Author: Ibi

These are my basic essentials that I use almost every single day and carry with me everywhere I go in my backpack. Firstly, I have three books: The Courage to be Disliked, Meditations, and Beyond Good and Evil. Reading is a big passion of mine, and especially philosophy. I usually always have one or two books with me at all times in case I get bored, or if I just need to kill time somehow. Furthermore, I carry my journal around with me. Whenever I think of a good idea, or if I need to get something off my chest, I resort to writing it down. My journal is a catalyst of my most brilliant ideas mixed with some of my most intrusive thoughts. I also have my blue econ notebook, which was used in this photo to represent all of my class notebooks/textbooks. I learn best when writing down notes with pen and paper, and I always have my schoolwork with me. Not being on top of my schoolwork creates a lot of stress for me, so I try to mitigate that by getting ahead in all my classes. To also help my schoolwork, and basically everything in my personal life, I have my windows laptop. Moving on, I put a pack of almonds in my bag. It doesn’t necessarily have to be almonds – but I generally carry some sort of energizing snack. I never know when I might need some food for energy, or just a quick snack while I’m on my way to somewhere (I usually don’t have time to eat because I am always late). Those snacks are especially useful for a pre-soccer practice situation, which leads into my next items. I have my three resistance bands which are essential for warmup, recovery, and performance within soccer. Being at the top of my game on the field is just one tier below being on top of my academics, so it’s still a crucial part of my life. In my bag, I also included my practice clothes. Not only because they represent my athletically committed half, but also because I literally have to carry my clothes around with me. On average, I have to make my way to practice directly from class, which doesn’t always allow for the smoothest transition between the school/soccer halves of my day.

Finally, I have my basic essentials: a pack of gum which I often find myself chewing on, a bottle of cologne – no specific reason, I just like to smell good, and I hate poor hygiene – and the average air pods and wallet.

On the surface level, this image is highly representative of me as a person. For someone who doesn’t know me well, these items in my bag will give you a fairly basic understanding of who I am as a person, and what my interests are. However, my bag isn’t big enough to fit all the nonmaterial and smaller but equally important interests that I carry. The biggest challenge was exactly that: how can I fully represent myself while facing such a constraint (size of photo, size of bag). With that, I think that this sketch assignment was a form of writing. Not literal, but figurative and implied writing. We learned that not all writing has to be communicated through words on paper. It’s kind of like the gutter of a comic: fill in the blanks yourself.

My triptych this week was a 3-panel satirical dig at materialistic mindsets. In the first panel, both characters agree that money can’t buy happiness, and that it only comes from within. In the second panel, they go on a shopping spree with bags full of clothes, new phones, and a new car. Despite their temporary jubilation, the feelings of joy wear off shortly in the third panel. The man sarcastically says, “I think that I bought inner peace too…”. In terms of idea generation, I was able to use the creativity involved with triptychs to create what was exactly on my mind at the time – a critique of materialistic mindsets. Due to my limited artistic abilities, I used a cartoonish style, mixing it in with satire/a sarcastic sense of humor – a decision which represents my style as a person. As expected, the most difficult part of the composition process was putting ideas onto paper, but with some persistence I was able to create what was a fairly accurate depiction of my thought process. The triptych in general was similar to the assignments we’ve done so far in the sense that we had to create some sort of narrative (although very short) and use our creative side to visually depict our narrative in some way.

For my combophoto, I took an image of the famous Beatles’ album cover “Abbey Road” and mashed into it a photo of the Simpsons all walking in single file order. Out of all the sketches so far, I definitely spent the most time thinking about this one. Just when I thought I was out of ideas, “Here Comes the Sun” started playing on my phone, and I thought to myself: “I wonder if anyone could replace the Beatles walking down this street?” Luckily enough for me, the Simpsons ended up being the perfect family of four. The most difficult part of my combophoto was by far the idea generation. Luckily enough for me, I am competent enough with Paint 3D to somewhat mash two photos or scenes together. The actual editing part was not challenging. I think that ultimately my final image conveys a mashup of two iconic artist groups from the past century. Beyond just a combophoto, it’s a clash of generations and a clash of medias. Abbey Road Photo Link: Abbey Road- The Beatles | Openverse Bart: Google Search Simpsons: Google Search

These are my sketched-out notes for Econ 101, regarding the three key decision pitfalls of: failing to think at the margin, ignoring implicit costs, and thinking in terms of proportionality. I wouldn’t go as far as to say the sketched notes helped me understand the notes better, but they certainly helped me understand the concepts differently. I had already taken these notes in class previously but rewriting them in a drawn/artistic form held the concepts in a different light. Mentally, I was able to visualize each of the three decision pitfalls and their interconnectedness, rather than simply memorizing words and definitions. After reading the initial assignment, I was weary as to how it would help me digest the content of the class. The biggest difference lies in the engagement that it brought. Drawing out notes instead of writing down words makes the entire process more enjoyable. As with most things in life, the more you enjoy something, the more likely you are to succeed in doing it. Therefore, occasionally visualizing or drawing notes can help you think in an effective and creative way, allowing for you to retain information at a quicker rate because you’re rethinking those concepts in multiple modes.

Having read the assignment and admired Niemann’s beautiful work, I was quite lost on how I would be able to create anything similar to his work. While I didn’t end up making anything that looks like it would be Niemann’s, “skyscrapers” certainly is something. My brainstorming process involved listing my favorite things in different categories. My favorite movie is “Up”, so the inspiration for my composition came from that. While looking for objects around me which I could use to make the work “multimodal”, I locked eyes with the bowl of fruit in front of me. The grapes and blueberries began to look a lot like balloons in the moment, and that’s what they came out to be. Of course, a 2D house on a piece of lined paper doesn’t mean anything with some fruit attached to it on a string. So, in addition to the fruit, I crumpled up some Clorox wipes to add a cloud effect below my houses. Now, they’re really skyscrapers.

This is the avatar that I chose for myself. Behold, the chicken on a beach. Why a chicken on a beach? Well, the answer could be simple. Chickens have always been my favorite animal, and beaches are my favorite place to go. In simplicity, it’s a perfect representation of myself. However, it’s meaning in respects to the class goes deeper than just a chicken on a beach. In life, you’ll often find yourself out of your comfort zone, or in places that you don’t necessarily see yourself fitting in at first. Such a scenario happens regularly for me – even in this very class. Although I have a passion for reading, and I enjoy writing, the realm of comic books and graphic novels is completely new to me. I’m not the most artistic person by any means, and I can’t remember the last time I read a graphic novel. In a sense, I’m out of my comfort zone, and I am the chicken on the beach. In respects to my artistic style/vision (and my lack of ability), this slightly unorganized and slightly unorthodox avatar foreshadows my likely abstract drawing style. Additionally, as a reflection of my personality, I believe that my sense of humor/lightheartedness shines through my funny chicken on a beach. At least it was funny to me. Ultimately, I am proud to have this chicken on a beach as my personal creation, and my avatar for this class. (All images were drawn from creative commons and flickr. Links for the images will be included below) The Chicken: that face… | marneejill | Flickr The Beach: Palm Cove Beach – Cairns | Hi everyone happy hump day to you… | Flickr The Nametag: hello my name is (7) | sudi | Flickr