Keeping an Eye on People

In unit 3 of Rhetoric, my class looked at the start of colonies in the new world called America. We looked at the conflicts that started from, the French and British and the conflicts made from the Sons of Liberty and what they stood for. For the action project, we had to find a social issue, and create an artwork that would be a great way to represent it using any kind of medium. The purpose was to inspire people from all over the world to unite (like some of the early American colonists). I chose to make an artistic statement about the issue of domestic violence because I wanted to learn more about the topic. The art medium I chose was a drawing with just a pencil and a piece of paper for the reason that drawing is so simple, but also can be complex in the way you make it. Please enjoy the drawing and what it holds.

NVA "Keeping an Eye on People" (2015) GCE Labs School

What is domestic violence? It is when the person you trust most starts abusing you or a loved one, in the place where you should feel most safe. This issue is very well known to many people, but also not as well known as it should be. What I mean by that is, people know about it - either they have experienced it or they have heard about it. So why is it that so many people aren’t doing something about it? And, why have we actually gotten used to the fact that it happens? Most of the time, people don’t want to interfere because they think it’s none of their business, but should we actually let this happen? I say no - just because it might not be our business, I don’t think that we should continue to stand by and let this keep happening.

In 2 out of 3 female homicide cases, the woman was killed as a result of domestic violence (Safe Horizon: General facts). The only way this can stop growing is when we decide to act on the inside of what is actually happening. But domestic violence isn’t only bad to the person being hit; children who witness these events happening are also changed in some way mentally, and may be victims of abuse as well. Maybe they are experiencing domestic violence first hand, and they repeat the cycle with other people when they grow up. These young victims are seeing bullying happening first hand and they don’t know what they should do, 3 million children see domestic violence every year in their homes (Safe Horizon: Effects on Children). We shouldn’t let that happen at all. But why? Why care? Say you saw someone getting hit on the street by someone, would you help or walk away? Or say you saw your child getting bullied, would you do something?

I think of domestic violence as bullying and it makes it just so much worse when it is coming from someone you love. 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. I am saying for that to stop now and make that number 0 in 4 women, or even men, who do actually get the other side of the bullying (Safe Horizon: Occurrence of Violence).

The reason I chose to sound off on the topic of domestic violence isn’t because I have experienced it or because I needed to talk about something I have experienced. I felt like it was very important to me to pick an issues that I don’t experience with, just so I have more knowledge on it, and have a larger standpoint on the subject. I also feel like then I might have the power to help people or just teach people about domestic violence, as I am doing with my art. I just feel it is important to learn about more issues that don’t fully apply to you, so you can have an understanding and connect more to these issues.

The medium I chose was a drawing because of saying, “A picture carries a thousand words.” , Well I believe a drawing carries a million words because the more emotion a drawing can have more an emotional impact. I also chose to draw, just for the fact that it is the easiest art form for me and i feel that I can clearly get my ideas across in this artistic form.

I drew person’s eye up close because eyes are the window to the soul and domestic violence victims are not only physically hurt, but also spiritually. I drew a tear to show the sadness that is carried when this violence is happening to them. In the eye, you see a reflection of a fist facing towards the victim. To show the realness of how it is for people that experience the abuse they get. Next, on the fist of the person you see the word saying “STOP”because I want this abuse to stop and so does everyone who gets physically and spiritually abused by a loved one. Lastly, I didn’t add any color to my drawing just because I feel like the colors would actually take away from the emotions that I want to represent, such as truth and sadness. I like that this amazing drawing with so much emotion and truth, can really just be made with a pencil and some strong feeling to get a message across.

I would want my artwork to be displayed everywhere - mainly on the internet so it can travel faster, but anywhere where it could make a difference would be great.

References:

"Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts." Safe Horizon. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Under My Wing!

For unit 2 of Design and Engineering, we learned about Newton’s First Law of Motion, Inertia, looked at more Trigonometry and did Calculus. For the action project we, with a partner, received a persona and what they needed out of a bike. We then had to create an actual 3D model of a bike that would fit what they needed for their biking experience. I had a person named Andres and because of the problems his grandmother wanted him to avoid, my partner and I made a bike below that fits his needs. What I liked about this project was making the bike and getting to know how far I could go with making it. What I didn’t like was that there were times when my partner and I didn’t see eye to eye, but we were able to overcome those problems. Please enjoy our design.

Before making these bikes, we did some research on bikes and how they worked. One thing I learned was that gears are actually more important than a lot of people may think. They actually really help the bike do certain tasks. Something else I learned was that different materials for the frame can change how the bike will perform. A lot of road bikes have a carbon fiber frame, and hybrid/ mountain bikes will have a stainless steel frame. The carbon fiber is very light, making it easier for the rider on a street to go fast, whereas a hybrid/mountain bike rider will need the steel frame for a more durable ride. For an interview I completed, a biker said, “I would actually like my frame, because it fits my riding, where I will be all over the place.”

The person I have, as I said before, is Andres. His grandmother wants to get him a bike that will be safe and comfortable for him to ride, and it also has to be good against harsh weather. His route includes having to go through the park and cutting into alleys and rocky roads to get to school and back. The normal part of the bike is that it is a mountain bike, with wheels made for all grounds and stainless steel to protect from rust. But what makes it different from other bikes? It’s very different from many other bikes, because it has gloves that make it easier to grip the bars. It has an umbrella that you can take on and off when it’s raining or snowing. It has a molded seat to fit your body comfortably. The gloves and seat make it more comfortable for the user, mainly so the body isn’t so stressed. The umbrella is for the harsh weather to come, and the wheels are thick to make riding on all grounds easier; it also has shock absorbers like a mountain bike, for Chicago potholes. The we decided it will be called The Wing, because it is like the expression, “you are under my wing.” because for the fact that every parents want to take care of their kid, so you now have a bike that does the same.

NVA. "Wing Sketch/" (2015). GCE Labs School

Now to talk about the bike mathematically, we have a wheel that is theoretically 28 inches tall to get over land easier, making the circumference about 88 inches. His commute takes him 26 min, when riding about 7 mph or 3.13 meters per second, because the route that Andres takes is 3.2 miles, using Lincoln Park, and alleys. On that journey his wheels rotate about 2304 times. Now the wheel used in the model is 1 inches compared to the theoretically 28 inches. Now to make it a faster ride my partner and I chose to have the biggest cog in front and the smallest in back to have Andres go faster. The bike will have multiple gears, but we'll range the gear ratio, since the biggest front gear has 53 teeth and the smallest back gear has 13 teeth which makes it a 1:4 gear ratio. Then the smallest front gear is 35 teeth, and the largest back one has 26, which gives you a 26:35 ratio.

Now when talking about bikes, physics play a huge role such as energy and the different types, like Potential and Kinetic. For this bike and the rider, potential energy will be shown when Andres is on top a small hill because there is more gravity pulling down. He will have the most kinetic when riding in the alleys, because he is going straight and releasing his energy.

We did have to think of certain things though, like how the umbrella would be aerodynamic and how it could fit the rider. We just made it more pointy at the front, so the wind goes over it instead of through. Another concern was how the gloves would work, and we thought of making them more like mittens so people could have more hand space and warmth. We also wanted to make it where Andres could ride without them, and he could just hold onto the mittens for a comfortable grip when riding.

NVA. "Wing 3D Without person." (2015) GCE Labs school

NVA. "Wing with 3D With Peron." (2015) GCE Labs School

Genova Here We Come (Part 2)!

For Italian, I had to make another project on Genova with the same info, but the difference is you can here me speak about myself in Italian. I also take about Genova in Italian, even though it's the same info from my last post about Genova. I really liked this because it tested my skills on speaking Italian, even when some words are just hard to pronounce, also for me learning a new language is very hard. I do see the importance in learning a new language though, so taking Italian was very fun to do.
           

Jamming to Importance!

In unit 2 of my Rhetoric, we learned about new rhetorical devices, such as hypophora and meiosis. We also looked at the The discovery of America, Christopher Columbus, and the Doctrine of Discovery. Also we looked at the voices that weren't shown a lot during that time, mainly the Natives Americans and what new people took from them. For the action project we had to create a Prezi, where we would take a speech or song that someone made and annotate it and talk about the appeals involved in and the devices in the text. I chose Holiday by Green Day, the song, and I liked it because a song from them is going to be heard by a lot of people, and I like that they made it about such an important topic. Please enjoy!


       

Genova Here we Come!

For my Italian class, we have learned how to speak and the language, we also learned about the different cities that make up Italy; such as Rome, Venice, and Milan. Leading me to this fun project, each student had to pick from a hat and on the paper they took out was a city and we had to create a presentation, showing the main features of the city. My city was Genoa, or in Italian Genova. Please enjoy, it might give you an idea for your next vacation!