Powerful Image: Clean Water

Living in the U.S., most of us have immediate access to clean water whenever we want it.  Too often I feel that I take this for granted, as around the world 1 in 8 people lack access to clean water. In fact, dirty water kills more people than all forms of violence including war. For many the walk to retrieve water takes hours, and results only in filling containers (typically 20 liter jerry cans) with dirty water from a river or pond.  There are many organizations helping with the water crisis, including one that I support called 20 Liters - these images are taken from them - one shows the difference in water that was collected from the river and the water put through Slow-Sand Water Filters and Rainwater Harvesting Systems provided by the organization, and the other shows a woman and child putting dirty water into the sand filter for cleaning.

-Rachael

Transformation Project

For the transformation project I remixed an image of a young girl using a hair straightener, found on the Amazon.co.uk website, to depict how this technology can become an addictive tool to artificially alter one’s appearance.  This advertisement stood out to me because it represents a common style of how women in our society are often portrayed, and the technology of the hair straightener in her hand further exemplifies stereotypes of ways one can look more feminine. Although the development of the hair straightener is not an inherently harmful technology, it has become a popular instrument for women to seek a certain manifestation.

To remix this image I chose to collage photos of other girls’ faces, all with a similar look onto the original girl’s reflection in the mirror.  This gives a sense that as the girl is looking into the mirror, she is seeking a new reflection, the appearance of other women.  Additionally I arranged the floating heads of these “dream women” coming out of each other to show how young girls often influence one another’s desire for sameness, which can lead to an epidemic of insecurity.  Latterell explains how “On the one hand is the perspective that technologies always improve our lives.  Particularly in American culture, ‘new’ is better than ‘old’” (579).  This new technology, the hair straightener could be viewed as an advancement, in that it successfully achieves certain style results, yet the decision to even create the technology of a hair straightener reflects a bias of our society’s views towards what can better one’s appearance.

-Ashley

Powerful Image

Austria's Green Lake in the Hochschwab Mountains is a hiking trail in the winter. 
The snow melts in early summer and creates a completely clear lake. 
The lake has a grassy bottom, complete with underwater trails, park benches, and bridges.

Transformation Picture

Before

http://www.neowin.net/news/nokia-launches-its-own-pink-nail-polish

After

I picked a technology that is widely used, something that people recognize as an electronic, a form of communication and lastly that people can form or be used as a source of connection or communication between social groups, the cell phone. The cell phone is a form of technology that has enveloped our daily lives. It has devoured our way to function and live independently. The cell phone is a form of technology that we have customized to “meet out needs and wants.”
The image that I used for the project, was originally very girly but in my revisions I choose to incorporate manly apps on the phone, to show that we can easily customize it .We use our technology to voice our own personality. This is a perfect example of Latterel's first assumption of technology are machines.

*picture taken from a nokia website

civil war re-enactors

This image was created by Phillip Toledano for a project called The United States of Entertainment. This work highlights the absurd ways in which Americans entertain themselves and reflects the vantage point of the observer.  I came across this image of 2 civil war re-enactors taking a break.  It seems perfect that they're drinking Coca-cola products... as if Coke (and corporate America) was the official sponsor of war.  I love the way her dress is perfectly shaped.  It's intriguing that there is a culture of Americans who spend countless days re-enacting civil war battles and even more intriguing that they have audiences.

Melissa

http://www.mrtoledano.com/the-united-states-of-entertainment/11








http://www.mrtoledano.com/the-united-states-of-entertainment/11

Powerful Image:

I remember watching the Inauguration and every bit of it was just excitement; news anchors, crowds cheering, cars honking, people talking, waiting, smiling and every-bit of movement you could think of. I thought to myself what it must feel like to know that all these people are here for you, just waiting and anticipating the moment they hopefully make eye-contact with the president. If I were him, I thought, I would be a complete mess; how does one man take all that in without exploding with nervousness. But not Obama; through it all he was just poised and this moment captured in the photo was one that touched me. As everything and everyone around him were busy viewing this moment through a camera lens or focusing on something else or walking into the building he stops and stares into the crowd. It was almost like the world froze for him and within that moment he took it all in, like "wow this is for me!" Before he stood there, he leaned over to someone next to him and said, this is the last time I'm going to see this and I could just sense and feel how much in awe he was of the whole thing.
     I thought it was wonderful and it moved me because I always asked if he ever stopped to smell the roses and just realize the situation he was in. If he ever stopped to soak it in and in this photo my question was answered. Lovely! And his family looking back at him is just the icing on the cake.

-Anne

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-obama-photos-2013-2?op=1

Transformation Image

         In my image transformation, I examined a frame from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; the scene in which Gaston is singing and rejoicing in his buff, rough masculinity. He prides himself in his muscle size, spitting range, and exclusively antler decorations in his home and bar. Of course, the rest of the town’s men look up to Gaston for the same things (and if they don’t, they fear him for it all), and the village girls fawn over and swoon for his overwhelmingly macho persona.

           I remixed the image to give Gaston’s “man cave” a brighter and more feminine touch: even overtly so. It’s amazing how the context in which Gaston in sitting in now makes his body language and pose more dancer-like and feminine than it was in the original frame.

Latterell states that technology does not necessarily mean only machines; technology can also include "all manner of human-made objects and devices…because human cultures use a range of objects, skills, and organizations to “’modify nature to meet their needs and wants,’ then skills and organizations can be considered technologies, too.” I am translating Gaston’s body language and decorations displayed here as ways he is “modifying nature to meet his needs and wants:” particularly in the way that his hunting trophies mark his need to display his masculinity. 

-Alicia