Emily Ryan - Identity Project - Final

For this project, I initially wrote down the ideas about ethnicity and religion for the research portion, and I found that I was coming up a little short on material.  My family and I do not really have any distinct ethnic identity or religious affiliation. I kept thinking about how I might have been discriminated against, but I couldn’t think of anything more drastic than of instances of high school bullying, which were meager at best. I wasn’t coming up with much material based on those ideas. So it got me thinking about identity in general.

That lead me to thinking about how it is hard to formulate an identity without being bombarded by outside sources telling you what it should be, and how to act. I was thinking along the lines of a poster that had the theme of  “Be Yourself” but I didn’t want to be overly clichéd. I came up with what I thought the outside was telling me to be, and that we shouldn’t be just because of what everyone else are telling you.

I chose to make this poster in a deconstructive style, boarding on geometric as well. The type is legible, but it is distorted. However, there are many layers of images working here as well. I almost wanted it to seem like an advertisement, that is why I chose the sanserif font, but one that was broken down.  I hope it gets my ideas across. This was a difficult project for me because I kept coming up with several ideas, but they were all only about half formed based on identity. This is my final result and I think it reflects my thoughts on the subject at hand.

Losurdo_Identity

Each button represents something about my heritage or myself. 

Top: Italian Flag, Polish Flag, Guatemalan Flag

Middle: Aquarius, Sailboat, Bubbles

Bottom: Grapes, Chicago Flag, Klocki Cookies

Chels Henshaw: Final Identity Project

This piece, rightfully entitled “Left in a Right World,” is a digital composition that was created to exhibit the personal identity of the artist. The artist identifies with the hardships of being a left-handed person in a right-handed world, and wanted to illustrate the frustrations that come along with this idiosyncrasy. 

The medium for this piece is both digital projection and print. The specific subjects are the eight different stamp designs that can be seen on the left side of the composition. The secondary subject is the anchorage text of the right side of the piece to accompany the design and clarify the intention of the stamps. The design is geometric with clean lines and bold text to present the audience with a composition that is orderly and easy to comprehend. 

The context of the piece is a topic which is quite meaningful to the artist. Being left-handed herself, the artist wanted to acknowledge the extent in which left-handed people struggle whilst living in a right-handed world. The most appropriate way the artist thought to demonstrate the plight of left-handers was to commemorate their struggles with a book of stamps for National Left-Handers Day. As stamp books are often used to recognize important holidays, the artist chose this format as she thought it would be humorous to modify normally generic stamps to honor a trivial and largely unrecognized holiday. Each stamp represents a task that becomes more difficult when one is left-handed. The designs are created using quirky color combinations. This choice comes with the intent of the artist to exemplify the often zany reputation that most left-handers hold in society. The artist feels as though she successfully fulfilled her intention of conveying the tribulations of being left-handed in a manner that was comical. 

Weiss_Culture_Final_(Web)

Emily Ryan - Indentity Project - 1st Critique

For this project, I had a few ideas. I went with the idea that when trying to figure out your identity, you often get a lot of outside input and it's hard to determine what it is you really want to be. It's easy enough to say "Be yourself" but first you have to find out what that is.

When I originally was trying to upload this file, I saved it incorrectly and I lost the whole thing, so I had to re-do it and turn it in now.

Watson Never Burped

Idenity- V.BAER