Opera Assignment | 9.26.17

For my opera written before 1920, I chose to watch La Traviata. Not knowing what to expect from an opera having never watched one before, I really actually enjoyed this.

Madama Butterfly Animation | 9.19.17

Madama Butterfly was quite an interesting thing to watch for a few different reasons. It was definitely a unique way to interpret the opera. However, being my first time seeing this opera and in this format, I really actually enjoyed it. 

Getting past the intensity of the beginning, afterwards it was very moving. I really liked all of the symbolism and the ways the artist showed different parts of the story. For example, when the umbilical cord connecting the mother and the child was ripped apart by the sailor when he comes back, it was heartbreaking to watch. The sailor is basically ripping the two apart for good. Another scene that was really moving, and not really in a good way, was the moment the sailor first pulled up in his car. When looking in the car, one can see that there are many different children in the back of the car and of many different races as well. One can infer that this is not the first time the sailor has done this. What's really strange about this is the woman he has with him. She does not seem to have a care in the world about what he is doing and is just going along with everything. This whole moment from him pulling up to then continuing to take her child is all very sad to watch.

Another thing I enjoyed about this adaptation of Madama Butterly was the animation as a whole. Being an aspiring animator, it was hard not to appreciate it. Stop motion animation is one of the hardest things to do in my opinion, it's definitely not my top in my career, but it was executed so well in this video. It was all very fluid and looked very nice throughout the entire film. Also, the characters themselves gave off different vibes throughout the entire animation. You could tell that the girl was pale and had crazy hair, and it was almost like you could tell that she was to be considered "under" him. The sailor was well put together and obviously in his uniform, but he himself was very uniform as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this rendition of Madama Butterfly. At first I was a bit skeptical, but after viewing it in class and on my own, I came to appreciate it. The symbolism and the animation itself were definitely my favorite parts of the film though.

Raul Cuero Interview | 9.12.17

This interview with scientist and inventor Raul Cuero was very enlightening to a different perspective of creativity than people may first think of. Normally when you hear the word "creativity", you think of art, but not so much in this case.

Cuero had a difficult time growing up and so he had to be creative in the way he handled different situations. He said creativity is how we "perceive nature". I agreed in his statement about how children nowadays are at a creative disadvantage because they're so focused on electronics and are not going outside and doing things outside. Children's communication skills are weaker because they are using technology. Face to face communication is lacking in many people these days and I think Cuero addressed this correctly. 

I also really liked how Cuero talked about "learning by doing". He said we need to stop using deductive learning as much and start using inductive learning. You aren't going to learn as much from just reading things that are already "known" from a textbook, but by doing things yourself and learning new things. I agree in the fact that he said we need to stop "quick fixing" things, things take time, and we need to give it that time.

I'm going to use advice from this interview in my day to day life, especially in my academic life. I'm going to be creative and try different ways in learning. Also with my jobs and social life, finding different ways to handle certain situations than I might usually. 

Object Mesh | 9.12.17

Mice

I made this object combination of a mouse and a mouse. I thought it was a good play on words so it could be a good mesh as well. Looking at the body of the mouse (the animal) it kind of has the shape of a computer mouse, so that's exactly what I did. The tail of the mouse can also be seen as the cord from a computer mouse. The ears could be seen as the left and right buttons. I designed this in Adobe Illustrator using mainly the pen tool. Illustrator is one of my favorite programs and as a Digital Arts major I wanted to design it digitally.