Concerned Citizen - Sergio

“Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” -Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948

We live in a time and place where we claim to have freedom and believe that this is our right as human beings, notwithstanding the color of our skin, the language we speak, or our religion. In the United States, the ideal that we hold to is one of welcoming community and diversity, as manifest by our own great symbol, the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, however, people are generally afraid of what those don't understand, particularly cultures or traditions who are different. Often this fear develops into racism and hatred. There are those in every community that understand the importance of change, the necessity to defend the basic human rights and be a source of help and inspiration to others. Carlos Fuentes describes the process we are living as a re-elaboration of our civilization, and one we ought to be open to: “different songs, different laws, different rhythms, long-deferred hopes, different shapes of beauty, ethnicity and diversity, a different sense of time…”

With the Concerned Citizen project, we wanted to explore a community that exists within a greater community, but may go unnoticed or misunderstood. There are many communities that could fit the bill, but because we both speak Spanish, the choice was a natural one. The Hispanic community has an enormous presence in the state of Utah, and while very well-known in U.S, is usually victim of stereotyping ignorance toward its presences and contribution. Sergio is only one of those citizens that are concerned about his community, and serves as a sort of bridge between the two worlds he interacts with. He is an example of a regular man that wants to make a difference in the people around him, often through helping other generations such as children or the elderly.

Although Sergio is bilingual, and may even speak English more often, we chose to film the entire documentary in Spanish as a representation of the community he speaks for. As a U.S. Citizen who has grown up here, but one who’s inherited a strong sense of his Mexican cultural roots, we felt he was qualified to discuss the issues of the hidden Mexican-American community. His thoughts on how coaching children brings people together and on how the technology today is connecting people fall in line with his experience at the Anti-Trump rally and the unification he desires for cultures. Especially in the process of editing the film, we had difficulty narrowing the clips down to only 3:00, as there were many that we wanted to use. We ultimately went with felt like a valuable contribution for representing Sergio as a concerned citizen. Alternate Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB1DT_7C5Kk&feature=youtu.be

Susan - Game for Change

Susan

Initially, I had a very difficult time deciding on a concept I felt strongly about for my "Game for Change." As an extremely privileged white Mormon young man, there are fewer social issues I have felt radically affected by, at least personally enough to explore in this assignment. However, I realized there is one universal issue that I have watched play out multiple times, and one that could really affect any one of us. When I was in high school, I had multiple encounters with suicide. Though I never personally considered taking my own life, a close high school friend, my aunt Susan, and a family friend's son all took their own lives within a few years of each other. Just last week, a film friend of mine watched a girl jump off of a 7 story parking lot. 

As the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and second leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds, suicide is not an uncommon tragedy (SAVE, AFSP). And yet, while not majorly misperceived, is a subject that is sometimes sort of laughed off by current pop-culture. For example, popular comedy films such as The Other Guys depict jumping off buildings for comedic effect. A new super-villian movie set to release is called Suicide Squad. It is even fairly common to make a gun-to-head motion when someone is frustrated. All of this is ignorance to the tragic problem that has always existed in society. 

One of the ways in which my game explores this issue is not only through ignorance to the issue, but even the accidental initiation of it. Although a sensitive subject, I felt it was important to tackle an issue extremely relevant to suicide within LDS culture. While creating the game, I did some research on the recent policy change regarding homosexual behavior and apostasy. Sadly, at least 32 young Mormons have committed suicide as a direct result (Deseret News). In my game "Susan", I set the event in Salt Lake City tried to convey her feelings of alienation, self-loathing, and confusion that so many experience when their religious views are at odds with their sexual orientation. Regardless of the intent of the policy change, it is important to discuss what kind of rhetoric we should avoid in religious conversation as not to prompt any sort of suicidal actions.

As far as conversation is concerned, that was another important element of the game. Your character has many options for what to say, and some work better than others to allow Susan to express where she is at, which is often what someone needs who is so deep in depression. Hopefully, the player feels they might be able to save her if they are careful. But ultimately, no approach in saving Susan, which is meant to stress the seriousness of the issue. The aesthetics are annoyingly simple and dark, as to suggest the state of mind many people are in when they commit suicide, coming to the resolution that it is the simple way out. My hope is that the unbeatable element of this game brings some ideas to the viewer as to how to better prevent anyone from getting to the point of suicide. 

SAVE: http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=705D5DF4-055B-F1EC-3F66462866FCB4E6
AFSP: http://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
Deseret News: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865646414/LDS-Church-leaders-mourn-reported-deaths-in-Mormon-LGBT-community.html

World Building - Sovereign State of Deseret

For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations." (Doctrine and Covenants 87:3)

 

And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh;

(Doctrine and Covenants 38:18)

And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another.
And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand.

(Doctrine and Covenants 45:69-70)

Artists' Statement:

“What if…” is often the beginning of a form of art called design fiction, a term coined by Julian Bleecker in his essay of the same name. What if the world was fundamentally different? What would it look like? H.G. Wells was a master in design fiction, particularly with his novel, The Time Machine, in which he describes the future state of mankind. It’s not real, but it follows real patterns and rules. It’s a fantasy world, but it has its roots in real science. So it is with design. Artifacts from these manufactured worlds both augment and represent a kind of parallel reality displayed in the world from which they come.

So what if? As students at Brigham Young University, we have a natural interest in our Mormon roots. At one point in history, a state of Deseret was proposed. It never happened because of issues with the U.S. government regarding polygamy, but what if? What if the South won the war? What if the Union was so fractured that they didn’t care about a burgeoning community far in the west? What if the Mormons pulled it off and gained sovereignty?

           The 1860s would see a drastic change in the world when the South would end up winning the Civil War.  The members in the state of Deseret would take this chance to seriously begin building their nation.  Part of being a sovereign state meant they would need their own currency for the exchanging within its economy and government.  This Currency would reflect the events of Mormon history and significance to the nation of Deseret as well as its prominent leaders.

Because of industry in the West, and the lack of Power from any opposing country, Deseret would thrive. The country would benefit from its strong support of immigration, its control of the railroad, its trading of oil and gold, its organization, its colonization, and its immense population growth. By 1900 Deseret would have become a world superpower, a land filled with promise and a community bent on growth, forward and upward. A sense of religious nationalism would have been deeply rooted, and many would frame or carry defining documents, as Americans might with copies of their constitution.

“Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand.” - (Doctrine and Covenants 45:70)

In fulfillment of this prophecy, the people of Deseret would take a strong defensive stance during the conflicts throughout the 20th century. Though their ambassadors (i.e. missionaries) would still be sent out, they would also employ military force toward any country that sought harm to their congregations. The evolution of this thought might be expressed in a new flag. The twelve stars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, point inward toward deseret, a honeybee, the protector of the hive. The red field represents the blood of the righteous calling for justice. The flag is a symbol of the state’s fierce defense and retribution against any that dare to come against God’s people.

Many events of our world would still “come to pass” in this world.  Hitler would still try to dominate the planet. But what if Einstein immigrated to Deseret?  What if revelation was given to our military leaders just as Captain Moroni received it in the Book of Mormon? Deseret would emerge as a world power.  We also read of the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon. If Deseret prospered for too long there would likely be much apostasy. Different factions of the faith would compete for power.

Webspinna Battle

Genres are funny things. Do they even exist? How nuanced do two similar elements have to be before they're different. How much do they influence one another? Yes, genres really are hard to pin down. For our Webspinna Battle, Amy and I decided to explore the conceptual stylistic spectrum of detective noir and horror. As sister styles, we felt that personifying and representing them would highlight their differences, but also demonstrate their similarities, showing that in some ways the idea of "genre" has some really blurred lines. We also felt that by exploring the idea of genre relations, we were taking the plagiarism theme a step further. The Battle of our personas was to some degree about plagiarizing each other's stylistic elements, and which one really has a corner on "dark" or "rain" or "screams". Although horror is older, these genres sort of developed together over the years, it's up to the audience to decide how much they used the "cut-up" method mentioned by William Burroughs in The Ecstasy of Influence.

While in the Webspinna Battle, I realized that many of the other groups did more of a "performance", with multiple tracks that corresponded heavily to actions. I was extremely impressed with this approach, but ours was somewhat different. We poured our creative energy more into overlaying multiple tracks at once to have a constant rhythm that corresponded between us, and into what the tracks themselves represented. For example, some of the specific characteristics of my genre, noir, were some more obvious ones such as rain, gunshots, a detective voice over, police sirens, but also some farther stretches such as sound effects from Batman: The Animated Series and Sean Connery introducing himself as James Bond. The reason for these is because they each carry very specific elements of noir films and have been heavily influenced by them. In this sense, they too have "cut-up" and recycled the style and are branches of the same tree. Amy had a similar approach with her sounds, using many different movie scenes that have developed into what we think of horror as today. Some of the crossover, such as screams, sirens, and rainstorms, were played interchangeably to link the two genres.

To create some sort of narrative in our battle, we tried to have key sounds that the other would respond to, indicating it was our turn. For example, Amy playing a scream caused me to turn down my tracks, and as I would fade out I would play something about a "dame." Me playing the track of a machine gun would do something similar. We both overlaid our sounds with musical remixes of noir or horror soundtracks; mine was a dance mix of a song from the video game L.A. Noire, and hers was a remix of the Psycho theme. By trying to make our performance more of a song, we emulated Pogo's approach. A similar idea is the annual Pop Remixes that mix up specific sounds and beats to emulate that year. By combining, contrasting, remixing, and remaking the elements of genres that mesh within one another, hopefully we were able to create something of our very own.

Battle Performance Tracks

Textual Poaching - Living Scriptures Re-Imagined

I once read a quote online that really struck me: "The Book of Mormon is the greatest fan-fiction of all time." While I don't actually believe that statement, the idea still impacted me, in that the Bible has inspired so many variations of religious belief, myth, translation, etc. In our reading about textual poaching, Jenkins stated that "in order to transform a work into a cult object one must be able to break, dislocate, unhinge it so that one can remember only parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship of the whole." By that definition, bible verses and books and stories have been interpreted and repeated so many times and ways as to make the Bible a truly immortal text, no pun intended.

One depiction those bible stories is the LDS Living Scripture animated series, which is personally relevant to me. I grew up watching episodes of Living Scriptures every Sunday after church. This LDS animated approach to the Bible became deeply influential to me, informing my early interpretations of the Bible not only in understanding, but emotionally, aesthetically, nostalgically. I watched them so many times that I can no longer even tell if they are good. As I got older, however, my tastes evolved. I sought artful and authentic representations of Biblical times, so much so that I felt disconnected with watered down church media. I found myself sometimes listening to the soundtrack from The Passion of the Christ, wishing for a similar interpretation from Mormonism.

Because of my connection with these each of these two retellings of the same story, I combined them for my Textual Poaching Project. The visual representation is from my childhood, and the musical is more recent. This re-scoring idea is not uncommon; I recently saw a Textual Poaching of The Shining, where someone created a fake trailer for the movie as if it was a family-friendly comedy just by changing the music. But I didn't re-score the Living Scriptures to be satirical, at least not entirely. I wanted to create a representative shadow of something I might actually enjoy.

Because the segment from the living scriptures I picked is actually a sing-along music segment, the audience is not missing out on any dialogue by hearing a different score, and is actually better able to feel the juxtaposition of the two art pieces. It is interesting for me to watch what the Living Scriptures would feel like with a Middle-Eastern influenced score and more dark and serious tone. To emphasize that feeling, I actually edited the color tones of the video to be a bit darker and desaturated.

Interestingly, I noticed that The Passion's score changes the emotional experience of the video, but at least in my case, not the religiosity. The same devotion is coming from two different places emotionally. By combining two different shades of the same color, and one that has been painted and repainted for generations, my hope is to imagine something that could actually become it's own interpretation.