Canstruction

“A Cup of Hope” by RJC Architects


Canstruction is a competition/charity where design teams of architects, engineers, graphic designers, and students compete to build sculptures entirely out of cans of food. Each structure stands 8’x 10’x 10’ and conceptually addresses metaphors that come to mind when dealing with issues of hunger. The sculptures are displayed in hopes of raising public awareness, judged, disassembled, and distributed. So far 10 million pounds of food has been donated and disbursed to food banks, soup kitchens and local charities. It’s a great organization that delivers a powerful message in a creative way. These competitions are held in a number of states across the country, including Massachusetts.

http://www.canstruction.org/


-Christina Delaney

Persepolis (the movie and novel)

Recently I saw the movie Persepolis. I had recently read the graphic novel. The movie is really beautiful. Originally written by Marjane Satrapi, and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, it is now out in theaters. In Boston area, you can see it at the Kendall Square Cinema, or West Newton Cinema.

Originally a graphic  novel, it is in two parts. I highly recommend you read the graphic novels as well, because there is some beautiful artwork, and pieces from the novels that aren't in the movie.

-sam smiley

Deconstructa!

Greetings readings of the Power of the Image blog. This blog has been quiet for a while, but is coming back to life. Lesley University professors sam smiley and Young Song are team teaching Power of the Image in Spring 2008. To contact the professors, email sam smiley ssmiley@lesley.edu, or Young Song ysong@lesley.edu.

This comic image is Deconstructa, a super hero who fights mainstream media images by using her superpowers to deconstruct and analyze them. She was created by Gina Kamentsky. You can see Gina's work by going to http://www.pixeltoon.com/

Conference on young children and media

From Pricilla Harmel..an interesting conference at Mount Ida College, in Newton Massachusetts

WHAT DOES MEDIA EXPOSURE
DO TO INFANT’S AND
YOUNG CHILDREN’S
LEARNING, IMAGINATION AND
RELATIONSHIPS?
Saturday, October 27, 2007
8:45AM - 5:00PM
Carlson Auditorium
Mt. Ida College, Newton, MA
777 Dedham Street
Newton, MA


http://www.bidip.org/conferences/nextevent.htm

Love your Body Day

From Karen K., Creative Arts Student..

I was cleaning out my junk mail folder and I found this email in it. Which I guess is good timing because a friend of mine sent me a link that may interest you…

“Apparently Love Your Body Day is coming up this fall on October 7. It's all about positive body images and accepting yourself, etc. It's a good idea. I wonder how many people know about it. Info is here: http://www.loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/”

I think the Love Your Body Day is a great idea, and it goes will with the Dove’s Ad… that came out last year (that I mentioned below).

My first time that I remember thinking that my thighs were too big was back in first grade. My mom and sister are both skinny and I am not aware if they used to complain about the weight (since it has never been a problem), so I always wondered where I got the idea that I had big thighs? (now I know that they are not big, they are muscular). Any who… I am not 100% there at lovin’ my body, but I am well on my way!

Insty Text Collage

Tembi Gray, one of our very talented students in the Creative Arts in Learning program tipped me off to this web site:

"The site is www.typogenerator.net. Here is some info about it (I got it off of their site)

What is typogenerator?
typoGenerator is a random generator for 'typoPosters'. a typoPoster is a poster, created from images and letters/text that doesn’t have any sense, just to look good

How does typogenerator work?
The user types some text; typoGenerator searches images. google for the text and creates a background from the found images, using randomly chosen effects. then it places the text, using random effects too."

A disturbing picture from Intel

I don't even know where to begin with this.

In this advertisement, created this summer 2007, Intel in one image reiterated hundreds of years of racist ideas about white dominance and asserted its image as a colonizing power in technology.

I got tipped off to it from Racewire (http://www.racewire.org) who got tipped off to it from AfroNetizen (http://www.afro-netizon.com).

Here's another article in the Technology Times UK


and Intel's full apology here:
http://www.intel.com/news/sprintad.htm?iid=homepage+news_sprintad

-sam smiley