PROJECT 2 - Perspective
"A particular perspective is a particular way of thinking about something, especially one that is influenced by your beliefs or experiences."
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/perspective
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/perspective
This school year has really taught me the importance of self identity. There have been a lot of racial battles and negative experiences that I have come across in the past couple of years and it has caused me to look at myself and my own perspective of my people. While looking at my own beliefs and perceptions it was very easy to come to the conclusion of where I stand and how I feel about being raised African American and Jamaican American. I am very proud to be who I am and of the cultures I participate in. However, the fact that many people feel so negatively about the same culture I am so glad to be a part of really inspired me to deep dive into the perceptions and perspectives that surround African American culture.
English AND SOCIAL STUDIES And Art
While we have three different subjects, this is the first time that all three subjects really blended together so seamlessly. The only difference is I created a product for Art that could be considered “in its own lane” from the rest of the project which is why it has its own section. But, each subject can be related to the other and there are aspects of each of the three subjects in everything that I created for this project. The English product was supposed to be just the creation of a website to house my Social Studies and Art. This website was supposed to offer the perspective of other resources and outside professionals to support the work and perspectives that I built upon for the other subjects. And at first that is exactly what the website was. Throughout my process I was creating a vision to just have a housing space. However, I thought of the first project that I did this year. It was exactly aligned with the goals that I have for my future career. It combines art, business, and activism together and I totally loved that project. This project is something that is very important to me as well so I wanted to take the same care that I took with the first project. Not just a housing space but I wanted this to become a business, rather a brand, that will educate others on different contexts and perspectives on a topic that means so much to me (this also ties in Self in the Modern World, my Social Studies course for this year). The website is filled with images and information that all link out to articles and videos that give different perspectives and present different ideas about African American culture. I wanted to educate others on my thoughts and feelings about the culture but I also wanted to give room for the viewer to develop and cultivate their own perspectives and opinions. Additionally, I wrote four blog posts. These posts talked about Black hair, African American music and food, and AAVE. Throughout each blog post I established the context and history for each topic, but also expanded on different perspectives within each topic. I wrote each blog post with the intention of sounding neutral and just relaying the different ideas behind each topic. However, I did include short interviews at the end of each post. These interviews are either of other Apollo students or myself. I wanted to include the thoughts of others in close relation to Apollo and myself in addition to the ideas of others on the internet. And lastly, throughout each blog post there are, again, pictures, videos, and links to other websites so that the viewer can hear and learn about the topics from a variety of different sources. When planning this project I did plan on interviewing a doctor at the University of Maryland on these topics but that interview was not able to happen due to completely understandable and unforeseen circumstances. But, I created talking points for that interview and to further expand on perspective and Self in the Modern World, I responded to those questions with my own thoughts and ideas. The questions that were asked varied from the history, to the realities, to the future of African American culture, and there were videos that accompanied the questions. Art ties into this project due to the design and layout of the website. I did not want the stereotypical negative look of “African Americans” to be the way that I presented my website and the information on it. Instead I choose a soft aesthetic that breaks away from stereotypical ideas. The overall goal of my Social Studies and English (and Art as well) project was to introduce the viewer to different ideas and perspectives to help them develop their own. There is a lot of information either directly written or indirectly linked on the website purposefully so that whoever is reading or viewing the site can have a variety of perspectives to look at to help them gain a better understanding.
ART
For the interview I was planning on conducting, Mr.Grandi encouraged me to create a background or visual to go along with the podcast episode. He really pushed in our 1 on 1 meetings to find artwork that I believe relates and ties into the topic and to expand on how that artwork connects to the ideas presented on the website. So, I created a slides presentation to play in the background of the podcast. To accompany the artwork I selected, I wrote annotations from my perspective about how the images represent ideas that are present in my website and from the topics I was learning about for the website. Each annotation had an elaboration that further explained my perspective. I believe that art is a great communicator and that having a visual representation can help the viewer understand each topic a little deeper. The artwork that I picked was of course beautiful but they also have so many ideas hidden within the artwork. While the annotations were from my perspective, the viewer can use their perspective as well to develop their own key takeaways that relate to the topics at hand. And again, English and Social Studies can fit into this product as well. Because the annotations stem from my own ideas that can be considered Self in the Modern World and because I was writing and trying to pull deeper meaning out of an image, English fits into. To conclude, I really love this project and I was able to learn so much about how other people see African Americans. But preeminently, I was able to develop and strengthen my own ideas and perceptions.
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