Author: bsangster

Here is the website for the company that my friend works through, her name is Erin Kirsh and I’ve known her since I was in Grade 6. We’ve been in many a show together 🙂

Here is the website:

http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/word-play/for-teachers/

I know it costs money but I would not let that discourage you!! We have to support the arts!

A Photographic work by Brendan Sangster starring his roommate Tessa Seager.

Poetry:

Last year in a seminar class on contemporary theatre I wrote a paper comparing Sarah Kane’s postdramatic play 4:48 Psychosis to the theoretical ideas of an avatar/internet theatre. What I was particularly interested in was the idea of how we as living, breathing human beings can become consumed by the virtual world of video games. Personally I’ve always had a love for The Sims franchise, while other people are committed to games such as World of Warcraft, or any RPG games. In my paper I asked myself whether it would be possible for there to be an ‘avatar theatre’ where as audience members we can become so invested in a virtual theatre performance that we physically react to the happenings of the virtual world in the same way that we do in the living theatre.

In Gabriella Giannachi’s book Virtual Theatres she calls the new virtual stage a

‘hypersurface’:

The hypersurface is where the real and the virtual meet each other. It is materiality and textuality, real and representation. It is also the site of virtual performance. Through hypersurface, the viewer can enter the work of art, be part of it, as well as interact with it. (Giannachi, 95)

As I was reviewing this paper the above quote stood out to my for this course in particular. Multiliteracies seem to allow us to ‘enter the works of art’, if we consider graphic novels, e-literature, and now video games… these multimodal ‘hypersurfaces’ allow us to enter an alternate dimension of learning. Video games allow us an application of strategy, inquiry, and interactive modes of multidimensional learning. If I think back to some of the video games I’ve played in my many years I could have clocked enough hours to master ad new skill, like playing the piano. But I also think back to games like Sim City where you have to think like an urban developer as you create a sustainable city with all the proper amenities such as schools, police departments, and shopping centers. I also think back with joyous memories to games like “Math Circus”, or the wide range of Magic School Bus games. Since these video games offered an integration of facts, applied skills, and entertainment I think back to those video games happy with what I learned.

Since I personally am no technical wiz and could not put together a video game specific to my own lessons I wonder if anyone knows of any games that already exist which would help assist popular texts. I remember seeing a trailer for a game about Dante as he travels though hell… but it was very convoluted and based around other topics we discussed earlier in the course; the character of Beatrice for example was over sexualized and the goal of the game, to save her… I believe that all literary merit went straight out the window and was traded for how gory can the monsters in hell be. I think that video games would make an interesting example for students to relate plots of stories too, however. Huck Finn? Brotherly companionship? Mario and Luigi?

Also, if you haven’t seen this YouTube video it was one of my points of inspiration about ways in which we have become consumed by the online world and how visceral our feelings may be. The kid in the video had his World of Warcraft account deleted by his mother… this is his reaction:

Works Cited:

Giannachi, Gabriella: Virtual Theatres: an introduction. Routledge, New York. 2004.

wafflepwn, GREATEST FREAK OUT EVER (ORIGINAL VIDEO), YouTube. uploaded: May 3,

Brendan

So I know most people won’t have done a lot of video editing in this class, but last year when I directed a show in Halifax I thought it would be a fun project for my cast and crew to make a trailer for our play.

It was a really enjoyable experience for us and even though it was more of a joke, movie trailers can be a great way to consider themes, genre, stock characters, and many more things. At Killarney the grade 10 students are doing “TV Channel surfing projects” right now. They have to choose opposite style TV shows and commercials and represent them onstage or in a film.

While this video isn’t a great representation of the seriousness of the play I’m interested in your thoughts as to what it could be about? If anyone gets a chance to watch and respond I’ll post again with more details about the play and another video that was made about our show. Don’t cheat! It’s cool!

Ps. This was all made on my iPhone and on iMovie.

ALSO! I JUST DISCOVERED THAT MY VIDEO IS BLOCKED IN GERMANY!!! HAHAH COOL!

Brendan

Well, since the readings for this week weren’t the most accessible and ‘readable’ I decided to think back to week one and explore another side of censorship.

Censorship was really what stood out to me when thinking about “New Media Laws”. The above photo “Censorship causes blindness” just felt so poignant. Since I remember being one of the first people at my high school to jump on the Facebook bandwagon I can also remember the people who immediately jumped on the issues of privacy. What I recall being the concern then was the clarity of privacy for Facebook users. Still to this day this is an issue… what is the extent of our privacy? How much do we know about our own privacy rules, and how much of our lives have we sold to Facebook? Are they censoring their own sneaky ways of stealing our lives? I apologize as I don’t know where else to go with that one… I recognize that I haven’t read the pagesonpagesonpages of rules and contracts that we all see weekly… but even at 16 was I educated enough to understand what those contracts would of meant? Hell no. Censorship of what we know certainly causes blindness, as the picture suggests. Before the birth of the “Internet-Age” who was protecting our rights? Did anyone really know how? I suppose that’s what we need to consider now…

While censorship certainly causes blindness by deleting visibility I also wonder what other people think of the freedom of too much expression?

As I sit here at home (totally un-censored and enjoying the freedom of my hobbit rooms privacy) I wonder when “bitch” started being ok on public television? Edward Wyatt helps me a little in his article in the NY Times, More Than Ever, You Can Say That on television : “The use of the word, “bitch,” […] tripled in the last decade alone, growing to 1,277 uses on 685 shows in 2007 from 431 uses on 103 prime-time episodes in 1998.” (New York Times, 2009) As I’m sure you can tell from class… I’m a bit flippant as it is… and I totally appreciate this age of dirty-mouthed media because it allows for my potty mouth to be perfectly plausible. In a popular media class I took last year I was able to write a paper on the hit movie Superbad. My favorite part of the paper was being able to quote lines like:

Seth: You need to stop being a pussy and nail her. You could bang her before you leave. And I’m not gonna dance around it, she looks like a good fucker.

Evan: I’m tired of you talking about her like that, man.

Seth: What, you can talk about her all day and if I say one thing its blasphemy?

Evan: Well I don’t constantly insult her.

Seth: I’m not trying to insult her. I’m just saying she looks like a great fucker, okay? She looks like she can take a dick. Some women pride themselves on their dick-taking abilities.

Evan: Dick-taking abilities? You think that’s good to say about someone?

Seth: The fucked up thing is, I actually do, okay?

(Superbad (2007), dir. Greg Mottola)

Is a film like Superbad so offensive that we can’t teach it in schools today? In our entrance essays we were asked to give examples of ways in which we were asked to comment on how todays film, social media, etc. has effected today’s youth. Personally I feel as though we have to embrace the change that is happening in todays world. We can’t be afraid of words such as ‘fuck’ and the crude humor that todays youth live for. I’m trying to suggest using the new censorship laws and embrace the ‘taboo’ nature of these dark comedies in order to help educate. With a closer analysis of Superbad you may notice that the female characters that on the surface level are being objectified actually hold a lot of personal responsibility and power; Superbad teaches youth that kids who drink, party, and make fools of themselves end up in trouble while characters like Jules (the objectified girl) don’t need to drink and can actually turn down guys that are drunk. I feel as though we need to radically update what it is that we use to teach todays youth. If we live in the age of ‘old law’ our students will never learn to be a part of todays society… instead they may understand a world they’ve never been a part of.

When I started this post I really didn’t know what I was trying to say… and I apologize if this has been a bit of a stream of consciousness… but with Girl Talk and Lupe Fiasco as my background ambiance I have radically re-thought what “New Media and the Law” are to me. I think we need to have serious conversations about how we can use each popular culture medium that kids are going home and watching as a learning tool. Over and over we are being told not to reinvent the wheel… but what do we do when wheels have gone virtual?!

This is a photo that I found on Flickr with the note: “This photo was taken for an editorial in The Pendulum about university censorship. Karrah and Garrett were both actors in Elon University’s production of ‘Hair.’ ” Censorship and arts is another topic I didn’t feel I had time to get into… but Katie said she prefers when posts have some visual stimulation. So here you go folks 😉

– Brendan

Works Cited:

Flickr.com: Censorship Causes Blindness, Antoon Foobar’s Photostream. Web accessed on Nov 19th. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/antoon/540693929/>

Flickr.com: Censorship, Heather Cassano’s Photostream. Web accessed on Nov 19th. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathercassano/6397100579/>

Superbad, dir. Greg Mottola. Columbia Pictures. 2007

Wyatt, Edward, Media & Television: More Than Ever, You Can Say That on Television: New York Times. Web accessed Nov 19th. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/business/media/14vulgar.html?_r=0>

Speaking of news and social media… this is incredible.

http://www.betcheslovethis.com/article/mitt-romneys-burn-binder

Well I’m finding this weeks reading rather difficult to respond to via the blog… mainly because the topic feels more generally academic and without the flair of creativity that the other weeks have provided. That being said I’ve been able to sit on it and think I have some decent comments…

I suppose the main point that Alexander is trying to make is 1. That we are living in a society that has evolved enough since the dawn of the Internet to allow for a 2.0 of online technologies… and 2. We have the incredible opportunity to learn from another world (so to speak) through the extension of our minds and hands (our computers).

As someone who lived through the moments before Facebook exploded and changed our lives I remembered the online posting site “Livejournal”: Livejournal was used amongst my high school as a way of connecting people to groups of their interests (especially photography) and each other. I used it for silly postings of terrible fonts and coulours saying things like, “Got a new job at American Eagle and so excited about it!” and “School sucks.” At my school we had a group where if you were in the Drama program you could be a part of a certain group specifically for us… the main point was to share photos of an annual trip to a camp in early September.

I think the Facebook epidemic took over our school somewhere around 2006 when the switch slowly took everyone over and Livejournal died out. Personally I never subscribed to the world of MySpace… so no comment there. I do however ALSO have a Flickr. I think I signed myself up for that around University once I was taking more quality photos (pre Instagram of course). Out of all of these social media sites of connectivity the only one I still use regularly is Facebook, (no surprise). Why is this? At least once a week I say to myself, and then out loud to the people also in the room, “I want to delete my Facebook!” the answer usually comes from myself as well, “Well I just can’t because I need it for too many social things.” The online world has taken on the responsibility as our online little black book, cell phone, and calendar. I suppose that Alexander is right in the sense that we have come to an age where the Internet itself lives as a 2.0.

I think it’s a difficult thing to try and appreciate sources such as Wikipedia while we are teaching our students to be researchers. Wikipedia and online bookmarking has been a hot topic of debate around my schools over the last few years. At the same time, while I think that learning citations and plagiarism is a difficult thing to teach it may also be best taught through resources like the ones mentioned in the article. The point I’m trying to make is that the online world has changed so vastly for all of us in this class in different ways. I see my little cousins already invested in the online world on sites such as Webkinz, and Penguin Hotel… it reminds me of the days of Neopets! It is inevitable that this is a widely appreciated and growing resource… let’s just embrace it, and figure out ways of adapting it for good.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Here is the app “Vyclone” I was talking about in class. It’s a film sharing app for you and your friends!

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/vyclone/id521680614?mt=8

I should preface by stating that I’ve been having trouble accessing the reading… and if anyone can help me with that it would be much appreciated.

So I took the topic of the week “Persuasive Visual Media” and considered something a little differently… something a little more personal!

If you haven’t read George Orwell’s novel “1984” … you should. While the story is a bit dated (originally produced in the 50s) it’s even more relevant in today’s society. I read it for my grade 12 theatre class. We were reworking it into a script for the stage with a specific focus on the relationship between the Ministry (the producers) and the proles (the consumers). The reason I feel as though 1984 is a relevant point of discussion is because 1. many high school English Language Arts classes include it in their curriculum; and in 1984 20-some years after the books release many people panicked about the predictions from the 50s. 1984 itself is full of persuasive language: the protagonist, Winston Smith, worked day in and day out in by editing news postings and books into “doublespeak” an edited form of English to an unidentifiable disintegration of grammar and language.

When we transferred the story onto the stage the mise-en-scene took on a visual representation of producing commercial product for the ministry, while the ‘proles’ setting was the leftovers of the ads that we see today. Consider this commercial from Apple’s introduction to the market:

While there is some competition between Apple and PCs in today’s market doesn’t this commercial seem to contradict the way that Apple has risen to the top? Personally I can’t leave the house (never mind my room) without my iPhone! All I want for Christmas is an iPad since I already have my two front teeth! It’s a strange balance between dependency and useful productivity. Maybe not everyone in this class uses and iPhone and MacBook… but can anyone say they use an mp3 instead of an iPod? Have we become the ministry of drones to Apple’s Big Brother take over? Does Apple use persuasive visual media? Or are people like me just so dependent on the company that seeing the persuasion has become impossible? My lifeline depends on the new iOS updates and possibility for an upgrade?

I find this idea of “persuasive visual media” interesting as well in regards to propaganda and the street art world. In another of our classes a group of us are making a lesson plan between three different subjects based around the idea of “propaganda”. One key artist that came to mind was Banksy and the documentary associated with him “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. I’m running out of words here so I’ll just attach the Wikipedia synopsis: . The interesting part about this film is that one of the subjects of the film, Thierry Guetta, is overtaken by Banksy’s ideals (art that forces a deeper thought process and commentary on current social questions) but when his own desire for fame creeps in, his morals go out the door…

Wow… I just realized I went from 1984 to Exit Through the Gift Shop in 500 odd words… I’d like to leave with this image… my point being that it is easy for us to become manipulated by something so simple…

Brendan