Mr. & Ms. New Jersey

Bill Hicks has a sense of how humanity is evolving and he is unsentimental to the traditionalists. He finds empowerment in the weakening of tradition and believes their are new beliefs to be explored that are relevant to the times.


Kathy Griffin is unapologetic, unsentimental and it seems an atheist. She deviously sought to create controversy.

Words describing my choices
Unsentimental - facing facts or difficulties realistically and with determination
Evolving - to develop or achieve gradually
Empowerment - to invest with power
Relevant to the times
Social Commentary - the act of expressing an opinion on the nature of society
Unapologetic - unwilling to make or express an apology
Atheism - the doctrine that there is no God
Controversy - dispute, especially a public one, between sides holding opposing views
Devious - not straightforward

Runners up

Gloria Swanson, Billie Holiday, Pablo Picasso & Martin Scorsese

Thesis Statement (2nd attempt)

The aesthetic beauty of New Jersey is an unsentimental soliloquy of juxtapositions.

Macbeth: Is this a dagger

GOAL: To have an example of a soliloquy fixated on a single object.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppress'd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.

HAMLET: To be or not to be

GOAL: To show an example without a figure, which has an aesthetic.


To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer (65)
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks (70)
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, (75)
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, (80)
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, (85)
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? (90)
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry, (95)
And lose the name of action.-- Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Dylan Soliloquy

2 Sonnets by Shakespeare

GOAL: Explore the storytelling attributes and structure of a sonnet. Find a modern example that can relate to my thesis.

sonnet - a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme

Writers such as Shakespeare used the soliloquy to express some of the personal thoughts and emotions of characters without specifically resorting to third-person narration.


Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.


Sonnet 60

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Hypothesis (1st attempt)

Hypothesis: If the identity for New Jersey were based on everyday occurrences then it would finally have an image of itself that resonated with the public.

Brazil Flickr gallery

braziluk

Brazil Study

GOAL: Identify elements of street culture that has crossed over to products and identities. Examples include Samba that is used to sell Shakira's music, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which put the spotlight on mixed martial arts and Capoeira (a martial art disguised as a dance) that has crossed over to video games. Other examples that have crossed over to popular culture are parrots (unique animals of the region), Christ the Redeemer (landmarks), motifs, cultural painting, beaches, flags, bathing suits and an alcoholic drink named caipirinha.

gov (interesting use of the flag)

music (music associated with Brazil)

gringo (use of a distinct word from the Brazilian culture)


These videos compare Samba from the streets in Brazil and Shakira's video which is a product for the USA.




These videos show how Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art disguised as a dance, was used in a game created by the Japanese.




Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was created and refined from street fights in Brazil. It uses chokes, joint locks and leverage to beat opponents. When the UFC made its debut, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu exploited the faults of all other martial arts systems. When the UFC defends itself from being labeled as scenseless violence, it falls back on the premise of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in that it's a chess match of skill.

UFC

Selected Photos

GOAL: to refine and select pictures that compliment the main photo.

11 words that describe the photo

1. Juxtapose - To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast
2. Zones - an area or a region distinguished from adjacent parts by a distinctive feature or characteristic
3. Ordinary - Of no exceptional ability, degree, or quality
4. Spotlight - To focus attention on
5. Soliloquy - A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener
6. Suburban - A residential district located on the outskirts of a city
7. Everyday - Routine and commonplace
8. Nonsentimental – Not affectedly or extravagantly emotional
9. Honest - Not deceptive or fraudulent
10. Island - Being isolated or surrounded
11.Organized - Functioning within a formal structure; Efficient and methodical

When I was a Boy

When I was 12 years old, I had an interest in painting. I studied paintings by Raphael and Monet and was smitten by their sensational landscapes. My mother had lived in Italy for a period of time and she pressed upon me that this is what good art was. If the beauty of a landscape determined the value of the art then how could I, living in New Jersey, ever create a work of art? New Jersey it seemed was a totally different animal than what the Renaissance painters were faced with. Instead of sweeping skies we had telephone poles and antennas. Instead of handcrafted ceramics ours were plastic and machine produced. I too was different as I went to high school instead of being an apprentice. Much had happened in-between the time of the Renaissance and me sitting on the porch with my acrylics. I was in the middle of something complex I couldn’t understand.

Word List

GOAL: Try to find words that characterize New Jersey.

1. Configuration
2. Timetable
3. Utility
4. Mechanized
5. Inorganic
6. Streamlining
7. Plethora
8. Nostalgic
9. Specifications
10. Mainstream
11. Incremental
12. Constraint
13. Purchase
14. Commission
15. Package
16. Components
17. Levels
18. Circulation
19. Emergence
20. Model
21. Adopted
22. Indicate
23. Innumerable
24. Implemented
25. Trivial
26. Proliferation
27. Consequence
28. Tangible
29. Generalized
30. Ritual
31. Efficiency
32. Speed
33. Layering
34. Manufacture
35. Ideal
36. Vulnerable
37. Produced
38. Catering
39. Published
40. Consultant
41. Indulgent
42. Resonate
43. Surface
44. Distinct
45. Competitor
46. Origin
47. Accordance
48. Instructions
49. Rattle
50. Obtained
51. Driven
52. Labor
53. Pageantry
54. Flares
55. Resourceful
56. Pattern
57. Celebrated
58. Stolen
59. Alert
60. Workday
61. Construct
62. Possession
63. Equilibrium
64. Interrupted
65. Muffling
66. Yielding
67. Getaway
68. Flex
69. Stifling
70. Subdivisions
71. Bubble
72. Banal
73. Redundancy
74. Contrive
75. Rendezvous
76. Branch
77. Conjoined
78. Multitude
79. Appliance
80. Distemper
81. Blister
82. Circumstance
83. Metallic
84. Instrument
85. Stealthily
86. Memory
87. Adjacent
88. Motion
89. Hedge
90. Penetrate
91. Crowded
92. Conflicting
93. Solitary
94. Nerves
95. Murderously
96. Mason
97. Snub
98. Toll
99. Grandstanding

my Flickr gallery

PHOTOS

Words pulled out from Blog

1. descent
2. seed
3. ideologies
4. facilitated
5. delineates
6. cultural border
7. polarizing
8. proximity
9. conflicted
10. branching off
11. structures
12. sandwiched
13. degradation
14. densely
15. deters
16. independence
17. producer
18. monotonous
19. showcase
20. access
21. hub
22. enforcement
23. waterways
24. under appreciated
25. various
26. shipping
27. sovereign
28. overthrown
29. brotherhood
30. celebratory
31. complacency
32. mainstream
33. emphasize
34. tragic
35. virtue
36. value
37. unity
38. dichotomy
39. scandel
40. uninspiring
41. dull
42. implants
43. jug handle
44. strut
45. Joysie
46. self-depreciating
47. birthright
48. restraint
49. smell
50. sarcastic
51. funnel
52. recognition
53. seceded
54. founded
55. tied
56. influence
57. tension
58. reunite
59. founded
60. gamble
61. modernity
62. reflective

interesting photo - very jersey

this photo is the opposite of our expectation when thinking of a romantic landscape, yet it manages to be charming and reflective
interesting photo - jersey romance

Phone Conversation with Tom

Progenitor (noun) – a precursor, an originator of a line of descent, the seed of what will become

The feeling of happiness can be attributed to a person or personified to a place that has a vision of its self of what it can become in the future.

Where is NJ at now and where will it be 10 years from now?

What can be uncovered about NJ?

What are the borders of New Jersey not physically but in terms of how it’s perceived stereotypically? Then how can those borders be expanded?

In promoting itself, New Jersey has played it safe with stale state slogans and generic tourism commercials. Characters and places that are the fruit of NJ aren’t appropriate for self-promotion. By playing it so safe, NJ has hurt their hurt their own self–image.

NJ is moving away from its old identity of “The Garden State.” This could lead to an opportunity to rename the Garden State Parkway and create a new identity for it.

The traits that define the character of a place can be incorporated into design to create a sense of that place.