Brianna Gray

Professor. Cacoilo

11.14.18

                                                  History writing assignment

  

                Being a philosopher means being able to form theories and views without having evidence, but being able to prove these theories on your own. As I stated in my Midterm posting, I will be bringing awareness to what Astrology is, however, I have made some adjustments to what exactly in Astrology I want to focus on. With the combination of Philosophy, Astrology and Art, I will be focusing solely on raising self-awareness and how YOU are capable of controlling your image and how you want the world to perceive you, with still keeping a majority of your personality hidden (Ala ‘Beyoncé’). While visiting the Art gallery located in the visual arts building, there were a couple of art pieces that really intrigued my mind.
                                                                                                                                                                  The first one to grab my attention was Joshua Reimans portrait and spin on the ‘Founding Fathers’ humorous yet controversial, Reimans are piece is an artistic approach of a satire. The reason why it grabbed my attention is because one, its alluring, from the blinged out signature, down to the culture appropriation of the photo. However, I believe that was the whole point behind his art, he states it is a representation of what is “real, fake and imagined”, literally a representation of “everything that glitters isn’t gold”. Reimans captures your attention by this satire, but oddly it’s accurate. Although they are not depicted (in history) as gangsters/bullies, they for sure were. Taking land from other people, poisoning, not only their minds, but also their health, and taking credit for everything that was discovered by others. This brings attention and awareness to the real issues we face, still today. They are still credited and depicted as heroes in many textbooks, when they were the complete opposite. Reiman does a great job at hinting towards the truth.

                                         

Another piece of artwork, that initially did not capture my attention, but once I learned the history behind it, really got me thinking was Stacy Renee Morrison’s piece titled “Chrysalis” which is a combination of her side profile and a woman named Sylvia, whose mementos she came across in 2002 filled with photographs and memories of 1860. Surely most of the findings were torn and ripped, due to age, however Stacy managed to use her imagination through Sylvia’s writings and whatever was left over from the photos to bring Sylvia’s imagination to life. With the combination of Sylvia and Stacy she created a whole other person, who is an embodiment of the bond Stacy developed through bringing Sylvia’s imagination to life. So not only is it two people, but three. I found the thought behind this art work of Sylvia creative, yet eerie. Although Morrison’s artwork is more theoretical, it is another perfect example of how one is able to manipulate their image

  Reflecting back to our first class we learned about Edward Burnase the first publicist who created the whole theory of manipulating your image (and/or images). Introduced in John Berger’s “Ways of seeing” we learned that publicity is the life of culture, and that without publicity capitalism would not survive. Edward Burnase teaches us, that without manipulating the unconscious (which is very easy to do) we would not be able to trigger people desires. One may remember or forget messages, but briefly one takes them in and for a minute they stimulate the imagination by way of either memory or expectation. With self-awareness you are capable of doing the same exact things. Our professor constantly reminds us that we all have platforms, and with these platforms, we hold the key to power. This is why I used the example of Beyoncé earlier on, because she is one celebrity who meticulously controls her image, and is very detailed on what she wants us to see and know of her. Very rarely do we get a look into her real personality, we only know of her stage persona.

    Celebrities are the culprits in those who ‘control their image’ most of the times, the characters they are portraying are so far from their real life personalities. Although we may not hold the same level of importance as them, we too can cultivate our image, especially with social media. Personally, I believe power is associated with self-awareness as well. Without one knowing its capabilities and characteristics, how could you take control of anything, let alone yourself? This is where my final project comes into play. It is said the images and symbols rule the world, with the background information provided by Burnase this information may be accurate, with the help of repetition.
    With my experiment on astrology the essence will of the theory is actually a random variation in the behavior is orderly and consistent due to basic differences in the ways one prefer to use their perception and judgement. “Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgement involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills” (Myer briggs). Once you are more aware of yourself, you will become more conscious within everything you do, it also teaches you how to retrieve what you want, when you want it.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#sent/QgrcJHrhwMVLwggWWzfklMPpFVcbgPpDXCg

Citations:

https://youtu.be/0pDE4VX_9Kk : John Berger. Ways of Seeing.

The Persistence of History. Stacy Renee Morrsion.

The Persistence of History: Joshua Reiman.

Myersbriggs.org