Reminder: To receive credit for attending each activity, you must: (1) Check in with a Peer Mentor at the start and conclusion of the co-curricular experience and have them initial twice next to the activity you are attending. (2) You must post a written reflection to the course blog of at least 150 words briefly describing the event or activity as well as things you learned from the experience. This written reflection is due within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion. You will turn in this form on the last day of class.
Please post your reflection as a comment below.
I found Vik Muniz's film, "Wasteland" while browsing through Netflix this summer and found it very intriguing. I usually enjoy the art films and documentaries on Netflix, so I figured this one would be good as well. I found that the film gave an intimate exposure and look into the lives of the trash diggers (catadores) of Rio de Janeiro. As a viewer, I became connected to the people and their stories documented. I liked that the people they filmed also got to be a part in the making of Muniz’s artwork. His idea of creating art out of trash is so creative and they ended up looking very interesting and well portrayed. Vik Muniz also gave the profits of his artwork to the local people of the Jardim which was extremely generous, I’m glad he didn’t just film the people and forget about them, but actually show effort and care towards the people. I enjoyed the film and I can’t wait to take part in the trash project.
ReplyDeleteVik Miniz's film was very interesting. he found a profession that few people outside of Brazil know to exist and decided to make a series of pictures using the recycled trash that they collected. i thought it was really cool that he included the people who worked in the landfill instead of doing it himself. he really changed their lives by doing this and allowed them to see themselves doing something other then pick through garbage. it was also cool how he donated all the money that he made to the their industry to help spread awareness and it eventually helped train them for other jobs when the landfill closed. i was also inspired to appreciate my own life more since the pickers aren't so negative and instead are thankful that they have a job and their dignity at the end of the day. plus the pictures looked so much like the portraits that its crazy.
ReplyDeleteMaking art out of trash is something I never thought I would do, but it was a fun and different experience that I had the chance to do. I was a little uneasy about touching other people’s trash, but then decided that I better man up since all the girls were doing it. My group was Jenny, Hattie, and Amanda from the other RCC. The word that we grabbed out of the bag was fame. We decided to make a star out of tennis ball cans and surround it with crumpled up newspaper to fill in the square around it. It looked just like a star on the walk of fame. We really should have won cause we represented our word the best and showed up on time unlike the other RCC. What is folly anyway? But over all we had nice weather and a fun activity so I can’t complain too much.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to see how garbage was used to create art in Wasteland was very interesting. And for me, it was a new way to look at art. I had never thought that anyone would pick up old garbage and create something as nice as art out of it. In our activity on Mills Lawn, I got there a little late because I had to work, but it was fun to create our own art out of garbage. My group’s word was “family” so we took the most literal meaning of it and applied it to our art to create a house from cardboard boxes. I created the garage and the water bottle car, and it was nice to see our house come together and actually look like a house! Even though we didn’t win it was a good learning experience to show that we can recycle and make things out of trash.
ReplyDeleteThe art project our class (along with another RCC photography class) did on Mills Lawn was quite interesting and fun. The idea was to resemble the art composed of trash that Vik Muniz created in his film, Wasteland. I was in a group with Miles, Haddie, and a girl named Amanda from the other RCC. Our word we randomly chose was Fame, so we decided, as a group, to create a star from the Walk of Fame seen on the sidewalks. We used crumpled newspaper to fill in the square, then outlined the shape of a star with alternating tennis cans and soda cans. We then saw that our creation was a bit empty and lacked depth, so we put the words, "You Name Here" inside the star using yarn, to symbolize everyone's 15 mins of fame. The crumpled newspaper also reflected the "tabloids" attached to fame. I thought our project was quite good, and I think we should have won. But everyone's projects were really well done. I'm not a big fan of fro-yo anyways. :)
ReplyDeleteThe film provided me with a new outlook of art. One class I am taking this semester is Visual Culture. The very first day of class, the professor asked, “what is art?” I would have never responded that trash could be a work of art. However, this movie proved me wrong. From the perspective of someone who does not usually view art films, I found this film to be very moving. It was amazing to see throughout the film the transformation both the people and the art went through. It is hard sometimes to relate to people like the trash diggers from Rio because I have been fortunate enough not to be in that sort of situation. However, their outlook on life was very moving and it really allows the viewer to have a new respect for what they have. Ironically, it even made me a little envious that I have not partaken in a life changing experience such as this one where the final output is something so amazing as the works of art they produced.
ReplyDeleteIn class, we did try the same process of using trashing to resemble a word that was drawn from a bag. I had a lot of fun brainstorming possibilities of how to use the trash in a creative way. While it was a lot of fun, it was not life changing as it was for the diggers. I think it was really interesting how they used a picture of a person and framed the trash around it so the artwork was not just the trash. Also, if someone were to look at their artwork from afar, it would not look like they used trash whereas my work definitely looked like pure trash.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the documentary of Vik Muniz and his journey to Brazil to the landfill. The landfill was said to be the largest in the world, and all the trash they had to sort through was astonishing. I have never thought of trash as a media for a piece of art, and for Vik Muniz to be able to create a masterpiece and sell it at an auction proved that art can be made from anything. I thought the documentary had a good message with him having some of the pickers from the landfill help him create the art. Vik Muniz allowed the pickers to experience a different lifestyle for a couple weeks and let them be creative in having them be the subjects of the pieces. Vik would take a picture of one of the workers, and then in the studio, he would project the picture on the ground and trace the outlines with trash. I really enjoyed watching the entire process of taking the picture, adding the trash, to the auction in the end. Also, we got an insight of the life most of these workers live in poverty. The next day we went on Mills Lawn and picked a word out of a bag as our theme for our piece of art from trash. My group had the word, memory, and we made a man out of beer cans to symbolize a loss of memory.
ReplyDeleteI was unable to attend the class viewing of "wasteland" due to my work schedule, so instead I watched the film in my dorm via Netflix. I found this film very interesting. To begin, I was completely unaware that the largest landfill was located in Brazil. This is where Vik Muniz traveled to within this film. I never considered the fact that one mans trash could be another mans media. I don't think any of us stop and question whether what we are throwing away will be used in another mans artwork that is being sold at an auction for money! That is what i find truly astonishing! Vik Muniz manages to find beauty in something we as a society find disgusting, trash. A true artist is one who can create a beautiful masterpiece out of anything.... I believe Vik Muniz is a true artist.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from watching “Wasteland” and from making our own art. I had no idea the biggest landfill was in Brazil and to be honest I never really thought about what landfills looked like. I thought they were filled with lots of machinery to help clean up but I didn’t know that for thousands of people working there is there life. I loved how Vik didn’t just go in there and take pictures and then leave. I really liked how he involved them in everything and how he gave so much back to them. Its people like him that keep our world going. Jumping to our construction of art. At first I was like there is no way I’m doing this and thought it was really gross and everything. Once we started rolling with our projects I was really glad we were doing them. I learned a lot about how you can make art out of anything. The experience as a whole was very humbling.
ReplyDeleteI was unable to attend "wasteland" when the class went but I watched the film in my dorm on Netflix.The film was very interesting and was clear when trying to explain the goal. The idea behind the movie was extremely interesting and held information i had no idea about. I had never considered the fact that trash could be made into art. Peoples trash is viewed as dirty and gross so originally i was not excited about having to go through trash to make a piece of art. My mind changed once we got put into groups and started our piece of art using a lot of different trash. It was extremely hard to come up with a creative way to turn trash into art but eventually i got the hang of it. The experience was super interesting and different than anything i have done before.
ReplyDeleteI think the last thing we all think about is using trash to create art. It was very interesting to see the film and watch each piece come together.I also really enjoyed how each person in the film had a story and it was portrayed very well in each piece of art. the day after the movie was a lot of fun because we got to create our own art work out of trash. it was kind of hard to make a vision of what we wanted to create or what we could even create using the materials we did have. it was really a great experience and I think it really opened everyone's eyes because there are so many different forms of art and being able to create it out of trash showed us that we can make art out of anything we want or can imagine. I really liked learning about trash art and I hope to learn about and try out many other kinds of art.
ReplyDeleteI thought this movie was very good. It was really interesting how they could make art like that out of trash. I didn't think that the art would be that big either. I expected it to be small things. I also liked how this project changed the lives of many people. These people used art to earn more money for themselves and they ended up getting a lot more than money in return. They got a life changing experienced and I wish I could've been part of that.
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