Reflective essay

Being in a cluster this semester has been such a different but good experience for me. I didn't really know what to expect because i have never been in one, but it turned out to be exactly like high school for me, with the exception of the work load of course. I appreciated how it was easy to get the attention you needed from the professors, and they were almost always available to answer your questions and help you out. Before these classes, i was never the type to really analyze something in trying to find its deeper meaning and i found that it helped me a lot in changing that. I have to say that i enjoyed all my classes very much. With Louie's class on a Monday morning for 3 hours straight i thought i was going to die, but it turned out to be interesting and my incentive to actually wake up and get myself to class. This isn't my first college experience, but i have never met such an outgoing professor like Louie. He talks about anything with us like if we're his peers instead of his students, and is an intelligent man as well, i think people have a lot to learn from him about the media and society. In Dr.Smith's class i was able to let go of the fear of other people reading my work. I wasn't really open to the idea at first but then i just forced myself to get used it, it was my grade on the line after all. The blogs were actually very helpful in being able to share ideas and getting to read other peoples' work & getting feedback on your own. We wrote so much that way that it has also helped me improve my writing a bit, and I've appreciated that because i do actually like to write, so thanks for that. Last but not least, Dr.Rheuban's class. I feel like not that many people liked her class because she was went too deep into movies in trying to get us to point out the cinematic elements and motives behind them, but even though it was a bit overwhelming at times, i still enjoyed her class a lot and probably learned the MOST from that one. I love movies and it was cool to be able to learn their beginning and how it has evolved to modern times.
All in all this cluster has been very helpful to me in many ways. Ive had the opportunity to meet interesting people and professors that are there to help you when you need. Ive been able to stay focused on what I need to do and because of that i am where i want to be right now, with good grades and all :)

Final Blog 24

The movie, the Matrix, combined with the concept of an alternative reality existing, is indisputably challenging, especially when posed with the question of whether or not you'd rather continue living in the matrix or be pulled out. "Danahay and Reider argue that the Matrix is not really about a revolution and that the directors use lots of tricks to actually make us want to be in the Matrix"(Smith). With that being said, i'd have to agree. There are several different elements used in the film to make the matrix look desirable and more appealing to the audience than the actual real world.
For starters, the matrix is exactly like life as we see it now, everyday people going about their business off to work and engaging in normal interaction with others. In contrast to that, the real world is extremely futuristic, taken over by machines, and what appears to be very dull looking, boring, and lonely. With that alone, the audience is fed the illusion that the matrix, despite being real or not, is more enticing simply because it is identical to the world we live in now. Danahay and Reider claim that "if the Matrix had been shot in black and white, and the "real" world in the Nebuchadnezzar had been in color, perhaps then the revolutionary future for which the humans were fighting would have looked as bright and colorful.."(24). They could not be any more accurate with that claim solely because that difference would blatantly change wanting to live in the real world in contrast to living in the matrix. I doubt that anyone would find a black and white world any more appealing than a real and colorful one.
Another trick that the movie uses in order to lead the audience into wanting to be in the Matrix is all the special effects. All of the main characters have been pulled out of the Matrix, but every time they do plug back in, they are bound to no physical limits. They have ridiculous fighting skills which they can simply "upload" and learn, they can run fast, jump from incredible heights, and Neo can even dodge bullets. With those possibilities, who wouldn't want to be in the Matrix and have the opportunity to seriously kick someone's ass and run across walls? Being in the Matrix lends off this feeling of strength and power and leads you to believe that that's what will be handed to you once you're in it. The movie fails to put emphasis on the control the machines have over you and that everything in the Matrix is essentially NOT real. Yea Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus can do all these incredible things and are not "slaves" to the machines, but only because they have been pulled out and have the choice of when to go back in.
The movie "Sleep Dealers" is in many ways very similar to The Matrix. They both encompass the concept of an alternate reality, but Sleep Dealer is more about a working mexican who just wants to be able to provide for his family. The theme of labor is a major one in Sleep Dealer because the dominant factory to enter the virtual world is the only way the Mexicans can look for work. Regardless of the advanced technology available, the people and companies still choose to gather workers to do the work for them. The obvious main difference between The Matrix and Sleep Dealers is that the people living in the matrix are oblivious to that fact, and the workers in Sleep Dealers consciously choose to enter the virtual world. The Mexicans are considered the "working" class, maybe even a lower class, and the movie has emphasized it enough by setting it in a time and place where the Mexicans are not even allowed in this country anymore but are still providing labor.
Technology is a big part of both movies, but in contrast to The Matrix, the characters in Sleep Dealers don't try to fight against it, they work with it instead. In spite of it being placed in the future where machines and technology can basically take care of everything for you, Sleep Dealers points out that people still need to and are required to somehow work.

Blog23

What are Danahay and Reider's main arguments (their claims)? What sort of reasons and evidence do they use for support? Do you agree or disagree?

Dnahay and Reider's main arguments surround the idea of being "coppertops", being slaves to the workforce in relation to capitalism...

blog22

The movies the Matrix and eXistenZ are both controversial films that question the concept of reality in their own ways. There might be several argumentative points to this discussion, but for me, The Matrix takes the cake.
In the essay "Penetrating Keanu", Cynthia Freeland argues that The Matrix is no more than an "infantile" movie that teaches the audience nothing new and that the real message is behind the film eXistenZ. She claims that not only is it a sexist movie, but has no connection with the human body and flesh as it apparently does in eXistenZ. She goes on to say that the meaning of the movie is basically clouded by all the special effects incorporated into the film. On top of that she feels that Trinity's character is insignificant, not having the female role she'd desire, being a feminist and all, so ultimately eXistenZ gets named the better film.
The only thing i can say i agree with her on is that fact that we're given the illusion that Trinity is a strong independent character, when in fact, she just plays sidekick to Neo and his attempt to "save humanity". I'm not a feminist myself, but Freeland does make a point in saying that Trinity is nothing more than a "love interest" and "decorative". She's supposed to be this famous tough hacker, but beside fighting off an agent, we never really see her do much of anything else. Regardless of anything i still like the movie The Matrix and all the characters and their significance despite of anything Freeland says. She's holding eXistenZ at a much higher value simply because she believes it has a closer connection to the human body and our perception of reality, but it's really just her personal opinion which i mostly do not agree with.
I believe The Matrix is more culturally relevant on account of the strong reference it has to the development and use of technology. eXistenZ is based on this silly game that is manipulated through a rather gruesome looking "bioport", which i would never use had i the choice to, and the question of whether or not the events that took place in the movie were in fact reality or not were NEVER answered. With The Matrix, we at least know that it's a computer generated world and that in their real world, everyone is "asleep". Whether or not the characters themselves can tell if what they're experiencing is really real, at least we can, which i appreciate. I didn't like the fact that i wasted an hour and a half of my time watching a movie that i thought was going to be simplified in the end, I wont discredit the director for the effort of a "twist", but either way i still didn't like the movie or it's concept. Maybe it was because i simply didn't understand it, but i still felt it was pointless and would MOST definitely never say it was better than The Matrix.
Truthfully, i was about nine to ten years old when The Matrix came out, so i was mainly focused on all the special effects and the action of the movie, not it's philosophical insinuations. Now that i know and understand it's significance and the correlation it has to this society becoming mind slaves of technology, i can relate to it on a much deeper level. Freeland argues the difference between the films being the importance and distinction between reality and the "illusory reality", when if you ask me, you can't really distinguish that difference with eXistenZ because they don't blatantly declare their actual reality. I think most of Freeland's arguments would be justified had they been practical and had she had unbiased reasons. I don't think she can really make an argument on whether or not one movie valued or depicted reality in a much clearer form, because either way, both films were relating to very similar concepts.
The Matrix isn't the best movie in the world, but in comparison to eXistenZ, it's definitely a better choice for taking a 2hour and 16min vacation from your own reality into a world full of mind boggling questions !

blog 21

Goals for the day: gather some info and organize the website that i'm creating for my project.

Today I actually completed what i said i wanted to. I still need to add just a few more things, but it's mostly done as of now..

"Penetrating Keanu"

In the essay "Penetrating Keanu", Cynthia Freeland argues that The Matrix is no more than an "infantile" movie that teaches the audience nothing new and that the real message is behind the film eXistenZ. She claims that not only is it a sexist movie, but has no connection with the human body and flesh as it apparently does in eXistenZ. She goes on to say that the meaning of the movie is basically clouded by all the special effects incorporated into the film. On top of that she feels that Trinity's character is insignificant, not having the female role she'd desire, being a feminist and all, so ultimately eXistenZ gets named the better film.

The only thing i can say i agree with her on is that fact that we're given the illusion that Trinity is a strong independent character, when in fact, she just plays sidekick to Neo and his attempt to "save humanity". I'm not a feminist myself, but Freeland does make a point in saying that Trinity is nothing more than a "love interest" and "decorative". She's supposed to be this famous tough hacker, but beside fighting off an agent, we never really see her do much of anything else. Regardless of anything i still like the movie The Matrix and all the characters and their significance despite of anything Freeland says. She's holding eXistenZ at a much higher value simply because she believes it has a closer connection to the human body and our perception of reality, but it's really just her personal opinion which i mostly do not agree with.

nypl

For the game assignment that we were asked to do at the library of performing arts, i worked with Jenny Oh.
We decided to replicate the game of cranium..LIBRANIUM ;)
You wouldnt need to know any facts from the library or have visited it because all of the info would be on the cards and in the questions, as it would in cranium. It'll basically be a game based on facts and guessing through multiple choice answers, the educational part of the game is that even if you dont get it right and advance, you still get to learn something new. Since it is also the library of PERFORMING arts, the other categories of the game would involve you having to act, sing, dance or anything along those lines and have your partner and or team guess what or who you are trying to imitate..The game should be played by 2 or more teams(4 or more people), and the team to guess and correctly answer the most questions and advance to the end in the board first, wins!