.58 inches

40 cubes*39.3701=1,574.8 inches

Pumpcane

The Pumpcane

     

     For this exercise I created the Pumpcane. This object was created with two objects--a pumpkin and a cane. Original I was going to create a lamp in the image of the cane and pumpkin but realized that it would not be portable as I intended it to be. take a look at the pre-sketch of my first design.  The original plan was to put a pumpkin on wood and put a light in it and plug it in to the wall. This seemed to easy so I redid my design. I used Corel Painter 2017 to trace the design. After the basic shape I colored it with my Wacom Cinq tablet. This is the final product.

Details of the project/exercise

This was the project's layer panel. I organized the layers into three groups seen here. I used mostly the brush and lasso tool in this. I blended the colors with the real pointy Blender shown below. I went back and forth using the paint and charcoal brushes in the program's  brush tools. I added the vines for flare and to give the new object a Halloween look to it 

A look at Flipbook animation

A look at Flipbook animation

By Mikaela Arnold

            In the 21^st century there Is a great demand for big budget CGI animated movies. Recently there has been a boom to remake past line based animated Disney movies into live action movies. We already got he remake of Tarzan and the Jungle Book. There are talks about Lion King being remade like the others. These movies assets are probably being made in Autodesk Maya or blender. This costs the production more than a cartoon based animation to make and brings the budget of the film up. What if these movies were made with the flipbook style of animation? Would it be different?

            A flipbook is an interesting type of animation. This is because a flipbook is made and controlled by the artist not by a computer. The artists take either sheets of paper or a drawing book as the medium. Page by page the artist creates a single frame until he/she has reached the animation’s end. The viewer of the piece flips through the pages and the animation runs with the speed of the viewer’s flipping. Unlike computer animation, there are no play or pause button. There is no undo button. Knowing this, it brings a sense of awe and respect towards the artist. The artist cannot easily correct the animation like he/she could on a computer.

            Look at your comics and Manga books. When you think about it, when they are made into video form, the process looks like a flipbook. The artist or group of artists draw out the frames before sending it to the computer to be colored and compiled into video frames. The video frames are plopped into video editing software.

 Let’s look at Disney’s early animated video. One of the main reasons it took a while for animation was because the group of artists had to draw each frame then manually color them. The drawings then went through a video scanner thing to make sure that the frames flowed smoothly. That is probably why no one had done animation before 1937. Interestingly, 1,000,000 drawings were made for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” (Disney: The Making Of Snow White ( 1937 ))  “Snow White and the Seven dwarfs” had an income of  $2,000,000 with a box office amount of $184,925,485 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)) while the newest Jungle Book live-action movie had a budget  of $175,000,000 with a gross income of  $364,001,123. As you can see, it took more money to make the live-action movie than it was to make the handrawned animation of the early days of Disney’s animation studio.

There are many types of flipbooks but I am going to discussed two of these types---the Kinora and the Filoscope. The Kinara was brought to us by the Lumiere brothers in the late 1800’s It was made of concave lens. It sat on a wooden stand. There was a handle that rotated a wheel. The concave lenses were the viewing part of the device. It was a very popular machine during the early 1900’s. Unfortionaly the brothers’ business was burnt down in 1914 in London. World War I diminished the popularity of the machine. There was a similar machine called the mutoscope patented by Herman Casier in 1894. (/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/kinora/mhs)

     The Filoscope looks more like a tape holder than a motion picture machine. It was invented by Henry William in 1897. It was patented in 1898 . It was fixed in a tin plate holder. The holder had an iron lever that was used to cycle through the images to make a animation. It was like a mini Kinora. One of the filmmakers who worked with the Filoscope was Robert Paul who was born in 1869. He was a well-known in the British film industry. In fact, he was the pioneer for it. Paul was Short’s friend. Short was in many of his films included May and Flora Hengler who were dancers. (short) Some of his films can be found on YouTube.

            Flipbooks were very popular for kids during the late 19^th to early 20^th century. Not only were they found in toys but they were found in Children’s books. (Fouché) These books did not seem to have a story but they entertained them with the small animations. Interestingly, like the vinyl, flipbooks are coming back into style. People order their own flipbooks. From what I can defer, businesses use flipbooks to advertise their business. I found a site named flippies that allows you to create your own flipbook and order them. The site has a sample gallery, idea page, and a little snippet in the history of flip books. (Home). The only down part of this website is that the consumer must call in to make one and it does not give you a price for the flipbook until you order. Still, it is interesting that the practice is still around and still popular in some niches in the world today. Probably those that adore antiques like I do.

            The concepts of a flipbook are very interesting to me. Inside a small book a small animation can be played as one turns the pages. Each drawing is a small frame of the animation. It is interesting to know that a small flipbook jumpstarted the ideas of motion picture and motion in a single frame. The fact that small children could experiment with the flipbooks as toys was amazing to read when looking at the size of the machine. As I watched the animations in flipbooks I can’t help but notice similarities in modern programs especially when watching the documentary of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

            Just like animators and children in the past, we can make our own flipbook like animation. There is a Adobe program called Animate that allows you to create your own animation. There is a tool in the program that acts like see-through paper---this is called onion skin. The onion skin allows you to see what you drew on the previous frame to match the movement of the present frame. This is what I thought of at the part where the documentary showed the drawing process of the animation It is strange to see the progression of the technology of animation from the past progression. It seems like the animation of today takes less steps and much more less complex than in the past. Unfortunately, we cannot buy our own Filoscope or Kinetoscope as they are beyond vintage. Not even Ebay has any. I would highly suggest trying to make your own flipbooks to get a taste for what they were like in the early days of animation.

Works Cited

/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/kinora/mhs. n.d. 08 10 2017. <http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/kinora/>.

Disney: The Making Of Snow White ( 1937 ). Ed. Robert Keller. 06 12 2016. Youtube. 07 10 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8SDB7EHx-k>.

Fouché, Pascal. history. 2017. 10 10 2017. <http://www.flipbook.info/history.php>.

Home. 2003-2017. Flippies Inc. <http://www.flippies.com/>.

short. n.d. 09 10 2017. <http://www.victorian-cinema.net/short>.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). n.d. 8 10 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/?ref_=nv_sr_4>.

viewers. n.d. 09 10 2017. <http://www.flipbook.info/viewers.php>.

Stage door

     Broadway is my favorite type of play. With the goofy upbeat music and dialogue interlaced with musical numbers makes this genre of entertainment pretty interesting, Unlike Operas, Broadway does not rely on only musical numbers to move the plot along, The musical numbers are played at certain times and does not continue right afterward. It only has music when it is needed. This is why I love Broadway—the music and the performers playing interesting character. We are going to look at a blog that has many videos of Broadway performance. This blog is called “Stage door” written by Angel de Quinta.

            As one enters the blog site you would see that it is in the authors native language. If you have google chrome you can translate the blog. It is not essential for what I want to discuss about in this blog. I want to discuss about two of my favorite video performances that are listed within his blog. I want to discuss the performances of Judy Garland in “Have yourself a Merry little Christmas”,  Gwen Verdon singing “If They Could See Me Now”, 

            To start off, we are going to discuss Gardland’s performance. In this video Judy Gardland is presented in a girl’s room holding a monkey music box. The lighting in the shot makes a soft glow in her face. The soft glow brings out her face, makeup, trinkerling eyes. The background is faded out to bring to center Gardland’s character. He r hair is pulled back and made into a bun I believe. She was wearin a head scarf that rapped around her neck. She’s wearing a long red dress which makes her so beautiful. The girl that she I singing to looks shy and upset. There is a pink bow in her black hair. This video is from the movie “Meet me in St. Louis” which debuted in 1944 and takes place in 1902 in St. Louis.

            Gwen Verdon  performs “If They Could See Me Now”. It was a beautiful performance about a girl who got in the part of performer. I think that she was poor based on the fact that she wanted to tell them what she is doing. She is amazed at all the props and dresses. In the later point in the performance she put on a top hat and was brought a dancing stick. That part of it sounded cheesy because that is what I pictured a circus performer having as their outfit. Verdon wears a black laced dress with a black headband. Her hair is blond and is put in a bun. She dances with the hat and stick. This performance was from the play Sweet Charity. Sweet Charity came out in 1966 and is a very funny show.

Analyze for Madame Butterfly

     The ten-minute animation is best look at as a short to the point animated preview of the original “Madame Butterfly” opera written by Giacomo Puccini. The animation was made by Pjotr Sapegin. From what we can see a Japanese Geisha falls in love with a blond man in uniform. They conceived a child together and the man goes away for a brief time during the animation. She gives birth to a daughter which is first represented by a fish before it transforms into a small girl. Time pasts and the man comes back with a new wife. The man forcibly takes the child away leaving a distraught woman. The woman transforms into a skeleton as she descends into madness before transforming into the butterfly seen in the first shot of the animation.

            I was a bit confused about what the fish baby might have represented. I remember from my medieval arts studies that a fish represents Christianity. It so happens that the man’s religion in the original opera was Christianity, though one might not realize it if they did not watch the opera. The umbilical cord represents the connection between mother and child. When the man yanks the umbilical cord, it breaks the connection between the two. It can also represent that the geisha disconnection from her family, religion, and past life. I loved the fact that at the end the man and his new wife rode up with children of different. I wondered how many times he has done this before stopping on the Geisha. How many families did he displaced with his sexual fantasies?

            A main part of the symbolism of the animation and the original opera is the butterfly. The geisha’s name is Madame Butterfly. According to, Animal Motifs in Asian Art by Katherine Ball, the butterfly is thought of someone’s “immortal soul on account of the metamorphosis from a caterpillar.” (XXXIV. The Bat And The Butterfly)Which could mean the rebirth of the young geisha at the end of the animation. In the start and end of the animation, the butterfly is seen on top of the Geisha’s head. This completes the circle of her life. You can see the metamorphose when she strips her skin and body parts to an endoskeleton in the animation. The cocoon of the caterpillar is representative of the endoskeleton. The endoskeleton turns into the butterfly. I feel that this is more visually pleasing than what really happen in the opera. In the opera, Madame butterfly kills herself with a sword after the man left and the new wife forced Madam Butterfly to give them her only child.

The confusing part of Madame Butterfly is that her real name is Cio-Cio-San. I researched the meaning of her name in Japan. Cio-Cio is short for chouchou(蝶) meaning butterfly in Japanese. (image-of-japanese-kanji-for-butterfly-710). San is an honorific that equates to Ms. Miss. or Mr. She was probably named Cio-Cio to make it easier for Italian opera actors to pronounce as it looks like an Italian phase.

The hill that the geisha stands on during the animation stands for the house that the couple lived in. In the opera, the couple lives on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan. The music box breaking occasionally, represents the love the man had for her was breaking within a period. The song that plays is the same song that Madame Butterfly sings in the original opera. It could be representative of her not being sure if he is coming back or not. The breaking of the music box could also represent the warnings of Madame Butterfly’s maid gave to her regarding the man’s intentions.

            I want to note that it took a few hours before I started writing. I needed to view cute animal videos to combat the immense sadness I felt after watching the animation and the original opera story. I watched the 1995 movie version that was directed by Frédéric Mitterrand and stared Ying Huang and Richard Troxell.   I was trying to find some redeeming factor for the man. I only got two—he served his country and he felt some remorse---the former being seen in the animation. I honestly don’t think he had remorse. In the original opera, he goes on about being able to get out on the marriage and the housing contract that was supposed to last 999 years. He did not think to divorce the woman before taking in another wife. Also, he did not have the confidence to tell the Geisha himself that he was leaving her. The man ran away and his new wife orders the Geisha’s maid to tell her what happen. I wondered how or if his new wife was okay with this.

            I felt sympathy to the Geisha. In the animation, it did not give any sign of age of them. So, it just seems like a regular case of a guy having an affair while married or in a relationship. The original opera tells us that the Geisha was only fifteen years old. That’s right, she was only fifteen years old at the start of the opera-roughly four years older than Romeo and Juliet. I point this out because while Romeo and Juliet was about the same age as each other, the geisha was a bunch of years younger than the man. I reference the play because both couples fall in love and marry immediately after they see each for the first time, and both happen in death. The man must be 18 or older considering he is in some sort of marine service. Also, it seems that his marriage is an arrange marriage situation. He literally picks a girl from a photobook and pays lots of money to marry said girl without even getting to know her. He is just fascinated with Japanese women. I think that is just the extent to why he wanted to marry the Geisha. He tells his friend that he wishes to marry a real American woman.

            Since she was only 15 years old, she was extremely naïve. She believed that the love she had would stay forever. She converted to the man’s religion and broke contact with her family. This caused her entire family to dishonor her. The only think she has is the husband that betrays her and leaves her with a son. It is extremely heartbreaking to watch her maid warn her of this betrayal when the geisha ignores the warning trusting that he would return.

            If I was this man I would not have treated his wife like this. I would have come back and allowed her to come to America with me. I would have her a better life than the one that she had. Also, I would have continued to pay the mortgage while I was away. I would have never remarried. I understand the culture differences in the earlier 1900’s might have been different than the culture we have now. I would not have made her hopes high. I would allow her to keep her religion and family. 

Works Cited

image-of-japanese-kanji-for-butterfly-710. n.d. 17 09 2017. <http://www.japanesewordswriting.com/image-of-japanese-kanji-for-butterfly-710/>.

"XXXIV. The Bat And The Butterfly." Ball, Katherine M. Animal Motifs in Asian Art: An illustrated Guide to Their Meanings and Aesthetics. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc, 2004. 398-409.

The Meaning of Creativity According to Dr. Raul Cuero

     

     Dr. Raul Cuero is a microbiologist who developed six inventions throughout his career. He was born in the year 1948 in Columbia. His family was poor and did not own any books or magazine. His parents could not read or write. Due to this he worked harder to learn on his own. The area where he lived was a mostly African American society in which allowed him to not face prejudgments from his heritage until he moved to England to seek education.

     His view on creative is very interesting. He believes that creativity is not a planned affair but a spontaneous one. He believes that learning by doing is very important for children. In his opinion children learn to much from step-by-step instructions. He believes that children should form new ideas on their own to learn. I agree with this to an extent. I believe that children should learn from each other before making their own concepts.

                I use his concept of learning by doing when I am working on projects. In some processes, I find a more easier and more sophisticated way of doing something. For example, I take the basic concepts of how to do something in photoshop and transfer them to a Wacom tablet which provides a accurate take of editing on a computer with a mouse verses using a Wacom tablet.  Cuero suggests that one should share ideas to learn. I agree with this concept to a point. I use this concept when I am asking people what they think of a book or play means in way of symbolism. It is interesting to learn what others might think and try to combine ideas. However, ideas on how to do mathematical problems need to be the same in some situation. Some teachers have a precise way to do problems and would mark if the student does anything different. Majority, I am for the side of children taking their own twist on problems.

All About Me

     Hi everyone!! My name is Mikaela Arnold and welcome to my blog. I am a 23 year old female studying at University of Tampa in the heart of Tampa Bay. I am originally from Des Moines Iowa. We moved to Tampa when I was one year old. I have been here ever since. At some point I would love to travel to Japan.
     My major is Digital Media. So far I love all of my classes this semester. My favorite is Application Development. I love to analyze the insides of a computer. I have experience with digital art. When I was in community college I painted a Japanese scene of a Geisha lying on the beach. I used Corel Painter and a wacom tablet to paint this image. As I grew older I seem to find the technology growing in power. I really would like to learn the history of technology helping us to create a beautiful artwork.
     I am excited to be a part of the Art and Technology class. I love the history and development of technology. We sometimes believe that technology revolves only on electronics. We don't really think of technology such as the sun dial or the  Egyptian Pyramid. I want to learn more about this subject. So far I had history classes about art but not a class that describes the technology behind it. It is because of this that I am so excited for this class.
      When i'm not studying or doing artwork, I am playing with my furry friends. I have 3 dogs and seven cats. There are two cats that live outside. My dog's name is Valentine. He sleeps with me. He is about five years old. He was a small stray dog that we adopted on Valentine's Day. This is him in the photo. 






Here's to a fun Semester!