Lisalyn Dresser

For this project, I focus more on framing rather than just the photo itself. The  Photos  I took for this update were completely random. I wanted to see how framing would create a story for the photos I took. Stephen Shore stated that “for some pictures the frame acts passively. It is where the picture ends”. With choosing to focus on framing, I feel like I could extremely relate to this particular statement. For the photos I took, the framing in fact makes a story and end the story. Whatever is within those frames, you get to interpret but those frames prevent you from imagining what’s the continuation of the image which then limits your story. Since it limits you, you crate a total different story or interpret the image differently than what the image actually is. 

For this project, I wanted to capture images that meant something to me when I look at them. Random Images in my daily life that captures my attention. These images are upload to Flickr website. So far, I have two different albums that shows my progress in this project. The first one is called  Road-Trip to the Country Side  and the second one is called  Random Shots . These two different album contains such a different images in it as they were captured in different place. Stephen Shore stated, photographs is away in which “photographers express their sense of the world, give structure to their perceptions, and articulation to their meanings” (p. 39). I totally agree with this statement. When I capture images, is not because I just want to, it’s because I want others to see how I see the world. For instance, my friend who drove with me when I took the “Road-Trip to the Country Side” images, hates the country side and he finds it dull as it looks “empty”. He never underst...

  Completing my project made me realized that it has to do with Baudrillard's idea of representational imagery and the resurrection of difference. I think my project relates well to Baudrillard's statement regarding using representational imagery becomes the "reflection of basic reality" (pg. 11). The questions I asked for the people I interviewed were meant to simulate the reality that students went through during the pandemic. I did a lot of editing in this project but I made sure I did not remove clips even though I did not like the answers. This way, I made sure that my audience will get nothing but the truth of how these students felt and what they went though during the pandemic. Comparing the answers of these students, it demonstrate that we are not "under the signs of dead differences" (pg.16). Though all of us lives with the same reality and everyone had to battle the pandemic, this project  shows that it affected us differently and that we battle t...

Friends of Dorothy- Andrew Norris Sadly, I could not attend the talk but lucky my friend was able to record it. From what I listen,  Andrew Norris  when speaking he does not mask the truths. He say what he needed to say and answer the questions with full honesty. I like how through recording, not only I hear that he has sincerity to the arts his arts but also to his audience. I love how when people asked him regarding "body struggles" he did not sugar coat it and instead he delivered a truthful answers in which everyone in the room could related to. In his arts, though he masks the backgrounds unrealistic backgrounds which can be seen throughout his artworks, I love that the focus of his artworks are filled with realness. I also like that he used different characters from different generations such as Lil nas x who is a well-known queer of this generation. I think this way, it allows different generations to access and understand his work. 

  Alfred Hitchcock  is a famous director and filmmaker. In most of his films, he uses psychological suspense which produce a distinct viewer experience. Due to this technique, he was nicknamed as the "master of suspense". Growing up, Hitchcock did not have a good experience with the people who surrounded him that's including his strict catholic parents. As an obese kid, he did not have a lot of friends and was bullied because of it. In fact, he described his childhood as lonely and sheltered because of his obesity. When he does a bad things, his parents would have tie himself or go to the local police station and be locked up as a punishment. He did not let these things stop him from being successful. He made more than 50 films and contributed to World War II by making a film propaganda against the nazis. He has a talent on what angle to hold the camera to make sure the viewers would work their mind off while watching his films but at the same have the best experience. Pe...

  Alexandra Bell  convacation talk was very interesting and impactful. I like how she manage to use newspaper and the content that's in it and transfer it to something more valuable. Her art using newspaper reminded me of the "realness" we talked about in class. Bell, work on what's already in the news paper and probably manipulate it a little bit. Therefore, this relates to the topic of "realness". The thing I was most pleased in her work are the content in the newspaper she used. I love how through her simple work, she's able to inform her audience about the some of the biggest problem our society currently have which are politics, racism, and culture discriminations. Overall, her talk was informative and gave good lessons to her audience/listeners. 

 Jean Baudrillard stated “it is possible that very memory of the original caves will fade in the mind of future generations, but from now on there is no longer any difference” (p. 18). I personally disagree with this statement. I believe that this world is filled with differences. Fo instance, Lawrence university is filled with differences. The students and professors have their own opinions, beliefs, language and culture. Though, someone might argue that Lawrence might not recognize those difference by encouraging the students to speak in English and most classes are taught in English language. However, as seen in a lot of events in campus, Lawrence does a good job in recognizing and celebrating those differences. I don’t know about Baudrillard, but it think Lawrence community is work very well because of those difference that the people in it has.  Work Progress Update  Capture by me  Biggest Update Right Now I finally deciding on a concrete idea for my final proje...

                              For my project, I decided to combine three proposal I presented to you guys. My title would be called "Battling with anxiety". My biggest goal in this project is to show how Covid changed our environment which leads to how it affects me as a person who battles with anxiety to then showing how I continuously have discussion with myself on how to win the battle against the anxiety. The film as whole would look like as a "self-reflection". A lot of the things in this project I would have to do a representation. For instance, I hope to show my audience what anxiety looks like through movement, what anxiety sounds and feel like, and how in my mind, I encourage myself to win the battle. I thought the way I want to represent those things relates   to Baudrillard's statement that "representation tries to absorb simulation by interpreting it as a false representation" (p. ...

  Draw by me:) Hi all! Before choosing what I should do for my final project, I wanted to see which one you are most interested in from my  proposal . I am very passionate in all of those things in my proposal that is why I am having a hard time choosing. All the topics can be traced back to Covid and what this pandemic has done to us. Whichever one I end up doing, would spread positive message which is my goal in doing this project. I feel like most of the time, people see media spreading mostly negative messages or resulting to negative things to its consumers. However, when the pandemic happened, I found that different types of media had tried their best to spread positivity all over the world amidst the pandemic. I wanted to use this platform to do just that even though not all people see my final project. In the process, I would be taking a lot of videos, photos, and experimenting with different sounds. 

  Click here if it does not play For our final project, I decided to use clips I took from my improvisation class. I manipulated some of the clips so that some parts are slowed down and some parts faster. I chose to do it this way because I felt it suited the idea of a “global village” (McLuhan, p.63). As I said, this class is  improvisation dance . Improvisation dance is not as simple as people think. In this class, the moves we do are inspired by what we see in the media such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. For this project, I asked my classmates if I could take a video while we improvised as a group for the whole group. Watching all the videos, made me realize that this group is a good example of allatonceness. How? By being able to use moves we learned from different types of media, we were able to connect as a group. Because of that connection, the group looked choreographed when in fact all of us improvised. Furthermore, it also supports the idea of “We now live in...

                                                                               The process to see the final product was not easy. Personally, the inkjet part was the most difficult thing about it. It’s amazing how printing used to be such a big thing back then but now people barely know what to do with it. The fact that a lot of struggle to use the inkjet machine shows how we easily adjust our minds to new technologies around us and possibly forget and not even learn about the old ones. Nowadays, we don’t have to print anything since everything can be shown and saved through any type of media such as Facebook, iCloud storage, and so on. So, though it was the most difficult part of the process it was worth it. Through this process, I had the opportunity to ...

  Credit: Library.artstor.org In this project, I learned about someone who managed to give me a hard time even though he is dead. Michel De Montaigne, who out of nowhere decided to invent an essay. I would say f*** you to him as essays are my least favorite thing in the world but he amazed me. Based on my research, people say that they admire his essays as when they read them, they feel like an old friend is writing to them. His philosophical ideas could be relatable to anyone’s life. His work influenced a lot of artists such as William Shakespeare and his face is still being used for many advertisements. McLuhan used Montaigne’s quote “the thing of it is, we must live the living” to support his idea that “the attempt to do a job demanded by the new environment with the tools of the old” is a huge problem. However, after further  research  on Montaigne, I do not think that’s what he meant. Montaigne’s essays are focused on what already happened and the things he observed....

To support John Cage’s idea that “everything we do is music”, I created a combination of sounds and noises that I hear in my daily life. I wanted to explore how the things I do daily create sounds or even music without even me realizing it. As McLuhan noted, “we hear sounds from everywhere, without ever having to focus” (p.111). This statement stood out to me because recently, I learned that I hear sounds even though I don't intentionally try to hear them. For instance, when I am cutting vegetables, I try my best to put my full attention on how I am cutting or what the vegetables look like. However, I find that the sounds that I am producing gradually take my attention. So, for this project, I wanted to combine all the sounds that I hear from the things I do daily. From walking, boiling water, opening a soda, to clicking a pen. I wanted to show that the sounds we hear from the simplest things we do in our daily forms a  Music .   

 Gina Adams is indeed a phenomenal artist. You can hear the compassion she has for these events. I was excited when I heard  quilts  are part of her art. What stood up to me most is that her quilts are not just fabric. Rather, they were filled with lessons, history, and awareness. I like that the letters she used are from broken treaties. I also like the fact that some of the messages in her quilts are very hard to read. It makes me dig deeper and think harder of what she wants us to learn from her art piece. I admire artists who don’t let their status in life and their experiences in life stop them from creating something they believe in. Gina Adams, has inherited trauma but that did not stop her to use her art and educate people around her. “When two seemingly disparate elements are imaginatively poised, put in a position in new and unique ways, startling discoveries result” (McLuhan, p.10). I thought this quote described Adams’ quilts so well. Two different element-qui...

    Hi all! For this project, I decided to go to my comfort zone which is taking a photograph of our nature to emphasized the beauty of the sun. This weekend, I spent by going to  Door Country  chasing sunsets. Normally, I would do a little editing on these types of images as I want every little detail shown. However, for some of these, I did not have to do editing. I decided to focus on the sun because it stood up to me when McLuhan “The stars are so big, the earth is so small” (p. 79). These images capture just that. It may seem like the sun is so tiny compare to the earth especially in the images. However, even though it looks tiny, it gives beauty to the earth and gives color to these images. I think this can be applied to our lives. We focus more on what we believe is “big” and less on the small things. We forget that sometimes what seems small, does a lot more. I look at the sun when I feel like little things don’t matter to remind me that they can be brighter....

   https://youtu.be/e1X4cFGUM38 Hello there! For this project, I chose to film what I called “personal space” as a college student here at Lawrence University. My inspiration came from our textbook when McLuhan said “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future” (p. 63). See, I interpreted this as either what we do in the present reflects what happens in the future or our past is what determined our future. The Film I made, is to show the two of my interpretations of this quote. Like I said million times, I came from the Philippines. A place that is genuinely beautiful because of its  Attractions  and the loving people you’ll ever meet. But beyond that beauty, its people  Struggles . I experienced those struggles, especially where personal space didn’t exist. Though it was not easy, I acknowledge and grateful for thos experience because it led me to the present in which I cherish dearly. I may look lonely in this fil...

Valaria Tatera is an amazing artist. Her artworks are filled with meanings and lessons about what had happened to indigenous people in the past and unfortunately are still happening. The fact that some of her artworks are abstract such as her red ribbons artwork but still manage to convey such a wonderful and strong message amazes me. Out of all the artworks that she presented that day, I think the red ribbons stood out most to me as an artist. Personally, it was the simplest one out of her artworks that day. Why did it strike me? Because through those red ribbons, you can see that somewhere out there, people are being mistreated because of their race. through those red ribbons, I felt like our world is brutal and is filled with inequality. When she shared her story, I already knew that her artworks are going to be inspired by her experiences. Through those red ribbons she made, you can tell that she wanted to have justice not just for herself but for the whole indigenous community. Wh...

                                                           My home Hi there! My name is Lisalyn but I go by LJ. I was born in the Philippines but I moved to United States in 2013. Though I been living here for almost 9 years now, I still consider Philippines as my home even though I have not visited there for 9 years. It was a big transition for me coming here in United States and believe me it was not easy. Don’t get me wrong, I could not complain to the life I was given here. Some, might even say I am living the “American dream”. Moving here made my little world bigger. It gave me opportunities and privileges that I did not have back home. My world is filled with experiences and though half of those experiences are not necessarily pleasing, I will always hold on to them. Those experiences helped me become who I a...

For this week topic, I decided to make a collage to show the movements of the photograph I took two summers ago. As Lupton says  “A motion sequence is developed through a series of storyboards, which convey the main phases and movements of  an animation” (Lupton 233),  so I thought I would use collage as my storyboard.  Short story: Before these action images were taken, the first guy in the photograph challenged our other two friends to jump with him. As shown in the images, they accepted the challenge. However, the guy who challenged the other guys did not jump as he was “afraid” and you can see that at end of my storyboard.  I thought these images would be perfect to relate to the storyboards and animating type that Lupton discussed in the book. In this collage, I had to make sure that I was putting the right images on the right boxes so that timing and motion will match the next image. I did agree when Lupton talked about how slow timing might be a drag for ...

I’m going, to be honest, I had a hard time coming up with ideas for this week's topic. However, when Lupton stated “...diagrams often function to illuminate and explain complex ideas” (215), I realized that this topic is the most relatable to me especially with this pandemic going on. Disclaimer, I do not mean to be insensitive about other people’s opinions on the current pandemic. My idea for this topic is to show how I thought this pandemic affected me vs how it’s actually affecting me. How Covid affected me is a difficult subject to talk about as I tend to be biased by coming up with “it’s making my life miserable”. Creating a diagram or mapping on how it personally affected me makes it so much easier to see and understand without being biased.  The arrow pointing to the right represents how I thought COVID affected me. When I said I am biased about this subject I meant it. The diagram above evidently shows how it affected me negatively. From COVID resulting to quarantine from q...